Black Immigrant Daily News
Changing one’s use of language is the first step towards changing behaviour.
Speaking on the surge of violence in Barbados, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley called on residents to start by “eliminating violence from our language”.
“There is no gainsaying that the issue of violence and in particular, gun violence has to be confronted by all of us as a nation. And it is to that, that we have continued to speak. We’ve put resources behind being able to do more trials at a quicker rate, being able to give the police and law enforcement that which they need to keep the country safe.
But you and I both know also that we need at the level of our families and communities to ensure that we can do what we have to do because guns don’t talk and guns don’t walk. It is people who do who use guns. And to that extent, if we start by eliminating violence from our language, violence from our communities, and one thing that we need to do is to help each other to understand how not to respond in a reprisal,” the Prime Minister maintained.
She continued that if locals would master “how not to want to carry it any further” it would help to contain the levels of violence within the society.
“We urge everyone to cooperate with the police as they seek to make us safe. Recognising that they alone, however, cannot do it by themselves. Then I want us to look at the issue of what we do as individuals. We have to work hard in order to be able to prepare ourselves better, but we have to work hard in the jobs that we do in order to make sure that we can deliver whatever it is, whether we’re making goods or delivering services to people,” she continued.
Recognising the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine war, and rising cost of living, the Prime Minister assured that those in need, would not be forgotten.
“We will ensure that the mission of enfranchisement and empowerment continues to be our guiding principle. But we are sensitive to the fact that there are still some of you who are feeling that harder than others. And to that extent, the government will keep its eyes open and its arms wide in order to support you, just as we have done over the course of the last few years.
I’d like us to recognise that each of us has a role to play from wherever we are, whether in the labor movement, whether in the private sector, whether in civil society, or whether as individual players, as workers or investors or employers, as government, as public servants. And this is because collectively our efforts will make the difference to our being able to add 2023 as another year of growth to what we have been able to achieve in 2022,” she stated.
NewsAmericasNow.com
