Recently David Ellis, while moderating a radio call-in program, and in response to a caller who questioned why the radio station was restricting discussion on the issue of the large number of Guyanese and large immigrant population on the island gave a surprising response. He indicated that the topic was a volatile one and had to be managed responsibly by the radio station. Up to that point many BU commenters had already made the observation that callers were being unfairly restricted when trying to discuss the matter on the VOB talk shows. Of late, and maybe it is our imagination, there seems to have been a relaxing of the policy at VOB regarding discussion on immigration matters.
The BU family is aware that we have written voluminously on the need for planned immigration in Barbados. We have gone further and accepted that movement of people is a reality in the new world economy. We have put forward the view that the socio-economic impact of the growing ethnic population in Barbados MUST be studied with a view to minimizing social fall-out while maximizing economic output. To our surprise many have accused BU of being xenophobic and racist. Even our sister blog Barbados Free Press rapped us on the knuckles for overstepping the boundary on this issue.
It is interesting that VOB would seek to cherry-pick this issue to censor callers to the talk shows. It is also interesting that the Nation newspaper which is owned by the same parent has not seriously highlighted the issue of our haphazard immigration policy which has low skilled Indo-Guyanese at the centre. This leads BU to conclude that there is an obvious enunciated policy to censor the Guyanese issue by the leading publishing house in Barbados. This has led us to speculate what happens if the voice of the PEOPLE is suppressed on an issue which they feel passionately.
We listened to reports in the media today which highlighted the concerns by many of our Members of Parliament on the need to roll-out a planned immigration policy. We also heard the lucid pronouncement by Attorney General Frundel Stuart that an immigration draft document is in the pipeline to be used to improve existing immigration policy. If we had the opportunity we would ask why his office has not instructed the police force and Immigration department to forge an alliance to round-up undocumented workers in Barbados. Our sources say that this has not been done since the new Thompson government ascended office.
We now feel vindicated.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.