When talking about cool, there are very few people in Barbados cooler than the Prime Minister. He cooler than the now legendary Easy Boy.
This time last Sunday, the whole of Barbados at home and abroad was exploding with talk about the Front Page reported plans by a group of 11 to make a move on their leader and possibly have him agree to remove himself and have himself replaced in the lead role by a more attractive star boy with greater audience appeal.
This newspaper had the scoop and other media houses carried “not me” denials for a day or two. But despite threats of legal action and accusations of attempting to destabilize by making a massive aircraft carrier out of a simple one-oar moses, THE NATION stuck to its guns and kept up the bombardment every day of the week.
With this round-the-clock Bataan-like assault, speculation of every kind rushed from the lips of Barbadians of ever colour, creed and class as everybody openly wondered “wha’ Freundel goin do”.
And with every passing minute, passing hour, and passing day, the island’s ears were shelled with rumours on top of rumours and supposedly inside information about who were about to lose their ministries and end up on the back bench; who would be kicked out of the party altogether and have to sit as independents or consider being included on the other side; who were back-peddling and waiting to be consoled with the biblical command, “Your sins are forgiven thee”, or “Go your way and sin no more”; and so on and so on.
But the most awesome feature of this entire skit was and still is the fact that the man at the centre of all the alleged confusion within his camp, has maintained his characteristic cool-as-a-cucumber stance with barely visible shoulder-shrug reaction to the media frenzy and an impenetrable silence, as the public waits to exhale, over what action, if any, he may be contemplating.
For me, it brought back poetic school days memories of Casabianca, the 13-year-old son of the admiral of the Orient, who remained at his post in the Battle of the Nile after the ship had taken fire and all the guns had been abandoned:
The boy stood on the burning deck
Whence all but he had fled;
The flame that lit the battle’s wreck
Shone round him o’er the dead.
Yet beautiful and bright he stood,
As born to rule the storm;
A creature of heroic blood,
A proud, though child-like form.
What is now left to be seen is if he, like Casabianca, will still remain at his post and perish with all around him in the explosion, should the flames reach the gunpowder stores:
With mast, and helm, and pennon fair,
That well had borne their part –
But the noblest thing which perished there
Was that young faithful heart.
I believe he will remain cool and unmoved, convinced that he will survive.
Al Gilkes heads a public relations firm. Email [email protected]
