Mar 28
At a time when we need Caribbean integration more than ever before, our Barbadian political leadership has set out on a misguided course that is sowing differences and divisions and causing the destruction of Barbados’ proud record of regionalism…
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HOW DO WE SPELL BARBADOS? B O Y C O T T!
As one who has always traveled and vacationed in Barbados with my family and several other friends, I will NEVER RETURN to your beautiful country. To treat a woman this way, especially one from a neighbor island, is wholly unpardonable!
A bit more analysis of why this sort of xenophobic behaviour finds fertile ground in our small island territories is probably in order. In a word: politics. The eminent Kenyan Professor Yash Ghai gave a very illuminating talk last week in Guyana on the politics of tribalism as a tool by Kenyan politicians on all sides of that divided country. Basically, according to Prof Ghai, it comes down to those politicians who live FOR the politics and those who live BY the politics. Not surprisingly, his findings in Kenya suggested that the overwhelming majority of Kenyan politicians subscribed to the latter. I imagine this applies to politicians everywhere but our young developing states are more susceptible and vulnerable to this type of political behaviour/judgement call.
Ethnically-plural societies was his subject, but transcribed to our mutually-suspicious Caribbean island politics, this thesis couldn’t be more apt and explains a lot: from why integration has been so slow to why negative stereotypes of other island/territorial peoples are not addressed in the public space (and are indeed pandered to) and why in spite of a highly literate populace we still seem so insular and quick to stereostype the poorer ones.
So not unlike the Kikuyu, the Luo and the Kalenjin tribal loyalties whipped up during election time to secure votes by unscrupulous Kenyan politicians, our versions are more subtle, but definitely clear to the ‘undesirables’ from within the region. There is a pecking order, so clearly Haitians, Guatemalans, Guyanese and Jamaicans (note the heavy economic influence) are at the lower end while Bahamians and Barbadians are at the top (how many Bahamian or Barbadian traders and hucksters has anyone met?)
The bottom line is: it is in politicians’self-interest that we have differences that they can exploit. It does not help their case if they are telling us that we are all the same and we could do with just one Prime Minister/President for the Caribbean region. They will be talking themselves out of a job. So its hard to change the status quo when influential people depend on it for their livelihood. Its a bleak view but its certainly a real one.
One last anecdote on the durability of the animosity: Prof Ghai noted the comments of some US Kenyans of Kikuyu and Kalenjin extraction who could not even bring themselves to vote for Obama in 2008 because his Dad was a Luo and said they were going to vote Republican instead!