Town Hall Meetings To Discuss Green Paper On Immigration

The Owen Arthur Versus Mia Mottley Rumble

Former Prime Minister Owen Arthur

Amid the political rhetoric emanating from the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) political meeting held in St. Patricks on Sunday night, it was reported that former veteran BLP ministers Lammie Craig and Clyde Griffith called former Prime Minister Arthur is a spent force.  The current tussle between party leader Mottley and the Arthur camp to establish control of the party promises much more for bystanders to observe. A disunited opposition party will obviously work in favour of the government. Barbadians concern about preserving its stable political climate would be concerned when one out of a two party system becomes distracted by in-fighting.

When the BLP was defeated in the last general election there was an immediate handover of the reigns by Arthur to Mottley. It surprised many the haste at which it was done and this fuelled reports that Arthur was pressured to relinquish the position as party leader. One day Barbadians may learn about what happened at BLP headquarters in Roebuck Street.

Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley

In 2013 the next general election will be constitutionally due, Owen Arthur will be 63 years old. In the current environment with an economy spiralling caused by external shocks it is not unreasonable to expect that Barbadians may want to revert to a man who despite what his detractors believe presided over a Barbados economy in times of plenty. At 63 years old a message of being experienced and wise about the workings of the Barbados economy may work in his favour over the untested Mottley. Until the next general election is announced it serves Arthur’s interest to disrupt any public perception of Mottley becoming comfortable in the role as the Prime Minister in waiting. A recent CADRES poll which positioned Arthur on top of Mottley in national ranking should not be ignored. The assertion therefore by Clyde Griffith that Arthur is a spent force is optimistic at best.

Police Harassment, Racial Profiling And Human Rights Violations In Brazil And Guyana

Submitted by Mark Jacobs (Voice of Guyana)

The Takatu Bridge opening last September saw Guyanese and Brazilians celebrating but for different reasons. It signalled that Guyana was finally on its way in fulfilling its ‘continental destiny.’ Brazil on the other hand is happy to have finally opened up access to the Atlantic and Caribbean for it’s landlocked territories.

Brazil has tremendous resources to assist Guyana in achieving our highest potentials. There are but few of our imports that cannot be fulfilled by Brazilian industries. With all that said, there’s another side to Brazil many refuse to acknowledge much less discuss. And I speak of the plight of the 90 plus million Afro-Brazilians.

We need not discuss how these Africans got to Brazil, but to understand
the magnitude, it’s four times larger than the African American population. Nigeria is the only country in the world with more Africans than Brazil. (I prefer the term African as opposed to Black since Africa indicates a place of origin) I point these things out because I visited Brazil last year and became a victim of police harassment and racial profiling less than twenty four hours after arriving in Boa Vista.

I was in a tourist zone when three City Police (Guardia Municipal)demanded that I turn around and put my hands up. I objected as is my right. I had done nothing but take photos of the Rio Branco. These police weren’t having any of it and forced me around and began aggressively patting me down and kicking my legs apart. My passport was checked out so they had nothing on me there as I had legally entered Brazil. In the end it may have been my Guyana passport that saved me as Afro-Brazilians are routinely rounded up beaten, killed, framed and imprisoned. The current and historical record speaks to this.

The Rights Of ALL In The Anglican Church To Stated Burial Rites

Submitted by BU family member (as a comment)

We, my wife and myself, recently attended a funeral in Barbados. We have attended many, and understand how important a funeral is to many Barbadians. The deceased person was the brother of a good friend of ours, and we were attending to give our friend some support, and, as we so often say, to renew our contact with him even though the circumstances were very sad.

The service proceeded according to the order of service given to us, and the eulogy was delivered. The next item, according to the order of service, was to be a tribute from his brother, our friend. However, whoever was on the public address system said that the next item would be a solo singing rendition, from someone else. By this time, our friend had arrived at the rostrum, and he turned to the announcer and said, with the microphone in his hand, that the announcement was a mistake, and that according to the order of service, which we all held in our hands (I estimate a four to five hundred attendance in the church), he was now to give a tribute to his dead brother.

We have never ever witnessed at a funeral what happened next! As our friend asserted his right to give a tribute, the minister of the church, robes flowing, nearly physically assaulted our friend, and stopped his presentation. The minister forcibly took the microphone out of our friend’s hands.

Never A Dull Moment In Barbados: Veteran Journalist David Ellis Squeezed Out From STARCOM Network?

Click image to read related blog

In recent days BU sense a quickening of the political pace in Barbados. We have had the statement floated by Minister responsible for economic affairs David Estwick about the necessity for a wage freeze and all hell has broken lose. Prime Minister David Thompson and Minister of Agriculture Haynesley Benn have declared support for the wage freeze initiative. To be predicted the cries of the unions, an IMF official, and the media houses have joined the fray, John Public has been given another reason to sit up and take note regarding the tottering economy.

What should be clear to most Barbadians on both sides of the political divide is the recognition the pace has quickened because the economy has started to spiral. It will take a a vision filled captain supported by a dedicated team to keep Barbados from running aground. Forget about restructuring the economy it has now become all about survival.

To add to the excitement, news reaching BU suggests veteran journalist David Ellis has resigned from STARCOM Network. Ellis has always attracted heavy criticism from BU because he is the lone journalist in Barbados who has the breath of knowledge and experience to qualify as a proper journalist. On the flip side, we understand he would have had to curtail and sacrifice his creative skills and dampened his journalistic curiosity at the altar of pure economic considerations during his tenure at STARCOM. Vic Fernandez along with his former Chief Operating Officer Alex Macdonald would have provided little wriggle room on that front. If our source is correct Ellis’ resignation seems the honourable thing for the veteran journalist to do. The fact he occupies the position as the only bona fide journalist in Barbados should still recommend him for a job. His former colleague Roy Morris seems to have bounced back with the recent launch of an online newspaper Barbados Today. God help Barbados if we are to assume Stetson ‘ the tueeesday edition’ Babb is the one groomed to fill Ellis’ shoes.

It will be business as usual on River Road, Vic will continue to drive his top of the line Audi to the office while his foot soldiers are sent home or harassed into leaving. Never a dull moment in Barbados.

Fat: Good, Bad or Ugly?

Submitted by Doctor GP - Click on image to view presentation

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by the International Health Conference, New York, 19-22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, no. 2, p. 100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948. The Definition has not been amended since 1948 – WHO definition of Health

Obesity continues to be of concern in Barbados. Government continues to spend a significant percentage of its annual budget on healthcare but the question remains: Has the Ministry of Health developed a health and wellness message which is resonating with Barbadians?

It is interesting to note thin people can be fat!

Is The Ship Sinking Captain Thompson?

Prime Minister of Barbados David Thompson

The Financial Times reported today of Moody’s warning to the USA concerning its burgeoning budget deficit. Unbelievable some would say. It seems Barbados is not the only country coming under the microscope from the international credit rating agency. In a nutshell the triple A rating which the USA has routinely enjoyed maybe under threat. Truth be told BU will believe the markdown when it happens.

Almost two years since the collapse of the global financial market and as predicted the lag indicators are beginning to take hold in the Barbados economy. In the lead productive sector tourism, revenue has contracted, unemployment has bent upwards passed 10%, foreign direct investment has significantly dwindled …The financial state of the global financial market continues to challenge all governments around the world. To accentuate the problem is the fact Barbados has a new government which has to acclimatize to the workings of government operating in a complex global environment.

What About The Haitian Children?

For the past three weeks the world has remained horrified at the news coming out of Haiti. Much has been stated about the untold suffering which has been visited on Haiti throughout the years. The images beamed across the world by a Western press has exposed the destruction of Port au Prince now rubble, over one hundred thousand dead, over one hundred thousand people relegated to amputee status, and over one million people homeless.

As if the horrific scenes unfolding on a nightly basis was not enough to make grown men cry – delivered courtesy of CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Doctor cum journalist Sanjay Gupta – we have had to witness another horrific event although not being reported as such. How many Black children have been adopted, in the process of being adopted, or simply stolen from Haiti during this period of uncertainty and distress in Haiti? The images of Black children being taken legally or otherwise by White people from Haiti has been troubling to BU.

The RACE Gap: The Science of Intelligence – Are Blacks Inherently Inferior To Whites And Asians In Terms of IQ and Cognitive Ability?

Submitted by Terence Blackett

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights …Declaration of Independence

In a preamble to my current book manuscript on the issue of “race relations” entitled ‘Unmasking The Phantom’: The Race Factor – Exposing The Problems Of Race Relations In America – it dawned on me based on a recent documentary by a very highly respected Black British journalist that this was the one area that I had not given enough academic resonance to, due in part to the dangerous minefield that has been created around this incendiary narrative.

Race and IQ have created many enemies across the academic as well as the social divide. The most damaging and soul-destroying accusation that can be levelled at any human being is to be classified as sub-human because of a range of numbers on an IQ sliding scale (reference made to the Australian Aborigines).

But first let us examine the social anthropology and the ethno-genesis on this questionable area of science which posits this notion of a hierarchy of intelligence between the “races” while creating a subjugation of the Black race, relegating them to the furthest end of this ideological spectrum.

There are many questions to be answered by social scientists, social policy experts and politicians who continue to bury their heads in the sand over this contention issue – most of them wanting to play the political correctness game as a form of appeasement.

For example, in Britain, the US and Canada – predominate 1^st world countries where with an increasing Black population – can governments and policy-makers continue to overlook the escalating problems of Black underachievement in schools and an increasing marginalization of Black males who are jobless, incarcerated, disillusioned and teeter-tottering on the periphery of society resulting in sub-cultural strands of behaviour and exploitation defined as a “hip-hop, Gen-ex generation?

But before I begin to rant about the structural inequalities and the social transmogrification of opportunity based on privilege, class and elite meritocracy – let us go back and look at the paradigms of social anthropology and how the narrative and the dialogue on racial IQ and intelligence became such a medium of contention and how the dumming down of this issue even within academic circles is seen as intellectual terrorism – where the use of the enemy is not a suicide bomber who straps plastic explosives to a vest but rather uses the corollary of subtle genetic science to plant incendiary devices within the minds of groups of people to maintain an ongoing status quo.

Iran And Guyana Make Strange Bedfellows:Implications For Caricom

President Mahmud Ahmadinejad of Iran and President Bharat Jagdeo of Guyana

The President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo recently visited a few middle eastern countries, of interest to some was the visit to Iran. BU finds it surprising that we have had little if any analysis in the local media about what motivated the visit to Iran and possible implications for the region. It should be noted that Guyana is a sovereign nation and is solely responsible for shaping its foreign policy.

Press reports suggest that and a MOU was signed with Iran which will see Iranian medical doctors  fill shortages at state [Guyana] hospitals and build a medical school to train students and junior physicians. Additionally, Guyana is to benefit from a $1.5 million grant to target the healthcare system and resources to map mineral resources. Other countries like Jordan and Kuwait provided financial and other resources.

The foreign policy positioning of the Jagdeo led Guyana seems at odds with that of other countries in Caricom. Given the intrigue of geopolitics at large, it seems surprising to see Guyana formulating a foreign policy which could see it at odds with the only super power. Despite the boast of being a sovereign country it is one of the lowest rated if measured by GDP or HDI. Taking on a conflicting position with the USA might prove unwise.

The Utilities Raping Barbadian Consumers

First it was water, followed by electricity, based on recent reports Barbadians will suffer another increase in the telephone rate of $1.77 per pricing plan, whatever that means. The biggest of all ironies is the recognition that the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) is owned by government and not regulated by the Fair Training Commission (FTC). Cable & Wireless aka LIME and the Barbados Light & Power fall under the oversight of the FTC. In both cases the PEOPLE lose.

BU can join the esoteric debate by the academics and analysts to argue the merits of hiking utility rates at the hike of a recession. We have always been more comfortable using arguments rooted in commonsense.

Barbadians have had to pay by decree up 60% increase in the water rate. Most Barbadians given the value of water to maintaining our existence would have been persuaded to suffer the increase,  balanced by the argument the BWA was insolvent and in dire need of a overhaul. Prime Minister David Thompson told Barbadians in June 2009 that the increase in the water rate was necessary to ensure the BWA meets its mandate to deliver a quality water management infrastructure to Barbadians. Approaching one year the customer and other support services at the BWA remain abdominal. Minister Denis Lowe who is responsible for the BWA has been silent regarding progress in restructuring at that state body. Last week Barbadians were treated to the news that a consultant contracted by government will recommend the discontinuation of sucks/ pit toilets. Additionally current water zones may have to change.

Is this another case of the chickens coming home to ruse? It wasn’t too long ago when politicians Don Blackman and Trevor Prescod were defending the rights of squatters in the Belle. Other politicians have been known to put politics above the health of the nation by ignoring the growing problem of squatting in water zones.  A lack of leadership in our water management perhaps?

Tourism Potential

Submitted by Adrian Loveridge

Barbados Hilton-barbados.org

While I fully understand all the fiscal restraints Government currently has and the historical and possibly political desire to complete the recently re-named Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Conference Centre, I would like to propose a second option.

There is no doubt that Trinidad and Tobago stole a march on the Southern Caribbean by constructing a new conference facility and an adjacent first class hotel. It’s no secret that most people attending conferences, for all sorts of reasons, want to stay close to where the event is taking place.

The very last thing is they wish to endure is to spend indeterminate amounts of time fighting with rush hour traffic to reach where the function is taking place. For whatever reason, ‘we’ missed a golden opportunity with the construction of the Hilton. 354 rooms, but not one large enough space to host major exhibitors and trade or consumer shows.

In hindsight it would have been so easy to have incorporated a single meeting area on one level of at least 10,000 square feet. Whether it was rooftop, basement or even formed part of the car park!

It’s not too late!

Fair Trading Commission To Hand Down Barbados Light & Power Rate Hike Decision

FAIR TRADING COMMISSION

DECISION – RATE REVIEW

THE BARBADOS LIGHT & POWER COMPANY
LIMITED

BARBADOS

No. 2 of 2009

IN THE MATTER of the Utilities Regulation Act CAP. 282 and the Fair Trading Commission Act CAP. 326B of the Laws of Barbados;

AND IN THE MATTER of the Utilities Regulation (Procedural) Rules 2003;

AND IN THE MATTER of the Application by the Barbados Light & Power Company Limited for a review of electricity rates pursuant to Section 16 of the Utilities Regulation Act CAP. 282 of the Laws of Barbados;

THE FAIR TRADING COMMISSION HEREBY GIVES NOTICE that:
The Commission will reconvene the Rate Review Hearing on Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Conference Centre, Two Mile Hill, St. Michael to deliver its Decision in this matter.

Dated the 22nd day of January 2010.

Peggy Griffith
Chief Executive Officer
Fair Trading Commission
Telephone: 424-0260

Mottley Should Stop And Take Fresh Guard

Hartley Henry - DLP Political Strategist

No one seems willing to talk about it, so at the risk of having my email re-hacked and further untruths concocted, I shall today comment on a few recent slip ups in judgment by the leader of the opposition Barbados Labour Party, Mia Mottley.

Under normal circumstances, and using my preferred Bajan vernacular, I would say to Ms Mottley that her political ‘slip is showing’. But that somehow does not ring well with this particular politician, so I would merely wish to point out that on current course, she is on the wrong track; moving the Barbados Labour Party in the wrong direction.

Firstly, Mottley was wrong for not chastising Trevor Prescod, there and then, over his very uncharitable comments in relation to a former leader of this country. Even the other newspaper found it necessary to rap her on the knuckles for this letdown. As leader, she must not fail to rein in her charges, even if it means not being always in their good books.

Secondly, the media has made light work of the failed attempt by Ms Mottley and the Barbados Labour Party to launch their 2013 general elections campaign. Mottley announced at that same St Michael East meeting that she would be leading her party onto the battle field last Wednesday evening and would in effect be launching her party’s re-election campaign.

What’s Happening With The School Meals Program?

The Barbados School Meals Program (BSMP) was piloted in 1963 as a project which involved six primary schools. In 1976 the program was extended to include 35, 000 students distributed across 117 primary schools. The BSMP is widely regarded as being very successful and we believe has been case-studied by many countries across the region and further a field. Many outstanding sons of the soil owe their sustenance to the BSMP. Many still marvel at the extent to which the BSMP has been subsidized by successive governments – 10 cents per plate!

A feature of the BSMP was the variety in the menu. Although some students who were poor-great felt inclined to make other luncheon arrangements most pupils looked forward to seeing the white school meals vans entering the school yard before noon and the smell of the lunches floating across the school compound which caused the bellies to growl and mouths to salivate.

If BU understands the reports reaching us about the BSMP; the quality of the food has deteriorated significantly in recent years.  We are not sure if the reason for the decline can be attributed to the lack of culinary skills of the new crop of cooks employed by the BSMP or the rising standard of living which has seen less children registering to receive school meals, perhaps a combination of the two. For example, one day last week children registered to receive school meals got a piece of chicken breast in a salt bread, PERIOD!

Two Altars Of Stone:- The Black Church Versus The White Church – A House Divided Against Itself

Submitted by Terence Blackett

One of the greatest historical deceptions of all times is the refusal of mainstream Christianity as well as secular society to accept and advocate the original Black pre-eminence and presence in the Bible. This historical seismic rift created a fabrication of diabolical proportions which has ebbed and flowed for the last 4000 years right up to our present time.

Jesus’ First Advent came at a critical time when the final 2000 year epoch of human history was to begin the process of bringing home the lost sons and daughters of Israel back into a harmonious relationship with their God (Yah) – that they had long forgotten and had rebelled against for centuries. This process would eventually culminate with the sealing of 144,000 – 12,000 from each of the 12 Tribes who will not see death, but will be translated at the end of human history – when Jesus will appear the second time in the eastern sky with over a trillion angels enshrouded with majesty that no eye has ever beheld.

Meantime, the house of God remains in a pile of rubble. The walls broken down. No agreement to be found. The sanctuary defiled. The priests and prophets lie – preaching and teaching to their own means and the followers seem to like it so. While the vast throng of God’s people are living in deception, apathy and disbelief because godliness and righteousness is enshrouded (wrapped up) in fickle, baseless religiosity with no real knowledge of God in the land.