BARBADIANS have been advised that exhibiting the qualities of the country’s National Heroes and following their example were the surest paths to prosperity while avoiding new forms of cultural and economic enslavement.
Acting Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth Senator Patrick Todd gave this counsel at the National Heroes Thanksgiving Service at the Western Light Church of the Nazarene, Oxnards, St James, yesterday.
He said that in view of the fact that Barbadians were “a people struggling to make our way in rapidly changing and difficult social, cultural and economic circumstances globally”, his ministry was inviting every individual and institution, the private sector and civil society to emulate the country’s heroes.
In the presence of the island’s only living National Hero Sir Garfield Sobers, Todd said Barbadians should be thinking deeply about what it means to be emancipated and to live as free people, thinking freely and creatively, and acting productively for self-determination.
“Now is the time to internalize the full significance of Emancipation and the true meaning of freedom. Real freedom comes with the responsibility of self-determination. The Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow advocated this. The Right Excellent General Bussa died for this cause,” he said.
The acting minister said that Heroes Day was set aside for reflection on the fundamental importance of the work of the ten National Heroes.
He also gave the reminder that “as we pay tribute to these heroes we cannot forget our greatest hero, the Lord Jesus Christ”. (AH)
