I HAVE BEEN following closely, reading and listening tuh the people who have been expressing duh views and giving my girl Rihanna a good cut-tail fuh some o’ the things dem doan think she should be doing in recent times. I talkin’ ’bout in and on pon magazines’ covers, and especially dat last music video dat get banned from some countries.
I have also been following what Mr Adrian Elcock, the newly appointed chairman o’ the Tourist Board has been saying ’bout the bashers – the jealous Bajans and the very promoters who does bring in evahbody else except Rihanna, who is a Bajan and an international star.
Now wunna could bash me if wunna want and all wunna want, I really doan care, but this is my take pon the whole thing. Wunna cahn make nuhbody say or do what ya’all want dem tuh. It is dem mout and they have an opinion. If duh ain’t like it, duh ain’t like it; international star or not, people have values and principles dat duh stand by and teach their children, not double standards like some other people.
The other thing is this; who is Rihanna dat nuhbody cahn bash she? Wha’ ‘cording tuh my mother, she is a mushroom? She is tissue paper?
Look, duh ain’t nuhbody dat get more bashing and tongue-lashing – and fuh what? – than the older Bajan musicians and entertainers and I never hear nuhbody from the Tourist Board, nuh Government minister, nuh church minister, nuh school principal, nuhbody come out in dem defence yet. And look, some o’ duh dead and gone long and up tuh now I ain’t hear bout none o’ dem evah being nuh ambassador, sweet as dem coulda sing.
I ain’t got tuh tell nuh lies, if wunna doubt me, ask people like Richard Stoute, Smokey Burke, Wendy Alleyne, Carlyn Leacock, Tony Grazette, Clarence Thompson, Bandit, The Draytons Two, and in more recent times the John King, Red Plastic Bag and Gabby, who does still get cuss up tuh now.
All dem kinda people so who wuk hard and long singing in hotels fuh ends o’ money. Duh had tuh change outside in the open or probably in duh cars or in the bathrooms wid the very tourists dem was singing tuh coming in and out watching dem. Why Elcock doan address dah?
Looka, Rihanna ain’t want nuhbody, not a soul, representing she; she doing the dog all ovah the world, whenever, wherevah, howevah and wid whoevah she like. I ain’t know wha’ all o’ wunna confusing wunna selves wid her for. She announced tuh the world at the beginning o’ the year dat she is about sex, and suh far she has not disappointed a soul.
If Rihanna didn’t want nuhbody tuh talk ’bout her she would and should have stayed out of the limelight. She should have gone tuh Combermere, study hard and long, get a couple o’ certificates, send in some applications and get a eight tuh four job like anybody else. Then marry, have a couple o’ children, a house wid a white picket fence and a dog, and live happily ever after.
But no! Rihanna didn’t do dat. My girl decide tuh get bold and went and say she doing audition, get people tuh like she, get a break pon the big scene. Next thing she was dressing up and looking like a hottie, tekking off she clothes and posing half-naked fuh GQ magazine and whoevah else fuh the whole world tuh see, while carrying the title “Youth Ambassador” fuh Barbados, and Elcock and a lot o’ other people ain’t want nuhbody tuh say nutten? Man, you barely like um; you ain’t saying a pang.
Ya know wha’ happen tuh a lot o’ people in this Barbados? Wunnuh too hypocritical. Nuh wonder we got summuch problems wid we li’l people. We got too many double standards. We telling we children dat as long as ya popular and successful, ya could do wha’evah ya like and as ya like; and when some people who doan believe in the crap express duh views, the first thing ya does hear people saying is dat duh jealous or dat Bajans like tuh castigate and tear down duh own people all the time, dat duh got bad minds.
Dem forget dat it does happen all ovah the world, especially in the States, where all o’ dem big stars does be under scrutiny morning, noon and night.
But you could imagine dat these kinda people so wouldn’t want nuhbody tuh bash Rihanna and she is only Rihanna. But my sweet Jesus come down here and walk upright, feed the hungry, heal the sick, raise the dead, make the blind see and do all the good things fuh duh and duh ain’t only bash he, duh bash he tuh death.
Mavis Beckles was born and raised in The Orleans. She has an opinion on everything.
