The constant wail of past PM and National Hero Sir Lester Bird was, ‘Antigua is not a meritorious society.’

This was not only in relation to his own merit worthiness, and to his own father & former PM, but the wail was for citizens, especially the poor and un-educated whose contribution to nation building was ignored, and their flowers were only given after their expiry.

Having looked at this absence of a most important virtue which recognizes and acclaims good works, it has joined the long list of virtues lost on the plantation. Knowing one’s roots exposes the customs of African people all over the continent, singing the praises of their great persons of character while alive, and evermore when passed on. On this continent of God culture, man can even evolve to divinity.

The mantra of the plantation, ‘each man for himself’ had no comfort of ‘God for us all’ and today we wind our way out of this plantation mentality, the four hundred cruel years of being treated less than human, a nobody, a slave.

Building self-esteem is not as easy as it may seem. The plantation hate between persons still exists for no reason except finding a place to vent it, it then vents on those subjected to the lowest level of the economy. At each level there is contempt for others, and those exceptional acts of our own people are ignored or disregarded by envy.

Appreciating each other should not require hundreds of years to overcome the horrors of the past, but struggling to learn family, culture(whose), applicable education, brotherhood, integrity, honesty, comradeship, kindness, uncolonized spirituality, empathy and love, is taking a very long time. Learning all the above guarantees personal development and achievement whereby appreciation and meritocracy follows.