[manaboutown]

Frankly I had never heard of Rihanna before I did from a lady friend a week prior to SB. I was not told she was a Bajan. That fact came as a shock to me when I read it in this thread. I was in Barbados when President Reagan intervened when armed groups of Cubans were trying to take over Grenada. My wife and I had flown into Barbados one or two nights before it started. They had turned the lights on at the airport so our plane could land then turned them off. The next day US military cargo transports were flying into the airport all day long one after another. We drove out to the airport to see what was going on. Helicopters were being unloaded. The US main stream media was there. Some of them were relentlessly hassling an airman in the mens room at the airport while he was trying to do his business. He kept mum about what was going on. The MSM was obnoxiously rudely storming hotel lobbies for rooms. "We're the Press!" blah blah blah. In our small family owned hotel the owners were huddled together when we returned. Then they and just about every Bajan I ran into on the street, in restaurants and elsewhere asked me if I was an American. I replied yes. Then they profusely thanked me over and over as most had friends and family on Grenada and had been very concerned about Cubans taking the island over. Of course when I returned to the USA and read some of the press coverage I could not believe they had written about the conflict I was near. Anyway, I found Bajans to be very proper and polite people. Posters were up instructing beach goers to cover up when they went into grocery stores, not just go in their bathing suits. The British influence was strong. I realize that was 40 years ago, and things have changed. Yet I wonder if Rihanna truly represents the culture of Barbados today.