The Promise of Belonging is powerfully articulated in the “Children of Independence”, an opinion piece I wrote to reflect on Barbados’ 44th anniversary as a sovereign state. It was published in the Sunday Sun edition of the Barbados Nation Newspaper on November 28, 2010. As smart technologies accelerate the pace of change in the world, it continues to astonish me how fitting the original words were for their time, and how prophetic they remain for such a time as this, accurately mirroring Barbados’ current reality more than 12 years after they were written.