How Do We See Ourselves?

The Late Right Excellent Errol Walton Barrow

We have been observing that our heritage that which use to define Barbados is changing. Our culture: traditions, our unique expressions and thoughts. We wondered if we were mad to contemplate the fact that our heritage is undergoing change. Certainly as people become more educated and as economic systems evolve the interactions  will influence  shifts in perspectives and value systems. But as we move along the continuum of inevitable change we have to ask if the value system and culture of a country evolves or is it restated periodically over time?

Productive individuals are expected to be those who lead a life anchored in a sense of purpose and direction. Management gurus suggest that only then can us mere mortals achieve the ultimate, self-actualization.  If we build on this premise that our country is an embodiment of its people then we have clarified our uncertainty. Change is constant and therefore always evolving. The views of Barbadians therefore represent that ethos which is distinctly Barbadian.

Is CLICO Being Used As Target Practice?

Parris (left) having a chat with director Leslie Haynes, QC, minutes after the meeting with Prime Minister David Thompson. (TM) (Picture by Nigel Browne of Nation newspaper.)

The expected deal between CLICO Holdings Barbados Limited and Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited seems to have gone off the boil. Terse announcements from ICBL and CLICO suggest that both parties were not satisfied with the tenor of the negotiations. No sooner the announcement was made the Opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) reinstated its call for the regulators to take hold of the company.

BU in a previous blog has expressed our concern at the haste with which some parties in Barbados seem to want to dismantle CLICO Holdings Barbados Limited. This is despite the assurance by Prime Minister David Thompson that the government of Barbados will protect the policyholders and investors of CLICO Holdings, the Opposition Party led by Mia Mottley seems hell-bent on escalating the call for the liquidation of CLICO’s assets.

The question to be asked is why no similar concern expressed at the recent downgrade in A.M Best Rating of Sagicor? ALICO which is a subsidiary of AIG has not raised even a murmur. AIG we know is the US based holding company which has been deemed to large to fail and has been on life-support for over six months now.

New Social Networking Website Launched Which Targets Barbadians

IonBarbados Local Social Networking Website

Sometime ago BU family member ROK made some reference as to why Caribbean people couldn’t invent their own messenger system like MSN or Yahoo. Some family members wondered why Caribbean people have to flock to social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Hi5. Don’ t Caribbean people have the ability to create for ourselves? We normally are very selective in the websites we highlight on BU but we feel the young Barbadian who has started this social networking website called IonBarbados should be given all encouragement.

But then again we have a long history of not supporting our own!

For those who are interested, an online social networking site is a place where friends, family and others can meet and exchange information, pictures, play games etc as well as sample ‘goodies’ which the social networking website has on offer. For example if we joined IonBarbados and we had a friend or family member in St. Lucia where the St. Lucia Jazz Festival is currently being hosted, the St. Lucian member would be able to post pictures and chat with others about the Amy Winehouse disaster which occurred if they had snapped a few pics with their camera .

We wish the Bajan social networking site all the best!

Flooding Beware, Kudos To The Sanitation Service Authority And The Drainage Unit

See what is taken from the drains on Tudor Street, BRIDGETOWN/Thanks to SSA PRO Ian Bourne

The appointment of Dr. Dennis Lowe to oversee drainage in Barbados has made him the butt of many a political joke by people on the other side. BU agrees though that the removal of Dr. Lowe from the social and empowerment ministry was a demotion but his responsibility for drainage should not be trivialized because of it.

We are pleased to observe the work of the Drainage Unit working in tandem with the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) to challenge the problem of clogged drainage systems. It seems that we have entered an era to find Barbadians who are not environmentally friendly. Images in the Press recently have exposed the problem caused by littering, illegal dumping and bush which has significantly contributed to flooding around Barbados.

Whilst we are at it. Those commercial houses in Bridgetown especially should be made to feel the weight of the law for mismanaging garbage disposal. Nothing will change until the laws of Barbados are enforced.

Together We Do, Or Together We…

Hartley Henry - DLP Political Strategist

Admittedly, my comments were general and not based on empirical evidence. Three weeks ago I advised my friend it was not wise to give up her job here in Barbados and fly to London in search of employment and career opportunities. My mom, her sisters and several of their contemporaries did that in the 1960s, and it worked. They studied, got trained and worked two and three jobs and made a success of themselves and a comfortable living for those of us who relied on those Pounds Sterling and food and clothing parcels, which we enthusiastically collected from the post office.

Those were the days when even if the British did not want us or like us, they valued and appreciated the contribution we made. Today, London Transport and the public health services, nursing care in particular, are of an enviable standard because of those Bajans and West Indians who made the trek to Britain back in the 60s and 70s.

I advised against her making the move now, because as well meaning as the thought and ambition was, the challenges in balancing one’s budget here at home is not unique to an individual or income bracket, or is it reflective of a lack of discipline in personal money management. Most people are “scrunching” because this is the time to scrunch.

Report Concerns About Immigration Abuse In Barbados

Mr.Editor,

In the absence of the Gov’t listing those work permits issued, maybe a title in the blog could be Work Permits Issued, with contributors, anyone, entering places and positions where they know a work permit has been issued?

This would ensure a publicly available database, albeit by bajans at large, who see positions being filled, especially those where bajans can do the work.

Suggestion submitted by BU family member Sir Bentwood Dick – 10 May 2009

Clearing The Air

Submitted by Looking Glass

The BLP may be guilty of many sins of commission and omission more so in the last 25 or so years but the demise of sugar is not one of them. Sugar was awarded preferential treatment in the UK market and enjoyed above world market price since colonial times. Guaranteed prices, not competitive advantage, enabled the extensive cultivation of sugar cane. Without it Barbados could not have achieved its present state of development. The end of preference in the post EU/ Free Trade era meant declining profitability for the labour intensive industry (the region’s banana industry suffered similar fate when the Clinton administration prevailed on the EU to remove the “preferential barriers” to free trade). Don’t be too quick to blame the plantocracy. Sugar is a brutal reminder that now, as always, our existence depended on hand-outs.

Naturally land went out of production. Why we did not diversify? Diversification, hardly a buzz word at the time, required capital, technology and human skills, all of which were and remain in short supply. Up to now we don’t have proper science lab facilities for high schools students or in which to carry out research. The one at Harrison College is best suited for a museum. Yes the plantocracy had invested in the plant and made it more efficient. But it was also easier to invest profits in Africa and elsewhere and get a 10% return for doing nothing, which is quite natural. Contrary to popular belief one goes into business primarily to make money not to develop the economy.

That said, by the 1980s and certainly the 1990s when the fate of sugar was patently clear to all the government and the private sector should have ‘intervened’ and design a clear cut agricultural policy. Here both parties must be faulted, but most of the blame lies with the previous administration. The latter sold out the country in more ways than one.

Government Of Barbados Addresses The Illegal Immigrant Issue

Prime Minister of Barbados Hon David Thompson

Prime Minister David Thompson issued a ministerial statement in parliament today regarding the immigration issue. For some time now it has been apparent to sensible Barbadians that the national security of Barbados had become breached given the large undocumented number of immigrants living in Barbados. It was an election campaign issue and on assuming office Prime Minister David Thompson appointed a sub-committee of Cabinet of which he was Chairman to investigate and make recommendations to government to relieve the problem.

Barbados will deport illegal immigrants who do not seek to regularize their status under a new policy – see CANA Report.

BU agrees with the measured and humane manner which the Thompson led government has approached this issue. While it is easy to lobby to deport all illegal immigrants, there is an understanding that many of the illegal immigrants have been living in Barbados for so long that it would be inhuman to uproot those people summarily.

But here are a few BU concerns:

CARICOM And The “Illusion” Of Leadership

Submitted by Yardbroom

President Bharat Jagdeo

A commenter recently stated on Barbados Underground, in reference to the Conference of The Americas:

They [ Heads of State ] recently unanimously passed a motion of no-confidence against Prime Minister David Thompson by selecting the Guyana President to be their lead spokesman when they meet the US President later this year.

Is this fact? CARICOM leaders passing a no confidence motion on the leader of a sovereign country Barbados, or is it hyperbole abundantly clothed.  If it is a factual statement and the writer is to believed…CARICOM has lost its way.  To invite a leader of a country which is sometimes referred to as a “failed state” as a spokesperson for the region takes some understanding.  The citizens of Guyana are “fleeing” the country in their thousands, to all parts of the globe.  There is little governance there and the rule of the gun is the order of doing things.  I hear calls of supply evidence to such a harsh statement, I must therefore supply it, it is not from years ago, it is immediate.

“Chief security officer Clifford Peters, alias Malivn, of Lot 48 “N” Essequibo Street, Lamaha Springs, was shot dead yesterday while on a mission to oversee the removal of illegal electricity connections in Lamaha Park, East La Penitence, another part of Georgetown”…

…” The utility routinely carries out raids to detect illegal connections and in 2007 and 2008, at least 370 were executed and the one yesterday was among many Peters led…” Guyana Chronicle May 5, 2009

Ontario Superior Court Sends Nelson Barbados Case Back To Barbados Court ~The Other Side Of The Kingsland Estate Court Matter Part XVIII

BU has just received the published decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in the Nelson Barbados Group Limited Vs Barbados and others case. The sum of it is that Ontario has refused jurisdiction, stating that Barbados alone has jurisdiction to try the case.

The Ontario court has come down heavily in favour of the Barbados courts, judiciary and the Chief Justice and equally heavily against their detractors. We noted with some surprise that Barbados Underground is referred to (implied) as having been accused, along with one of our contributors, of theatenening conduct, an accusation that appears to have been  dismissed by the Ontario court.