I normally take my best advice. Therefore, I wish to publicly forgive those whom I have publicly criticised for doing me harm.

POLITICAL PARTIES.

I forgive the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration for what the BLP called “the lost decade”. During seven years of that decade, I was not allowed to tender on construction projects in Barbados because of their corrupting procurement policy.

I forgive the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration for confiscating part of my retirement savings and pension, changing the laws of Barbados to make that theft legal, and not allowing me to access all the remainder of my retirement savings until the year 2033.

PARTISAN PROFESSIONALS.

I forgive our politically partisan professionals. They include economists, accountants, lawyers, journalists, and political scientists who criticised behaviour when it was done by the political party they did not support, and praised the same behaviour when it was done by their preferred political party.

I forgive our established media, who work with their political party to suppress the voices of credible Barbadians, so that the media’s audience is mainly informed about the views of the media’s political party.

MERCHANTS OF UNFORGIVENESS.

I forgive the merchants of unforgiveness, who keep Barbadians mentally enslaved to justify their quest for reparations. However, while I forgive their actions, the damage that they are doing to Barbadians needs to be exposed.

I am willing to accept the challenge of measuring how much we are being held back by the merchants of reparations. This may be done by selecting two groups of Barbadians and training one group in the way of unforgiveness and reparations, and the other in the way of forgiveness and giving.

MENTORSHIP CHALLENGE.

I am willing to mentor 10 secondary school graduates who left school with no academic certificates, and 10 unemployed 45- to 55-year-olds. There must be a gender balance in each group, and none must be former or current athletes. Those pursuing reparations should mentor similar groups.

Let both groups be comparatively examined at the end of one year, to see which group is: faster, stronger, healthier, fitter and more youthful in appearance; more emotionally and spiritually stable; more knowledgeable, competent, conscientious, talented, efficient, productive, hopeful and financially stable.

MAKING IT EASY.

To make it easy for them, I am willing to mentor those who have been most damaged by their policies of unforgiveness. Give me those who were incarcerated in prison for exceptionally violent offenses, and those who were fired from their jobs due to insubordination and criminal activity – give me the worst of what their policies of unforgiveness have produced.

If the differences are stark after one year of mentorship, then let us agree that the Government policy of directing Barbadians down the broad road of unforgiveness, that leads to personal destruction, should be rejected. Will the merchants of unforgiveness accept this challenge?

• Grenville Phillips II is a Chartered Structural Engineer and President of Solutions Barbados.  He can be reached at NextParty246@gmail.com