To Serve with Love
Every time Barbados enters an election period the quote attributed to the late John F. Kennedy (JFK) comes to mind – “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country“. It is said that droves of young people offered themselves for public service as a result of Kennedy glamourizing what the blogmaster considers to be the ultimate act of selflessness – offering oneself to serve the people.
As a young boy growing up starry eyed under the Bajan flag in the post 1966 period, we were inspired by that generation of Barbadian who inculcated values which aligned with the Kennedy quote. We lived at a time social centres were a hive of activity for sport, assisting with teaching skills to residents in the locale, hosting limes and many other community building activities. Most if not all so-called community practitioners were to be found a dime a dozen.
It was close to mandatory for young boys and girls to be members of the 4H Club, Boys Scouts, Girls Guide, YMCA and the numerous other civic non profit associations which all combined to foster requite skills to prepare us for future leadership roles. These types of engagements have not totally disappeared from the landscape of Barbados but one senses there is a relationship between non interest being shown by citizens in community and non profit associations and a diminishing attitude and focus in nation building behaviour.
We have concentrated and allocated billions of the national budget to growing a paper-middleclass in the last three or four decades. The consequence of which has been the emergence of a strident political directorate more concerned with feathering the nest by securing everything financial at the expense of serving with love. This is the root cause of the societal decay we continue to witness on the tiny island of Barbados in 2020. Unfortunately a scan outside of the local orb reveals that this is a universal trend.
Perhaps it is a simplistic view but the blogmaster argues that because of our small size and heavy investment in educating our people in the last 40 years – to the doom and gloomers nothing is perfect – we should be able to offer a better defence to protect from alien customs that have compromised the Barbados model we use to be admired.
We look to politicians moulded from a dysfunctional social system and wonder why things are not changing for the better. Successive governments continue to rollout policies that encourage conspicuous consumption habits, allow rampant undisciplined behaviour at the level of the individual and household, embrace all things foreign and then we wonder why has the Barbadiana brand faded. In a world where globalization is the new way, it is inevitable we will have to manage a level of multiculturalism entering our space. However, we cannot allow it to be dominant to the extent it subsumes homegrown customs which define who we prefer to be as a people.
To return to the community model on an island that measures 166 square miles cannot be too hard. Having 200,000 motors cars, mobile phones and an illegal gun in too many homes should not define who we want to be. What has to define us is our ability to cut and contrive, to assist our neighbour in times of stress, for each citizen to understand roles and responsibilities towards making Barbados the best country on the planet..feel free to add to the list. In other words we cannot leave any man, woman or child behind. An egalitarian society is idealistic but we need to strive for it.
Lastly for those offering themselves for political office to be always mindful of what JFK said – “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country“
“Can a lie that is given added context become a truth?”
when you repeat a lie long Enuff, it becomes the truth in the twisted toxic mind of LIARS…similiar to the lie about nelson that has circulated in Barbados for centuries, am sure i saw an article this morning where the UK is reevaluating all the lies told to glorify nelson, they will also have to wade through all those lies told by Bajan whites and the frauds in the parliament fooling Bajans that the racist was somehow important and saved them..
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@ TheOGazerts at 1 :51 PM
Ezra Alleyne , myself and may be dpD were around when the Barbados Constitution was being fashioned. We know the brilliant local minds that made inputs into that document. We were around when changes were made to it. Are you suggesting that we substitute our eye witness accounts for yours? You may stick to your perceptions since it is a free world but never arrogate to your self the monopoly of truth and facts..
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Check it out Theo…they glamorize a barbaric piece of shit in Barbados while knowing it’s all a LIE….and they have the dumbest of Black people who would go right along with it…a battle which had absolutely NOTHING TO DO WITH BARBADOS….mind you, the maritme museum has ALL THE INFORMATION that ever existed about nelson, but bajan whites and other ignorant people still persist with the outright lies that they made up..
“Colonial legacy of Admiral Lord Nelson and the Royal Navy’s links to slavery ‘to be re-evaluated’ by Greenwich Maritime Museum who plan to change their historical displays following the Black Lives Matter movement
“The National Maritime Museum is seeking to communicate the ‘often barbaric history of race, colonialism and representation in British maritime history’, the Telegraph reported.
Issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement will guide its new strategy, which will use a database to reveal Britain’s links to slavery.
Statues of Royal Navy heroes including Admiral Edward Pellew have also been brought into the publicly-funded museum’s review of Britain’s naval past.
Royal Museums Greenwich director Paddy Rogers told staff the societal reassessment of colonial history after Edward Colston’s statue was toppled in Bristol earlier this year provided the museum a ‘moment to shine’.
Nelson has been criticised for his support of slaveholders and the British Empire’s colonies. Pictured: The museum’s portrait of Nelson
The museum holds the admiral lord’s love letters and the the bullet (pictured) that killed Lord Nelson during the Battle of Trafalgar
Nelson has been criticised for his support of slaveholders and the British Empire’s colonies. Pictured: The museum’s portrait of Nelson (left) and the bullet which killed him (right). It is also on display at the museum
Victory at Trafalgar: How Nelson routed the French navy to save Britain from threat of invasion by Napoleon
It was fought of the coast of Spain and was to be Lord Nelson’s (pictured) last and greatest victory against the French
The 1805 naval Battle of Trafalgar is considered one of the most divisive naval battles in history and saw a British fleet under Admiral Lord Nelson defeat a combined French and Spanish fleet.
It was fought off the coast of Spain and was to be Lord Nelson’s last and greatest victory against the French.
The battle began after Nelson caught sight of a Franco-Spanish force of 33 ships.
Normally opposing fleets would form two lines and engage in a clash of broadsides until one fleet withdrew, but when planning to engage with the enemy, Nelson divided his 27 ships into two divisions.
He signalled a famous message from the flagship: ‘England expects that every man will do his duty.’
In five hours of fighting, the British devastated the enemy fleet, destroying 19 enemy ships.
A French sniper fatally shot Nelson in the shoulder and chest. He quickly realised he was going to die and was taken below deck where he lost his life about 30 minutes before the end of the battle. “
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@ Vincent
In 1965/66, Ezra Alleyne was still in the UK. Name the authors of the Barbados constitution.
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Anything you hear Bajans say as it relates to the British drafted Constitution, or slavery or anything that negatively impacts African descended people, always take with a pinch of salt…..they continue their existence of living in LALA LAND,.the constitution has a foreword that tells you exactly who drafted the document BEFORE any amendments, i believe those started in the 80s or thereabouts. by those in the parliament…i read the document myself….you can ask Blogmaster to post it, we beat it to death already..
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I am outside my area of expertise.
However, I believe the evolution of the constitution of these smaller island is similar to that describe here.
httpss://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_constitution
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As i told you, do not argue with Bajans as it relates to slavery, constitution, nelson, racism, mental slavery……nothing that their minds are unable to process…they will chase you around the place until ya get exhausted…..there is Vincent with his fantasy of probably drafting the constitution himself with a bunch of the other deluded ……they would even tell ya that the pretend independence was their idea when am sure it was a long term plan concocted 50 years before Barrow or any of them were born, they won’t hear that they are no match for these people, they insist on living in their little colonial world, their cocoon and comfort zone, safe from reality…
“Independence constitution is the name commonly given by African political scientists to originating constitutions (many of which are extant) of former British colonies, primarily in Africa, which gained their independence approximately 1960-1990.
Due to these colonies’ low economic output and the United Kingdom’s fading imperial prowess, independence was usually granted after little instigation, with the UK presiding over creation of the new state. Generally local leaders were hand-picked by the UK to be the new governing body and were given a political education in London, during which they often served as the sole representative of their country in the negotiation of their country’s new constitution. In short, independence constitutions were written in London, by a primarily British body, in line with British systems of governance. Supporters applaud the UK’s responsible transfer of power; critics cite low popular perceptions of legitimacy and claim that the independence constitutions maintained essentially colonial states.”
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In search of the founding fathers – 1
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0035853042000300160?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=ctrt20
A good read
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In search of founding fathers – 2
Investigative reporting has discovered that the first Barbadians landed on Pelican Island.
Move over Plymouth Rock.
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@ Vincent
Ezra Alleyne , myself and may be dpD were around when the Barbados Constitution was being fashioned. We know the brilliant local minds that made inputs into that document. We were around when changes were made to it. ….(Quote)
Plsea explain. Don’t go silent on me.
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A British colonial designed Constitution, means it was DESIGNED FOR SLAVES LIVING IN A SLAVE COLONY…..neither that document nor the colonial laws designed for people who are STILL SEEN AS SLAVES…should be in existence today and should be all NULL and VOID…but ya can’t tell that to old slaves, they too love their enslavement…and want to trap everybody else right there with them..
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@ Hal Austin
Silence is golden. A brilliant investigative journalist, as you are, was also around. You in England and I in Jamaica taking a more than vicarious interest in our small country. Please do not play this ignorant game too. You should be above this level of discourse.
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@ Vincent
You claim that Ezra Alleyne was around. Was he and who were the authors of the constitution. I am a pensioner, not an investigative journalist. Was that statement correct?
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Vincent….cousin Boris won’t PISS ON YOU if you were on fire, he certainly not going to save your slave ass from us.
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@Theo, I am not and was never into clarifying who were our elders drafting/designing the constitution … that’s 1) a question answered from historical review and 2) has been debated here quite well several times.
Producing names … seems an exercise in satisfying deeply held perspectives of that process and adds heat rather than light!
I merely questioned the unnecessary analysis of the figure of speech “founders of our constitution”!
So do proceed apace with your clarifications.
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Everyone is trying their best to erase the evil associated with racism from the public space and from the people’s face, everyone except a bunch of piece of shit Black leaders in Barbados…they don’t serve the people, they serve racist ideologies aimed at their people.
“Princeton University is naming a residential college for alumna and major donor Mellody Hobson, the first Black woman to have that honor in the school’s history. Hobson College will be built on a site once named for former President Woodrow Wilson, the school announced Thursday.
Princeton announced in June that it would remove Wilson’s name from its School of Public and International Affairs and one of its residential colleges, citing his “racist thinking and policies.”
Hobson, a successful businesswoman and former CBS News contributor, was honored after making a generous donation to her alma mater. She said she’s proud to help erase Wilson’s racist legacy.”
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A case you cannot keep a good man (entrepreneur) down?
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