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Pandemic and Prices

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Submitted by Wayne Cadogan

Good Morning David, I know that it has been a  while I haven’t submitted anything, but I thought that I should make a contribution and this short article was not a bad topic to start. If it is possible to be printed in any form to get the message out, I would appreciate it. Thanks.

price gouging

Someone sent me this receipt last night on WhatsApp and I thought that I should share it with the public. This is highway robbery, price gouging, stealing from the poor. This is one of the reasons that Barbados needs to have a strong consumer protection agency to fight for and protect the vulnerable from being taken advantage of by some of these unscrupulous business establishments of the poor who are the ones that usually feel the brunt of such exploitation. Barbadians need to boycott these businesses that infringe on the laws and taking advantage of the less fortunate. What is really amusing is the fact that they say ” Thanks, come again”.

 

Wake up Barbadians.

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205 responses to “Pandemic and Prices”

  1. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Greene
    @ Hal
    This argument against co-education, has no place in the modern society. There is no empirical evidence. A lot of anti coed proponents are trapped in a deep seated anti- feminist position that always seed the elevation of women as a direct threat to their manhood.
    I will continue to argue that the systematic emasculation oof the black man , going back to slavery , and still evident today, is the main problem.
    When women were barefoot with two children and totally dependent on the male; we thought that would never change.
    I recall big hard black men arguing that female teachers , were making boys “sissies”. I am prepared for a long discussion on this anti-coed position which I find completely insulting to our women and girls who choose to be more disciplined; more focus than young black men, who yo this day. believe that being village rams and following negative life styles are the way out.
    It’s sad that within our black culture, we have chosen to mimic nonsense emanating , from within societies that would once more enslave us if they had the chance. I consider it very seriously, being nothing more than a vain attempt to castigate our women and women in particular by claiming that they are nothing more than a destraction.

  2. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ William

    There is an abundance of empirical evidence, at least in the UK. That was the reason for reorganising our GCSEs. But girls/females still outperform boys/males, ALL OVER THE WORLD. Men remain in power not because of brains, but power. That is political.
    Some time ago I gave a speech for the Commonwealth Secretariat in Barbados on this very subject and detailed it then. It was shortly before David Thompson died when the Commonwealth Secretariat met in Barbados.
    Even the Saudis have created a women’s university of technology.
    In Britain, it is very unusual to find male primary school teachers, and increasingly even in secondary schools. In universities the ratio is falling. What is not falling is the ratio of female professors to male ie the power relations..
    @William, even within families. Talk to black UK parents about the performance of their male and females children and the pipeline from school to prison. It is a serious problem. Campaigners have mistakingly associated this with gender equality.
    It is nothing about making boys ‘sissies’. I suggest you read Professor Sarah-Jane Blakemore on the subject of the development of teenage brains..
    Girls do better than boys with modular work (assessments); boys do better when it comes to cramming and sitting exams, at least at that level.
    Former Tory education minister Michael Gove, not normally a nice man, spotted the differences and changed the system. Boys are now doing much better. Sadly, this year we will not see the latest figures because exams have been cancelled and GCSEs will be awarded on teachers’ assessments. I await the outcome.

  3. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Hal
    This is a debate in which I have been engaged on and off for the better part of forty plus years. Many of these studies are only useful to the societies from which they emanate. That’s why I do not support organizations in our country like MENSA. Any study that undermines black unity , I read with great suspicion. I will now give you two examples of societal change that really had nothing to do with the black experience but we got drawn into:
    1. Frustrated corporate white women in America ; fed up with the neglect from their corporate husbands and generally bored decadent lifestyles, started to burn bras and our women found themselves fighting for something that had nothing to do with us. Almost sixty years later our women are still a rarity at the top of corporate America and black women’s wages in America are still greatly lower than white women.
    2. Back in the late sixties white boys fed up with their parents especially fathers drifted into drug cultures, debased living declaring themselves hippies , beat niks etc. Again many young black men joined that culture. Today, we can count real heavy black corporate powerhouses on one finger.
    The white boys are now the grandfathers of all the white billionaires.
    And my Comrade, this extends to thus coed fallacy. Black men do not want to teach that is our problem. Even going back to our primary school days , we always put female teachers in charge of infants. They caught hell to become head teachers. In time all of that changed.
    Rich little English boys in boarding school being taught how superior they are and white little English girls in private boarding schools being taught how to attract the appropriate husband have nothing to do with me. If they can’t exist in a coed facility that’s their problem.
    Once more we are following people who have nothing in common with our culture or social development. Some fish try their best not to get caught. Others seem to go looking for bait.

  4. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ William

    I experienced the student movement in the UK. I can tell stories about it, including the rise of Branson, his magazine, Student, the rise of Virgin records and his battle with the Trinidadian Clarke brothers. And everything you have said about bra burners and hippies is true.
    We have got to clear our own path and drop imported nonsensical ideologies, such as comprehensive education. Throughout the 1960s, 70s, and 80s the battle grounds for black people in the UK were the criminal justice system and education.
    Have you heard about schools for the educational sub-normal? Of state enrolled nurses? That black men (women were not allowed to drive buses then) could not drive buses on London streets for mental reasons? That black people could not be youth leaders?
    Racism is not just calling a black person by the N word, it is expressed in all sorts of ways, covered by bogus social and natural scientific theories. Listen to the arguments about why a higher proportion of black and other ethnic people are more likely to be victims of CoVid. New situation, sale arguments – and some of the biggest advocates are black people themselves.
    The real pain is when you come to a black-majority country and see the same arguments being used, only this time some mentally defective black person with a law degree or PhD is saying it. Learning by rote is dangerous to our people.

  5. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @ WS,

    in addition to what Hal said about the evidence in the UK, there are enuff schools to satisfy the educational needs of girls in Bim. the issue isnt about the emasculation of men it is about the impact girls in close quarters have on boys during puberty.

    i saw it with my own eyes- boys who used to play cricket and football at lunch time, stopped playing becos they didnt want to get sweaty becos of girls. and manly topics discussed with male teachers couldnt happen becos of the presence of girls.

    at one point Cawmere had to get together with Ellerslie to field a cricket team and more recently Cawmere couldnt even field a school cadet corp. imagine that?

  6. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Greene

    Is it that bad? Combermere used to be the feeder school for the Barbados team.

  7. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @Hal,

    quote] The real pain is when you come to a black-majority country and see the same arguments being used, only this time some mentally defective black person with a law degree or PhD is saying it. Learning by rote is dangerous to our people.[ unquote

    that is the most painful cut of them all. i have no tolerance for that and cant understand how black people accept such things.

    optics is everything and when we post stock pictures of criminals as blacks and successful people as whites we perpetuate the nonsense without seemingly knowing it

  8. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @Hal.

    not now re cricket, that was years ago but the lack of or a dwindled cadet corp is recent. we are making efforts thru the old scholars going back to the school to encourage student participation, to remedy that. i believe Caswell is involved in that effort

  9. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    man shot dead in the orleans?

  10. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Greene

    “i saw it with my own eyes- boys who used to play cricket and football at lunch time, stopped playing becos they didnt want to get sweaty becos of girls. and manly topics discussed with male teachers couldnt happen becos of the presence of girls.

    at one point Cawmere had to get together with Ellerslie to field a cricket team and more recently Cawmere couldnt even field a school cadet corp. imagine that?“(Quote)

    Did you talk to the boys? Do you read the sports pages of our newspapers? There are dozens of youngsters not only playing cricket but scoring double centuries. You need to realise the impact of television and now hand held computers. You seem to ignore the effect of people such as Michael Jordan and LeBaron James on our youth.
    I am virtually an outsider here because I can’t understand American Football! I pay for a cricket channel but don’t watch it because of the poor level of our West Indies cricketers. I then go to cricket here and witness Caribbean men watching and familiar with Asian and other players.
    @ Hal can tell you. Youngsters like him and myself , donkey years before we even dreamt of leaving the homeland, were educated about the coming “ cultural penetration”. It came it is here . Barbados is no longer Little England. It is little Brooklyn. It’s not the land of Sir Garry. It’s the land of LeBaron James! Forty years ago, to eat anything off a Grill you had to find a hotel restaurant. Everybody has a Grill now. Barbadians don’t get on Liat and head to the islands for a vacation. We go on the QE 2 to the Baltic or wherever.
    So don’t come telling me about boys sweating and intimidated by girls. Brother man it took you and I about ten years it seemed to hold a girl hand. Today we have friends with benefit and cell phones if our nude school girl selfies.
    I went to school at the Modern High. Fully coed. I am yet to meet the species known as a weak female. And I am yet to meet one single boy from that time who refused to play table tennis and sweat because he was afraid it would offend a girl.
    It is cultural penetration my Brother not sweaty clothes.

  11. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @WS,

    okay mate. lets agree to disagree on that

    as an aside, black bajans killing each other during a pandemic is too much to understand right now

  12. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ William

    Louis Lynch had a good model there. I remember people like Patsy Callender, Orlando Mason and other outstanding athletes – and scholars. I know of one old boy who became a political science professor and another boy who became a doctor and an army of nurses.
    My only complaint about the Modern is that some of the boys used to turn down the top of their socks (the red rings) and people automatically thought they were Combermerians. My younger sister went to the Modern.

  13. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    @William, I’ll pick up on your points to join …I agree with you that “This argument against co-education, has no place in the modern society”…. The debate as stated above has lots of studies to support one side or other so its futile to consider we’ll get a solution here.

    However, in simply terms it seems inconceivable to me that we will give boys (our selves in youth) the excuse that they can’t handle their hormones as they move through puberty rather than train and guide them to do just that… or as you stated that it is “completely insulting to our women and girls who choose to be more disciplined; more focus than young black men, who [to] this day. believe that being village rams and following negative life styles are the way out.” SPOT ON, as they say.

    In this area you are making the argument that we have to embrace societal changes and aggressively cut our own path to the best way forward but then you markedly shift backward to a stance that pushes back on just that adaptation and unavoidable societal change… I speak of your references to the basketball influence and that changing dynamic from ‘lil England’ to ‘lil Brooklyn.

    Fundamentally, what exactly is wrong with that. As long as change creates a positive impact on society then it should be welcomed and mimicked as best as possible … we certainly didn’t take on all the trappings of England in our guise as the little wanna-be and we surely will not embrace all the Americanisms either.

    I loved Dr. J and too Pele… but of course the WI were a dominant force as the years progressed so my love for cricket was still paramount. Lebron and Kobe and Mike and Messi as beyond larger than life now and but yet there is a Chris Gayle, an Andre Russel or a Jason Holder to excite any young fan… thus I see no greater harm now that previously… we will go where our fanaticism takes us.

    @Brother Greene why did you cite that Ellerslie/Combermere cricket team matter and then by your own admission note that was a long time ago???? I smiled broadly at your anecdotes.

    I may have my timelines a bit off but being as a member of a BCA committee back in the day I came into contact the former CFO of the then C&W (a former Combermerian he had said and whose name defeats me now) who on his retirement had led the project to install a top level (for a Bajan high school) cricket nets/facility at Waterford and under the coaching of Roddy Estwick (the recent WI team Asst. Coach) aimed to do what blogger Austin referenced: make that school again a feeder school for the Barbados team. As things progressed he succeeded mightily, it seems!

    I say all that senor to highlight that your anecdote did not paint a ‘true picture’… Yes, coed caused havoc at schools across the system but as things settled it became a case of adapting to the ‘new normal’ and effectively managing that reality.

    On the cadet issue: I have lots of friends who are cadets and at one point kept in contact from time to time with the then BDF Cadet Commander so I say this about your remark that “Cawmere couldn’t even field a school cadet corp’: More than 10 years ago the Cadet Corps (overall) had problems providing uniforms for new recruits … all cadets always got ‘free’ gear in my day … whereas as a scout we had to buy ALL of ours… so that was a eye brow raising situation!

    I have NO IDEA what is the cadet corps status quo now but I would surmise that the lack of interest is based on a LOT of extraneous stuff … in addition to the student apathy!

    And as far as I recall that lawyer Ms Greene featured above in the ‘bad lawyers section’ was a cadet at your alma mater… and several female BDF officers were former cadets from Lodge, Kolig and Combermere … thus getting a company to its full strength should have little or nothing to do with coed!

    Just saying!

  14. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    i can argue that adaptation is not always for the better but just to conform with the present situation. Hal has highlighted the studies in the UK. when Billie introduced co ed to the older sec with Cawmere as the guinea pig lots of studies from the said UK were used to show that girls were at a disadvantage as to the amount and type of sec schools they could attend and traditionally boys enjoyed the advantage.

    and yes you are correct re Ellerslie- it was a point in time and it took us a lot of years and some thought to get our cricket back up to scratch.

    re the cadets- boys tend to follow boys and when they are not the numbers in the school – there are more girls at Cawmere than boys- you will get apathy (your word). how could Cawmere move from a boys school to having more girls than boys? that is rank nonsense.

    QC, Girls Foundation, Alexander, Alleyne (traditionally Co-ed) and St Michaels are more than enough to take care of the educational needs of girls.

    if coed was so vital and important why did they leave St Leonard boys and Springer single sex?

  15. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    @Greene maybe someone or many folks started all this coed folly to neuter the traditions and ‘esprit de corps’ of your alma mater… who knows!

    Your remark “how could Cawmere move from a boys school to having more girls than boys? that is rank nonsense” is spoken as a true champion of your old boys school – although I would have to suspect that you entered there for the period you spent when that school was either fully coed or well on its way .

    Alas, things change and as wrenching as they are … it’s unlikely we will ever revert.

    Women in a combat role in the military was once considered absolutely unthinkable… just recently in US a female became the first to pass all the rigorous tests to qualify as a SEAL!

    Life changes and what once seemed not applicable or adaptable slowly has to be accepted as the ‘new normal’ … unless of course we can unleash some awesome reactionary trumpian style force.

    Life!

  16. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    now

    Like

    Hal Austin April 26, 2020 11:16 AM

    @ William

    “Louis Lynch had a good model there. I remember people like Patsy Callender, Orlando Mason and other outstanding athletes – and scholars. I know of one old boy who became a political science professor and another boy who became a doctor and an army of nurses.
    My only complaint about the Modern is that some of the boys used to turn down the top of their socks (the red rings) and people automatically thought they were Combermerians. My younger sister went to the Modern.“ (Quote)

    Hal, that is a low blow (lol) . At least we had the prettiest girls. You at that time had none! Apparently you have never been able to overcome that advantage the MHS. Peace (lol)

    @ DPD
    “ I loved Dr. J and too Pele… but of course the WI were a dominant force as the years progressed so my love for cricket was still paramount. Lebron and Kobe and Mike and Messi as beyond larger than life now and but yet there is a Chris Gayle, an Andre Russel or a Jason Holder to excite any young fan… thus I see no greater harm now that previously… we will go where our fanaticism takes us.“(Quote)

    Your point is well put and well taken.

  17. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ DPD
    Perhaps we men need to accept that we are indeed the weaker sex, who our gallant women have always protected . Once we accept that we are as ignorant before as we are after puberty, we would be better off.
    I don’t know if @Greene can swallow such a bitter pill. (Lol)

  18. Silly Woman Avatar
    Silly Woman

    @William Skinner April 26, 2020 8:09 AM “I will continue to argue that the systematic emasculation oof the black man , going back to slavery , and still evident today, is the main problem.”

    And it has NEVER been black women who sought to emasculate black men. It has NEVER been in our mutual interest to do so.

  19. Silly Woman Avatar
    Silly Woman

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/the-19-countries-with-the-highest-ratio-of-women-to-men-in-higher-education-a6743976.html
    November 2015. A bit old, but…

    “There are more than 100 countries in the world where women outnumber men in tertiary education, but we’ve decided to take a look at the states where women enjoy the biggest advantage over their male classmates. The ranking is calculated by looking at the nations surveyed by WEF who have the highest female to male ratio.

    PANAMA — 53% of women in the country go into tertiary education. Compare that to just 34% of men, and you can see why Panamanian women have a big advantage over their male counterparts.
    ARGENTINA — A massive 98% of Argentine women have some form of tertiary education, more than one and a half times the number of men. The country also ranked very highly in the WEF’s female political power rankings.
    SRI LANKA — The WEF listed Sri Lanka as the 84th most gender equal country, but its education system ranked much higher. While only 23% of women enter further education, they are far better educated than men, outnumbering them by 1.6 to 1 in tertiary education institutions.
    DOMINICAN REPUBLIC — The first of many Caribbean nations where women are better educated than men. 57% of ladies in the Dominican Republic go into tertiary education, compared to just 36% of men.
    KYRGYZSTAN — The Central Asian republic may not be one of the world’s most well known countries, but proportionally speaking its women are some of the best educated in the world. The ratio of women-to-men in tertiary education is 1.61.
    TUNISIA — Fewer than half of female Tunisians, just 42%, go into tertiary education, but the ratio of women continuing schooling compared to men is 1.62.
    CUBA — 60% of female Cubans continue their education once school is over in the most populous state in the Caribbean.
    BELIZE — Another nation with a small population where women are far better educated than men. Women outnumber men by 1.68 times in tertiary education.
    VENEZUELA — Venezuela’s economy may be struggling, with people unable to afford toilet paper, but a huge proportion of its female citizens go into tertiary education – a cumulative 99%, compared to 58% of men.
    SURINAME — A pretty small number of women, just 15%, go into higher education in the former Dutch colony, but this is way higher than the 9% of men who do.
    ICELAND — As well as topping the WEF’s overall Gender Gap Index, Icelandic women are also some of the best educated on the planet, and outnumber men by 1.72 to one in further education.
    URUGUAY — 80% of all women in Uruguay go into further education, a ratio of 1.73.
    BRUNEI DARUSSALAM — Brunei is often cited as one of the wealthiest countries on earth, but it also has some of the best educated female citizens. They outnumber their male counterparts 33% to 18% in tertiary education institutions.
    GUYANA — Guyana has relatively low levels of education for both sexes, and only 18% of females go into further or higher education. But that’s still more than twice the number of men continuing their education after school.
    BAHRAIN — Women in the island nation in the Arabian Gulf are far better educated than men in their country. The ratio of women to men going into tertiary education is 2.18.
    KUWAIT — Another middle eastern nation where women have a better education than men. 41% of Kuwaiti females attend tertiary education institutions, compared to just 18% of men.
    JAMAICA — Around 40% of Jamaican women go into tertiary education, 2.29 times more than the number of men going to universities and colleges.
    BARBADOS — A huge 88% of Barbadian women are in higher or further education, outnumbering men by nearly two and a half times. The Caribbean nation has two universities despite having a population of less than 300,000.
    QATAR — Qatar officially has a higher proportion of female students than anywhere else on earth. The ratio of women to men is a staggering 6.66, even though just 44% of women are in further education.”

    Women spend a lot of time looking after MEN’s children. If men spent as much time looking after WOMEN’s children, where would men be? If women did not do so much child care they would likely outdo men in everything–and this is not to emasculate men–but the truth is women are more intelligent, more competent, than men.

    And I love men, but I don’t fool myself that they are as intelligent, as competent as they think they are.

  20. David Avatar
    David

    @Simple Simon

    Now that you have relieved yourself of supporting the view a female is as intelligent as the male, how does it make contact with concern raised by the author?

    #askingforafriend

  21. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    @Skinner, the other problem (major) with your 1:16 PM is the fact that the good Lord in his wisdom created man..FIRST… thus elevating him to the pinnacle as supposedly the stronger!

    The fact that even then Adam as everyman instilled that “ignorant” tendency to be lured by the willy nature of the female quite firmly makes your point that as we are indeed the *”weaker (mentally) who our gallant women have always protected”, lured, bamboozled and cuckolded when we thought we are the ascendant one… thus we resort to grave abuse, ritual killings and more to reinforce our supposed superiority.

    I may accept your reasoning completely but that’s a bridge much too far to cross … and not only for @Greene!

  22. Silly Woman Avatar
    Silly Woman

    @Greene April 26, 2020 9:21 AM “more recently Cawmere couldnt even field a school cadet corp. imagine that?”

    Combermere has 400+ boys. Each boy has a father, most have 2 grandfathers, and many, many have uncles and other male relatives.

    And that more than 1,000 boys and men can’t field a cadet corp?

    Don’t blame that on any woman.

    The boys, male teachers, daddies etc. have to pull themselves together, because it in in their own best interest to do so.

  23. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    “And it has NEVER been black women who sought to emasculate black men. It has NEVER been in our mutual interest to do so.” Quote

    You are more than correct.

  24. Silly Woman Avatar
    Silly Woman

    I am very glad that when I entered my rural mixed gender elementary school way, way back in 1957 the head and the deputy head were both women.

    At my secondary school–all girls unfortunately–both the head and deputy were women.

    So female leadership was normalised for me at an early, early age.

    I did not realise that this was not the norm.

  25. Silly Woman Avatar
    Silly Woman

    Have any of the men at BU ever know any woman who burned her bra?

  26. Silly Woman Avatar
    Silly Woman

    @Greene April 26, 2020 10:21 AM “man shot dead in the orleans?”

    By another man of course.

    We black women do not seek to harm black men.

  27. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @WS

    i can accept that pill if it leads to Cawmere being returned to a boys school- that is all i ask man.

    Boys must have a safe place where they can be boys and grow into manhood

  28. Silly Woman Avatar
    Silly Woman

    @David April 26, 2020 1:47 PM

    Dear David:

    I joined in the discussion, because I never know how expressing my view may make a difference.

  29. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    Mr David Blogmaster I offer that this discourse of males and females links directly to the author’s concerns on the price gouging.

    Either a woman DID NOT buy those items as she would be more astute on pricing … A woman did buy them because her indifferent partner had not assisted her properly to allow her to get the foodstuffs at the supermarket and she was then forced to get those exorbitant items to feed the family

    Or of course it was a guy who just wlly-nilly waltzed in and picked them up and when he showed his partner the bill she went ballistic … Or … Either way it absolutely fits with the male-female dynamic I am positive. 🙂

    But BTW, I didn’t comment on your 4:41 AM post of the Nation article as it appeared that Sol HQ could price whatever they wanted to you according to the brief article… another blogger had already noted that the Minister had suitably “frowned” and that was that.

    Then the Director of Consumer Affairs said in effect that it was all the fault of errant systems at the SOL HQ and after drawing to their attention that all was updated and that he and his officers were “satisfied”. CASE CLOSED.

    So wha more on that bro

  30. David Avatar
    David

    @Simple Simon

    The comment from the blogmaster was made to but to everyone. Mr. Cadogan felt moved to submit his concern and some big hard back people felt to show disrespect. The blogmaster used the word disrespect because there is another blog sitting high on the front page where a little judgement could have been used.

    The indiscipline and attitude demonstrated daily on BU is symptomatic of societal issues anyway, why bother.

  31. David Avatar
    David

    @Dee Word

    Seriously that is the best you can do?

    You win.

  32. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ de pedantic Dribbler

    I’ve heard the argument re: “boys who used to play cricket and football at lunch time, stopped playing becos they didnt want to get sweaty becos of girls,” on several occasions.

    I also “smiled broadly,” when he tried to juxtapose the argument with re: “at one point Cawmere had to get together with Ellerslie to field a cricket team.”

    Ellerslie presently has cricket, football and hockey teams At lunch time and after school, boys can be seen playing or practicing cricket and football on a daily basis….. but, more so during the individual sporting seasons.

    It is interesting to note over the years, in addition to footballers, Ellerslie produced several outstanding cricketers that represented the school, Barbados and the WI at the youth and senior levels; played for the ‘combined schools’ and 1st division clubs at the domestic level…….

    ……………… and CONTINUES to do so.

    What is even MORE interesting is the fact that, whereas ‘Cawmere’ has been blessed with ‘good’ cricket coaches, Ellerslie’s success came as a result of Irvine “Harpoon” Harris, who coached the cricket teams for several years and whose only skill was that LOVED the game, (the school’s pavillion is named after him)……… and, without any other coach as significant as Roddy Estwick, succeeding him. Then, the ‘old boys’ ‘used go back on evenings to do ‘a thing or two’ with the youngsters.

    What does this ‘tell’ you?

    That ‘saying’ boys “stopped playing becos they didn’t want to get sweaty becos of girls,” is nonsense…. or is it a ‘Cawmere’ thing?

    Ellerslie also has a vibrant cadet corp.

    Couldn’t the progressive decline in discipline in the society, be a contributing factor to the reluctance of youngsters joining organisations, such as the cadet corp, where discipline is of the utmost importance?

    For example, we have a situation in Barbados where, since the last two batches of 50 recruits in 1984/85, RBPF has been experiencing difficulties in recruiting police officers, especially males.

  33. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Even the Saudis have created a women’s university of technology.
    +++++++++++++++++
    So the Saudi’s are exemplars of women’s empowerment? The Saudis have their own reasons for separating men from women and it has everything to do with religion, how long have women been able to get drivers licenses in SA?

    Just an observation, the debate about single sex schools is being championed by men who are products of that environment and seem to want to bring back the “good old days”.

    The past is never dead it’s not even past (Faulkner)

  34. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @Sargeant

    No. It states: even the Saudis….So the Saudis are exemplars of omen’s empowerment….(Quote). I think it is a different understanding of the English language. The whole world knows about Saudis and women.
    Plse state in simple language how you interpreted that phrase.

  35. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    LOL…actually David I could have done a bit more. You know I sit in this coldish land (getting warmer now) so I could have spoken to the fact that a sandwich loaf of whole wheat which I purchased at BDS$3.38 SHOT UP to $3.98 basically overfreakingnight… or that eggs which you guys also complained about went from Bds $0.12/$0.15 each to $0.24/ $036 depending on type-size

    That was still a 17% and 200% increase on those two basic commodities …so although not the Bds1.00 ea on eggs yet sometimes you guys write as if you live in make-believe never-land or something so I temper my remarks …

    Price increases are rampant at the moment and sometimes it borders on gouging to a level of scandalously outrageous … governments can legislate and interdict in the latter case (as they have done with some folks up-selling cleaning and protective supplies) but generally the more casual price increases are NOT breaking any laws and not much can be done.

    I was pissed by my price increases but it’s long days now since I went in the back yard and took one or three eggs from the broiler pens we had … so I have to scream and buy them if I want eggs… I stopped eating corn-beef eons ago, however, so that’s definitively not in my basket!

    So yes bro seriously I could do a lot better 🙂 … Lata

    @Artax, to echo the Blogmaster previously: your school mate @Greene means well… his heart is in the right place, generally!

  36. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @ DPD,

    lol. man you dun know Artax, my former campaign manager, never really addressed anything i said.

    he just vexed becos i fired him for Hal

    still my mate tho

    didnt know he was a fellow Cawmerian? if he is i am not surprised

  37. curley16 Avatar
    curley16

    William Skinner@7:25 25th April.
    Timothy Callender was a former member of the Callender’s Clan form Monroe Village in St. George not ftom the city.There were other exceptional talents from this family too. I can conclude that they were all attached to the St. Barnabas Chapel reasons why his attendance at St Giles Boys.

  38. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Curley 16
    I wrote:
    “We have nothing but cosmetic appreciation for our artistes. Just look at where many of them came from: the city environs that were despised. Where is the bio on Timothy Callender; where is the real locally written bio on Sir Garry Sobers ? Who will undertake to write Gabby’s bio?“

    Thanks for the information. I said many artistes came from the city, never intended to mean that included Timothy Callender. Bad writing.
    For eg: I know where Sir Garry come from. I think Gabby come from the city .
    Ironically Sir Garry ‘s family home was once in the constituency of St. Michael South and then it found itself in the City constituency , much to the distress of a pal of mine (lol)

  39. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ William

    Tim came from St George? Maybe he came from the Callender clan from St George, as was pointed out. But that is the anthropology of Barbadian families. At Combermere the St George boys stuck together like the Mafia. Tim was not part of that group. I am in occasional ontact with one of those boys even now.
    After the abolition of slavery families came down from St John (the Bree St John clan), St Phillip (the Hal Austin clan), Christ Church, to places like Carrington Village, Bay Land, Licorish Village, the Ivy, Haggatt Hall, Mapp Hill, etc. and most importantly, the City.
    In the North people came in from St Lucy, St Joseph, St Andrew, etc and settled in places like Eagle Hall, Bank Hall, Bush Hall, Spooners Hill, Black Rock, etc. They crowded in to the City or as close as possible. This is a case for heritage tourism – but the records must be made available for people to search, not as is the present system.
    One problem with a little island that depends on oral history is that after three, at most four, generations, with marriages and relocations, we lose track of our family.
    It has been worse since the 1960s with that big wave of immigration to Europe and North America. Sometimes people have brother and sisters, nieces and nephews, they do not know anything about.

  40. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Hal
    There has never been any real community/ heritage tourism with our product. We don’t teach our primary school children enough about our heritage. We have people with first degrees in sociology and history, who have not read a book or written a paper or even an article since they left Cave Hill. Degrees were mainly attained to get to a higher pay scale or what they call job security.
    We simply are not connecting the dots. Economies are dynamically interrelated. In a small economy such as ours all the dots must be connected .Once the education system is not connected to the goals ; there is no real economy. If we don’t know and cannot effectively measure our Human Resources, there is no real economy. What we have is hodgepodge, hit and miss attempts at economic management.
    I am waiting to see how we reposition our social and economic goals post COVID-19. That will be our major test and will reveal how we are thinking as a nation.

  41. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ William

    Once again you are right. What gets me is that there is not even curiosity about individual family histories. Fortunately, some of my younger relatives are as keen on maintaining a family history as the older ones.
    We have connections with our Panama relatives, our Cuban relatives, our US relatives, our UK relatives and, most of all, our Barbados relatives. It is refreshing when you make connections with long lost relatives. But, as a nation, we have no curiosity. Once we leave the cage we tend to fly away.
    An interesting post-early retirement hobby in the UK is genealogy and officials are geared up for it. The files are available to the public and one can go in and search freely.
    I remember trying to get a birth certificate for my great grand mother at the old Barbados registry of births, marriages and deaths and some silly man – a tall light-skinned man wearing a shirt jac – working in the old court building wanted to know her name and date of birth; I tried to point out that was what I was researching. I could give him the family nickname name.. The more I said that the louder he became.
    For heritage tourism we have a lot of work to do.

  42. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @Hal,

    quote] An interesting post-early retirement hobby in the UK is genealogy and officials are geared up for it. The files are available to the public and one can go in and search freely.[unquote

    funny you should say that. my wife signed up for the course. she likes that stuff. it is v interesting. a white mate traced his and the report was well researched and structured. he showed me and later revealed that he is doing the course as a side hustle.

    he passed the details onto me. i only said white becos the records may not be so easily available for West Indians

    BTW a lot of the white English are not really English but you know that lol.

  43. curley16 Avatar
    curley16

    Hal I have must respect and admiration for you. This stems from the fact you had intimate know of my dear teacher Mr. Leroy Harewood. He was my history teacher as well as Sir Cameron Tudor for which there was and still is much respect. This is the very reason why I switched to the NDP as is was then led by my hero Sir Richard Haynes who many morning gave me a ride in G-103 and included some very worthy sons and daughters of this fair land. I do feel a little agitated as you belittled my knowledge of Tim’ s family as I knew him personally up until his death and I can speak of the Callenders who were blacks and were land owners from Haggat Hall right up to Everton House. I can also speak with authority that there were inter marriages with th Douglas family who were also black landowners and were also very wealthy, incidently they were the owners of the same Everton plantation house at Dash Valley. Check with your friend Trevor Prescod as he is the son of Ivan “Champ” Douglas.

  44. curley16 Avatar
    curley16

    Knowledge*

  45. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Greene

    I don’t know if you have ever done any research at the UK’s Public Records Office (the new name is National Archives); they have records of every details of the slave owners, down to the new clothing they buy the slaves. The first time I saw it I was in shock. The Victorians, and previous generations, were brilliant at record keeping.
    At the same time, try doing research on Barbados in Barbados from the 1950s. It is a disgrace. Here is a test: search for the Hansards of all Barbadian parliaments since 1961; search the archives for the minutes of every Barbadian Cabinet since 1961; search for a transcript of every court case in Barbados since 1961.
    I can go to the Institute of Commonwealth Studies and read copies of Black Star, a Barbados paper of the 1960s; try the same thing with the Barbados archives. I can go to the paper library at the British Library and read almost every copy of Barbados newspapers from the 19th century. No, try that with the Advocate.
    Try that at our archives.

  46. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Curley 16
    To read of your admiration of my friend , Comrade and confidant Leroy Harewood
    in such terms is just great beyond measure.
    I have been intimately involved with the Ivy. I have great respect for Comrade Prescod. I can also say that Hal is highly respected and admired in his hometown as well.
    Venceremos

  47. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Curley

    Apologies if you say I have belittled your contribution. Plse re-read what I said again. I appreciate that Tim might have been of a St George heritage, but my memory of him, both at St Giles and Combermere, was not of St George.
    Read my reference to Bree St John and even my own family. In my case, I was born in the Ivy, but my family came from Brereton and Hannah’s and I identify with those two areas. I am not sure, but Tim always headed in the direction of Bridge Road, Station Hill after school. I admired Tim enormously, as I have said.
    As you know, I am familiar with Haggatt Hall. But, of course, you may be right. But I have enormous admiration for anyone who appreciated Leroy’s enormous knowledge and Sir Richard was a gentleman.
    Apologies again.

  48. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    @ Hal April 27, 2020 10:39 AM

    Timothy Callender was in modern six at Combermere school ( I was also in that six form with him and then science six). He was a member of Combermere’s boxing team and actually represented the school in boxing. He would always show us his short stories and even sent a manuscript to the UK for publication as a novel when in sixth form. It was rejected. He wanted to go to the UK like Lamming, Sam Selvon and others did before him. He was a Closed Brothering(CB). Actually. he was the first SB I ever had in inter action with. He would mention how strict the faith was and admitted that he was not supposed to mix with persons who were not CB. He had a great sense of humor. It is possible that he rebelled against the tenets of CB as an adult.

  49. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @Robert

    Tim was a very good boxer and gymnast. I don’t know if you remember the boxing matches against College and he was Karl Broodhagen’s favourite. Tim was simply multi-talented.
    The last time I saw Tim he was in London doing a course at London University. I was doing an job for a national newspaper in All Saints Road in Ladbroke Grove (estate agents now call it Notting Hill), with an Irish girl, posing as a couple when I walked in to Tim. I was in shock, hurt, disappointed. I greatly admired Tim.

  50. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    @ Hal April 27, 2020 3:34 PM

    I presume your were disappointed in the way he was leading his life. I try not to be judgmental . One never knows what will befall one in the future and the decisions that one will make.

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