In is the month of November. It is the month Barbadians celebrate ‘Independence’ from England in 1966. It is the month Barbadians also reflect on the journey travelled in the last 49 years. BU received the following from a well known student of our history. The Truth […]is a defunct newspaper which was operated in…
In is the month of November. It is the month Barbadians celebrate ‘Independence’ from England in 1966. It is the month Barbadians also reflect on the journey travelled in the last 49 years.
BU received the following from a well known student of our history. The Truth […]is a defunct newspaper which was operated in the 60s.
When I read one of Angela Cole’s books, Boys in the Band, some of the players were familiar to me, I also did some research, it’s very clear that the leaders who presented themselves in 1966 might have had some initial good intentions, but the reality is they were clearly manipulated because of their yearning for status, yearning to please the albino lab rats in England, after all, they were allowed to learn the ‘higher educational system’ of evil designed on the island of the british ’empire’, most went to their graves unaware of the manipulations and were so eager to please their masters that it was and still is, shameful and disgraceful.
The corruption started immediately as political independence was attained, the politicians reveled in using the vicious laws the british left them, to practice on their own people, hence those vicious, savage, archaic laws are still in place today, to be used by the current half ass politicians to cover any and every of their crimes against the electorate and they have no intentions of removing those lawsbecause they cover their corrupt asses so well, that is until the information age caught up with them, let’s see how long the politicians continue to hold out. Not one of those antiquated laws have been removed from the statute books in Barbados by black politicians, laws emanating from the late 1600s that kept the black slave an unknowing and unaware slave..
The black leaders ought to take a good look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves who and what they really are………
What am I missing?
Is there more to this post?
Am I to assume that “the truth” could not flourish in Barbados?
Am I also to assume that precious little has changed since we made that declaration?
BTW, did we really declare it or were we just given permission to say we were independent?
@ WW&C
Fully agree. But for the uninitiated, you should specifically mention the Official Secrets Act, the Public Order Act and the lack of a Freedom of Information Act.
Old Baje…..I know you see the irony, for any government reforms to come about, the governments of DBLP has to get rid completely of their british adopted official secrecy acts, reform the public sector act and introduce freedom of information act, just as their masters did in England.
Question is, with the level of corruption’s steady rise between the 2 political parties circa 1966 to present, would they want to, they been talking and talking for years and years….nothing else. Their masters are certainly not going to tell them they should, they are big boys now and should know better.
Maybe if we’re lucky and Stuart is facing almost certain defeat he might decide he wants to leave a legacy and bring in an FOI act and some integrity legislation. I know it’s not likely but it’s something to hope for in these dismal times.
@Ole Baje &Well Well,
You are old enough to know Barbados before Independence. When we negotiated our independence we were not in any position to dictate to the colonial masters. In any negotiation there has to be compromise. Your attitude toward politicians means that whatever was negotiated you would reject, so, Barbados, even witth some of the laws pertaining to the running of the country has still stood us in good stead.What types of information would you require.? In ANY administration, even with freedom of Information laws; like in the U>S< there are still restrictions on what information you can obtain, and if the state feels you should not get certain information you will NOT get it. Similarly with Integrity Legislation, there are always ways of getting around these things,
And Ole Baje; What “dismal times are you talking about? I have not seen any move to restrict people’s freedom, by this government?
Alvin….you got it wrong, yes, the leaders back then, just out of oppression with extreme prejudice practiced by England, did not have the level of intelligence needed to negotiate with England then, quite understandable, ok, so, what about now, political independence 50 years old, they are in charge of their own destiny and those of their own people, or should be………
Exactly what is the excuse for keeping the antiquated laws of England, that England got rid of in their own country, so that they can move forward, laws that are that are successfully stagnating the country Barbados, that allows politicians to commit crimes without punishment, that allows the likes of Canadian scam artist Cow-an to secretly negotiate a contract with the government that is not in the best interest of the island or the people, that now have the ministers of government looking like fools worldwide, that allows the ministers involved to cover their own asses and keep their dirty secrets while the taxpayers remain exposed…….should I continue Alvin. Don’t even try to compare the attitudes od DBLP with other oppressive governments, there are different levels of oppression, but oppression is still oppression.
We are all aware that you grew up in the era that kept dirty secrets and information from the people that impact their lives and could very well destroy their lives, but given the above recent exposure re Cow-an, how well do you think it’s working out for the government now, this is a different era.
Well Well & Consequences November 18, 2015 at 8:59 AM #
And reinforced more so when we look at the last verse of our National Anthem.
” The Lord has been the people’s guide for the past 300 years”
49 Years ago when a 100% black government, in a so-called christian community, accepted these words into our National Anthem, we have in effect, took all blame for the acts of slavery out of the hands of our colonial masters, and placed the responsibility squarely into the hands of the one who guided us, God.
@David
Some of the Truth pages were shared on fb,can you put the link up?
A list of defunct barbados papers/taken from wikipedia
Barbadian
Barbados Agricultural Reporter
Barbados Gazette – Barbados’ first newspaper, established 1731
Barbados Globe & Colonial Advocate
Barbados Mercury
Barbados Recorder
Barbados Standard
Barbados Times
The Beacon
Bridgetown Gazette
The General Intelligence
Caribbean Week
Official Gazette
The Penny Paper
The Penny Paper
Pepper Punch
Saturday Review
The Sentinel
The Small Report
Times
The Torch
Truth
Weekly Illustrated Paper
Weekly Recorder
The West India Magazine
West Indian
and the Truth is many of these periodicals helped to shape barbados political landscape as some periodicals presently are doing /////////nothing has changed expect the faces of the directors and actors have changed
interesting article
Titled Barbados journalist sentenced to six weeks in Prison
Colonel……as it was designed to be by Europe, Cameron stated clearly that he will not accept responsibility and Caribbean people should get over it, yet no one is telling the French that re recent events. We can all ask, so what happened to turning the other cheek, as they wish others to do, as they tried to shove down everyone’s through their fraud bible.. you clearly see the hypocrisy.
Bajan politicians take no responsibility for their action as they have learned from their masters, the antiquated english laws, however, allow them to take and take and take from the people, yet everyone of those jackasses sit and pretend it’s not so…delusional, but, all we have to do is await the next Cow-an, sooner or later it will happen, sooner or later they will get their comeuppance, history and karma are extremely brutal.
Alvin,
You ask, “What kind of information would you require?” For example, the accounts and records of the Transport Board, NHC, CBC, BWA etc. (except for salaries and personnel files) should be available to any journalist who wants to investigate how the PEOPLE’S money is being spent. When a board makes a decision on a tender they should at least release a one page summary of why they chose the winning bid. IT IS NOT THEIR MONEY. We have this notion in Barbados that government is some kind of entity that does not belong to us. What is all the secrecy about, Alvin? Power and control, that’s what.
ac November 18, 2015 at 6:50 PM
Wasn’t there another daily paper,not listed among that lot,which had started up some time in the late 50’s ,early 60’s .Cannot remember the name . It did not last very long. I had a cousin who worked for it, and he went over to the Advocate after it closed down.
The Daily News?
The Barbados Book by Louis Lynch also lists another defunct newspaper “The Observer”
Still here 🙂
@Vincent
Where on Facebook?
@David
Try these links,if not go on the history forum on fb.
https://www.facebook.com/download/993465557384861/The%20Truth%20%201961.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/download/995658107163655/The%20Truth%20Newspaper.%20Controversial%20local%20Newspaper%20%201950s%20%20to%20%20%2060s.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/download/948437351906923/Unfriendly%20Societies.pdf
@David
Some links here,if not working go to History Forum on fb.
https://www.facebook.com/download/948437351906923/Unfriendly%20Societies.pdf
https://www.facebook.com/download/993465557384861/The%20Truth%20%201961.pdf
The Truth being that many of barbados “journalist”plays the part.
Very few if any does the “job” of what the profession requires
Some of them are wimps who generalise in their commentary and the worse part is that many of them prefer to be anchored to a political party rather than be wholesale advocates for the people
@ Old Baje:
Every year the annual estimates of revenue and expenditure are laid in the House. The copy of expenditure details the EXPENDITURE (down to the last cent) in the previous year. The estimates of Revenue likewise, with regard to REVENUE. Any person can go to the Government printery, and PURCHASE (don’t expect to get it free) a copy of this book. The Government Printery is located in the building before and slightly to the rear of Government Headquarters on Bay street. Copies of the official Gazette and any bills passed in the House and Gazetted can also be obtained there.
Persons can also be put on the mailing list for the Gazette’ not sure if it is on e-mail yet.
Things are not as secret as people (Well Well) would have other people believe. Investigate and find out. The information is
there.
@David,
A very good magazine was The Bajan published by The Advocate and edited by Val Gale and later by Ian Gale. Very good; BU should go to the Archives and look into publishing (Subject to compliance with copyright regulations) articles from time to time.
@Alvin
Do you appreciate that BU is an anonymous blog? Why can’t member of the BU family do it and email the scans?
Also do you know The Estimates are posted online for free?
Alvin….I have personally obtained legal information from the government printery. Unfortunately we cannot go to the government printery and get information on the Cow-an scam, 4 seasons scam, etc.
@David,
I was not aware that the estimates are posted on-line. I thus do not understand why members of the BU family would have to copy and e-mail the scans. Almost every Bajan has access to the computer and thus could access on their own.The official Gazette may also be on line. Anyhow the salient point is that the information is getable. Well
well should thus have no complaints.
Btw Well well, I find you very condescending and even presumptuous.
Why do you say”… did not have the level of intelligence needed to negotiate with England …” By the time our leaders; negotiated with the English, they had as much or better education than their counterparts.It was easier, less costly and so on, to bring over the laws, and then repeal should the need or occasion arise, than to undertake to write completely new laws.
@Alvin
NO the Official Gazette is not online.
On 19 November 2015 at 23:39, Barbados Underground wrote:
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@Well Well,
What is the matter with you? Do you know the genesis of the Four Season’s “scam”.? It began as a PRIVATE SECTOR initiative. Government (BLP) had Nothing to do with it. Absolutely nothing!A chap by the name of PEMBERTON and others conceptualized it and put the “scam” in place.Private people were involved. Government got involved when the large number of Barbadians hired became disenfranchised. Check out the private investors; check out the Chinese workers brought in, etc. In other words learn the history of the investment. The WTE exercise is not yet completed wait and don’t be premature. You like to sentence without knowing the full details, the full list of players and without all the evidence. You would have a terrible record even as a physician, if you prescribed medicine without a full examination of the patient.
Alvin….it had nothing to do with level of education….it was the level of intelligence needed to match the deceitfulness of the colonial masters the viciousness and raw cruelty that would have been needed. Do you think Errol was prepared or armed with that type of intelligence in 1966. Hell, the ministers in Barbados are still not armed with it in 2015.
BTW…..I was sincere when I said you should use your time wisely to help the people on the island find a more cost effective way to obtainsolar panels for energy instead of consistently having their eyes gouged out by the greedy business people on the island.
Alvin….you are not ready for me yet.
Alvin….I know all the players, and just as you know it was a scam, with all the known scam artists on the island involved, the government also knows it was a scam and had no right obtaining any loan using taxpayers funds or retirement funds as collateral, not even as a promise.
8 hrs ·
Shared from Photos app – 1 photo This is the type of housing most black Bajans and some poor Bakras were living in. Some were in worst condition. We will try to trace how in this discussion how this housing change not only with economic fortune, but by the innovative actions of carpenters, masons and owners themselves.
Emancipation the African Bajans was long in coming but whereas in Antigua, Emancipation meant immediate freedom, in Barbados and most of the Caribbean, black…
A picture is worth a thousand words , However it depends on what we see.
1 hr ·
An aging beauty exposing her everything. A hip roof with louvered windows. Note the jealousies/flaps providing additional ventilation to the bedrooms. Not the low but solid softsone foundation. Not the louvered front door. Unpainted at its origin, it remains a solid example of the evolution to the Chattel House.
@Well Well,
Why do you think that people like Errol Barrow who spent many years before and after the second world war living and studying in England, would not have the intelligence to deal with them? Do you have the trust of the ability of anyone else, but yourself to make the right decisions in anything? What would you have recommended to be done with the workers?What should have been the role of government in the circumstances?
what a history covering the bases would take a lifetime of research, the present generation cannot apply their knoweldge and understanding to appreciate what a long journey and hard work it has been in order for barbadians to come from stick window i,e having sticks to keep open windows to enjoying the luxury of open glass windows
Thanks David. The Chattel house reminds me of the first house I lived in.
Thank Elombe Hants. We so easily forget our history as a Black people.
>
Thanks to Elombe.
I also should thank him for introducing some of us to Blues and Jazz at Kolij in the sixties.
The unpainted interiors of some of the chattel houses may have been better for the occupants than those that were painted.
Paints were “toxic” in those days but as we progressed paint and varnish was used extensively.
Alvin….you continue to equate education with intelligence……the intelligencev speak of is compiled information to deal with a very informed and brutal adversary. Because Errol went to uni in England and rubbed elbows with that bunch there and during the war, it in no way means he was capable of dealing with the advanced level of deviousness that was practiced and refined for centuries by people skilled enough in the area of deception to carry on a slave trade for centuries. Stop equating education with intelligence and you will get my point, they are not one and the same.
Alvin….you are working me hard, next time, payment.
I always liked Elombe and his level of consciousness.
Hants November 21, 2015 at 9:57 PM #
Actually I can recall when the interior of a house was freshly painted, a large tub of water was placed in the house, to trap some of the toxic emissions , while the occupants were asleep. Next morning that water was covered in an oily substance.
@Habts,
Red Lead was used as a base for many paints, and also for mixing putty, used widely to seal holes, and spaces between boards prior to painting. Red Kead affected the nervous system.Georgie Porgie can enlighten us on the neurological effects of Red Lead.
Well Well,
Don’t forget the EWB, Eric Williams, Lee Kwan Nyue, Forbes Turnham, and Nkrumah, were all contemporaries, studied together, at the London School of Economics, and all sought independence for their countries around the same time. They were all blessed with the intelligence you are talking about, and attained the same results. Have to send you a copy of my play: JaJa King of Opobo. In th 1870’s Jaja from Nigeria understood the machinations of the British, that is why he did not agree to the Berlin treaty, would not sign it and was exiled to the Caribbean, including Barbados. Read. As long as you associate with me I will make you work hard.
Sorry, Typos.
“Don’t forget that EWB. Forbes Burnham.
Alvin…..you are still unable to explain to me the lack of intelligence in the present lot of government ministers and their inability to stamp out greed, corruption, prevent the Cow-an/Cahill scam, fix the supreme court, implemment integrity legislation, rein in Bjerham, Tempro and all the other parasites, pay the clico policyholders because of Parris’ and Thompsons’ scam etc etc and too numerous to mention.
Lock up or bring in outside agencies to lock up the indians and syrians, business people who have been laundering money and trafficing in guns and drugs for over 40 years in Barbados, the younger ones still alive who are offsprings of the dead or aged ones, they are continuing the same criminal activites. All with the knowledge of the politicians and police force.
If Africa countries can get their houses in order, where is the intelligence in your ministers to do the same…..eh Alvin
What happen Alvin….cat got your tongue. Thought you wanted to work me hard, just like your fellow yardfowl got it in her empty head to dare me.
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