Well as many of you may or may not be aware I am a student at the University of the West Indies. As a member of the Law Faculty I have the privilege of interacting with people from several walks of life and various countries, primarily in the Caribbean.
Anyway, with only a little less than a year under my belt at UWI I realised a quite unfortunate trend that took me by surprise until I was informed that it was a norm on campus. Around election time the war lines are drawn as each and every race comes down to nationality especially in the law faculty as it has the highest non-national to Barbadian ratio.
Ahhhh....note my choice of words?...Non-national. That too is something I learnt this quite overwhelming semester. Foreigner is a bad word!...yes it is. Funny how indoctrinated attitudes & innate fears can turn simple words into weapons for prejudice and ridicule. What a wonder the english language is!
While on this topic...I had the pleasure of spending some time with a very smart St Lucian friend of mine on one of those nights that I spent dying slowly in the Law Library. During this time we got to talking instead of studying and the whole Bajan/foreigner thing came up and he made some insightful though frightening comments....or rather predictions.
The exchange rate is about $1 BDS for every $1.30 EC....but a soft drink that costs $1.50 here costs $1.25 in St Lucia. Our money is worth more but values less! Barbados was the only country in the region that did not register a positive economic growth last year. For a country about 10 years "older" than St Lucia we have about a year and half more development to show for it. The cost of living is rising throughout the country as the standard of living drops. We educate our children free of cost up to university level yet many are jobless with degrees. We relentlessly spend on luxuries not thinking about tomorrow. How do we afford to live like this? We sell out businesses and land to persons primarily from US & UK even Trinidad. Barbados National Bank is no longer national! We employ desperate regional workers who labour for much less than they are worth.
What does that do?...Barbadians in turn lash out at these regional workers "The only good Guyanese is a dead one"...Regional Integration ehhh?...CSME???....how? When decisions we make today make integration laughable tomorrow. In frustration and ignorance as a country we lash out at these "parasites" without realising that we as Barbadians will be them all too soon. Rubbish?
Look at Guyana...free education means almost everyone has at least one degree yet cannot find jobs. Look at Guyana...in terms of resources, it is one of the richest Caribbean countries...yet own little of it. Look at Guyana...High cost of living...low quality of life. Look at Guyana...desperation means heartbreakingly low age of consent so families can eat. Look at Guyana...migrating wherever in hopes of a better life as the big boys rape a once prosperous country.
Look at Barbados...we are Guyana before the fall. We scorn those who we should embrace and learn from. "Small islanders" see the dangers...why can't we. Are we too enlightened to notice or are we too busy trying to be Jamaica or Trinidad or worse yet America to realise? Maybe its just who we are... Is that why our country's motto is Pride & Industry while most other Caribbean islands have mottos that speak of unity? What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul...
I love Barbados...but what is this country coming to?
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6 comments:
This shows that you are wise beyond your years and you have show alot of initiative, something that alot of people never have. You and I know what you went through to set-up this blog, and it doesn't matter because the History Books will focus more on the changes you made and not the challenges that you had. Keep going. Miss Sade N Jemmott
I understand where you are coming from but when it comes to "economic growth" I hope that you were looking at the entire picture. For example, if Barbados over the last 10 years grew 3.6 percent each year that would be be a 36 percent growth over that time period and if in the last year there was a negative growth of 2.7 percent. In theory we would have had negative growth but over the time period ....positive growth. You cannot compare that for example to Aruba that would have grown 1.7 percent eveach year over the same 10 year time period, because although Barbados may have had a negative 2.7 percent over the last year and Aruba their normal 1.7 percent positive growth .........over the total time period .......Barbados would still have had a positive "economic growth. But..........small stuff, I like the blog and I am glad to see people putting their thoughts to paper for people to read, keep it up. :)
Indeed.
I am seeing a whole new side of you beyond the beauty and glamour. There really is a deep, caring intellectual in there. I admonish you to nurture and feed that intellectual. Don't just rail against injustice and anger and hate...grow up and strike it down.
Peace and Love lil sis
Shawn Kenyan
Well Miss Jemmott, though many of your thoughts ring clear and true some i must disagree with. While we look to the decline of the Barbados of yesteryear we must recognize that we though degrading are still considered the best 'black run' country in the world. This is evidenced by the number of migrations from diverse nations over the post independence period up to this day.
The second point is that we as Barbadians should be proud to have survived so far with no natrual resources...apart from our people. This is why we have to keep education free. Look not to those who choose to squander the opportunity, but seek to encourage others by your virtuous exploitation of this opportuninty. We are attempting new ways of encouraging investment in the island, which is what keeps us alive and sadly this led to the selling of our birth right, a piece of the rock, but we will survive.
Barbadians as proud people will continue to discriminate against those who enter the island and in general do not provide any influence apart from filling our court pages and our prisons. Not all discrimination is bad. Further, it is good to be good but there is a fine line between goodness and stupidity and the Barbados gov't are straddling this line with their CSME policy. As CSME draws on we will recognize a more rapid decline in the moral fibre of our Barbados, declining health and living standards, however, we must remain proud and industrious in building our beautiful island.
Keep it up Sade i never knew you had this until you just told me. Truly beautiful spot!
Well to some extent I have to disagree Sade. I don't think it's fair to say Barbados has only about a year and a half of development on islands like St. Lucia. My boyfriend is St.Lucian and he recently returned to Bim after spending the last year and a half there and it was an eye-opener for him being back there after so many years here. For example, they only introduced free and universal secondary education there last year.
Now free secondary education is one thing- free AND universal is another.In many islands, education is free but large numbers of people cannot access it because there are simply not enough places in the schools. Heck in Barbados, we did not have universal secondary education until 1973 I think my mum told me.
My mum worked for years in education advising for the US Embassy here and they cover the seven islands in the Eastern C'bean. Until last year, the only islands that had free and universal secondary education were Barbados and St.Kitts. Now SLU has joined us.
Barbados is about a generation ahead of other islands in terms of quality of life development- access to education, free health care, life expectancy and all those other things that they count on the UN human development index.
Economically now -on that, you have a definite point. We are trying to keep our heads above the water like everyone else. But I do not think we are Guyana before their fall. When Guyana or Jamaica for that matter had economic prosperity, they did not use it to implement the social development that would help maintain the country's prosperity.
It's all well and good to have resources but if you have an undereducated populace, your country will be more susceptible to economic and political shocks.
As to the insularity of Barbadians...that would take a whole other comment from me and this one is already too long :) but suffice it to say... Barbadians forget quickly. 60 years ago we were the Guyanese of the Caribbean...
Interesting to know.
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