April 21, 2023
Coming off of this past Crime Symposium held in Trinidad, there is much to be concerned about. But we will not be discouraged, but we will continue to be hopeful and progressive in our thoughts and actions for the region.
Our leaders are not vapid men and women. They are very intelligent people. However, I do believe they have too much on their plates. Additionally, they are surrounded by advisors who have their own pre-conceived notions about what to do for progress. We won’t blame anyone for the lacklustre Crime Symposium, but we will continually hope the authorities over us will get a clue on how to develop these islands more concertedly and carefully.
Alas, it seems as if the regions bright and shining star, Mia Mottley, has funked out too. She had little or next to nothing to offer on the issue. Usually, by now, people would be sharing clips of her speech and fawning and drooling over her every word. It’s as if she wasn’t even there. But, its’ not easy when you have to change course and move away from a US and European talking script that you have memorized and put into sweet little colloquial terms for us to feel kinship with you. LOL…. Even worse, you realize that this thing takes more than just work, but it takes a concerted effort to do something for someone else other than yourselves. Sad thing is, most of these people, because of our sociological makeup, care very little about anyone else but themselves. They can’t put themselves in other people’s shoes, because if they did, they would not have made it past the smuck and mire of the rest of us to make it to the top.
This is where impactful leadership sets itself apart from leaders and people that are in charge. Let me paint a picture, PM Davis in The Bahamas and PM Holness in Jamaica, they are in charge. PM Mottley I Barbados, is a leader. There are no impactful leaders in this region. On the one side, we have chest thumping suits who repeat the nature of the problem ad nauseum and on the other, we have leaders who use glossy slogans in every speech with little to no content to the solutions for the problem.
But we must dream that things will change from the bottom up. Fact is, our leaders are a reflection of our society. They come from us. We bred them to be what they are. So it comes down to how we raise and train up our leaders and people overall.
We have to turn it up a notch for a better Caribbean.