SHEDDING THE CARTEL:Â A THORNE IN THE SIDE OF EVIL.
By Wade Gibbons
I have lived in Barbados, consciously, under the previous rule of Errol Barrow, Tom Adams, Bernard St. John, Erskine Sandiford, Owen Arthur, David Thompson and Freundel Stuart. This is the first time I feel as though Barbados is under the yoke of an unsavoury cartel.
There seems to be no respect for our institutions and the rule of law, functioning democracy has become a mere catchphrase, there are suspicions about the operations of the judiciary and possible political influence, there is concern about the emasculation of the Barbados Police Service and obvious political interference and infiltration.
There is worry that many in the church pray to one God but kowtow to the whims and fancies of a would-be demigod. Barbadian values in grooming that made schoolchildren look like schoolchildren have been subsumed in the imported poison foisted on every parish in the name of education. Connected criminals are being gifted more resources than pensioners, children and the infirm. Drug abuse has moved from backstreets and indoors and now proudly parades at most social gatherings.
Traditional media have so taken to Bush Hill that some owners and managers would make Jezebel look chaste. The labour movement too is now showing similar flesh outside the Savannah. Both have been prey to Amazonian dictates. Political leaders are openly consorting, cavorting and carousing with thugs. Laws are being changed, not to serve the interests of the masses, but can be interpreted as providing opportunities for family and friends, and to extract money from beleaguered citizens.
Fear of the government has so gripped many Barbadians that they remain silent when they should be screaming to the high heavens. Their silence is a sharp contrast to the wounds our government inflicts daily.
Adults confuse rotund one-liners, rhetoric, quips and empty verbose for intelligence, negro influencers return to auction and sell their soul and integrity for a pittance. Some give attribution to the term “cares” as though it is a true moniker of its target’s character, when it is nothing more than wasted air from the mouths of dullards.
Barbados seems just 30 pieces of silver away from its final descent – the first sanctioned killing of public dissenters by the criminal alliances of those pulling the strings.
The alternative for Barbados is abundantly clear.
As if living a paradox, one man with nothing to lose, has put everything on the line to lose, because he believes what he is fighting for is much bigger than himself. He sees the people he seeks to serve as greater than himself. He has no qualms about confronting “Big Works”; he intends to be a thorn in the side of evil.
The catchy, plagiarised slogan “lost decade” was used to good effect by a motley group. That misnomer has been replaced by the stark reality of Eight Years of Evil; eight years of murders and mayhem, eight years of contempt and corruption, eight years of bogus growth, botched laws and blind borrowing, eight years of worsening social services and contrived foreign reserves. Eight years of selling Barbadians an illusion.
The chance and choices to return Barbados to some semblance of decency and normalcy seem palpably easy. Time for Bajans to shed their blinkers. . .and the cartel
Author, Wade Gibbons,
January 2026
