Prime Minister Mia Mottley earned a 10 out of 10 for delivering in her accustomed verbose self – smattered with some bajan – a raft of initiatives designed to curb the escalating crime situation. At the top of the initiatives shared by Mottley was the introduction of National Advisory Council on Citizen Security .

The Council is intended to ensure the widest possible ownership of the actions and considerations needed to prevent Barbados from facing the same challenges that other countries have experienced. “We must ensure that Barbadians do not fall down the rabbit hole that other countries have regrettably fallen into as a result of the access, in particular, assault weapons and automatic weapons,” Mottley stated. 

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Notwithstanding the apathy and cynicism that has overwhelmed Bajans in recent decades first triggered by the precipitous decline in the economy and of recent, escalating violent crime. It is the most optimistic among us who believe that this National Advisory Council on Citizen Security will be nothing more than another ‘organism’ sucking on the teats of the public purse.

Kudos to Mottley having the bold face courage to admit ‘things’ have been allowed to slip. The truth: enforcement falls squarely in the domain of government and its agents the Barbados Police Service, Immigration and Customs departments supported by the Barbados Defence Force (BDF).

Without being rude Prime Minister Mottley- Excluding the yard fowls, Barbadians have become tired of the dry talk. The government, the police and other agencies have been warned of the trajectory we were headed years ago. For sure in this forum members of the BU family have expressed concern about the ‘weeds that started to shoot up on our manicured lawns’ in early 2000. The blogmaster recalls the accusations of being alarmist by the political trolls. Are we there yet?

If the blogmaster was at the press show this afternoon two questions would have been asked. First, what has the Police Complaints Authority been able to accomplish? Secondly, why has government waited six years after receiving unprecedented mandates in 2018 and 2022 to attempt to implement forceful crime interventions?

The blogmaster will not get overly political by mentioning a Democratic Labour Party (DLP) slogan ‘crime and violence’ in 2008 that was ridiculed. Also, WE have relinquished our civic responsibilities, now WE have to reap what WE have sowed.

All of us remain optimistic the measures announced by Mottley will help to improve our quality of society, however, the blogmaster suspects there will be no material change. The BPS is woefully undermanned, the decadent culture and criminal behaviour has become ensconced in a way of life preferred by a minority cohort. The big one is the level of involvement by influential and prominent players in Barbados that have decision makers – including politicians – in back pockets. Barbados Underground is littered with blogs about the influence of deep pockets in this society.

To Prime Minister Mia Mottley: the blogmaster will be happy to apologise in a year or two if the BU household misread the tea leaves. Your job should you chose to accept given your extraordinary mandate at the recent poll is – YOU need to remove the rh square pegs from round holes camping out in your inner sanctum and replace them with competent individuals whose first goal is to serve country and not themselves AND we need to enforce the law without favour.

A word to the wise should be suffecient.