With expected tougher times ahead, Prime Minister Mia Mottley believes that the resilience of Barbadians will get this country through.
Addressing a service to commemorate the 84th anniversary of the founding of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) at the St George Parish Church this morning, Mottley highlighted global inflation rates, the war in Ukraine, increases in cost-of living, rising oil prices, the COVID pandemic, among other challenges, presently facing the world. And she maintained that as the impacts from these continue, Barbadians cannot afford to “sit down and play dead”.
Instead, she encouraged people to develop the resilience that guided generations of Barbadians that came before us. This she suggested may be demonstrated through seeking alternatives to help reduce the amount of money required to cover necessary expenses in each household. For example, carpooling, utilizing the public transport system, planting their own produce, bartering, etc.
“This government has invested in the most advanced fleet of public transportation that [has] been bought in the Caribbean per capita and with the electric buses, with WiFi, with air condition. And as far as I continue to see and ride in them, they are being maintained in a way that I must commend the Transport Board two years after the purchase of these buses. But I don’t only commend the Transport Board, I commend the travelling public of Barbados because you have treated them with a care and attention that I ask you now to treat to all other public assets and pubic vehicles,” she said.
“Secondly, all us of don’t have a green thumb but we still at least know how to plant something basic. And once we do that in our community and start to barter, you will never be able to provide yourself and your family with everything that you need but … to be able to provide and offset that 10 per cent or that 20 per cent extra that you are being asked to spend when the month come, then it is through the planting and the rearing of livestock, and by the way, the raring of livestock is the best gift we can give our children because it teaches them responsibility from a young age.”
Acknowledging that her government has faced several obstacles since assuming office in 2018 and again in this year’s General Election, Prime Minister Mottley gave thanks to the forefathers of the BLP and recommitted to the principles that guided her party. This is why she believed it was important to resume the Rubbing Shoulders programme that she started almost a decade ago.
“We have a responsibility above all else to have a commitment to bolster our faith; a commitment to act not out of a spirit of fear but a spirit of courage and we must in this world today, develop the resilience that was akin to those who went before and who faced far greater struggles and tribulations than we shall ever know because they faced the first tribulation of not having control over what they said, what they did and where they went.
“We are entering a period of time in the world again where discernment is going to also be required of us. Simply to accept that everything is as it is seen cannot be the way and simply to do things because we feel like or because it is easy cannot be the way. Leadership demands of us sacrifice. Leadership demands of us resilience. Leadership demands of us empathy. Leadership demands of us seeing hearing and feeling others. And today, this party, as we recommit on the 84th anniversary, is conscious that we do so not only as you do so to the patron saint George but we will celebrate our founding father the Right Excellent Sir Grantley Herbert Adams as his birthday is celebrated on Thursday along with the other National Heroes of this land,” she added.
Delivering the sermon, Reverend Suzette Archer commended Mottley and the BLP for their work but urged them not to lose focus of their responsibility.
“You were placed in these public positions by the Almighty God and you must never forget that you, like us in the church, are accountable to Him and will eventually be judged by Him. So, I encourage you to discharge your duties as if unto God and for His glory,” Reverend Archer said. (KC)
