Photo: Wireimage/Getty

More than a few Bajan journalists and residents of Barbados are wondering if the Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson made the right decision in appointing pop star Rihanna to the position of Cultural Ambassador to Barbados.

Eric Lewis, a writer for the Barabados Advocate wrote an article questioning the firing of key cabinet officials to make room for Rihanna on the payroll.

Lewis also questioned the taxpayer-funded stipend the singer is getting for her new position – and if the new PM plans to fire anymore officials to accommodate RiRi’s salary.

According to Lewis, Bajans were outraged when they learned that the old Cultural Ambassador was paid $6,000 a month – an amount that comes out of taxpayers pockets.

“In fact, some people want to know if now that Rihanna is a Cultural Ambassador if she on the payroll too and what she getting considering that she is a millionaire,” writes Lewis.

Other journalists question whether the 20-year-old is even ambassador material at all.

“But how susceptible to dishonor does a country become when its celebrity ambassador goes haywire?,” writes Rochelle Oliver in an article posted today on the South Florida Times website. “Imagine Brittney Spears becoming the ambassador of America in her pop-princess days?,” she writes.

I have to agree. Recent photos of Rihanna lying between the legs of her BFF Chris Brown in a suggestive manner as he nuzzles her neck, are not the type of images Bajans want to see of their Cultural Ambassador.

It’s embarrassing enough that her supposed boyfriend is still allegedly carrying on an illicit affair with his older manager behind closed doors while he conveniently makes out with Rihanna in full view of the cameras.

Bajans are a proud people who frown upon public displays of affection by anyone, much less an official who is being paid by taxpayer dollars.

Rihanna continues to insist that she and Chris Brown are ‘just friends’.