To true freedom of thought!

By ALVIN CUMMINS
| Mon, April 23, 2012 - 12:00 AM

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WE NEED A REVOLUTION.

Not a revolution involving guns, and shooting and killing, or the overthrow of a government.

What kind of revolution then? We need a revolution in our thinking and in our approach to many things we take for granted and accept as is.

When should this revolution take place?

Now!

Why?

Because after 45 years of an Independence gained from our colonial masters, we are slowly but with increasing speed reversing the results of that effort. We are returning to the very steps we said we would not be found loitering upon, with our arms outstretched, for the shackles to be put on again.

We need a revolution because we are neglecting the opportunities of our Independence to free ourselves from continued dependence on our colonial masters and shift our focus to our own people; not those on the African continent, but those in our own sphere, our own space, our own immediate ancestors.

We need a revolution because we continue to adhere to the dictates of a religion that perpetuates a belief in a nebulous being whose authenticity we cannot verify or validate. And we support a concept that is only a lottery with no verifiable prize.

We need a revolution in our thinking because our thinking has been so inundated with negative propaganda, that we have ceased thinking rationally for ourselves. We are contented to reflect the messages we are given by the same colonial masters, to the extent that we doubt ourselves and our own abilities to make our own decisions and achieve success.

Bob Marley tells us to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery. There is a need for us to reconnect with the descendents of many Barbadians who left here many years to work in Cuba and whose offspring long, with deep fervency, to connect with their relatives here in the home of their foreparents.

There is a need for our rethinking of Cuba and its revolution, and our attitudes to its government and people. There is need for understanding the history of Cuba, and the strength of its people, their resourcefulness, and their achievements of rising from dependence to true independence, and freedom from the constraints of former colonizers Spain and the United States.

We need to rethink our educational system and instil in our young people the need for greater contribution; and to return to the society that nurtures them some of the benefits they have enjoyed.

I wish our leaders and people had an understanding of true Independence.