“I just don’t think we are doing ourselves a credit and a just service by having this when people are being admonished to sit in the comfort of your home and watch on a screen,” Atherley said. Opposition leader Bishop Joseph Atherley said this week’s celebrations among dignitaries would largely not be accessible to ordinary people. The country has just eased a longstanding Covid curfew, pushing it back from 9:00 pm to midnight. Unemployment is at nearly 16 percent, up from nine percent in recent years, despite sharply increased government borrowing to fund public sector projects and create jobs.
In October, Barbados elected Mason to become its first president, one year after Prime Minister Mia Mottley declared that the country would “fully” leave its colonial past.īut some Barbadians argue there are more pressing national issues, including economic turmoil caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has exposed overreliance on tourism - which, ironically, is dependent on British visitors.Įerie calm in usually bustling Bridgetown, paltry numbers at popular tourist spots and a dead nightlife scene all point to a country struggling after years of relative prosperity. “The actual chains (of slavery) were broken and we no longer wore them, but the mental chains continue to persist in our mindsets.” “The wealth gap, the ability to own land, and even access to loans from banks all have a lot to do with structures built out of being ruled by Britain,” Bulbulia, 26, said. “Having a female Barbadian president will be great.” – Colonialism and slavery –įor young activists such as Firhaana Bulbulia, founder of the Barbados Muslim Association, British colonialism and slavery lie behind the island’s modern inequalities. “As I grow older and older, I started to wonder what this queen really means for me and for my nation. “As a young girl, when I heard about the queen, I would be really excited,” said Sharon Bellamy-Thompson, 50, a fish vendor in the capital Bridgetown who remembers being about eight and seeing the monarch on a visit.
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