Message by the Right Honourable Owen S. Arthur, Leader of the Opposition on the occasion of the 44th year of Barbados’ Independence.
This has been a year that has tested the character of our nation as never before.
We have been tested by the most severe economic crisis our country has had to endure in living memory. That crisis continues to deepen, with only faint glimmers of hope for recovery on the horizon.
The country has also had to deal with the trauma of the death of a leader in his prime.
Our national spirit would have been bolstered by the favourable opinion of Barbados, in the United Nations Human Development Report, as having joined the ranks of developed countries on the merit of the quality of life that our people enjoy.
But that spirit would have been dampened by the negative judgments of Rating Agencies on the management of the country’s economic affairs, and the dim prospects that await us.
Stresses and turmoil within some of our prominent national institutions have also added to the image of testing times.
In many respects, therefore, it has been a difficult year for Barbados and many of our citizens.
But in a sense, this is precisely what our Independence is all about.
For, our national anthem captures the essence of the matter when it envisions that we will have to cope in plenty and in time of need.
We have known times of plenty.
We are now in a time of need.
And it is at a time such as this that all of the attributes, values and the institutional strengths, which have brought us safe thus far, must be deeply drawn upon to help us to make the difficult journey ahead.
I am convinced, deeply convinced, that once we continue to call upon that special Barbadian spirit, there will be no task before us too difficult to accomplish, no mountain before us too high to climb.
For, it was once observed that you do not become the finest steel unless you have gone through the hottest fires.
I therefore have no doubt that we will come out of our national crisis stronger for the adjustments we would have had to make to convert our difficulties into opportunities.
I am also convinced that once we remain faithful to the pursuit of the best Barbadian way of doing things, our best days are still ahead of us.
It is in this spirit, and with this confident conviction, that I bid you a Happy Independence, and trust that God will continue to bless our fair land, now and forever.