THINGS THAT MATTER

Things that delight and things that disturb

 

Delight = To give great pleasure, great satisfaction
 
Disturb = To worry, frustrate, agitate or cause anxiety
 
There are many things in this wonderful world that delight me, and especially in this almost perfect Paradise of Barbados (at least for those who have water in their taps), and that will make an ordinary day special, and a bad day better.
 
The first is the glorious sun in the early morning, and the sparkle on the leaves of shrubs and trees, still moist from the dew. The glorious trees in my garden celebrate Arbor Day every day with me – the majestic mahogany, the glorious lignum vitae with its powder blue flowers in February / March and now covered in orange seed pods, and palms of every kind. I love palms and I have a virtual forest of the Barbados Thatch Palm, Coccothrinax barbadensis. Some 200 of its giant fan-shaped leaves have just been used to re-thatch the slave hut at Tyrol Cot. 
 
And the palms along the ABC Highway, especially the Adams section, give me the greatest delight. Do people notice them, and enjoy their beauty as they race along the highway? I believe the idea was hatched by Rotary Barbados, but it’s taken a great deal of work and commitment by many people to produce this beautiful highway arboretum. 
 
However, I’m disturbed by the fact that Arbor Day, which has just passed, on September 22, is not better used to promote the value of trees, the planting of trees and the proper care and protection of trees. For many Barbadians trees are a nuisance, to be cut down. Houses are built, whole developments are planned, car parks are laid out, and not a tree to be seen. Arbor Day should be accompanied by a massive campaign for tree planting – fruit trees and shade trees. The concretisation of our expanding city and suburbs has had little regard for the trees which are so valuable to our country and our communities. In fact, the vast acreage of cane lands that are now in bush – chiefly the ubiquitous, invasive river tamarind and some of the much more impressive women’s tongue – could and should be planted in mahogany and breadfruit. Mahogany will mature in 30 years to provide rich economic returns, and our bountiful breadfruit matures in less than half that time, and could feed the nation – and bring great delight to visitors in the form of breadfruit chips, breadfruit soup, breadfruit cou-cou and even breadfruit ice cream!
 
Another great delight is the night-time chorus of crickets and whistling frogs that entertain me every night in my garden and at my computer, from dusk until I sleep. We hardly see the tiny members of this orchestra, but they produce a familiar, gentle, almost hypnotic background to our lives, unlike the eruption of noise that comes blasting from cars careering along with windows open, driven by testosterone driven “yutes”, and often compounded by “anti-mufflers” that will wake the dead. There is no cure for this particular disease. Nor is there any apparent cure for the deafening and disturbing noise of monstrous speakers built to bray so-called music from Bridgetown to Boscobel. If I lived close to these places of disturbance I would almost certainly organise a class action to have them banished to Outer Mongolia if not further. I’m delighted to read in Heather-Lynn’s Habitat of the magnificent efforts of the Future Centre Trust, collecting almost three tons of garbage last Saturday, with 680 volunteers giving their time and energy. However, I’m disturbed that the majority of our citizens enjoy littering so much. Is it another incurable social disease? When I was president of the National Trust 30 years ago we asked government to fund an environmental educator for us, to do the rounds of all schools and create a passion among the children for keeping the country clean. Sadly, it fell on deaf ears. 
 
I’m also delighted when local fruit are in season, but I’m disturbed by the horrendous delays caused by the ackee (guinep) sellers and dunk sellers on the highway in the evening rush hours (4 ish to 6 ish) when it takes ten minutes or more of queuing, bumper to bumper, to drive north from CBC to the Emancipation (Bussa) Roundabout. At other times this distance of a third of a kilometre takes less than a minute, at 60 km an hour (although at such times some drivers take it at 100 km an hour). Every 1 000 drivers taking an extra ten minutes because some selfish ones are lusting to suck an ackee, oblivious to the distress they and the ackee sellers are causing thousands queuing behind them, is 170 wasted hours, or more than four working weeks wasted every afternoon! Multiply this for the several thousand travelling the highway, and the many weeks of ackee and dunk season, and you’ve got a massive – perhaps 10% – loss of valuable work or leisure time. 
 
It would pay many times over to create an “ackee and dunks” layby on the left off the Emancipation roundabout, by the old Barbados Hardware complex, rather than ignore the present disturbing law-breaking and time wasting. Think of the benefits of creating an alternative to approved law-breaking! 
 
Bouquet of the Week: To the Prime Minister and members of the Social Partnership for finally meeting and talking constructively. The Prime Minister has referred to the possible embracing of others in the Social Partnership, and I continue to believe that both Church and University can make a key contribution. 
 
Professor Fraser is past Dean of Medical Sciences, UWI and Professor Emeritus of Medicine. Website: profhenryfraser.com
 
 

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