There are times when one gets goose pimples witnessing and reflecting on the international achievements of a citizen of our tiny “speck of dust in the ocean” taking on and conquering the world and covering themselves and Barbados with glory.
Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan captured the phenomenon memorably when he said that our island state “consistently punches above its weight”. Generations of cricketers captured world attention and wrote their names indelibly on history’s page, with the incomparable Sir Garfield Sobers immortalized by the Mighty Sparrow as “the greatest cricketer on Earth or Mars”.
Three years ago, Ryan Brathwaite took on and beat the world in a hurdle race in Germany. On Sunday night I witnessed on the American ABCTV network a rare and globally gigantic achievement when Rihanna won two major Billboard Awards, top in the music industry, in Las Vegas.
She was crowned Radio Artiste Of The Year and Top Female Artiste. Particularly heart-warming was seeing her holding the trophies high and incorporating Barbados in her winning comments, leaving the watching millions worldwide in no doubt as to her place of birth and proud nationality.
To her eternal credit she maintained her Bajan accent, shunning an assumed American accent, trademark of “saltwater Yankees” after spending two weeks in Brooklyn. Like the cricket icons, of humble birth, she grabbed opportunity optimally and shines like a beckoning beacon, confirming that the world is here to be conquered with talent, aptitude and application.
Every country needs heroes, every society and community mentors and exemplars. The need is exacerbated in the encircling gloom and doom. It was therefore most disappointing that whereas THE NATION published a Back Page picture and report, the other newspaper failed to highlight prominently the world-conquering, inspirational accolades achieved by a daughter of the soil.
Under the caption Eminem, Justin Bieber Scoop Billboard Awards, The Advocate, in an outstanding demonstration of confused priorities, gave prominence to the abovenamed, relegating Rihanna’s seismic achievements to two insignificant paragraphs, giving currency to the mantra of being without honour in one’s own country.
Prime Minister on air weekly
The call came early Wednesday morning asking somewhat hostilely if I knew Dr Denzil Douglas, prime minister of St Kitts, and my opinion of him. I had met him at Commonwealth and Caribbean meetings and he was always warm, friendly and down to earth.
Answering my query as to where her line of questioning was leading, she referred me to an article in the MIDWEEK NATION captioned: Give Stuart Time, Says St Kitts PM, in which he appealed to Barbadians to give his counterpart time to settle in.
I asked: “What has that got to do with me, lady?” She quickly responded: “You are one of the media commentators waging a campaign against Mr Stuart for what you call not sharing information with the public. Now that CARICOM’s longest-serving prime minister has said give him time to settle in, I hope you all will cease and desist.”
I assured her I was not waging any campaign against Mr Stuart or anyone, but simply sharing my humble opinion that there should be constant communication between the political class and public, especially at the level of Prime Minister, first among equals.
I pointed out that this has been the practice since 1966 and establishment of the post of Press Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office clearly recognized the importance of interaction between that office and the media. The mechanism is therefore in place, but in my view, underutilized.
“You like you want to tell the Prime Minister how to run the Government,” she countered. I told her that was an unfortunate, inaccurate understanding of my comments. As a citizen with some training and experience in communications, I was merely excising my democratic right to tell it just like it is.
In closing, I told her that since she quoted the advice of Prime Minister Douglas, I would draw her attention to another article in the same newspaper captioned: PM Blasts Call For Foreign Top Cop in which his comments came during his “weekly radio programme Ask The Prime Minister”.
She said she would read it and call back. I told her Dr Douglas clearly appreciates the need to keep regular contact with his population. I also mentioned that the United States president has weekly Saturday morning radio chats and in Jamaica and Trinidad there are weekly post-Cabinet media conferences.
She quickly called back, sounding somewhat subdued, saying she remembered a platform promise of regular post-Cabinet media briefings. Our chat ended with her agreeing that the paucity of information coming from Government should be corrected.
Her closing comment was: “Bajans today are ahead of the politicians, and it is time they wake up and smell the coffee.”
She had come full circle and told me how wonderful it was that across the political divide “two civilized people could speak frankly without rancour”.
Indeed, and long may it so remain!
