ADDRESS BY THE ACTING PRIME MINISTER

THE HON. FREUNDEL J. STUART, Q.C., M.P.

AT THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE

DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY ON

SUNDAY, AUGUST 22, 2010

A feeling of deep humility must be the position of anyone given

the opportunity to address so distinguished a gathering of

delegates to this Annual Conference of the Democratic Labour

Party.

I last addressed an Annual Conference of this party in the year

2005 when it was celebrating its 50th Anniversary. The occasion

of my addressing delegates then was that I was serving as the

Party’s President during that year.

1

This year the Party has quietly observed the passing of its 55th

Anniversary, but circumstances which all of us would have

preferred did not exist have dictated that I address you today.

Earlier this year we were all made sadly aware that a treacherous

illness had taken hold of this Party’s beloved President and this

nation’s beloved Prime Minister, the Hon. David John Howard

Thompson.

Prime Minister Thompson has been a part of this Party’s life from

the 1970’s and I suspect that this is the first Annual Conference at

which we will not be benefitting from either his inspiring presence

or his always witty and enlightening contribution. That illness has

now softened his resonance and slowed his mobility.

I hope, I dare say we hope, that your continued prayers and the

deserved rest that he has been taking from his labours will result

in his being back with us in the very near future.2

The absence of Prime Minister Thompson has brought

refreshingly to the fore the level headedness of the men and

women he left in charge of Barbados. The Cabinet has continued

the business of government in and out of Parliament with

confidence, determination and calm. The public has been able to

rely on the uninterrupted and timely delivery of government

services, the extended absence of the Prime Minister

notwithstanding.

I should like to take this opportunity to thank every member of the

Cabinet and all members of Parliament both in the House and

Senate for the unfailing support and cooperation of which I as

acting Prime Minister have been the continuing beneficiary. This

moment called for men and women capable of standing tall at a

great historical juncture. Our men and women in both Houses of

Parliament have stood tall and can lay just claim to the permanent

respect and gratitude of both the Party and the nation.3

You will want to remember at this time also our comrade in arms

the Member of Parliament for St. Michael South East, Hamilton

Fitzgerald Lashley, at home recovering from injuries sustained in

a motor accident that took the life of his driver. We condole with

him on the loss of his very good friend but are happy that fortune

was able to snatch him from the fangs of death.

I should like further to invite your prayers for another stalwart

Cranston Browne whom illness has also slowed. I am particularly

touched by this because he and I were looking forward, on the

13th day of September next, to meeting and having a drink in

celebration of exactly 50 years of friendship. It was on the 13 th

day of September, 1960 that he and I entered the Boys’

Foundation School together and sat in the same form. I wish

Cranston well.

4

Comrades and friends, it is now common knowledge that, for the

last two years in particular, but since about September 2007 when

the first signs appeared, the world has been going through its

worst economic and financial crisis in wellnigh one hundred

years. Commentators have up to now been content to call this

experience a recession by which they mean that there has been a

fall off in GDP born of a fall off in demand for goods and services

which has lasted for more than six (6) months.

I say that commentators have been content to call it a recession

because, chances are that, until it comes to an end and its full

impact and effects are known and evaluated, we will not be able

to accurately and appropriately christen it. The Great Depression

was not so named while the world was in its throes starting in the

year 1929. It was after it ended that analysts were able to settle

the issue of what it was that had really hit the world economy.

5

Whether we call it the Great Recession or a second Great

Depression, there can be no doubt that its painful effects are

being felt both in the rich countries of the North Atlantic and in the

developing world. When President Obama took the oath of office

in January 2009, Americans were losing their jobs at the rate of

750,000 per month. There was also a virtual carnival of

foreclosures resulting from banks and other lending institutions

lending money for home purchases to persons whose salaries

could not support repayment of those loans. The so-called sub-

prime mortgage crisis.

While the fury of job losses and foreclosures has abated, every

present indication is that the economy of the United States of

America is still some distance away from the zone of peril.

6

So far as the economy of the United Kingdom is concerned the

news is no happier. The British economy is experiencing its

deepest crisis since the 1930’s and conventional wisdom in the

U.K. and beyond is that only a series of harsh budgetary

responses can correct this stubbornly troubling situation.

From the middle of the year 2008, the then Prime Minister,

Gordon Brown was exhorting the British people to spend their

holidays at home. No evidence exists to date, that the new

coalition government has ceased to chant that doleful refrain.

The economy of Canada, because of features peculiar to itself

and because of a tendency to policies much more circumspect,

has been able, substantially, to cushion the blows being

persistently dealt by this global downturn.

7

Nothing which I have said on this subject up to now justifies the

claim or conclusion that any decision taken by the government of

Barbados since January, 2008 has led to this economic and

financial crisis. As I have said elsewhere recently, a compound of

lax regulation, wild speculation and raw greed in the wealthier

countries of the North Atlantic has brought the world to this sorry

pass.

As is usually the case, small and vulnerable countries like

Barbados are the first to feel the effects of problems to the

creation of which they have contributed nothing. Today, to that

unfortunate fate, most of the countries of the English speaking

Caribbean have been abandoned.

8

Thirty-five years ago, in a review of the year 1975, a Central Bank

Report stated as follows: “The depressed economic conditions in

the major industrial countries during 1975 exerted a tremendous

drag on the Barbadian economy, the fortunes of which are

especially intertwined with those of North America and the United

Kingdom. The recession in the United Kingdom actually

deepened and towards the end of the year the Canadian

economy was also running into trouble. In the United States clear

signs of recovery appeared only during the second half of the

year.”

That report was prepared at a time when the tourist industry of

Barbados was far less developed than it is now and when the

International Business Sector was a shadow of the sector we

know today. Yet, the Central Bank was saying then that the

fortunes of our economy were “especially intertwined with those of

North America and the United Kingdom.” If with a much weaker 9

tourism sector and a scarcely talked about international business

sector our economy was especially intertwined with those of North

America and the United Kingdom, for more convincing reasons is

it especially intertwined today in the year 2010 when the economy

is so obviously dependent on the performance of these two

sectors.

With the richer and more developed countries of the world,

therefore, Barbados shares the same challenges of debt and

deficit; sluggish growth or sometimes no growth; weak internal

and external demand for our goods and services; and

unemployment. These challenges are not Barbadian creations

but are challenges with which countries across the globe are

confronted with varying degrees of intensity.

10

Economists have not been able to speak with any certainty either

to the depth or likely duration of the present world crisis. When in

the 1950’s that area of economics known as econometrics made

its effective appearance, it was thought that, at last, we had at our

disposal the tools that would allow us to specify the conditions

under which economic events happen; to explain why the events

happen under those conditions; and to construct patterns of

probability and regularity. In other words it was hoped that we

could predict with near scientific certainty, how economies would

behave.

A distinguished Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology and author of many equally distinguished

works was forced to comment, not too long ago, as follows:

“Nevertheless, econometrics has not proven capable of providing

either accurate forecasts or conclusively settling economic

disputes…… Given the failures to live up to expectations,,

11

econometrics shifted from being a tool for testing theories to being

a showcase for exhibiting theories. Statistical models were built to

show that particular theories were consistent with the data and,

only occasionally, could a theory be rejected because of data. As

a result, good economic theory became more important than any

data – at least in the minds of economists – and theory came to

be imposed on the data.”

A recent BBC report quoted Her Majesty the Queen as asking in

an encounter with the economists from the London School of

Economics how was it that none of them could have seen the

economic and financial crisis coming.

The longer the challenges now facing the world persist, the

greater will be the threat to the government’s ability to respond to

the needs and concerns of our households and our businesses.

12

Parliament rose on Tuesday last for its summer recess until the

19th day of October, 2010. Thereafter, at a time to be determined

by the government, our response to the effects of these

challenges on Barbados will be shared with the country in a

Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposals.

All of this will be preceded by exchanges with the representatives

of labour and capital and a full meeting of the Social Partnership

over which either the Prime Minister or I will preside. The

government contemplates no clear or sensible way forward

without both the input and cooperation of its partners in the areas

of labour and capital.

13

While it is true that, in the heat and dust of this historic crisis some

of Barbados’ macro-economic indicators still seem more flattering

than those of even some developed countries, it is no consolation

to us that in the first half of 2010, overall economic growth

contracted by 1.0% compared to the same period last year; that

unemployment increased to 10.6% over the first quarter which

was a slight increase over the 10.1% in the first quarter of 2009;

that output in construction continued to contract and that demand

for domestic goods and services remained weak.

The most casual acquaintance with Barbadian economic reality

will reveal that the government has always been the largest

procurer of goods and services in this society. If internal demand

for these goods and services is to be maintained, that will depend

to a large extent on what the government does, although , given

the sensitivity of our foreign reserve situation the government

must act with the utmost caution and circumspection.

14

Over external demand for the goods and services we produce a

government of Barbados does not exercise an equivalent control.

External demand depends ultimately on the ability and willingness

of the consumer abroad to buy the goods and services Barbados

has on offer.

Contrary to what opposition spokespersons and other publicists

would have the people of Barbados believe, these issues are not

so abstruse, otherworldly or mystical as to be beyond the

understanding of ordinary mortals. I invite you to take a careful

look at the people who are pontificating on these issues. Do you

really believe that there is something that Mia Mottley or Dale

Marshall or Owen Arthur can understand that any Democratic

Labour Party Cabinet member or parliamentarian can’t? The

brains of Democratic Labour Party Cabinet members and

parliamentarians are organized and unlike the ragbag of political

15

odds and ends of which Ms. Mottley’s utterances are so

consistent a reflection.

In the meanwhile, however, a compelling sense of

appropriateness dictates that I thank publicly our private sector for

the maturity and restraint of which their conduct during this

difficult period has been so shining an example. Similarly, our

citizens many of whom, their hardships and deprivations not

withstanding have themselves been models of patience,

contentment and understanding.

Of particular assistance to the government and, by extension, the

public of Barbados, during this very challenging period as well,

has been our loyal tried and tested public service. It has to be

conceded that much of what we have been able to achieve to

date would have been impossible were we not able to rely on the

well thought out and honestly given advice and the unstinted

16

cooperation of the most able public service in the entire

Caribbean.

I should like, therefore, to thank the public service from its

uppermost rungs to its lowest grades and in all of its

manifestations for its support of the government’s efforts as we

collaborate in the service of Barbados.

We take neither our households, our businesses nor our public

service for granted and will do everything in our power to

minimize the impact of any sacrifices they make in this national

effort.

It is not as though, however, time has stood still during this crisis.

On the contrary the Ministry of Housing and Lands under the able

leadership of Michael Lashley has forged ahead with one of the

17

most aggressive housing initiatives seen in post independence

Barbados; the Ministry of Transport and Works under the Hon.

John Boyce has not only ensured the continued reliability of your

public transport system but has dared to experiment with the

opening of new routes; this along with careful management of the

country’s road infrastructure; the Ministry of Youth, Family and

Sports competently and confidently led by Stephen Lashley has

launched its National Youth Forum and is mobilizing the resources

of our youth for the creation of a more participatory culture; The

Ministry of Community Development and Culture, under the

evergreen Steve Blackett has laid in Parliament our National

Cultural Policy, will be introducing in the near future a Cultural

Industries Bill to give greater substance to the efforts of our artists

and has been re-establishing the relationship between culture and

genuine community development; a whole new ethos of social

care, constituency empowerment and urban and rural

18

development is being unfurled before us through the Ministry that

bears that name under the indefatigable Chris Sinckler; and the

contents of the report of the National Advisory Commission on

Education will lay the foundation for another great leap forward for

the children of this nation through the Ministry of Education and

Human Resource Development under the steady hands of Ronald

Jones; the idea of a cleaner and greener environment along with

a modern and more enlightened water policy continues to be the

focus of the Ministry of the Environment, Water Resources and

Drainage under the untiring Dr. Denis Lowe; the opening of new

tourism opportunities, for example in Brazil, through the provision

of airlift from that source along with the widening and deepening

of our efforts in existing markets define the work of the Ministry of

Tourism under the confident and clear-minded Richard Sealy; the

extending of our diplomatic reach into areas like Brazil, China and

Cuba are to be counted among the achievements of a very

19

industrious and highly respected, Minister of Foreign Affairs and

Foreign Trade, Maxine McClean; the rationalization of the Q.E.H.

for the creation of a patient centred socio-medical culture along

with the modernisation of the legislative framework of the Ministry

of Health and the strengthening of the primary health care system

are the aim of the efforts of the Minister of Health, Donville Inniss

and his committed Parliamentary Secretary, Senator Irene

Sandiford-Garner; efforts at the restoration of the manufacturing

sector to a significant place in the economy along with the pursuit

of the 40% procurement of government services for small

businesses and the fostering of a culture of innovation and sense

of economic empowerment all within the context of the

modernisation of our economic systems are the focus and

preoccupation of Dr. David Estwick and his devoted and loyal

Minister of State Patrick Todd; Dr. Esther Byer-Suckoo continues

her work on the modernisation of our labour laws so that

amendments to the Shops Act and settlement of the details of

new Employment Rights Bill have already passed the 20

Governance Committee of the Cabinet; broadening of our

Double Taxation Agreement Treaty Network, the most recent

example being with Panama, and the effort to make Barbados a

more competitive domicile for international business along with

the strengthening of our international transport infrastructure are

the focus of George Hutson; and the accentuation of Barbados’

Food Security and the preparing of Barbados’ agriculture to meet

the bureau of world standards are the focus of Haynesley Benn at

the Ministry of Agriculture.

When Parliament resumes in October, the Office of the Attorney

General should have ready for debate a Prevention of Corruption

Bill; a Transnational Organised Crime Bill; a Money Laundering

Bill; an International Trusts Service Providers Bill; Amendments to

the Companies Act and a Land Titles Proceedings Bill. Ready for

introduction also will be the Financial Services Commission Bill.

21

On Thursday last Cabinet approved a proposal that the right to

receive unemployment benefits be extended from 26 weeks to 40

weeks, the additional 14 weeks to be paid at a slightly adjusted

rate. This facility remains in place in the first instance until the

year 2011. This measure is designed to alleviate the distress of

those who would have lost their jobs and have been experiencing

difficulty in securing other employment.

Now the Barbados Labour Party has, over the last few months,

tried to excite the minds of the people of Barbados on a number

of issues in the hope, not of seeing things improve nationally,, but

that they may secure the political traction of which they are so

frantically and so desperately in search.

First there is the issue of CLICO. When this CLICO issue broke in

Barbados early in the year 2009, the Opposition used it as an

22

opportunity to file a No Confidence Motion in Parliament against

the Prime Minister. In that debate, we were treated among other

things to disclosures about a land purchase made by the wife of

the Prime Minister. The motion was suitably defeated.

Consistently since then, every attempt has been made to continue

a hobby that dates back to 1994 – that of using CLICO as a

partisan political football but with only one side kicking the ball. In

all of this the massive contribution CLICO has made to the lives of

Barbadians has been sadly overlooked.

The government, through the lips of the Prime Minister and

through my own lips, has assured policy holders that our policy is

to ensure that Barbadians who invested in CLICO would not lose

the principal they invested. The Oversight Committee established

by the Government has reported and made recommendations

which are being evaluated by the Ministry of Finance and will very

soon be carried to the Cabinet before the way forward is

23

discussed with Barbadians. That way forward, whatever else it

involves, will ensure that the government’s commitment to

individual Barbadian investors in CLICO is not compromised.

CLICO’s football status will come to an end.

Another issue that has been the subject of animated discussion

over the last few days has had to do with the ending of the

relationship between the Chairman of the Board of the National

Housing Corporation and the Corporation itself. While one always

wishes that these partings could be kept to a minimum and would

be as friendly as possible, hostile partings are certainly not

unknown in politics and are, not infrequently, the stuff of which

party politics is made.

It was gracious of Mrs. Marilyn Rice-Bowen to have agreed to

serve the Corporation in the first place and I should like to take

this opportunity to thank her for putting so much of her valuable

time at the Corporation’s disposal.

24

Who would have thought, though, that Mrs. Rice-Bowen’s

departure from the Corporation would have been used as an

opportunity for Ms. Mottley and her deputy Mr. Marshall to, once

again, put their folly on display.

It was always known that Minister Lashley’s solid record in

housing was a source of continuing disquiet for the Barbados

Labour Party. He has not only promised houses, he has delivered

them. Potential homeowners at Marchfield or Work Hall or

Coverley did not receive imaginary keys but real ones. The

existence of the houses built under this Minister’s watch is subject

to ready proof.

I witnessed the handover of houses at Marchfield, Work Hall and

Coverley. Beneficiaries did not, before accepting their keys, ask

whether the Board knew about the houses or had been bypassed.

They were happy to be able to say “I now own my own home”. 25

This is not another way of saying that the Corporation and

Minister should not scrupulously pursue the highest standards of

corporate governance. After all, this is the way of the Democratic

Labour Party. A dispassionate evaluation of the evidence up to

now made available to me, has satisfied me that those standards

are being met.

On the issue of small contractors, the manifesto of the Democratic

Labour Party commits the Party to making life more bearable and

abundant for the more vulnerable in our society. In this category

are to be numbered the small contractors of Barbados.

The economic climate in which this government has had to

operate ever since coming to office has put particular pressure on

the resources available to the National Housing Corporation.

The difficulty of access to credit from our lending institutions has

posed challenges for our small contractors. But, houses have

had to be built and those businesses with easily accessible 26

resources agreed to partner with the Corporation in joint ventures

to assist it in the drive to house every last person in Barbados.

We have insisted that, wherever possible, small contractors

should be allowed to participate in this process.

We do not believe, that the fate which befell Barack Construction

should befall any other small contractors in Barbados. Recall the

claim that Mr. Barack worked for the Corporation under the

Barbados Labour Party and because he was not consistently paid

by the Corporation, strangled himself with debts privately

incurred, to do the Corporation’s business. The rest is now

familiar but very sad history which this government is committed

to correcting. That explanation is not just credible. It is true.

But it is not an explanation upon which any reasonable

government can expect small contractors to rely indefinitely.

Small contractors and their families have to eat, pay bills, educate

their children and meet all of the other obligations appropriate to

their larger counterparts. Many of these small contractors 27

suffered when we languished in the political wilderness. They

never disappeared from our radar .We will not let our small

contractors down.

One other issue that has agitated the public mind in recent times

is the impasse between the Board and BAMP at the Queen

Elizabeth Hospital. That the government of Barbados is

committed to the provision of a world class health care

environment is an issue which none will contest. This health care

ethos is composed of a preventive dimension and a curative

dimension.

The preventive dimension, the pursuit of which the government

has been promoting in the society, involves the practice of healthy

lifestyles. A most recent example of this was the initiative of the

Ministry of Health to ban smoking in public places – public places

that is as defined by the legislation. This emphasis will not only

continue but will be accentuated since preventive health care is 28

far less expensive than curative health care with its incidents of

hospitalisation, surgeries, expensive drugs, shortened work life

and sometimes ruined family life.

Curative health care poses the question what is the best and most

economical way to restore the health of a person who is sick and

either hospitalised or in need of hospitalisation? At the centre of

this dynamic is the sick person and around him are the doctor, the

nurses and other health care professionals and the hospital and

its administration. Between these three sets of actors there must

be a healthy and collaborative relationship if the objective of an

acceptable level of patient care is to be achieved. Put differently,

and hopefully, more simply, the end is the welfare of the patient,

the means are the health care professionals and the hospital.

Means should never be mistaken for ends and, more importantly,

ends should never be mistaken for means. Yet in all of this,

government has to ensure that conditions at the hospital facilitate

the achievement of as high as possible a level of health care. 29

This involves ensuring that our health care professionals can

carry out their functions with terms and conditions of service that

they find acceptable.

Let there be no mistake about it. Patients know when their needs

are being properly met. This government did not inherit a Q.E.H.

with which the public of Barbados was at all happy. Attempts to

improve conditions there will not always therefore, be in the

nature of a cake walk especially where vested interests are being

challenged. A strong and committed government has to be

prepared for this. It has to be prepared especially for the fall out

that results from functioning in an adversarial political

environment.

If the recent difficulties at the hospital have revealed anything of

value, it is that at present there is no groundswell of public

support for certain sections of the medical profession at the

Q.E.H. This is a problem with which the medical profession will 30

have to deal but the administration of the Q.E.H. must continue its

efforts to create an environment there that ensures that the

average citizen, not awash with money, will not be afraid to go

there if illness overtakes him.

Comrades and friends, before I conclude this presentation it is

important that I say something briefly about the state of politics in

Barbados. The Democratic Labour Party has just completed 55

years of existence. Of those 55 years it has spent about 25 years

in government and by its policies transformed this country from a

village to a nation.

The independence we now take for granted this Party fought for in

1966 against the resistance of the stiff necked and short-sighted

political Bourbons of the Barbados Labour Party. Because I

thought that that issue may have been forgotten by both our

members and the citizens of Barbados, I insisted that it be

revisited by Professor Woodville Marshall in the Annual Errol 31

Barrow Memorial Lecture in January this year. That lecture is

compulsory reading for all of our young aspiring politicians in the

Democratic Labour Party.

When I joined this organisation at the age of 18 in 1969 it was

because I was impressed with its philosophy, with its record and

with its nerve. Errol Barrow and the men and women around him

set the agenda for Barbados and pursued that agenda with

courage, conviction and single-mindedness.

The attempts at distraction then were far more that they are now

and the opposition was composed of political actors far more

intelligent, articulate and clear-minded than what Errol Barrow

would have called the “disgruntled and inept contenders for

political office” we have in Barbados today.

32

My sense is, though, that nowadays we tend to be too easily

distracted. The role of Oppositions is to talk; the responsibility of

governments is to do. It is not the role of Ministers of the Crown

to react to every rash and ill thought out utterance of a desperate

and directionless opposition spokesman or woman. When you

react, the actor is in control. When at a time you choose and

when all of the facts are known and evaluated, you respond, you

are in control.

Do not expect that any B.L.P. Member of Parliament, or member

or supporter will praise the government’s performance.

Governments always have something opposition parties want.

Opposition parties do not have anything that governments want.

If they praise us, they are guaranteeing our re-election which is

inconsistent with their interests. We must steer clear, therefore, of

behaving like marionettes where if our opponents want to see us

do our thing, they only have to pull our string.

33

No government in the history of Barbados has been called upon

to govern in global circumstances as difficult as those which exist

at this time. When the Great Depression happened, Barbados

was a colony of Britain. We were Britain’s headache then. Any

objective officious bystander today will have to concede that we

have been doing well in all of the circumstances.

When Errol Barrow was leader of the DLP in government he was

described by the Barbados Labour Party under Grantley Adams

and later Tom Adams as a “dictator” and a “madman”. When he

led us in opposition, we were described as a “headless and

dismembered opposition” by Tom Adams.

When Erskine Sandiford led us, they said he was not to the

manner born and that the spectacles he wore made him unfit to

be Prime Minister. He was too “stubborn”, they also contended.

34

When David Thompson led us in opposition they said he could

not be trusted; that he had a credibility problem; that he was at

the helm of a “goon squad”; that he was chief of a set of “wild

boys”; that should he get power, he would sell Barbados out to

CLICO because as Mr. Arthur said on the floor of Parliament, in

my presence, Mr. Thompson was a wholly owned subsidiary of

CLICO and Leroy Parris.

When Mr. Mascoll led us, they said that he was unfit to lead

because he looked like “Malik without teeth” and that we were

being led by a child with whom to deal would amount to “child

abuse”.

Since coming to office in January 2008, Prime Minister

Thompson, in 2009 faced a No Confidence Motion over CLICO

and only his unfortunate illness has saved him from the

ungracious and unsparing criticisms of his jealous adversaries.35

There has been no changing of the guard in Barbados. The Prime

Minister and Minister of Finance in Barbados is still the Hon.

David Thompson. He is on leave and I am acting as Prime

Minister as I have done on numerous occasions since January

2008. There is nothing new about this. When in the 1970’s Prime

Minister Errol Barrow took three months leave to teach at Florida

International University, his Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Edwy

Talma acted as Prime Minister. There was no changing of the

guard then either.

Not surprisingly though the Barbados Labour Party has now

turned attention to me. I wish them luck! I was not brought into

politics. I entered it having prepared myself from the age of nine

(9). There is nothing of political value in Barbados that has

escaped my notice or reflection since age nine (9). I am not a

piece of “plasticine” which anybody in the Barbados Labour Party

36

or any of their henchmen or publicists can mould and shape after

their own will.

We are committed to reversing the trend firmly established in

Barbados under the last administration where the white noise of

statistics was used to conceal the deep cleavage existing

between the “haves” and “have-nots”; where an increasing

number of children could not look forward to doing better in this

society than their parents or grandparents; and where politics was

treated as a kind of spectator sport with the masses sitting

ringside cheering on this or that platform or parliamentary

gladiator.

For us politics is about how power can be used to change for the

better the lives of the vulnerable and the voiceless in this society.

37

When you listen to the Barbados Labour Party, the voice in your

head will be saying, in the familiar words of the calypsonian, L’il

Rick, “guh down, guh down, guh down”. When you listen to the

Democratic Labour Party, the voice in your head will be saying

“don’t stop down dey; come up, come up, come up”.

As President Obama observed recently, if you want your car to go

forward the gear you use is “D”. In Barbadian parlance, if you

want your car to “back-back”, the gear you use is “B”.

Ours is the better way! Ours is the way to the stars!

Thank You.

38