Appealing for a System of National Honours

EVERYYEAR AS we approach NATIONAL HEROES DAY, the question that is asked most often is when will there be another National Hero? A number of names are called, people who, according to the criteria for deciding on National Heroes, do not qualify.The question is what determines when National Heroes are named?

My position is that we have so far not completed what we need to do with Chatoyer. A statue of Chatoyer had been promised for a long time. It is not even being talked about. Perhaps it could be placed at Chatoyer’s National Park or at some prominent place in Kingstown. What is prominent in Kingstown is a statue representing Vincentians who had fought in the World Wars, and we know the type of Vincentians they would have been.They were Vincentians, nonetheless. We have not done a good job with our first National Hero. A lot is still not known about him. Let him be featured, perhaps, much more in our schools. We tend to only remember him on March 14 which we celebrate as National Heroes Day, the day on which Chatoyer died after an ambush. In fact, to be historically correct, he died on March 15.That is however not an issue.

About ten years ago, probably, an appeal was made to submit names for national heroes. I submitted a document on George McIntosh, whom I believe should be our next National Hero.This can however wait. For many years I have been appealing for a system of National Honours. I happened to have known, because I saw it, the existence of a comprehensive document on a system of National Honours that was prepared by the then Minister of Culture, John Horne. I am not sure what happened to that document. It is perhaps still around, gathering dust somewhere. If this can be retrieved from wherever it is, it could be looked at again and updated. One of the good things about a system of National Honours is that the individuals on whom these honours are going to be bestowed will not, unlike the National Heroes system, have to be dead. There are persons in different fields who have done outstanding work and need to be recognised. Their areas of recognition might not be national, but community based.We all know of teachers, police, nurses, doctors, fisherfolk, farmers and others who have served their communities with distinction. Over the years the name Sarah Baptiste had been much talked about as a midwife in the North Windward area. She found herself sometimes in night walking through the villages delivering babies. And there were others, not necessarily midwives, performing outstanding work that has benefitted their communities.