BLP 2015 Conference Magazine

Contents
Returning Hope To Our People
77th | Annual Conference 2015 | 01www.blp.org.bb
Programme | 3
Hymns | 7

WELCOME MESSAGES
Message from the Political Leader & Party Chairman
Hon. Mia Mottley | 8
Message from the Conference Chairman
Senator Wilfred Abrahams | 10
Message from the General Secretary
Jerome Walcott | 11
Message from the President of
the Women’s League
Sandie Fields | 12
Message from the League of Young Socialists
Asokore Beckles | 12
Message from the Chairman of the US Branch
Jessica Odle-Baril | 13
Message from the Chairman of the UK Branch
Vincent ‘Boo’ Nurse | 14

COMMENTARIES
Mottley Excoriates Cahill Deal
Mia Mottley | 15
Timely Intervention Saves Us
Dr. Clyde Mascoll | 19
The Citizenship By Investment Programme:
A Model For Barbados?
Ricardo Blackman | 22
Child Care Board Affair a Sordid Stain
Senator Wilfred Abrahams | 23
Observing A Confused and Erratic Prime Minister
Indar Weir | 26
Bad Labour Relations Affect Productivity And Progress
Dwight Sutherland, MP. | 27
FEATURES
Speightstown Vital to the Future
of Tourism in Barbados
Colin Jordan | 39
Three Possiblities To Lift The City
Senator Jerome Walcott | 32
Sir Louis R. Tull – One Of The Outstanding
Post-Independence Ministers Of Education
In Barbados
Dr. Dan C. Carter | 37
Needed : Early Childhood And Primary
Education Reform In Barbados
Edmund G. Hinkson, M.P. | 40
BLP At Large | 42

YOUNG VOICES
Youth and Hard Times | 45
A future for Barbadian youth
Shanika Roberts-Odle | 49
Face Forward - Re-Imagining Governance,
The Bajan Model
Kevon E. Henry | 50
Past Recipients of the Milroy Reece and
Grantley Adams Award | 52
Past Chairmen & General Secretaries
of the BLP | 53
TRIBUTES
Mr. St. Michael West - Loyal, Genuine,
Man of Integrity. In Grateful Tribute To
Geoffrey Cameron Roach
Bishop Joseph Atherley | 54
Educator and Tower in Boscobelle
Tribute to Mr. Anderson Jordan
Colin Jordan | 55
Gone - Never Forgotten | 55
Gilmore Rocheford - Last Federal | 56
MP and BLP Stalwart

PROFILE
Q & A - Ralph Thorne | 57
AWARDEES 2015
Recipient of the Grantley Adams Award
Erskine Griffith, GCM | 60
Recipient of the Milroy Reece Award
Gloria Alleyne | 61
Recipient of the Chairman’s Award
Noel Lynch | 62
Recipient of the Special Award
Indar Weir | 63
Recipient of the Cultural Award
Peter “Ram” “Yella African” Wiggins | 64
Wednesday2000 Kadooment Band | 65
Recipient of the Youth Award
Rodney King | 66
Recipient of the Sports Award
Kim Holder | 67
Mark “Venom” Griffith | 68
Chelsea Tuach | 69
Jason Holder | 70
Rivaldo Leacock | 71
Ramon Gittens | 72

www.blp.org.bb02 | 77th Annual Conference | 2015

Sports Awardees
Constituency Awards
Simeon Belgrave
Ernesta Clarke
Mark Watson
Alfred Drakes
Leroy Gittens
Sharon Thompson
Patrick Chandler
Victor O’neale
Nicole Thorpe
Luceta Richards-Ward
Cyrlene Lewis
Lyndon Clarke
Cicely Harris
Mark Philips
Doreen Glasgow
Lynette Price
Sylvia Cummins-Edwards
Avril Crookendale
Dalton Best
Ceceila Johnson
Juetta Prescod
Aneta Morrison
Mavis Greenidge
Matthew Garnes
Deston Howell
Zuync’ntb Pzruqhanz
Bison Ernest Downes
Sam Clarke
Robert Lawrence
Makala Beckles-Jordan
Sherol Harte
Kim Holder
Mark Griffith
Chelsea Tuach
Jason Holder
Rivaldo Leacock
Ramon Gittens
St. Andrew
St. Joseph
St. Peter
St. Thomas
St. Lucy
St. James North
St. James Central
City of Bridgetown
St. Michael North
St. Michael North West
St. Michael West Central
St. Michael West
St. Michael East
St. Michael South East
St. Michael Central
St. Michael South Central
St. Michael South
St. Michael North East
Christ Church East
Christ Church West
Christ Church South
Christ Church West Central
Christ Church East Central
St. Philip North
St. Philip West
St. George South
St. George North
New York Branch
U.K Branch
League of Young Socialists
Women’s League
FIRST DAY – FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23RD, 2015
Cocktail Reception – 6:30 – 7:45
Awards Ceremony
National Anthem
Welcome – MC
Prayer – Apostle Lloyd Henry
Welcome Conference Chairman – Senator Wilfred Abrahams
Address – Adrian Green
Remarks – Hon Mia Amor Mottley – Political Leader
PRESENTATION OF AWARDS
Constituency Awards
Northern Branches – Dale Marshall 1st Vice Chairman
Southern Branches – Cynthia Forde 2nd Vice Chairman
Central Branches – Pat Parris 3rd Vice Chairman
Performance – Majela Best
Special Award – Senator Wilfred Abrahams – Conference Chairman
Youth Award – Senator Wilfred Abrahams – Conference Chairman
Sports Awards – Senator Dr Jerome Walcott – General Secretary
Youth Award – Senator Dr Jerome Walcott – General Secretary
Performance – Joy Warde
Cultural Awards – Hon Mia Amor Mottley – Political Leader
Milroy Reece Award – Hon Mia Amor Mottley – Political Leader
Party Chairman’s Award – Hon Mia Amor Mottley – Political Leader
Grantley Adams Award – Hon Mia Amor Mottley – Political Leader
Performance – Serenader
Vote of Thanks – Mr Adrian Forde
Erskine Griffith
Gloria Alleyne
Noel Lynch
Indar Weir
Seawell Wilkinson
Peter Wiggins (Peter Ram)
Wednesday 2000 Kadooment
Band
Rodney King
Party Awards
Grantley Adams Award
Milroy Reece Award
Party Chairman’s Award
Special Awards
Special Awards
Cultural Award
Youth Award
Returning HOPE
To Our People
77th BARBADOS LABOUR PARTY ANNUAL CONFERENCE
23rd, 24th & 25th OCTOBER 2015
CHRIST CHURCH FOUNDATION SCHOOL

Assembly
National Anthem
Prayers- Rev. Samuel Taylor
Performance - Kapremes
Welcome – Conference Chairman
Minutes of the 76th Annual Conference
and Reports
(Donation)
Reports:
• General Secretary
• Treasurer
• Parliamentary Group
• League of Young Socialists
• Women’s League
• BLP New York Chapter
• U. K Branch
• Lynette Holder - Progressive Credit Union
LUNCH
Delegate roll call
Youth Symposium
Announcement of 2015-2016 Executive
Break
Introduction of Political Leader
Political Leader’s Address
10:00
10.10
10:15
10:20
10:25
10.35
1.00
2.30
2.45
4.20
4.20
4.55
5.00

Assembly
Liturgical Dance – The Majestical Dancers
Service of Thanksgiving -
Rt. Rev. Bishop Marlon Jones
Opening Hymn – Guide Me, O Thou Great
Redeemer
Bible Reading
Collection Hymn – Will Your Anchor Hold
Message
Closing Prayer
Closing Hymn - Battle Hymn of the Republic
Remarks - General Secretary
Introduction of Party Executive & National
Council
Covenant of Hope
LUNCH
Covenant of Hope
RESOLUTIONS
Announcement of Auditors
Announcement of 2016 Conference
Chairman
The Majestic Dancers
Vote of Thanks
SECOND DAY – SATURDAY,
OCTOBER 24TH, 2015
THIRD DAY – SUNDAY,
OCTOBER 25TH, 2015
9:30
10:00
10:40
10:50
10:55
1:00
2:30
3:30
5:30
5:35
5.40

Will your eyes behold through the morning light
the city of gold and the harbour bright?
Will you anchor safe by the heavenly shore,
when life’s storms are past for evermore?
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath
are stored;
He has loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
Refrain
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!
Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watchfires of a hundred circling
camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and
damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring
lamps;
His day is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgement-seat:
O be swift, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As he died to make men holy; let us live to make men free
While God is marching on.
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honour to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His
slave
Our God is marching on.
Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer
Guide me, O thou great Redeemer,
pilgrim though this barren land;
I am weak, but thou art mighty;
hold me with thy powerful hand;
Bread of heaven,
feed me now and evermore.
Open now the crystal fountain,
whence the healing stream doth flow;
let the fiery cloudy pillar
lead me all my journey through;
strong Deliverer,
be thou still my Strength and Shield.
When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside;
bear me through the swelling current,
land me safe on Canaan’s side;
songs of praises,
I will ever give to thee.
Will Your Anchor Hold In The Storms Of Life
Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
when the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift, and the cables strain,
will your anchor drift, or firm remain?
Refrain
We have an anchor that keeps the soul
steadfast and sure while the billows roll;
fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
grounded firm and deep in the Saviour’s love!
Will your anchor hold in the straits of fear,
when the breakers roar and the reef is near?
While the surges rave, and the wild winds blow,
shall the angry waves then your bark o’erflow?
Will your anchor hold in the floods of death,
when the waters cold chill your latest breath?
On the rising tide you can never fail,
while your anchor holds within the veil.
Hymns

Political Leader and Leader
of the Opposition
Hon. Mia Amor Mottley
T
he hope for a
better tomorrow
has sustained
generations of
Barbadians to en-
dure hardship and
difficult times; to
aspire to a better life for themselves and
their children.
This, sadly, is at risk today.
Our people have begun to
doubt themselves. Many despair of
their ability to keep their heads above
the water and to build a better life for
themselves in this, our beloved country.
Many question whether any government
can make their lives better.
This is the result of eight years
of unrelenting economic devastation,
social disorder and institutional decay.
This is the result of increasing tribalism
reflected in decisions at all levels across
our country. This is inevitable when
people feel they have been left to their
own devices and that their Government
simply does not care.
This loss of hope is, by far, the
worst crime that has been committed
against our people over the last seven
and a half years.
Our task as a party will be to
restore hope to our people and to
rebuild and transform our country. It is
a daunting task but one from which we
cannot and must not resile.
I am confident that we can do
so by reaching out to Barbadians and
putting Barbados and our people at the
centre of all that we do.
We have deliberately chosen
to focus on restoring hope; for this must
truly be the mission of the Barbados
Labour Party, (BLP), if we are to rise
again as a nation and as a people.
On the celebration of our 75th
anniversary as a party, I issued a Call to
Arms that signaled our intention to work
Restoring Hope
to our People!

with all Barbadians who shared our phi-
losophy and values, whether they are
members or supporters of our party or
not.
We need the will and action
of the majority of people to restore our
country to economic growth, to create
jobs, to allow our people to share in the
country’s prosperity, to protect the most
vulnerable among us, to give Barbadians
a voice and a role in transforming our
country and to provide opportunity to all
Barbadians.
In many ways, our deliberations
during this 77th Annual Conference will
be a watershed in the history of our Party
as we prepare for this historic mission in
leading the rescue of Barbados.
We have before us a draft
document entitled “A Covenant of Hope
– Vision and Principles of the Barbados
Labour Party”. This Conference is the
highest decision making body of our
Party. There is no more important business
for us than to agree to these principles
as a Party and then to share them with
Barbadians across the country.
I ask each of you to engage
fully in this process for this defines in
clear terms: who we are as a Party, what
we stand for and what we will fight to
achieve for our people and our country.
My friends, our journey to persuade
Barbadians that they do have a REAL
CHOICE has started.
We must work together
as a party, and harder than we have
ever done, to give Barbadians that
confidence. We must restore the faith
of Barbadians in our political system by
being accountable for our words and
our actions. We must show Barbadians
that we care.
Barbadians want a new politics.
Barbadians want a better society.
Barbadians want an economy that is
working for them and not against them.
Barbadians want a say in their affairs.
Above all else, Barbadians want Barba-
dos to succeed.
Let us engage Barbadians
face to face, parish by parish, to regain
their trust and to restore hope.
This will be the platform for the
transformation of Barbados. We have
done it before and we can do it again.
There is simply too much at stake for
too many.
We must never be fearful of
tomorrow. We must never doubt what
we may achieve as we work together!
Let us restore hope to our
people!
It is our solemn duty.

Returning hope
to our people
Senator Wilfred Abrahams
Conference Chairman
Hope.
W
e all have varying
definitions of what
hope means; for
some, it’s an intan-
gible quality and for
others, it is the bedrock on which their
dreams are built. Whatever our definition,
we can all agree that the essential quality
that hope engenders is a feeling of trust.
Over these 49 years of
Independence and, indeed, over 300
years of our current history, every
Barbadian lived with a sense of hope,
hope that the next generation would be
better off than the previous one.
This unshakable and self-
fulfilling progress has guided us through
the oppressive days of slavery and
colonial rule. This hope planted our feet
firmly on the path to Independence and
all that it meant - education, health care
public safety and an improved quality of
living. This hope has fuelled our dreams
and aspirations generation by generation.
Sadly, the flame of hope in
Barbados has almost been completely
extinguished. Many of us would never
have expected to see that within our
lifetime we would be the spectators to
the almost complete dismantling of our
social services and economy.
Crime in Barbados has reached
near epidemic proportions. Our soci-
ety has become more violent and has
begun to cannibalise itself as we witness
increased instances of child abuse, elder
abuse and domestic violence. And while
we all see this, the DLP Government
remains silent and uninterested.
Free tertiary education, the
long treasured trophy of our country,
has been unceremoniously ripped from
our grasp and denied to our children.
The doors to advancement for our most
vulnerable people, our nation’s greatest
natural resource have been effectively
closed.
The Government, incapable
of creating innovative solutions to our
woes, has defaulted to a “more and
more tax is better” approach to the
DLP inflicted holes in our economy. All
the while increasing our debt servicing
burden and widening the deficit with
ill-conceived fiscal plans.
It is against this backdrop of
worry and tribulation that hope, like
the sun, must rise. This 77th Annual
Conference of the Barbados Labour
Party, (BLP), the Caribbean’s preeminent
and enduring political institution, heralds
the first rays of the light of hope that
must shine through this gloomy landscape.
Wake Up Barbados! Salute the
happy morn, our forefathers are calling
us to retake our rightful place as leaders. It
has been too long since we have looked
the future in the eye with confidence.
This conference invites you to
lift your head and hold it high in hope, for
a change is on its way!
While the theme for the confer-
ence is returning hope to our people,
we must also acknowledge that we are
on the cusp of a rebirth in the political
landscape of Barbados; everyone tells
us that the time for change is now, and
that we need to once again be able to
rely on the word of our leaders and the
assurances of our candidates.
The next government of
Barbados must be prepared to make a
solemn and binding oath in the form of a
covenant that it is prepared to stand by.
This BLP knows that nothing less than
strong leadership, imbued with integrity
and vision, will restore the shattered faith
and confidence in our country, economy
and society.
This 77th Annual Conference
is the starting point for the rebuilding of
Barbados. The BLP has served Barbados
and Barbadians faithfully and well and
are prepared to do so again.
We will return hope to our
people.
Every Barbadian
lived with a sense
of hope, hope that
the next generation
would be better off
than the previous
one.

P
arty members and Barbadians
should take some pride in the
performance of our Party in
the last year as we continued
to expose the misanthropic
behaviour of the Government as it contin-
ued to take our beloved nation backwards
down the cliff face.
From Press Conferences to
mass meetings, the Barbados Labour
Party, (BLP), team has been unrelenting
in calling out the wayward Government
on its several instances of arrogance,
mismanagement, improprietous conduct
and inaction that have been the signal
features of the Democratic Labour
Party, (DLP), to the ongoing damage to
country and society.
Indeed, the BLP can take credit
for the repeal of the notorious Solid
Waste Municipal Tax, following the
massive campaign it waged against that
iniquitous measure.
Further, the performance of
the Parliamentary Group in the 2015
Budget was one of the outstanding
features of the year. Leading from the
front, Mia Mottley delivered a tour de
force reply, one of the central planks of
which was the comprehensive exposure
of Government infelicities in relation to
the Cahill Waste to Energy Gasifica-
tion Plant. That to this day the several
charges and questions have not been
answered underscore the veracity of
Comrade Mottley’s charges.
The team was prepared, re-
freshing and, as required in these times,
in no nonsense mood, delivering its best
overall debate performance since this
new parliamentary cycle began in 2013.
The widespread support of
hundreds of people at our various
activities should inspire all of us in the
BLP family to continue our work in pres-
suring the Government to do better and
to provide hope for Barbadians.
In the latter respect, the Party
has continued to provide much needed
support to Barbadians buffetted by the
harsh economic rule of the Government,
both in cash and in kind.
I wish to applaud particularly
those who continue to put others before
themselves and show their nationalism by
contributing to our fund raising efforts,
the vast majority of which is passed on
to those in need.
The League of Young Socialist’s
charity initiative and the Party’s immedi-
ate response to the tragedy in Dominica
and its shepherding of the One Dominica
concert stand out among many efforts to
assist in timely and appropriate fashion,
showing us empathetic with the suffer-
ing of people in contrast to the uncaring
stance of our opponents.
Many of our branches have
also on their own launched community
initiatives to help buttress the depres-
sion and practical daily effects of DLP
rule. Among them, the programmes of
St. Thomas, St. James North have the
potential to be transformative and should
be emulated by other branches.
Overwhelmingly so, the work
of our branches is inspiring. Voluntarily
and, often, without praise, numerous
comrades across Barbados continue to
makepersonalsacrificeswaybeyond time
and reasonable call of duty to ensure that
both Party and candidates look good
and maintain presence in the communi-
ties they serve.
With or without candidates,
whether absent through sickness or
otherwise, branches keep the machin-
ery of the BLP working in good and
especially in bad times. Neither MPs,
candidates or Party can function without
the unswerving and selfless support of
our branches that has been a hallmark
of our Party.
The notion, then, that branches
should be secondary and be less than
our constitution accords is as ignorant
as it is self-defeating.
And no member of our Party
should be seen as not accepting, or
seeking to remove, any democrati-
cally elected branch executive. That
would make us no better than those we
condemn.
No one, regardless of their per-
sonal quirks, is better than the BLP. Or
should be supported in trumping its rules
and regulations. That is not the BLP!
As General Secretary and as
Party Chairman, I have found our branches
generally supportive and harmonious in
advancing the cause of the BLP first,
and I say, without contradiction, that we
would not have come this far without
them. They have been the incubators of
many of our leaders.
At this stage, when all Barbados
is looking to us for a new path in the
hope of a much better future in all aspects,
particularly governance, let us resolve at
this conference to embrace our branches
and all those, in and outside the Party,
who are supporting and assisting us in
our foremost cause - to make Barbados
better.
Let us focus and advance the
many positives we are too hesitant to
showcase in our Party. The unity and
camaraderie demonstrated in our annual
picnic, which this year was the largest. The
work and worth of our young people that
the Party keeps attracting, whose views,
as illustrated in this publication and which
will be aired on the second day of confer-
ence, are worthy of note. The initiatives at
fostering cohesion among the rank and
file, by the rank and file themselves, as
seen in the Wednesday luncheon at
BLP head-quarters.
We are at our best when all
areas of the Party are in harmony. And
that cohesion, an organisation charting a
new road, one girded in a new gover-
nance, respect for democracy and our
people, is what will, more than anything
else, return hope to our nation that we
can halt the torrent of injustice by an
inhumane and insincere government of
economic idiots.
Let us in our every action
demonstrate that we can and will return
that hope to our people.
BLP Bigger than Anyone
Senator Dr. Jerome Walcott
General Secretary

Exciting Times
for League
Sandie Feilds
Preisdent – Women’s Legue of the
Barbados Labour Party
T
his year for the Barbados Labour Party
League of Women was one of revital-
ization. We attempted to do a number
of things including building the strength
of the zones within the party by having a
joint meeting with the Northern Branch.
We also sought to have several discussions
on topical issues with speakers such as Sandra
Husbands and President of the Barbados Economic
Society, Jeremy Stephens, on establishing small female
owned business; Mary Thompson and MP Cynthia
Forde on Domestic Violence and its societal effects.
The League rekindled its community outreach
and visibility programme with a highly supported food
drive at Popular Discounts, Spooner’s Hill for the HIV/
AIDS Food Bank.
Public gratitude is extended to President of
the League for birthing the idea, floor member Alicia
Deane who was in charge of coordinating the Drive,
and staff of ‘Popular’, who allowed us to use their
facilities.
The League also formed a choir and visited
various Barbados Labour Party shut-ins to sing and
distribute hampers as a part of Christmas celebrations.
The League, through its Public Relations
Officer, Marsha Hinds-Layne, has also been speaking
publicly to issues affecting women in Barbados, in-
cluding the retrenchment exercise being undertaken
by Government.
There are several other challenges to be
highlighted and the Executive of the League stands
committed to working for the people of Barbados.
Sandie Fields is an educator and longstanding commentator
on social issues. She is principal of Sunbeam Baby Care and
Montessori Pre-School.
T
he past year has been one of growth, both for
the Barbados Labour Party and the League of
Young Socialists (LYS). Our main objectives
were to revitalize the League and reassert its
prominence as an influential arm of the Barbados
Labour Party.
In October 2014, the LYS made it our number one
priority to form the first charity committee led by the youth arm.
This initiative was developed due to recognition of a need for
urgent help for disadvantaged persons across Barbados as
increasing numbers of individuals were unable to meet their
physical, social and financial requirements given the economic
climate.
This charity was created under the theme “Youth with
a Purpose”. Its objective was to inspire the youth to play a positive
role in society through involvement in welfare and social wellbeing
programmes. Throughout the year we made several donations
to institutions and people in need:
• Thirty-seven hampers to Clyde Gollop Men’s Hospice
• Hampers to four members of St. Philip North
• Assistance with home renovations and hampers to four
members of St. Michael South
• Hampers to one member of Christ Church West
• Hampers to three members of St. Michael South
Central
• Hampers to one member of St. Michael West Central

Following these efforts, we also assisted our brothers
and sisters in Dominica with two barrels containing items such
as toiletries, food and clothing during the aftermath of tropical
storm Erika.
One of the major accomplishments of the League
over the past year was an increase in its membership by
approximately 100. This was achieved through creative measures;
for example, use of social media, which allowed youth to keep
abreast of the activities of the LYS. It also provided a forum
where any interested person could gain more information about
Cultivating
Young Leaders
Asokore Beckles
Legue Of Young Socialists

the organization and its history.
The success of these measures
highlighted the need for a greater online
presence; hence, the LYS website was
created. The content of this website is
not limited to the activities of the League
but includes an outline of the party’s
legacy, philosophy and information
relating to past and present candidates
and leaders.
In keeping with the mandate to
support the Barbados Labour Party while
being a voice for the youth, we attended
several branch meetings, organized joint
meetings and panel discussions and
participated in mass canvasses. I was
also given the opportunity to speak on
behalf of the youth in St. Lucy, St. Michael
North West, St. James North, St. Michael
South East and the Women’s League.
Our final initiative was the
decentralization of the League of Young
Socialists. This process was brought
about to encourage the involvement of
more youth within the party and thereby
cultivate future leaders.
The framework of this project
constitutes organization of the members
in the three established zones (Northern,
Southern and St. Michael zones). Each
zone will have an executive committee
responsible for rallying the youth in their
respective areas, addressing issues and
concerns and encouraging young people
to become active in their communities.
I want to thank my executive,
which worked diligently and tirelessly
throughout the year.
I wish the new executive
a successful year and hope that the
League can continue its great work into
2016 and beyond.
One of the new crop of young Labourites,
Asokore Beckles is a statistician and
Treasurer of the National Union of Public
Works, (NUPW). The former President of
the St. Michael South East branch, his
ambition is to be in elective politics.
In keeping with our celebration of Caribbean American Heritage Month, A
BetterLifeforourPeople,NewYorkagainbroughtrepresentativesoftheBarbados
Labour Party, (BLP), to network with the Barbadian Diaspora and friends.
Our party leader, the Hon. Mia Amor Mottley, QC, MP and Hon. Edmund
Hinkson, MP engaged and enlightened the captive audience as they shared what
Barbados is now and where we can go. Though geographically separated, the principals
of the BLP remain close to our hearts.
Proverbs 29 tells us that “where there is no vision, the people perish”. Our
former esteemed leader, Grantley Herbert Adams and others, were palpably aware of this.
They realized the unionization of workers and established the BLP, which
set the stage for the creation of one of the world’s most just and dynamic societies.
As the most mature political party in the land, the Party has not moved away from our
moorings and holds fast to the vision.
We have in our current leader Mia Mottley, a woman who is enlightened
and passionate about Barbados and its people.
She is attuned to the needs of this party as a modern functioning institution,
and holds a vision for Barbados and its people that is humanitarian and progressive.
She re-energizes our ability to build and develop capacity within this Party
and is a living reminder to Barbadians that dreams and hopes can be fulfilled. The
theme for this, our 77th Annual conference, “Returning Hope to our People” is
therefore apt.
Our land is at a crossroads as we witness acts against humanity, which
fall far short of brotherly love. Our people seem to have lost hope and their way, like
sheep without a shepherd.
The current government appears without vision, is silent on matters of
national and human interest and, therefore, suffering abounds. The calypso song,
‘Captain the ship is sinking” by Gypsy, is fitting for the current state of affairs. Enough
is enough!
In returning hope to Barbadians, the BLP, as it has always done at times of
great crises, must be fired up and steadfast behind our leader. Leadership has been
our strength.
Like most cohesive families, we can and will disagree; however, there is no
need to be disagreeable and mar our public image and the reality of unity of spirit,
vision and the cause for which the Party, our party, is known. Community and country
always comes before self.
Barbados needs all of its sons and daughters, at home and abroad, to help
rebuild the country. This will be the task of the BLP when the reins of government are
again entrusted to us.
We must be unified and ready. Our mission must be fueled with the highest
of integrity, to put Barbados back on track, such that our citizens are inspired to respon-
sibly participate, contribute and benefit from the land we love.
I am pleased on behalf of the executive, members and friends of the Better
Life for our People, New York, to bring greetings and best wishes for a successful
77th Annual Conference.
Let’s Be
Unified and Ready
Jessica Odle-Baril
Chairman – New York Branch

T
his year’s report is intended
to be an appraisal of where
and why we are at this point
in our branch’s history, more
so than what we have done over the last
year.
Every possible effort is being
made to stimulate interest in this branch.
The year 2016 is perhaps our water-
shed year when we will seek to use
the momentum of the country’s 50th
anniversary of Independence to bring
fresh and younger blood into the branch.
However, it will not be an easy task.
The older generation of
Barbadians, as they settle into spending
their final years in the UK, have in great
numbers become detached politically
from Barbados and show only a fleeting
interest in the island’s political affairs.
Many of them have been canvassed to
join the Party but they show little interest
beyond basic support. It seems they do
not care to be officially identified with
either political group.
Regrettably, second genera-
tion Barbadians show little interest in the
inner sanctum of politics in Barbados.
They have said they do not have a tangible
connection with the political wing on the
island and therefore cannot blindly support
something that is not physically before
them. They say they can identify only a
few of our politicians and do not know,
or show little interest in, what side of the
fence any one politician sits.
They are impressed by the
ideals of our party; even more so when
the records of the two parties are put
before them. However, they are quick
to point out that without a vote they are
powerless to have a say in who governs
and therefore their interest is merely an
academic one.
It is a difficult point to counter
as we have nothing tangible to offer
them in exchange for their membership,
loyalty and interest. Nonetheless, I continue,
and will continue, to argue fiercely to
convince them of the need to be attached
to our party. The battle is never lost.
Despite these hur-
dles, this UK Branch shall not
be moved in its determina-
tion to keep the BLP in the
forefront of the minds of all
Barbadians, regardless of age
or sex, living in the UK.
The year 2015 has
passed much like the two
years immediately before it.
Membership has not in-
creased and I am grateful to
have a solid core of members
whose motto appears to be
‘Never Say Die’.
We are aware that
interest falls for a party when
it is in opposition. However, it
would be helpful if we could
occasionally see someone
from headquarters.
It is disappointing that none of
our national representatives have had
occasion to transit London over the last
few years. Had that been so, it would
have afforded our members and
supporters opportunity to be updated
on the vexing issues which are before
the people of our country.
Attempts to host/sponsor small
events have been muted. There appears
to be reluctance on the part of members
to get involved in promoting them. We
have therefore had to withdraw some
plans believing they would be loss
making ventures.
We continued to represent the
Party in the local community and part
sponsored a reception which was held
at the Barbados High Commission for a
delegation from the USA, which was in
the UK to inform on a project concerning
the building of a hospice in Barbados.
Small donations have been made to
other bodies.
The project of gifting new
and used clothing, stationery and other
essentials to local representatives
continued and will continue for the fore-
seeable future.
This branch remains vibrant
and loyal to the mother Party and its
officers and we will support them every
inch of the way as they strive to bring
Barbados from the depths of its depres-
sion.
Never Say Die
Vincent “Boo” Nurse
Chairman – UK Branch

S
unday gone, a Minister of the
Environment appeared on
page 3, next to a picture of a
series of people, in respect
of a project to be built in the
constituency of St. Thomas by a com-
pany called Cahill Energy, and we were
alerted in that article by the principal of
Cahill Energy that the project is now to
start in September 2015.
The consequences potentially
for the country financially and environ-
mentally are of such serious proportion
that the whole of Barbados must now
pause and have a conversation. The
implications for the breaches of gov-
ernance are such that unlike any time
since Cabinet Government has been
introduced in this country, has there
been a situation where four Ministers of
Government have been on a path that
potentially has now exposed this country
to millions, ten or a hundred, depending
on when the Prime Minister can produce
the document to the people, of this
country of the money liability.
On 15th March 2014 in this
Chamber, two days before the estimates
debate were scheduled to start, a
Memorandum of Understanding was
signed by the Government of Barbados
through four ministers of the Crown and
a company called Cahill Energy. The story
was touted all on the Sunday and Monday
to coincide with the speech of the Minis-
ter of Finance at the commencement
of Estimates that things were turning
around and things were getting better
and look how we were attracting inter-
national investors for whom there are
stories on Bloomberg; the stories were
made documents of the House.
We were told that Cahill were
investing BDS$480,000,000 in a waste
to energy project at Vaucluse and it was
cutting edge technology, plasma gasifica-
tion, and that it would bring significant
benefits to the people of Barbados and
the economy of Barbados. In that same
debate I indicated to this country that
that company was only formed in August
2012; it was simply a name plate company
in Guernsey.
I was attacked and the
Opposition was attached. We said then
that we thought that Barbados should
not a guinea pig for any cutting edge
technology that was not commercially
viable for more than 10 years across
the world. What was the first amazing
thing to us was that it became evident
that that Memorandum Of Understand-
ing (MOU), breaching the first rule of
governance, saw four Ministers of the
Crown sign the MOU, to the credit of the
Attorney General without his signature
or without his sign-off, to bind the Gov-
ernment of Barbados into anything; and
the Solicitor General also did not sign off
on that MOU.
It was another two months, I am
told, before anything went to the Cabinet
of Barbados, so the announcement is
made to the Parliament of Barbados on
17th March but nothing goes to Cabinet
until May 2014.
On that occasion Cabinet is
invited to rescind a previous decision
to go out to public tender and request
proposals for waste energy plants.
The most amazing thing is that
the MOU was not delivered to Cabinet,
so the Cabinet does not see the MOU,
but the Cabinet agrees that the Sanitation
Services Authority should agree to enter
into negotiations.
Since that time, the town hall
meeting took place in July 2014, the
principal of Cahill also attended a meet-
ing of a waste to energy plant at Tees
Valley in England on 10th July 2014,
where she stated, among other things,
the following:
1. “it cannot get any better than
getting paid to take other people’s
garbage”; That is the first thing she tells
the people, she then says that “Cahill has
been written into the Laws in Barbados
as having the legal claim to all of Barbados’
municipal waste, municipal, hospital,
shipping and sugar”.
Now I am a legislator, as is
everybody else in this Parliament. None
of us has had the privilege of being
briefed, far less to write into law anything
for the benefit for any company called
Cahill.
At that stage, she says that the
Mottley
Excoriates Cahill Deal
In the Estimates of March 17, 2014, Minister of Finance, Chris Sinckler sprung on Barbados with the words, “nothing
gives me greater pleasure than to say this,” that “the Ministry of Environment and Drainage, the Ministry of Finance,
the Ministry of Housing and Lands and the Ministry of Energy on behalf of the Government of Barbados signed for
the construction of state-of-the-art, cutting edge, waste to energy plasma gasification plant to be constructed in
Barbados between Cahill Energy and the Government of Barbados at Vaucluse in St. Thomas.”
At the time, Barbados Labour Party, (BLP) Leader in response raised several questions about this sudden
development, to the usual negative personal attacks by the Government.
This year, in the Budget Reply, Mottley returned to the topic, stunning both Government members and the
public with a string of revelations on the Cahill deal.
“........it is smoke and mirrors and the only persons going up in fire are the people of Barbados.

plant for Barbados is intended to be a
650 tonne plant a day. All of sudden she
says to the people: “They are expected
to receive cash flows of $3.7 billion
Barbados dollars over a 30 year period.
According to her, they expected a rate
of return of about 19 percent at the time.
Well you know, Sir, the truth is
that on that date it was no longer a $480
million project, all of a sudden it was a
$512 million project. Then in May of
this year, the project was being sold by
members of this Government as a $600
million project.
This thing is moving faster than
a rollercoaster. Lo and behold, Sunday
morning, at about midnight, I get my
Nation newspaper, and I now see on
page three that this is now a $700 million
project.
Mr. Speaker, in the same article
I began to wonder whether the Minister
of the Environment and the Principal
of Cahill were talking about the same
project. She said that Cahill has had
difficulties raising the investment for the
project because of the constant down-
grading of the Barbados sovereign credit
rating, “And we would have investors that
were very, very interested but by the
time that there was a third credit rating
drop, they were not interested anymore
and we would have to start again with
new investors.” The principal is looking
for money and the Minister says the
funding there.
To my horror, Mr. Speaker,
I learnt that Cahill Energy had hired a
company called Jacob Securities, a
company in the business with a mergers
and acquisitions division. We are also
now learning from these documents,
(that Cahill) has also signed, a power
purchase agreement and an implemen-
tation agreement between the Govern-
ment of Barbados and Cahill Energy. If
what these documents say is true, I am
asking the Prime Minister to bring to this
Chamber before this debate is finished,
copies of the power purchase agree-
ment, which Cabinet has not seen yet,
and copies of the implementation agree-
ment, which Cabinet has not seen yet,
but for which I am told the Sanitation
Service Authority has paid legal fees in
excess of $700 000.
All of a sudden, having gotten a
license to shop and fish, off of the backs
of the taxpayers of Barbados, could you
believe that Cahill Energy, nameplate
company is now for sale?” Now for sale!
It then goes, and I want you to
hold your stomachs now, because this
is what bothers me after I have been
advised by scientists independent of
my Party and independent of Barbados.
Cahill Energy Barbados’ agreement
“with the Government of Barbados pro-
vides that it will build a Plasma Gasifica-
tion plant (hereafter PG Plant)however,
the protocol itself does not provide for
the project to comply with any specific
environmental standards.”
Mr. Speaker, the beginning
of the second paragraph of a cover-
ing letter tells the purchasers come as
you may, come as you will, do what you
like, this country Barbados will not and
is not enforcing for a
technology that is un-
tried any part of the
world at this scale. Do
you understand that
there is nowhere from
China to Timbuktu,
Alaska to Antarctica
to where ever, that this
project has ever been
done as a 75 megawatt
at this scale? Worse
than that, no part of the
globe where it has ever
been done on a coral
island that depends on
water through the coral
system at any size whatsoever?
What is plasma gasification?
For the benefit of Barbadians, Plasma
gasification, Mr. Speaker, is burning at
5000 degrees C or more, above where
the country earns its income from the
hotels that the Minister of Tourism is
intent on making sure contribute to this
country’s GDP.
It gets worse. What does
Section 4 stand and reflect as Project
Highlights? It says that the Government
of Barbados signed two contracts with
Cahill Energy for 30 years each. Let me
put that in context Sir, when these plants
are due to be built and delivered, the last
year of the contract I will be 83 years.
Eighty-three years old, because these
four ministers have bound this country
until the year 2048 with this project!
What does that Agreement
now say? Let me go through it very
clearly and comprehensively for you.
Part One of the Implementation Agree-
ment says that Cahill Energy now has
the exclusive right for all waste to energy
plants in Barbados hereinafter. So the
gentleman who was on the back page
of the Nation, asking for waste to en-
ergy plants on Saturday, better go to
Guernsey and look for the name plate
to find the lady to beg for permission to
build a plant in Barbados. Nobody, from
the Prime Minister back down in this
Government, or any future government
that we might constitute, will have the
power to award a waste to energy plant
to anybody in this country, because

these four Ministers have gone off on a
frolic to give Cahill Energy the exclusive
right to develop waste to energy plants
in Barbados.
Two, Cahill is exempt from all
taxation - no Corporation Tax, hear me
Barbadians; no Value Added Tax, hear
me Barbadians; no Capital Gains Tax,
hear me Barbadians; no Transfer Tax on
shares on property, no Withholding Tax
on interest and dividends. And listen to
this one, please Barbadians, no import
duties on the importation of waste, tyres
and other supply items. Do you know
that the Minister of the Environment in
April 2013, when the Solid Waste bill was
being debated in here, denied that there
would be any need to import garbage or
tyres into this country for this project?
How low can we go? How low
can we go?
We knew from the Cabinet
decision that the Government has to
acquire the land from one of the subsid-
iaries of Eastern Land Developments,
27 acres. So the taxpayers’ of Barba-
dos will pay for the acquisition of that
land and the Member for St. Thomas
cannot get houses for her constituents,
or the Member for St. George North or
St. George South. Worse than that, the
Member for St. Andrew cannot get his
constituents in St. Andrew fixed prop-
erly with the problems at White Hill,
but the Government is committing to
buy 27 acres and give a contractor in
this country to develop a plant that the
Government is going to give them all of
their cost free and then buy all that they
have to sell.
Cahill must be allowed, I want
the Minister of Agriculture to hear this, to
drill water wells on the land and that they
must be done without charge or tax. It
then goes on to say that the Govern-
ment must supply the infrastructure, the
water pipe lines and the commissioning
of all water pipe lines to the Plant.
Cahill must be allowed not
only to drill wells, but to establish rain
water lagoons. Rain water lagoons in
St. Thomas. Anybody who has lived in
or visited Jamaica knows that the spec-
tacle and presence of lagoons and the
use of caustic soda, which is one of
the expense items in this document
referred to, portends severe issues
that we have to have answered. For a
country that has a water situation, where
our water comes through ground water,
through a coral island? This is madness.
Guess who is to deliver the En-
vironmental Impact Assessment? Do
you know that the Government of Bar-
bados agreed to do the Environmental
Impact Assessment? That is what the
old people would call salt in the wound.
Somebody is bringing something for
you that is potentially deleterious to
your people and you are going to turn
around and do the Environmental Impact
Assessment and pay for it, but then
put taxes on the people of Barbados
yesterday to the turn of $200 million. Do
you understand why I tell you that this
Government is for the benefit of a few?
Then, the Government of
Barbados is to represent and warrant,
because any breach of representa-
tion or warranties is the basis for dam-
ages, to provide that the Government of
Barbados will deliver 550 tonnes per
day of municipal solid waste and then
450 tonnes per day of biomass.
Do you understand that the
Government cannot deliver to SBRC
every year the 360 000 tonnes a year
that it promised them and now is com-
mitting to a company to deliver another
1 000 tonnes a day? No wonder you are
going to have to import garbage and
tyres.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, they no longer
will take sugar cane. They have agreed,
and this is how the Minister of Agriculture
got drawn in, that they will now take what
Bajans call Elephant Grass, what they call
King Grass, that grass that grows wild
by the side of the road. So Barbados is
now to become the country of Myamo-
see and Elephant Grass. Not cane.
A Minister of Finance spends
15 minutes on milk yesterday and less
than 60 seconds on the sugar cane
industry, which is facing its most critical
path and future for the first time in cen-
turies in this country and that is what we
are to be treated to in a Budget.
Mr. Speaker, there are then
tipping fee costs in here. Listen to this
part; if the quality of the waste drops
below a certain calorific value, those
Ministers agreed, if this document is
to be believed, that Cahill Energy is
allowed to increase their processing fee
from five percent to 13 per cent if the
garbage is not of a certain quality. So
make sure it dry, make sure it perfumed
and make sure it looks a certain way, if
not the people of Barbados got to get
taxed more!s
Do you know that the Govern-
ment must also bear the cost for the
commissioning and debugging of the
electricity at the Plant when it finished,
too? The people build a plant and now
the Government must come in and
carry the cost for that, too.
These four Ministers have sold
away everything possible to sell away. I
cannot call it the mother of all sell outs,
because I wouldn’t want to unfair moth-
ers so. This would have to be the horror
of all sell outs.
Mr. Speaker, it does not
end there. The handling costs are to
increase every three years to reflect the
operational and maintenance cost of
Cahill. Nothing to do with the Govern-
ment of Barbados. Nothing to protect
us. Any delays to the project will not af-
fect the revenue earnings of Cahill. The
Government has to establish a reserve
account from now, when the financing
is in place, and hold it for three years until
the construction is finished and the plant
is ready.
The Government also has
an obligation, Sir, to make whole any
default under this project. So even if the
Government is to walk away from this
project now, the liability of the taxpayers
of Barbados is potentially going to be in
the tens and hundreds of millions.
That is why, Prime Minister,
this Implementation Agreement has
to be brought to the people of Bar-
bados before this debate is over. This
project is intending to start construction
in September. I can speak on behalf of
the Barbados Labour Party, (BLP) and
the Members of Parliament who represent
the area and the surrounding areas and
we can tell you “not bout here.”

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T
he lack of
timely and
effective
m a n a g e -
ment of
Barbados’
most recent economic
recession that started
in 2008 is responsible,
more than anything else,
for the prolonged period
of financial drought, which
persists to this day among
Barbadian households and
businesses.
On its current path, the
economy cannot recover to cause
any reasonable individual to forget
the misery of the last eight years. The
notion that the prolonged recession
was all due to the international envi-
ronment has long been proven false.
This is in direct contrast to
the way in which previous economic
downturns were managed, notwith-
standing that there was some delay in
addressing the 1991 economic crisis.
There were three occasions
in the past – 1977, 1982 and 2001 –
when pending economic troubles
were swiftly and effectively tackled
by the Government.
In the first two instances, the
Tom Adams Administration relied on
financial resources from the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund (IMF) to quickly
stabilise the economy. In the case of
2001, the Owen Arthur Government
utilised an external loan to counter-
act the challenges posed by the 9/11
terror attack in the United States of
America.
No wonder, there is a
perception, which when properly
contextualized becomes reality, that
the Barbados Labour Party, (BLP),
always has to rescue Barbados from
the throes of economic disaster.
In 1977, the Government was
reacting to a sustained decline in for-
eign reserves as the import reserve
cover, which had fallen to 11 weeks in
1975, fell to seven weeks in 1976.
Having experienced very
favourable sugar prices in 1974 and
1975 in particular, there was a sub-
stantial drop in 1976 that contributed
to the declining reserves. In addition,
the economy was recovering from
the 1973 oil price shock and while im-
ports were growing tourism earnings
were sluggish.
Timely Intervention
Saves Us
Dr. Clyde Mascoll

“Working to Build a Stronger Nation”
visit our website at www.williamsind.com

In the immediate aftermath of the 1976 election, an
unprecedented fiscal deficit added to the economic woes,
but decisive economic management arrested the potential
danger.
In 1982, the prudent economic leadership was in
reaction to severe external events that started with the 1979
oil shock. This triggered persistently high inflation at home
and abroad, which was accompanied by high interest rates
worldwide. There was an inevitable economic recession among
the industrialised countries. As a consequence, Barbados’
import reserve cover hovered around eight weeks and the
fiscal deficit reached uncomfortable levels.
There is an abundance of evidence to show how
economic problems in the past were confronted through
timely intervention. There was no bemoaning the fact that
the country’s earlier economic challenges were
genuinely caused by external events.
In 2008, there was no spiralling of
inflation resulting from high oil prices and interest
rates were at historical lows - and remained so
to this day. Barbados’ import reserve cover was
around 20 weeks, multiple times more than in
previous recessions.
Yet, Barbadians were falsely sold the
impression that the country’s foreign reserves
threatened the exchange rate, even though there
was a persistent message of adequacy in the
reserves by the Central Bank. This adequacy only became
threatened in the face of the excessive printing of money by
the Central Bank in 2011 which mushroomed in 2013.
From the inception, the current Government’s
focus was never on sharing the truth with the public but,
rather, on playing hide and seek with the numbers. This
lack of honesty resulted in the sending of very confusing
messages on the performance of the economy. Remember,
there was no need to send home public sector workers prior
to the last General Election, yet immediately after in excess
of 3,000 were laid-off. There is still the threat that more public
servants will lose their jobs.
Rather than intervene to stimulate the economy in
the early days of the recession, there was an insistence on
there being no need for a fiscal stimulus package. Instead,
the Government diagnosed that there was a problem with
excessive spending and chose to match the spending with
excessive taxation. Once the latter stifled economic activity,
the Government opted to temporarily hide some spending
by asking certain statutory boards to borrow money, not
recognizing that such borrowing could not be sustained.
A timely stimulus package would have restored
some confidence to the consuming and investing public of
Barbados and caused private spending, leaving the Govern-
ment to spend on investment items rather than consumption.
Rather than endure six years of frozen wages
and salaries, workers would have earned some moderate
increases to boost their spending power and the Government
would have siphoned off some revenue from the additional
spending. The need for increasing the rates of existing taxes
and introducing new taxes would have been reduced or
deemed not necessary.
Fortuitously, oil prices have been declining over the
last two years, resulting in some accumulation of surpluses
in the Government-owned oil company that will be used to
excite the Barbadian public sometime next year. Benefits
that they should have been enjoying before and all now
will be packaged as a testimony to a perceived recovery
taking place in the Barbados economy. This will be done to
coincide with the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of
independence.
It is clear that there was political will and economic
know-how among the
leaders in the past
which permitted them
to approach eco-
nomic problems with
confidence. It is there-
fore surprising that the
current political lead-
ership did not look at
the lessons learnt from
the past in formulating
a strategy to confront
economic difficulties that have been allowed to fester for well
over eight years.
In the circumstances, several of the economic and
social gains won since Independence have been eroded by an
ill-prepared and unwilling Government. The poor and indecisive
economic leadership of the current Government is best
reflected in the reversals in our social progress. Universal
access to health and education that were major sources of
pride of our country’s social engineering is now the victim of
the suppression of industry by a bankrupt government.
In the midst of it all there is still hope of a Better Life for our
People. Putting people back in the centre of a recovery
programme that emphasizes economic growth and social
progress is the key to the future.
The recovery will be achieved through an invest-
ment strategy that recognizes the need to encourage a prudent
mixture of local and foreign investment; a fiscal strategy
that balances the aspirations of the public with the reality of
government’s financial resources and a human resource
strategy that prepares Barbadians to be more entrepreneurial
through appropriate training and education that is more in-line
with the needs of a new economy.
The decisive difference going forward will be in the
capacity of the country’s political leadership, in which case
there is a distinct advantage that the BLP’s current leadership
brings, after several years of trial and triumph.

The Citizenship By Investment Programme:
A Model For Barbados?
Ricardo Blackman
U
nderstandably, a future
Barbados Labour Party
(BLP) Government would
wish to examine a diverse
range of strategies for
raising revenue, to inject new life into an
economy that has been literally wrecked
by an inept DLP government.
One such strategy, which has
now been given the nod of approval
by four (4) Caribbean governments (St.
Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda,
Dominica and, more recently, St. Lucia)
is the Citizenship by Investment pro-
gramme (CIP).
The government of St. Kitts and
Nevis was first to introduce the scheme
in 1984. It targets high net worth individuals
who are keen to invest in real estate and
receive in return, residency permits and
citizenship. As recent as July 28th, 2015,
the Citizenship by Investment Bill was
debated and passed in Parliament in St.
Lucia, with Prime Minister and Minister
of Finance, Dr. Kenny Anthony telling the
Chamberthatthemeasurewas“absolutely
essential” at this time.
The purpose of this article is
not to make a case for the embrace
of the CIP by a Barbados Labour Party
administration, but this writer is of the
view that the turbulent journey of the
programme, since its inception in the
Caribbean more than 30 years ago, is
worthy of clinical examination.
Outside the Caribbean, coun-
tries such as Belize, Brazil, Cyprus,
Ireland, Malta and Panama all run
CIPs, while Australia, Belgium,
Portugal, Singapore, Spain,
the United Kingdom and
the United States offer
temporary resident permits
or “golden visas” granted
to wealthy individuals in
return for investment.
Many observers con-
tend that while Citizen-
ship by Investment
programmes may be economically
viable, they are reputationally risky, the
Caribbean being no exception to this
theory.
The journey of the CIP in the
Caribbean has not been without its
turbulence. Prime Minister, Dr. Timothy
Harris of St. Kitts and Nevis has called
for common standards and shared
codes of conduct “to ensure that the
programmes work properly and that
it’s impossible to play one jurisdiction
against the other.”
Dr. Harris’ call came against the
backdrop of a warning by the US Treasury
Department to financial institutions, to
be “on the look out for certain individuals
abusing the St. Kitts and Nevis CIP.”
An advisory issued by the
Treasury Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network (FinCEN) said these individuals
were seeking to obtain St. Kitts and Nevis
passports “for the purpose of engaging
in illicit financial activity.”
FinCEN also opined that
Iranians were purchasing foreign
citizenship for US$250,000 cash or
through US$400,000 real estate in-
vestment, despite assurances from the
then government of St. Kitts and Nevis
that the citizens were banned from the
programme.
The government of Canada,
also concerned about the need for
greater transparency and due diligence
in the CIP, imposed a visa restriction
on St. Kitts and Nevis for all its 55,000
nationals.
Antigua and Barbuda has carried
out a major overhaul of its programme
“to enhance its management and level
of investigation required to ensure its
integrity.”
And Grenada has changed its
Citizenship by Investment law so that
applicants can remain anonymous.
Grenada’s first Citizenship by Investment
programme had to be cancelled be-
cause some applicants were involved in
terrorist and other criminal activities.

“And when Jesus
saw them he was much
displeased, and unto
them said suffer the
little children to come
unto me and forbid
them not for of such
is the kingdom of
heaven.
” Mark 10 vs 14
B
arbadians can take
no pleasure in the
seeming mindless
unravelling of every-
thing in our society
that we hold dear. For nearly as long
as the oldest of us can remember,
our Barbadian community spirit and
strict observance of justice in its
most basic sense has been the
backbone of our development and
success as a nation. To the extent
that we have been held up as a
leading example of an enlightened
society that punches above its
weight.
Sadly, our performance
as a people has come up woe-
fully short. The recent disastrous
situation with the abuse of our most
vulnerable – our children - has laid
bare some uncomfortable truths
about the performance of our
communities, neighbourhoods and
villages, but most importantly, it has
shed an uncomfortable light on
the performance of the Child Care
Board, (CCB).
We have all expressed our
outrage, shock and horror at what
at first glance appears to be apathy
by the members of the Board to
our young people. But I ask us to
step back and truly begin to com-
prehend the magnitude of the social
failure that has been engineered
by a government that supposedly
cares nothing about an economy
but brands itself as a society builder.
The issue is, in fact, much,
much larger than one organisation.
Even a casual observer will concede
that this unfolding situation has to
be considered against the back-
drop of the recent drastic cuts to
the social and welfare organizations
of Barbados.
The failed fiscal policies of
the Freundel Stuart-led Government
and the hapless financial leadership
of the Minister of Finance, Christopher
Sinclair, have placed Barbados with
a mounting fiscal deficit and esca-
lating national debt. The result of
these bungled attempts at financial
management has meant that rash
and ill-considered cuts across the
board have been made.
These cuts have apparent-
ly been made without consideration
of the cost or consequence that will
be experienced in the homes of the
average Barbadian. This Govern-
ment has failed to make the con-
nection between the strengthening
Child Care Board Affair
a Sordid Stain
Senator Wilfred Abrahams
To some extent, it can be argued
that the CIP corrects a flaw on international
trade which thrives on the freedom of move-
ment of capital across national borders, but
which is unmatched by a similar mobility
regime for people. Neoliberal development
models promote free movement for capital but
often forgets that neither capital nor people
travel alone.
On the face of it, it seems that the
CIP is a win-win situation for those countries
offering it and those buying it. But are such
schemes also legitimate and just? This writer
argues that the problem and the discon-
tent that the CIP generates is not rooted in
the fact that citizenship, a concept dear to
citizens and deeply linked with other matters
as democracy and identity, is for sale.
TheproblemwiththeCIPisglobalin-
equality. Citizenship by Investment Schemes
do not themselves produce injustice, but they
are unjust because they build on pre-existing
large disparities in the world. If all countries
were equal in living conditions, would the
scheme be objectionable? If the answer is
no, as I think it is, then the source of injustice
is global inequality rather than policies that do
not themselves produce injustice.
Because staggering global in-
equalities exist, Citizenship by Investment
schemes have very different consequences
for the world’s ultra-rich and less well-off;
while the scheme carves out global mobility
corridors through entangled states for the
former, they confine to national borders, the
latter and is in this way, nationalizing poverty.
Thus the question: who really benefits?
How does the Citizenship by
Investment programme empower the larger
majority: the less well-off?
Ricardo Blackman is a renowned public relations
expert and former newscaster. Among other
things, he monitors political trends for a number
of clients.

of the economy and the sustainability of
our society.
The CCB, for years, has been
an understaffed and underappreciated
organization tasked with a Herculean
role of investigating and responding to
complaints of child abuse or social and
domestic situations involving children.
In the past, the funds allocated
were not enough but were sufficient,
albeit under strain, to meet the minimum
standards that were required. However,
when the already limited budget of the
CCB was further brutally compromised
as part of an ill-considered governmental
restructuring, even with the best will in
the world the CCB would have been
hard pressed to effectively carry out its
mandate.
The responsibility of those
at the CCB extends further than the
investigation of social complaints involv-
ing children. It is an essential and much
relied upon institution for protecting the
island’s most vulnerable from abuse
and conditions that no child should be
subjected to.
The Board and this Govern-
ment owed a duty of care to the people
of Barbados to highlight the problems
confronting it in the fulfilment of its duty
so that more informed decisions could
be made. Barbadians should have been
told that while there were austerity
programmes in place, the CCB would
be untouched and some other, less
important departments (constituency
councils, the David Thompson foot-
ball tournament, Cahill, etc) would have
to take a haircut in order to maintain a
shield over our children. I am confident
that Barbadians would have understood
and welcomed the extra sacrifice.
In any event, even without this
collaborative and enlightened approach,
the ultimate responsibility and duty of
care of the Board must be to the children
of Barbados and not to the Government.
It would have been one thing
if the board highlighted its challenges
such that the public was aware that in-
vestigations could not probably be done,
and pressure could have been brought
to bear to increase funding. Instead, the
directors trod the dangerous line of trying
to preserve pride above function and
this danger was highlighted in dismal
fashion.
While the Board and its directors
can, and must, be called to book for their
apparent inaction, there, however, can
be no excusing Minister Steven Blackett,
the minister directly responsible for the
CCB.
Minister Blackett knew, or
ought to have known, of the deficiencies
at the CCB and the dangers to which
our children were being exposed as a
result - and evidence suggests that he
did nothing. In this he was either negligent
or incompetent in the execution of his
duties.
Worse yet since the recent
scandal involving the three children
came to light there has been no satis-
factory explanation or statement from
the Minister as to who or what was re-
sponsible other than a vote of confidence
in the Board and the announcement of
the resumption of the David Thompson
Football Classic.
In good conscience, nothing
less than the resignation of the Minister
should have sufficed. The convenient
announcement of the resumption of
the David Thompson Football Classic
is typical of the politics of distraction
of this Government when faced with
public outcry over deficiencies in the
execution of their duties.
It is not only the CCB, but the
underfunding and understaffing of the
Royal Barbados Police Force, (RBPF),
the lack of resources of the Sanitation
Service Authority, (SSA), the shortages
at the QEH, the abrupt termination of
free tertiary education and the recently
highlighted crisis with the legal aid
scheme in Barbados which all herald the
unfolding of a social crisis in the country.
This Government has failed
in its mandate. It has failed the people
of Barbados and has exposed the
most vulnerable in our society to their
greatest fears. There has been, at best,
a collapse and, at worst, a systematic
dismantling of the social welfare system
in Barbados. And no one is being held
accountable.
This tawdry affair is a salutary
example of a government that is help-
less at building an economy and hope-
less at building a society.
There is a cost to action but
this Government has shown that there
is an even greater cost to inaction. With
the perilous state of our economy, the
collapse of our social structures and
the crime crisis crippling the country
this is not the time to be penny wise and
pound foolish.
For how long must our
people suffer in silence at the hands of
a bungling government?
Senator Abrahams is an attorney-at-law. He is
head of Aegis Chambers and the caretaker of
the Christ Church East constituency.

Indar Weir
I
t started in 2008 when political democracy erupted into a call
for change. Coming head on with this was the second major
threat to global economies since the Great Depression of 1929.
Interestingly, these two extremities were representative of un-
managed forces coming against each other at a vociferous pace,
resulting in the economic crisis of 2008.
The Prime Minister at the time failed to contain this
potential juggernaut of human suffering that was progressing viciously
across all sectors of our economy. Rather than introduce measures that may
stabilize the situation, he pursued a hostile tax grab that served not only to
wreck the economy but also posed a monumental threat to labour, business,
social groups and ultimately Barbadian civilization.
His sojourn was short but pregnant with the sins of the CLICO
defalcation, increased energy cost, a baseless increase in water rates and, if
not bad enough, the imposition of Sinckler to manage our economy and Stuart
to take the wheel as Prime Minister before his 10/10 (October 2010) departure.
Prime Minister Stuart, in his apparent confused and erratic
approach to governance, maintained Thompson’s status quo. He continued to
marginalize Dr. David Estwick while tacitly venting a sense of rage at capitalism
by keeping Christopher Sinckler as Minister ofFinance.
His stewardship and policies present the likeliest chance for the
collapse of the economy. They have eviscerated our society to the benefit
of the wealthy. The removal of free tertiary education serves only to rip away
any equal chance of working class Barbadians becoming an obvious part of
the ownership structure. It is tantamount to acceding to demonic forces that
are usurping and subverting the freedom of the poor, with a singular objective
to reverse all our achievements since emancipation and driving us back to
being menial labourers.
Prime Minister Stuart presided over a cabinet that dispensed
the removal of access to education for all, proper and timely delivery of
health care and a botched up and unsuitable “Housing Every Last Person”
programme. He was relentless in the Alexandra School debacle by publicly
chastising our teachers and reminding them of their places in the canfields.
He sided with a political colleague in a dispute with a member of our disabled
community. He gave a tongue lashing and ivory tower scorning to the youthful
leadership in the Labour Movement. And he continues to separate himself from
society only to be heard in instances of reprimand or forced political agendas.
Under his stewardship, we have seen a concerted effort at the
consolidation of wealth across critical sectors of our economy: construction
especially, and tourism. We’ve also witnessed the economic disenfran-
chisement of our indigenous capitalists and an
unprecedented cleansing of the public service,
forcing our middle and working class out of
employment and at the mercy of a dysfunctional
tribunal.
Such actions are representative of
fundamental errors for which the Prime Minster
stands condemned. He knows better than most
that it is a fallacy to assume that wealth is privately
created and publicly appropriated through taxa-
tion. It is patently clear in our capitalist system
that wealth is collectively created and privately
distributed. Any other philosophy is bogus! There-
fore, to spearhead a vicious political strategy that
seeks power off the ignorance and innocence of
the populace is reprehensible. Present evidence
shows the dramatic shifting of wealth back to
the plantocracy as a consequence of Stewart’s
leadership style and political posture.
To my mind, the Prime Minister is lost
to the legacy of the founder of the party he now
leads, the late Right Excellent Errol Barrow, and
in his state of confusion is seeking to defend the
destruction of the fundamental pillars that facilitated
his current honor: education, healthcare and free
enterprise. The fact that he speaks loudly about
vote buying, has also ushered several threats but
has never taken action, is akin to turning a blind
eye to a crime in pursuit of victory.
When one contemplates Mr. Stewart’s
legacy, it presents a colossal challenge to find
one thing which may be cited as a positive
response to the demands of a 21st century
existence. It appears as though he never gave
serious thought to prime ministerial landmarks.
His persistent silence on the impact of the poli-
cies he pursues, even though they have reversed
decades of achievements by previous prime
ministers, is unprecedented. His exaggerated
lugubrious drollery is nothing more than mere
spat in defiance of logic. The most ironic was his
recommendation of legal advice against a disabled
victim after previously extolling the virtues of being
a pal to an able bodied Ponzi scheme architect.
I believe Marx’s mesmerizing dramatic
script about modern bourgeois society may be
a fitting tribute to his behaviour: he “is like the
sorcerer who is no longer able to control the
powers of the nether world whom he has called
up by his spells.”
Indar Weir is head of Indar Weir travel and other
businesses. He was the Party’s candidate for
St. Philip North in the last election. He is Public
Relations Officer of the BLP.
Observing a confused and
erratic Prime Minister

Bad Labour relations affect
productivity and progress
Dwight Sutherland, MP.
Dwight Sutherland is the MP for St. George
South and Shadow Minister of Labour. As
an engineering executive, he has firsthand
experience in labour relations.
ment should not set Laws to govern conduct of private sector
employees and employers and then do far worse than private
sector employees to do in terms of conduct and employee
rights.
This is simply because there is the absence of national
industrial relations policy at Government level. Such a policy
would address these IR matters.
Instead the Government of Barbados continues to
move from crisis to crisis and the IR climate in Barbados has
reached its threshold and is one of chaos and industrial mayhem.
Today in a Barbados all of the professional organiza-
tions and Unions have said they no longer trust this Government.
The Social Partners have also written to the Government to
express concerns on the disdain the government has shown
them. This is simply because of the strong arm and unfair policies
of this Government and made worse by an incompetent Minister
of Labour who is yet to solve any problem that has reached her
desk.
All this is happening at a time when Barbados can
least afford it: when the country is at its lowest economic point.
The formation of political organizations came about as a result
of the fight for and the need to protect workers. This was done
by the BLP.All of us who are members of this great party will
recall that the BWU was formed out of the belly of the BLP
in 1941. Early leadership of the trade unions often overlapped
with leadership of the BLP because there was recognition
that there could be no progress in Barbados and no national
development without improving the condition of workers.
Where workers are in peril the country is in peril
so successive governments since 1940s worked on laws,
policies and protocol to maintain peaceful industrial relations
and progressive workers’ rights.
All of Government policies post 2008 have been a
declaration of war on working class people of this country.
People have been betrayed: the going home by the thousands
after being told by the DLP that no one will be sent home.To
compound the problem, persons in the public sector have had
to endure a wage freeze since 2008 while inflation has risen
by 41 percent since then. Compare this style of governance
with the proud track record of the Barbados Labour Party. The
Barbados Labour Party introduced the Holidays with Pay Act,
Workers compensation Act, minimum wage legislation, gave
security of tenure to thousands of casual and temporary public
workers, NIS benefits – unemployment benefits for laid off and
redundant workers, and under Owen Arthur made a Constitu-
tion amendment to prevent salaries of public workers being cut
ever again, and expanded the Social Partnership which worked
to maintain relative stability in labour relations in this country.
A BLP government will continue to ensure
workers’ rights, that people are treated fairly and will
accord workers of Barbados the dignity and respect
they deserve, having work hard to build this nation.
I
ndustrial Relations or simply put the maintenance of positive
relationship between employers, workers and unions are
critical to national development. Recently I said in Parlia-
ment that a sound industrial relations climate/system
requires a labour management relations policy which must
have at its core certain objectives such as job security, mini-
mizing conflict, achieving harmonious relationships, resolving
conflict through peaceful means and raising standard of living
through improved terms and conditions of employment.
Research has also shown that efficient production of
goods and services depends to an extent on the existence of a
harmonious industrial relations climate while productivity is largely
enhanced and driven by job security and terms and conditions
of employment. Research has also shown that efficiency and
quality depends on a motivated work force for which a sound
industrial relations climate is necessary while productivity needs
a strong labour relations base. Productivity does not depend on
individual effort alone.
We have a labour management crisis in this country
that clearly is not driven by the ILO Labour Management Policy
which I outline in the above. The question to be asked is whether
current Government laws and regulations are being adhered
to and is this Government practicing good Industrial relations
practices to foster productivity, growth and development in
Barbados?
The record of this current DLP administration has
been one to dismantle what was a national core of Barbados’
development, where Government recognized that Labour was
an important partner and people needed to be treated properly
and rewarded for their hard work in building Barbados.
The many crises in our country today have been
fueled by bad leadership and ministerial incompetence in the
area of Labour Management and IR relations.The Government
is guided by the Public Service Act, Constitutional and General
Orders, Public Service Regulations but yet they are in breach of
all these Laws.
This Government is trying to establish a set of
behaviors in the private sector and Statutory Corporation
(Employment Rights Act) but in the PUBLIC sector is chaos and
mayhem as it relates to Industrial relations climate.Government
is requiring a higher standard of private sector and statutory
corporations than what they have set for themselves. Govern-

Speightstown
Vital to the Future of Tourism in Barbados
Colin Jordan
S
peightstown must be revived
for Barbadians and for our vitally
important tourism industry.
Barbados’ first port and
commercial centre, known in times past
as Little Bristol, is now battling for its
survival.
Founded in the 1630s and
named after landowner William Speight,
Speightstown is a fascinating collection
of people, businesses and history.
The heritage of Speightstown
is wide-ranging. It was the centre of
schooner traffic moving tobacco, cotton,
and later sugar and other produce from
Barbados to the port city of Bristol in
England. The jetty in the then-bustling
town was a hive of activity with larger
ships offshore and smaller vessels
ferrying people and goods.
Speightstown was the centre
of an active whaling industry. Ships left
port to hunt these large creatures and
bring back their catch to sell.
There is significant military
history, in the Barbados context, sur-
rounding Speightstown. Much attention
was placed on Speightstown because
of its commercial importance. The
town boasted five forts – Coconut Fort,
Orange Fort, Fort Denmark, Heywoods
Fort, and Dover Fort, which was located
on a cliff to the east of the town.
A reinvigorated Speight-
stown will serve visitors
by providing attractions
and real opportunities for
them to become immersed
in the heritage and culture
of Barbados.

These fortifications were the reason
Barbados, for many months, was able to repel
Oliver Cromwell’s forces in the only attempted
invasion of Barbados.
Many of the early settlers of the
Carolinas, USA, left Barbados from Speight-
stown, along with their slaves, and there is
still great similarity in architecture between
Charleston, South Carolina, and Speightstown.
In spite of its early prominence and
the important role played in the development
of the country, Speightstown is now a shadow
of its former self.
As urban and suburban areas around
Bridgetown become more populated and traffic
congestion becomes more acute, Speight-
stown will need to be a point where northern
and eastern residents are able to conduct
basic business activities without being forced
to venture to Bridgetown or Warrens. In this
regard, there will be a continuing need for
some Government offices, banks, supermarkets,
clothing and provision supply in the town.
We must build on the strengths and
attributes that still exist. There are communities
of resilient and resourceful people; hotels and
condominiums to the south and north; and two
marinas to the north of Speightstown. There
is law enforcement as well as a major public
transportation hub in Speightstown. There are
some sporting facilities, primary and secondary
schools, an accessible waterfront, and public
meeting areas. There are churches representing
almost every major denomination in Barbados.
A revitalised Speightstown will see
residents serviced by the provision of cultural
and other amenities thereby improving their
quality of life. It will, maybe more importantly,
see improved and increased avenues for
productive economic activity which residents
can engage in and benefit from.
A reinvigorated Speightstown will
serve visitors by providing attractions and real
opportunities for them to become immersed
in the heritage and culture of Barbados.
If the proposed Scotland District
National Park, which stretches from the eastern
coast of St. Lucy through areas like Boscobelle,
St. Peter, through St. Andrew to St. Joseph, is
to be properly developed as the major attrac-
tion for visitors to the island that it can be, then
Speightstown must be developed as a major
service point for the inevitable increase in visitor
traffic that will result.
Speightstown has the potential to
become the culinary centre of the Caribbean.

It can be the centre for the visual and
performing arts in Barbados. Its sheltered
bays can be centres for watersports.
It can become a second port adding
variety to cruise liners.
Barbados’ first town can
become the point of departure for
heritage tours. There can be photo
opportunities with replicas of William
Speight and re-enactments of aspects
of the town life of a by-gone era.
An intricate network of gullies
across St. Peter end at Speightstown
and these can be significant components
in developing heritage/hiking trails and
geocache adventures.
These are but some of the
many ideas already voiced by stake-
holders.
To effect the restoration of
Speightstown, genuine dialogue with
residents, business owners/managers
and other stakeholders is essential
– dialogue that moves beyond mere
social interaction and is instead aimed
at obtaining buy-in for the ideas we
already have and concretising the pro-
cess for their realisation.
What we do know from
previous discussions is that buildings
must be preserved and the architec-
tural heritage maintained. Government
needs to signal that it recognises the
importance of the town and intends
to partner in its revitalisation. New
approaches are needed by both private
and public sectors, and public/private
sector partnership opportunities need
to be explored for some aspects of the
town’s development.
Heritage and history is one
of Barbados’ unique selling points and
as such, a vibrant Speightstown, with
its authentic and unique positioning, is
required for the vitality of our Barbados
tourism product.
The time for us and our policy-
makers to act to save Speightstown is
now!
Colin Jordan is a tourism executive,
businessmen and former President of the
Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association,
(BHTA). The BLP candidate for St. Peter,
one of his passions is working for an
re-energised Speightstown, a community
he knows very well.
Speightstown Fish Market
Arlington & BNB Building
Speightstown Jetty
Speightstown Esplanade

This is an edited version of an address
to the Lions Club of Bridgetown,
delivered on impactful community
projects in these times to assist the
most vulnerable.
T
hese times are clearly not
the best and Barbados most
definitely needs all hands
on the deck now, to join the
fight on the multiplicity of issues facing
our nation.
The economic difficulties are
well known. What is becoming more
apparent is the social disruption resulting
from years of economic stagnation that
is spreading and becoming an endemic
issue on its own.
I dare say that if there is not
serious and urgent intervention, our social
problems may well become more of a
catastrophe than our economic prob-
lems - certainly they will be much harder
to reverse and could well create a Barba-
dos that none of us would wish to see.
Already, unfortunately, there are signs
of a developing underclass; indications
that housing is becoming out of reach;
evidence that many are falling through
the cracks in our education system -
or the system is failing them - and this
is separate and apart from those who
have had to curtail their dream of uni-
versity education simply because they
cannot afford it.
Generally, there is a definite
drift in our accepted socialisation to
the extent where the block culture has
become the choice for several young
people, deviant behaviour in our schools
is generating appalling consequences,
as is seen now almost daily in the various
videos which go viral via social media,
while issues such as child and elder
abuse are reaching worrying proportions.
Thanks to organisations such
as yours, Mr. President, I know that
important work is being undertaken
quietly and diligently to deal with some
of these challenges at the personal,
community and even the national level.
However, there is much more that still
needs to be done.
In this regard, I wish to focus
the Lions Club of Bridgetown on......the
City of Bridgetown. I say with much
pride at the outset that I am a product
of the City. I therefore declare a direct
interest.
Most Barbadians regard the
City as a place where they to go to con-
duct business, to shop and to lime - a
kind of inanimate distant thing to be en-
gaged only when necessary; a place to
go to when you have to do so.
Bridgetown, in spite of being
designated a UNESCO heritage site
with several historic buildings and sites,
is fast becoming a dying city. Whereas
capital cities in our region and across
the globe are a hive of activity at night;
here, ours is almost abandoned at night.
Ask yourselves, when was the last time
any of you even entertained the thought
of going into the Bridgetown to relax or
to have dinner. Maybe if there is a celeb-
rity cricket match or a Crop Over event;
but with a few exceptions, the City is
approximating, more and more, a ghost
town.
This needs to change.
Perhaps, Mr. President, your club
could initiate the change by looking at
a project to enhance the lighting of our
capital city at night.
Bridgetown, however, is more
than buildings, offices and commercial
activity; like all other capital cities and
of equal importance is the fact that it is
home for thousands of persons with the
same basic needs and requirements as
all of us.
People are essential for a
city to be lively and to flourish. Regret-
tably, people are not attracted to live
in Bridgetown these days because of
housing and space limitations. I am cer-
tain that if living conditions were drasti-
cally improved in the city more persons
would be attracted to live there.
The City faces severe hous-
ing deficiencies, overcrowding, lack of
the most basic infrastructure in cer-
tain districts, ironically just off main
road arteries, with all the concomitant
social impacts on residents; poverty,
Three opportunities to
lift the City
Senator Dr. Jerome Walcott

unemployment, insufficiencies of health
care, neglect of the elderly, restlessness
of the teenagers, the Block culture and,
of course, violence.
I will not try to allocate to you
the problems of housing, poverty, and
unemployment. Certainly, in the area
of healthcare, you have played a pivotal
role in eye care with the establishment
of the Blind Workshop in 1999 and later
the Lions Eye Care Centre at the Queen
Elizabeth Hospital, (QEH). In addition,
there is your work with diabetic clinics
and obesity in the schools.
Tonight, I am saying to you that
your focus should be on three important
groups; the elderly, the teenagers and
the Block, where I know the members
of this club can most definitely play a
meaningful role.
The Elderly, without doubt, must
come first; they have played their part as
the “Builders of Barbados” and made,
in some cases, tremendous sacrifices
to provide the foundation and basis for
who we are and what we have achieved.
We now boast of figures to
show that based on the number of cen-
tenarians per capita, we are in the top
three in the world. We have a growing
ageing population and our life expectancy
is over 75 for both men and women,
putting us amongst the most developed
countries in the world.
Unfortunately, with “progress
and development” we have become
more “sophisticated” and the traditional
family structure has all but disappeared.
We have created a demographic
chasm, an ageing population with con-
comitantly less caring families; more
elderly persons with fewer people to
care for them. Now many grandmothers
and grandfathers are left to live alone,
or are abandoned at the various health
institutions.
Nobody likes to be alone.
The Government of Barbados
over the years has tried in various ways
in this regard with the alternative care
of the elderly programme, RDC/UDC,
(with homes, house repairs, toilet facili-
ties), and Home Help.
However, these persons still
need to interact with others and many
of them have skills and are an untapped
resource. Several of them are produc-
tive - caring for grandchildren free
of cost and cooking meals for their
working offspring, , the value of which
has not yet been quantified.
In these circumstances, there
is definitely a need for a Day Care

centre for the elderly in Bridgetown. A place where they can
go to during the day, interact, make friends, be involved in
various activities - lectures on health, play games, learn to use
computers or enhance their skills on them, engage in dancing,
do craft and art, utilize their culinary skills— by making jams, jellies,
sugar cakes, other traditional Bajan favourites which could
generate income.
Nurses and doctors could visit periodically to review
those who have chronic medical conditions and catch–up with
those who, for various reasons, have stopped going to the poly-
clinics or refuse to get medical attention at all.
The establishment of this day care facility for the
elderly would address a number of the aforementioned issues
- the loneliness, lack of caring, the neglect of health care - and
would allow them to utilise the skills and knowledge in an inter-
generational exchange, which leads me to the next important
group, the teenagers.
You, the members of this club, can be the catalyst for
this inter-generational exchange. No complicated structure
would be necessary for you to find ways for teenagers to go
on weekends to various institutions where the elderly are living
and to interact with them. Akin to the role of the African griots,
who were the storytellers in Ghana, some of our elderly are
tremendous reservoirs of knowledge and this could be imparted to
the teenagers.
I believe too often we are concerned with building
structures, establishing regulations, developing courses of
study or activities for the youth. These look good physically
and read well and sound good when presented at opening
ceremonies but falter as they do not suit or appeal to the young
people whom they are supposed to help.
My challenge to you is to develop a system of
mentoring of teenagers in the City; you can call it “mentoring
youth for the future” or “mentoring with a purpose”. Go into
the communities, build relationships, and identify community
groups that you can work with, e.g. The City of Bridgetown
Youth Academy, (COBYA).
Where there are no active groups, attach yourselves
to persons who are organizing sporting events and create
community groups; so that the Lions club of Bridgetown would
then have a series of “tentacles of activity on the ground in the
communities”.
This process will allow you to build a level of
comfort and trust within the communities, with community
leaders and, of course, individual families. Thereafter, you can
identify teenagers across the City in challenged circumstances
whom you can then mentor. Take them out; expose them to
different activities, sporting, cultural and social. Subtly influencing
their system of values, they will then share their experiences
with their peers.
If this mentoring process is successfully executed, I
am sure it will reduce substantially the number of teenagers
that will gravitate to the blocks.
This brings me to the final group that I will focus on, the
Block. The block culture is challenging but one that we have to
confront.
First, I have been told, and I believe, that most of the
narrative about this group is too negative.
The reality of the youth on the block is that it is a “good
thing”. If you are hungry and have no money, you can eat once
there is food; if there is a shortage of football gear, they will
help each other. There is good and bad, there is intelligent
discussion on topical issues; there is positive social capital,
there is also the negative.
We need to understand the sociology of the block
culture; we need to understand the meaning of it to those who
are on the block. We need to understand the sense of loss
that will occur when you ask a person to leave the block or
when it is removed as advocated by some persons. There has
to be something tangible to fill that space.
Once we understand the block culture, we can then
work on changing the thinking of those on the block. I am saying
that once you start working on the teenager mentoring pro-
gramme and building relationships with community and sporting
groups, you will develop a vitally important legitimacy.
This legitimacy will allow you to make inroads onto the
block and to be in a situation where a register of their skills
can be developed; from this they can be directed into various
streams such as further education, technical training, periods
of apprenticeship as well as community related activates, like.
painting old peoples’ homes.
You would be in a position to change their outlook
on life and to develop a sense among those individuals of not
looking at short term gratification but looking at planning for the
long-term.
In time, you will be able to identify young people
interested in positive development who can become agents of
change in their communities.
This is not far-fetched and we can borrow from the
St Lucian programme “Tomorrow Starts Now” (TSN), which
functions using the following principles; “Engage, become an
equal partner, provide and grow your skill; Empower, lead and
co-lead among yourselves with adults; Energise, be creative
and make youth participation real”.

BLP 2015 Conference Magazine

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BLP 2015 Conference Magazine