Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Richard Sealy is encouraging persons who were involved in public life to capture their experiences in writing.
He made this observation while addressing the launch of author Wendell Callender???s third publication entitled: The Many Sides of Barbados, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre (LESC) recently.
He told the audience that during his tribute to late Prime Minister, Sir Harold St. John, he made the point then, that it was unfortunate that ???someone with a vast experience in public life went to the great beyond without leaving behind any book???.
Mr. Sealy further stated: ???Even the great Errol Walton Barrow, the sum total of his contribution to the Barbadian lexicon is a cookbook called Privilege???a very good cookbook but the point is, it would have been nice to have his experiences as well.???
The Tourism Minister commended Mr. Callender for compiling his work and described it as important for a number of reasons.
???I think the subject matter in this book is important to be compiled and shared with everyone. It takes into account a number of things that are essentially Barbadian???It is important because sometimes we get so caught up with technology and new activities???sometimes we still need to be reminded of some of these things that frankly speaking, we figure maybe under threat because of the many distractions. The book speaks of the importance of fellowship, relationships and family and I think that this book speaks to the importance of all those things,??? he added.
The Tourism Minister said books were important because they helped the reader to be comforted during difficult situations or brought back memories of special occasions.
Mr. Sealy reiterated that the Barbados Conference Centre was being made available, free of charge to Barbadian author who wished to launch their publication. tHe said the gesture was the facility???s way of making a community contribution.
???You do not have to worry about the venue and the bits of pieces associated with the venue. We can at least take that headache away from our budding authors, he assured.
Meanwhile, Mr. Callender said although there was much talk about the cultural industries, there was nothing tangible to show that we are committed to these new categories of industry.
???As we look around you can see agriculture has almost ground to a halt, manufacturing is under serious threat, the offshore sector is not thriving as it should, and we therefore need to look at exposing the work of the various artists. We have people like Rihanna already doing this and people have not recognised the value that Rihanna brings to Barbados in terms of being an icon, a representative of what we can do in new ways to bring foreign exchange to Barbados,??? he said.
Editor-in-Chief at Nation Publishing Company Limited, Roy Morris, said the book takes the reader on a literary journey from ???Six Men???s to Silver Sands, from Speightstown to Bathsheba, from Folkstone Beach to the edge of Culpepper Island”, as its pages capture the mood of Barbadians in a range of activities that speak to who we are from cricket to roasting fish and breadfruit, from chilling at the water???s edge on any popular beach, to waiting in line for the next serving of barbecue steak.
The book is available on locally as well as on Amazon and in Kindle format.
julie.carrington@barbados.gov.bb