By Stanley Collymore
You were expressly and happily both
imported and cheerfully welcomed
into Barbados where by no means
whatever you were literally indigenous
to our Caribbean island; but simply all
the same, you were urgently required.
Principally so, as a basic deterrent to
the bevy of rather lethally dangerous
snakes that freely perused their way
across this Caribbean idyll and also
effectively specifically so within the
confines of the rather copious, and
too natural luxurious growth of the
cane fields that liberally festooned
it. Snakes, which were very deadly
predators to the plethora of rather
skilled cane cutters, quite general
harvesters; and, as well, the other
allied artisan workers in the quite
huge, and very profitable industry.
All told a brilliant and imaginatively
superb outcome, following this
erudite action by the local
Barbadian decision makers that quite
rapidly, and most effectively induced
and also similarly saw, the complete
eradication of these very poisonous
and likewise deadly snakes not just
simply from the clearly prosperous
cane fields per se; but likewise too,
the very entirety of Barbados itself,
and a task so distinctly, effectively
and evidently quite brilliantly done
that these now undoubtedly Bajan
mongooses had actually, and very
effectively also made themselves
clearly redundant. Decisively now
as it happened, with their distinct
bountiful and equally natural prey
gone but significantly no pending
successors, clearly discernibly in
the offing; understandably, some
among the patently adventurous
mongooses did collectively, and
effectively, imaginatively take to
actually diversifying their eating
habits; and, not so unsurprising,
the eggs, which were laid in the
cane fields, by those free range,
domestic hens, now essentially
crucially became their effective
targets, literally in tandem, with
any chicks haplessly born then.
A state of affairs that didn’t go
down so well obviously with
the owners of such poultry,
notwithstanding the known fact, that
the snakes that the mongooses had
so essentially, obviously eradicated
had themselves previously and too
quite frequently, crucially done the
same things. However quite short
and very convenient memories by
these effectively local and mainly
rural dwellers obdurately refused
to see the logical irony of what in
effect, they were quite petulantly
and equally selfishly demanding,
namely the complete, wholesale
destruction of not only the clear
quite significantly offending but
basically likewise as well all the
mongooses there actually were
throughout Barbados, although
their very undoubted presence,
collectively and quite evidently
rather effectively on our island
had unquestionably, saved the
lives of several human beings!
Predictably, literally Barbadian
common-sense prevailed, and
actually with sugar cultivation
now increasingly minimalized
by new industries like tourism
and similarly others very aptly
appropriate to a modern 20th
century, and likewise also the
clearly forthcoming 21st one;
these Bajan mongooses also,
haven't only earned their very
discernibly undisputed place
in Barbados, but just like the
quite conic, and so uniquely
black belly sheep have also
irrefutably also literally and
characteristically distinctly
shaped a quite indigenous
character truly of their own.
(C) Stanley V. Collymore
20 February 2023.
Author's Remarks:
In major tribute to the Bajan Mongoose. And our eternal and massive debt of gratitude to you.
effectively specifically so within the
confines of the rather copious, and
too natural luxurious growth of the
cane fields that liberally festooned
it. Snakes, which were very deadly
predators to the plethora of rather
skilled cane cutters, quite general
harvesters; and, as well, the other
allied artisan workers in the quite
huge, and very profitable industry.
All told a brilliant and imaginatively
superb outcome, following this
erudite action by the local
Barbadian decision makers that quite
rapidly, and most effectively induced
and also similarly saw, the complete
eradication of these very poisonous
and likewise deadly snakes not just
simply from the clearly prosperous
cane fields per se; but likewise too,
the very entirety of Barbados itself,
and a task so distinctly, effectively
and evidently quite brilliantly done
that these now undoubtedly Bajan
mongooses had actually, and very
effectively also made themselves
clearly redundant. Decisively now
as it happened, with their distinct
bountiful and equally natural prey
gone but significantly no pending
successors, clearly discernibly in
the offing; understandably, some
among the patently adventurous
mongooses did collectively, and
effectively, imaginatively take to
actually diversifying their eating
habits; and, not so unsurprising,
the eggs, which were laid in the
cane fields, by those free range,
domestic hens, now essentially
crucially became their effective
targets, literally in tandem, with
any chicks haplessly born then.
A state of affairs that didn’t go
down so well obviously with
the owners of such poultry,
notwithstanding the known fact, that
the snakes that the mongooses had
so essentially, obviously eradicated
had themselves previously and too
quite frequently, crucially done the
same things. However quite short
and very convenient memories by
these effectively local and mainly
rural dwellers obdurately refused
to see the logical irony of what in
effect, they were quite petulantly
and equally selfishly demanding,
namely the complete, wholesale
destruction of not only the clear
quite significantly offending but
basically likewise as well all the
mongooses there actually were
throughout Barbados, although
their very undoubted presence,
collectively and quite evidently
rather effectively on our island
had unquestionably, saved the
lives of several human beings!
Predictably, literally Barbadian
common-sense prevailed, and
actually with sugar cultivation
now increasingly minimalized
by new industries like tourism
and similarly others very aptly
appropriate to a modern 20th
century, and likewise also the
clearly forthcoming 21st one;
these Bajan mongooses also,
haven't only earned their very
discernibly undisputed place
in Barbados, but just like the
quite conic, and so uniquely
black belly sheep have also
irrefutably also literally and
characteristically distinctly
shaped a quite indigenous
character truly of their own.
(C) Stanley V. Collymore
20 February 2023.
Author's Remarks:
In major tribute to the Bajan Mongoose. And our eternal and massive debt of gratitude to you.
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