Moontown

Sir Frederick Smith (FP)

By Kaymar Jordan

LEGENDARY CRICKETER Sir Garfield Sobers should not be referred to as National Hero.

This is the view of retired jurist Sir Frederick Smith who, in a SUNDAY SUN exclusive following Thursday’s commemoration of National Heroes Day, argued that the island’s highest honour should be reserved for people after they have died.“

Suppose a maid writes and says that [Sir Garry] didn’t pay her her wages and puts [him] in court or somebody out of spite did, it wouldn’t look good for a National Hero,” Sir Frederick explained.“I mean he [Sir Garry] might win the case but the point is that the idea that somebody, while he is alive, can accuse him, wrongly or rightly of some offence would bring the whole question into disrepute,” he added.

In the same vein, he questioned the late Sir Frank Walcott’s inclusion in the official list of ten National Heroes on the basis that he was named while he was alive.

Sir Frederick also said he was in a quandary over the naming of Sir Frank Worrell, whose image is replicated on the $5 note, since, in his estimation, no clear distinction had been made between “distinguished Barbadians” and “heroes who had advanced Barbados from being a village to an independent country”.

Despite the inclusion of Sarah Ann Gill, Sir Frederick also argued that nothing had been done to honour the contribution of white Barbadians.

“We haven’t got a white hero at all. You mean for all these 300-odd years we have been in existence, some white man didn’t do something prior to the riots in 1937?” he asked.

The other heroes are Sir Grantley Adams, Errol Walton Barrow, Bussa, Charles Duncan Oneal, Clement Payne, Samuel Jackman Prescod and Sir Hugh Springer.

Sir Frederick said while National Heroes Day was a nice idea, it was wrongly conceived for political purposes. He said going forward the people should have a greater say in the process.

The former Court of Appeal judge also said it was “complete foolishness” to have two public holidays for heroes as he called for the national celebration of the birthdays of Errol Barrow and Sir Grantley Adams to be meshed into one.

“Don’t put it [National Heroes Day] on either birthday if it is going to offend any party or anybody,” he suggested. “My view is that one holiday for everybody would be good. Even though that Barrow was the leader of the DLP [Democratic Labour Party], I feel that one holiday is enough.

“Our productivity is dropping and we need less holidays than we have, but we have two holidays for two sets of heroes – Barrow and Heroes Day. It’s complete foolishness,” Sir Frederick said. (Nation News)

Sir Roy Trotman (FP)

By Maria Bradshaw

UNION BOSS Sir Roy Trotman says he is not prepared to side with either the Opposition or Government on the issue of the economy, but believes the present performance is quite clear.

In response to last Thursday’s statement by Opposition Leader Owen Arthur that the economy had not shown any growth last year, Sir Roy told the SUNDAY SUN: “I am not going to get involved in what is a purely political bit of fighting about who is telling the truth and who is not telling the truth.

“[But] the evidence is there for anybody to see,” he said.

“I think we only have to remind that we also can see, we also can read for ourselves and we have the benefit of all kinds of television news and radio news from across the world.”

Arthur said the Statistical Department now had information which would show that rather than there having been growth in Barbados in 2010, the economy in fact declined.

Government officials are yet to formally respond to his statements, even though there are off-the-record suggestions they are sticking to their guns that the economy registered growth last year, but are unwilling to get into a technical and possibly lengthy debate with Arthur right now.

Sir Roy also sought to steer clear of the debate but in light of the recent global recession he said: “We have to keep the effort going to work together. We have overcome the worse part of it, I think.”In this regard, he also welcomed the signing of a new Social Partnership agreement tomorrow.

Sir Roy told the SUNDAY SUN that while there would be no extraordinary changes to Protocol VI between Government, trade unions and the private sector, he was pleased about the reinforcement of values.“We have committed to an appreciation of and respect for  the Decent Work Agenda. We have reinforced the commitment to health and safety standards, according to the International Labour Office, and we will be looking at the question of social protection,”  he explained.

Sir Roy, who handed over the leadership of the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados to veteran trade unionist Cedric Murrell last year, noted it would be the first protocol to be signed by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart since he assumed office.

He explained that Stuart had signed an extension of Protocol V last year while he was Acting Prime Minister. Murrell will also be signing for the first time, while Ben Arindell is expected to sign on behalf of the Barbados Private Sector Agency.

Sir Roy pointed out that while over the years there had been breaches of the protocols on all sides, the Social Partnership had done “extremely well in Barbados”.

He said: “I am sufficiently open-minded to say that I would not excuse the worker in that area and suggest that we are always, at every stage, honouring it, but I would say that we are not the major offender, not by any stretch of the imagination.”

He stressed: “The drive for riches, for profit, must be tempered with social responsibility and a commitment to social responsibility, and to building a society rather than only to building a profit.

“Whenever we reach that stage,” Sir Roy added, “I think the number of breaches will be reduced considerably.” (Nation News)