Barbados authorities continue to brace for the fallout from the vicious attack on two Canadian visitors which has resulted in one death. Up until now Barbados had managed to remain relatively unscathed from major negative incidents which involved tourists.
For many years the cracks had started to appear but Barbadians appear to believe that Barbados is a blessed country and God would protect us. What has now become obviously apparent is that the pristine image sold of Barbados as an island paradise has been besmirched. While it is true that as a country we should be concerned with protecting all citizens, the ramifications of the Terry Schwarzfeld incident will reverberate around the world whether we like it or not. Long gone are the days when our local media would hide news and hope to ride out negative incidents. This is the Information Age and news today can reach any corner of the globe in an instant.
What the local authorities and media need to prioritize is a strategy to fight against the negative forces which are trying to take over our country. When all is said and done we are only 166 square miles for Godsake! If adequate resources were targeted at solutions to security concerns in Barbados and specifically targeted at the tourist belt five years ago, we would have been ahead of the game. Now Barbados has the distinction of being categorized with Antigua, Tobago, St. Lucia, Aruba and other Caribbean destinations where vicious attacks on tourists have resulted in the most tragic of occurrences.
Barbadians to a child know that tourism is our business and contributes significantly to the Gross Domestic Product. The fact that we can all agree that the incident at Long Beach is a isolated act, all the indicators point to a deterioration in hard crime on the island. We have been observing the deterioration in civil society whether we view it on our roads by private and PSV drivers alike, in our schools with the many instances of student resistance to authority, from our officials who perform for money only and not for love of vocation, the attitude that to deliver service is not cool …
Lastly, our officials believe that we can open our borders and let all characters enter. While we beat our chests that we are meeting our regional and international obligations to facilitate freedom of movement, we do so with a deficient immigration framework which has shown itself to be woefully inadequate. Commonsense tells us that we will have some more challenges down the road regarding some of the unsavoury characters entering Barbados under CariPASS.
Even so, Barbados in relative terms continues to perform well, however we must caution our officials that old approaches to managing the tourism sector will not work. Although we applaud the current Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy for taking the bold step to restructure the Barbados Tourism Authority Board, what purpose will it serve if we have a tarnished brand to sell?
In light of the significant contribution of tourism to the national coffers we wonder why this would not be demonstrated in a serious reward being offered for the capture of the vagabond(s) who murdered the Canadian tourist? We find the current reward of $20, 000 dollars to be insulting when matched against the weight of the crime and the significance of the tourist industry to Barbados. Would it not demonstrate to Barbadians and the others observing from outside that the Barbados government and the other stakeholders view this as an opportunity to demonstrate the seriousness of this matter?
Let us hypothesize if a $100, 000 reward was offered for evidence leading to the arrest of the perpetrator of the crime at Long Beach. It is only then that we would feel that we are serious.
@ Amused,
Georgie Porgie has the god complex of doctors but the devil is in the details. You took him to the cleaners . Take a bow!
what is there to congratulate “Amuse” on? are you this esasily amused?
…..I am of the opinion that amused intervention is similar in nature to that of GP’s. How dear GP make mention of Mark Sheild’s whiteness. lol!, maybe the remark just presented an opening to attack GP, for being a God Man.
BTW how did this white Britsh playboy with bad teeth become Jamaica’s Deputy COP?
Adrian Hinds
You are certainly very perceptive!
To quote you
How dare GP make mention of Mark Sheild’s whiteness. lol!, maybe the remark just presented an opening to attack GP, for being a God Man.
And
BTW how did this white Britsh playboy with bad teeth become Jamaica’s Deputy COP?
It is very clear that Amused motive is solely to try to discredit GP, by any means he can. It is not the first time he has tried to do this, on this blog.
Amused first intervened with an article from Wikipedia which GP summarily debunked. It is clear that whereas GP was able to bring scientific information to bear on the issue, Amused could only push his deceptive strawmen and red herrings argument, but in the final analysis Amused concluded the same as GP did when he intervened. That is that the Jamaican Police Force did not handle the Wolmer affair improperly. This was the basis of GP’s argument. And all the evidence that Amused has brought reveals thatthe Jamaican Police Force did not handle the Wolmer affair improperly.
Amused agrees with GP that Wolmer died by natural causes as the Jamaican Police Force concluded from the very beginning. In other words, the Jamaican Police Force were indeed correct from the beginning. But under pressure from the outside press or the Gleaner or who ever, “the white British playboy with bad teeth,” as you called him sought to conduct an investigation to cover his ass. …….which by itself again indicated that the Jamaican Police Force did not handle the Wolmer affair improperly.
Amused was at pains to brand GP as a racist, even though he must most surely know that it is quite the norm that in this region local black folk have often been overlooked for promotion by white expatriates, who are often less qualified.
In one of his posts, GP pointed out that the white expatriate Professor at Cave Hill sought to deny local and regional blacks their right to transfer to Mona to study Medicine. He also pointed out that the same white Professor facilitated the appointment of his white expatriate colleague from Bristol at the expense of the black lecturer who had started and run the same department for years and who ought to have been rewarded for influencing the development of several regional black students.
Adrian Hinds, your question above is deserving of an answer
BTW how did this white British playboy with bad teeth become Jamaica’s Deputy COP?
In his haste to discredit GP Amused dug up all kind of articles which showed only that his motive was to discredit GP. But…….GP has sucesfully pointed out (and Amused research and articles indicates) that the Jamaican Police were indeed correct in their initial judgement, that racism is widespread in keeping down or ignoring black expertise in the region, and in the process he informed the BU family to be weary of the dangerous complication of diabetes called DKA.
What did Amused bring to the table, except a fervent desire to discredit GP?
AMUSED
Talk yuh talk.
@cynic
LOL
Everyone knows that to a certain extent I support black people.
However I must confess that far too many of us are very pompous and full of our selves. Case in point “GEORGIE PORGIE.
No amount of revisionist history on his part will convince sensible people that Jamaica police force did not get it horribly wrong in the beginning with regards to Bob Woolmer.
But we must remember that it was Jamaica we are dealing with. They eat, drink and sleep murder. As a result they believe that every death has to be murder. Hence the huge mistake with regards to Bob Woolmer’s death.
I think that we should all let GP vent, He needs to. He is striving fervently to convince all and sundry that he is the second coming of Jesus Christ.
CCC
Do you understand what you wrote?
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No amount of revisionist history on his part will convince sensible people that Jamaica police force did not get it horribly wrong in the beginning with regards to Bob Woolmer.
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Do you understand the meaning of the phrase ” in the beginning”?
It is obvious that you have a problem with Jamaica and Jamaicans.
Have you ever been to Jamaica?
GP is entitled to be pompous, man. HE RIGHT & HE BRIGHT! He has said all along, and all the reports cited in Amused arguments indicate that the Jamaican police had the right answer first up. They had the right answer “in the beginning.” That is deah from natural causes. They started there, and when they did thier investigations to cover thier asses, they ended right back there. Read the reports cited by Amused again.
GP has achieved what you can never hope to, so all you can do is seek to pull him down. Typical crab in the barrel Bajan mentality.
Because he disagreed with you, you now want to mock his right to believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ.
You are in a sad sorry state sir.
cynic = Georgie Porgie
( a man who loves to heap praise onto himself)
cynic
I lived in Jamaica for a while.
Jamaica Observer and CBC evening news
“GUNMEN yesterday went on a murder spree in the Corporate Area and St Catherine, killing seven persons in an almost 15-hour span.
Five of the murders, including two double killings, occurred in the St Andrew North Police Division, pushing the murder tally in that area to 27 since the start of the year. Police, up until late yesterday, were only able to identify four of the dead. They are:
. Petrojam accountant Andre Jenniere, 45, and his wife, 39-year-old Carolyn – a lecturer at the University of Technology (UTech) School of Nursing;
. 63-year-old wholesale operator Elsie Armstrong; and
. gas station operator Sylvan McPherson, 38;
Among the dead was a security guard who the police alleged was the brother of dancehall artiste Desmond Ballentine, more popularly known as ‘Ninjaman’.”
Even “Ninjaman’s brother they killed.
One wonders how many of these murders the Jamaica Constabulary will solve.
Jamaica, One Love!
Cheese on bread!
I just left a whole lot of double talking, argumentative, indecisive, prevaricating, men on the island. I arrive here and what do I get……