Headmaster J.C. Hammond often stressed the importance of an enquiring mind, of questioning every idea that came our way, of rejecting whatever could not stand up to scrutiny. This is even more important nowadays as the colonial masters seek to control our minds.
Why, for instance, in this country do we still stand uncomfortably at cocktail parties, getting fed in frustrating driblets, rather than enjoy a proper Bajan rice and stew get-together?
Why is a man “better” dressed in a suit and tie?
Why indeed do our men, who have expandable encumbrances between the legs, wear pants while unencumbered females wear skirts?
Simply because that’s how the Europeans do it.
It goes further. Why have global “free” trade where we must compete like crabs in a barrel with countries that use underpaid and child labour?
Similarly, what gives our former masters the right to say we must no longer use capital punishment as a deterrent to, and penalty for, vicious murders?
Lennie St Hill puts it nicely: “It is an unfortunate tendency residual in the colonial mentality to assume, even after achieving national sovereignty, that every international convention is an invention that supercedes established local custom as inferior.”
Ironically, in the past eight months David Cameron has been responsible for way more executions than our Government carried out in 45 years of Independence.
And while those executed here had fair trials, numerous appeals and recourse to mercy, those terminated by Cameron’s minions were innocent civilians who happened to be in the wrong part of Libya at the wrong time. “Collateral damage,” he would call them.
“Democracy” is the latest buzzword. Democracy good, dictatorship bad. But is it necessarily so?
J.C. Hammond taught us the best form of government is a benevolent dictatorship.
Compare Gaddafi’s Libya where all citizens enjoyed free electricity, interest-free bank loans, free education and health care, free land, housing, equipment and livestock for would-be farmers, no major taxes, US$50 000 towards a home for newlyweds, 50 per cent off car prices, highly subsidized food, very cheap gas, with Nigeria where there is nothing so, but elections every four years.
The problem is that democracy is like a football match. Right now the Dems want to score, the Bees are blocking. Result: nothing much is happening.
Just think if Froon could be a dictator, take this country by the scruff of the neck and do what needs to be done! His first speech might be:
“Listen up, Bajans, hear my tune! It is I your leader, Dicta-tator Froon! Vendors, the children dem too fat; from tomorrow self we done wid dat. No more corn curls, sweeties and junk; look for mango, guava, and dunk. Fast-food places, time for a halt, cut the (bad word) grease and salt.
“Public workers, no more army of occupation; for too long wunna fleece this nation. ZR drivers, recklessness done! Landowners: plant up or you won’t have none . . . .”
And so on.
But he can’t in a democracy. He wants votes.
No Bajan leader will ever again have the courage of a Sandi to cut wages and save this country.
Now Cameron wants to demolish the very core values of our culture. He will cut off British aid to any countries with laws against men doing each other. How dirty can one get, telling poor people they must adopt his perverted beliefs or suffer!
By the way, we have no laws against homosexuality. Our prominent homos openly attend beach house parties, and pictures of them smooching circulate freely in emails with apt comments.
We have a law against uggery. To call buggery a basic human right and base British foreign policy on it is a lot of bull!
Nor can public attitudes to perceived perversions be changed by legislation.
And where will it end? Judging from the lively interest on some sites, copulating with farm animals (“sheep-shagging”) is rife in Britain. Must we legalize that? Former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey says Christianity is “under attack” in Britain. And from the government itself.
Must we follow suit? No, Cameron, take your homo-tied aid and stuff it.
