The William Skinner Blog

  Education Reform Barbados It is extremely difficult to believe that we are incapable of solving current challenges relating to crime and other acts of social deviancy. Our culture remains the foundation of our development. It has undergone tremendous change, both for the better and the worst, during the last four decades. However, we remain a society that still demonstrates some virtues of basic decency toward each other but we   have failed to recognize that culture must be maintained, instilled and explained to our citizens. We cannot continue to ignore the depth of cultural penetration , as we sought socio economic development during the post-independence period. To address this , we must seriously examine our education system . The present raging debate regarding the transformation of the system clearly shows we want change but also expect to cling to the status quo ; this creates a perfect   recipe for confusion. The current method of transferring children from the primary

 Crime undermines the entire society Today’s Editorial As Barbados struggles with its citizen safety and security due to a spate of gun murders, one of the most extreme examples of a breakdown in law and order is playing out in the northern Caribbean. Haiti, a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member state, is battling one of its worst episodes of crime and violence in recent times. The fact that the state apparatus has essentially broken down has created the circumstance for hoodlums and bandits to roam the streets in a literal free-for-all. At the centre of Haiti's crisis is gun violence and the free flow of high-powered firearms into the desperately poor nation. Marauding gangs of gun-toting young men have worsened an already dire situation that has spiralled out of control. As some regional leaders offer limited military and financial support to the CARICOM member nation, the situation there has become exceedingly challenging and beyond the scope of these small islands to address i

    We have never argued against or implied that exogenous issues don’t affect us. However, it is most interesting , that on several occasions, discussions about our national/ regional problems , have been ignored and we jump right into what is happening in Ukraine, Russia, Gaza , as if we don’t have televisions and other media. Our transition to true transformation is being inhibited because we want to pretend that some new global dispensation will be to our immediate benefit. That is a geopolitical illusion. For those , who read deeply , into current CARICOM thinking, there is a renewed call for such things as a common currency and speaking with one voice in international fora and trying to combat globalization with one common strategy. We need to do better in order to avoid another period of protracted poverty and political malaise. At this time we need more Caribbean thinkers; we need those who want to complete the independence project and transform our region. Only then would we b

  There is no doubt that we are still suffering from mental slavery . We have foolishly tried to bury our past and opted to ignore the psychological damage that we endured and that some have been able to overcome. A people cannot progressively exist unless they understand their past. This reasoning , sounds like pure gibberish because we have measured progress by materialism . Throughout the region there is self hatred because we don’t know ourselves ; we hate ourselves.  Until we address this collectively as a people , we are going to continue the social, political and economic malaise.  By understanding  our past, we would be better prepared to deal with the present and future. Where is the real foundation for our youth. We need to understand that earlier generations were denied true education and receiving an education was in itself very difficult. Ironically, they might have been spared because those of us who apparently mastered the colonialist educational system are now more colo

                                                         Caribbean Global Influence ? Ever since the take over of the world by the almost unimaginable growth of technology, called the internet, we have heard about how the smaller the world is because we are better connected. Some have even branded it the prophecy expressed in George Orwell’s 1984. Not only Big Brother is watching us but our neighbours , friends and complete strangers, are apparently also playing the role of Big Brother. Nothing seems secret and privacy may be an anachronism. The Caribbean was caught sleeping and is still trying our utmost, to catch up and keep up with the pace that the new technologies have set. Our vulnerabilities have been laid bare and when COVID visited us, our precarious economic challenges were globally exposed , especially in those countries that almost depend exclusively on tourism, for their economic well being. In recent years , we have attempted to make our voices heard louder on the i

  By William Skinner Traditionally, Caribbean people have been very conscious and aware of their environment. The growth of the international environment movement, has placed protection on : rainforests, water resources, and both land and ocean pollution. It is fashionable , to promote care for the environment , as a sophisticated science , understood only by the so-called experts.   The broader populace , is expected to be educated to and wait on directives from the experts , not realizing that the care of the environment commences with a diligence of our own and immediate private properties, living conditions and spaces. In the old Caribbean, we saw keeping our personal environments as our natural responsibility. The chattel houses were exquisitely painted , with immaculately kept gardens and every rock was meticulously used and even empty soda bottles, were placed to complete the creative landscaping of the gardens that flourished with popular tropical plants. That picture remai