Bajans does carry talk too far.
I en mean “private” discussions. A “big, fat and thick” (to use the newspaper’s description) Jamaican woman goes shopping in Bridgetown and is followed by half of Barbados. And people at water coolers, in lunch rooms, in bars talk about it – or about the fact that it turn up on the back page of a newspaper. Nothing wrong wid dat.
The West Indies cricket team lose another match. Tongues wag in one corner or another. Nothing wrong wid dat neither.
I am dealing with public talk on matters that require action.
From politician, cleric, presenter at seminar or workshop (ironic that a workshop could be a talkshop), featured speaker. And what is said has been repeated many times as the particular situation gets worse.
So watch out for “Parents must train their children so they don’t become criminal minded” (or some such impotent comment) coming soon from a microphone near you.
A former colleague used to say: “Barbadians believe in obeah.” But he didn’t mean some kinda magic using a bush bath or some strange mixture and de person come back to you or marry you or cock up and dead. No, he meant that Barbadians just talk and expect – poof – the desired end would come about.
Whereas in many other cultures, people understand that public talk about matters of social urgency is simply preliminary to contemplated action, we often mistake the talk for the necessary action.
A principal speaks at morning assembly about a growing aberration in the school. There is no follow-up action (because, perhaps, seeing himself as made in the image of God and remembering that in the Bible God spoke and things just came into being, he thinks his word is action too). So the transgressors do not desist. And worse still, more join them and the principal’s inaction spawns a collateral effect of calling his bluff in other areas. Obeah!
A boss tells the staff that such and such will not be tolerated. Let’s say, it’s poor treatment of customers. Staff members continue to treat customers like subhumans. Not nice.
The boss hides away in her office or when she observes an infringement walks by on the other side. Looking for obeah to come and fix it, it seems.
At this point, some will say that what is required is training. All right. Let’s have some workshops or seminars. But you know what? The workers return to the workplace and nothing changes.
There is no system for benchmarking future action, no holding accountable for changed ways. Government and businesses spend loads of money to end up depending, it would seem, on obeah.
Ten people phone in to a call-in programme about an unbelievable social wrong or Government misstep. The moderator asks if anybody has done anything other than call him. Nope. The talk was the end itself.
No lobbying, no organizing of protest, no action calculated to bring an end to the wrong. Just a seeming belief in obeah.
And now we are hearing about another set-up that will be focused on talk. The Youth Forum. It en bad enough that yuh want to force-ripe the youth and swell their heads – wid all the small-island talk about passing the baton.
Young people wet behind the ears, unaware of the pragmatic ins and outs of life, ignorant of the when and how of action, having so much to learn about civic responsibility, and about connecting with the old(er), about giving back, being charitable, negotiating, compromising, influencing, facilitating, team-working, solving problems, and humility, and the best you could think of is to give them a special place/space to hold forth – so that they can believe even more of their own unmicroscoped rhetoric?
You want to start a obeah school for the young? You want to nurture the youth in the ways that don’t work to produce meaningful action in our society? They will indeed be the leaders of tomorrow – but their apprenticeship should not be in obeah.
Now, sometimes talk is action itself. “You’re fired”; “I have a headache” (your female romantic partner says); “I sentence you to ten years in prison” (says the judge, not your partner).
And then there are some situations in which you are aiming at a changed mindset; talk is therefore your major weapon.
But for pressing social matters, we better have action firmly in mind. Talk won’t do it. Obeah out.
Sherwyn Walters is a writer who became a teacher, a song analyst, a broadcaster and an editor. Email: offwally@gmail.com.