As readers of this column would recall, when there was a plethora of criticism of the Prime Minister leading a delegation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Australia, I supported Barbados going.
The conference, preceded by the business forum, ended last Sunday. So far, the only thing widely publicized from the conference was British Prime Minister David Cameron’s threat that his country would withhold aid from Commonwealth states which do not reform their legislation outlawing homosexuality.
He sees this impinging on “proper human rights”. The overwhelming majority of countries at CHOGM were former British colonies from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. They all have independent constitutions and are no longer run from London. While some are republics, all recognize the Queen as head of the Commonwealth.
In many, homosexuality, illegalized as buggery, is a criminal offence punishable with varying degrees of severity. The laws of Barbados are not as severe as in some African states such as Uganda where death is the penalty.
It smacks of gross neo-colonialism that the former colonizing power could threaten the other 53 sovereign member states with withholding aid. What aid does Barbados get from Britain?
Forty-five years after lowering the Union Jack, we are proud nationals of a country which has never been mendicant going cap in hand to London begging for financial assistance. Hard as things are today, things are also bad in Britain, the former colonial power whose foundations of earlier prosperity were built on colonial exploitation.
Schoolchildren of my generation were taught time was when Barbados was the brightest jewel in the British crown. I well remember a conversation in the London Hilton in 1966 during Independence talks at Lancaster House, when Premier Errol Barrow and Mr James Cameron Tudor said with pride that Barbados from earliest days pumped more into the British colonial economy than was reciprocated.
Against that background, I do not recall precisely what the British government offered Barbados as an Independence gift. I do recall, however, Mr Barrow scoffing at its gross inadequacy bearing no true relationship to the centuries of contributions made to the growth and development of the “mother country”.
Having pulled ourselves up by the bootstraps to a position of one of the world’s most admired, respected and desirable countries to live in and consistently punching above its weight, Mr Cameron’s threat flies in the face of our collective pride, much heralded national development and stellar post-colonial realities.
The world has changed beyond recognition to the point where homosexual relationships now embrace same-sex marriages and same-sex child adoption.
I was struck watching a United States TV network during the week seeing a big, strapping man talking about his husband. Some states in that country have legalized homosexuality and same-sex marriages.
Britain changed their law in 1967 decriminalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults in private. But that fact cannot mean that all Commonwealth countries must do likewise in the spirit of monkey see, monkey do. I recall that it was one of the issues considered and rejected in the late 1990s by the Constitutional Commission led by Sir Henry Forde.
With that in mind, it would clearly be inimical to the electoral prospects of any Barbadian political party to flaunt decriminalization of buggery as a major platform and manifesto catchment. This year’s calypso king Popsicle’s clever, popular song about Cornwell undoubtedly represents the sentiments of most Barbadians.
It is Mr Cameron’s inalienable right to see it as a “proper human right”. It is viewed in some other first world countries as progressive and desirable.
But to tell Commonwealth colleagues that they must change their legislation to facilitate this lifestyle, still largely considered immoral and unnatural, or lose his country’s aid, is reminiscent of the most despicable aspects of carrot and big stick colonialism and imperialism.
Barbados receives negligible British assistance and has never taken upon itself the responsibility of trying to dictate to other sovereign states what legislation should be on their statute books. Reciprocity is the bedrock of relations among nation states and Mr Cameron has overstepped the crease on a matter which the majority of Barbadians consider unnatural, are strongly opposed to and is illegal in 40 other Commonwealth states.
I was somewhat surprised that a leading social scientist and pollster vehemently agreed with Mr Cameron and believes Barbados’ current legal position can result in a loss of both funding and friends. Has it? It has not materialized even in Jamaica, the most homophobic Caribbean country.
Unlike some countries where anti-gay hostility proliferates, I am neither aware that Barbadians are virulently homophobic nor of any real or potential loss of funds or friends.
No matter how hard things get, this country will heed Popsicle’s paternal advice cheerfully ignoring Mr Cameron’s baseless threat.