Barbados in the eyes of all these other countries seem to be second class to them. But truth be told Barbados gets the shitty end of the stick due to the progress that has been made in areas that these other countries haven’t made; They make fun at the way we speak. And even try to imitate us. But it’s so funny that Barbadians can imitate all the others so well that at times it’s impossible to tell who is who; Trinidad was never very happy with Barbados. And has been trying for years to get a big footing in Barbados; In my heart I feel that Barbados stands alone even though we try to UNITE with all the others to form CARICOM.. It’s rime for Barbadians to stand up and be heard loud and clear by all that we are sick and tired of the shit that all you others are trying to place before us; We will NEVER again be enslaved due to ignorance of others;
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. I AM PROUD TO BE A BAJAN, even though I live abroad. MY HEART WILL ALWAYS BE IN BARBADOS THE PLACE OF MY BIRTH; SO let your voices be heard from every corner from at home to abroad that WE HAD ENOUGH;

We can first start by boycotting CAL and stop buying products in the supermarket. We need to encourage the other islands to do so as well.

Kamla and Bruce think they have a marriage made in heaven. It will end in a nasty divorce and I hope that they don’t go to the CCJ to settle it.

CAL should be not be recognized as the Caribbean Airline.

Kamla think she scoring points when she announced the fast ferry service, but think again Madam. You want a direct route to Barbados to export your criminals but you wrong.

I was happy a woman was made PM in T&T BUT after she opened her mouth she made Manning look like a Statesman extraordinaire.

She is definitely an embarrassment to the Republic! Bruce you have no shame at all, after the Dudus affair, you have made the world fully aware of your sinister connections.

The credit union movement and all Bajans investors (that mean all Bajans) should look closely at how the food and services sector is distributed and who control the majority. On the basis of national security and national interest the credit union movement and bajan investors should do their best to change that majority. I firmly believe that the credit union movement should be equipping and empowering the masses and therefore no right thinking, right operating credit union movement or bajan investors for that matter, should allow the food distribution sector to be monopolize by foreign entities.
The reason why other Caribbean nations, especially Trinidad, can hold Barbados to ransom and treat Bajans like a door mat is because they know they control the inflow of food to this island.
“Retaliate against us and we suffer you!! No Food!” thats their belief.
Look closely at Barbados food distribution sector and you will see that we have a national security problem.
Very little room to maneuver
History have shown us that if a country want to take control of another without a major fight, it take control of the ports, food, and water thereby shutting the country in until it surrender. .

As it stands right now Barbados have more to loose than Trinidad .

To add insult to injury, Trinidadian manufacturers, especially of garments, are busy re-labelling extra-regional goods and shipping them to Barbados CERTIFIED BY THE T&T GOVERNMENT as being made in Trinidad. This practice is now reaching a peak after going on for a long period of time. If they can questions Barbados’ ability to certify aircraft, the Barbados can certainly question The Trinidad government’s willingness to certify re-labelled goods. It’s getting serious and jobs in Barbados are on the line.

Product can be source for elsewhere. what government would need to do is reduce the duties on those product from latin america that make them more expensive to the consumer than T&T products.

Duties can be change with a penstroke or just the words from minister. Do they wish to go so far is the question.

Unless the words corruption get linked to handling of redjet. kamla won’t be changing her mind any time soon. they suppose to be a dedicated meeting for caricom Secretary General and the barbados & T&T redjet issue in couple weeks. I don’t think anything will be done about it till then, The Jamaica seem to be forever requesting info. think they need to be a part of that meeting too to maximize productivity.

I want to know what fly was doing before dog ear get stink?

There is nothing wrong with Redjet that some US dollars stuffed in a brown paper bag wouldn’t have resolved

WHAT BECAME OF THE PLANS TO DRILL FOR OIL AND GAS OFF BARBADOS THIS SHOULD RETURN TO THE FRONT BURNER ANY FOSSIL FUELS WE FIND OUT THERE WOULD LOOSEN TNT GRIP . INDICATIONS ARE THERE IS OIL AND GAS OUT THERE LIKE WE FOUND AT WOODBOURNE. GO AHEAD PM WE ARE BEHIND YOU YOU HAVE BEEN PATIENT ITS TIME TO PLAY KAMLA GAME.

I also seem to recall a few other ‘events’ – a hotdogging BW pilot slamming a 707 down on the runway here in Barbados, causing the nose gear to collapse (I visited the airport to see)……another hotdog doing a ‘wheelie’ with a L-1011 at ANU, where the reverse thrust from the tail engine (#2 engine) caused a disturbed airflow over the horizontal stabilizer, such that they had trouble getting the nose down in time to stop the large aircraft on the runway….and what about when they scraped the tail of the brand new A321 on landing at Piarco? I flew into Trinidad with the repair crew from Airbus a few days later, and saw the photos of the damage.

Spotless safety record indeed!

@Weary Bajan

your comment speaks reality !Some us would like to believe that we are top dog because of our intellect. However old people words ring true “Mother got ! Father got ! but blessed is de child that got he own” So !
my question still remains “Where do we go from here” are we in any position to call the shots? Are we going to continue to let these countries sabotage our plans? what next ?

… no?

@Nia
Let not your heart be troubled…there wil be wars and rumors of wars, but the end is not yet

@Nia

Understand your fustration, very much so.

Some interesting articles here……hmmmmmm…..

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Rocky-start-to-Caribbean-Airlines-Air-J-marriage

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/CAL-cabin-pressure-failure-still-under-probe

B U’s mention of the year 1962 got my attention on this topic, for Iwas called narrow minded and an Owen basher during a discussion right here in New York once I dared question Barbados’s role in the C S M E. My fear was that we would be expected to shoulder the “mother-load” of responsibility till we we were no longer needed, since experience tells me that for whatever reason the love sent our way from our Caricom partners has always been steeped in disingenuity. The stance of both Jamaica and Trinidad during the quest for W.I Federation maybe forgotten by some ,but still glow vividly in the memory of this mortal being. Tug-a war between Caricom partners has always been as prevalent as marital squabbles,though they differ in consequence ,and may have longer lasting effects on those involved ,this spat simply speaks to the fact that Red Jet represents a threat to an operation that has failed this region since time eternal. Call it Bee Wee . Call it Cal, or simply call it Air Jamaica ,the rightful name is failure. To whom should blame be ascribed? As a boy just twelve years old I stood in Queens Park and listened to my fellow bajans argue that one Bernard Julien was a better alrounder than Garry Sobers(now Sir Garry). Such was the mentality back then . Today forty one years later I say to you “Be not like dumb driven cattle, be a hero in the strife.” Lets all in one voice, Bee as well as Dee tell them that they could kiss BABADOS ASS. Wif or wifout dem WE WILL LIVE.

My “tree cents” is that Freundel Stuart is – by far – the most statesman-like politician I have had the pleasure of seeing in the Caribbean since Dipper. The rest are mere yard fowls of the most useless kind. The man keeps his own counsel, carefully considers his position – and when he opens his mouth what comes out is clear, understandable and makes perfect sense, even to the most uneducated of his citizens.

Unlike Jack Warner, he does not babble nonsense just to make noise or gratuitously make himself look stupid, unlike Kamla he does not display the inability to make decisions, unlike Bruce he is not in anyone’s pocket to do as he is told.

I say we should be providing him with words of encouragement and reasonable (NOT wild) suggestions as to how to proceed, and supporting him in whatever decisions he makes, secure in the knowledge that he is not being told what to do nor is he personally pocketing millions for doing so.

In the matter of Caribbean Airlines, after the recent depressurisation Stuart now has enough material to set in place the same “safety concerns” on Caribbean Airlines (and the TT civil aviation authority), to retract their operating permissions into Barbados, and to suggest to other Caribbean Prime Ministers that they do the same.

Let Caribbean Airlines be banned from all airports in the region (except their lackey Jamaica, of course) for a few months and see how loud they can bawl for murder – and see how fast REDjet gets its permissions in to T&T and Jamaica.

As for Trinidad, they are but a single country among hundreds of countries, they are not gods or the only source for goods coming into Barbados. All of the goods we get from Trinidad are also made – usually of better quality and more cheaply – elsewhere. We seriously don’t need them – although we have come to depend or them. Gather a movement and get Bajan merchants to burn and destroy their Trini products on a huge bonfire one night to announce the start of the abolition from Trinidad slavery and overseas masters.

How we go about divorcing ourselves from the Trinidad bullies is our business… for instance, yes, large supermarkets are owned by them, but if we support the locally owned ones then the local ones will prosper and need moire staff, while the Trinidad owned ones will falter and disappear. Jobs come and go, and jobs such as that cannot be exported, they must remain local.

And so on…

How difficult is it to understand that Bajans will always be “small islanders” to Trinis,Jamaicans and Guyanese.

It is obvious that you can’t negotiate with Trinidad. Still no fishing agreement.
Now no RedJet in Trinidad

.

To our disadvantage sometimes Barbadians love order, to analyze, rationalized apply a value measure etc.

We don’t like chaos or confusion, it is who we are.

How the hell Barbados a little rock in the Caribbean sea whose population could easily fit into a corner of Trinidad gonna play tit-for-tat with Trinidad. Coupled with the fact that Trinidad businessmen controls a large chunk of the economy. People are just getting emotional and talking nonsense about boycotting and de-certifying CAL. With all this talk of national pride, if we had use our free education and build a solid and diversified economy like Hong Kong or Singapore then we could tell our Caribbean cousins to kiss our ass.No, but we continue to think inside the box ,that tourism is the only game in town. To think that Barbados can influence or affect the two big powers in the region is wishful thinking. On the other hand if we were a financial giant on the scale of say Singapore, then our bark would have carry much weight.

@weary baje: “Soft power is what it is called in today’s world.

A “mark” is what it was called in the “olden days”….

Well, it was our own politicians who – despite resistance from their constituents and citizens – “knew better” than the rest of us and have happily sold most of our few acres to foreigners – “for foreign currency”, they say.

Instead of treasuring who we are and what we have, we sell what is ours by birth and happily welcome people from around the world to buy or take our property – so we can be second class citizens in our own country and work for them.

To this day there are still advertisements from realtors in Barbados doing their level best to sell property to expatriates (not to locals) – so that Bajans at home and abroad are priced out of the market and will never be able to afford their own.piece of the rock.

But they say in love and politics you get what you deserve… in the Middle east there is revolution because of corruption and unfairness. Perhaps this may yet spread to this part of the world and we may get rid of all the corrupt yard fowls and thieving parasites who call themselves politicians. But I’m not holding my breath.

The Redjet saga is a prime example of why some businesses never get off the ground (pun intended). The T&T Gov’t owns CAL does anyone think it is in their best interest to license a competitor to operate in their own backyard? That is the cut throat nature of business and until we understand it we are doomed. Locally when any large fast food operator announces that they are expanding into Barbados the owners of Chefette screams at any politician who will listen to them that the proposed entrant should not be given a license to operate. That is part of the cutthroat nature of business

Barbados among other things is known as the “Land of the Flying Fish”, when a few Bajan fishermen entered T&T waters in pursuit of flying fish the T & T Gov’t promptly arrested them and no amount of hand wringing by the B’dos Gov’t or International Court ruling could persuade T & T to change its mind, if any Bajan fisherman enters T & T waters jail is the result.

Meanwhile if I go to a West Indies grocery store in Toronto or Montreal I can be sure that if I purchase a package of frozen Flying Fish the package will read “Product of Tobago”. This is what I mean by the cut throat nature of business T & T arrests Bajan Fishermen and then establishes a Tobago based industry which sells the product that fishermen are chasing.

But Bajans should not bellyache about Redjet; T & T loves us, they really love us why else would they buy one of Barbados major Financial operations? The one that carries the name of Barbados in its title? Why else would T & T buy the major Business conglomerate in Barbados? One that has “Barbados” in its name? Why else would they buy the major newspaper and one of the major radio stations in Barbados? They really love us.

In one of the recent blogs about one of the Credit Unions it was said that they are awash in funds, does anyone think that if that Credit Union or any Bajan entity for that matter decided to cast its net further ashore and purchase any T & T based operation similar to the ones in the preceding paragraph that the T &T Gov’t would approve?

They love us, really they do.