The Message from Dr. the Honorable Barbara Gloudon, O.J.
By Glen Laman
Barbara Gloudon
Barbara Gloudon was the keynote speaker at the sixth Annual Reunion and Awards Banquet of the Atlanta chapter of the Kingston College Old Boys’ Association held on Saturday, September 16th 2006 at the Perimeter Holiday Inn in Atlanta, Georgia.
Most speakers do well if they can accomplish only one goal in speaking. Barbara Gloudon is one of those rare people able to accomplish several goals in a single speech. On Saturday evening, she was entertaining, informative, colorful, and purposeful; yet she was also inspiring, touching and stirring, all in the same speech.
If I had to choose one take away from her speech, it would be “Fly the flag of Excellence.” She admonished us to inform the new principal at KC that “the KCOBA is about excellence-- not just providing food and shoes" and that we should all work to defeat the “cult of the half-baked” that threatens to take over all the schools. We should demand and reward excellence and not compromise and accept “half-accomplishment.” After all, she explained, you cannot be a “little pregnant” nor will winning only one quarter leg of a relay win the race.
KC students today lead “hard lives” and some are “fighting for their lives” each day, she reminded us. Even more reason then to “instill a taste for excellence” in these young men because, despite their circumstances, more doors of opportunity are open to them if they pursue excellence. She evoked the memory of legendary Kingston College and West Indies cricketer, Collie Smith, who rose to greatness from the most humble beginnings and against the odds. He pursued excellence, and was excellent, despite growing up in one of the poorest sections of Jamaica. Today’s students should do no less.
She told us that she herself came from a family of nine children and “grew up poor, but never knew poverty.” Her father was not afraid to “talk back to Bakra” when told by his boss that he was required to be away from his family at Christmas. He chose to stand up for principle despite the cost. He knew what was important.
Dr. Gloudon also admonished us to teach our children about our heritage and the culture from which we came rather than talk about how “it mash down.” No matter what we have accomplished overseas or what wealth we acquired, our hearts were still in Jamaica. Her own umbilical cord was buried under a coconut tree and in a similar way we are all connected to the Jamaican soil. We are the inheritors of tradition and we are responsible for talking about it and guarding it. With the world being as it is today, whatever citizen ship papers we might think we have could be suddenly taken away as some in England discovered when that country rewrote the rules on citizenship.
She thanked the Atlanta chapter for inviting her and for the work they were doing on behalf of Kingston College. Although Bishop Gibson is no longer around to make sure students do right, we can work to bring them into “the light of excellence.”
