The following is not the type of update seen often on Barbados Underground – 2020 has been unprecedented in every ways. Our thought processes that fuel our narratives must also change.
Support Local is OUR Cry
90 responses to “Support Local is OUR Cry”
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David
How could you believe arguments made just yesterday about the irrational corporate globalization of everything and today pretend that there are still anythings called local.
Case in point food, Donna”s garden. Are the seed stocks locally produced? Are the fertilizers, synthetic or organic, produced locally? Are the all other parts of the supply chains local? And on and on.
Is local not an outdated myth which died with the great Carmeta?
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Pacha
Were they local when carmeta was alive ?
The same questions you ask about Donnas garden can be applied to back then
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John2
Agreed. But at least this localism canard was more believable then. But then again, even this could have been the irrational expectations of youth. -
Carmeta Fraser was the first person who gave this writer a sense that there were vicious politics around food. That one should know where food comes from.
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based on past personal experiences, I tread carefully.
So as instructed, I use the search engine and enter “ice cream” and the result ‘no search results please try again’.
Yet immediately below the search results are ads for items which include a Bico product. When I click on it, its shows the category as ‘ice cream’, yet search results show NIL in this category.
I have to enter “BICO” to get their products. The search functionality is of a 1990’s level. -
The final products were produced locally
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@Pacha
You make a good point, inputs to almost every product in BArbados originates outside of Barbados. Local is relative in the sense we must awaken an entrepreneur spirit that uses such a mindset as a jump off point to move from where we are lodged.
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A lot if made in USA and made in China usual contain imported ingredients.
Smart phones for example
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@ Pachamama December 16, 2020 8:57 AM
“Is local not an outdated myth which died with the great Carmeta?”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++That’s why the dearly departed Lady Carmeta should be made a true national hero(ine).
If Clement Payne could be so anointed so should Carmeta.
Haven’t the ‘ideals ‘of those national heroes been thrown under the bus at the behest of blatant imported conspicuous consumption where even the consumption of the ‘coral island’ country’s naturally filtered drinking water is replaced by imported piped stale water in environmentally destructive plastic bottles?
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An entrepreneurial spirit is not enough if you are hobbled by wto regulations.
Such rules make it nearly impossible for government to support local enterprises in a wide number of sectors.
David -
The Miller
Agreed, with all -
Totally agreed with the objective, but while Government is spending taxpayers monies on imported items that could be sourced locally, what chance do we stand? As pointed out recently when Government is buying imported FLORIDA bottled water while locally produced alternatives are available. Can you imagine shipping water from Florida when its available here?
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@Pacha
You are the one always touting to not let ourselves be hobbled by WTO and other rules manufactured by globalization.
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David
Yes, because we see globalization (2) as a natural continuation of globalization (1). Globalization (1) had Barbados as one of its centres and came at a time when the character of colonialism, imperialism, changed its modes of organization. -
@Pacha
We have our heads so deep in the lion’s mouth. We are sinking in debt which makes it a challenge to implement homegrown policies that will significantly move the needle. However we must try, what else?
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David
Agree. On all counts. -
WHAT IS THE BARBADOS GOVERNMENT AND ATTORNEY GENERAL WHO IS IN CHARGE OF THE LOCAL POLICE GOING TO DEAL WITH ALL THESE EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS IN BARBADOS OR IS IT BECAUSE THE VICTIMS ARE BLACK AND NOT WHITE?
THEY ARE OBVIOUSLY HITMEN ON THE 2 x 3 ISLAND WHO ARE PAID KILLERS IN THE LOCAL UNDERWORLD.
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Residents in northern community say ‘Big Yosh’ was ambushed by men in ski masks
The brutal shooting incident has nevertheless left a grieving mother childless after losing her second son to gunshot wounds and at least one relative lamenting the passing of a “good person” who was attempting to change his life for the better.
Canute Ward, 36, was the lone victim of a vicious gun attack that rocked the usually quiet northern community at around 9 p.m. on Monday.
Farm Road residents told Barbados TODAY that Ward, alias Big Yosh, was sitting on a sidewalk using his cellular phone when he was ambushed by two masked gunmen and riddled with bullets. The two men reportedly pursued the wounded victim through a nearby track leading to the young man’s temporary home, before he collapsed. There, they proceeded to “finish the job” with a fresh round of shots, leaving him to die.
On Tuesday morning, the sight of blood and the scent of disinfectant were still in front of the house where he was staying.
“We were in bed and we heard ‘bum! bum! bum! bum!’ About six shots and about ten minutes after that, ten police were outside. When the police checked, they said he was down by the banana tree dead. I don’t even know his name,” one resident recalled.
Another, who witnessed the incident unfolding added: “He was just sitting on the wall and the two guys passed in ski masks with the guns already drawn. They just started shooting like crazy… There were about seven or eight shots fired altogether, and then he ran down in there and collapsed.
“I wasn’t scared… I knew exactly where they were coming from and who they were targeting. I was looking for it to happen weeks ago, because it was rumoured that he was hiding from somebody,” she added.
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“(1) had Barbados as one of its centres and came at a time when the character of colonialism, imperialism, changed its modes of organization.”
ah, if everyone was thus enlightened and understood better, what a difference it would make.
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Pacha,
My initial seeds may not have been produced locally but I can use the seeds from the fruits produced for the next crop and allow seeds to be produced through bolting from fruiting plants. Some crops also grow from cuttings, heads and suckers. My Rasta helper does not buy seeds or fertilizer. My main fertilizer is now sheep shit provided by him and for beets a little washed off sea weed. I also make my own compost. My helper also provides neem leaves for pest control. Next week he will plant me a neem tree. My ladybirds are local.
So eventually my garden produce will be almost totally local. Besides, value added counts as well. We can save foreign exchange by importing the cheaper raw inputs and adding value or finishing a product for sale.
If I lived in such a negative space I’d never get up in the morning.
How on earth do you do it?????
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Good comment Donna!
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Donna
You know not of this writer’s life and are therefore in no position to attached the stereotypical brand.Maybe we could share a few stories of life beyond BU but we feel no need.
However, we seek to reserve “positivity” for larger orders of magnitude, thank you!
Admittedly, from what is written your gardening seems almost totally local, maybe even organic, we must confess. Maybe yours is unrepresentative of commercial or large scale farming or are practices not engaged in by a large enough mass.
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Pacha..i noticed for the last couple weeks you’ve been subtly nudging, but am sure it went over 99.999% of heads, there will come a time when i will only be on BU to show up yardfowls’ idiocy for the entertainment value…lol..as things unfold, there will be no need to give anymore warnings, reality will take center stage, giving me lots of time for other endeavors.
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Pacha,
Just saying, you do throw cold water on everything. You run the risk of making others feel hopeless even though I suspect you do fight at another level.
You must be careful not to knock the fight out of those of us who operate at ground level or else we will be not be mentally ready, willing or able when change comes.
P.S. Correction to last post – non fruiting plants.
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Well, la-di-da, Ms. 0.1%!
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Donna
Sorry. We don’t try to be positive or negative. We always attempt to be loyal to the truth, as we see it.
On the contrary! We have maximum respect for your gardening project. For us it is an example as to how communities throughout the country can cooperatively seek to feed self. That would be the most radical thing everybody could do, using your example.
This does not mean that we should ignore the forces which have us importing almost everything we eat. How are we to confront these systems of oppression unless we understand them?
For years we have been advocating for land reforms so that people can produce their food on land owned by them.
Just trying to be the good shepherd.
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Pacha,
I am well aware of those diabolical forces. Weren’t these the same forces who would have cut us off during the anticipated pandemic shortages? Aren’t these the same forces that outlawed the supply of PPE during the shortage. Aren’t these the same forces that determined that the vaccine will be made available to others only after the country that made it is satisfied?
Seems to me we now have good arguments to advance!
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“Well, la-di-da, Ms. 0.1%!”
i like being in the minority, it works out so well for minorities in Barbados…they got all your land and money, and got yall paying back 1 billion dollars to IMF that THEY STOLE, so being in the 1% works out quite well actually.
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@Pachamama December 16, 2020 8:57 AM “Case in point food, Donna”s garden. Are the seed stocks locally produced? Are the fertilizers, synthetic or organic, produced locally? Are the all other parts of the supply chains local? And on and on. Is local not an outdated myth which died with the great Carmeta?”
Carmeta might be dead but her spirit lives in some of us.
Some inputs are imported of course, but my potato slips, and cassava sticks are not. My pumpkin seeds are not imported. My spinach seeds are not imported, my cherry tomato seeds are not imported. I got half a pint of cherry tomatoes from a neighbor a few years ago, ate most, saved a few for planting, and they are self replicating. I’ve since shared some with a sister. I get manure from a retired neighbor who keeps sheep, pigs and cows. I also got from him and have in the fridge for Christmas lunch/dinner a nice leg of black belly lamb, and 6 lovely pork chops. The sheep and cows graze locally on “abandoned” land. I grated some pumpkin today, I will dig and grate some of my own sweet potatoes tomorrow afternoon. I’ve got some local coconut in the freezer, some local sugar in my cupboard, a few banana leaves in the back yard, so I’ll be making about dozen Christmas conkies as well. Will use California raisins though. lol! After all American grape/raisin farmers have to live too.
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Cuhdear Bajan
You sure you should be advertising these delights. Somebody gine breck in yuh house. Lol
Good thing veganism rules here.
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It is now 9 days away from what appears to be a looming BLACK CHRISTMAS for many displaced former Employees here in Barbados.
Unless they are paid the monies legally owed to them by their former employers.
In the meantime their former employers are busy buying up things so the they and their families might spend a WHITE CHRISTMAS. Ham, Turkey, Banks beers, etc.. What a turn of events..
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“”“It seems that both the party and the people have retired me, so I have to accept the decision that was made. I don’t fight over issues like that. I now need to move on and focus on other things,” Kellman added.””
He didn’t expect that this would happen one day??? He believed that he would be there forever???
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The displaced workers of Barbados certainly cant buy “”local” , because they have no money. Unlike their former employers.
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Man yall didn’t tell me that ya are MOVING in the world……..😂😂🤣🤣 Fowl Enuff keeping secrets…ya know when it reaches this stage, ah done with alyuh, denying YOUR OWN reality on the ground in Barbados is one thing, that’s alyuh problem, don’t affect me one way or the other, but this, whole nother animal.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/12/17/beijing-using-flow-to-spy-on-us/
“The island’s leading telecommunications provider has been accused of helping China spy on Americans through the use of its mobile phone networks.
Mobile network security expert Gary Miller has told The Guardian that Cable and Wireless Communications (Flow) in Barbados and the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), allowed China to use its networks to “target, track and intercept phone communications of US phone subscribers”.
In response to requests from Barbados TODAY for confirmation or denial of the report, Liberty Latin America, the parent company of C&W, did not give a definitive response.
The company would only say that “robust security policies” were in place to protect its customers.
“Across all the markets where Flow operates, including Barbados, we continuously monitor our networks and have robust security policies and protocols in place to protect the data of our customers. We take our commitment to data protection seriously and are carefully reviewing the information in the Guardian article,” a brief press statement said.
Miller, a former vice president of network security at California-based analytics company Mobileum, who has spent years analyzing mobile threat intelligence reports and observations of signalling traffic between foreign and US mobile operators, said in some cases China appeared to have used networks in Barbados and the Bahamas to conduct its surveillance.
At the heart of Miller’s research are claims that China, using a state-controlled mobile phone operator – China Unicom – is directing signalling messages to US subscribers, usually while they are travelling abroad.
Signalling messages are commands that are sent by a telecoms operator across the global network, unbeknownst to a mobile phone user. They allow operators to locate mobile phones, connect mobile phone users to one another, and assess roaming charges. But some signalling messages can be used for illegitimate purposes, such as tracking, monitoring, or intercepting communications.”
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Carson…sellout traitors in the parliament love that, mistreat the people, help rob them billions of dollars so they can’t help themselves or eat properly, progress or generate wealth, and ya wicked sellouts are more than happy, but now they’re about to be pushed onto marijuana slave plantations…deliberately, so let’s see if the people will sit quietly and take that or drag Mia before a human rights tribunal for human rights violations…it’s all on yall, it’s one thing to whine on a blog incessantly, it’s quite another to actually get up and do something to end that nightmare that those ya elected are subjecting your people to….already told close relatives, do not contribute a dime to Barbados to help pay back any IMF loans let those who stole those billions over the last 30 years repay them for the next 25 or 30 years, my relatives will not be supporting thieves, it’s disrespectful and insulting, as i said, up to yall.
CXC still have not given the kids their grades, everything is going down hill at a rapid pace, so sit back and take it. or get up and do something.
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Even if you buy “”local”” , you cant plant today and reap tomorrow. It takes a considerable time. Don’t forget the praedial larcenists who the Royal Barbados Police seems to be making little against.
Plus the 3% people of the population of Barbados, THE WHITE BAJANS AND INDIANS, will not allow buying “”local”” to exist because they are too busy buying and selling items from all over the World.
That is how they make their money.
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Some of you have the ability to reduce every topic/blog to nothingness.
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There was a time when barbadians had no choice in buying local there was a momand pop shop at almost every corner and people were allowed to raise their own livelistock and do their own farming buying and selling amongst themselves
Back then the local markets in the city thrive and side walk hawkers could make a reasonable week to week living
Then one day out of the clear blue govts allow overseas investors to open big supermarkets and other forms of invest which can sell at lower prices
Competition got tough for the local investor as bajans went from buying local to buying to save a dime
Blame govts for this turn in the attitude of barbadians against its own well being
Govt expecting bajans attitude to change when the bottom line is to invest in one self interest is foolhardy
First govt interest must become aware that the best interest of the people to become starts with self empowerment by sharing the financial pie with its people which give the people a chance to become investors and in turn move the economic needle in a direction where the economy would be self sufficient for the people to buy locally -
David December 17, 2020 5:24 AM #: “Some of you have the ability to reduce every topic/blog to nothingness.”
@ David
I agree with you 1,000%.
We have hundreds of vendors selling local produce in the various public markets, alleys and on sidewalks all over Bridgetown; farmers selling meats and vegetables to retail outlets and customers; they are several local companies selling chicken, such as Chickmont, Montrose, Southern Hatcheries, Poultry & Egg Suppliers, Gale’s Hatcheries and as well as the small poultry suppliers; then, we have the ‘neighbourhood farmers’ such as Donna, Cuhdear Bajan and several other like minded Bajans who grow their own crops, pigs, chickens, cows, sheep and goats for their personal use, sell or give away. How about ‘Aunt May’ or ‘Star Products’ and other producers of hot sauce, seasonings, mauby, fruit jams, etc?
Or, rather than going at Abeds to purchase school uniforms that are imported from China, why not buy materials and have the neighbourhood seamstress make uniforms?
So many opportunities exist for us to ‘buy local’ that we shouldn’t even be having this conversation in 2020.
And, Carson C. Cadogan want us to believe, “……….the 3% people of the population of Barbados, THE WHITE BAJANS AND INDIANS, will not allow buying ”local” to exist because they are too busy buying and selling items from all over the World.”
Pure nonsense. How are they going to dictate how I spend my money? This clearly indicates the defeatist attitude he has.
But, then again, he’s the same guy who, rather than enjoy ‘fine dining’ at Collis’ restaurant in Trents, St. James, preferred to play ‘big boy’ and patronize ‘The Cliff,’ only to complain about the exorbitant prices of the food after.
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Yes seen these local vendors but they making nothing
Their competitors are the big overseas investors who can buy in bulk prices and sell at cheaper prices to locals
You not teaching me nothing i speak from an era when buying local was absent of big outside competitors and govt never had to beg the citizen to buy locally
Monies gained were productive to buying and selling amongst our own
The local farmer and vendor now have to compete in an economic competition which drives the buyer away from supporting local interest at a profitable rate -
@Artax
We are our worse enemies. It will never be a perfect situation. One solution will never be the panacea to solve all of our challenges. Life is a journey, we have to try to do the best that we can as we travel along the way. This is the pragmatic approach of a buffoon and illiterate blogmaster.
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“You not teaching me nothing i speak from an era when buying local was absent of big outside competitors and govt never had to beg the citizen to buy locally.”
Please note, if your above comments were meant for me, my 6:21 AM contribution was NOT a response or referring to anything you posted on the topic.
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@Artax
The blogmaster remains hopeful Covid 19 has served to disrupt the attitude at the household level that conspicuous consumption is not ideal. Effective change is best when it originates from the ground up.
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David
Pragmatism in the live”s journey you describe cannot be the only guide rail.Pragmatism in and of itself has limited utility.
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“Mystery ailment affecting Chickens”
See what they think of us????
Instead of stopping chicken production and finding out what is the problem, they are still continuing with the sale of chickens. Don’t want to miss that ALMIGHTY DOLLAR. Farmers who care about their consumers would halt the production as in AMERICA AND CANADA.
Obviously something is wrong. By the time they find out what it is they the chicken would have sold thousands of pounds to unsuspecting consumers.
The effects of it they would be suffering. But it does matter. The farmers of chicken would make money at the risk of Human lives. Who cares????
I am not buying any CHICKENS for the time being.
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@ Carson
The Bajan dollar is the cheapest it has been for two years, making imports more expensive. What is the government going to do about this? What is the economic argument for keeping fixed to the Greenback?
I say decouple from the Greenback, fix against a basket of currencies and commodities. -
I said that a long, long , long time ago.
At that time We were flying high on BORROWED MONEY. So no one paid any attention.
THINGS WERE ARTIFICAILLY GOOD.
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Those calculations are never so simple, simplistic.
There are more variables to consider, plus any number of trends.
The US dollar might be weakening too or might in the short to medium term.
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Barbados dollar is now 47. cents to the US, at one time in the 90s it was 37 cents…when ya told the BU clowns years ago, they cussed and carried because their expectations were much much higher, way too high…lol
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I wont even rehash that now. Because when things look brighter, all will be forgotten at the behest of the 3% population of Barbados THE WHITE BAJANS AND THE INDIANS.
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The PM already going around cap in hand begging for money.
Once we get enough BORROWED MONEY everything will be fine. Don’t worry about it . That is how we do things bout here. It does not matter we will have to pay it back, be in debt for eons. Bring de money our children, grandchildren, great grand children, great, great grand children will pay.
Man the other races laughing at us.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.