Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados Today.
by Grenville Phillips II
When negotiating for our independence, we did not request or demand reparations for slavery. Why? Because we were being given an entire island, which our enslaved fore-parents purchased for us with their lives work – it was considered a sufficient exchange.
At that time, Barbados had working infrastructure, which was well-designed and managed by a professional public service.
Our politicians cautiously managed this island for the first decade after our independence. We did not think that we needed reparations – until we got greedy.
Forced-ripe nation
We became dissatisfied with the slow pace of economic growth with careful management. We wanted to be a ‘forced-ripe’ developed nation. So, we politicised and mismanaged our public services.
This made it easy to plunge Barbados into unsustainable debts, with unnecessarily expensive and high-maintenance infrastructure. We celebrated our politicians, who spent borrowed money to make us a developed country. Then we castigated those who struggled to pay it back. Anyone explaining that it takes no special competence to spend borrowed money, was targeted for punishment
by political operatives.
Blame harding
We were directed to blame anyone but those directly responsible for mismanaging our economy and public services. Scapegoats included: the white man, white shadows, Uncle Toms, the Queen, colonialism, Nelson, Mr Harding, and now the descendants of Drax. Combermere School being a Drax legacy is an inconvenient truth.
The obvious solutions to our problems are to grow the national economy, and properly manage our public services. But this requires a political effort that we are unwilling to make. So, we reject the obvious and pursue the mendicant approach of begging. We beg for: debt forgiveness, climate change funds, reparations, and now vaccines.
Live free
When the Haitians fought to become independent, they expected to receive land and live free. Instead, their new political masters forced them back to work on the plantations.
At that time, our enslaved fore-parents were given: houses, land, food and clothing, but their labour was taxed at 100 per cent. So, they were forced to live a hand-to-mouth existence.
When we became independent, our political leaders implemented policies that had the same effect of taxing our incomes at 100 per cent. Haitians were forced to work with the threat of violence.
We were forced to work with the threat of losing our property, for not paying the taxes our politicians dreamed up. They also dreamed up minor offences to be punished with fwines and imprisonment.
Meanwhile, giving no-bid contracts to political supporters is accepted, and is the main reason why we pay some of the highest taxes of all nations on this planet. Any climate change or reparations funds we may receive will be wasted, if we continue to embrace this corrupting practice.
Squandered legacy
We have already squandered our enslaved fore-parents’ lives work on keeping most of us in a hand-to-mouth poverty, for the purpose of keeping us politically divided.
As long as we remain politically divided outside of an election period, we will never know the power of a
united nation.
Our ‘forced-ripe’ development has left us too politically immature to allow all Barbadians to prosper.
We can see no other option but to unfairly reward political supporters, who fund expensive election campaigns that no candidate can afford, and punish everyone else.We can see no other way of winning elections but accumulating massive debts for another administration to pay, and then blaming them for the resulting austerity measures.
We are so insecure that we can only accept ideas from members of our own party, and so politically abused that we celebrate rejecting any other advice.
Reparations will not solve any of these problems – it will only make them worse.
Grenville Phillips II is a Chartered Structural Engineer. He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com
