(Barbados Nation) Some Barbadians have responded angrily to comments Shanique Myrie made about this country in an interview published on the Jamaica Observer’s website yesterday.
Myrie, who alleges she was subjected to a cavity search when trying to enter Barbados in March last year, also said a “flood of bitter memories fell on her like a ton of bricks” when she returned recently to take her case to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
“Everybody came to look at me. Some ‘cut’ their eyes, while others just stared coldly. I felt like a victim, like a criminal . . . .”
She said she thought Barbados was more sophisticated, but instead, was ordinary.
This is how some online readers responded to Myrie’s comments:
Layla Ariasa: “Here lies the answer to the question about why Jamaica has so many social problems. Those who think they have arrived are too busy thinking they’re better than people who live in wooden houses and have zinc fences.
“They’re too busy turning up their noses at their ‘country’ folk and branding them as less “sophisticated”. Unfortunately, they appear to be oblivious to the fact that one’s home is not necessarily a reflection of one’s ability, worth/value, education . . . .”
Patricia Forde: “She needs to get a tour of the island. There is so much variety. We have from million-dollar mansions to shacks. No country has all rich people or all poor people. You can’t determine how ‘sophisticated’ a country is and you hardly went outside or even drove around.”
Jewel Hilton: “If the allegation is true, then by all means she deserves justice but to make such a blanket statement about ‘board houses and zinc fences’ is ignorant, especially coming from a Jamaican who I’m sure has seen much of the same and worse in her country.
“The comment is obviously coming from a place of anger but it is also hypocritical because I know Jamaicans who have returned home for a vacation and said that they dared not venture off the hotel premises and their relatives had to visit them at the hotel . . . .
“It is sad how we equate material things with quality of life. If she were given the opportunity she may have found that it didn’t matter what type of house she lived in or around.”
