Goodness, Gracious, Barbados

The West Indian country of Barbados became a republic on Tuesday, having spent its first 55 years of independence as a realm of the British Commonwealth with the queen of Great Britain as their head of state and represented by a governor general.  The move to republicanism has been seen as a way of dissociating Barbados with the legacy of slavery - when it was a British colony, the British apparently carried out a slave system on the island for the sugar trade that was more brutal than the slave system in the American South - and most Barbadians are descended from slaves. There was an apology and regret about slavery and its legacy from Prince Charles, who attended and spoke at the ceremony for the new Barbadian government.  But another reason the Barbadians wanted to be a republic was because of national pride and a greater desire for self-determination.  Having a foreign monarch as a head of state can get in the way of all that.  

Dame Sandra Mason, the country's governor general, became the first president of Baraboss, and one of the new republic's first acts was to declare Barbados' own Robyn Rihanna Fenty, known professionally by her middle name, as a national hero.

Rihanna? A Barbadian national hero?  I've heard her sing.  In a country with a population half the size of that of Wyoming, I guess they can't do better.

At least Barbados knows when to let go of the mother country and assume full responsibility for its affairs of state.  Australia and Canada remain realms of the Commonwealth, each recognizing Queen Elizabeth II as their sovereign and each having governors general of their own.

Which isn't really necessary when Australia and Canada have national heroes such as, respectively, Courtney Barnett and Joni Mitchell.