COMMENTARY: BVI emancipation – reality or fantasy?

By Alred Frett, Contributor

It should be a given that governments are there to serve the people and should never willfully and maliciously block or compete against the private sector.

Unfortunately, there are many complaints about such problems and I hope others will address some of these while I focus more on associated injustices or corruption affecting society whether through labour, immigration, health, or education.

Firstly, we are not a foolish people so we should stop pretending that accepting or doing foolish things make us smart. Things I say are the same things you see but unless you acknowledge this there will be no freedom from mental and physical chains so before continuing my selected topics I will refer to some ignored aspects of today’s emancipation as regards the BVI – not whimsical but factual.

August has become a time of the year when even visitors from countries who feel victimized by our systems join locals in revelry of the occasion. Thousands of youth spread out from east to west as if freshly liberated. In a vibrant mass, they appear to relieve frustration, loosen inhibitions, bare chest, breasts, and butt, drown sorrows in booze of the bottles and bounce to the pulsating beat of the bands.

Postponing the future to relive the past

As descendants of slaves repeatedly told of our forefathers emancipation we are deep-wired to regard our gyrations as the essence of emancipation. No one ever told us differently and although we find ourselves less and less liberated as adults we dutifully pass on inaccuracies to our children so, instead of using celebrations to climb up the ladder we take pride in winding down to the ground.

Consequently, many thinks this neither the time nor place to chat about the right direction; especially if you are too young to remember the last time BVIslanders experienced freedom at their emancipation village was during my tenure as minister for culture. Ever since, they have been forced to pay for freedom their ancestors fought and died for and to pretend to be free by honouring new slave masters.

Perhaps those who know better think we are already too far gone so instead of trying to improve things they continue to postpone efforts on the hope that problems will fix themselves. Meanwhile, the more we procrastinate the more things worsen and predictions for a logical conclusion depict us selling our own children back into modern day slavery. Everyone says never but does nothing to prevent it.

As the plight of brethren and ‘sistren’ rise to crisis level locally and internationally we become so fixated and consumed by self-interest that we refuse to see that what kills one now will kill us all later. We pay lip service and avoid real questions because we fear real answers. Instead we settle for slaps on the back and pats on the head without seeing the covert intent to stab us in the back and beat us to the ground.

Teaching us to choose wrong over right is no accident

Many see it coming but are hungry to be accepted and afraid to walk alone so we pretend bravery means following the crowd as we subscribe to the idiom ‘misery loves company’. We feel proud to be seen as one of ‘the masses’ with realizing the same letters form ‘them asses’. We regard bigger as better so we focus on imitating nations let by Trumps of the world who’s agenda is oppression.

However, although Trump is now universally considered as bad and stupid he neither invented badness nor stupidity. He may be good at them but Trumpism was around before biblical times. Both black and white leaders have played little Trumpies in grooming us to hate ourselves so Mr Trump’s attack on emancipation by trying to kill affirmative action is neither new nor limited to powerful whites.

Records show, Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas who is black and who benefited from this program has openly expressed his desire to see it dead. Again, you may be too young to recognize affirmative action as the conscience of oppressive nations who built empires on the backs of African slaves while blocking them from human rights, education, job opportunities and decent ways of life.

Proposing affirmative action was America’s way of acknowledging and taking steps to stop and mitigate centuries of wrongs. Fresh attacks on affirmative action is aimed at reinstating slavery and we have seen local and international policies and processes aimed at doing so whether by blocking us from access to physical means for supporting and defending ourselves or targeting us for being independent minded.

Using people power to save affirmative action

Nonetheless, violence is never the answer. We should use brain before brawn as enlightenment and knowledge become our means for survival and progress. Unfortunately, we see Trumpish leaders as pathological liars and elected officials being more worried about leaks that provide knowledge and truth than the constant barrage of lies. It would be catastrophe for leaders to follow such examples.

This would change the philosophies of democracy being transparent and leaders being trustworthy to Government that regard lying and deceiving the public as their legal right and condemn good men and women for not following lies and antisocial behavior. Furthermore, because slavery is founded on the practice of lies and deceit it is clear that true liberty or emancipation cannot survive in their presence.

Such practices spawn social cancers of deep hatred and are used by governments in wars and elections. They stake their success on the ability of soldiers and voters to hate. Snap elections have married these negatives to perceived incompetence and un-readiness of opponents thereby making it much easier for existing governments to win elections in the absence of viable alternatives.

This lack of real choice is social injustice that diminishes the liberty of people and the only solution is for persons to arm themselves with knowledge and unite as a ‘movement of people power’ where the greater good is the objective of all. Before saying ‘this is not easy’ notice that it saved America from Trump care and remains the only way to preserve the emancipation given to us by our ancestors.