est. 2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

Trinidad Express Reporter Comments On the Growing Indo-Immigrant Population In Little Barbados

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…

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image 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.

Read the full article

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.

Related Stories

Indian Racism Against Afro Guyanese In Guyana

Can Indians And Blacks Co-exist In Barbados?

Can Barbados Avoid Escalating Crime & Violence In Neighbouring Trinidad & Guyana?

77 responses to “Trinidad Express Reporter Comments On the Growing Indo-Immigrant Population In Little Barbados”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    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.

  2. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    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.

  3. Abubaker Avatar
    Abubaker

    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!

  4. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    ————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).

  5. Bimbro Avatar
    Bimbro

    David, I assure you that I AM being EXTREMELY serious. Since when does being serious preclude the use of invective?!!!!

    Bimbro we can be ‘rough’ in debate but we don’t appreciate the hate filth. We hope that we are all men of intelligence and can communicate our disagreements with dignity and respect for the other parties.

    David

  6. Bimbro Avatar
    Bimbro

    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!!!!

  7. FreeBajan Avatar
    FreeBajan

    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.

  8. brown eyes Avatar
    brown eyes

    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 .

  9. Annoymous X Avatar
    Annoymous X

    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.

  10. Thomas Gresham Avatar
    Thomas Gresham

    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.

  11. Abubaker Avatar
    Abubaker

    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.

  12. Bimbro Avatar
    Bimbro

    Abubaker, I told you what to do with yourself, before!!!!

  13. eureka Avatar
    eureka

    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.

  14. Tessy Avatar
    Tessy

    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….

  15. David Avatar
    David

    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

    AS a first-time observer, it wasn’t easy to discern whether the Republic Day celebrations called “Mash” had indeed been affected by the torment through which hundreds of thousands of Guyanese nationals at home and abroad have been going through over the past month.

    Overriding calls for the cancellation of the celebrations which took place last Saturday, the government went ahead, on the clear determination that not to do so would have been to give in to the terror- inspiring bandits and killers who have been grabbing attention again.

    In Bartica, the small town up the Essequibo River which had been a popular “gateway” to part of Guyana’s mineral laden interior, one community leader was happy last week that the government did not give in to panic.

    To do so, he said, would have signalled to the criminals that they were winning. The message, from the government as well as from the people, should be that they are not.

    Bartica was fighting to return to its feet after the assault on the town early on the night of February 17, in which 12 people were killed, including three policemen.

    This incident followed by three weeks, another massacre in Lusignan, another community on the Demerara side.

    Some home-based Guyanese were terrified that mass public gatherings such as would have been produced by the “Mash” celebrations would have been tailor-made for the nihilists. Untold thousands of those abroad in the vast diaspora may have decided to cancel their trips back home.

    In Georgetown , last weekend, some of the clubs were packed with the carefree young, on the hunt for entertainment that would distract them away from their other harsh realities of their life these days. But from those who know, the celebrations, which coincide with the country’s Republic Day observances, were muted by the state of shock and uncertainty brought on by the double massacres.

    The annual budget, read in the National Assembly last Friday, clearly took a back seat in the minds of the discerning. It had been delayed by a week in the first place, pushed off the agenda because of the Bartica killings.

    After Lusignan on January 23, the government led by President Bharrat Jagdeo had spurned a suggestion from the main opposition party that international assistance was needed to address the country’s crime problem.

    Further, it had set conditions for any possible inter-party talks on the situation. Following Bartica, however, it flung open the door, inviting in civil society organisations as well, creating the platform for what hopeful participants and jittery stakeholders hope will be a long hoped for process of national unity and consensus building.

    To say that the Guyanese society is fragmented is to commit to grave understatement. To say that this fragmentation has been aggravated by this new descent into group atrocity is skirting the swamp of ethnic animus being generated as a result.

    Afro-Guyanese sentiment appears to have found an outlet for pent-up antagonism against the Jagdeo government while a heated exchange between the President and an angry group of Indo-Guyanese residents in Lusignan, his natural supporters, said something else. They told him, those angry tones, that they didn’t feel protected by his administration. It was a dispiriting attack.

    Guyana is a society which has been experiencing population stagnation over the last four decades. First, Indo-Guyanese were leaving because of their feelings of alienation in the early days of “Co-operative Socialism” under Burnham’s PNC.

    Then the migration expanded across ethnic and class lines because of the economic hardships, the creeping totalitarianism and the repression which was to come.

    Hopes for a turnaround when Cheddi Jagan’s PPP returned to power in 1992 after 27 years, could not stop the train.

    Having been gradually upgraded from the category of nations identified by the international acronym HIPIC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries), and having experienced equally gradual improvements in social and physical infrastructure development, the Guyanese state continues to lose the battle against its people’s tendency to vote with their feet.

    Hostile reaction from state agencies and their agents, as well as from their Caricom “brothers and sisters” on the streets, have not done much to blunt the Guyanese search for living solutions in other societies across the Caribbean, for example.

    The Jagdeo government struggles now to convince all that there is neither ethnic, ideological nor political method to the atrocities in Lusignan and Bartica.

    But ground-level fear and suspicion, fuelled by rumour and speculation, resentment and disenchantment are conveying a perhaps more compelling story.

    Link

  16. Thomas Gresham Avatar
    Thomas Gresham

    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.

  17. Negroman Avatar
    Negroman

    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.

  18. Straight talk Avatar
    Straight talk

    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.

  19. Negroman Avatar
    Negroman

    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.

  20. orisha Avatar
    orisha

    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

  21. orisha Avatar
    orisha

    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

  22. Avatar
    Anonymous

    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.

  23. Avatar
    Anonymous

    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?

  24. Diann Avatar
    Diann

    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.

  25. Indo-Guyanese Avatar
    Indo-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?

  26. Bimbro Avatar
    Bimbro

    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!

  27. Indo-Guyanese Avatar
    Indo-Guyanese

    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)

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