Submitted by The People’s Democratic Congress (PDC)
It has been long remarked by many living souls in Barbados that, if Barbados were to have been sufficiently struck at any time by a tropical storm/hurricane, how a lot of homes, buildings and other properties would have been seen to be partially or wholly destroyed, primarily because of – as they would have observed it – the excessive numbers of instances, whereby there have been less than appropriate building designing undergone, whereby there have been many unsafe building techniques and practices carried out on those dwellings/buildings, or whereby there have been allowed to develop the wholly unsatisfactory conditions of many homes in the country; and how all these essential utility service companies that are here in Barbados, esp. the BL&P, would have performed so poorly in the aftermath of any such weather systems, primarily because of – as they saw it too, the very checkered history of the general out-in-the-field performances of these companies over the years.
As well, many a mortal in Barbados would long have been sounding off that, if this country were to continue indefinitely on the prevailing backwardist, exploitative, worn out euro-centric westernist development path that it is on right now, how the country could well or would well be on the way to becoming a second rate so-called Third World developing country in the foreseeable future, primarily as a result of the many inept unprogressive anti-poor social political material financial policies and programs that have been pursued in the public and private sectors of the country over the years – and esp. as it relates to such policies and programs that have led to chronic dependence on the tourism sector for the country’s further development – and which for the fickle industry that it is, sees too many of the country’s people, their services, resources and finances being allocated to it.
And shall we – in the PDC- add, this, that as far as these anti-masses middle classes policies and programs are concerned, these themselves that have been and continue to be based on the reinforcement of the existence of evil systems such as WORK, TAXATION, INTEREST RATES, REPAYABLE INSTITUTIONAL PRODUCTIVE LOANS, ETC.
Well, on that day of the 29 October of 2010 (Friday) – right up to this day (Thursday, 4 November), has been a time in which many Barbadians have been fortunate to realize that those very hypotheses of those very living souls have been proven to be true!!!
For, on that first day, many Barbadians got the early news from the Barbados Meteorological Service, as well as from various internet and local radio sources, that the country was indeed going to be impacted by a tropical storm system – Tropical Storm Tomas – which was forecast to pass just south of the island, while packing maximum recorded winds of about 65 – 70 miles per hour. Many Barbadians were also told in clear terms – in the weather bulletins that came – and that they should gird themselves for a substantial deterioration in weather conditions affecting the island, and that this system was intensifying very rapidly.
Anyhow, by midday on Saturday, once the storm’s eye was reported by the local met office to have passed the island, and the all clear was later given by the Prime Minister, Mr. Freundel Stuart at 2.00 pm, the evidence was there that Tropical Storm Tomas, had caused substantial damage in the country – with the roofs of hundreds of homes and buildings having been lifted, scores of homes having been totally destroyed, hundreds of trees and utility poles having been felled, and substantial disruption to light, water and communication services throughout much of the country, etc – in short, the millions upon millions of dollars in damage that has been done to the infrastructure of the country.
But, what has been particularly horrendous scandalous has been the supposed post-disaster restoration efforts of the BL&P, to a great extent, and the Barbados Water Authority, to a lesser extent.
With so many households and businesses still without electricity today, the country’s sole suppler of national electricity services still wants – via its public statements – to give the impression to many Barbadians, that it has been doing its best in the circumstances, to make make sure that all of its customers electricity services are restored. PURE UNADULTERATED NONSENSE!! ABSOLUTE NONSENSE!!
Here are a few reasons why many of the BL&P’s post-disaster efforts have been a catastrophe, and why it deserves to be trashed at this juncture.
- It failed – during the storm and in its immediate aftermath – and when it was very clear that its telephone lines were being in those times inundated with calls from so many customers about their total lack of services – to make great use of the social network media (Facebook, BU, Bajan Reporter, etc.), to present informational and visual updates on the progress that it purported that it was making, to bring back those services to its many customers.
- Its main public relations officer, Mr. Stephen Worme, and some others from the company, would have done better, if they had at various times sat in on VOB’s and CBC’s storm coverage – as one way of personally interacting with a clearly concerned frantic frustrated customer base, and as a means of bringing calm and reassurance to them. Simple radio and TV interviews with Mr. Worme were not enough!!!
- BL&P should have rented generators – small ones – for individual households esp. – and big ones – for communities – from businesses that sell or rent them, as a means of showing that it cared about these customers and therefore that they wanted to provide hope for them in such circumstances. Some of the costs of renting such could have been recouped from these customers via bill payments, if possible. It is high time that the BL&P should have had emergency generators as part of its programs in a way that the BWA has done with its water trucks.
- The BL&P should have gone and got help – if possible – from fellow electric companies in, say, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, in getting a few of their crews to come and help provide relief/assistance to BL&P customers, and to help repair or replace damaged lines, cables, and poles, as it has already provided to some CARICOM countries in such awful circumstances.
Where the BWA is concerned it is disgusting that in this day and age the BWA still relies on the BL&P for electricity to pump water at its pumping stations. The BWA should have by now had enough of its own generated electricity to help pump water to its customers’ homes, businesses, in ordinary circumstances, far more in times of disaster when customers did not plan for a lack of this very precious resource. In days of yore, wind mills used to help get water to sugar estates. Why with modern technology cant the BWA improve on that once used approach??? And, where has so much of the localized talk about developing alternative energy sources for Barbados, and which was prevalent when world oil prices were US $ 147 per barrel, gone to now that world oil prices are hovering around US $ 80 per barrel???
Moreover, whereas locally owned businesses have collectively had vested interests in Barbados, tourists – though they are ever welcome to these shores – do not have such fundamental interests in our country. Their primary interests lie in sightseeing, leisure, recreation, relaxation whilst in the country. Hence, for Barbados to be devoting too many of its people’s services, resources, and such like, to what are essentially the social culinary tastes and appetites of other people, is becoming more and more obscene, even as many of these said tourists wished that they could have packed up and gone home during the onset of Tropical Storm Tomas, and even as air travel was substantially interrupted then by the closing down of our only airport.
Clearly, Barbados cannot reasonably continue to based its national development on the social culinary tastes and appetites of visitors to this country. Surely, in addition to much of what it presently has (production services wise), Barbados can do far better by producing so many versions of consumer industrial capital goods and services that can themselves be used in esp. the manufacturing, industrial, trade and export processes of the country, and in many other countries of this world. Barbados must therefore become a place for the assembling of cars, trucks, tractors, aircraft, the building of ships, production of satellites, missile technology, etc., and with the a proper regulatory environmental regime put in place along side of such to protect against any abuses of business power and pollution of the natural environment.
Finally, it is evident that most of those persons and households which suffered property damage during the passage of Tomas, have been from among the poorest of the poor/the poor. What is also obvious is that EURO-CENTRISM, IMPERIALISM, ECONOMICS, WORK, TAXATION, INTEREST RATES, MOTOR VEHICLE INSURANCE, HIRE PURCHASE IN ITS PRESENT FORM, INSTITUTIONAL REPAYABLE PRODUCTIVE LOANS – which form part of the core of euro-centric westernist development, or de-development, have been helping to make thousands upon thousands of people poor from the time of their birth in this country, until their deaths, and helping too to wickedly demonically make sure that they continue living in some of the harshest most miserable forms of habitations and environments in this country.
With such disastrous social political effects remaining in place in Barbados, it stands to reason that most of those who have been the ones to have been mainly adversely affected by Tropical Storm Tomas, are the ones who are going to find recovery most difficult at this stage.
It is for these and other reasons that we here by now and will always outrightly categorically reject the notion coming forward from out of the mouths of some people at this stage of compulsory home insurance for home owners in this country – another wicked evil device to help lick up the poor and not so poor in this country, and to help tear down the country. What ignorance and crass madness of the highest order!!!
What our party – the PDC – needs to see is the putting in place of national programs to make sure that all Barbadians in the final analysis will have hurricane/storm resistance homes and buildings; and which themselves can only properly takeoff with the substantially lowering of building costs in the country; the provision of greater access to greater housing/lands in this country; through the ushering into this country of many modern people-centered developmentalist policies and approaches, such as the ABOLITION OF TAXATION, INTEREST RATES, ZERO-“PRICING” OF IMPORTS OF GOODS AND SERVICES INTO THIS COUNTRY, THE PREVENTION OF FOREIGNERS FROM OWNING OUR LANDS SPACES, and the putting in their places the right policies and programs that will assist us in creating a new indigenous path of development for the people of this country.
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