Easter Message from the Leader of the Opposition

Fellow Barbadians, I am happy to have the privilege of these brief words with you at this Easter season. The season of Easter is a time of both sober reflection and jubilant celebration. Individually we reflect on those aspects of our personal life which serve to make us less the person than we ought to be, potentially can become, and which render us in need of help to be found outside of ourselves and yes, above ourselves. We also with much delight celebrate the fact that rebirth of hope, the renewal of faith and the realization of promise all signal that my today’s reality though unfulfilling, unpleasant and undesirable will inevitably give way to a tomorrow of greater blessedness and beauty.

As  a people,  Barbadians have been experiencing a prolonged period of stress and pain. This has been so with reference both to our economic misfortunes and with respect to the degree of deterioration in  our societal fabric.

Multiple years of fall off in investment, decline in earnings, business contraction, growth in unemployment, and ultimately the strictures of an IMF programme; evident increasing levels of cynicism about the functioning of the systems intended to serve our interests, the challenges to law and order and the ugly spectre of criminal violence, the spread of poverty and the ambivalence around our sense of morality had all served to bring us as a nation to a low with which we had not previously been familiar. Then on top of all of came COVID 19. Our bad dream became a potential nightmare.

Easter season is about extremes. It’s a story of darkness and light; of violence and forgiveness: of justice and mercy; of deep anguish and high anticipation; of despair and hope; of life succumbing to the  pangs of death and death being vanquished by the power of life.

May I suggest humbly to us today that we would do well to reflect on a few of the lessons learned from the Easter happenings :

1. Accept that hurt will be a part of our reality. It will come at the hands of foes, friends and even family. The two things we will need to do are : not to return that hurt and the more difficult, learn the art of forgiveness. Easier said than done; but it s a necessary response if we are to see reduced levels of violence. Law and order responses alone, nor together with social interventions will get us there.

2. Our seeming lot at the present time does not have to constitute our permanent reality. We must not let circumstances define us negatively as a people. In fact they should sharpen our resolve and positively shape our mettle for the next inevitable challenge.

3. May I urge us to compassion for and consideration towards each other. There is much of each of us to be found in the other person. It is therefore in the interests of each of us to seek for and contribute to the well- being of each other. As we build up each other we build Barbados. Nation building is not only economic:; it is not only about the engineering of systems; it is not only infrastructural; it is not only about per capita indicators or social indices. It is also about man to man relations, family preservation and community cohesion.
4. Those of us who have progressed to the realization of the higher level needs of human satisfaction and are finding fulfillment and self-actualisation must avoid “ the kick-down-the ladder “ syndrome and in fact lend a helping hand up the ladder to those whose pursuits are necessarily engaged around the basics of shelter, nourishment and other survivalist concerns.

5. Each of us, by becoming what he or she can be, contributes to making our country become what it can be. Mutually it is the country which we are building that in very significant ways makes it possible for each of us to realise his or her potential.

6. There is existent among many of us feelings of aloneness, a sense of exclusion and marginalisation. There is the sense of “ us and them “. There is a view that too frequently our systems perform in a discriminatory fashion. That justice for one is not justice for all. That privilege for one is exemption for the other. That social acceptance for one is exclusion of the other. There is need for a greater commitment to the breaking down of these walls: the erasing of both the perception and the reality, such that none is left behind.

7. COVID 19 has brought to our land a cloud of grey. We face an uncertainty and unfamiliarity we had not anticipated at the start of this year. For some the cloud is dark beyond grey as they deal with loss of job, business failure, sickness and death. I urge you to remember that Easter’s dawn was preceded immediately by the dusky and dark reality of “ of Calvary’s Friday “ and “ Sabbath’s silent tomb “. Inevitably though the sun rose over the land. As it will over our country again.

So have hope my friends. The bitterness of today will yield to the betterment of tomorrow. Place your confidence in the professionals that lead us in this current fight. Put your trust in the institution of government which has served our country well over the years. Above all put your confidence, trust and faith in God. Please obey the advised protocols, pray for care givers and security personnel on the front line, for those who are isolated, the sick and the bereaved as a result of COVID.

Do find the grace to celebrate fully this Easter season despite the immediacy of this threat, the circumscription and constraints obtaining around our lives these days, the closure of church buildings, and the awkward and inconvenient adjustments which life has thrown our way.

On behalf of the People’s Party for Democracy and Development, my family and myself I wish all Barbadians a very blessed Easter.

Bishop Joseph Atherley J.P., M.P

Leader of the Opposition