This is excellent stuff by young people to help themselves.

What do you think about the group’s name Ping Pong?

Alvin sounds like our own Yardbroom.

Nobody is saying that there are only bad people. Indeed, the large majority (of Bajans at least) are REALLY nice people….even ac,
…..but it only takes a VERY SMALL percentage of ‘bad’ to contaminate and destroy large volumes of good…

He ever heard that one bad apple can spoil a whole barrel of good ones?
Take a glass 98% full of clean pure water and add 2% of nasty stuff – and go around arguing that all is well since the vast majority is ‘good’.
…that is Alvin’s argument.

The BU gang is seriously concerned about the increasing potency and impact of the 2%, THAT is why we harp on these issues. We are also seriously concerned about those who would tell us not to worry…that things are ‘OK’, .. and that we need not focus on the BAD things….
…we wonder about their agenda, because that is what the “bad boys” tend to advise…..

@ Alvin Cummins | April 18, 2013 at 9:42 PM |
“Say it loud. There are good and progressive young people in the country acknowledge them”

We certainly agree with those sentiments! So let us put our money where our mouths are. Let us start putting more resources at the primary school level.
Would you also back the miller’s clarion call for tablet computers and e-readers to replace the existing textbook should be made available by September 2014 in all schools in Barbados, WIFI and all?
The miller has been making this call for many months now. It seems that it has not fallen on deaf ears. You can expect the educational hijackers would soon be promoting it as their own idea and project.
You see, Alvin, even an old fogey and prophet of doom and gloom can sometimes ‘think outside the box’.

We trust you too would embrace “Change” when it becomes necessary but inimical to the views you hold sacrosanct. Deep in your intellectual rational soul you know that this country can no longer afford to fund free university education in its present format. Would you therefore be prepared to consider a funding model that involves the students contributing, over time, 50% to the cost of a university education using an expanded student loan scheme (details can be fleshed out later)?

It would also be interesting to see if you would take a more modern-day and enlightened view if a “scientific” poll taken of the views of young people indicates that more than two-thirds of them would like to see the use of marijuana decriminalised.
Sorry Alvin, but the old miller just had to rub a little salt in that still open wound of intellectual hypocrisy of yours.

Train up a child in the way that he should go and in his old age, he shall not depart from it.

Children learn by example so it is imperative that they are made to understand that there is a serious responsibility that comes with their edification.

They are to be cyber heroes and not to follow the examples of our Commishoner Doting and become cyber crooks and wire tappers

Commendations to you all.

This ole man just wanted to know if I cud borrow the cybernet that you young people using on April 28 th to tie up Bushie, Onions and Lemuel so I can have an uninterrupted outing with islandgirl246 on the hill

For the time I have spent in Bim ( and i have spent quite alot of it there……..Carson) it is my view that not enough is highlighted by the media in Bim about all the positives done by young people there, and there are alot of positive youths in Barbados. There is an imbalance, the media delightfully and gleefully highlights all the negative done by the youth who are distracted from very young and realize that they get more attention from being bad than from doing positive things. There is enough blame to pass around, but the media in Barbados is particularly culpable in this sad state of affairs.

@ Bush Tea | April 19, 2013 at 8:14 AM |
“As the piece ah rock correctly says, the challenge is to “train up a child in the way it should go….”
As the piece ah rock correctly says, the challenge is to “train up a child in the way it should go….”
…otherwise known as CHARACTER.
….AFTER that is sorted,…. we will see benefits from academics, and from technical resources being provided.
SEEK YE FIRST the important values of life…and all the other things will be added….”

Now how can anyone ever argue against such laudably lofty altruistic idealistic societal values?
Yes it is true that human beings do get their moral knickers in a twist and sometimes seek to place the cart full of their practical worldly day-to-day needs and wants before the unseen moral high horse called “CHARACTER”.
But what should they do when the horse cannot be corralled and broken in? Not forget about the high horse and opt for a lowly donkey or even a convenient cow to take us on the journey called “LIFE”?
The practical challenge of life is the choosing of the many and varied values that compete to make up “CHARACTER”. Whose values system do we choose and apply in forming the character of our young? Do we look to some form of religion to infuse these values and if so, which one?
In a pluralistic social environment how is this choice made where the political system goal is for democratic idealism and enlightenment and where the BBE is a figment of unscientific imagination?
How do you impose a values system on a people with easy access to the Internet and exposed to the various galleries of information that appear in direct conflict to any “right and wrong” moral position and values set?

The Churches in Bim have failed miserably in ‘conditioning’ the family to impart so called proper Christian values in ensuing generations. What makes you feel Character can be instilled by a Papal edict or a Fatwa from the bushman received from some high living BBE?
Isn’t this a case of wanting to go to Heaven but not wanting to die?
While we discuss and argue over which values to choose and implement our young people are put at further tremendous disadvantage in the race to keep up on the Information Highway. Our economic culture and survival require that we are always there or thereabout with the latest developments in the world of international business and finance. Information is the life blood of these economic activities and ICT is the main arteries.
The miller says get with the programme to stay afloat economically or retreat to the hills and join the bush man to live a vicariously natural existence of false green living without the island girl Donville Inniss for distraction or entertainment.

@Niel

Keep a steely focus on the ideals of the organisation. We live in a world nowadays where many take comfort in ‘relativistic’ positions.

@Bush Tea

Surely by your last comment you have disregarded that Niel and his group identify with the counter culture we want to take root?

Bush tea now talk like that generation that mash up Barbados. That raise the young people and now asking how they get so. But it is the dblp fault.

Bushie
You see you. The blog master warn me about pursuing some people on this blog but look you gone and trying to stir me up. But you vex cause Island turn she head in my direction for friendship.

Bush take a survey of the blocks; yes, one or two or three may have some form of critical thinking, but the rest like sheep waiting for the big bad police to come brutalize them and cart them off to jail.

There are many positive aspects of Barbadian culture, and regardless of the foreign invasion of materialism that currently pervades our society, we intend to ensure that the positive aspects of our culture are the ones the the Bridgetown Hub exemplifies. I totally understand and agree with many of the sentiments expressed in this thread, however, there are many young Barbadians who are very progressive and civic-minded. These are the type of individuals we are looking to recruit for the Bridgetown Hub. These are the young people who will be representing Barbados at World Economic Forum events and initiatives all across the globe. No room for the bashment crew! Take a look at our hub activities and see what has been going on thus far. Also take the time out to look at the Shaper profiles as well… http://www.globalshapers.org/hubs/bridgetown

@Niel
Pay no attention to those like Bushie and Lemuel and the other negatives. you folks are on to a good thing. Keep it up. I am an old man now but I am willing to offer my experience and experiences, and my expertise and time at your disposal when i return home shortly. Pay no attention to those who will always say “can’t” but that is too long a word. I prefer the shorter “can” that is how things get done.
Press on regardless.

@David and Miller. First david. If in the face of these positive moves by a group of young people striving to succeed, and you have people like Bushie and Miller “throwing cold water” on their iniative, then they are saying “can’t”. these are the things I look at. Now Miller, Why do you talk about “intellectual hypocrisy” on my part, and think that because a group of young people (even a majority) would want to see the decriminalisation of marijuana that I would endorse it. I would never endorse any use of marijuana becaus I KNOW THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF THIS DRUG, and would always seek to protect the young people, even from themselves. millions of people live each day without smoking or using this drug. Why can’t you and those in favour of this drug follow these examples? You can live without marijuana.I can, even though I have had the opportunity to use it when I studied in Jamaica.Many of my friends could not resist and they are dead now. So never accuse me of hypocrisy.