Political detectives are on the case.
Today’s headline will have people checking this column to find out which political party I support. They will be weighing words, reading between the lines, perhaps smelling the newsprint . . .. I don’t know.
Whatever conclusion you come to, you will be wrong.
So, look if you like. Here goes.
We have heard it umpteen times now: “Barbados is a society and not just an economy.”
That statement or some version of it has been intoned by members of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP). During the last Budget debate, it came at us as if from drilled performers. No less than the over-the-top responses of members of the Opposition.
Be that as it may, I think it is a good thing that the need for a country to be a society has been put on the table. Why should a country be any less?
But the moves so far don’t touch the core of the idea of society. So don’ get tie up.
The idea of society carries central connotations of community, togetherness, brotherliness, cohesiveness. So things like making summer camps free, giving schoolchildren free bus transport and extending unemployment benefits – good things, no doubt – don’t further the idea of community, togetherness, especially since they are worked at solely by Government.
Shared values are the bedrock of community/society. But you know what? Having fallen in love with the word culture, we in the Caribbean tend to pursue a dangerously narrow view of culture as our expressions (artistic, entertainment and so on).
So in Barbados we see our essence as our dialect, our folk songs, spouge, calypso, wukking up, the Mother Sally, the Landship, tuk. But these things cannot be the core of who you are as a people. Your signal culture is your shared values.
That is why the Americans, for instance, don’t identify themselves principally in terms of rock and roll, jazz, rock music, square dancing, Hollywood movies or any other expression.
The distinct culture of Americans – and don’ leh we get into the imperfections; I am talking about entrenched tendencies they would describe as “The American way” (or rail against trespasses by saying, “That is un-American”) – is freedom of speech, opportunity, innovation, people power, respect for the rights of other citizens, rugged individualism within patriotism, a strong belief in higher education, charity, the rule of law.
These are things which they robustly pursue every day, with widely shared commitment, with organizations and institutions vibrantly and passionately dedicated to their pervasive survival.
What values – values, I say – that are critical to our nation enterprise can we identify as in our bloodstream, as “This is Barbadian”, or contend against infringements as un-Barbadian and show the institutions that vigorously pursue them as if they are life and death matters? One: education – and people are saying that is weakening, especially among males.
Now, work on enshrining a consequential set of shared values and we would be on our way to becoming a society and not just an economy.
We are yet young, it is true, but we have to get cracking on these fundaments of society.
But Houston – sorry, Bridgetown – we have a problem, a big problem. How do you form a society out of people who flee their country and come here with the idea of using you and not becoming like you or furthering your enterprise, except by accident? Many people come to Barbados with the thought, “I gwine ride that jackass.”
How do you form a society when there is an influx of people who are contemptuous of you and your ways, even though you have shown that yours wukking and theirs ain’t.
Lemme tell you something: if I flee Barbados and go to live in a better place, I admiring them, embracing their best values and becoming one of them.
(Not that I wouldn’t say anything negative, but not carpingly, not scoffingly – and I would have to be spending most of my time criticizing Barbados. After all, it mek me run.)
Yuh see, with this multiculturalism you got to be looking out for enemies among your own populations – parasites, haters, terrorists, criminals wid tricks you never dream ’bout, outsiders putting psychological pressure on you in your own home. Yuh even got to be watching out for prime ministers telling you that yuh xenophobic.
How do you form a society out of that?
Think about it, DLP. It is worth it.