#BTSpeakingOut – Where’s our moral compass?

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

by Faye “Kehinde” Broome-Webster

So many questions and so little answers.

We pride ourselves on being educated, informed and free…. but are we really?

We have gone through an education system that has failed the majority in some way or the other, but we still tout it as one to be exalted due to the fact that some have persevered above odds and “made it”

But what of those “left behind”? The ones who are regulated to a subsect of society because their form of intelligence may not reside in academia?

The ones who seek alternative means of educating themselves and others? Are we free if we have not yet freed ourselves from the colonial mindset forced upon us of the “haves and the have-nots”?

Why is one group of society seen as beneath another simply by virtue of their economic standing?

What of our moral standing? What of our humanity? There is no need any longer for a coloniser to perpetuate the system they created…because we willingly perpetuate it for them!

We have allowed our perceived NEED to fit a standard that was not designed for us, to erode our HUMANITY.

We have allowed this need to further segregate our society into what I can only describe as tribal warfare. And the cycle continues as it was designed to do.

“Sad to see the old slave mill is grinding slow but grinding still” – Damien “Jr Gong” Marley.

What would be the outcome if the amount of energy we exude in tearing down and castigating was spent on upliftment and inclusion?

How can we be proponents of “self-love” and “self-care” without acknowledging that how we love and care for others or the lack thereof is a direct reflection on ourselves?

We expound with the narrative of one individual’s life being of lesser worth based solely on materialistic bench markers. We determine that these individuals’ lives and livelihoods are expendable because we have deemed that their overall contribution to the greater society is negligible.

I wonder if a concrete wall could be built and remain structurally sound without water, for after all, in the overall scope of materials required, the percentage of water required may also be deemed as negligible.

We continue to treat only the symptoms of a larger societal issue and expect to garner significant results.

We continue to preach to individuals about what they should and should not do, without truly seeking to understand why they do what they do.

We regard legality over morality and pretend that these terms are synonymous. We revel and uphold our own oppression and castigate others as the scourge of society.

The real scourge of society is not those who have been disenfranchised or those who have sought refuge on the outskirts of a societal framework that is flawed at its very core.

It is the ones who see fit to demonise what they do not wish to understand, the ones who allow the pretty talk and half promises to skew their moral compass, the ones who cower at the thought of upsetting their perceived comfort and social standing to allow injustices to continue because “it doesn’t affect them”. Oh…but it does.

“For it takes a village to raise a child and the child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth” (African Proverbs).

A society divided shall never prosper and flourish and shall forever be enslaved to the standards set by those who continue to see us as a line item on their balance sheet.