Barbados is being warmly welcomed back into the international affairs arena after experiencing a “lost decade” and as it seeks to “punch above its weight” once again.
That, in essence, was a promise the country’s Prime Minister, Mia Amor Mottley made to hundreds of Bajan-New Yorkers at a crowded town-hall style reception in Brooklyn on last night. The Prime Minister spoke and answered questions for more than two and a half hours in the spacious facilities of the Friends of Crown Heights, a community service centre, in the heart of a largely Caribbean and African-American community in central Brooklyn.
“Our country is back, people at the United Nations are willing to work with us, to give Barbados its space,” she told a cheering standing-room-only crowd. She also noted that her administration intended to earn Barbados’ place.
The Prime Minister, who was accompanied by Minister of Foreign affairs Senator Jerome Walcott and ambassador-at-large, Dame Billie Miller, was given a standing ovation when she entered the large hall and was frequently interrupted by loud cheers. She was later joined by Minister of Health Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic, and Liz Thompson, the country’s new Permanent Representative at the UN.
“We have lost a decade,” she was quick to assert, indirectly alluding to the tenure of the Freundel Stuart administration and the fact that Barbados was now the third most highly indebted nation in the world, behind Japan and Greece.
However, today “our voice has to be heard if we are to create the policy space,” Mottley went on. “The wind is at our sails.”
“Help us build back our nation,” she said. “The Government can’t do everything. We want, we need you.”
In her unscripted presentation and answers to more than a dozen questions, Mottley appealed to people at all levels of society, to link arms in order to find solutions to financial problems and to meet the challenges that confront small island developing states and most of emerging economies. (TB)
