Pride and Humility

OUR 37th Independence Anniversary celebrations have come and gone, and by all accounts, we had a good celebration. Shows on the Waterfront, fish fries, renaming of the newly constructed hospital, military parade followed by more shows at Mindoo Phillip Park, and of course, the mandatory fireworks displays.

For me there were two unforgettable moments during these celebrations. We’ve known the name of the new Owen King EU hospital for almost two years now, so the naming ceremony was not in itself noteworthy. The performance of that young group of musicians cannot however go by without mention. If they can prove that they really are between 14 and 17 years old as has been indicated, then we have genius amongst us and lots to look forward to.

The second moment occurred at the opening of the show at Mindoo Phillip Park on Independence Day, with the presentation of the national anthem in Kwéyòl. Praise is due to those responsible for its translation from the English original, and praise is due also to Ms Ermay for its rendition.

The celebrations went well, and we must congratulate those responsible for organizing them. As we celebrate though, we might be careful to distinguish our celebration of the day on which we severed our colonial ties from the celebration of our pride in those things which make us distinctly Saint Lucian.

We are a proud people, proud of our heritage, and proud of our culture. Thanks to the Folk Research Centre and others much of our history has been documented, and the celebration of that history in the month of October, and in particular on JounenKwéyòl, has long been our nation’s biggest outpouring of national pride.

We are proud of our artistes and of our athletes, and we are proud of our scholars now earning their own spaces in the world. We’re glad that they’re doing well, and as they go on to distinguish themselves we derive our own sense of satisfaction from their accomplishments.

We feel a sense of pride in our nobel laureates, and celebrate their world accomplishments every year with Nobel Laureate week. We’re proud not just of their accomplishments, but that they’re Saint Lucian and place St. Lucia on the world map. In a sense, we claim their successes as our own, if only because we’re from the same place. It’s the kind of pride that we had when West Indies cricket ruled the world – they did it on our behalf, and we owned their victories; “we” won the matches.

But there are others who make us feel proud, and whom we might also want to recognize.

For one, our Governor General fills us with pride. She is a comforting Head of State. Her dignity overwhelms us. It seems that it matters little what she says at official functions, she addresses us and we come away from the experience feeling better for it. For some time people have been wondering whether our school children recognized that the “Dame” in front of our GG’s name is a title and not a part of her name. Somehow she has become our “Dame Pearlette”, and the title seems more a term of endearment than an official recognition.

Dame Pearlette leads us well, and following a recent function at which she was required to speak, she perhaps demonstrated one of the reasons she has earned our respect and admiration. With a bridge undergoing reconstruction in the Rodney Bay area, she chose to walk the short distance, from the venue of the function that she had attended to the car-park, rather than cause a further disruption to traffic. In doing so she captured the attention of all the media present.

The one person who could cause all traffic to come to a halt in order to accommodate her chose instead to walk so as not to disturb the flow, and St. Lucia took notice. The power of humility. It would surprise no one if they were to meet Dame Pearlette at the market buying her own ground provisions; not that she does, or would ever have to, but if she chose to do so it wouldn’t be a cause for comment. No one would really notice. Dame Pearlette must be thanked for lifting us all up.

And Suzie made us feel proud. Notice that there’s no need to ask Suzie who? It’s almost like she’s patented the name, and while Madame Justice d’Auvergne would have been required in a formal setting, or Ms d’Auvergne in one less so, we all think of her as “Suzie”. She is “one of us”, “ours”, her simplicity and humility commanding first the respect and ultimately the admiration of all of us. In light of what took place recently, it would have been interesting to see Parliament’s response to the Report of the Constitutional Review Commission had Suzie been the person to present it.

And in defending Suzie’s report, David Cox distinguished himself and is now also a source of pride. Although he could have relied on his lawyerly skills to distance himself and so escape the criticism of the report, time and again he presented himself to the media and to the talk shows to defend a process that he believed in, and time and again he was subjected to much ridicule. Emerging with his integrity intact, he may one day be capable of filling Suzie’s shoes.

Then there’s Mary Francis, who now needs a surname as there’s another Mary in the public eye. Whether we agree with her or not, Mary has provided the invaluable function of serving as our national conscience, and has done so tirelessly for more years than we can remember. Mary does not need a national award, but her organization requires funding, the only thing probably scarcer than the justice that she so fervently fights for. Keep fighting, Mary, it makes us proud to know that in spite of the odds, you will show up for the fight.

There are obviously others who cause us to feel proud that we are St. Lucian, but the few mentioned above are sufficient to make the point that pride comes with a foundation. We can be amazed, or amused, or entertained by overnight phenomena, but it takes the repeated demonstration of those characteristics which command our respect and admiration before we come to the recognition that we are proud of them, or that they make us feel a sense of pride.

We have good reasons to be proud of our country and of ourselves, and have always had them. We should celebrate that pride, and we do.

Our attainment of Independence thirty-seven years ago marked a significant milestone in our development as we became responsible for managing our own affairs, and we should also celebrate that achievement. Hopefully, we can also pay more attention to the celebration of Emancipation Day as well, itself already a national holiday.

And as we continue to celebrate our Independence, we might also want to consider that the demonstration of pride does not exclude the expression of humility. As we have seen above, humility magnifies, not diminishes, the power of those expressing it.

Next week, a few comments on our governance.