Barbados' Prime Minister Blames Technology for Society's Declining Standards
The Caribbean Is One Nation.
by William Skinner
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| Mr. Freundel StuartA |
Our Prime Minister, Mr.Freundel Stuart has now determined
that technology is partially to blame for declining standards. Many of the
issues we now confront began to surface in the mid-seventies. When the gangs
first appeared, they were dismissed as “wayward youth”; after we ignored the
agriculture sector for nearly forty years, we were then advised to make kitchen gardens and when the cracks
started to manifest themselves in the school system, we opened so-called “Centers”
with little or no format or known purpose.
When it was obvious that the drug culture was taking root and
a drastic well planned approach was needed, the then top law enforcement
officer announced his hands were tied. This led to a mammoth Crop Over hit by
the Red Plastic bag. Problems at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, we blame nurses;
problems at the school plant we blame teachers and problems with garbage
disposal we blame sanitation workers.
Of course all the problems related to productivity are blamed
on the workers. We never critique the corporate culture that is set by
management. We complain daily about our youth but ignore those who are
gallantly setting up businesses, involved in the arts and are trying their best
to find themselves in a society that offers little or no assistance to our
young entrepreneurs.
What we are failing to admit is the woeful lack of any
visionary national policy and our perpetual belief that we can complain and hope
for the return of a Barbados that is really gone forever. We look around and
are convinced that all the changes in the entire world are temporary. We
believe that one of these mornings, we will wake up and be put in a time
capsule that will land us in an idyllic Barbados with quaint little villages,
where the poor are expected only to be: poor, peaceful and polite.
It is not technology, it is a deepening poverty that can no
longer be ignored; it is a stagnant political culture inherent in our two major
political parties and an education system that to all intents and purposes, can
no longer produce the kind of citizen needed to carry us for another fifty
years.
Mr. Prime Minister, technology is not the problem. We can throw all the computers, cell phones
and other gadgets in the Careenage and such an act will not solve any of our
problems. It is not that simple, Sir.
William Skinner is a social commentator.
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