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Use of language is the greatest gift of both politicians and movie actors. Writing in the New Yorker back in 1968 American poet Allen Ginsberg said whoever controls the language, the images, controls the race. And perhaps more to my point, writer George Orwell is quoted as saying about political language that it is designed “to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
We always remember Clint Eastwood’s “Make my day” and that added so much oomph to his tough guy Dirty Harry persona. And who would forget Val Kilmer’s Doc Holiday character in Tombstone with his swag given more appeal with quips such as “I’ll be your Huckleberry”.
If we remember nothing else from Hawaii Five-O, we always recall Jack Lord’s Steve McGarrett character telling his sidekick James MacArthur’s character, “Book him, Danno”. We enjoy those moments and remember them because they were movies made for entertainment.
But there is a problem when our political leaders believe their one-liners and catch phrases actually do anything to satisfy, placate or ease the concerns and hardships of Barbadians who are under immense strain.
Indeed, after a while they might even stop entertaining the die-hard followers. Listening to banal refrains over and over and over again could drive a teetotaler to drink.
Telling Barbadians “stay the course” while the majority remain unemployed and faced with an astronomical cost of living spanning from food to fuel, while a select few have multiple government consultancies and sit on multiple boards, is nothing to be digested on an already empty stomach.
And while Bajans are being told that “We is we”, the reality is that social conditions are making many citizens actually “weewee” from their suffering.
And how many “we is we” can we be, when on one hand, as pointed out by Senator Caswell Franklyn, a Government senator can be away from the Upper Chamber for eight months and still collect a ‘little berry’ from taxpayers, but the average “we” are subject to losing employment if they stay away from work more than two days without a doctor’s written excuse. Perhaps, we might soon hear
Senator Moe mimic Family Matters’ Urkel: “Did I do that”.
“Gimme de vote and watch muh” and we did, because “this is who we are”. We respond to promises and one-liners and hope for the best, which we never get. But in every country on the face of the earth, all citizens are who they are. Russians will always be Russians, Israelis will always be Israelis. Telling Barbadians that “this is who we are” is as Orwell suggested, trying to solidify wind.
The words mean absolutely nothing. But it will still tug at the nationalistic emotions of simplistic thinkers. And politicians know this and depend on it.
But of course, “we in this together”. Really! This can only be a statement of geography. Is the consultant economist who parliament voted to give more than $80 000 for three months of so-called economic advice, in anything together with any worker across the island who is still waiting to get his or her severance after more than two y ears at home? Is the shopper who has to leave the cornflakes on the counter because the money run out, in anything together with the backbencher collecting a salary, travel allowance, entertainment allowance, constituency branch office allowance, and whatever other allowances that might be attached to sitting on particular committees?
If they really in something together, then “yabba, dabba, doo!” But perhaps the clincher is that “many hands make for light work”. Surely, Barbadians see the irony of this in a climate of unprecedented unemployment where figures are so high, authorities are reluctant or afraid to give the specifics.
That one-liner reminds me, in terms of credulity, of the expensive, borrowed slogan that our tourism officials originated. The reality in Barbados at this stage is that “many hands make for high unemployment.” Madam editor, thanks for indulging me, and in the immortal words of Arnold, and with your permission, hopefully, “I’ll be back”.
Patrick Gittens
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