#BTColumn – An issue of credibility

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.

by Marsha Hinds

I think it is our habit of being a very hypocritical society coming back to nip us, but I accept willingly that I could be wrong.

Perhaps I am basic and these two things are connected in no way, but I am personally not surprised at the European Union (EU) stance on blacklisting Barbados.

This is because of our treatment of the Donville Innis affair specifically, but also corruption and misdeed in public office more generally.

At the height of the Donville Inniss affair, the question of whether charges would be laid against him came up.

The contention at the time was that nothing wrong had happened in the Barbadian jurisdiction, and so there was nothing for our law enforcement to trouble themselves with.

The items that we have been blacklisted for relate to taxation and the willingness of Barbados to share information with other jurisdictions.

Having said that, we know how reputations are built and destroyed.

Perhaps if our financial system was seen as fully transparent and backed by robust political will on the issues of corruption and misdeed in public office, the three areas that were concerning to the EU would have been managed in alternative ways.

However, something tells me that the three areas of concern will be handled differently in Mexico, than say, in Canada.

That is because we know that in addition to the three unaddressed areas in Mexico, there are additional perceptions of high involvement in narco-trade and other nefarious activities which are not present in the same way in Canada.

We understand that for a tourist to have a good time in Barbados there is a wraparound hospitality that has to be all of our business.

I think for our financial sector to be viewed as fully transparent, it is the same kind of concept at some level.

Apart from the high profile Donville Inniss case, there have been other cases involving unsavoury activity related to financial transactions in Barbados – lawyers being brought up on theft of client funds, fraud being reported by the person in the street to be ignored by financial institutions, whole boards of credit unions being summoned before regulators.

It all paints a picture of decadence, and whether we want it to or not, it says something about the ways in which we are comfortable to transact business.

I agree that all of these concerns are not new.

The issues in the financial sector are deep seated and pervasive. Having conceded that, I think the international world is sending a signal to us that we cannot maintain business as usual and expect its blind eye – put simply, the world will not be hypocritical with us.

On the point of hypocrites, it has always fascinated me from a child how much it seemed that the most hypocritical people of all were usually also rank Christians.

That consternation returned this week when I saw advertised that the church was going to be hosting a series of marches across Barbados on the matter of same-sex unions.

Where is the church on the issue of domestic violence? Where is the church on the matter of incest, which remains a tremendous challenge to the safety of family units
in Barbados?

Where is the church on the matter of absentee fathers in society?

All three of these issues have been pervasive and perennial challenges to a secure and healthy family unit in Barbados, but the church has not been compelled to mobilize nationwide resources on any of them.

I do not understand how then, the church thinks it has a place in dictating to the state in a country where the church and state have been separated for eons on what is an acceptable versus an unacceptable union.

To my mind, if the church wants to be taken seriously, it has the same issue the Barbados financial services sector has – a credibility issue.

The church seems to want to overlook what it wants to overlook and pontificate on what it wishes to. Credibility does not work like that. On both these issues, I am willing to be wrong, but am I?

Marsha Hinds is the president of the National Organisation of Women.