Caribbean people run the risk of being recolonised, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is warning in the midst of CARIFESTA celebrations.
On Saturday during the the CARIFESTA XV’s Big Talk, Big Conversations
panel discussion at the historic Golden Square Freedom Park location, the Prime Minister responded to a question posed by moderator Dr Carla Barnett, the Secretary General of CARICOM on the role of education.
Along with Mottley, also taking part in the more than 90-minute talk were Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies, Sir Hilary Beckles and St Lucian Ambassador Dr June Soomer.
“Something has to be fundamentally wrong with a Caribbean that in the third decade of the 21st Century still defines itself by imperial demarcations that are not born of our culture and our reality and it is only us who can change it.
“My fear is that just like the story in the Bible with Adam and Eve that the temptation of easy living, the temptation of comfort, the temptation of individualism satisfying you instantly and even in the medium to long term has dulled the senses of many of our people and when that is combined with a lack of an appropriate sensitisation and education and empowerment of people we run the risk of being re-colonised again,” Mottley told those on hand for the mid-morning event.
She said that recently at the heads of government meeting she called for the region to take control over how information is generated and disseminated which could lead to the region being subjected to the wills of other people. She said that a smart city with smart grids “can become ignorant with the turning of a switch” and one person owning all of that could leave the region vulnerable.
Mottley pointed out that when she asked through Artificial intelligence platforms about laws in the Americas inspired by the Barbados slave code of 1661, which led the world in the Americas with the “worst piece of legislation that has ever been passed by any parliament” since it denied the humanity of Africans, some of the responses were cut short.
“I give that example that is literally real
time to show you the vulnerability of which I spoke and this region has to face a few realities that regrettably I’m not sure we are facing as frontally and as comprehensively as we should. One, we are not in a position to control our destiny if we want to do it individually and without understanding the importance of common action and common purpose through the Caribbean Community and the functional cooperation that it allows each of us,” she stated.
Bajans, said Mottley, have a keen sense of social justice and the humanising element that is absolutely necessary, largely because of the kind of oppression that it experienced in modern settlement post 1627.
The factors of economic growth, growth and development and labour were connected but an underpopulated country could not be expected to have the ability to grow and transform the quality of life, Mottley pointed out.
“We are years behind in establishing a regional population commission that allows the Caribbean to be able to forge its destiny not by accident or serendipity or because somebody else wants to oppress us but because we are shaping and forming our own destiny deliberately,” the Prime Minister noted She feared, she said, that not rooting “our people with these things that led to Caribbean resilience for centuries” would not provide for a resilient population.
Mottley explained that the state can no longer influence people en masse other than in the school system, and as a result there is a risk or temptation that the state would want to strengthen itself to control the society through power rather than influence. (AC)
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