The independently dependent republic

I do not profess to have extended letters either behind or in front my name. I have never hidden from the safety of a hill, cave or otherwise, and given erudite theoretical solutions to real problems, while having difficulty unscrewing a light bulb or replacing pipe washer. I have never been paid six figures for consultancy fees, after which, the only thing that has benefited is my bank account but my advice has not stopped and will not stop some children from going to bed starving at least three nights a week.

What I do, though, is read and reason and ask questions.

So here goes.

I see and read arguments with respect to Barbados becoming a republic and persons like David Comissiong writing and sounding as though this ‘momentous’ occasion has tangible repercussions for persons of his island trying to make their way in the world. That somehow having an individual called President instead of Governor General will solve bread and butter issues facing Barbadians.

I listen to persons from that hill waxing lyrically about the importance of removing all the vestiges of colonialism from our reality and our psyche. I hear terms like “self-actualisation”, “national consciousness”, “self-realisation”, “Bridgetown Initiative”, “fighting above our own weight”, and cliches ad nauseam, that seem so wonderful coming for persons with six-figure monthly salaries, living in gated communities and drinking Johnny Walker Blue.

And then I see nurses running away from the new republic because they are being marginalized and ill-treated by the powers that be. I see teachers suspended on half-pay after trying to offer themselves to the service of the new republic while political wagons circle around an accused rapist who more than likely is still receiving a full salary. I see my country defaulting on debt. I see my country looking through international phonebooks seeking agencies and countries from whom they can borrow money. I see my country catching a cold if others sneeze miles away. I see my country having to beg other countries for the medicine for that cold. I see my country dependent on other people’s food, building equipment, household appliances, feed, electrical and electronic equipment and on and on and on. I question my country’s priorities!

And in my uneducated ignorance, it seems that we are more dependent than we were before we were arguing about independence and republic status, if only because our tastes have expanded at a greater pace than we have been willing to produce to meet those needs. Then I wonder – so why are we wasting time with these meaningless arguments that really are nothing more than sound and fury? And then I get it. Our political leaders and those few that benefit from propping up their sponsors create the smoke, and push the people and the debate in this nebulous direction. Their reason? It is their escape valve from doing nothing for the masses. They bring nothing tangible to persons living under the hill, they have achieved little, they know they cannot achieve anything. But spectacle, artificial controversies, the occasional throwing of a colleague to the wolves, give the plebs under the hill a distraction. And true to form the manipulators win. We buy into the foolishness for a while and then return to our minimum wage jobs.
– D. Goddard