Rise You Mighty (Caribbean) People, RISE !

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The Caribbean Is One Nation.
                                                   
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Rise You Mighty (Caribbean) People, RISE !


The peoples of the Caribbean especially those in their 60’s and older must be baffled by what they see daily emerging in their individual islands. It is not all negative, but the shootings muggings and the many wayward youth must be a great source of pain for them. The islands now lack seriously progressive thinkers and the few that still advocate radical change are privately admitting that the task is harder than it was in the sixties. The mental baggage from slavery and colonialism persists. Political independence and mental independence are not easily disentangled.
We have the physical trappings that we are told are provided by free education. That means that we are apparently educated to be nothing more than consumers since we are measuring progress by conspicuous consumption. We are no longer using the wholesomeness of communities and the ability to display our creative talents because ,they for the most part, are being driven into oblivion and our young citizens cannot even participate in a foot ball game unless gunshots climax the evening.
So Carnival in its various reincarnations is nothing more than simulated sex in the streets and we are already exporting vulgarity as culture if we take a very candid look at what passes for culture on Eastern Parkway in New York! Half naked women and men in the streets with all their goods exposed. This is how we party and festivals that were once judged by exquisite costume design that saw Peter Minshall (Trinidad) being contracted to put his creative genius on global display are quickly being reduced to tee shirts and beach wear.   The majesty of Sir Garry Sobers has never been surpassed on the cricket field. Not to mention Walter Rodney’s vision; Eric Williams’ insightful intellect or the extraordinary mind of Lloyd Best especially his thoughts of the Caribbean civilization. While we marvel at the productivity and creative minds we have produced, we still seem incapable of truly exploiting our greatness. For a region that gave the world Bob Marley, we seem reluctant to tap into the creativity and positivity that he preached through song.
We have a date with reality and the persistent attempts to deny and rewrite our past, will not save us. We have to show up and it’s not the time to be overwhelmed by all the negatives that seem to engulf and envelop us. We need to stop baffling ourselves and take the advice of another great Caribbean thinker, Marcus Garvey: Rise you mighty people, RISE!



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