During the months of July and August each year, persons all over the world head off on holidays. It is summer time in the western world, with school on holidays. Many families who can afford the financial burden take the children on tours to different countries.
Ibiza in Spain, and Bali in Indonesia, are two of the favorite places - other than the Caribbean and outside of the Caribbean - where holidaymakers go in droves. It is the Caribbean, though with warm weather, world-class beaches, friendly people, good food and rum. Ibiza and Bali remain among the world's leading destinations.
As if that were not enough, during the months of July and August there is the staging of some of the greatest parties on earth, referred to as carnivals. From Vincy Mas' - so dubbed by legendary Vincentian calypsonian Alston Cyrus, the "Beckett''; and St. Lucia carnival a few weeks later, both in July in the Caribbean - the pace is set with sweet soca music, great costumes, steelband music, strong rum, good food and lots of fun.
For the first weekend in August, Antigua and Barbados capture the attention of the universe; you can take your pick. Or, you can do as myself and other carnival aficionados and rotate, alternating your visit every other year. Trust me, it is well worth the experience.
Before resting, the next weekend the axis of world entertainment shifts to Grenada for Spicemas. That's where thousands of Jab Jabs descend, and hordes of Vieux Cour and bands of Short Knee parade on the streets, ensuring the survival of one of our most heralded cultural heritage.
In all of these carnivals, though similar, there is something unique in each.
In Barbados Crop Over, there are the markets along the Spring Garden Highway. In St. Lucia, one may enjoy country and western music on the radio all day on carnival Sunday. But, St. Lucia can boast of the best band parades on carnival Tuesday.
St. Vincent carnival, for a small island, has so many fetes that one wonders how Vincentians do it; there is a high quality of music on offer as well. Antigua is high energy as well with a strong representation of fancy mas' and soca music. Their soca beat is somewhat faster than the pace in the southern Caribbean.
Of course, I am far more qualified to write about Spicemas, and I already alluded to the traditional mas' portrayals that make Grenada's carnival stand out.
All the carnivals represent the creativity and traditions of our Caribbean people. We have a good time, and we complain to the powers that be about the hard time we're going through, using the lyrics in songs or in our portrayals.
Our carnivals also represent a significant economic activity to the economies of the islands; although, most of the time, our governments are insensitive to that and never provide adequate funding for the festival. We quarrel over money and we boycott from time to time.
But, whether sun shine or rain, we playing a mas'.

o Lawyer Arley Gill is a magistrate and a former Grenada minister of culture. Published with the permission of Caribbean News Now.

When looking at the church from the perspective of ambassadors and diplomats there are several critical considerations. We have established firmly that in the New Testament believers are referred to as ambassadors and diplomats representing the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus himself made many statements reflecting this philosophy. He talked about not being of this world. He stated that his kingdom originated in heaven and his mission and assignment was to establish or extend this kingdom to earth. These are clearly ambassador functions. Any right thinking believer who examines the New Testament cannot escape the fact that we have been given the assignment to function as diplomats and ambassadors.
In further examining the functions of ambassadors and diplomats there are several job requirements and keys to effective function.
Ambassadors and diplomats function more effectively when they have proficiency in multiple languages, especially the language of the country they are assigned to. They understand proper attire for their position. They are trained in proper speech and communication ethics. They understand timeliness and promptness. They understand decorum and protocol (when to speak and when to be silent, order and diplomatic protocols).
The New Testament church outlines some parallels to ambassadorship and diplomatic positions as outlined in the book of Ephesians where the Bible states that God has established the following positions -- apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelists.
Each of these positions represents a type of diplomat or ambassador. In the diplomatic corps there are envoys, attaches, charge d affairs, diplomatic officers and various other positions that form a parallel to what is outlined in the book of Ephesians. These positions of authority have a diplomatic parallel.
These positions are essentially diplomatic positions and positions within the embassy of the kingdom (church). The church is essentially an embassy and diplomatic outpost where diplomats assemble to receive instruction on how to effectively represent the Kingdom of God and ensure that its policies, programs and agenda are known and carried out. The church is therefore a gathering of diplomats to receive instruction on effective representation and guidance on how to carry out their mission.
Every ambassador and diplomat must be clear on three things to maintain their effectiveness -- identity, message and behavior.
If you do not understand your identity you will not function effectively. You must know who you are and whom you represent in order to be an effective ambassador.
Every ambassador is charged with disseminating the message of their government, and if they are not clear on what the message is they cannot function effectively because the wrong message can cause irreparable damage.
An ambassador's conduct and behavior is a reflection of their government so an ambassador must understand how to conduct themselves so as not to cause a misconception about their country.
These three things make a major difference in a successful or failed representation.
Jesus, when he was on earth, was the perfect ambassador and representative, and talked about the plan of the King. He noted that there was an original plan that was interrupted and that he came to restore the original, and enable men to be free from the curse of separation that resulted from this departure from the original plan. When he stated that the Kingdom of Heaven was to come to earth he was speaking of this original plan being reintroduced. The words, thy kingdom come clearly indicated a reintroduction of this kingdom to earth. In many of his conversations he used the words, in the beginning, meaning that this was the way it was originally. Over a process of time, man had become so far removed from the original intent and function that when Jesus spoke about these things it was strange and foreign, but Jesus indicated that this was the original and should not be strange. This is what ambassadors do -- they communicate the message of their kingdom so that persons in their country of assignment have a clear understanding of how the kingdom works thus enabling them to receive its benefits. The problem is that we have become so far removed from the original that we see the original as strange.
Jesus further explained, as the first ambassador to earth, that perfection is not expected of ambassadors, but responsibility is. We are to be responsible in carrying out our assignments. We must be responsible and must be proud of our country and heritage. We must have belief (raith) in our country and king and this causes others to recognize and benefit from what our country and government has to offer. Jesus said that we should seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything else we need would be added unto us. He was asking us to have faith in a King and a system that was not of this world and as chief ambassador he constantly explained the benefits of this kingdom.

o Pastor Dave Burrows is senior pastor at Bahamas Faith Ministries International. Feel free to email comments, whether you agree or disagree, to pastordaveburrows@hotmail.com. I appreciate your input and dialogue. We become better when we discuss, examine and exchange.

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it. The tree is the real thing," said Abraham Lincoln. What is the "real thing" of our national character? Let's define character as the values we, that is, a critical mass of us, display consistently over time. For abundant clarity, "critical mass" means a large enough segment of the population to represent the whole. So what are the values that enough of us display to define our national character?
Bahamians remain hospitable, helpful, and peaceful. We are religious, reactionary and political. We are moderately industrious, we are talented and we are often timid. We are given to short-termism, impulsiveness and passivity. As a general assessment, Bahamians are a good-natured people who demonstrate civility and sufficient effort to make it to the next day. Our character has gotten us to the place we are today, a middle-income country that somewhat shines in the developing world but clearly manifests limited exceptionalism.
Many of the values we now display should be kept as features of our character. Hospitality, helpfulness, religious fervour, talent, industry and the like are great values to have. We do, however, need to add to these character traits a number of others. There are three that I believe would be immensely helpful.
The first value to add is authenticity. We Bahamians spend far too much time trying to please other people. From our earliest years, we begin training in the art of keeping up appearances for others. Children pretend with parents to like doing this or that, knowing full well that they hate it. Then we go on to please our teachers, who tell us that we would be a good this or that, knowing we have an interest in being something entirely different. Then we move on to pretending with our pastors and priests that we are this or that, knowing full well that we are anything but that. We take this pretentious self into our relationships with friends, pretending to be more of this or less than they think, so as to appear to be acceptable in their social circles. If that isn't enough, we get married, or don't, and fake our way through relationships with spouses or significant others, unwilling to express genuine pleasures or pain. We pass this pretentiousness on to our children, only to have them repeat the process. Of course, our politics is replete with falsity, as we pretend to find acceptable the nonsense of leaders or followers.
Dr. Lordes Viado, a specialist in depth psychotherapy, says that there are three benefits to authenticity: (i) healthy self-esteem and self-worth that enables you to pursue a life more aligned with your true self; (ii) better coping skills because you deal with yourself and life as they are; and (iii) purposefulness because you choose pursuits that align with your true self and not what others want. Falseness leads us to be dishonest with ourselves and others. We hide too much, from ourselves and others, never truly dealing with issues and, therefore, never really being able to seize opportunities. If we Bahamians add authenticity to our character, we will be able to make progress on many of the personal and community issues plaguing us, from incest to ignorance to impropriety to poverty. I am convinced of it.
The second value to add is openness. We Bahamians adopt views that are more often than not, uninformed, and will only let them go when they are pried away from us with the sledgehammer of a really bad experience. We form views about people we have never met, or have only heard of from others, and treat those views as infallible. We hold views of the world based on nothing but a Facebook post, WhatsApp note or whisper in some hallway, and then act those views out as unequivocal truth. This leads to bad thinking, bad acting and bad results. This notwithstanding, we seldom make a change from it.
If we open ourselves to the possibility that we don't know, or don't know enough or are just plain wrong about some things, then we make possible the opportunity to be informed, become more enlightenment and find correction. Imagine what would happen if this happened; imagine how much better off we would be. Openness does not ask us to pretend we are not right about some things; it simply asks us to acknowledge that we might be wrong about others. This might make us kinder to others; more accepting of ourselves; and more intrigued about our world and the universe in which it exists. It will certainly help us be more trainable, more cooperative and more productive in life and in the workplace.
The third value to add is studiousness. The only thing that matches our willingness to share something we think is juicy, no matter confirmed or not, is expressing our opinions about things that we have not studied or have not studied enough. If we study more, gather facts, figures and evidence to support our thoughts, our confidence to speak up and speak out will be complemented by our competence to do so. This will lead to better dialogue, debates and discourse. We should not hold back from expressing ourselves. That zeal, however, if combined with knowledge will produce greater value to our society. Our communication in all spheres of endeavor could benefit from greater studiousness. From our political leaders to our parental guidance, if we are more informed, we will get better results.
Ours is a blessed nation. We have many virtues that have made us a striving people. Yet, we have additional positive traits that can be added to our national character to cause us to flourish even more. Authenticity, openness and studiousness are three that I believe offer huge benefits going forward. How do we add these to our national character? We do so by making sure they exist in our individual characters and seeking to promote them in the characters of those within our spheres of influence. Will this happen? Who knows, but I am a dreamer, and as the late great Teddy Pendergrass sang, dreamers just "keep reaching out for passion, no matter what the pain". With God's help, this dream can be a reality. Shall we try?

o Zhivargo Laing is a Bahamian economic consultant and former Cabinet minister who represented the Marco City constituency in the House of Assembly.

Now let me ask you a simple question, which hopefully I already know the likely answer to. Now here goes with the question -- do you wish to be successful in life, across the board? Now hopefully the answer from everyone to that simple, straightforward question is in the affirmative. Now if perchance it's in the negative for anyone there's no doubt about it, you need some immediate counseling because I don't honestly believe that it's mentally healthy not to want to strive to achieve success in all aspects of your life.
Now to those who do wish to succeed in life, obviously you need to first and foremost spend some quiet time setting up a series of goals (short, intermediate and long range) for all areas of your life. Next you need to draw up detailed plans of exactly how you will achieve each of these goals in a given timeframe. Then of course the hard work begins in earnest as you do what is necessary each and every day to bring your goals and objectives to fruition.
Sounds quite simple, doesn't it? Yes it does, but guess what? Along the road to success as you pursue your objectives you are going to encounter some problems, some minor and some major. Now unfortunately it's at this point that so many throw in the towel, so to speak, they abandon their quest to reach the top of the mountain and thus finally stand triumphant at the peak. How very sad this is to observe.
Yes, my friend, if you want to be consistently successful in all that you undertake, there's absolutely no doubt about it, when the going gets tough as it invariably does for all of us from time to time, as the title of today's article simply puts it you must keep going. Yes you must, if you finally wish to achieve your goals and be successful.

o Think about it!
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