A GUY'S VIEW: This is who we are. Really?

AS part of the year-round campaign of the current ruling party, we are bombarded with the constant repetition of the slogan, “This is who we are.” But who or what are we?

The slogan hides an ugly underbelly by simply not telling us who the shapers of that line think we are. What is “this” that we are? Who decided what we are for us? No one asked me who or what I am. Who are the “we” mentioned in this dangerous attempt at altering the minds of Barbadians?

The slogan does not explain what is “this” or “we”. So are we hewers of wood and drawers of water? Is this our perpetual status? Is this who we are?

Given the pauperisation of the black population, it could well be that Barbadians of that group are being brainwashed into accepting that God ordered the arrangement of the rich man in his castle and the poor man begging at his gate, as the church so well socialised us to believe through song.

Are we a nation of beggars, so deeply in debt that our children will never be able to repay the billions that we continue to borrow to give to the rich while we rob the poor? Is this who we are?

Is who we are a nation of gullible people who are so easily fooled that in the face of the obvious tanking of our economy, we continue to look away from the fact that the country is going nowhere and instead, pay attention to red herrings like republicanism and drugs?

When this empty slogan was launched, Barbados was a constitutional monarchy. Now we are told that in a few months, this status will have changed. So when we are a republic, will we still be who we were under the Queen of England?

Public servants know well the process of the abolishing of posts in order to move people out of the way, so that others may be appointed. That tried and tested method of political cleansing is now being applied to the Head of State. Who are we?

Barbadians have had to hear from Australian television that we will not have an Executive President and that the Prime Minister does not want to be the first President. All we were told is that the existing arrangement will be changed, but without any details. Where have we witnessed this declaration of ideas without clothes before?

Who are we? Are we a bunch of bungling idiots who do nothing with our school plant for months and wait until the week before school is about to reopen and remove the roof of a needed school? Less than a week before schools are to be reopened, principals are transferred; there is no uniformed plan for the return to school of students; and some cannot see that these people have not a clue about what they are doing. Are we a dumb and blind people? Is this who the crafters of this slogan believe we are?

Are we a Christian people or are we the subject of mass control by religious dogma that means nothing to those who spout it? In a “Christian” country, we give a microphone to the most irreligious people we can find, so they can spew their godlessness to the innocent and unsuspecting. Who are we? One cannot blame the persons who take advantage of the opportunity to undermine what they do not believe. What would be strange is if the persons who give them the microphone profess to believe in what they facilitate the destruction of. Barbados is truly an interesting place.

When did we turn our backs on our heritage and allow ourselves to be hoodwinked, bullied and corralled into a pen of helplessness? What is the Barbadian identity now? What are we proud of? Where is our industry? Who are we?

We are a people that boasts of foreign reserves, but we do not earn anything. We live on borrowed money and on borrowed time and nobody has pointed out to our geniuses that what you borrow is not yours until you pay it back. If you doubt me, stop paying your mortgage and see if you own a house. But we are among the most highly educated people in the world. Really?

Is regurgitation education? Our people can certainly read and reproduce on paper what they read, but if it were not clear before, certainly now we should see that there is a wide gap between one’s ability to recall and education. Well educated people are not so easily fooled by smoke and mirrors. Is this who we are?

Barbados is like Gypsy’s sinking ship. Lost at sea and rudderless. We have neither economic nor moral compass. No one knows where we are going or how we will get there. But we pretend to be sailing. If this is who we are, Lord help us.

The Day of Atonement starts this evening. Let us pray for our country.