Let’s Get High On Education…Year Round

Hartley Henry - DLP Political Strategist

Traffic or no traffic, delays in getting to work or not, I welcome the return of our school children “to circulation”.

I know that thousands of them had a good summer. The government sponsored camps, whether we wish to admit it or not, is a ‘God send’ for many. They have served to “liven” the holidays and at the same time keep the brains of our young ones ‘turning’ and fertile. But for me, there is nothing like seeing those immaculately dressed and perfectly groomed young ones alighting buses, using cross walks and generally going about their merry way to and from school.

Barbados is very unique in the Caribbean in this regard. Each secondary school and several primary schools have their distinctive uniforms and dress codes and this add color and splendor to the stepping out occasion, especially at the start of the September term.

Angie and I were among the proud parents of 11 year olds entering the secondary school system for the first time this week. What was most striking from the Tuesday morning orientation, was the resolve of parents to outfit their children, to acceptable standards, irrespective of the cost and sacrifice.

A Step Too Far Or Fairness And Equality: Same Sex Partner’s Legal Rights

Submitted by Yardbroom

Rosi & Kelli

A release from the Press Association (UK) Monday 31 August 2009, reported that female couples will be able to register both their names on the birth certificate of children conceived through fertility treatment.  Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008. The move will give women in same-sex relationships the same rights as heterosexual parents, to have their names on their children’s birth documents.

“Home Office Minister Lord Brett said the move was a “positive change”.  He explained:  This positive change means that, for the first time, female couples who have a child using fertility treatment have the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts to be shown as parents in the birth registration”.

I have put this submission forward in the interest of balance, so that a section of Barbadian society – though small – know that their concerns, not often addressed in other media in Barbados will be given a fair hearing on Barbados Underground (BU). I also hope the variety of views often expressed on BU are not stymied in this submission and that robustness is evident.  However, that robustness and freedom are tempered by responsibility and reason.

Slavery: A Somewhat Specious Disputation

Submitted by Looking Glass

Imagine a man born in Ethiopia, raised and educated in Puerto Rico presenting slavery as an epithet for Negroid in a three-piece suit. What Irony. He forgot the briefcase and brolly. Dr Yosef Jochannan’s specious disputation is a convenient distortion of reality. Yes slavery (and attendant atrocities) has existed and will continue to exist. However, to present slavery as an epithet for Negroid is an over-characterisation. Negroes were not the first human beings to be enslaved. Slavery is not and never was unique to the Negro. There was white slavery going back to at least Roman times. Later other ethnic groups were also enslaved. The implicit assumption that slaves everywhere endured the same treatment is unsustainable. Today slavery is rampant in Africa, India and elsewhere. He forgot that Africans also sold their brethren into slavery both yesteryear and today

Regarding Africa Cecil Rhodes in keeping with the prevailing sentiment candidly stated that “we (the mother country and other colonists) must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labour that is available from the natives in the colonies…The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the surplus goods produced in our factories…..” The sentiment was also echoed by Nigerian governor, Lord Lugard and former French president Jules Ferry (Goldsmith, Development & Colonialism) This suggests that the primary purpose was not enslavement/slavery as such but economic progress and ‘development.’ Workers including slaves were consumers just as they are today. Then as now progress was measured by the value of what consumers consume and their contribution.

Also then as now progress and economic development required an ongoing supply of an array of human resources—political, organizational, management and technical. The Cecil Rhodes Foundation and ‘associates’ directly and indirectly contributed substantially to the economic development of much of the world. Africans may not have won Rhodes Scholarships but they benefited substantially in other ways.

It’s Not The Phone, It’s The LIME

Submitted by GoWeb Blog

Recently, I’ve coined a phrase because of how often I’ve had to use it. My telephone line has been “mis-behaving” for quite a while, making it a pain to keep in contact with important people. We called LIME to look at the line, of course, and it seemed as though they took their time in coming. One technician came and said it was too late to tackle the problem and he would return tomorrow. That was the last I saw of him. Another technician eventually came and said that the problem was our phone. We have multiple phones in the house and they are all exhibiting the same symptoms. We borrowed a phone from next door and tried in on our line and it exhibited the same symptoms. Therefore, I was forced to coin the phrase “it’s not the phone, it’s the LIME”.

This was been happening for a very long time now. Whenever he rain falls, the line misbehaves and the technician try to tell us that it’s the phone which is misbehaving. Yet, they always eventually manage to fix, or should I say, plug the problem from the pole, which would logically indicate that in each case, the problem has been the LIME and not the phone.

The Rise And Fall Of A Star

Rihanna poses topless in Italian Vogue

Let us be clear, BU wishes Rihanna well in her chosen career. She has done well if we measure success by the penetration she has made in the world of pop. The BU household has watched her progression with admiration and interest. The recognition which Rihanna has brought to Barbados was rewarded by the government of Barbados last year. After the material possessions were received,  she was given the official papers to be Ambassador for Youth and Culture.

In light of her recent indiscretions and now her topless pose in Vogue Magazine, the question asked by BU and others remains. Should the government of Barbados ask Rihanna to quietly relinquish the post of Ambassador for Youth and Culture? Perhaps given her schooling at the Waterford University she should have the awareness to not wait to be asked.

Since the Chris Brown incident it seems Rihanna has been on a hunt for publicity by any means necessary. We understand these PR stunts all do wonder for her career but what does it do for her image in the eyes of young Barbadians who currently worship her? Rihanna finds herself in a position where she can trod the worn trail or she could use a hoe to chop a new path. She now has the popularity which equips he to  make a positive difference. It seems she is allowing the American pop culture to quickly reel her in.

Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

President Obama and First Lady

The albatross clinging to the back of the Black race continues to remind Black people everywhere of the pain left by slavery. Yes the Black race has made strides since emancipation day but in a fragmented way. As a collective we are woefully short of where we need to be in order to leverage the talent of the Black race.

The rich culture lived by Africans before undertaking the arduous journey of the Middle Passage has been diminished through generations of slaving under a non-Black establishment. Those who understand the concept of culture i.e. the shared characteristics of a people would have witnessed the culture of the Black man subsumed by the more dominant of the colonial masters. Commonsense exposes the fact that the Black race compared to any other race experienced a physical and psychological abuse by another race never visited on any other race in the history of mankind.