#BTColumn – Compassion will bring the horse back home

The views and opinions expressed by the author(s) do not represent the official position of Barbados TODAY.

by Walter Edey

Addressing class, economic and social division is not an event. It requires continuous effort and significant shifts in attitudes and disposition. Policy changes may appear effective, but often reinforce the present. Open-ended conversations have more lips, teeth and guts. Participants believe that their voices have value.

Leaders create space for a new vision. Leaders listen for, and seek for information. Rackets from the underbelly of the past rise. Assumptions change. The common and greater good reign – and rains. The vulnerable feel wanted and appreciated.

Unattended harmful self-perpetuating cycles and patterns of behaviour feed and breed inequality. Why. Parents, grandparents, and the generations that preceded them pass them on. Institutions and systems do the same. These are attitudes and dispositions that reinforce biases. They are filters that often frame policy.

For some of us inequality is the fear of not getting a job or bank loan because of colour or status. For others it is a real or perceived hatred arising from the domination and status. Still for others, it is a feeling of rejection. Evidence of success and achievement is not enough. There is no equal measure. Where you come from is all that matters.

The transmission of such patterns of behaviour is not inevitable. But despair, unfairness, injustice and lack, need love, tolerance and sacrifice. A sense of suffering together. Money, education and training alone, will not break the cycle.

Barbados has spent millions of dollars on education programs and plants. Secondary and tertiary education is available to all. Yet many students and parents believe and see that playing field as not level. The health care system has the same profile. The poor and vulnerable feel betrayed. Many ask the small business sector to step up. Still the large underground economy remains neglected, unidentified, unclassified and disrespected.

Politics is losing its influence. In 2016, former Prime Minister Freundel Stuart mailed a letter to the citizens of Barbadians. He invited Barbadians to reflect on the past 50 years of Independence. Looking to the next 50 years he asked: “ What do want to keep, reclaim and reject?” His words were different, but the theme and approach are ageless. Stuart’s challenge to Barbados fell on deaf ears and stony ground. His public speeches of the matter gained little media coverage. How is it possible that a majority did not respond?

How things occur to people determine their response and performance. Some American has rewritten that truth a law of performance. The response to the COVDI-19 vaccination confirms the said law. The science is at the front of the appeal. Yet the reluctance continues. And in some cases, mandating vaccination is promoting resistance. Biases lead the interpretation and acceptance of the message. Values, beliefs and experiences guide decisions. There is no shift in how things occur.

The scriptures share a story about Peter a fisherman. Peter and others had toiled all day and caught nothing. Frustrated and desperate they asked Jesus what to do. Jesus did not examine their nets or inquire about bait or type of fish they wanted; or suggest training. “

Cast your nets on the other side,” he declared. Enter a new space. Reject whatever you thought worked. The disciples followed the instructions. They worked. Their success changed the picture they had of Jesus. Their belief in Him became greater. Jesus had changed the picture the disciples had of Him, with education, not by training, or money.

Implicit trust reduces inequality and builds quality relationships. It permits the vulnerable to feel free to express their feelings; and to identify their need. Trust is the absence of bias and the presence of compassion.

In 2016 ‘Getting Through’ was the theme of a very popular song. The doorkeeper denied a favour, asked. Ingenuity found a way to get into the fete. It did more. It came back to the doorkeeper to celebrate his triumph. “I get though” it said.

Ingenuity is the size of the vulnerable pool of people that is now an ocean with no place to flow. Ingenuity (the poor) has no elbow room. It will try to get though, make lemonade from stone. Unless compassion arises, those with limes will continue to make rum punch.

All the while the people’s parliament is setting a legal framework for a Republic. Sovereignty of the people does not matter, policy does. Soon a beautiful sunset – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth will fall beyond the horizon. When the sun rises, the inequalities that divide the nation will still be there. The poor will not be able to say, “we get though”. But few seem to care or shift gear.

Walter Edey is a retired math and science educator.