Two things I read as a schoolboy have stuck with me into my immediate pre-geriatric years, stoking my unquenchable thirst for information and knowledge. The first was Shakespeare’s admonition that “ignorance is the curse of God”. The second was Henry Thoreau’s appreciation that knowledge leads to “an indefinite sense of the grandeur and glory of the universe”.
The technological revolution, which has put the world Press at our fingertips on the World Wide Web, has significantly enhanced access to global sources of information and knowledge. Buttressed occasionally by hard-copy versions of some of the great metropolitan newspapers, they are vital tools in keeping the curse of God at bay.
During my daily perusals, from time to time I come across a real jaw-dropper making me read it a second and third time and ask rhetorically: Really? A few weeks ago I read in the English Sunday Times that the flying fish roe is a popular delicacy in an East London restaurant. Its menu name: citrus caviar!
If our fisherpeople are seeing a new interest from English visitors in getting their hands on some at $6 a pack, they would understand why.
Classic caviar, the roe of the sturgeon, is one of the planet’s most exquisite and expensive gourmet culinary delights. I was musing that I have never seen our plentiful local caviar on the menu of any Barbadian restaurant or as finger food at a soiree. Truth be told, whereas as a boy growing up in the country, fried roes were often served in our household, they are not known to my children and their contemporaries. Is this about to change?
In the January 16 edition of the same newspaper under the headline Stylish Island With A Wild Side, I came across the following gem of misinformation: “The past few decades have seen a surge in the Afro-Caribbean culture – during the 1970s Rastafarianism replaced much of the historic Englishness and Trafalgar Square was renamed Heroes Square in tribute to the countless lives lost in the battle for emancipation from slavery.”
Let me admit that I see much on a daily basis (not only men in heavy, dark suits sweating like pot covers in the broiling sun) to challenge the writer’s assertion that “much of the historic Englishness “has been replaced. And by Rastafarianism? Gimme a break!
I am a close follower of social and cultural trends in Barbados, but will readily admit that I remain unaware of any major transformative Rasta impact.
As to whose lives Heroes Square celebrates, I look forward to some of the vociferous defenders of Nelson and Trafalgar Square rushing to embrace the latest English journeyman twistorian.
Recent articles in the Press have highlighted problems facing our ageing population thinking of going after loans or mortgages. I recall the many hallelujahs heard across the island when talk of reverse mortgages first surfaced.
I discovered another area of age discrimination when trying to comprehensively insure my motor car recently. A number of insurance companies declined to insure it because I am over 65.
I did not go past that milestone last year, but for the first time this year it enters the reinsurance equation. The fact that I have been a licensed driver for 52 years, have never had an accident or made an insurance claim while driving in Barbados, Trinidad, Britain and the United States is secondary to the overarching fact that I am over the apparent transcendental age.
I was just informed by my broker that she found a company willing to insure my car. But I am constrained to ask: is it fair that after insuring a driver for decades, because he crosses the 65 age barrier he suddenly becomes no longer insurable, ignoring his impeccable record?
I would like to benefit from the experience of the gentleman who says he is an 87-year-old taxi driver.
I have not been able to find out from the Barbados Association of Retired Persons (BARP) if they assist the motoring public. Some enterprising insurance company with a social conscience and respect for the contribution of our elders (17 per cent of the population is over 65), stands to garner significant public gratitude and business if it reaches out to senior citizens rather than discriminate against them.
Best and Mason migrate
In an article late last year headlined Political Cleansing, I said it would be ironic if the popular cricket programme Best And Mason, which was discontinued in dubious circumstances by CBC radio found a new home at Voice of Barbados. To the delight of cricket lovers, the two distinguished broadcasters had their first show from their new home in River Road last Tuesday evening, with the West Indies Board CEO and two top cricket writers as guests.
As CBC rues its loss and the cricket-crazy population gains a new forum, it will be interesting observing if, how and when the Government-owned station moves to fill the breach. Migration is a notorious two-way street and it will be instructive if one who learned to swim down by the riverside i s thrown into the crater left in the Pine.
?• Peter Simmons, a social scientist, is a former diplomat.
