BY HARTLEY HENRY

THANK YOU, BARBADOS, for coming out to the Rihanna welcome home concert.

Owing to commitments abroad, I was not among the multitude, but I got a "blow by blow" account of the Independence Square megaevent. It is because I heard and understood clearly what transpired that I am calling on the critics to "ease up off KB Kleen". I accept his unconditional apology.

Today, he stands ten feet taller in my sight.

In a strange way, KB is himself a victim. He is not solely responsible for what he said and did on that magical night. As an entertainer in Barbados, where would he have gone to learn preferred and acceptable conduct?

The phenomenal growth of Rihanna is due to her believing in herself and grasping opportunities as they presented themselves. There was no establishment in Barbados structured to nurture her raw talent as a teenager. That is why the careers of hundreds of other Rihanna's have been still-born.

The Ministry of Culture and its offspring the National Cultural Foundation have been rudderless for close to two decades. Mediocrity abounded during a period when success was measured in terms of gate receipts and tourist arrivals. Cultural ambassadors were appointed on the basis of switched political allegiance, and entertainers "rose up and fell down" on the basis of crowd reaction and response. Simply put, culture, as it was perceived, was relegated to "wuk-up jam sessions" and schoolchildren parading occasionally in the hot sun.

Talented people like KB Kleen were never schooled in the "dos and don'ts" of performing. There was no establishment structured to harness raw talent such as KB's and others. Those who succeeded did so against the odds, and even such perceived success is relative, because perhaps were they properly handled they could have reached the Grammy's long before Rihanna.

Time was, not too long ago, when politicians declared young entertainers as "role models" and "cultural icons" on the basis of a chart-busting single. Once the photographs were taken and the politicians received their accolades, those very "role models" were left to fend for themselves in a fiercely competitive and dog-eat-dog environment.

Where was the academy of performance and entertainment? Whom did the authorities recruit to mentor young talented individuals? What cultural policy did the then political directorate set out?

Where was the handbook of what was acceptable on stage and what was not? Who was there to say to the KB Kleens of this world that "there is a time and place for this, and there is a time and place for that"? Ministerial responsibility meant receiving an inordinate numbr of gate passes for Crop-Over events. That was the sum total of how some decision makers perceived the culture portfolio.

On the stage and in performances, any and everything was acceptable in the name of being funny and popular. Artistes became celebrities by virtue of near misses and a little wit. No one established standards for the calypso tent, the school concert or the National Stadium sell-out event.

But, all of a sudden a "big day" springs upon us and the same entertainers who were left to swim or sink by themselves and who were applauded over the years for doing and saying just what they did and said last Thursday, are being pilloried because they did not know where, when and how. They did not know because they were not taught! We are the one's who declared them celebrities and icons!

As a people, we either did not have the vision or the confidence to believe that some day one of our own would make it to the Grammys. We never thought the eyes of the world would be upon us through the genius of an entertainer. We were more expecting a sportsman or an intellectual.

Now that Rihanna has broken barriers and demonstrated to us where our entertainers can reach, our self-righteousness has now made us become experts on knowing what is world class and what is not.

The perceived foul ups of the Rihanna tribute should be used by us to speedily put systems in place to prepare our entertainers for "the big stage and the bright lights".

*Hartley Henry is a regional political strategist and a former Democratic Labour Party candidate. He may be reached at hartley@mailhenry.com