During this past week, those of us proud to be citizens of this blessed rock were brought face to face with the achievements of yet another Barbadian, whose international stature belies the size of this place and reminds us all we can mark “our name on history’s page with expectations great”.
The accomplishments in science of our own Professor Dr Ken Harewood are a story to be written and engraved on the hearts of us all, especially of those young enough to have escaped the more demanding periods of Barbadian existence.
We are today far better off as a country than we were when Professor Harewood was a brilliant athlete and student and, like many of his time, faced a dearth of opportunity for self-advancement.
Professor Harewood’s monumental success as an internationally respected academic and research chemist has been achieved after a childhood when many Barbadians felt the pangs of unbridled poverty, and social and racial discrimination, and relied on the old-fashioned virtues of thrift and respect for God, self and one’s fellow man, and a deep abiding personal faith, to pull them out of a dark place.
These were not mere personal values. They reflected the national psyche, for we were then our brother’s keeper; and the concerns of the individual villager were those of the whole village.
We do not do things that way these days; and it is for this reason that we owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Professor Harewood for chronicling his rise to fame. His story is one that ought to remind today’s youngsters that poverty is no excuse for a path of crime, and that the get-rich-quick mentality is no match for a life structured on embracing wholesome avenues of honest endeavour.
Professor Harewood’s story having been put into print is at once a social memoir and an account of Barbados yesterday which must not be lost if we are to understand our own heroes, and if young people are to recognize the wonderful heritage of which they are heirs.
Professor Harewood’s book provides ample material for our youth who may yet be challenged even in today’s improved conditions. There is a creeping sense of entitlement that seems to threaten the personal initiative to get up and get going.
We cannot continue to ask what our country will do for us, without concern about what we ourselves can do for our country.
In Professor Harewood’s youth, one literally had to fight one’s way through life. It was a lesson in discipline, which must not be lost because social and economic conditions are less demanding in these times.
Some values are eternal and in this day when many our young people, particularly our young men, need to look more steadfastly at an appropriate role model, Professor Harewood’s book is a timely and lived example of a good, productive and honest life.
This book is a veritable road map for all young Barbadians, and to have produced it at this time is one of the finest things Professor Harewood has done for his country.
