The Mayan calendar has not been resonating much with the average Barbadian. I doubt it has been at all with the politicians – and the union leaders.
After all, those of us over 60 have been hearing about the end of the world ever since we were children. We were given several dates before by all and sundry, spanning nearly ten decades and three centuries. So what could be the big thing now?
I wasn’t thinking much about it myself until my memory was jolted by a beaming Annette Nias, whom I ran into at the supermarket. One wouldn’t have thought this glowing and bubbly persona was all along complaining about the high food prices – which are likely to kill us, if December 21 doesn’t take us first.
Sach Moore, whom Annette and I came upon in one of the supermarket’s aisles, seemed resigned to this calamitous fate. At least, we will all go together – families and friends – he thinks.
Still I hope we can get past the dawn of the next two Fridays. I don’t take much comfort in Sach’s notion it will be swift and painless.
Super-searing lava and excruciatingly scalding springs deveining skin and deboning bodies painless? It seems though like a fitting end for those people who have wickedly despised me and spitefully used me.
No, I should be forgiving, particularly if it is the end. I should beg God for a break for the reprobates; it is only Christian.
The optimists say there is nothing in Mayan literature to signal any end of the world in the next nine days. They agree the Mayan long count, 5 000-plus-year calendar does come to an end on December 21, 2012, but that that is all. An end to an age, yes. World destruction, no.
These think-gooders insist the Mayan calendar had nothing whatever to do with Armageddon.
But didn’t Nostradamus suggest we would go the route of the meteor or comet collision, or nuclear big bang in 2012 – depending on how one interprets his quatrains? And what of the popular belief of being consumed by this gigantic earthquake (see the several 2012 movies)?
What on earth will really happen two Fridays from now?
Then there are the I-Ching prophecies. These Ancient Chinese predictions are said to boast an accuracy of foretelling of events already taken place. And, yes, one of the happenings in the I-Ching readings – or Book Of Changes – is the coming of Armageddon on Friday next week.
Some scientists have already told us the Earth is expected to go through a polar shift sometime towards the end of this year, the North Pole and South Pole interchanging rapidly. Of course, malfunction and confusion would occur.
Animals, they say, should lose their sense of direction, and satellites and electronics should malfunction big time. The fallout? Cataclysmic natural disasters.
Have you heard any Bajans discussing these things on the radio call-in programmes recently? They aren’t really worried. Nothing gets between them and Christmas. And, on top of it, they take God for granted.
They rush to buy candles, lanterns and nails every time a hurricane threatens, self-assured that it will miss this place. The anxiety of preparing for what will not be is a thrill.
They aren’t worried ’bout nuh December twenty-fuss! If the meteor comes, it is bound to miss Barbados.
That is why Bajans have been focusing on confusing Freundel about a general election date. That is why Peter can find time to argue Chris should be leading the Democratic Labour Party – though Chris says he isn’t interested.
That is why Michael Lashley can be focused on precast walls for his high-rise homes.
That is why Mary-Anne Redman will not find it in her heart to forgive me. That is why teachers suffering with acute disgruntledness-itis, and equally afflicted by poor taste, can walk out unashamedly during the speech of their principal before an entire student body, and look askew at the nation with pride and a weird sense of industry.
We refuse to reflect on the infinite – or definite – possibilities. We mekking mock sport with Almighty God!
• Ridley Greene is a Caribbean multi-award-winning journalist.
