| Barbadians arise!
It is time to save the nation!
President of the Clement Payne Movement and the Peoples Empowerment Party (PEP) David Comissiong has called for a “major national effort” to put the island back on track following Friday’s fiery tragedy, which claimed the lives of six women in Tudor Street, the City.
“The time for Barbadians to wake up, bestir themselves and make a monumental effort to save their nation has come,” stated Comissiong, in a statement released today.
The lawyer and Pan-Africanist lamented the direction the country was taking, especially in light of the recent incident, which has caused a national uproar.
“It was not the absence of a fire escape, nor the lack of adequate street lighting that killed [the women] … These six young and beautiful black Barbadian women were killed by the conscious, premeditated and deliberate actions of two young black men!” the document read.
Comissiong asserted that when the perpetrators set Campus Trendz ablaze, they had “no sense of connection between themselves and these daughters of our nation - they had no empathy, no human feeling! They were totally self-centred and self-consumed and the fate of these young innocent women who had caused them no offense meant nothing to them!”
He added the incident was just one of the “brutal and callous” murders carried out in recent months, including Pinelands basketballer Kirk Patrick and that of Fabian Greaves, who was killed at a street party in Waterhall Land, St. Michael.
“We now live in a country in which a growing number of our fellow residents are demonstrating that they are capable of coldly, callously and remorselessly destroying human life,” Comissiong said.
He believed because of Barbados’ size, its citizens should be functioning as a well-ordered family, and posited some of the reasons that may have caused the fall away from such standards.
“Should any blame be ascribed to the politicians and political parties that crudely and crassly buy votes in elections and that set out to systematically reduce our people to insensible, materialistic beings who only respond to the bribery of money and entertainment?
“Should any blame be ascribed to the various pastors who dilute the spirituality of the nation with their morally bankrupt, money-based ‘prosperity gospel’ or with their sterile status-quo and establishment-oriented Christianity? And what about the businessmen and women who see our Barbadian youth as merely a captive commercial market to be exploited and plundered and act in accordance with that vulgar conception?” Comissiong’s statement noted.
“And how about the educators,” he continued, “who are content to maintain an educational system that herds thousands of low academic achievers into schools that are so lacking in the facilities, resources and spirit required to respond to the special needs of these children…?”
Comissiong called for highly-motivated and committed citizens to come together to reform key social sectors and institutions, such as family life, political behaviour and policies, Barbadian business culture, the educational system, the religious sector and the mass media.
Comissiong also addressed the fourth preliminary of the 34th annual Richard Stoute Teen Talent competition last evening at the Plantation Garden Theatre.
There, he expressed condolences to the families of the six “innocent, blameless” daughters of the nation. (Barbados Today) |
