I write with a heavy heart regarding the inaccurate and misleading report of a speech that I made last Sunday, 27th August, 2017. On Monday, August 28, your publication carried a front page headline A Shame! and in your first paragraph indicated that I said I was “ashamed to be a Barbadian”.
On the following day under the headline ‘Shame’ On Mia, with a first paragraph of A National Disgrace, you repeated the reference, with Minister Stephen Lashley saying “that unlike Mottley, he would never feel ‘ashamed’ about being a Barbadian”.
Then on August 31, you carried an Editorial headlined Mia’s Ill-timed Carifesta Dig and with the very strong and definitive opening line in capital letters Shame On You, Mia!
Here are the three times I used the word “shame” in the speech:
1. “It is not anger I feel here this evening – I am shame. I am shame for my country, I am shame for my people, I am shame for the message that we have sent.”
2. I was sleepy but I stood up. I could not leave the 40 people there. I too shame, I ain’t fooling you – I was too shame. When all said and done, who am I? I am a Bajan!
3. So when I tell you that I was shame – and I am shame – it is because I know things could have been so different and that this could have been a country soaring tonight and all of us could have been leaving here to go down to Kensington.
How do any of these statements equate to or justify a description of “being ashamed to be a Barbadian”? I was clearly articulating disappointment and sadness and was ashamed of the depths to which Barbados had been reduced. I did this while trying to inspire others to appreciate how different it could have been.
What ought to have been a cultural Olympiad became an “outing” for only a few who had the good fortune of knowing what was being staged. I said it was a squandered opportunity and a logistical nightmare but that even this did not take away from the excellent expressions of creativity.
Your misrepresentation is an unfortunate slur on my character and conveyed the impression that I am unpatriotic. What a difference a preposition and a verb make! “Shame for” can never be “ashamed to be”! A newspaper of your experience must understand the English language and must be committed to fair and accurate reporting.
I regret that this misrepresentation was compounded as the week went on. This is the link to the entire speech so that persons may judge for themselves. They will also see the comments I made with respect to the need for addressing the vexing issue of increased numbers of unattached youth in Barbados if we are going to combat the growing and unwanted development of gun violence.
Finally, in the same Editorial, I was castigated for not attending the closing ceremony. I was not there because I had to speak at the very meeting which you reported. However, I was at the Grand Market and Village every single day and at other events and, may I say, not out of duty.
If I may express a similar expectation of your editors, “we must expect better and more” from our newspapers. I look forward to your retraction of this scurrilous allegation with equal prominence in the publications which misrepresented my remarks.
– MIA MOTTLEY