Let us pursue happiness

Editor: A brother who called in to one of our popular radio programmes recently stated that “happiness is what we are pursuing.” Indeed, that is an excellent mission statement, I think.

This sad situation in Canouan reminds me of some concerns I had expressed some time ago, on the subject of “development.” For too long now, the view has been that development means the construction of impressive new edifices, in the process of which jobs are created and to do this with urgency,{{more}} small island states like ours are induced to concede, that we must bend over backwards to accommodate expatriates who come to us with their schemes, which promise to provide significant employment for our people. Many of the schemes have been short-lived and disappointing.

So, it is ludicrous to allow the persons to whom we have given such welcome to our shores to flagrantly intrude on the rights of the people, the citizens, to freely enjoy their patrimony in peace. In that regard, these “developments”, may, in fact, be crippling us psychologically, thus robbing us from the enjoyment of a greater “development,” which could be naturally ours 30 or 40 years down the road. Certainly, the current happenings in Canouan do not seem to represent signposts of the road we had embarked on in the “conscious season” of 2000-2001.

In that period, we thought we were on a determined march towards the upliftment of our people. That was the spirit captured in an article in the Searchlight newspaper, “NO TURNING BACK NOW” by Renwick Rose. The concluding paragraph reads: “That means that the ODD which raised our hopes and expectations has a ‘Sacred Responsibility’ to be Active, to hold all the signatories to their commitment to work with the Christian Council, to persuade CARICOM and the OECS to ensure that the Council is provided with the capacity to fulfill its mandate.”

In those days, we seemed to be energetically in pursuit of happiness. Given today’s reality, the admonishment by Dr Gonsalves during his recent press conference is pertinent, “When promises are made, we must exert ourselves to effect them.” His example will be helpful; so now, “Let happiness be what we are pursuing.”

LeRoy Providence