We will be friends of all, satellites of none. – Right Honourable Errol Barrow
That can’t happen here, not in this country, tell big-up Byron Bajans say: Barbados belong to we! – with apologies to the Mighty Gabby
We don’t want no Bajan Prime Minister – Jamaica’s reason for leaving the Federation (Sparrow)
We who are born Buhbajans, we don’t like to fight, but when it come to the occasion, man, we die for we rights. They trick us in a bogus CARICOM, put our tail in a vice, now is time for Froonie to tell them, “take yuh meat out me rice!”
No true Barbadian enjoyed last weekend. Some couldn’t eat. Others cursed. I felt myself turning beast like in those movies. Wanted to blow up something. What was that common fertiliser Tim McVeigh had used? Googled “explosives”. Out of luck, it wasn’t goat poop.
This wasn’t happening. The man who declared we would be “satellites of none” obviously didn’t read any 240 Chaguaramas articles which would put us in a position where a CARICOM court would believe a Jamaican woman who gave false information; where any law could trump sovereign Barbados law; where foreigners could wash in here . . . .
Were it so, and our country to be ruled by new colonial masters, a Bussa would have to arise to lead the battle for independence all over again. These fields and hills beyond recall must remain our very own.
Owen Arthur once insisted I read two books – Born Fi’ Dead and another – the story of Jamaican gangs, violence and drugs, a country rotten from political top to bottom. Jamaican gangs have taken hold in the United States and elsewhere, giving West Indians a bad name.
Jamaicans living here have seen the signs of Jamaican ghetto culture taking root in our country, spread by catchy music. They have warned. The needless death of Fatman is typical.
Are these the people our Immigration can’t keep out?
“Much of the social history of the world over the past three decades”, writes Thomas Sowell, “has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.” That is CARICOM in a nutshell. We had the West Indies cricket team before CARICOM, the University of the West Indies. Vibrant trade with schooners and two Federal ships plying between the islands. Guyanese, Vincentians and St Lucians worked here in numbers.
However, as soon as you get “mandatory” and remove a people’s right to control their destiny, you are looking for trouble.
Most Bajans felt that if it came down to believing evidence, we would be the losers. Judges are experts in the law; they are not lie detectors. And the general impression is that other West Indians don’t like us or our culture. That is a fact of life.
The weekend over, however, the Myrie nine-day wonder gave way to more important issues. Like, who was Norman Niles after whom a major roundabout is named?
Ex-teacher Mr Green didn’t know. Editor Sanka Price didn’t have a clue nor could THE NATION library come up with anything. Efforts to reach Henry Fraser, Pat Symmonds, Maurice Greenidge, Adonijah, Roy Byer and other notables failed. Finally Glyne Bryan and Carl Moore revealed that he was a lawyer who had helped many in the Howells Cross Road area, hence the roundabout thing. I didn’t have the heart to tell them it was part of the homework for a little girl at Eden Lodge Primary.
But a few parting shots for Judge Byron. First, re: Miss Myrie’s monetary awards, we operate on the GILBAB system (get in line behind Al Barrack). Go figure.
Secondly, we saw hell to find some African overstayers and get them out of Barbados. Can we fit dicey CARICOM visitors with microchips? We have lots at the Animal Control Unit.
Thirdly, we have our children to protect. If tipped off by her host country that a female visitor most likely has illegal drugs concealed in her gazebo, what option do we have other than to search said gazebo?
Finally, our country is shutting down. We are being run by Froon and the Eager 11. Trinidad already blocks our products. As a matter of interest, what more could CARICOM do to us if we tell them to go fly a kite?
• Richard Hoad is a farmer and social commentator.
