Mia Mottley
@miaamormottley · North America
Mia Mottley is followed by Storyz World for government and public service coverage connected to Barbados in the North America chapter.
A week ago, on the very day we gathered in Venice to celebrate the courage of women, we lost Gloria Steinem. Her fight for human dignity, equal rights and opportunity for women was legendary. Even as we mourned her passing, we saw that courage living on in the women before us. To my fellow @DVF honourees, congratulations, and thank you for the example you set. @lynseyaddario, you go towards the suffering from which so many of us would run, so that the world might see and understand. @wawiranjiru, your work reminds us that feeding children is education policy and an investment in human beings. @Janefonda, you have paid a price for your convictions and still refuse to surrender them. Gisèle Pelicot, you had the courage to put down a shame that was never yours to carry, helping other women understand that it was never theirs either. As I reflected that evening, we are running a relay race. It is our duty to do our part. To the women who will be honoured in the years ahead, to the millions whose service may never receive an accolade, and to every young girl watching, your part in this relay matters. There are lives to improve, injustices to confront and a generation looking to us. May we carry our responsibility with courage, and make it possible for those who follow to go further.
Our farmers cannot build their future on “we might buy”. When they grow, they must know they have a market. That is why we are making $2 million available each quarter for contract buying through BADMC and Export Barbados, giving farmers greater certainty and strengthening agro-processing. In Barbados and across the Caribbean, we must grow more of what we eat, process more of what we grow, and keep more value with our people. Less dependence on imports. More affordable food. Caribbean products reaching the world. Food and water are the new oil. We must grasp that opportunity with urgency.
The Atlantic must now carry the promise of our future as surely as it carries the memory of our past. On this CARICOM–Africa Day, one year after our first in-person summit in Addis Ababa, and on the 5th anniversary of the inaugural summit, we have meaningful progress to celebrate. The opening of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam was a powerful reminder of what African determination can achieve. Air Peace is bringing our regions closer. In Barbados, the Afreximbank African Trade Centre at Jemmotts Lane is taking shape, while Ethiopian medical professionals are strengthening care at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Ghana secured historic UN recognition of the trafficking and racialised enslavement of Africans as the gravest crime against humanity. Togo’s successful UN resolution calls for maps that properly reflect Africa’s size. In Accra, our pursuit of reparations advanced with the establishment of the Global Advisory Panel on Reparatory Justice, on which I am honoured to serve. These achievements must inspire greater action. There is still much to do to make travel, trade, education and opportunity flow more freely between us. Too many voices tell us what divides us. We need more voices willing to show what unites us. Across Africa and the Caribbean, I call on our people to embrace this reunion and help build it. Its promise belongs to every one of us. Across the waters we must build a new passage of possibility, carrying our people, our ideas and our enterprise towards shared prosperity. Built in our own name. Guided by our own vision. Our ancestors were denied the right to choose their destination. Our duty is to ensure their descendants can shape their destiny.
The talent is here. The ambition is here. We must make sure that the opportunity is here too. Through the redevelopment of our National Stadium, we are working to give our athletes the very best facilities, resources and opportunities to thrive. Excellence must have a home right here in Barbados. That also means planning carefully, listening to the people affected and addressing traffic and access so that the surrounding communities benefit too. Our responsibility is to keep opening doors for our people. To give their talent room to grow and their ambition somewhere to go.
History does not wait for the doubtful. It calls each generation to its moment. This is ours. The climate crisis will not be measured only in degrees Celsius. It will be measured in the price of food, the cost of energy, and whether our homes, schools and roads can withstand a changing world. Every great advance was once called impossible, until courageous people made it real. To the first class of the Paris Climate School, I offered this charge. Use your knowledge to lift people from poverty, confront injustice and create opportunity. The future must not remain at the mercy of the few. It belongs to a global humanity brave enough to act.
My thoughts are with our brothers and sisters in Saint Kitts and Nevis following the hospitalisation of Prime Minister Dr The Honourable Terrance Drew. Prime Minister Drew is a valued colleague, a friend and our Caribbean brother. He and his family remain in our prayers, and we wish him renewed strength, healing and a full recovery. May God hold him in His care. We look forward to seeing him well again. @TerranceDrewSKN
President Delcy Rodríguez welcomed me warmly to Caracas, and from the outset our focus was on our people and the possibilities we can create for them. The work we have agreed can strengthen Barbados’ energy and food security, create new openings for our farmers, fishers and businesses, build stronger tourism and trade links, and improve the movement of goods. It can also open doors for Barbadians through scholarships, language training and exchanges in music, energy and fisheries. We have already seen the human value of this friendship. When the earthquakes struck Venezuela in June, Barbados answered with rescue workers, medical teams, humanitarian supplies and a field hospital in Guarenas. Agreements such as these must be felt at home in the choices our young people have, the markets our producers can reach and the greater security of every Barbadian family. That is how we build a stronger Barbados and remain the kind of neighbour that shows up when it matters.
Tonight, as we rededicated the Marcus Garvey Amphitheatre, Dr Julius Garvey reminded us that the most important knowledge is self-knowledge. When a people know who they are, they cannot be taught to despise themselves, surrender their rights or accept limits on what they can become. As Barbados approaches 400 years of modern settlement, difficult conversations must come. Let no one fool us into believing that teaching our history, affirming our humanity or standing together through the Season of Emancipation is an attack on another race, religion or people. To assert self-love is not to advocate hate. We must know ourselves, love ourselves and repair what has been wounded. A people who know themselves cannot be made small.