It must be condemned as unpatriotic for prominent and influential individuals to deliberately exploit the impressionable and absorptive minds of the nation’s adolescents, by engaging in ‘contextual half-truths and grand rhetoric and professional pretense’.
This is unfortunate especially when adolescents are struggling to understand life and to confront what it presents; as well as are searching for answers on sovereign and development issues of the nation, searching for statesmen and role models of integrity and searching for their pathway of purpose in society.
A ‘myopic and selfish’ approach, with unsound principles and practices, in sensitizing the Grenadian-people on civil and social issues would prove ‘not constructive’ for Nation Building, in considering that the youths are the future leaders of various fields.
Full Justice was not done to the Grenadian-people, more so to the youths, as well as to the topic itself, by the Grenada Coalition for a Zone of Peace (GCZP) in discussing Grenada at 52: Defending Independence, Sovereignty & Peace.
The apt public forum took place on 04 February 2026 with a loaded competent five-member panel, presumably organized in isolation from the schedule of activities by the National Celebrations Committee for observance of Grenada’s fifty-second anniversary of Independence.
The Forum was held on the backdrop of the August 2025 request by the United States of America for Radar Placement with technical personnel, at the Maurice Bishop International Airport; of the various unprecedented tough actions and demands by America unilaterally, in the Caribbean region; of America entering into Venezuela and capturing its President (and his wife) in a lightning Special Operations on 03 January 2026; and of the other frightening ‘migration, security and trade’ undertakings by Donald John Trump’s 20 January 2025 administration, with its realignment policies in geopolitics.
Attorney-At-Law Arley Salimbi Gill began GCZP in October 2025, with a public petition and protest ‘urging the Government to reject any move to install foreign radar or surveillance equipment; to keep Grenada neutral, safe, and free from any foreign military equipment; and to conduct open consultations on those sovereign matters.
Dr Wendy Crawford, Sociologist and member of GCZP, in delivering on the marketed / branded Real Talk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwuHv6pjSvk) begins thus: “I am making an urgent call for us (‘Grenadians including those in the Diaspora’) to step up our social and civic responsibilities in defense of our independence …. When there is an external threat to our independence, sovereignty and peaceful existence, it is our civic and social duty to stand united”.
Compadre Dr. Wendy Grenade Political Scientist and Educator, in endorsing and extending Crawford’s, vents: “There is a role for civil society, there is a role for the intellectual class and concerned citizens, to organize ourselves to defend the ideas that will protect our independence, sovereignty and peace.
I call for a foreign policy think tank consisting of State and Non-State actors, to ensure that our foreign policy decisions are based on strategy, not just survival”.
Inferred from the positions of these panelists is that Grenada does not face any ‘internal threat’ to its Survivability and Sustainability, affecting future generations.
The conveyed perception is that there is no ‘imperative and compelling’ reason to hold the Government accountable on its financial and economic framework and on its Land Use and Infrastructural Development approach.
This is the case as Dr Crawford chastises the valiant and vocal citizens: “Our role as Grenadian patriots is to move beyond more complaints about the flaws of our government and actively contribute to the growth and development of our nation”.
It is incredible to concede that the ‘genuine and serious’ flaws of a government have no ‘negative and disastrous’ impacts on the Growth and Development of the nation! Rampant public debts and the obscure entering into institutional deals such as Samoa Agreement with the potential to disturb drastically the ‘moral and social’ norms, should be of little or no consequence for the Grenadian-people!
Ordinary citizen John Rullow, in expressing disappointments about the utterances and maneuverings of the powers-that-be on matters of ‘sovereignty and malfeasance and governance’, which continues to spiral into decay and embarrassment, often brings for attention the telling reality of the phrase by Scottish historian and author, Sir Walter Scott: “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”.
There is also the corresponding nursery rhyme advising: “Speak the truth and speak it well (ever), cost it what it will; (for) he / she who hides the wrong (he / she did), does the wrong things still”.
LEFTIST RADICALISM SYNDROME
Further to the bewilderment and endangerment which Partisan Politics generates in terms of divisiveness and nepotism, there is the polarization with clashes of ideologies for governance of the nation.
A classic experience is the grievous demise of the People’s Revolutionary Government (PRG) of the New Jewel Movement (NJM) in October 1983, precipitated by internal instability surrounding the scope and pace of application of Marxism-Leninism.
It could be derived that the battle for the minds of the youths towards accepting this socialist/communist philosophy and rejecting capitalism / imperialism, is at its height.
The 23 June 2022 ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) with its Transformation Agenda seems to be facilitating remnants of NJM / PRG towards that end, with pertinent influencers behind the scenes.
The 2023 internet-circulated two-part article, GRENADA TRANSFORMING ITS IDENTITY AND LEGACY AT GOLDEN JUBILEE, recounts that the most prominent political challenge to the nation’s Democracy and Independence comes from the NJM and references the Editorial of the 29 September 2023 e-paper of the Grenadian Voice which asserts that ‘the NJM stands as the most powerful opposition (occurring during the seventies) Government has ever seen in Grenada and in a subtle way they still seem to be controlling the narrative in telling stories of the past’.
This article also points to the troubling decisions of the NDC-administration regarding the ‘elevated observance’ of 19 October, the date in 1983 of Grenada’s massacres, and the rash statements regarding the veracity of prior texts on Grenada’s political evolutions.
There is the school of thought that it is the intention of the powers-that-be to have 19 October eventually overshadowing the significance of 07 February, Independence Day, and of 25 October, Thanksgiving Day for the invasion / intervention of the American-Caribbean forces.
By declaring 19 October as National Heroes Day however, it is still unclear as to which of the warring factions of the PRG/NJM would emerge as the heroes, as the related article, GRENADA’S 19 OCTOBER NATIONAL HEROES DAY IN SERIOUS LIMBO highlights.
All this as efforts to reset Grenada on a new political and historical trajectory. Recall that Chair of the National Organising Committee for the Golden Jubilee, Dr. Wendy Crawford, raises that Grenadians are at a point now ready to tell their stories; ready to rewrite and define their history; ready to embrace their heritage, culture, people and lives; to define themselves as Grenadians; and to develop their own national identity free from external influence or definition, in their “own image and likeness”.
INAPPROPRIATE OATH CHANGE
The circumstances surrounding the change to Grenada’s constitutional Oath of Allegiance should be very telling for the youths, as they also try to wrap their minds around the ‘substance and meaning’ of the change which took effect on 01 August 2025, and what it has brought for the people.
This Oath Change typifies the ‘tokenism and expediency’ about the modus operandi of the powers-that-be, particularly in imagining or flirting with a political system which does not provide any substantial and fundamental differences to the ‘attitude and arrangement’ for governance.
Despite that change, Grenada still does parliamentary proceedings, State ceremonies, and ambassadorial acceptances in recognition of and on behalf of His Majesty King Charles The Third, and not directly ‘foremost and final’ to Grenada; Honours and Titles conferred by His Majesty are also maintained.
Moreover, there is no empirical evidence that the Oath Change has the potential to propel the merits and treaties of the Caribbean Community, as well as to progress the Sustainable Development Plan of Grenada in today’s global neo-colonial scenario.
Surely, the Progressive Scholars whose ‘aspiration, momentum and resolve’ for revenge on Colonialism and Slavery, are boosted by the Oath Change.
This Revenge is generally in the form of securing reparations from the colonizers, of reclaiming the rituals and traditions of Africa and reestablishing exchange relationships, and by denouncing and renouncing colonial symbols and relics and monuments.
In addressing for example, the items on Grenada’s Coat of Arms to reflect more indigenous and national representations, interesting options are presented.
Thus, in recognition of Grenada as the Jab Jab nation, it is proposed that the Royal Helm could be replaced with the Jab Jab helmet and to have the Gold Lion been replaced by the image of the Mocko Jumbie as the sign of protection over the people.
As is most conspicuous, no reference and prominence is given to the full context of the Motto on the Coat of Arms.
The main controversies, irregularities and contradictions about the Oath Change are captured in the articles GRENADA OATH CHANGE SHOULD BE BEYOND ANTI COLONIAL SENTIMENTS and HAS ALEXIS CAUSED THE GRENADA GOVERNMENT TO ERR ON THE OATH CHANGE? Dr. Francis Alexis, a Grenadian King’s Counsel, convenes the Citizens for Constitution Reform (CCR) regarding the National Constitution.
Dr. Alexis conjures that the Oath Change can cause the Grenadian-people to sing ‘more lustily with rousing patriotism’ the National Anthem.
On the contrary though, the Oath Change has accentuated clearly the scant regards for the Anthem, with it being referred to or applied just conveniently and by ignoring the link “Ever Conscious of God” to (as the basis for) “We Aspire, Build and Advance as One People.”
Was the attendance at the Independence Day rally encouraged to sing the Anthem? In fact, no ‘enthusiasm and pleasure and enjoyment’ was had for the Anthem at the GCZP-forum on 04 February.
“What are the foremost cases advanced against the position and pursuit of Alexis? Firstly, the Oath of Allegiance is entrenched by virtue of Section 111 and Appendix 1 or Schedule 1.
Secondly, there is a misrepresentation about the Oath of Allegiance and the King of Grenada.
Thirdly, there is gross ‘arrogance and disrespect’ for the sovereign constituents on such a constitutional issue. Fourth is the need to foster ‘consciousness and consensus and cohesiveness and contentment’ towards nationhood.
Fifthly, the approach does not render for substantial deliberations about Civics, the patriation of the Constitution, the ‘good governance’ principles, and about the version of Republicanism apt for Grenada”.
By posing to be the local champions and authorities on human dignity and national sovereignty, and to earn credibility for advancing their particular motives, references are often made by the so-called Progressive Forces, to Bob Marley & the Wailers’ “Redemption Song”.
This song, with the line: Emancipate Yourselves From Mental Slavery; None But Ourselves Can Free Our Minds, originated from the October 1937 speech in Canada of Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr., a black Jamaican political activist.
It should be equally important for those who have been highly qualified and graduated as Political Scientist and Social Scientist from the colonial-based universities to “Teach (Tell) The Children The Truth” and not to be engulfed in “deceiving the people continually”; as Robert Nesta (Bob) Marley also begs in the song “Babylon System” (the Vampire).
The youths are thus warned and encouraged to “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good”; according to 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (King James Version, Christian Holy Bible).
WEARIED OF ELUSIVE DREAMS
The mamaguyism and manipulation about Sovereignty and Nationhood take a new twist or a new dimension which is crafted such as contained in the National Address of Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell for the 2026 celebrations of Grenada’s Political Independence. That is; Independence is a journey, not a date, and this politically correct stance would also dare to say, Independence is ‘not an attained status’.
Instructively, GCZP’s online panelist, St. Lucian-born Dr. Tennyson Joseph, Associate Professor of Political Science at North Carolina Central University, pitches his presentation for the young people of Grenada towards understanding “why Independence”.
He claims, “many young people scoff at their independence and scoff at their sovereignty”; this as they are not seeing what is preached and expected. Is here proof that the ‘strategic indoctrination of the youths by the powers-that-be is on ‘false premises and intents?
J.K Roberts