If Minister of Education Ronald Jones had his way, all men in Barbados would be made to pull up their pants – literally!
Addressing the Grantley Adams School Speech Day and Prize Giving ceremony today, Jones lamented what he viewed as a very negative trend of men exposing their underwear in public, saying it should be banned.
“I would like to ban in this country, all persons who show me their underwear,” declared the Minister of Education.
“I don’t want to see your boxer,” he added.
“. . . I have no interest in that. I don’t want to see the pants that you wearing, that you can’t stand up straight [in], and you look as though something is wrong with your joints. I have no interest in that.”
Linking the trend to the former colonial days, Jones said: “For a people who have come through the trials and tribulations to still want to remain in those circumstances, that bothers me.
“Too many of our bones are scattered in the middle passage for us to be living here now and acting as though we have no pride, acting as though we have no dignity, acting as though we have no purpose,” he said.
The Minister further questioned: “Why would I want to see your slider? I don’t want to see your slider! Today the same slider got on a name on it and we gyrating and showing off our behinds. So all those young people or those who are not so young, who believe that they should parade like fools, it makes no sense!”
Nevertheless, the Minister of Education said he was pleased with the management of the St Joseph school, which was emerging with a number of success stories.
At the same time, he commended and congratulated those students who persevered, climbed the ladder and had done well in gaining Caribbean Examination Certificates (CXCs), especially those students who accomplished passes in seven and eight subjects.
“I want you first to celebrate your successes. Sometimes in this life we spend too much time criticizing ourselves for lack of success than actually applauding ourselves for the success. The negative always engulfs our minds and our bodies, so all we think about is, ‘it ain’t good’.
“We fret, we become miserable and fretful and that is the journey to disaster,” he cautioned.
Jones also singled out for praise the “hardworking” teachers at the institution for putting in extra time and effort into assisting and motivating students along the way.
“What you have done here at Grantley Adams is that you didn’t spend time saying only, ‘what am I going to do with these?’ You quickly got down to the task of turning the raw clay into beautiful pottery. You may not feel so because you may say there is still some clay that I have to spend more time molding and shaping, but that’s life. . .”
The Most Outstanding Student prize was awarded to Philecia Marshall, while Izion Clarke received the chairman’s award.