BY RICHARD HOAD

WITH THE COMPLIMENTS of His Excellency Sir Clifford Husbands, GCMG, KA, Governor-General of Barbados, de facto Head of State of our great empire, symbol of sovereign majesty supreme, your humble servant was vouchsafed a copy of a 2006 calendar entitled: "A tribute to the robust Barbadian spirit that is our strength and inspiration."

It features photographs of Barbados 1949-70, each month representing our former sterling qualities of Friendliness; Confidence; Steadfastness; Pride of Nationhood; Industry; Loyalty; Faith in God; Strength and Unity; Excellence; Family Values; Independence and Discipline; qualities in short supply in today's Barbados.

"The fundamental Law of the Universe," writes my good friend David Gittens, "is change . . . . We can say that change is inevitable and in fact there is nothing anybody can do about it . . . fellow Barbadians should recognise that change is unstoppable, that it's going to come whether one likes it or not and submitting to fear, throwing up one's hands, carping and complaining and living in yesterday is not the best way to respond."

One must "adjust one's modus operandi and operate within the new parameters presented. This is the only way the individual can remain 'on top of his game'. It's either this or get lost in the sauce"!

Those of us who "live in yesterday" can take heart from the fact that in the 1970s the Communists were equally confident that world take-over by their ideology was "inevitable" and "unstoppable". Alas, the plans of mice and men . . . .

In her book, Inside The Kingdom, Carmen bin Ladin, Osama's sister-in-law, tells how in 1979 Saudi Arabians reverted to former Islamic values. "It was the young people who frightened me most . . . . I saw their gloves and black stockings and their angry faces – heard the demands for more restrictions. Surely it could not be true that the young were in fact longing for the world to move in reverse?"

So I don't accept that change is all that unstoppable or irreversible. But what exactly is Dee Gee saying? That when I see in the GG's calendar, fit, healthy-looking, old-time Barbadians (check the men loading sugar onto a lighter) and compare them with today's bloated, obese, Westernised, fast-fed, lazy, asthmatic, diabetic specimens, I should welcome the change?

Should I adjust my parameters and accept that in today's changed world, our youth prefer crack to cricket? That our best agricultural land is being abandoned so it can be sold as housing for rich foreigners? That Trinidadian entities are taking over vast proportions of our land and businesses? That floods of immigrants are straining our resources to the hilt? While ordinary Barbadians can no longer aspire to own a home in their own country?

Not for (bad word)! I have no problem with change. But the change should be an improvement on what we had before. And it must be what we Bajans want, not change imposed from Western capitals. Or even concocted at the whims of misguided West Indian politicians.

What's more, if Owen Arthur and "Brek-Foot" Thompson aren't interested in stemming the tide, then let's give David Comissiong and the People's Empowerment Party a try. And first on the agenda, get rid of vermins.

Barbados used to be proudly vermin-free. You could enjoy a little peace lying in a cane-ground or grass-pasture. No more. The Bees and Dems have allowed the import of vermins, to wit, snakes and alligators. Inevitably, a 15-foot python has escaped and is terrorising the Joe's River area. My wife sleeps with her collins and hacks at anything even remotely snakelike. One fears the python may rise unwittingly. Get them vermins out, David.

Change has brought anger and frustration to our young people. Could it be that, like those in Saudi Arabia, they want to get back to more meaningful lives? Could this be why the Governor-General's agricultural summer camp last year was so popular?

And could it be that the ones submitting to fear and throwing up their hands are not us who oppose detrimental change but rather those who are content to go with the flow? And maybe get lost in the sauce?

I don't know. But I leave you this advice usually sung to John Philip Sousa's stirring march: Be kind to your web-footed friends, for a duck may be somebody's mother . . . .