MANY PEOPLE SEEM to think that the hard, morally wayward and violent times in which we now live will end with an improvement in the country’s finances, and we shall return to the Barbadian paradise for which we long.
This is an entirely false hope; the model of development which we have embraced in recent times will not allow this. It never will.
In a very revealing study on Uganda, the author Jorge Wiegratz, of the University of Sheffield, states: “Notably, (the new economic model with its) reforms have targeted the reshaping not only of the economy but also of the society and culture. These neoliberal reforms aim at the emergence and consolidation of the ‘market economy’ . . . which includes a corresponding set of moral norms of behaving and relating to each other – self-interest, individualism, utility maximising behaviour, instrumental rationality, low other-regard, transaction-based relations, money – and seeing the human person as ‘homo economicus’.” (The Cultural, Political Economy Of Embedded Neoliberalism In Uganda.)
Wiegratz continues, and this should be of special interest to Christian pastors: “(These) reforms, therefore, have to undermine, overwrite and displace pre-existing norms, values, orientations, valuations and practices among the population. Particularly noteworthy is the attempt to change, directly or indirectly, moral norms. This means changing what is regarded as acceptable or unacceptable, proper and improper, legitimate and illegitimate behaviour in the light of the moral principles in the country. Re-engineering morals therefore also entails changing the criteria by which people evaluate each other’s (and their own) actions . . . . Other undesirable consequences include injustices, inequality, corruption, crime . . . .”
The author could well be writing about Barbados. Clearly, the churches must not allow themselves to become religious policemen in defence of a corrupting economic model, one that promotes moral relativism and an extreme secularism. The churches should not be about providing “religious opium” to frustrated youth and an agitated, divided population; but about changing the economic model.
Our situation could well be described as “the wilderness” (David Tracy), in which the role of the churches should be one of “resistance and hope” – that is, not being afraid of being counter-cultural in proclaiming in families and in communities across the island, the prophetic message of genuine hope.
This is the foundational role of the ‘traditional’ family, the demand for social justice, the common good properly understood, the empowering of the marginalised to participate fully in society, and that the key to a sustainable society is the rejection of extravagant lifestyles in favour of simple lifestyles.
Wiegratz’s study also shows that “modernisation in accord with neoliberal prescriptions has wrought devastation in Uganda’s education, health and public administration sectors”. It’s doing the same thing here in Barbados.
He draws the conclusion that: “In sum then, notwithstanding the official rhetoric and statistics of reform success, people actually experience the day-to-day (negative) manifestations of neoliberal pseudo-development in several realms of their lives”.
It is no different in Barbados. We are deep in “the wilderness”, in serious need of the gospel of “resistance and hope” – and this is the greatest gift we could give Barbados on its 50th anniversary of Independence.
– FR LESLIE LETT
