World perspectives: Are Bajans oversensitive?

Just a provocative thought to start the week.

Much of Barbados was up in arms last Friday about how a DJ/MC (Kevin "KB Kleen" Hinds) at the concert to fete Rihanna the previous night might have disrespected the Prime Minister by calling him by his first name, David. The MC also made some remarks that were thought to be in poor taste by many who heard them. After a lot of public outrage, much of it on the radio call-in programme "Down to Brass Tacks", Mr. Hinds made a national public apology. From what I saw and have heard since the Prime Minister was not particularly shocked, offended or otherwise "unamused". But I was not there and I have not spoken to him personally on this matter.

Now some tables have been turned a little to show that rank (or is it rancour?) has its privileges. France's president was caught on video publicly and clearly insulting a bystander at an agricultural fair, who did not want the President to shake his hand; he said that the President made him feel dirty. President Sarkozy said “Casse-toi, pauvre con”, which for those of you who do not speak French can roughly be translated as “P*** off, stupid sod”, or “Get lost, silly b*****”. Not too nice that. The video, though a good short film, was not amongst last night's Oscar nominations.


But this incident lets me think for a few seconds about proper etiquette. I felt sorry for "Mr. Kleen", giving him the benefit of the doubt by thinking that he possibly did not know what was correct "in the circumstances"; apparently he has known the current prime minister since schooldays. I felt that those managing or advising Mr. Hinds should have either felt the vibes or given the man the word that he was on a slippery slope. He could be forgiven for a little confusion, though.

Beautiful Barbados, or "Little England" as some call it, who will you follow? In correct French, President Sarkozy should be called "Mr. President"; no name, thank you. In the United Kingdom, the monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth the Second, is to be referred to as "Your majesty" at first then "Madam" or "Ma'am" afterwards, whether in public or private. Unless you're a citizen of the UK, don't curtsy or bow to the Queen. However, the Queen, like other British monarchs by tradition always signs by her first name, in her case "Elizabeth R" ("R" for "regina", Latin for queen; of if a king "rex", Latin for king). But don't use that as reason to say "Whassup, Liz?"

All of this is just to say that proper etiquette is a minefield and you can sample the Internet's offerings of dos, don'ts and horror stories. But at least Mr. Hinds now knows what Barbados expects.