Too many fetes – Bajan Education Minister

(Barbados Nation) Minister of Education Ronald Jones says there are too many fetes in Barbados disturbing the peace.

Addressing the 2012 National Development scholars yesterday at the Ministry of Education, Constitution Road, St Michael, he said “low” culture was getting out of hand.

“In every society there is high culture and low culture but you have to find the balance. . . . The preponderance of low culture in Barbados is getting to be too much.”

Jones continued: “Not every square foot of land in Barbados has to have a fete on it, whether it be Crop Over or not.

“In my day, we used to go home at 12 a.m. – now you leave at 12 a.m and you’re going feting down to ‘six thirty’! And we go into communities as if we are totally unconscious that old people and babies are trying to sleep! This country has to do better, it has to be better,” he said.

The minister said he would rather see Barbados’ orchestras playing in packed halls across Barbados, adding there were several secondary schools adapted for such activities such as Lester Vaughn, Christ Church Foundation, Alleyne School and Combermere.