Stay Focused!

As Barbados gears up for a General Election in 2018, politicians and Barbadians on a whole are being reminded that they should not give way to raw emotions such as anger and vexation, neither embrace what is sensational, but focus more so on the betterment of society.

Former General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU) Senator Sir Roy Trotman, who now serves as a consultant to that trade union, suggested the above recently in a brief interview with the Barbados Advocate, where he offered his suggestion on how the upcoming election period should be handled.

“General elections are always periods where people get worked up into putting emotion in front of carefully studied reflection and I would think that this season more than any other, we have to be careful about that, because the last few years have been expressive of a period where there has been far too much that has caused us to be angry, too much that has caused us to be expressive of strong emotions, in a global environment in which anger is the order of the day,” the former head of Barbados’ largest trade union commented.

“While I do not wish to direct anybody’s thoughts regarding how they should approach the new election period, I would wish for myself to recognise that times like these are too often taken to be times where people appeal to sensationalism, appeal to what are gut responses, as opposed to what are reasoned and carefully worked out positions and we have to concern ourselves with what has to do with the betterment of our society, what has to do with the betterment of our position as workers, as members of families and what has to do with how we perceive how we can have those issues better consolidated and better structured for enhancement and improvement,” Sir Roy maintained.

“Moving into 2018, I would want to suggest to anybody who would ask me, that those concerns would be the concerns that I would give to my family, to those closest to me and to anybody else who cares to ask for my guidance or my views regarding the future,” Trotman concluded. (RSM)