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Submitted by Observing
errol barrow
The late Rt. Ex. Errol Walton Barrow

In January 2016 then Prime Minister Freundel Stuart delivered an address to launch the 50th anniversary celebrations. In that address he posed three pertinent questions surrounding the issue of values

  1. What are those features of Barbadian life that we have lost and that we need to reclaim?
  2. What are those features of Barbadian life that we have not lost and need to retain?
  3. What are those features of Barbadian life we have not lost but we have to try and discard as quickly as possible?

A lesser known fact is that these questions were taken up and researched by the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute as part of the then Secretariat’s attempt to form an empirical basis to guide policy formation in the years to come. Ironically a search of the internet reveals very little local coverage of the results or if they were ever used or formed part of any real meaningful national discussion.

As we head into Year 57, reflection is always a good thing for both young and old. Many have argued and debated about “Barbadian values.” Many have questioned if they still exist. Others may ask “who needs values” while most now only want things “of value.”

The BU space has been excellent for discussion and provoking thought, especially among the hundreds worldwide who read it discretely or only in the smallest room in their house.

Now is as good a time as any to revisit these questions as we talk about vision, progress and development. It should cause us to heed Barrow’s exhortation to question “what mirror image do we have” of ourselves.

Maybe it will give us a better picture of “who we really are.”

Just Observing




Link to survey: https://www.jecsonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/JECS-Vol-42-No.-1-Apr-2017.pdf

Key findings on pages 34, 38 and 40.

My general summary

Values that have declined in importance: Knowing neighbours, respecting the elderly, being religious, obeying the law, being in committed relationships

Values that have increased in importance: Material possessions, social networks, leisure, owning house/land

Values we have not lost: Religious tolerance, friendliness, patriotism, extended family

Additional link: https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latest-news/study-finds-barbadians-like-american-values/

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73 responses to “Who are we?”

  1. Danielle Avatar
    Danielle

    Who is Donald Best? Where does he fit in??

  2. David Avatar
    David

    Who are we?

    The question should be- who do we want to be? Are we comfortable in our skin? The blogmaster is convinced we are making it up as we go along because there is no coherent, relevant overarching vision guiding our journey in the last two decades.

    Who is responsible for crafting the vision for the country? Is it solely with the political directorate? Our historical behaviour supports this conclusion. Should it be more inclusive with citizens and NGOs becoming more involved? How is this possible if the political directorate – supported by the apathetic disengaged citizens – continue to hijack the governance system?

  3. Who are we not? Avatar
    Who are we not?

    Perhaps the questions should be
    “Who are we not?”

    The internet has information teaching white people how to be racist
    for example keep repeating ‘Hamas’ and ‘terrorists’ to justify killing Palestinians in racial wars

    Bu is just a black polka dot on a white background

  4. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Hahahahaha! True about the white background. Hahahahaha!

  5. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    David, we are Barbadians. But, what defines being Barbadian? What exactly is our culture? Is it drinking rum or beers and eating cou cou with flying or salt fish…. or pudding and souse on Saturdays? What ‘unique, distinct’ characteristics do Barbadians possess that definitively separates them from other nationalities? If we, as a society, cannot answer those questions, or do not have a vision for our own future, then why do we seem to believe politicians, who are ‘products of the same society,’ have a unique ability to provide us with the answers?

  6. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    David, people evolve with the changing times. The St. Lucian government recently decided to teach kwéyòl in schools, in an effort to preserve the island’s cultural heritage, simply because the younger generation is slowly moving away from speaking the language.

  7. all of the above Avatar
    all of the above

    Who are we?
    This sounds like another dubious test to trap to suspicious minds..

    Choose the best answer to win a free 1 night holiday in a Little Island Hotel
    Are Barbadians
    (a) individuals
    (a) black/white
    (c) Caribbean
    (d) African/European
    (e) BLP/DLP/other
    (f) heterosexual/homosexual/bisexual/other
    (f) cantankerous
    (g) belligerent
    (h) all of the above

  8. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    Strange, we have bragged about being the gem of the Caribbean and here we are asking ourselves who we are.
    Interesting………

  9. David Avatar
    David

    @Artax

    This is the discussion. Why have we allowed the political directorate to lead us in all things? It says more about us than them because politicians come from among us. Check the mirror.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @Atax

    You have written words. Evolve from what to what? How is the process influenced. How was the process hijacked?

  11. David Avatar
    David

    You are always mired in cliches William. Gem of the Caribbean is a tagline but how do we give life to it in a daily basis?

  12. David Avatar
    David

    Enjoy Independence Day Barbadians as we continue to navigate the journey towards excellence.

  13. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David
    The major challenge to our culture is that we are becoming highly Americanized and our educational system, has not been used to protect that vibrancy, needed to create a truly national cultural consciousness.
    Our people truly love their country, but there seems to be a kind of shock , that we are not advancing , as we did , to some extent , during the periods before and maybe a decade after independence.
    On reflection, the cultural penetration was becoming more and more pronounced and we castigated those who were trying to protect us from the said cultural penetration.
    It seems, we have shifted from Little England to Little Brooklyn.

  14. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    I have heard the PM say “this is not who we are” so perhaps she has the answer.
    Happy Independence Day

  15. Black Roses in my Garden Avatar
    Black Roses in my Garden

    The song “Black Roses” by Barrington Levy is a metaphor for treasuring and cherishing something unique. The line “I’ve never seen a Black rose in no other garden” suggests that the singer is caring for something that is rare and special, and that he wants to water it and preserve it. He emphasizes that his garden, or metaphorically speaking, his special someone or thing is “so special” and that there is “something special” in it. By the end of the song, the singer acknowledges that he must take extra care of this special thing and cherishes it deeply. The “Black Roses” symbolize something different and unique that he must treasure, nurture and protect.

  16. Tim Ward Avatar
    Tim Ward

    We really don’t know still trying to figure out who we are

  17. dreamstarworld Avatar
    dreamstarworld

    Good morning, Bruh…

    QUESTIONS:

    “What do you do when all else “FAILS”???

    “Where do you run, when there is nowhere to run”???

    Finally, “What can you give when you’re all out of options”???

  18. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    1) Looks as if BT has figured out a way to stop people reading it. Access this morning is horrible.
    2) I see they are talking of changing some constituency boundaries. I would like to hear a Bajan start talking about gerrymandering. Then I know that you have arrived at “Little USA”

  19. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    A clever teacher would ask a question that reveals a student’s knowledge. Who we are will stump most students, but the questions who ‘do we think we are” would be easily answered.

    Let me take a stab at answering the question:
    We are a small nation who is punching above our weight; we overvalue our importance, we can invent new processes and at the same time be unable to get the old processes to work. We have all the gadgets necessary to make us a nation but most of these gadgets don’t work. We have a super leader, though it is difficult to pin down what she has accomplished. Like a cuckoo bird, she is determined to invade and occupy the space now held by EWB. She thinks she is EWB2.

    So boys and girls don’t be stumped by the original question.. The real question is “Who do we think we are?” Your turn.

  20. dreamstarworld Avatar
    dreamstarworld

    @DAVID

    Here’s Marcia Burrowes Feb 2000 PhD Thesis on:

    “HISTORY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY: BARBADIAN SPACE AND THE LEGACY OF EMPIRE…”

    https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/36383/1/WRAP_THESIS_Burrowes_2000.pdf

    You may find pages 238 – 255 interesting but I would like to ask you & “OTHERS”:

    (1) IS BARBADOS STUCK IN A TIME WARP GIVEN WE ARE 23+ YEARS INTO 2000???
    (2) WHO WILL CHARTS A SOLID, MEANINGFUL COURSE IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS 2ND DECADE OF THE 21ST CENTURY??? (and)
    (3) CAN THE PREVAILING NARROW MINDSET BE CHANGE WITHOUT REVOLUTION OR SOME TECTONIC EVENT???

    #ThinkOnTheseThings

  21. Good Christians are called to suspend Christmas Avatar
    Good Christians are called to suspend Christmas

    Barbadians were taught by massa slave master to be good Christians,
    but check out this conundrum about hippos x’mas celebrations in NYC ..

    “The Bethlehem municipality have called to suspend Christmas celebrations, in mourning for the ongoing genocide in Gaza, so we’ve joined with Muslim, Christian and Jewish groups, and community organizations – religious and otherwise – to say that we’re against our tax dollars being used to fund genocide.”

  22. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    David, I used St. Lucia as an example. Are you aware kwéyòl was once spoken in Grenada, but ‘died out’ with the older generation? Perhaps Grenadians believed it was not necessary to preserve that part of their cultural heritage. As I ‘said,’ as time changes, people change accordingly.

  23. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Without reading

    “Weeeeeeeeeee are a colony of American empire

    Imbued with the second greatest fallacy ever bestowed on mankind

    That there is something called independence within the context of imperium

    Or republic

    Beyond tinsel.

    For only a truly independent entity could possibly be interdependent.

    And weeeeeeeeeee are neither.

    At least weeeeeeee get the chance to dispense with the first person singular for one day.

    For the i-ah is all Rasta!

    The ‘i’ in capitalism and republic!

    Same I and I.

  24. Love on the Brain Avatar
    Love on the Brain

    I’m not sure who this late dude Rt. Ex. Errol Walton Barrow is or what he may have accomplished as he sounds ancient history, before my time,

    but, there are 2 magnificent contemporary national superheroes on the world stage that all Bajans should aspire to be like

    and they are Mia Mottley and Rihanna who both starred in the inauguration ceremony for the Republic of Barbados’ Independence

  25. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    The question is not “Who are we?”
    It really is “What are brass bowls?”

    …the answer –
    Actually, we are valuable vessels of IMMEASURABLE potential.
    But we are currently settled in our roles as potties.

  26. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Happy Independence all. No time fuh de hyfalutin, faux intellect today. Who are we? I know who I am, thanks.

  27. David Avatar
    David

    William this is true BUT to stem cultural penetration is easier discussed. With the prevalence of social media and the ubiquitous mobile device, ease of travel etc we are at the mercy of others greatly influencing who we are not @Artax is this what you meant by evolving?

  28. David Avatar
    David

    @enuff

    You understand your comment is a simplistic one in the context of the discussion)

  29. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    A pertinent question to ask on this Independence cum Republic Day is whether the country is better off today than it was, say, under the Sandiford Administration or even since November 1966.

    Do Barbadians own any (significant) stake in their country’s strategic assets like the BL&P to influence the management decisions of those public utilities and to provide opportunities for local investors like the NIS and other pension providers?

    Why are the major commercial entities primarily owned and controlled by foreign interests while the Government of the RoB continues to borrow from the IMF to prop up the country’s Balance of Payments to appease ever-increasing profit appetites of those foreign-owned entities while pushing future Bajans back into perpetual financial slavery?

    Didn’t Barbadians- of whichever ethnic hue- own and control either partially or fully-entities like BS&T, ICBL and the former National now renamed “Republic” Bank?

    What about the Mutual, Bartel, the Biscuit factory and even Collins?

    Who and what is on the IMF drawn-up LIST to be owned and controlled by non-Barbadians under the New republic called RoB? The BWA?

    Tom Adams must be rolling in his tomb in the St. Michael (& All Angels) Cathedral to see all those ‘economic’ gains of enfranchising Barbadians being thrown down the drain and going up in marijuana smoke simply because of the country’s acquired habit of selling its soul to the forex devil in exchange for a mess of conspicuous consumption pottage’; especially in shape of those high-powered motor vehicles totally unsuited to the roads and size of the 2×3 island in the Sun!

  30. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    David, the ‘Americanization’ of our culture began years ago. Back in the 1960s and 70s the popular music at dances was American ‘oldies goldies,’ which is still being enjoyed by oldsters to this day, especially at modern events, such as CBC’s ‘Q in the Community.’ The ‘Black Power Movement,’ Afro hair style, ‘bell- bottomed’ pants etc, which were ‘accepted with opened arms’ by Barbadians in the 1970s, originated in the USA. That has been replaced with the US ‘gangsta culture’ and its accompanying r&b and rap music. Young males wearing undersized clothing, with pants fitting below their buttocks, exposing their underwear, while females dress as though they’re working in strip clubs. We are now allowing male students to wear tight, undersized pants and plaited hair to school.

  31. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    What is the benefit of benchmarking against Sandiford’s administration? If a strong culture of doing the right things was being nurtured then , why are we here now? Sandiford is given a strong legacy of being a framer of tertiary level education- what have those students from that period done to propel the country forward?

  32. David Avatar
    David

    @Artax

    Of the period you referenced, didn’t we also have a plethora of spouge bands, folk banks, story telling from Timothy Callender, Alfred Pragnell, Marva Manning, Janet Layne-Clarke et al? We had the penetration but commanded rational thought to support local at the same time.

  33. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @MTA
    You forgot Mt Gay, WIRR, Banks, Pine Hill, Bottling Co, several hotel properties, and by end of ’24 GEL (ok that last one is just wishful thinking on my part lol).
    Since one of newest National Heroes, who has a sound track record in moving business off shore, is looking at options for BWA, that fate is possibly predictable (if we accept Bushies logic). Or possibly EMERA can get into the water utility business?
    Anyway there must be other measures of who we are.

  34. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ David on November 30, 2023 at 5:27 PM:

    Because we had to start somewhere!

    Should we have started with the Tom Adams’s administration where much of the real economic empowerment took place or with the OSA era when the divestment- aka reversal of the economic enfranchisement gains- was in full flight in order to assure Bajans that they can have a car parked at each house with two university graduates living inside?

    OSA wanted a legacy of hero worship (similar to Barrow and with the current PM is following a similar path). So ,he did what was convenient to achieve such a fleeting status!

    The Miller had the privilege of working with Tom and, he can say, beyond a shadow of doubt that he, Tom, was not only a visionary in relation to the economic enfranchisement of Bajans but also a guru in the disciplines of public administration and finance.

  35. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Yes, David. But, so-called “rational thought to support local at the time” was not enough to prevent many of those bands from ‘dying’ in the same era. And, how many survived into at least the mid 1980s? Reddifusion was the main source for stories by Timothy Callender, Jeanette Layne-Clarke, Austin ‘Tom’ Clarke, et al… and performances thereof by Pragnel, Manning etc, alive until its closure sometime during the early 1990s. Folk groups also ‘died a sudden death,’ some ressurected only to perform at certain events. Pinelands Creative Workshop produced and performed several plays, which has now become ‘a thing of the past,’ due to a lack of support. You mentioned spouge, a genre of music we’ve been struggling for years to keep alive. Richard Stoute’s death is perhaps the ‘final nail in its coffin.’ Meanwhile, ska and its ‘off shoots’ such as reggae, dub and dance hall music, remain ‘alive and kicking’ in Jamaica.

  36. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ NorthernObserver on November 30, 2023 at 6:09 PM said:
    (Quote):
    @MTA
    You forgot Mt Gay, WIRR, Banks, Pine Hill, Bottling Co, several hotel properties, and by end of ’24 GEL (ok that last one is just wishful thinking on my part lol).
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    You are quite right in setting ‘the give-away of economic assets’ record straight.

    It’s just a litany of economic sellouts.

    Should the Arawak Cement Plant and the Flour Mill be added to the List?

    We should not be surprised when the BWA is put up for sale to potential foreign buyers come 2024!

    I am sure there are many Bajan investors who would ‘risk’ their monies in such a venture if divested, as it should.

    After all, clean water along with a reliable source of electricity (from whichever source) is the basis of any modern civilization!

  37. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    We know the problem. Our politicians are about associating themselves with policies to make themselves popular at the expense of citizens and country. Barbadians have become mentally corpulent as a result of the country living on borrowed funds and therefore entitled.

  38. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    A relevant culture and rational thought would have ensured best decisions were taken to manage the required transformation to ensure sustainability. This is what educated people do; be innovative and creative to grow and succeed.

  39. Super Cool Avatar
    Super Cool

    Music is an international language that crosses all nations and cultures and has no boundaries. Singers and players of instruments don’t copy others, they cover, adapt, modify, improve and version their tunes. Everyone loves a dance party.

  40. Movement Meditation Avatar
    Movement Meditation

  41. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    An American company, Archer, Daniels, Midlands (ADM) Milling owns Barbados Mills. Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) owned the Arawak Cement Plant since 1994.

  42. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Banks, Pine Hill and BBC were owned by BS&T.

  43. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Yes. But BHL was separately traded.

  44. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    “Weeeeeee are the ones we’ve been waiting for”

  45. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Observing
    Seems the one word which is not spoken is vindictive.

    Fear of retribution seems to be a common driver.

  46. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    This is who we are. One big partying family.

    https://www.nationnews.com/2023/12/01/kings-calypso-dazzle-audience/

  47. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Boss lady speaks.

  48. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Whilst Ronnie(wh)o? ________________ again. That machine soon get unplugged.

  49. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Enuff

    Yuh too like yuh one-party state wid dee dictator, large and in charge!

    Your Barbados means being a strict guardián of party first, your one, your all!

  50. Hants Avatar
    Hants

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