Barbadians were told today that exhibiting the qualities and following the examples of the country’s National Heroes, while avoiding new forms of cultural and economic enslavement, was the surest path to prosperity.
Acting Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, Senator Patrick Todd said that because “we are a people struggling to make our way in rapidly changing and difficult social, cultural and economic circumstances globally,” his Ministry was inviting every individual and institution, government, the private sector and civil society, to follow the examples set by the country’s heroes.
Speaking during the National Heroes Day Thanksgiving Service, at the Western Light Church of the Nazarene, Oxnards, St James, today, in the presence of the island’s only living National Hero, Sir Garfield Sobers, Todd said Barbadians should be thinking deeply about what it means to be emancipated and to live as free people, thinking freely and creatively, and acting productively for self-determination.
“Now is the time to internalize the full significance of emancipation and the true meaning of “freedom.” Real freedom comes with the responsibility of self-determination. The Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow advocated this. The Right Excellent General Bussa died for this cause,” he said.
Todd also reminded that “as we pay tribute to these heroes we cannot forget our greatest hero, the Lord Jesus Christ”. (AH)
