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Pressure Mounts on Minister Wilfred Abrahams to Resign

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I emailed Minister Abrahams the following, I am hoping that he receives many hundreds:

Minister Wilfred Abrahams,


You have failed to protect the vulnerable girls at GIS by removing all the staff who are implicated in the systematic torture of children by routinely incarcerating them naked in a bare concrete cell for days and weeks on end.

This treatment was contrary to the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It was also in breach of Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I understand that you have ordered that such torture not be repeated, but you have left the torturers in charge of the institution and you have left vulnerable girls in their charge. Furthermore, you have publicly stated that you have confidence in the staff who inflicted these inhuman and degrading assaults on vulnerable children.

Your catastrophic error of judgement has made me deeply ashamed of my Government.

You have left me no choice but to insist on your immediate resignation from your position as Minister of Home Affairs, Information and Public Affairs.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Thompson

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416 responses to “Pressure Mounts on Minister Wilfred Abrahams to Resign”

  1. Heather Avatar
    Heather

    @WURA, perhaps the powers that be do not want it closed because all the secrets that it holds will be exposed!

  2. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David,

    There could be deviant juveniles, deviant parents, deviant people at all levels.

  3. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    That too Heather and much more.

  4. David Avatar
    David

    @Heather

    Whether it is open or closed should not prevent disclosures.We have already heard the former Chairman Rev Johnny Tudor and several employees speaking out today. We know there are archaic laws, we know the employees need training, we know existing laws are about to be replaced etc.

  5. TheOgazerts Avatar
    TheOgazerts

    This has been siad already.
    Please post where you got the below info:First he targeted the whistleblower who provided the evidenceHow did he target the whistleblower? What action, etc.  Last that I heard he was still in hot pursuit of the whistleblower who provided the picture that broke the story

    Then he replaced an outspoken board member who was opposed to this barbaric treatmentSource? If true, this should weigh heavily in his own replacement      MLH was an outspoken board member who was agitating for proper treatment of these victims.  The one voice that was crying out for help for these children was silenced by removal..

    Then he appointed a board with members that appear to have little sympathy or empathy for these childrenappears?? Which new Board members appear to have little sympathy or empathy to these children? or is it all of them.                              First there was a reverend lady who will start with her own investigations and will not listen to hearsay.  This means that all the past stories of cruelty at the GIS are thrown into the trash.  Then there was the Chase lady who prior to appointment ‘voiced’ opinions that do not lead to me to believe that she will be a champion for these youngsters.

    Where needed and important changes should be made, he allowed the staff to stay intact.Expand! So none of the things which he says he’s put in train will work because the staff remain intact, according to who?I                    Must I assume that these girls are inflicting punishment on themselves. If there is abuse, then it was done by members of the staff.  So far there is no punitive action against the staff members. 

     

    He has done much that amounts to doing nothing.Expand! What are the many things he’s done that are counterproductive?   Difficult to expand on as he has done nothing/the minimum. Just changed the board and remove a champion for the youngsters He did a lousy job of re arranging  the chairs of the titanic. He removed a champion  and left an abusive  staff intact.

     

    Where leadership was required, he passed the buck.Who did he pass the buck to? If you could prove this you should get some points to buttress PLT’s cal                                                       Come on. He passed or attempted to pass the buck by naming a new board. He took no real action.  

    He should be fired.Perhaps, but not by PLT!

    BY Mia

  6. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Well we got our answer in a round about way from the parliament..

    looks like 130 year old rusty pipes that’s been delivering inferior quality water for decades, that BOTH NEGLECTFUL INCOMPETENT governments IGNORED FOR 54 YEARS….takes precedent to address over the 131 YEAR OLD SLAVE LAWS that government agents use to TORTURE BLACK CHILDREN IN 2021.

    the BILLIONS MISSING FROM THE ECONOMY…the 1 BILLION DOLLARS WRITTEN OFF that minority thieves STOLE IN VAT….all of that could’ve REPLACED the 130 year old pipes but it was not important …not till the torture of black children exposed itself, so now the pipes are more important to address

  7. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    (Quote):
    The doors do not have to be closed because there is a need for an institution to house deviant juveniles. What needs to change are the laws and protocols governing the setup. (Unquote).
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    What makes a juvenile “deviant”?

    If Donville was a Dodds boy he would not have brought so much opprobrium and international shame to the Bajan political class.

    Why did the Bajan rule-makers allow crime-ridden America to teach them a lesson in law enforcement instead of the local superintendent over jailbirds?

    When is MAM going to take action against those deviants on whom she carries a legal ‘brief’ case of incriminating evidence of “deviant” behaviour to make good use of the correctional resources available at Dodds?

    Impressionable children in the little two x 3 Barbadoses can only practice what they are forced to see daily as exemplified in the cases of the Bjerkoff hams, Malmoneys, CLICO culprits, the Herberts and now the untouchable Bournes.

  8. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    Do not confuse the issue at hand please.

  9. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    The Miller
    Keep dreaming. If you feel that Mugabe or any other figure in any Barbados government will ever think that Dodds is a fit and proper domicile for any of the elites.

    We’ve already had a senior member of this government say to us that as a lawyer he will never bring any case against another professional.

  10. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    Crime is Crime!

    Or should that be: ‘sin is sin’ or ‘wrong doing is wrong doing’?

    “If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
    If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
    If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
    If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
    If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.” − Dorothy Law Nolte.

  11. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Miller…they stole 1 billion dollars in VAT that both CORRUPT GOVERNMENTS REFUSED TO COLLECT on behalf of the taxpaying public for 25 YEARS… in comes one half of the corrupt government AND IMMEDIATELY WROTE OFF THE PEOPLE’S MONEY….did not LOCK UP any of the minority thieves, her big red bag of evidence of CORRUPTION WITH DLP as claimed by HER…am sure included the names of the same people who robbed the country of the money…so they got away CLEAN with 1 BILLION DOLLARS …because the treacherous government DON’T SEE THEM AS DEVIANT…and many of those minority DEVIANTS….were contracted to help build DODDS PRISON …for Black people only..

    in the warped and twisted minds of SELLOUTS….all DEVIANTS ARE BLACK…

  12. David Avatar
    David

    Stay focused Miller.

    We need you focused.

    Not all over the place like pooka.

  13. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ David March 22, 2021 5:01 PM

    There is only one thing to be focussed on right now.

    That is PLT’s call for the minister to do the decent thing right now.

    Does he have the blogmaster’s back?

  14. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    What i want to know is how they think it LOOKS TO THE WORLD…that they STILL USE archaic Slave laws to punish children on the island….yes the world, i don’t play those games, I KNOW HOW TO FIND THE WORLD…

    these children are already BORN vulnerable…because Barbados’ black governments HAVE ALWAYS been ANTI-BLACK, ANTI-AFRICAN…..ANTI-AFRICAN CULTURE and EDUCATION….and STILL ARE or there would be NO SLAVE LAWS STILL ON STATUTE BOOKS and directed at the descendants of enslaved Africans.. over 300 years later.

    I will not allow them to put on any FRAUDULENT SHOW …to deceive the continent of AFRICA…to run their well known SCAMS..

  15. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @David
    I understand that you are trying to keep the conversation focussed so that it might conceivably have some salutary effect on public policy.

    However, we also need to acknowledge that is is too easy just to blame it on elected officials. It gives some emotional release to call for resignations or to call them sellouts, or corrupt or deviants, but the problem in Barbados is much deeper than that.

    This GIS affair exposes deep dysfunctions in our culture and society. We have this candy coated illusion in the Heights and Terraces that Barbados is a progressive civilised society, but consider this; the Principals of the GIS over decades have been part of the Heights and Terraces while systematically torturing and abusing vulnerable children in ways that we would associate with the Taliban.

    The rot goes much deeper than Cabinet or Parliament… this is an indictment of our entire culture and society. Simply calling out our elected officials, or calling them names just serves to distract us from the real problems.

  16. David Avatar
    David

    What was the blogmaster’s first comment posted?

  17. David Avatar
    David

    @Peter

    Calling for a focussed discussion is not to negate references to structural fault lines in our economic and social environment. It is about some here who go off into more detached and nebulous commentary.

  18. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    So yall see now why dried up, tiefing corrupt racist Cow…call Black people Slaves…because ALL the DEVIANT minorities in Barbados KNOW that those Slave laws against Black people are still on the statute books and kept there maliciously and deliberately by the black face sellouts…

    wuh if i have known for over 16 years while in and out of the island, the deviant minorities know even better.

  19. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Miller March 22, 2021 4:48 PM
    I hear you.

    I am moved to quote Mr. Barrow, but with apologies because of the edits to make it clear that I include myself among the society that is so sick as to have produced this catastrophe of vulnerable girls being tortured by civil servants.

    “What I wish to speak to you about very briefly here this evening is about us. About ourselves.

    I want to know what kind of mirror image do we have of ourselves? That is what I am concerned about.
    What kind of mirror image do we have of ourselves? Do we really like ourselves? Because we can never really like anybody unless we first like ourselves. There are too many people in Barbados who despise themselves and their dislike of themselves reflects itself in their dislike of other people… people who live next door to them, members of their family, husbands, and wives, and the ox and the ass and the stranger within the gates.”

  20. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    DavidMarch 22, 2021 5:24 PM

    We shall see if the minister is ‘listening’ and not just reading what you wrote to establish if he is a genuine servant of the people like how Ms Marsha Hinds-Layne has shown herself to be.

  21. cosmo.x Avatar
    cosmo.x

    I agree with Mr. Thompsons decision. However it will take more than this to see a change in this strategically disguised utopia , however it is a start. This is not the time for others to get angry or bury their head in the sand because this small action can determine where Afro Barbadians go from here and It is time to get serious and start doing , not just talking. What happened and the reaction towards said incident shows enough where the people that are supposed to protect the people priorities lie and contrary to popular belief the power is in the people.

  22. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    When ya see racist slave master wannabe companies like preconco REFUSING to pay workers and withholding their salaries, treating them like Slaves and the frauds for hoteliers in the tourism industry REFUSING to pay employee severance or shortchanging and disenfranchising them…they know EXACTLY HOW MUCH THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH…and the parliament frauds will run out pretending they are negotiating salaries etc….while knowing that none of that would happen IF THEY WOULD ONLY REMOVE THE SLAVE LAWS AND SLAVE CODES OFF THE STATUTE BOOKS…then they can start arresting tiefing racist minorities and the hoteliers who see Barbados as A BIG CAGE FILLED WITH CAPTURED SLAVES…

  23. cosmo.x Avatar
    cosmo.x

    @peterlawerencethompson

    The reason for that self hatred of anything African and that includes themselves is something so deeply intertwined in the psyche that if I had to reveal the exact details of why this is so that it will surely blow your mind. It is deeper than what happened to our ancestors and the echoes of slave society perpetuated today. All I can say is this, through reprogramming of the mind and who Barbadians were forced and lead to beLIEve they were this identity and even the origins of their hertiage should be questioned and they should learn to accept and love themselves for who they really are. That is a fraction of how they can free themselves.

  24. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    PLT….they are only going to double down or triple down on you…this goes much deeper than you think, don’t care how nice you are to these BEASTS…they will NEVER back down….trust me on this…do you see what abrams did or didn’t you…and he did it in the FULL GLARE of social media and in the eyes of others across the world WHO ARE LAWYERS and know all about international laws and human rights….and CAN’T BELIEVE WHAT’S PLAYING OUT..

    THEY DON’T CARE…

  25. cosmo.x Avatar
    cosmo.x

    Crazy isn’t it @WARU? An island that boats about freedom 24/7 and “this is who we are” however when you take a magnifying glass and look at all of the institutions in the society they promote subservience to a higher power.
    Doesn’t sound like freedom to me.

  26. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ peterlawrencethompson March 22, 2021 5:33 PM

    The ‘ordinary Bajan’ (aka the man or woman walking down Swan street) can see and judge their politically elected officials only through the lens and against the standards the same political class has been elected on.

    As far as transparency and accountability is concerned the current administration has not lived up to their agreed expectations.

    The ongoing fiasco has been a well-known secret for decades and was routinely brought to the attention of those elected to rectify the situation in keeping with the long ratified UN Convention, as you rightly noted.

    The only way to bring about improvements in the lives of these vulnerable children is to put the heat under the politically-elected guards in order to bring about meaningful change instead of participating in a tedious exercise of musical chairs in the advisory board room or pinning the tail on some donkey called civil servants.

    Barbados is endowed with too many experts in children development matters to be saddled with the current situation for so long when there so many more challenging socio-economic problems looming on the horizon.

  27. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Cosmo…an opportunity was given to this government to START the healing process…to REAFRIKANIZE the Black majority population…..to REESTABLISH AN ANCESTRAL CONNECTION….to …REASSERT African ancestry and BIRTHRIGHT….and what did this government do…HID THE INFORMATION FROM THE BLACK POPULATION.

    but some minorities could tell me they were told about it…..

  28. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    It’s unfortunate, but i hope PLT does not learn the hard way…these people are not nice, they don’t play fair and are downright dangerous, you can ask outside agencies about them, if you doubt me….just protect yourself and family.

  29. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    PLT

    Was that the same Barrow who passed the Public Order Act to criminalize Black Power activists?

    Intelligence is essentially the ability to hold two or more competing ideas about sonething, or someone, at the same time, Nyugen once said.

  30. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Not only criminalize, but kill

  31. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    The opportunity is right there to free the Black population….there has never been a better time, that’s why am trying to REDIRECT PLT and the energies and skills he has to free the people from this bondage that black leaders believe is their FATE……..because i know much better than he ever will, what he’s up against…

  32. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Pacha…PLT believes this is something that can be fixed with some nice words and pressure….he has no clue how DEADLY these vicious people are….

  33. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Waru
    We are not so minded. He knows!

  34. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    There is a lot outside of his knowledge, but he can be assured i have his back….someone already warned him on the other blog yesterday….

  35. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    These people have no problem CROSSING LINES…

  36. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    “The only way to bring about improvements in the lives of these vulnerable children is to put the heat under the politically-elected guards in order to bring about meaningful change instead of participating in a tedious exercise of musical chairs in the advisory board room or pinning the tail on some donkey called civil servants.”

    A new minister will be able to implement new rules and standards better than the incumbent who let these events happen on his watch.

    I am surprised there are still slave laws applicable as there are no slaves, no one is deemed superior in law.
    If legal system, Government or Police act with prejudice then it is malfeasance and not excusable by any law.

  37. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    They won’t stop playing games that has nothing to do with good governance.

    that line they crossed was the very last one for me….and i took it very personal, as an African with children and grandchildren who have a right to know about their African birthright, heritage, culture and education.

    regarding the tortured 14 year old child, in my estimation, every last one of them should be arrested for keeping Slave laws on the statute books to use on the population as a staple and keeping Slave laws that torture Black children right into the 21st century…for me it goes way beyond a few yardfowl hires at GIS who should also be imprisoned but the ones who deserve handcuffs even more are the legislators, ministers and all the others who REFUSE TO REMOVE SLAVE LAWS AND SLAVE CODES FROM BARBADOS…

  38. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    I REPEAT…

    for me it goes way beyond a few yardfowl hires at GIS who should also be imprisoned but the ones who deserve handcuffs even more are the legislators, ministers and all the others who REFUSE TO REMOVE SLAVE LAWS AND SLAVE CODES FROM BARBADOS……and out of AFRICAN LIVES…

  39. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    Waru
    Are you sure slave laws are being used as they used to say certain people were inferior and had less rights
    I don’t believe there are slave laws that can still have those legal grounds in barbados

  40. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “I am surprised there are still slave laws applicable as there are no slaves,”

    Prof. Shillary recently had a conference with EU and highlighted the fact that the islands are STILL SLAVE SOCIETIES…..what he did not tell the EU is that the Black/African population are SEEN BY the pretend elites and the corrupt Black governments and the TIEFING MINORITIES who are business people, hoteliers etc….. AS SLAVES…he should have explained that…so the problem is not EUs it’s the aforementioned…they are the biggest problem to Black freedom in Barbados..

    and if they don’t remove those slave laws, the problems will continue and the pretenders will do the same..Hilary should have been calling for the ARREST OF ALL OF THEM….if he had a conscience..

    slavery is illegal and so is torturing children using slave laws, how many times have i said on here that they IGNORE INTERNATIONAL treaties, charters and any legislation that promotes Black human rights from children to the elderly on the island..

  41. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “I don’t believe there are slave laws that can still have those legal grounds in barbados.”

    As long as the laws are on the statute books from that time period, they are ACTIVE slave laws….i myself was surprised that they use them on children at GIS…a law that’s 131 years old, even after abolition was right there in the emacipation era and should never have survived into the 21st century……and according to people who know, yes, they use them….all who were alive then are long dead, including slavemasters who came up with the design, so why are black leaders still using them against Black children……why are they still using slave laws on the descendants of slaves, they themselves are also descended from slaves but to hear them lie, you would believe they came from another planet………because they are self-appointed placeholders for slavemasters…that’s why they still do it..

    i knew the laws existed, saw it myself, but to use a law like that for children that they used on Slaves….uuh, uuh…

    until the laws are abolished completely they are active…i know a lot of them fancy themselves new age slave masters, them and their minority sidekicks….all of them need to be imprisoned for these crimes….they have taken it way too far..

    we can only blame EU and UK for so long….but the real culprits are in the parliament.

  42. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    there is a distinction between law that sanctions people to be abused
    and people being abused which is against the law

  43. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    regarding torture of children, i thought they were just being their usual lowlife anti-black selves, but it threw me to find out that they actually USE laws from 131 years ago..on children….that is inexusable and unforgivable….they CAN SAY NOTHING to justify that..

    …..and abrams pretending he didn’t know and how archaic the practice is…WITHOUT MENTIONING THE LAW THAT ALLOWS THE PRACTICE…., i repeat, this dude was the bar association head in the 00s, his father-in-law chief justice, and the whole family are mostly lawyers, and a bar association filled with lawyers…and parliament filled with lawyers….and NONE OF THEM COULD REMOVE THOSE LAWS AND CODES..

    soon they will tell us Elizabeth made them do it…..ah can’t wait for that one…ah will polish up on cusswords just for that one.

  44. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    On the one hand, the appeal is a step forward because it sheds light on the problem of black-initiated slavery. The white and Indian minorities are relieved to see that they are not always the scapegoat for the many idiotic decisions by the black majority population since 1966.

    On the other hand, the appeal is fundamentally wrong because it calls for the resignation of a blameless and honourable minister. The minister is not at fault at all. Alleged bad conditions stem from the DLP regime and are the sole responsibility of the DLP.

    Minister Abrahams has the fullest confidence of our Supreme Leader, the party, the nation, the people, the island and Tron.

  45. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ 555dubstreet March 22, 2021 7:32 PM
    “I don’t believe there are slave laws that can still have those legal grounds in Barbados…”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    How else should we refer to a draconian piece of legislation which incarcerates only poor people children for some nebulous act called “Wandering”?

    Isn’t this a throwback to the ‘slave-controlling’ days when children were tied to the plantations as hands in the third gang either to ‘pull’ grass for the animals or to chase away the monkeys from ‘sucking’ massa canes?

    Any child caught straying too far from the plantation tenantry was deemed to be idling and a rogue and vagabond fit for incarceration as a punishment.

    You might also be shocked to hear that there is a long-established law which provides for incarceration up to 25 years for an act of buggery between consenting male adults.

    A law long discarded by the Bajans’ own mother country which herself now allows homosexuals to have officially approved intimate relationships.

    Isn’t it the very apex of hypocrisy for a country infamously known all over the western world as the homosexual capital of the Caribbean located right on the platinum coast of St. James to be living so far ‘behind’ time?

    Two of the very few laws in Barbados which do not have genesis in slavery or colonialism is the medical termination of Pregnancy Act and the one to remove the distinction between children born out of wedlock and those born within the ‘bonds’ of marriage even if in the form of a ready-made jacket or in good ole Bajan slang a “put-pun-muh”.

  46. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    ” The minister is not at fault at all.”

    A new remit should go to a new person

    who’s priority will be to clean up the mess

  47. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Maybe now it will sink into some heads …. WHY they are called A CRIMINAL SYNDICATE…

  48. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @WURA @ Heather @ PLT
    in any society that actually takes children’s rights seriously both the Fun Ranch and the GIS would have been closed immediately after the tortures were made public and or discovered. We need a full investigation of both. Anything short of such action is a sick joke.

  49. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    I certainly hope the police don’t have a quota regarding incarcerating children, because that child apparently got home before the police arrived and all she should have had was a warning that next time they will have to take her before a magistrate, due to the fact that there are at least 10 people missing in Barbados..and she is young and high risk……and that should have been the end of that….but something is not fitting right that in these modern times the archaic law is still used against children…..that can also be said for all the other slave laws and slave codes that the frauds in parliament refuse to abolish..

    someone should ask them why they are holding on so tightly to slave laws and slave codes in the 21st century, the answer should be interesting….and btw…they should NOT BE LEADING BLACK PEOPLE….PERIOD…not anywhere…not in any space..or capacity.

  50. David Avatar
    David

    Is it impossible to address the issue as we know it? A child was stripped and placed naked in solitary confinement at the GIS. This is the issue. What are the redial steps required and should the Minister resign because it occuured on his watch and in our system of government the buck must stop somewhere.

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