Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart (Facebook)
Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart Monday sought to underscore the importance of protecting the society from various threats, while reiterating that the island is not just an economy, but a society.
Stuart, delivering the feature address at the National Societal Consultation, said the world had become unstable, with “unprecedented” violence.
“We see the family put under enormous threat and pressure; our institutions, which were supposed to reinforce our attachment to the building of a society, have been operating under untold pressure as well.
“The school, church, family, the labor movement, our political parties, all of these reinforcing institutions have been under enormous pressure as a result of a very volatile global environment,” Stuart told delegates to the annual consultation being held under the theme “Citizen Security: Linking Societal Systems for Success.”
“It is not just guns that can get into Barbados; it is not just foreign goods that can get into Barbados, but alien habits can get into Barbados as well, to undermine or to color a lot of what we do or want to do here in this country,” he added.
Prime Minister Stuart said that if societies were to be protected from threats, officials must determine whether to adopt the mentality of the fox and focus on many things, or that of the hedgehog and zero in on one or two very big issues.
He identified social alienation, frustration, insecurity and disillusionment as the “demons” the western world, including Barbados and the Caribbean, must protect their societies from.
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