IT HAS BECOME what he calls a “ritual”.
In the dead of winter when Bajans and other New Yorkers bundle up to brave the cold temperatures, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart heads to Brooklyn to join Democratic Labour Party faithful and their friends at a Sunday evening “cocktail sip”.
It is an annual event of dancing, food, speeches, award presentations and entertainment, all sponsored by the Friends of Barbados DLP Association to raise money that funds scholarships, charity and party coffers.
“(It’s a) kind of ritual in which I have been involved ever since I became Prime Minister of Barbados,” Stuart told the 200-plus crowd at the St Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn where a Bajan, Reverend Eddie Alleyne, serves as rector and a rural dean.
Stuart hailed the 50th independence anniversary celebrations as a resounding success that cost the taxpayers $7 million and not $36 million an Anglican priest back home contended. He spoke about the importance of excellent US and Barbados relations during the new Donald Trump Administration which faces rising public opposition.
In addition, he said Barbadians in the US, Canada, Britain and elsewhere were continuing to provide significant contributions to their birthplace’s economic and social development.
“Barbados now has to box in the same ring as countries that are much larger and much more powerful than itself,” he said. “We don’t get any concessional loans from international financial institutions anymore because they say we are
too well off. The World Bank has graduated Barbados, for instance.”
That was why during the second 50 years of its independence, he argued, Barbados must decide about the range of social and other services, including education and health, which it provides to people, usually free at the point of delivery.
“Errol Barrow, the late National Hero and first Prime Minister of Barbados used to warn Barbadians about having champagne tastes with mauby pockets and over the next 50 years we are going to have to determine whether as a country that can only afford mauby we are still going to continue to aspire to buy and drink champagne,” he said.
“We are not going to lower the standard of living or the quality of life but these are decisions any government, not only the DLP Government but any government at all will have to make because the game has changed.”
Hence the bottom line: in an era when the average Barbadian no longer occupies a chattel house but a wall structure with running water and electricity and Bajans collectively own 117 000 cars. A challenge, he said, was the island wasn’t producing “the things we consume” and “wasn’t consuming” the items we do produce” The upshot: Bajans find themselves facing “the dilemma of having to find foreign currency” to support their standard of living and quality of life.
“In order to buy what is produced in the United States, we can’t use Barbados dollars, we have to find US currency to do it and that’s why it is important to have so many of you living abroad because the country has had to rely on money you (diaspora) send back home.”
He added, “You have played a significant role in the development of Barbados.”
During the six-hour event, Consul General in New York, Dr Donna Hunte-Cox spoke about the need of Bajans to become naturalised American citizens at a time of rising anxiety among immigrants that can be traced to the policies of
the Trump Administration. Trevor Massiah, president of the DLP branch, explained that the organisation was aiding Barbadians in need by sending barrels and other gifts to institutions and families at home.
The association presented a community service award to Frank Blades and two US $ 1 000 scholarships to Carol Ann Lowe and Dion Howell, college students.
Among those present were New York State Appeals court judge, Sylvia Hinds Radix and her husband Dr Joseph Radix; Derek Alleyne, chairman of the Urban Development Commission, and Tony Marshall, Barbados’ UN Ambassador.
Tony Best is the NATION’s North American Correspondent.
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