SVG youths just doing what they see

Editor: The Syrians and the Lebanese, the Indians from India and the Chinese, they do not meddle in our politics. All the other foreign-birth non-Vincentians who live and work here, they meddle, and the factual presence of inhabitants of our God-blessed land postulates one obligation, to promote and enjoy (“multiply and replenish”) the land which God and Democracy provide and hold for us.{{more}}

There are some few, few and powerful, who quietly look on at the activities of the replenishers and devise and play out methods and games. Of those few some operate according to plan (like Palm Island Barrett) and some opportunistically, (like in Mustique).

We are thankful to Dr. Ralph “PaPa,” Gonsalves, however the condition of the land and its people are today, for motivating the discontent of a body of young Vincentians whose birth the NDP oversaw and whose final education Ralph stimulated and bolstered by promises that spawned Hope which has been dashed through the realities which by virtue of education, became gapingly more apparent as his tenure in office progressed.

And this has nothing to do with “personal dislike.” It has to do with “respect.” They still love him as a “brilliant Vincentian.” But gone are the days when brilliance and a “B.A.” or a “Doctorate” were certificates of Truth for the words and actions displayed by their holders. Lawyers, economists, and business administrators are all over the place, and they talk. They are talking to the people and Vincentians are never a dunce people. The yardsticks have been changed: Education does that.

Be no longer surprised and guilty-conscious of your own lack of education when you hear Miss Daisly or Girlie for Bushay talk about the “diaspora” or “the global situation” or quote Dr. Ralph on the “Caribbean civilization.” The young people are active and they are active in the community from which they come: That is, those who do not go abroad looking for opportunities to display their skills:

The young people from the universities, our own educated, come from farmers, schoolteachers, policemen, sailors and other lowly folk. We do not have a “professional class” in the community: Yet.

We know of one class of people only: Vincentian. Some, a little better-off than some but all struggling to survive: except those foreign people who stubbornly have nothing to do with us but to sell.

Do as I say and not as I do, is no longer valid. The youths do what they see. Example is their only teacher. Like the TV lessons on fraud and violence.

The increase in crime, violence and the decline in morals speak loudly and clearly that the teachers, their methods, their hollerings and teachings produce the opposite of their declared objectives.

Incidentally? There seems to be nothing in the state that commands or earns or demands or requires our respect. If “respect” means appreciation of, deference for, compliance with and observation of duty and rules and law: honour through practices of moral uprightness, all in context of democracy, then not even the holders of offices, particularly the high offices, deserve our respect.

Of course it has been our duty, as taught by Holy Church, “to honour and obey the Queen and all that are put in authority under her. To submit ourselves (lowly and with respect) to all our betters….” And as taught by Pa Pa, “Come to Pa Pa.”

J.H. Bayliss Frederick