One thing I promise myself each Kadooment yet some crud always pops up and shoves it aside, but I vow, especially now, to go to Wadadah‘s Back To School fete where adults put on their alma mater‘s uniform and celebrate Crop Over – this is an institution which is now as significant as the one-time dangerous habit of burning Mr Harding, yet far safer and more fun!
What does this have to do when I was throwing out the previous week’s batch of newspapers? (I have to see what the competition’s up to you know – they check my site for story ideas, while I see how many they steal from me) So I saw the back page of the 24/7/2010 Saturday Sun and I was like, “No way, this ain’t right? I seeing things?”
But there it was, and then I understood Peter Boyce‘s 3:00 am topic on Facebook earlier this week, since it was about Wadadah. There it is on the back page, this item where Ronald Jones lambastes the whole Back To School shindig from Wadadah… In his view, the fete bastardises the discipline of the secondary education system which is Barbados’…
Luckily, I had a garbage bag handy, so I hurled in it when I read the ripe grunge which Jones was spewing!
I don’t know what’s happened to Minister Jones these days, I remembered him as the heroic President of the BUT in 1991 when he marched against Lloyd Erskine Sandiford over the 8% Pay Cut, but now he is this ridiculous caricature of himself.
Early last year he pledged to boost security at schools and yet Parkinson Memorial Secondary was robbed in daylight and worse, during school hours – what has he really done other than try to divert attention with decrying pupils having cellphones?
Why is he only NOW bringing up the Wadadah issue? He was in this post almost from the start of 2008, and during that space, there have been numerous occasions where many schools have had a day where teachers become the students and in uniform while the pupils from fifth form or higher are allowed “civvies” so as to mimic the educators they revere.
Has Jones really paid any attention to Back To School? It is one of the few events in Crop Over where adults are well-behaved, there’s no violence and if anything, the grown up’s treat the uniforms better than when they had school days – as they view it as a sign of high respect what they’re doing, having fun and respecting nostalgia in a modern-day setting!
And this is the man they allow to be Acting Prime Minister on occasion? I had a former colleague say to me that Ronald Jones is no Acting Prime Minister but he is definitely acting the fool!
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