Lars Porsena of Clusium by the Nine Gods he swore; that the great house of Tarquin should suffer wrong no more. By the Nine Gods he swore it, and named a trysting day, and bade his messengers ride forth, to summon his array. – Horatius
Picture Rome facing Lars and his mighty Etruscan array: “And now hath every city, sent up her tale of men, the foot are fourscore thousand, the horse are thousands ten.”
Only the River Tiber now stands in their way and Rome’s only hope is to destroy the bridge over it.
Alas, it’s already too late for that for a scout comes flying, all wild with haste and fear: “To arms, to arms, Sir Consul, Lars Porsena is here!” But wait . . . .
Then out spake brave Horatius, the captain of the gate: “To every man upon this earth death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his gods? And for the tender mother, who dandled him to rest, and for the wife who nurses, his baby at her breast . . . ?”
Lord have mercy! Horatius and two others blocked the enemy while the bridge was cut behind them. Not a man got past that dauntless three.
“For Romans in Rome’s quarrel spared neither land nor gold, nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life, in the brave days of old. Then none was for a party, then all were for the state, then the great man helped the poor, and the poor man loved the great.” Take note, Barbados.
Rome was saved although Horatius got a dunking. Read all about it.
And what about those 300 Spartans with 700 allies facing the Persian hordes, said to number over a million men, at Thermopylae?
“Throw down your weapons,” commanded the Persians. “Come and get them yourselves,” replied the Spartans. “We have enough arrows here to blot out the sun,” threatened the Persians.
“So much the better,” cried the Spartans, “then we’ll fight in the shade!”
The Spartans were killed to the last man but not one fled.
Friends, this little island has been unbelievably good to us. Built on the supreme sacrifice of our sugar-working forefathers, it has given us an enviable standard of living. We punch way above our weight in education, in infrastructure, in sports.
In my opinion, however, our generation has squandered our heritage. In the one-upmanship of politics, successive parties have given more than we can afford. Labour unions have insisted on wages which make us uncompetitive. We are left with little room to manoeuvre.
The oily Persians from the south have overrun us and bought up our businesses. They strut among us, send home or abandon, tell us how much our own national bank is worth.
The Etruscans from the north, our supposed “partners”, have eagerly joined in a lawsuit against us with their minister boasting he is confident of the outcome.
It is common knowledge that Etruscan vessels land here regularly with contraband in their holds. Should not their government check those holds before they leave port? But no, they want to crucify us for taking the necessary action to protect our youth from their drugs.
As we approach another Independence milestone and a general election, neither of our parties seems willing to go beyond palliative care for our ailing economy. Winning the election is triumphing over the overall good of Barbados.
The Dems apparently hope to hold strain with minimum dislocation until things improve globally. That won’t happen any time soon. The Bees seem to want to sell our few remaining Government assets and use foreign reserves to “put money in people’s pockets”. One could understand using money to retool manufacturing, produce local food, reduce fuel imports. But not for wanton spending.
We Bajans can ride out this crisis if we all play our part. Many of us could do without Government freenesses – pay for our medicines, our children’s bus fares, university fees, school meals.
If there is consensus, I am willing to return the $832 tax refund cheque I just got, forgo my NIS pension, use a minimum of imported products. Let those of us who can afford it make meaningful sacrifices for the country we love. Tough times don’t last, tough people do.
• Richard Hoad is a farmer and social commentator.
