Friday, November 30, 2012

Barbados Independence

First Prime Minister of Barbados,
Errol W. Barrow (an original pin)
Today, Barbadians or Bajans as we like to call ourselves, celebrate 46 years of independence from Britain.


As I checked out photos of the capital, Bridgetown, and the people decked out in the national colours of ultramarine, gold and black and this morning as I watched the live broadcast of the parade, I wondered why I never considered visiting my place of birth at this time of year.  Well, I have added visiting Barbados during Independence celebrations to my list.

Barbadians have much for which to be thankful and although Barbados, like many nations worldwide, has encountered economic difficulties, Bajans remain a positive and industrious people, who find ways to overcome their hardships. I remember women who made and sold confections and pudding and souse and cultivated kitchen gardens or sewed and the men who sold snow balls (now snow cones) and learnt to be tailors and bakers and other trades to earn a living and support their families; most often done right from their homes. 

To Barbados, Bajans and Bajan wannabes everywhere, have a wonderful and safe Independence Day celebration. Until I am there to celebrate in person, have a shot, or two, of rum for me.

Will keep you posted!

Friday, November 2, 2012

President Obama Will Win

I am going on the record to state, unequivocally, President Obama will win the election and his win will have ripple, no make that tsunami effects on the right.

He will win because he deserves to win. President Obama is a great example of staying strong, cool and collected in the face of incredible resistance and disrespect from the right. Even more galling are the intellectually stunted willing to believe that by the virtue of their skin colour, they are so much better than this President.  They know who they are and it will pain their sorry derrieres to see him still standing after their onslaught.

President Obama is the epitome of the American Dream and his story should be one loved by the right since he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and all that. He is highly educated, personable, witty and easy on the eyes. The family values Christians should see him as an example of their beliefs as he is still with his original wife and has no scandals (sexual or otherwise) unlike many we could name in their camp. Were these qualities to be found in one of their own, along with steady management of the foreign policy file, healthcare and especially eliminating Osama bin Laden, the right would have been over the moon . Anyone running against such a candidate would have been looking at very long odds of winning and might as well have folded up their tent and slunk away long ago.

But no, they insist he is not an American; demand to see his birth certificate and college records when this has never been asked of any other president or candidate for the position; question his religious affiliation and happily forward the vilest emails to denigrate him.  Heck, Mitt Romney not showing ten to twelve years of tax returns caused nary a ripple with the belligerent right who would have been blowing a gasket if candidate Obama had pulled that crap. Even the so-called Christians, who never respected Mitt Romney’s religion and called it a cult, can now overlook the lies, flip-flops and copious amounts of bovine excrement and embrace Romney, whose rivals found him unpalatable and so difficult to love back in the primaries. For shame!

President Obama is who he is, so the knives must be drawn to eviscerate him. The lies told are so out there one finds it hard to imagine anyone with two brain cells to rub together would believe them but they do. To allow this decent man a scintilla of success, even as his accomplishments are evident, would put to lie their racist, malignant beliefs that his skin colour deems him inferior, therefore he must be slagged and disrespected. From the day he was inaugurated, the nastiness of those who brayed for his failure was evident. Lord forbid they spent the time and energy looking for ways to work with him to achieve success.  Their behaviour showed they would rather have their country suffer than have this Black president succeed and as we can see, they would rather support a man with no core who is easily buffeted and spun like a weather vane in a wind storm. 

I believe President Obama’s win will be the best thing for the right although they won't see it right away.   After the initial hysterics, convulsions and conniptions, they will be forced to take stock and regroup and look at why self-respecting minorities want nothing to do with them. Why racists are happy as pigs in merde under their banner.  Why the most insane christofascists are supported as viable candidates and are emboldened to stick their noses in women’s uteri. Why they advocate and support draconian measures to restrict a woman’s right to choose her healthcare and why they see voter suppression as a great way to win elections. They need to make their party uncomfortable for the simple minded egoists, the terminally stupid, racists, malcontents, Christians in name only and the happily ignorant and loving it who have found a happy home to the exclusion of the moderates. 

A purging will take place, naturally and with great effort. Many of those who thought it the height of intelligence to hold signs at tea party rallies warning government to keep its hands off their Medicare would have shuffled off to their just rewards. The upswing in minority populations will take care of a few more by weakening their grasp on power. Hopefully, shame will come back in style and force many to keep their stupidities and prejudices in check as no decent person would entertain their pathetic behaviour.

I do not believe this race is as close as is reported daily. I believe there are more decent people who are dismayed by the behaviour of the right and are embarrassed by the candidates they support and see no reason to reward abhorrent behaviour. These are the people who will re-elect President Obama who, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, showed his quiet strength and compassion and modelled how working across party lines benefits all.

To have it any other way would be to condone, lying, corruption, deceit, racism and overall disgusting behaviour.  Good people will never allow this.

Will keep you posted!