To the good people of Down Street,

The deaftening silence of your protagonistic emissary has verberated all the way North, across the Pont de  L'Anse and along Upper Depradine Boulevard, to the ears of this Monsieur, echoing your concerns with a pronouncement about "the  degradation of our Grenadian society". It has been brought to this Talkshop table for discussion and you can rest assured that you would be well! represented by the good gentleman bearing your name, despite his previous antagonistic apathy against "WE!" The Good Northerners.

For him, there is always time for an open confession as that too, is always good for the soul.

"Downstreetarians", while you were busily congregating in your several houses of worship to atone for your multitude of sins (some mortal in degree), the good people in the French Quarters were survelling the effects of globalization, particularly the American hegemony on the societies of other countries of the world. On observation, we noticed it was creating a new paradigm of infiltration, where the political and economic sustainability efforts of these countries (our Grenada included) are being impacted to the point of loosing their/our supposidly once prided autonomy.

Our small economy, with no exports of any significance and a burgeoning debt to the external economic establishment must now rely exclusively on the influx of foreign capital expenditures to supplement our domestic initiatives. This comes with a new reality that politics in Grenada is not local anymore. The engagement must also appease those supposedly well-intentioned individuals, purporting to come from Heaven with Manna in hand and whose salvation we desperately seek. This reality also means that all the social structures and influences that had once supported the survivability efforts of our people would be challenged by those who wish to experience something new.

Indeed, our predisposition to the imperialistic gene of all first world countries have been morphed into a more global version of acceptance that seems palatable in the mouths of all economically distressed societies.This was exacerbated by our sudden leap into the wide world of social media, further challenging our culture norms with the new found exposure to a multitude of cultures for which we do not understand. Surely, it has impacted our socio-political and cultural environment to the point where your observation of these indignities become ever present. We have also made the transition to a cash/money dependant society, bringing with it, all the elements of social decay and the cultural erosion usually associated with that change. Gone are the days when our work ethics, our respect for others- in particular, the eldetly and the pride we took in our attire were among the differentiating characteristics of our people. We have lost, even the basic kills of verbal communication among our own selves but supposedly have gained thousands of "friends" all over the world; most of whom speak a different language but with one commonality, the use of " Smart Phone".

So I ask, when did this all began?

Some may say that the seeds of social degradation were planted in the fertile soil of Grenada when we transitioned away from the post colonial period of British imperialism.

Others may be of the opinion that the degradation was a byproduct of  the treasonous attempt at socialism when Grenada lost its innocence, culminating in those murderous acts committed by our own citizens during the years leading up to our day of infamy on October 19, 1983. What we left behind was a society that thithered on the brink of collapsed, with no social order and devoid from the class system that was established by the imperialists. Fast forwarding three decades later, the last vestiges of that social experiment is now center stage; the product being the multiplicatory factor of disorder being brought forward by our new found cultural experience with openess, arrogance and sexual awareness.

So Dowstreetarians, when we expressed our concerns for American politics and the disdain for the characters espousing their dogmas of political ignorance, we are all by extension, sending a message of intolerance for the exposure to what has become "a poisoned mentality". Unfortunately, we must take all necessary precautions to guard ourselves from these deseases because they have become a "virulent strain of socially acceptable GMO" on our communities.

We have seen its effects on communities like Trinidad &Tobago and Jamaica.

The question now is.....HOW!

VJL

Monsieur Vernon, I thought that you had taken your marbles and went home crying to mama, especially since anoder French fellah, bold facedly accuse moi, of taking cheap shots at you. However I must apologise, for your eloquent soliloquy on the impact of globalism on world economies, only caught my eye today. You see for the last five days, I was under Mango Palmer, spying for jacks, and as you well know, "dey aint any wi fi dung dey".

Your sentiments regarding the dilemma that we spice Islanders find ourselves , was as usual thoughtful and introspective, and in some ways reminiscent of my responses to that other "Northern Light", Tony De.Allyou are so luminescent, that Downstreetians look up dey and call alyu Loogaroo, or, so that you would understand "Loup garoux."

Our dependence on Foreign Aid, is a direct result of not having anything of value to trade.In the 18th and 19th centuries when we were sugar producers England and France used to kill for us,evidenced by the fact that you are from the French quarter, and I am from Charlottetown.Then during 20th Century, Mutha used to buy up all we cocoa, nutmegs and bananas, until de WTO jumped in and said "its Globalization time".

The younger folks who were told to get leave the land and focus on getting a "good" job, found no jobs at home and fled, to "Foreign". We have since become that biblical lost tribe, wandering in the economic wilderness, for the passed forty years. We the Downstreetians are waiting with baited breath, for edicts from you the patricians from the north, to arrest the death spiral that we are in, and set us on a course to prosperity. Manna flows from North to South, they say. We waiting.