The BU have written exhaustively on the need for Barbados to revisit its ‘open door’ immigration policy. We have been called racists, xenophobic, ignorant, backward, small minded and the beat goes on. We have demonstrated during the just concluded general election in Barbados that we are not thin-skinned and that we are prepared to deal with issues which our mainstream media resist covering.
It is evident to most Barbadians on the ground that we are beginning to see the signs of problems down the road; the increasing numbers of undocumented arrivals to our shores. There are the Indians who consistently demonstrate clannish behaviour wherever they anchor. There is the racial tension which exists in the neighbouring countries of Guyana and Trinidad.
Given the foregoing, we find it interesting that noted Trinidad Express journalist, Andy Johnson, has given vent to this issue in his column of today. We have snipped a part of his article which we find to be relevant to support our agitation on the matter of the impact of UNDOCUMENTED Indians entering Barbados. As we have stated in previous articles many of these UNDOCUMENTED Indians are unskilled and add little value to the GDP of Barbados.
Bajans are having to come to terms with ethnic and cultural diversity, a story about which they ought to learn heavily from Trinidad and Tobago. They aren’t sure, just yet, whether they are going to like it. In several sections of high end Bridgetown, along Broad Street and around Swan Street, for instance, sub-continental Indian business people beckon customers to shops and stores offering expensive jewelry and cosmetics, as well as exotic items of clothing. In plazas and shopping rendezvous along the well traversed south coast, the same thing happens.
Whereas they used to talk as victims, about the “Guyanese bench” at the Grantley Adams International Airport, nationals of that South American country which is a Caricom member state, may no longer voice their feelings of victimisation and discrimination as loudly. It does not mean, by a long shot, that they have stopped or slowed down their trek to the island in search of a better life.
Five years ago it was estimated there were 30,000 Guyanese hidden in the Barbadian economy. Undocumented and being exploited. That figure has grown near exponentially since then. By contrast, however, whereas the Bajans have disputed the figure, the situation could be even more alarming in this country, were we even to hazard a guess at the numbers. Whole sections of the Central Market in Port of Spain have been commandeered by Guyanese nationals for years now.
We anticipate the flow of invective which we be hurled our way. But we intend to stay the course on this issue in the hope that we shall overcome on this issue some day.
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Can Indians And Blacks Co-exist In Barbados?
Can Barbados Avoid Escalating Crime & Violence In Neighbouring Trinidad & Guyana?
According to David: “As we have stated in previous articles many of these UNDOCUMENTED Indians are unskilled and add little value to the GDP of Barbados.”
David, If you were one of my students in my academic past I would have to flunk you for being continuously uninformed about a subject you continuously write about. There is countless research to indicate that unskilled workers, by doing the jobs that others do not wish to do, at wages that locals would not work for, adds substantially to the real GDP, if not the measured GDP. Its what built America and Canada. The West Indians who went to the UK in the 1950s and 1960s to support economic growth were not doctors and lawyers, they went to operate the buses and tube.
The reason why we have immigrants here is that the demand for employment is higher than can be met locally. By meeting this demand they lower our inflation rate from what it would otherwise be. If there were no immigrants, inflation would have to rise to crowd out the demand.
The most comprehensive recent study of immigrants written in layman’s language is by Philippe Legrain. Its on Amazon. Here are some relevant excerpts.
“Few people now bat an eyelid at the movement across borders of skilled professionals….Yet most people baulk at the thought of people from poor countries coming to work in rich ones.
Why? Why can computers be imported from China duty-free but Chinese people not freely come to make computers here? Why is it a good thing for French insurance salespeople to hawk policies in Poland but a bad thing for Polish plumbers to offer to fix French pipes?
Until recently, Communist China strictly curtailed its people’s movement. Unless you were a privileged party official, you needed a special permit to move – or even travel – from your home town to another part of the country. It sounds like a totalitarian nightmare, yet it is not too far removed from the situation that those on the other side of the global migration apartheid find themselves in.
China has now relaxed its constraints on internal migration and has witnessed the biggest movement of people in history as peasants flock to the cities to make a better life for themselves working in factories, fuelling the country’s explosive economic growth. So would relaxing rich countries’ controls on immigration from poor countries provide similarly spectacular economic gains?
Most likely, yes. Sober-minded economists reckon that the potential gains from freer global migration are huge, and greatly exceed the benefits from freer world trade. The freeing up of global trade in manufactured goods in the second half of the twentieth century led to a quintupling of the world economy and an unprecedented rise in living standards in both rich countries and poor. So just think how opening our borders to migrants could transform our world for the better in the twenty-first century.
Historical experience certainly suggests it would do a lot of good.”
Legrain then goes on to cite a raft of statistics.
They show conclusively that immigration is a good thing economically and unskilled immigrants are the key, that they bring down inflation and raise growth. There may be times to limit immigration, for social and congestion reasons, but it is not as in Barbados today when our inflation is too high and our growth too modest.
Tek dat in wunnah *******
Now that gresham and wren and bajan boy and passin down south and the other liars and apologists see that these comments are coming from a reputable name,a reputable source and a reputable medium – wha wunna gotta say now eh?
I stop reading the rubbish written by some like the above mentioned since I know that the only persons who would accept the misinformation they were putting out were persons who had vested interest in the status quo and persons whose were intended on painting a nice,nice image of these indian folks or persons who just plain didnot know the facts.
As always I will state the obvious – that as in any group there will be exceptions to the rule – however I watched as the administrators of this blog Barbados Underground and others tried to sound the alarm to the barbadian citizenry – to wake up and take stock of what is happening to this fair land Barbados – and they were pilloried on their blog by persons daring to call them racist for raising concerns.
Well the region seems to be taking notice,and may I tell you Andy Johnson had to be careful how he wrote that story becuse of who his bosses are and the pressure he will be put under – thus the benign piece that you are seeing there in the Express newspapers.
However like he said in his piece and we have been saying here on BU.all over the caribbean ,governments have had to struggle with this teeming mass of guyanese,while the Guyanese leader – Basdeo Jagdeo tacitly encourage his people flooding other countries and building up his country with their remittances sent back home.
Thanks to that stinkin Dog Owen Arthur Barbados is now their country of choice.
I am watching David Thompson carefully to see if he is going to deal with this problem in a forceful and determined way that leaves no doubt in the minds of his citizens and the guyanese here and those planning to come – that Barbados will not allow its country to be over run by riff raffs and the dregs of another country.
The Andy Johnson article speaks more about Muslims and “sub-continental Indian business people ” in Barbados than about Guyanese Indians.
And I don’t believe that a serious journalist would have written the following:
“Five years ago it was estimated there were 30,000 Guyanese hidden in the Barbadian economy. Undocumented and being exploited. That figure has grown near exponentially since then.”
I am so impressed that he has managed to count the number of UNDOCUMENTED Guyanese in Barbados. I like that he says the figure has grown not quite exponentially, but “near” exponentially.
This is a serious problem.
These Indians are going to bring with them, their clannishness and their hatred for Blacks along with their unskill cheap labour.
And don’t forget they breed like rats. No 2.5 children per family for them. All the racial problems they caused in Guyana will soon be evident in Barbados.
I would risk a bet that Thomas Gresham is White, so therefore he nor his children or Grand children have to worry about the deluge of Indians. Indians are afraid of White people, but they loath Black people. I have many black Guyanese friends and they tell me that in Guyana the Indians treat Black Guyanese like dirt.
We have to deport most of these illegal Guyanese Indians before the spaghetti hits the fan.
yes i agree we have to get them out before we lose our country to them
Like a stuck record we will continue to repeat our position. While others continue to intellectualize this problem the reality is that we have thousands of undocumented arrivals in Barbados. Many of them are Indians. Trinidad and Guyana are living case studies that tension exists between Blacks and Indians. We are asking that some thought go in to how we are allowing our society to change with the large inflow of Indians. This is not racist, purely commonsense and good planning. Any system which is so inefficient needs to be looked at and those undocumented workers need to be regularized. There is enough research to suggest that uncontrolled immigration into small countries can generate a negative situation. The docile position which has served Barbadians well over the years and which has help to create the calm climate in our country in the past is working against us today.
It would be good if commenters write their concerns in detail, pro or con. We want to understand the concerns
Stupid backward black racist assholes.
No wonder King Dyal called you idiots “cattle”.
Sensible black people are moving forward in life and have no time for such rubbish.
B ~ F ~ P ~ E
David, I support you in your stance against uncontrolled immigration to Bim, from whichever source!!
I won’t reiterate old arguments but think your website would benefit from the same decision of BFP to prohibit people from posting as ‘Anonymous’!! Let us at least, know who we’re speaking to and who’s, exactly, is addressing us!!!!
No one on this blog has ever argued for illegal immigration.
No one on this blog has ever argued against the police not taking action to remove illegal immigrants.
These are “straw men”.
What has been argued is that
(1) We should be clear of the economic consequences of reducing the amount of immigration, be it legal or illegal. The consequence is (a) higher costs at a time when we have a high cost economy and (b) less chance of shaking up the stultified structure of our economy where it is predominantly owned by a large white minority.
(2) Anyone who thinks we have an open door policy to immigration has never tried to immigrate here legally. The immigration policy is not lax, it is the way it is administered and followed through that can be criticised. I know I have a Caribbean wife, not born in Barbados.
(3) The way Indians have been described on this blog is lamentably racist.
When I lived in the UK I helped to lead many anti-racist campaigns in support of blacks in Britain and in South Africa. (We were joined by many Indian and white people.) For my efforts I have landed in court. I have given the black power solute on the steps of the UK High Court on the Strand. I know racism when I see it and unfortunately I am seeing a lot of racism levelled against Indians on this blog. You can try and call it different things, but just look at the comments above, especially by Annonymous and NG and replace the word Indian by Black and see how you feel.
Tell me that “dont forget they breed like rats” is not a racist comment.
Indians and Blacks have not been able to peaceably coexist in any of the caribbean countries. Why should we therefore encourage the inevitable? We need to preserve our society which is not taken to the type of voilence and crime being perpetuated especially by Guyanese. The new Barbados Government must tell the President of Guyana and Norma Faria to set up the necessary incentives for Guyanese to stay at home. This is now over 30 years that Guyanese have been leaving Guyana as a direct result of poor and intolerable conditions at home. We cannot encourage this.
David, you said:
“We are asking that some thought go in to how we are allowing our society to change with the large inflow of Indians.”
Why do you need to single out Indians? Are they more of a concern than Afro Guyanese or any other illegal immigrants?
Just asking.
The question is: do we wish Caribbean integration or not?
You see an “Indian” standing at the corner. Is her ‘documentation’ or lack thereof the criterion upon which we like her or not?
Do we go up and ask “are you documented?” And if she says ‘yes” then we like her, if ‘no’ we hate her?
Is this the hinge upon which illegal Bajans in New York swing?
Us Bajans are the most conceited, biased, self-centered and idiotic people on earth. And mind you, we call ourselves “Christians.”
Once upon a time it was the ‘whites’ who were blocking us and causing us every problem. Nowadays it’s the Indians.
What hogwash.
Going by this blog of racial slur here, I could know that all the wanted action on ‘illegal migrants’ is blatantly pointed at Indians and not any other race/sect. Simply, are you not racist to target your policies against a particular country/race?
So while a anti illegal migrants policy is implemented, can every indian with valid visa be sure that he will not be dealt partially by people and police here? So if we fail to act impartially but target indians alone, is this not racism?
So what is learnt from colonial imperial rule of the past? Nothing but to act with racist minds. What startles is that you also try and pose as non racial people which is the new learning unknown in colonial history. Atleast we whites were openly supporting racism those times(not now and Iam not party to it!)
The population distribution in Trinidad and Guyana eg Blacks and Indians have caused problems, that is a fact. I will not apportion blame here, because that is not the issue.
Both countries have a larger land mass than Barbados, in addition you would have thought that due to the period they have been living together they would have been able to get on, in the main they have not.
What makes Barbados so special that the tensions experienced in our neighbouring countries, will not happen in Barbados.
Indo/Guyanese who have emigrated to Barbados legally, and have the necessary documentation to work, should have nothing to fear, particularly if they are law abiding citizens… where is the racism in that.
When ever a country id doing well, you will always have mass migration, like it or not. We have to look at the reasons why foreigners would be attracted to Barbados. These people look first at political stability, crime and the friendliness of our people. These people could have gone to Trinidad, with a Standards and Poor ‘sovereign rating’ of AA-positive overview but look at it, that country crime rate is like a one-a-day tablet, and probably, it will soon be an over dose. So why will these immigrants interested in settling there. We can look at Jamaica, who like Trinidad is rich in resources, but again it is riddled with massive crime.
So what are the alternatives for these immigrants, simply, look for a country that is stable. As much as we are harping, we as a country cannot place any restriction on the movement of tourists, but what we will have to control, is ‘the time restriction’. This is an area that we are constantly failing. We must keep monitoring our Guests” ensuring that these people return to their countries within the allocated time.
So people we only have to blame ourselves for having a ‘stable’ government, a ‘stable’ economy and an excellent standard of living.
his article makes me laugh.dude that mosque was there for over 40 yrs easy so check the facts and come again, and loads of different groups be it church groups or school groups or just curious members of the public have also come there on fridays and sit inside and observe what is going on.Maybe from now on the members of the mosque should be told to hide the footwear because they are journalist doing counts or taking notes of the amount of footwear outside.oh gimme a break man
“The West Indians who went to the UK in the 1950s and 1960s to support economic growth were not doctors and lawyers, they went to operate the buses and tube”.
And they were accepted by 100% of the English population?
Up to today many English peolpe considered that immigration policy to be the genesis of many of the problems which exisits today in England. Unfettered immigration never helps anybody least of all the immigrants themselves.
“I won’t reiterate old arguments but think your website would benefit from the same decision of BFP to prohibit people from posting as ‘Anonymous’!!”
What is this “follow pattern” Month now? Your blog is fine just as it is DAVID.
At a public meeting outside of Parliament, Dr. Dennis Lowe promised that the DLP would be sending home illegal immigrants once they come to power. I am sure this includes Guyanese Indians. I will hold him and the DLP to this promise.
I agree completely: “unfettered immigration does not help anyone” that is quite true. Exactly the point I am making, I wrote only of “illegal” immigrants.
The West Indian immigrants who went to England in the 1950s and 1960s were not welcomed by 100% of the English population immigrants generally are not, it is therefore reasonable for Barbadians to voice concerns.
There is of course one important difference, in the main the West Indian bus conductors, and tube drivers who went to England in the 1950s and 1960s were “not illegal immigrants,” some were even recruited Government to Government.
Since you want to get rid of Indo-Guyanese immigrants, I would suggest that you start with that new DLP minister Esther Byer-Suckoo.
I’m told she is Bajan, but she looks Guyanese-ish and she has Indian-ish features.
Get rid of her if you are serious.
Useless black racist idiots.
Brutus we can speak about what is obvious. Many of the illegal immigrants in Barbados are Guyanese Indians, Barbados is a small place and the PEOPLE have eyes.
Two years ago the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour issued a report on Barbados which made the following statement based on an assessment of church populations. The numbers are probably out of date and may be “out” by a heavy margin, but they help to put things in context.
“Christianity is the dominant religion; over 95 percent of the population is considered Christian, although they may not be active in any particular denomination.
The next largest denomination is the Seventh-day Adventists, numbering about 16,000 members, 10,000 of whom are active.
The Roman Catholic Church has been present since 1839. There are about 11,000 Roman Catholics. In the early and mid-twentieth century, the Catholic Church was bolstered by immigration from Guyana, Dominica, St. Lucia, and by Syrian and Lebanese Christians from Trinidad.
Pentecostals number about 7,000; membership is growing and over 50 percent are active. Methodists number an estimated 5,000, according to church officials. There are approximately 2,500 Jehovah’s Witnesses, and over 95 percent are active.
The number of non-Christians is small. There are an estimated 2,700 Muslims, most of whom are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from the Indian state of Gujarat. A few immigrants from Guyana, Trinidad, South Asia, and the Middle East, as well as about 200 Barbadians, comprise the rest of the growing Muslim community. The first mosque was erected in 1950, and there are currently three mosques and an Islamic Center.
Other minority religions include Rastafarianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and the Baha’i Faith.
In 2002 and 2003, the Government held interfaith services to celebrate National Day. Most of the religious groups participated, although some evangelical Christian denominations refused to worship with non-Christians on the grounds that doing so would violate the tenets of their faith.”
After seeing these blogs on Barbados, it makes me down and to realise how good country India.
I wonder how could Hindus allow numerous other regligions to prevail and thrive and to keep conversions ongoing.
Democracy and Freedom of speech fully respected, even facing terror threats today.
If Indians visit this blogs, iam sure they also might start thinking of changing their positive mindset !!! God forgive racists
Iam not good at english as some of you here… but pure mind and heart is also in need in Barbados.
Abubaker
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ANYBODY, with such a name, is NOT welcome on this blog, AT LEAST NOT BY ME!!!! FOR OBVIOUS, REASONS!!!!
Anonymous
I refer to your statement: “useless black racist idiots”
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It was Sigmund Freud who said it is possible for a psychoanalyst to get at the contents of the unconcious by employing techniques such as word association.
I will leave you with that.
Reading the comments under this topic just made the matriarch in the household just want to scream. Our focus has been on undocumented immigrants in Barbados. We know from simple observation that many of that group is the Indo- Guyanese. We have concluded that if the ‘unfettered’ inflow is allowed to go unmanaged we may have to deal with the fall-out down the road. The two Caribbean countries of T&T and Guyana is a living proof of our fears. Some of you have asked if Blacks don’t commit crime, of course they do. it is a 90+ majority country.
After writing several articles with this recurring theme we are labeled racist? We shall continue to highlight this issue until…
David, you said:
“Many of the illegal immigrants in Barbados are Guyanese Indians, Barbados is a small place and the PEOPLE have eyes.”
“Our focus has been on undocumented immigrants in Barbados. We know from simple observation that many of that group is the Indo- Guyanese.”
David, how can you tell from simple observation whether an immigrant is undocumented?
Dear David,
You raise an issue once because you feel it is important. There is much blanket racist characterisation of one race. Stuff like “they breed like rats”. There is much unfounded racist charaterisation of the other race’s culture. You do not say that you abhor the racism you see.
You raise the topic again. The same racists say similar racist things.
You raise it Again. And they do so again.
You do so again.
You may say you are innocently raising an issue, but you fool no one.
Racist BU idiot
Thomas Gresham
We are beholdened that comments are made on BU which indicate that other commenters agree with our view. It is interesting and should we say ungentlemanly that you would ascribe the comments of a few to what we believe. Our articles and our comments represent our views on the many topics we select and not the comments of others. Yes we admit that we have chosen the Indo-Guyanese as the centre piece of our argument because it is plain for all who want to see that many of the undocumented workers are Indians.Furthermore we don’t buy the justification you and Mascoll are pushing. Even so you argument is null because we prefer to focus on the ILLEGAL INDO-Guyanese immigrant.
Brutus
We don’t want to get technical but many social experiments have been conducted using the power of observation. Anyone familiar with basic data collection approaches can create experiments using observation as a method. We are aware of a couple basic studies which have been done using random sampling to get a feel for the level of illegal immigrants in Barbados. In past articles we have cited Fairchild Street, and other areas of Bridgetown and they are a few places in St. Philip and on the outskirts of St. Michael where one can go to observe ‘discussions’. We are also privy to informal conversations with policemen and immigration officers who have identified ‘challenges’. Barbados is a little place and don’t you forget it. it is not India, Pakistan, Canada or some country with huge land mass.
When we added the reluctance of Norman Faria and the former government (Mia Mottley) to identify numbers associated with immigration and the issue of illegal immigrants it paints a picture for the BU household that we have a problem which MUST be investigated and some order brought to bear.
It is alarming that our leading pollsters Wickham/Chapo?? along with the former and current government have not addressed this issue in a forthright way.
David, I would love for you to get technical because I would not want us to confuse anecdotal evidence with scientific method. I still can not understand how one can OBSERVE a person’s immigation status.
Could you publish the results of the basic studies to which you referred?
How many illegal Indo-Guyanese would you imagine are in Barbados? 500, 1,000, 10,000? What would be a reasonable guess based on your observations?
Brutus we will reserve using any primitive statistics to support how many illegal immigrants we think exist in Barbados, that would be highly irresponsible.
What we want however is for people like you and others to ask our new government to make the information known to the public. If we can have that information we can carry our current discourse on this matter to the next level.
Agreed!!
Thank you David.
The last statement about Peter Wickham and his polls is so true.
He deliberately refused to poll in such a way (whether by how he asked the question or if hes asked at all in each poll),so that bajans could honestly state how they feel about the presence of these large number of indo guyanese and other illegal immigrants in Barbados.
Depending on how you ask the question you can geta deceptively low response,or even a false reading.
He has publicly stated that he is all for allowing this free for all since he can travel freely to the other islands to get his polling jobs.
You see the selfish – ‘once I’m fine it doesnot bother me’ attitude?
I keep saying that ordinary bajans hold the key to this.
Stop thinking about yourself and start thinking about your country and your children and grandchildren’s future.
Will you want to be treated as second class citizens in your own land.
Check out these 2×4 lil indian stores and their indian owners and how they treat black barbadian young and old women who work for them and get paid next to nothing.
So what you think will happen in 20 years when they are more in control in strategic places like parliament,the banks,in ministeries etc?
Bajans are the ones to chart their destiny through this .
1. Stop renting your property to these illegal persons
2. Avoid giving or getting jobs for illegals – it is a CRIME.
3.Report to the immigration any sus[picious activity you see or suspicion you have that there are illegals present.
4.Bajan men and to a lesser extent women should not allow themselves and thier country to be used by marrying or impregnating these women for bajan citzenship in exchange for free sex for a time.
Only those of the african race seem to place little value on themselves and their people that they will be willing to sell their soul and their people for a mess of pottage and for trinkets and glass beads.
Where is your pride black Barbados?
What mirror image do you have of yourself?
Are we so short sighted that we are only willing to think of the sex for one night,or getting my house clean or my house built cheaply and in some cases badly that I don’t even care about what is happening to my country?
David and family take care and take courage – there are more who are with you than against you.
I only wish that bajans would find the courage to speak out more.
Some of the bloggers say, “they are worried of Indians coming in large numbers and change their society and order”
I wish to know if the religioin and society in barbados is entirely different from other multi racial countrys like USA, UK? Which got hugely benefitted by indian skillful/ skill less migrants. I didnt see Barbados as of a complete out-of-the-box primitive country either. In US people (not all though!) agree openly that migrants built their society for better.
Also, is it that barbados society and order is so fragile that few Indians can drastically change their society and order?
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Lastly, as a human being feel disparaged the way some comments are passed at bajans as “Are we so short sighted that we are only willing to think of the sex for one night……”
Is it not heckling bajans as sex starved or sexually uncontrolled?
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“Check out these 2Å~4 lil indian stores and their indian owners and how they treat black barbadian young and old women who work for them and get paid next to nothing.”
You see, this is why David and his friends on this issue are being so disingenuous. It is highly unlikely that the shop owners are illegal immigrants. (Have you tried setting up a shop in Barbados? Have you tried getting a phone if you are a non-resident? You need various licenses, approvals and contracts that would not be possible to obtain and sustain without legal status.)
So here we have moved from the issue of legality, (how do we know the shop owners are legal or illegal) to simply a view that characterizes a whole race. Many of these views are derogatory and racist. I have come across the precisely, exactly, same language used against blacks, Koreans, jews in other countries. Its as wrong and racist here as it is there. But when you point it out, the racists retreat to a position that they are only worried about illegal immigrants.
The racists try to hid behind the legal issue and make the further, erroneous, point that illegal or unskilled immigrants cannot help an economy. I do not wish illegal immigration but when I point out that the facts are that illegal and unskilled immigrats support an economy, I have been described as having the economics of Clyde Mascoll (which I resent a little). I have been on the governing council of the oldest and one of the largest economic association and my view is the majority opinion of economists. Here are the comments of Gary Becker, a specialist in immigration that won the 1992 Nobel Prize:
“Most illegal immigrants are hard-working, many will return to their country of origin after accumulating some savings (but be replaced by others), most do not receive social security and other benefits, they are less prone to commit crimes than the average American (the reason is that if convicted of a crime they would be deported after serving their prison term), and they consume less health care than the average citizen or lawful resident. …The fierce hostility that many conservatives feel toward illegal immigrants appears to be a compound of hostility to unlawful behavior (they are illegal immigrants, after all) and of fear that immigrants from Mexico and Central America will alter American culture, which is still primarily northern European. The fear is similar to what many Americans felt about Irish and southern and eastern European immigration in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The fear proved to be unfounded.”
not only Barbados concern about the problem but Trinis too.
Joseph: Guyanese blanked at airport due to false info
-Anna Ramdass
Saturday, February 16th 2008
Guyanese nationals have been refused entrance into this country by Immigration authorities because they have provided false information on their travel documents, says National Security Minister Martin Joseph.
Joseph made the disclosure at the post-Cabinet news conference, at Whitehall, Port of Spain, on Thursday when asked by the Express if he was aware that Guyanese national were being turned away by immigration officers at the airports and whether it was a result of the recent massacre in that country.
“I have heard of such claims. I have also heard that such a development occurred recently as a result of what is taking place in Guyana. That is not the case,” said Joseph.
“Immigration is faced with a challenge which relates to Guyanese nationals coming to Trinidad and Tobago, we now have a system of an integrated border management system that allows immigration a level of ability to do a better assessment of passports,” said Joseph.
“We are seeing some Guyanese nationals, where the information in their passports does not mesh with some of the realities that exist and in those circumstances immigration has been extremely vigilant as it relates to allowing entry into Trinidad and it has absolutely nothing to do on a deliberate effort on the part of the Government to deny entry of Guyanese nationals,” said Joseph.
Joseph said immigration officials are detecting a high number of false information being declared and they are mandated to do their job and treat with this as would be the case in any other country.
Thank you Blogger ‘Really’.
Keep posting information like that above that will help awaken the slumbering barbadian masses.
Learn to read between the lines of those who try to portray themselves as ‘indian victims’,or project themselves as having superior knowledge on economics,or sociology or on the conclusive impact of large scale immigration into a small struggling contry like Barbados.
Speak out and encourage others to do the same.
It is important to point out that Barbados is more than an economy – and this is misguided policy of the BLP which is the cause of the problems we now face.
If we restrict ourselves to seeing Barbados as only an economy and not a society – where group dynamics and societal values and norms, as well as the protection of a society, is valued above all else – then we will continue down the dangerous path set by owen arthur that says – that land,bajan passports,bajan citizenship,and the country as a whole should be allowed to fetch the highest economic value and sold to the highest bidder.
Will not happen as long as the good Lord gives me breath and strength.
We are taking our country back,and we will not be intimidated into silence by the likes of alias thomas gresham and indijoe and others.
Barbados for bajans first – that is,those sons and daughters who toiled,and struggled to make this country the shining beacon it now is – which through its bright light is attracting the attention of the marrish and the parrish.
Prime minister David Thompson – what say you sir?
Are you with us on this – or against us?
The practice on this web is that when the racists are challenged with facts and knowledge they claim that that everyone else is being too theoretical and creep back into innocent positions.
Has anyone argued consistently on this blog that our immigration officials and police must not do their job and must not stop illegal immigration? No. And yet we need four different threads to supposedly raise the same issue which no one disagrees about and each time it is an opportunity for the nurturing of racist attitudes.
The real argument on this blog is that there is a racist group that feels there are too many Indians in this country.
They have no numbers. They characterise Indians in various racist ways and as part of a racists blanket characterisation, they assume that most of them are illegal Indo-Guyanese.
The non-racists on this blog have tried to engage as if this is a rational argument. I have proposed that there should be a national plan as to how many immigrants Barbados should allow each year, make half skilled (a points system) and half unskilled (a lottery) and that illegal immigration should be reduced more aggressively.
We have also pointed out that in deciding the right level of annual immigration we must be aware of the benefits that immigrants (skilled and unskilled) bring, especially to a country that has has been unable to change a uncompetitive, grossly unequal economic structure that was put in place during slavery and is too little changed. I find it odd that these racists want to preserve this staus quo.
But time and time again the racists take us away from a rational discussion back towards Indo-Guyanese, as if they are all illegal, that they are the source of ur problems, that they bring no benefit and that we have no other immigrants, illegal or otherwise.
If you want to talk about immigration, do so rationally. Dont hide behind racist prejudices that should have no place in Barbados. Travel more.
Abubaker,
Indian in Barbados are becoming more and more arrogant. They are parasites..taking and hardly giving or interacting with the majority population.
If you had any idea what people think when they see the name “Abubaker” you would change your name immediately.
One cannot deny that indians in both Trinidad and Guyana are racist. In India those who have darker skins are treated as inferior. Blacks and Indians do not coexist peacefully and there is no way we should allow them to reside in our peaceful land.
I am extremely concerned about the attitudes of some of them and the type of crime they have introduced to Barbados.
We should have a cap on the number of Guyanese who are allowed to work here. It is not only Barbados but throughout the islaqnds from Jamaica to Suriname, Guyanese have a reputation for being some of the most dishonest persons.
Abubaker // February 16, 2008 at 2:08 am
Iam not good at english as some of you here… but pure mind and heart is also in need in Barbados.
________________
Tell me where in India or where ever there is a large Indian population the is “but pure mind and heart”????
It is because we want ‘pure mind and heart’ that we have to control the indian population.
When Indians challenge Barbadians as racist for expressing concerns about Indo/Guyanese in Barbados, I am amazed.
“The Black untouchables of India constitute about 20% of India’s over 1000 million population together with 10% Tribals they make up a formidable 30% -far exceeding the population of entire Europe.
But such a vast humanity, constituting the core of India’s original inhabitants, is kept enslaved by less than 15% alien Aryans, India’s ruling class.”
The above is how India was described by Dalit Voice the first Indian journal to expose this closely guarded secret in India, the original home of racism.
It is all to do with the Aryan Brahmimical racism – “the caste system.”
Indians see blacks as Dalits and that is the problem, because Barbadians voice concerns we are racist-give me a break.
Ask Norman Faria what he does to encourage and facilitate undocumented Guyanese who reside in Barbados. Ask him about the many times he has taken or sent and brought back or received the passports of undocumented Guyanese for renewal in Guyana!!
Prime Minister David Thompson and the other CARICOM Heads of Goivernment must tell The President of Guyana to create the necessary political, economic and social environment to get Guyanese at home. After more than thirty years things in Guyana continue to deteriorate.
Dear Yardbroom,
I am a black Bajan and yes, there is much racism on this blog as well as a self-victimisation.
Racism is founded on ignorance and you know very little about caste. Indeed, the one place you will not find caste is the predominantly muslim and often Roman Catholic Indian population of Barbados and amongst the hindus of Trinidad and Guyana. You clearly do not know these people. This is typical of the inconsistent ignorant rubbish of the racist.
Caste has been outlawed in India since Independence, though it is still practiced in backward areas. The British used caste to extend their rule. It also played a role in the Hinduism pre-Raj, and its presence contributed to many new practices of Hinduism that reject caste and made India home to the largest populations of Muslims and Sikhs and others who do not believe in caste. I could go on, but we have said it all before, but ignorant racists have no interest in learning.
How comfortable are you with all practices prevalent in Africa 200 years ago? You know some racist Brits argued that they shouldnt apologise for slavery because they found it in Africa. I have traveled much in Africa and you do not want to characterise our race for everything that goes on there today. Come across cervical circumcision?
Racism starts with blanket characterisation of a race, often based on ignorance. Yes, there is much racism on this blog. Is is shameful and most Barbadians reject it.
Dear Thomas Gresham
I never asked if you were a black Bajan, please direct me to where in my text. I asked such a question?
Sir, I do no know you, therefore common courtesy dictates I treat you with respect despite a difference of opinion, I have no reason to consider you ignorant.
I have travelled to all the world’s continents and have lived in three of them, but that is irrelevant to know if Barbadians have concerns about Indo/Guyanese in Barbados.
Sir you were riled because I brougt facts to the discussion to prove my point.
Ps. What has cervical circumcision got to do with the debate, by the way there are different types of female circumcision, of course I have come across it, – is that really an important question – your knowledge is not as wide you suppose it is.
Thomas Gresham // February 16, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Dear Yardbroom,
I am a black Bajan and yes, there is much racism on this blog as well as a self-victimisation.
***************************
Listen to ‘Mr more intelligent than anyone else’, who has more exp. of Indians than anybody else!!
Cheupseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
The solution is to kick them out of Bim, post haste and not waste valuable time discussing them. Their history in dealing with our people is legion and not in our best interests!!!!
And, Abubaker, u can FO back to Trinidad!!
Not that I care,but I don’t believe Thomas Gresham is black like he claims.
I believe he is white and married to an indian trinidadian woman.
IF you go back to his previous posts you will see where he patronisingly speaks about even allowing a poor little black child to attend his son’s birthday party at Rockley.
In addition he repeatedly tells us how he stood up for apartheid as his proof that he is not racist.
Now why would a black person even mention that ? – to us standing up against aprtheid in South Africa was as natural as breathing – and we did not see the need to shout that argument to the roof.
The modus operandi of the indians is being exposed on this site and that my friend,is making a lot of persons v e r r r y uncomfortable.
It takes all kinds to make up this world, so I guess we need Thomas Gresham. But please be advised that you argue with him at your own peril….
TG has a blatant disregard for logic and commonsense. He quotes as many books and references as he can google, and seems sad and disappointed that we are not impressed…
…plus I still think that he is missing his illegal Guyanese maid that was ejected from Barbados….
Guess you are right Bush Tea.
Me,well I have little time or regard for him and occasionally will only make reference to his comments in passing.
Some one said that Roxanne Gibbs is Guyanese. I have long wondered who was the weekend editor that penned the following editorial in 2004
———–Stop The Guyananese———-
Saturday 22, May-2004
Stop The Guyanese Bashing – Saturday 22, May-2004
THERE IS a very special ring about radio talk shows that keep us all buzzing with conversation. Interesting people make valid points which add considerably to public debate on issues of import.
But that is only half of the talk.
The other is diatribe. Pure and simple.
Unfortunately, we have to swallow the one with the other. We have to listen to much nonsense if we want to benefit from the comments of value.
The most recent example is the debate about the presence in Barbados of a large number of non-nationals, in particular people emanating from the Republic of Guyana. Estimates put the level at between 25 000 and 30 000.
People are screaming on the airwaves about it, and they sound pretty sick. Arguments that border on racism and the need to preserve our “race”; arguments about Guyanese taking away the jobs of Barbadians; arguments about the social and infrastructure cost of this excess population are but three of the most non-sensical.
This is not the first time that this debate has raged. The slightest public incident involving Guyanese or reference to the presence of Guyanese here gets the crazy-heads going on radio.
Few people want to admit that without the presence of Guyanese artisans the construction industry would be at a standstill because of a labour shortage.
Skilled men and women have made their way here and have made their mark because they bring to construction a sound work ethic and the ability to do some of the finest finishes.
Others have come here to escape the hardship of life in a country divided down the middle because of racial conflict master-minded by selfish politicians.
Others are a type of political refugee, and they fit into our country better than many others in this region because Guyanese and Barbadians have similar modest lifestyles and levels of social tolerance.
The majority of people who access the radio to talk have no appreciation of the fact that we in the Caribbean – particularly the English-speaking Caribbean – have a common history and a common destiny.
They are blind to the realities of a coming common market and want to ignore the fact that many years ago it was the Barbadians who benefited from the hospitality of other countries, absorbing our excess population.
It hurts to hear pygmies giving vent on air to their petty chatter and myopic thinking, unchecked and unchallenged. We now merely listen and wait for the time when the bar is lifted and the radio shows return to more inspiring, more sane debate.
Anonymous X –
You have raised concern over my name itself. I am not conceit in hiding my identity like you (keeping anonymous names and spread racism virus on blogs) But I lived in India and experienced co existance in hindus in neghbourhood.
I cant be lier like you, spreading misinformation about some other regligion, with out knowing the truth. All it shows is you have tremondous hate for hindus and hinduism and its peaceful preachings followed by almost a billion people.
I pray god to give some wisdom to evade hate campaign on other religion. Mashallahh!
————ACCIDENT OF BIRTH———-
People & Things – Accident of birth (I)
Date September 06, 2006
Brief People & Things – Accident of birth (I)
by Peter Wickham
There are several human characteristics over which a person has no control, and their race is one of them. I often thought it unfortunate that, in life, much of our good fortune and, indeed misfo
BY PETER WICKHAM
THERE ARE SEVERAL human characteristics over which a person has no control, and their race is one of them. I often thought it unfortunate that, in life, much of our good fortune and, indeed misfortune, is determined by such accidents of birth.
However, one can only hope that the close of this century can be characterised by an end to discrimination on all fronts. To be sure, discrimination is as much a part of Caribbean culture as the sun, sea and sand; hence, I frequently lament the fact that a region which was “hatched” in an environment of discrimination appears so smug about its proclivity to demonstrate prejudice in all realms of life.
On this occasion, the focus is placed on the political arena, which is one in which there is a tradition of discrimination that is better known to those of us who live, or have lived in Trinidad and Guyana. In these states political decisions are often made based on these accidents of birth, while logic and reason are pushed aside.
In instances where discrimination is at the personal level it can be described as unfortunate, while discrimination at the national and political level is nothing short of tragic since this can – and has – impacted negatively on the development of a state and on the lives of millions.
The leader of the People’s National Congress/Reform-One Guyana (PNCR-1G ), Mr Robert Corbin, is the latest victim of racial discrimination of the political variety. He is likely to be forced out of the Guyana political scene; however he can take comfort in the fact that he was not judged harshly because of his performance, but because of matters over which he has no control.
At the risk of sounding partisan, I am prepared to attempt a professional analysis of the outcome of the last general election in Guyana which dealt a heavy political blow to the PNCR-1G. The major factor that needs to be considered is the socio-political environment in which the last election took place. Central to this environment is the fact that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPPC) was anything but a rising political star.
That party peaked in 1997 when it gained 55 per cent of the national political pie, however in the 2001 election, the PPPC’s political support dipped negatively to 53 per cent, which is an electoral swing that should be a clear indication of growing national dissatisfaction in an electoral environment based in PR, which is infinitely more sensitive to such shifts than our system.
The fact that the PPPC has now secured 55 per cent of the national vote is nothing short of remarkable and were this author involved directly in their politics, I would be asking some hard questions about this last election.
Shifts of this nature have occurred in Barbados in 1999; however the circumstances were entirely different, especially as it relates to the national economic environment. Guyana’s economic environment is certainly not the best and has most certainly deteriorated over the past five years.
Moreover, there was no recent “watershed” period during which the Guyanese people could be said to have been judging the PNCR-1G harshly. Guyanese voted in two elections since the PPPC was elected, hence any election held currently has to be seen as a referendum on their leadership, and a result like this appears to be an endorsement of their policies – which seems “odd”.
Guyana is also currently characterised by a wave of crime which its government appears to have no control over and there is also mounting evidence of the extent to which the government is itself mired in corruption. The arrest of PPPC financier Roger Khan raised questions and the fact that the newly-appointed commissioner of police had his United States visa suspended added weight to these concerns.
Conditions like these should be enough to bring about a change of government, unless the opposition is totally incompetent, and this was not the case. The opposition ran a focused campaign which identified and addressed the many issues facing the country and further sought to force alliances which appeared to address concerns that the PNCR was exclusively a party for Afro-Guyanese.
In a situation where a party like this does worse, we can only assume that Guyanese voted in a way that was totally unrelated to issues. One does not have to look very far to realise the factor to which I refer, and it is sad that the continued underdevelopment of that country will be based on the accident of birth that made Robert Corbin African and Bharrat Jagdeo Indian.
In a political environment such as this, the only hope for the PNCR would be to identify a leader that shares their vision and also happens to be Indian. Yes, it’s hard to believe this is 2006.
Peter W. Wickham (Wickham@sunbeach.net) is a political consultant and a director of Caribbean Development Research Services (CADRES).
David, I assure you that I AM being EXTREMELY serious. Since when does being serious preclude the use of invective?!!!!
ok, Dave, you’re a bit too, gentlemanly, for me but, it’s your blob, Sir!!
I just hope that gentlemanly-manners will save us from the pervasive-filth, which I doubt very much that it will do!!!!
Lord – come for your world!
Thomas Gresham – stand tall and thank God for you and your calm and honest reasoning. I don’t care what colour/ethnicity you are…
Anonymous – are you seriously guessing not only his race, but what race his wife may be?!? That’s what you are going with?
The attacks on TG terrify me, but having read the posts, I know that he will be comforted in the knowledge that the responses come no where close to the logic and reasoning of his.
He isn’t angry or trying the one upmanship that I have trawled through at length this morning.
If I were a juror, I’d side with him.
as a bajan living in the usa. i went home for the frist time in 10 years , i was amazed at how much barbados has change and the different cuturals living there , i miss my old barbados where everybody look the same,please donot let any one change that .bajans have worked to hard to make barbados what it has become come on. tellme any other in the carribbean that have the encomy that barbados has . botton line is let them stay out .
Abubaker,
How on earth will anyone be able to identify you? There is no difference between the names used by me or you. You say I hindus and hinduism and its peaceful preachings followed by almost a billion people.
It would be interesting to find out why you have left the peaceful existence of living with hindus. The reality is that Black and hindus/ indians do not coexist peacefully in the Caribbean and I will do all in my power to ensure that successive Governments do not allow too many persons like yourselfs and other indians/hindus to live in Barbados.
Indians in Barbados are very racist. They would prefer to kill their girl children before allowing them to marry black bajan men. They hardly mix with blacks. I am for a peaceful BARBADOS and I make no apology for it. We do not want your voilence in this part of the world.
Dear Anonymous X,
Lets look at what you are saying. “Indians in Barbados are very racist. They would prefer to kill their girl children before allowing them to marry black bajan men. They hardly mix with blacks. I am for a peaceful BARBADOS and I make no apology for it”
This is the kind of race-hatred and prejudice that is the real threat to our peace, whoever it comes from, black, white, Indian, mixed or other.
Maybe you have not noticed but the Economist already describes our region as the most violent region in the world. And last time I looked, Kingston, Jamaica and Lusignan, Guyana are not being ravaged by gangs of armed Indians. In Trinidad, Indians feel under siege with 75% of the kidnaps being of people of Indian descent.
What racists do is to demonize another race, by taking odd examples of bad human behaviour and characterize it as a common racial trait. Indians have been in Barbados since before the building of the first Mosque in 1950. But how many Indian fathers are languishing in our prison for killing their daughters for twinkling an eye at a brother? Hundreds? Dozens?
Each of our races have different histories, cultures and each has challenges. But an essential part of the richness of the Caribbean is our ethnic diversity. We squander that richness when we disrespect and hate each other and make disrespect and hate respectable, who ever it is from.
Tonight is a historic night. Barack Obama has moved critically closer to being the first black President. He has done so by building on his roots in struggle, not to divide people, but to inspire them to unity.
Annoymous X
You seem to have forgot what you said about my name earlier. Anyways, now
You say ‘u do not allow too many persons like yourselfs and other indians/hindus to live in Barbados…” So your concern is not related to ‘open door’ policy or ‘checking ILLEGAL immigrants’ like some others feigned on this blog, but it is just your hatred against Indian immigration legal or illegal. So even for legal migrants from india, no safety is guaranteed in Barbados, if these racial feelings are uncontrolled.
You also said “It would be interesting to find out why you have left the peaceful existence of living with hindus…”
I dont have very interesting reason as you expect, except that I had to leave that country with my job change and not related to any other reason.
As TG has already referred the real sufferers of the crime in other Jamaican countries, I dont need to reiterate it.
Abubaker, I told you what to do with yourself, before!!!!
Speaking about Indo Guyanese, they seem to be a very clever bunch. Let me recall an incident which occurred just last year 2007 (around October/November) with one of them.
I live in a certain district in St. James where a stone’s throw from me, there is an apartment that is filled and overflowing with these indos. On evenings after working hours, sometimes I am seated in my verandah just catching some fresh air.
During that time, several of them would past right in front of my home on their way to the apartment. Most of them would speak as they past by but there was one guy who would stop and make a little friendly chat. I didn’t take any serious notice of it till one evening, he said he would passby on the following saturday and we could go somewhere and have a couple of beers.
The saturday in question I was home doing a bit of cleaning ( I live alone; my last daughter not long moved out) so when I heard the knock at my side door, I was surprised when I saw it was him. Actually, I had completely forgotten about it.
I told him he had come the wrong time as I was doing a bit of cleaning. He said ‘cleaning’!! You shouldn’t be doing that> I can get a young Guyanese Indian girl to do it for you. She will have the house spick and span for you.
I thanked him very kindly but said that I preferred to do it for myself since I needed the exercise to help keep the blood circulating. He even told me she would be very devoted and loving and all the rest of it.
He visited me a few more times after that asking me to go into business with him; that he has contacts in Guyana with gold and we could make it big. Again I said to him that I didn’t know him very well and I certainly will not be going into any business with a stranger.
I haven’t seen him since this year began. From what I heard about bajans being tricked by them, I have no plans of becoming another of their victims.
Again here we are .. black people cannot say anything in this country without obtaining a label… Annoymous really shows intelligence with those albels he is trying to put on blacks… however thats not my beef right now…
Look WE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH GUYANAESE MIGRATION… accept it… and do you want to know where its ever evident..>Spring Garden Highway on Kadooment Day…
I was at a show with 2% blacks present and overheard 2 white bajans exclaming horror if there is deportation of their precious guyanese since they wont know where to find someone since help is so hard to find these days.. what with little help coming out of st. lucia….
food for thought….
Any Johnson from the Trinidad Express has his say about the Indo Guyanese problem in Guyana. Others are writing about the problem as well. It is not only BU,
Grim reality of Guyana today
Andy Johnson
Thursday, February 28th 2008
David,
Dont play the innoccent one. Andy Johnson is not writing about Guyana and Indo-Guyanese in the racist way that you have encouraged on this blog with your countless threads to nowhere but hate.
Look at the words you use.
After the atrocities in Guyana in which afro-Guyanese died, but Indo-Guyanese were clear targets, and as a result, Indo-Guyanese have become petrified and angry that they are not being better protected, you refer to all that, as the Indo-Guyanese problem.
Why do you think the Indo-Guyanese are trying to flee Guyana? Because they are the problem, or because they are victims like all other Guyanese are victims of this sad situation.
Why do you keep spouting such unacceptable, racist twaddle. Please read Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood speech” because if you had, you would seen the shameful similarities with your logic. He claimed he was no racist, he was merely trying to stop the spread of violence to Britain.
What should we be doing?
We should be rallying around all Guyanese and making it clear to all that there is no tolerance for any targeting of any group or race in the Caribbean.
We should be saying that we stand shoulder to shoulder with those in Bartica and Lusignan and with the Indo-Guyanese community and any other community under threat of violence – black, Indian or white.
That kind of non-racial standing up for those of a different race is the way towards ending racial hostilities and feelings of hate on all sides, not distancing ourselves and quietly justifying the violence with bogus talk of the Indo-Guyanese problem.
Please dont write another thread until you have gone to Guyana yourself and spent one day with a black family, an Indian family and the 20% of the population who are mixed. Racism is built on ignorance, go there and try to understand Guyana.
I went to Guyana on many occassions.I have many black & mixed Guyanese friends but I do not want any Indo-Guyanese friends.As I stated in another section of the blog Indo-Guyanese are intrinsically racist.Indiand destroy countries.Allof you Indo-Guyanese lovers tell me a successful and peaceful indian Countries.There are none.Indian kill, maim and destroy.Suicide bombers and such like.Indians are some of the worst people in the world.They are clannish and destructive.
In Barbados right now there are numerous cases at law courts of Barbados with Indo-Guyanese trying to fleece Barbadians out of their homes & lands.It seems that people want us to embrace these despicable and wicked loots into this country to disrupt the peace,tranquility and racial harmony that existed in Barbados between the few whites,couple Indians from the Mainland and us blacks .I say this country is on a slippery slope and and I have a premonition that in the not to distance future Barbados will experiencing the same problems that Guyana is experiencing today as a result of those wicked selfish and criminally minded Indo-Guyanese.Allof them need to get out of Barbados now.l.
Negroman:
Racist, unsupportable rubbish, encouraged by David.
State the facts and the court cases, otherwise keep your dark prejudices to your nightmares.
Looking forward to your evidence, but will understand your non-reply.
Straight Talk;
I don’t have to state the facts of those cases for you.Do the research and investigate the matter for yourself.
The issues I have highligted are not my nightmares but the realities of the situation confronting Barbados today.Open door immigration policy and unchecked influx of illegal immigrants into a country cause problems.
StraightTalk why only comment on the issue of the court cases and not the other issues I mentioned.Iwant your response to the view that there is no peaceful country on earth where indians are in the majority and there is no civil unrest.I will challenge you and say there is none.Not one all are involve in some sort of conflict.
I also mentioned the clannish and selfish nature of the indian race.As a result of these traits destruction follows any society that they go.Guyana and Trinidad two cases in point.I will expand on that point when and if you reply.
Do not pick up on one issue deal with all the issues I highlighted.
If the Indo-Guyanese were all this productive and had good work ethics Guyana the richest Caribbean country will not be in the state it is in today ,The reverse will be happening other Caribbean countries will flocking to Guyana and looking to Guyana for the survival of the Caribbean.I blame the majority of Guyana’s problems on the poor and wicked attitude and behavior of the Indo-Guyayanese.Stay out of Barbados and do not destroy this country like how Guyana is being destroy today. Stay out
NB I am glad that PM Thompson is listening to the people and putting measures in place to control the illegal immmigration problem.
We are seeing results.
StraightTalk read Thompson’s speech to the Trinidad Manufacturers Association Annual General meeting last week in Trinidad .Get copies of last week editions of the Advoocate.
in1993 an indoguyanese moved into our area in st.james axs was seen with her 2 month after the guyanese was seen doing nasty things in2 weekes axs wife and children was put out the house and land their work on for so long together,3monthes later axes was turn foolish the indo guyanese woman brought her man and family to barbados plus the cat and the dog axs now live in the back yard in his mother old house now tell me ,if you donot think these bitches want running out of barbados with fire in ther ass
barbados is asmall country166sq feets now tell me why such we put upwith all these illegal people from other places,i understand their are a hole lots of born barbadians from amercia,canada,england and other countries who did not get the legal papers from those countries are coming home to barbados now tell me where will we put them,so please go home to your lands also and leave barbados for bajans
If you listen carefully to VOB and their call in programmes – there seems to be an unwritten policy to stop bajans from speaking out against the guyanese.
Only time will tell whether bajans were indeed paranoid or xenophobic or selfish or whether they were right about their feelings on the matter – of course by that time the guyanese would have been firmly in place in the country with their bajan passports and making bajans shite – and the big-ups will then be saying ‘eff we only did know dis wudda happen’.
I am listening to everyone on this site and I know I am begining to sit up and notice what is going on.
Orisha
I don’t know if this is the same man you are referring to – ‘axs’ – but I heard of a similar sory where an indian guyanese woman started coming between a bajan man and his common law wife who lived in Rock Hall,St Thomas and the bajan man chase way his wife and their 3 children from the house .
The indian woman moved in and within a short space of time – the guyanese woman brought over her indian husband and all her family and then she chase way the bajan man from the house.
What I can’t understand is with all the big talk the baJan men does give their own bajan women – how come he couldn’t chase out the guyanese woman,or burn down the house or something?
What I can’t understand is with all the big talk the baJan men does give their own bajan women
Because all Bajan men have is big talk. They jump up holla and cuss and then they eat some food and go sleep. Bajans need to wake up and not take this situation lightly. We are gonna get over run just now and I am telling you it is not gonna be pretty. I for one don’t want to wait and see if I am gonna “drop off in the sea”. I am not against people coming to better their lives (I have cousins aunts uncles in American Canada and England, I even had some cousins in Guyana) but we need to close our open door policy and get serious. OUR COUNTRY CANNOT SUSTAIN LARGE NUMBERS OF IMMIGRANTS BE THEY IRISH ENGLISH AFRICAN AMERICAN OR GUYANESE.
Whatever you racist Bajans think, feel and fear about Indians comining to you country in millions will become reality, I agree.
You see, you are destined for oblivion because just one village from India and u are a minority. That’s how the world is moving so accept it and sllep tight. Or are you modern day Don Quixotes?
and then they eat some food and go sleep.
*****************************
Diann, speaking of which, Thompson always looks sleepy to me. Is he taking this issue seriously, or being a typical, lazy, good for little but eating coo-coo, Barbadian man!
False marginalisation claims are inciting anti-Indian violence
Freddie Kissoon is so blinded by his perceived dictatorial practices of the PPP that he cannot see the negative spin offs, and incitement to anti Indian violence, brought about by his lopsided claims. The adage applies -There is none as blind as he who would not see. By claiming that the PPP Regime is worse than the dictatorship of the PNC, Freddie has made some very distasteful incongruous comparisons, which belies his academic pursuits.
I now challenge him to take a short sabbatical from the media battle front, and have a quick look at the ill effects of his tirades on the Government and people at large. Of late, it seems that Freddie has allowed his obsessive disdain for the PPP to cloud his reason and academic approach to analyzing the effects of his attacks in the wider picture. His attacks are void of true introspection, and as he points his index finger at the PPP, three others are pointing back to him. The Ethnic Relations Commission should review his articles in the light of racial and inciting journalism.
In his tirades, Freddie has now openly joined the ranks of David Granger, Hamilton Green, Oliver Hinckson, Tacuma Ogunseye, Elijah Bijay, Debra Backer, C. Ellis, David Hinds, McAllister and others, all of whom directly or indirectly, justify violence as the medium of their desired change. In his blindness, without even realising it, he has also unwittingly aligned himself with Kean Gibson, the very woman he once castigated for her skewed thesis on Indian Caste System. It seems that all of the gunslingers above are ganging up against the democratically elected government.
This is reminiscent of Burnham’s violent moves to oust the PPP in sixties, launching the X13 Plan and later the kick-down-the door banditry. They have degenerated today into daily fuelling the fire of the late Desmond Hoyte’s mantra of making the country ungovernable. They are adding to Slow Fyah and Mo Fyah, letting loose Hoyte’s Dogs or War in justifying wanton murders in the nation. Freddie et al are loading the guns of their Resistance Fighters only to have these disenchanted unemployed criminals pull the triggers.
He seems satisfied and proud to incense the minority African Guyanese to believe the PPP, and by extension Indians in Guyana, are marginalising them. However, a brief review of the various security and service organisations of the PPP Government today would reveal an almost complete African domination, and dispel every claim of African marginalisation in the context of Freddie’s et al claim.
Freddie’s incitements also move the very meager number of African dropouts/underachievers, who feel affected (compared to the majority) to take vengeance, not only on the Government, but also on the ordinary people of Guyana, mainly Indians. Is Freddie Kissoon trying to absolve himself from the fact that he is an Indian columnist by attacking the PPP and Indians, or is he sucking up to the newly formed AFC, pretending he is not race conscious? In seeking to be politically correct, Freddie does not ever seem to want to give the impression that he is of Indian descent. His entire claim to be Guyanese does not remove the fact that in the eyes of the Afro Guyanese and all that he is still Indian.
Obviously, Freddie has forgotten, or because he did not live in Wismar or Mahaicony during the turbulent sixties, when the PNC put together their notorious terrorist X13 Plan in May 1963, headed by Burnham, Green, Reid and Chippy Graham X13. The X13 Plan was unleashed on Indians May 23 to 26 1964 in Wismar. Recently, one writer enquired about the X13 Plan. He should visit Guyana Journal website at guyanajournal.com.
He may not have lost a wife, sister, brother, father, mother or very close relative in the race violence then and now, to understand the plight of the extended families, the neighbours and friends of bereaved Indians throughout our history. Such were/are the spin-offs of anti-Indian violence that Freddie conveniently refuses to grapple with. Nevertheless, Freddie wrote a lot of the Buxton based Resistance Fighters in this decade and their blockade of the East Coast (Enterprise, Annandale , Non Pariel, Lusignan and LBI,) with the wanton massacre of Indians. Now his incitements are unconscionable. The gross ill effects of Freddie’s self-opinionated criticisms of the PPP Government are helping to bolster and justify these minority opponents of the Government in a very violent way.
I must conclude that these negative attacks are stirring up a certain kind of ire in the hearts of the wrong people; unemployed people, very easily co-opted and manipulated by sophisticated political leaders, trained and motivated by certain known ex Army Officers all of whom claimed to be marginalised. Here are men who were fed, housed and clothed at tax payers’ expense throughout their military careers, now claiming marginalisation.
Dr. Prem Misir, Dr Randy Persaud and several columnists have already shot down the unfounded claims of marginalisation of Afro Guyanese as a single ethnic group. The ERC report is out and the picture is not what these shortsighted claimants are painting.
Freddie’s reference to the few Indo-Guyanese who served in the PNC Government, could not gloss over the evils of the marginalisation of thousands of others at large under the PNC dictatorship. The PNC did not recruit many Indians, whom Freddie would have us believe were in the Public Service. Those he glibly mentioned were in many ways indispensable to the function of their offices. Their immediate removal would have meant chaos to their Offices.
The PNC inherited most of these cadres in a well-oiled Public Service, from the British in 1966, with very many efficient Indian Public Servants (not all supporters of the PPP) in key positions. Yet, soon as the PNC was entrenched in office in the seventies, they set about to replace thousands of Indians in the Public and Teaching Services, by terminations, redeployment, transfers into outlying areas, and denied promotion.
The PNC further removed the two tiers (Classified and Unclassified) structure in the Public Service. Immediately there was the freeze on PSC appointments of qualified candidates into positions. Only the unqualified cardholders from Congress Place got jobs. Freddie is mum about these atrocities. The Public Service became so corrupt that almost every operative expected a bribe for the functions carried out. Frauds became an almost daily scourge thereafter.
I was one (of over twelve experienced Indian Supply Management / Stores Accounting personnel) with nine years in International Procurement, whom the PNC regime removed from the Government Central Stores. An inexperienced Afro Guyanese replaced me. This ethnic cleansing orchestrated during one top one executive tenure at Ministry of Works, Hydraulics and Supply is scandalous. In a kind of Operation Clean-sweep, S.E. Troyer replaced Reggie Kishun as Chief Clerk of the Central Stores. Miss Kamala Persaud sent home, replaced by Miss Mc Lean at the Government Central Stationery Store.
G.T. Clarke was appointed Chief Supply Officer, Ian Bruce appointed Senior Supply Officer (Procurement) and Joe Lambert appointed Senior Supply Officer (Administration.) All three of the above superseded an Indo Guyanese (experienced former RAF Supply Officer) Robert Etwaroo, who was Supply Officer at the Government Supply Division for over twenty years. I had to report both Mr. Troyer to Mr. V. E. Kingston for dumping his Chief Clerk’s work, and Mr. Ian Bruce to G.T. Clarke for dumping all his functions (regarding Letters of Credit) onto my desk.
With none of these top appointees experienced enough to train new comers, G.T. Clarke, Chief Supply Officer, delayed my removal from Supply Division for six months. I had to train an Afro Guyanese to take over my functions. This is only the tip of the iceberg.
Herein the race card was clearly noticeable and not just the politics. Every time I wrote about the above, somehow my letter never reached the press.
In those days Patrick Yarde was Shop Steward of the PSU, based at Ministry of Works, yet not one single word of protest over the ethnic cleansing that took place hit the Press. However, if this current (PPP) regime attempts to discipline any Public Servant for wrongdoing, the entire Public Service Union comes out in strike action. The Customs Officers fiasco in Main Street is a salient case in point.
Do not forget the widely documented brain drain began in earnest since the sixties. On the foregoing real marginalisation and dictatorial policies, Freddie and his strange bedfellows can find no parallel.
Seopaul Singh
(Twenty-two years in the Guyana Public Service)