By
Stanley Collymore
Happy Independence Day
Barbados! And warm exultations from every Bajan who is quite jubilantly,
justifiably and sincerely immensely proud of what you’ve assiduously and
magnificently done for all of us – your faithful people – in the past, as you
are still currently doing and will continue as before, I’m absolutely sure, to
efficiently, impressively, beneficially and committedly Carry on achieving in
respect of the untrammelled good, both individually and collectively, of all
Barbadians; as well as our most praiseworthy, cherished, Caribbean and tropical
paradisiacal island home that we affectionately love, hold in high regard, and
is referred to commendably by all of us as Beautiful Barbados!
Actions so inherently
routine and uncompromising with you Barbados that with unequivocal surety I’m
thoroughly convinced you will unswervingly, as ever, continue unabated with
them well into the distant future! And accounts for why as a grateful and
patriotic Bajan who unquestionably owes so much to you I do earnestly, in conjunction
with my heartfelt salutations, wish you a thoroughly cultural Bajan anniversary
day and a most memorable 53rd Independence celebrations in every
way!
Unforgettable
Recollections:
As the thundering chimes
signalling midnight rang out and reverberated across the entire landscape of
Barbados on Tuesday 29th November 1966 and in so doing heralded in
the start of November 30, 1966 the Broken Trident: the new, national flag of
Barbados and the inestimable symbol of Barbadian Pride and Industry, rose
majestically to the pinnacle of flag staffs across our sacred land in
boisterous conjunction with the tumultuous acclaim of Barbados’ first minutes
of national independence on Wednesday the 30th November 1966.
Fifty three years on from
that glorious day and coupled with the genuine and inspiration genius of the
Father of the Barbados Nation, our first Prime Minister and himself an
acclaimed and statutory National Hero of our Nation, the late and great iconic
figure Errol Walton “Dipper” Barrow, Barbados and its people commendably to him
have much to be grateful for.
Although visited several
times previously by the Portuguese after Christopher Columbus’ landfall in the
region, it wasn’t until the 14th May 1625 that the first English
ship sailed into and moored in the territorial waters of a distinctly Arawak
and Carib indigenously populated Barbados.
However in 1627 the
English were back again and thus became the first and only Europeans, on behalf
of their country England, to establish a lasting and continuous settlement in
Barbados which, thereafter, remained English, and unchanged so, for the next
339 consecutive years until Barbados’ independence on the 30th November 1966.
In the process of this according Barbados the purportedly legendary distinction
of being the only English and much later after the creation of the United
Kingdom, British colony never to have ever changed colonialists’ hands.
And with exceptionally
good reasons too on the part of the English regime and its people back in
Europe and the rest of the British after the creation of the UK. Since, among
other crucial things, it was Barbados’ money and labour as England’s wealthiest
colony that fully financed the English Industrial Revolution and both literally
and virtually overnight transformed a wholly nondescript and unimportant offshore
European entity called England into the spearhead of the global British Empire
that it subsequently became.
So feel immensely proud
of who and what you are my fellow Bajans as you joyously celebrate our
Independence Anniversary Day in true Barbadian style and with the utmost
self-assurance, dignity and gratitude that we’re all present and correct to do
so.
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