Barbados responds to Rihanna!

Rihanna caused quite a stir in Barbados with her comments about bajan haters as covered in our earlier article:

Rihanna blasts the Bajan haters…..

in the time since then there has been much public comment in the media and on the call in programmes. Much of the call in radio has been mixed, although most Bajan call in programmes have their “regular callers” who would probably have been the source of much of the criticism in the first place. There has however been a significant number of calls praising the Bajan diva, also however there is a body of opinion that the article did not speak well of Barbados generally that we would be critical of our musical success story. Others have been critical of Ms. Fenty for being critical of Bajans (it would seem free speech only runs one way)

The reaction in the mainstream press has been more measured.

The island’s leading daily paper posited that maybe the star should accept that she can’t get everyone to like her in their editorial “That’s Life Rihanna“

“What however, Rihanna has to accept and learn, is that celebrity status attracts more than ordinary attention from ordinary people and this might not always be welcomed by those on whom it is focused, for it will not always be adulation.

 

What celebrities wear, where they go and with whom, even the food they eat, can come under scrutiny by their fans and others. Rihanna might well consider an observation she made earlier in another interview where she noted that: “In this business you have to work with the things that get thrown your way – the good, the bad and the ugly.”"

Respected journalist Dawn Morgan came out swinging!

 

 

 

“And therein lies the powerful-foolish attitude of some people to the beautiful, talented, sensuous, godess-legged and ever so loyal to Barbados Rihanna, our very own princess who made it on her own steam. Just diss the haters. So they don’t like your brand of music, dancing and dressing. Can’t they live and let live? I guess some of them lead such an empty and boring existence they can only feel alive when they are venting their spleen with envy, jealousy or intolerance.”

 

One letter to the press called on the media to shield the star from criticism:

 

“I wish to challenge the media powers of Barbados. You are the voices of the nation. Don’t allow yourselves to be used disparagingly where Rihanna is concerned.

 

I’m calling on you to protect Rihanna and the innocent majority of Barbadians from the relatively few bad apples around us.”

and yet another professed his admiration for the star and urged other Bajans to do the same.

“Rihanna, I love you and I am proud of you. Keep up the good work, and make the megadollars. MC Hammer use to say in his song “can’t touch this”. Forget the haters, they are just waiting to see you fall, to say “I told you so”.”

My take on this would be to say that you never will get everyone to like you, no matter how much you do. But Rihanna should remember that every silent majority comes with a noisy minority. Think of it as the yin and yang of public opinion.

You just can’t get one without the other.

Marginal

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