Not too long ago in 2024, Barbados was consumed by a fierce debate about the urgent need to increase our population. We have been described as a society that is “ageing” with negative implications for our tax base and the sustainability of NIS pension obligations. Our trained actuaries and trained professionals have convinced the country that our declining birthrate is a problem.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley has pointed to three possible interventionist strategies: encouraging Barbadians to have more children, extending citizenship to descendants of Barbadians in the diaspora, and bringing in skilled workers. She even bandied about a figure of 80,000 as a good number. To be expected, like so many pressing issues in the country, this matter has converted into a political football. The seriousness of the debate has been lost in the predictable partisan noise, leaving an intelligent Barbados population in a stasis state.

Fast forward, and the latest declared public health issue is crime. In recent years, the pristine, idyllic Barbados landscape – all 166 square miles of it – has been contaminated, the blogmaster would add irretrievably. Today retired policeman Bertie Hinds opined that community policing must be the main strategy employed to regain public trust. The blogmaster submits that there is merit in Hinds’ suggestion, BUT it is long term and will not arrest the problem in the short or medium term. Our communities are already infected with a pervasive culture of lawlessness, heavily influenced by the drug trade.

This drug culture is not random. It is instigated and controlled by elites. Elites who easily co‑opt the support of Customs and Police Officers. Elites who manipulate the political directorate with ease. The rot is systemic, and the lawlessness is not confined to street corners, it is embedded in the corridors of power.

Barbados Underground (BU) has been a strident advocate since its inception for successive governments to not only enforce the laws but to employ draconian tactics to attack the visible cancer of corruption, indiscipline, and lawlessness suffocating the country. What is disappointing is the extent to which Barbadians, branded as “intelligent” continue to be passive in a climate where strident vigilance and strident advocacy are the only options. This is a country that allocates a significant portion of the national budget to education, yet our touted educated class comfortably retreats into silence.

There is no need to be prolix on the current state of crime in Barbados. Others more qualified will craft reports listing risk factors and proposing solutions. But the “more intelligent” among us are resigned to the fact that procrastination and lethargy define our people and our systems. Leadership demands vision, accountability, and courage. Lawlessness thrives when systems collapse and mediocrity is tolerated.

The Double L dilemma – leadership trumping lawlessness – is not confined to sports, crime or demographics. It reflects the wider governance challenges facing Barbados. If we are serious about building a better nation, then leadership must replace lawlessness, and strategy must replace bullshit and fluff.