Sourcing Souls from Idiotville

I had another 'I hate Barbados' moment yesterday when I attended a Town hall meeting on the upcoming Bathsheba Heritage Festival.

This is BIM

Legacy Barbados with World Cup 2007 have implemented a community project using Bathsheba as the guinea pig under the premise that tourists are not just looking for nice beaches anymore- they want to experience 'we culcha'... our culture. So- they've organized a festival for Independence Day in Bathsheba celebrating all that is Barbadianna. Nature walks, Food and Drink, Cultural Shows, Picture displays, Treasure hunts you get the picture. They've also pledged to make it green (good luck to them).

It is supposed to be an opportunity for residents in Bathsheba to have first dibs of stalls, jobs, etc... to which they(Legacy) are coughing up half of the bill to rent the stall, doing the set-up and the security and the clean-up and the marketing and the bussing in of tourists and the promotion of individual businesses and products. Sound Good?

To me it did. Ok. You make a few fish cakes and they bring in 1500 people to potentially buy them. Good money for one day- very little effort required.

Here's how it went:

A flyer about the meeting was sent to every house in the area. I say every house but really every adult 'cause I got two in mine. When the meeting started there were two people there. My sister and my self.

Ah Community Apathy how well I know you from the PTA.

But then, we did get a couple of residents in.

Angry as the fires in hell about copywriting of the name 'Bathsheba Heritage Festival' and exploitation of the residents and their culture and the ramifications of World Cup and "soon from now we won't be able to walk down the street" and you people want to come in here and take over and profit off of us and stomping foot and pointing finger and puffing chest and witholding names. It was so juvenile.

Poor poor dude who came to explain the festival- doesn't he yet know that when there's room for anything except apathy in this country it's contention, derision, jealousy and negativity?

The evening culminated nicely in the appearance of drunk asshole who came in to "bre'k up this meeting" because he has a beef with the Chair of Legacy over parking. (He doesn't own a car, mind) Upon seeing Michelle and I maternally comforting the wounded idealism of the Chair's protege, he bellowed out my most favorite Babadian argument for anything from cookware to cockfights:
"Those white bitches come from away and tink dey can come hay and slave 'bout de people dem. I born hay. I 100% Bajan. Dey want going to fuck long what part dey come frum."
(His father is a white foreigner, of course)

Ah Barbados...Why are you so hung up on sourcing your souls from Idiotville?
Will I ever be able to stomach the spiteful mentality of your offspring?