Keeping an Eye on the Murder Rate

Source info compiled @caribbeansignal.com

Barbados Murder Statistics January to April 2022

After a long hiatus (due in part to my spending time tracking and posting data on Covid-19 and the 2022 General Elections), it’s time to catch up on tracking murders across Barbados.

Data presented below is from January to April 2022 (I will post 2021 numbers in the near future). The steps involved in the analysis essentially remain the same from those carried out in the 2020 analysis.

Barbados 2022 murders table - Jan to April
Table 1 – Murders in Barbados 2022 (click to enlarge)

Note to Table 1: Data extracted from The Nation’s website.

Murders by Month (2022)
Chart 1 – Murders by Month (2022)
Murders by Parish (2022)
Chart 2 – Murders by Parish (2022)
Murders by Method (2022)
Chart 3 – Murders by Method (2022)

Read full text@caribbeansignal.com

79 thoughts on “Keeping an Eye on the Murder Rate


  1. Once upon a time in Barbados ‘s history murders used to be a rare and upsetting event, These days we take them as part of our expectations of life. For a small compact society this is troublesome. What causal factors have been suggested by the criminologists in BPF ? Have they come up with solutions or are they only generating the numbers?


    • @Vincent

      Solutions have to come from the home as well as enforcement. It seems to the blogmaster there is a disproportionate expectation on enforcement to address deviance in our society?


  2. @ David B

    I notice the concentration so far for the year is in the urban parish of St. Michael. Is this significant.? The weapons are also lethal guns and knives. Any ideas?
    Did any of the police study sociology at Cave Hill? i think we should utilise their skills.


    • @Vincent

      No surprise at the concentration of violence. Of concern should be the disintegration of the family unit. This is the source of the problem and where a plan to improve the problem must start.


  3. @ David Bu as at 9 :42 AM

    The home solutions plane left years ago. We are dealing with adults. The solutions have to come from the law enforcement and social rehabilitation arms of government. Time for clinical analyses and applications of the solutions without fear or favour. No could dears and crocodile tears Leave that for the writers of fiction.


    • @Vincent

      True but there is a cadre of children in the system we have to shepherd to avoid it recurring.


  4. As much as bajans try to play it down you are an affluent island compared to others and many people come there to reap the benefits. So having said that has anybody said these murders are locals, drug relatedcrime new immigrants or because I believe tons of people are on anti depressants . It would be nice to know where the resources should be focused


  5. @ David Bu
    We always had cadres of children which the homes and the schools are equipped to handle . They are both watching each other instead of executing their responsibilities. Obviously some children will fall through that crack Neither or these roles are transferable. They need to wake up and smell the coffee.
    They are. wasting time on vague philosophical ideas of”mindfulness” instead of training minds and teaching etiquette and interpersonal skills.


    • @Vincent

      Hasn’t the environment changed how we raised children today re the nuclear family etc?


  6. @David, these numbers seems quite ‘pale’ even when compared to previous years or other islands or other similarly populated locales !

    But that said, the stat of St. Michael and specifically ‘Orleans’ and environs being the current murder central is ‘interesting’ in a ho-hum what’s new perspective … because however we slice and dice the data over the years, that awareness that homicides (crime) proliferate among a precise subset of citizens in certain neighborhoods does not change much!

    As a result, this exercise generally does NOT move beyond the ‘sensational’ to most Bajans who do not operate in those areas or among those groups.

    But I want to juxtapose all that internationally … to say that the same apathy does apply many other places too.

    We all know that the US spends over $800 billion a year on military armaments and services which is more than the combined expenditure than China and Russia and the next nine countries … yet they CANNOT stop nor manage as they like the ‘crime’ of warfare!

    We know they are one of the few nations with armed guards etc safeguarding schools and yet they are the ONLY country that has had five or more school shootings EVERY moth this year that killed teachers and students !

    In sum, numbers seems to mean NOTHING .wherever we look … we appear to be locked into a mental seizure of indifference or apathy or some ideological miasma that prevents us from addressing these horrendous criminal acts .

    Until we address that mind-set then the researchers will track the data and quote these pale stats endlessly!

    Lata.


    • @Dee Word

      There is a reality gun violence is on the increase even if current murder stats pale compared to historical data.


  7. We need psychological intervention for those persons that are engaged in criminal activity because it is a known fact those who engaged in this behaviour, suffers with what the behavioral specialists calls, anti-social personality disorder.


  8. @ David Bu at 10 :08 AM

    The environment always changes. Homo Sapiens changed that environment and responds to the changes in the environment. Have we lost that capacity to adapt? Why should we? Have we ever had a family structure that was purely nuclear or extended? That is a cop out. I am not buying that. We must be more creative and responsible than that instead of building more bureaucratic entities that burden the taxpayers and deliver nothing. We the taxpayers will not tolerate this for much longer.


    • @Vincent

      We are getting close to the issue? How have we been adapting to the change? We must tell by the fruit, this is where we are.


  9. LOL @ Dribbles
    “Until we address that mind-set then…”
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Boss, the ‘mind-set’ of which you speak is best exemplifies by your esteemed self in you DEFAULT assumption that the ways of the world (I=e of YOUR adopted Utopia) should be the STANDARD by which performance standards should be judged.

    What is FUNDAMENTALLY wrong is that we, (in true brass bowl style) have generally adopted the same measures of morality, education and social development as YOU constantly exemplify – and we now playing that we are surprised that we are reaping the commensurate fruits….


  10. @Codrington, although I agree that the “home solutions plane left years ago” it’s still difficult and almost intractable to expect the resolutions “to come from the law enforcement and social rehabilitation arms of government”.

    Beyond a doubt there are more criminalogists around and police officers trained in the sociology of criminal motivations, youth intervention and all those necessary protocols but yet the issues (like at GIS) are with us!

    Its also difficult to determine how one can inculcate better “etiguette” in this cadre of youth who are now so deeply steeped in almost 30 years of a pervasive drug culture.

    There are obviously no easy solutions unless a draconian govt comes in and washes evating out … all the corruption, all the gun trafficking and all the bad-boys (in govt and in de hood)!

    And THAT sir is NOT going to occur in my or your lifetime … so we will put up more burglar bars, extra vid surveillance and brace ourselves!

    I gone.


  11. @ dp D at 10:12 AM

    Thanks for reinforcing the need to critically analyze our local problem and juxtaposing it against those of societies which we subconsciously rank above ourselves. And yes we do pale in comparison to them. The cause of the urban violence need some serious research with a view to containing the level and reducing the level.This touches on yesterday’s moot on low-income housing. We should not build housing solutions that make the youth feel claustrophobic. House spots should be no smaller than 4000 sq feet. We live in the tropics. Glorified Dutch Ovens do not sit well in our physical environment either.


    • @Vincent

      You are aware although there is a requirement to constantly adapt to our environment, it does not mean that the process may not be without dysfunction and fit for purpose results simply because it has always been the case?


  12. @ Bush Tea at 10 :28 AM

    Thank you for pointing out where we adopt other nations standards and then shout that we do not measure up. Do our societies share their social and physical environments? The story of Babel dispensed with that notion four millennia ago.


  13. No amount of draconian implication is going to address the proliferation of gun violence in Barbados, unless the ones busting the steel decides to stop busting the steel.
    Nevertheless,
    Nelson Mandela said it best when he concluded that,” Penalty does not deter a man when his conscience has been aroused.”


  14. I usually keyboard what i mean.. Let me state for the record that I do not believe in Draconian Laws nor measures. I always promote appropriate solutions. I contend that there is an apparent reluctance to deal with these matters frontally and at source.


  15. Barbados has a population of 300K, maybe? A landmass of 166 miles squared.
    It has an average 30 murders per year pre-Covid.
    Compared with a country like Belize , for example.
    Which has a similarly sized population of around 400K, maybe? And a landmass of 9000 square miles.
    Belize’s, pre-Covid, annual murders was around 360 dead.
    There is something about the Bajan national consciousness which needs to be removed. That is the heart of the problem.
    Given all, all, all the variables, including relative population densities etc, a better case could be made for an increase in the murder rate, just to keep pace😄


  16. The buck stops with people like Maurice King, who, when the fledging gang culture was brought to his attention, claimed that, “We do not have gangs in Barbados.”

    Those were first generation gangs. Now we have fourth generation gangs. The culture is entrenched. What is entrenched is difficult to root out.

    But who are the drug lords or king pins. the importers of the illegal drugs?

    Yes, we can reduce the number of young people willing to join gangs by social interventions, education and opportunities for employment but we cannot eliminate gangs without eliminating the leaders who, from lofty perch, profit handsomely from the exploitation of vulnerable and disadvantaged young men and even boys.

    I don’t think the powers that be are at all prepared to do that, for whatever reason.

    Until they are prepared to do so, we can only talk about minimising gang murders.

    We must look at the year so far and celebrate that more of our young men have made it up to this point.

    And yes, my helplessness dictates that I become somewhat desensitised to the murders, IF I WISH TO ENJOY MY LIFE.

    Time was when I mourned each loss excessively.


  17. Yes, we can reduce the number of young people willing to join gangs by social interventions, education and opportunities for employment but we cannot eliminate gangs without eliminating the leaders who, from lofty perch, profit handsomely from the exploitation of vulnerable and disadvantaged young men and even boys.

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    YOU ARE ALSO GOING TO HAVE TO LOCK UP A LOT OF POLICE AND CUSTOMS OFFICIALS WHO ARE PART OF THESE GANGS DISCRETELY


  18. As a teenager in Barbados in the 80s, government offered programs to the youths such as the Skills Training Program, but this did little to abated the criminality and violence emanating from communities like Bush Hall, New Orleans and the Pine, for the simple fact that most of those youths were secondary school dropped outs, and those youths are the ones we have to reach in order for there to be a reduction in this phenomenon of senseless violence.


  19. I think it is fair to argument that the common denominator between the youths folks who engaged in criminality, beside their dysfunctional conscience, is their propensity for violence, due in part to their inability to make productive choices, brought about by their lack of a formal education.
    And moreover, I honestly believe that someway within this dysfunctional conscience, lies the socio and psychopathic tendencies which contributes significantly to this phenomenon of violent crime.


  20. We simplistically and superficially look for external or environmental reasons to give voice to the antisocial behaviour attributed to the young people who are engaging in this violent crime, when the evidence is clear that both genetic and environmental factors are at play here, and this can be traced back to the childhood of quite a few of these young folk, who are engaging in this destructive behaviour.


  21. Sociologists & criminologists can argue all day long over semantics but until we recognize that “MURDER” is perpetuated from “ORIGINAL SIN” and moreover that the prevalence of “EVIL” is as sacrosanct as the morning air – then how are “HUMANS” created in the image of GOD* (yet fallen in nature by duplicity & compliance with evil), and the acknowledgment that as there is a “CREATOR GOD” – so the existence of an “HA-SATAN” aka “LUCIFER” (son of morning exist in controversial measure)…

    Denial of these truths leads us nowhere!!!

    In the beginning:

    (1) Cain kills Abel (premeditated 1st-degree murder)…
    (2) Moses kills an Egyptian (premeditation & hides the evidence of the crime)… Yet God uses him to deliver 3 million Hebrew Israelites (a mixed multitude of Black folks who were slaves for 430 years enslaved by their own Black brothers (Egyptians)…
    (3) David kills Uriah (premeditated murder to cover sexual adultery with another man’s wife) – notwithstanding, the blood of his enemies who fell at the edge of his sword from his hands…
    (4) Paul kills Stephen (premeditated murder through persistent persecution of those who follow another way)… CLASSIC!!!
    (5) Judas kills Jesus (premeditated complicity in the “MURDER” of the “SON OF GOD” – the “INNOCENT LAMB OF GOD”) sold out for money; then in remorse, hung himself so that his bowel gushed out on to the ground…
    (6) Queen Athaliah (premeditated murder(S) of her own children & grandchildren so she could be queen…

    This is a mere snapshot of the Biblical history of some of the “MURDERS” in the Holy Scriptures – hence no wonder Shakespearean intrigue is dull when compared to the travesties of man’s abominable actions within Biblical literature…

    Any careful, systematic reading of both Scripture & human history paints a Sistine Chapel homage of devilish horrors within the earthly family of kingdoms, nations, tribes, tongues & peoples that have caused many to assert that there is no “GOD”…

    What most tend to forget, is the fact that our decision to choose the “TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD & EVIL” instead of the “TREE OF LIFE” has completely removed “THE CREATOR GOD” from the temperance of our individual “FREE WILL”…

    We made our choice to be our own (gods) and to serve whomever we will and the consequence is what we see today in the present and what has occurred in the past – giving room for the future to be filled with violence & bloodshed (negating any responsibility for the role “EVIL” is playing out in all the scenarios of life!!!

    DEATH* is man’s natural predilection! Satan was a “MURDERER” from the beginning and all those who are his (until transformed, reformed & renewed) will continue on this path of progressive evil…

    This is why the path of righteousness is ever “UPWARD” – knowing that obedience to the commandments of God & having the faith of YESHUA* is indissoluble to living a holy life (free from the foibles & vagaries of intemperate human will & emotions)…

    No laws of men; no logic, reason, or folly of men can alter what is the inevitability of a process that is so deeply entrenched in our DNA* that no amount of CRISPR technology can alter the inherent nature of evil men who are deduced, seduced & obtused by the allure of the machination of “EVIL”…

    “Righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people…”


  22. Oh dear! We still believe these stories, written eons after man’s arrival to explain man’s behaviour are actual occurrences????


  23. Cops tackling gun violence
    The recent shooting sprees in several St Michael communities, has the full attention of law enforcement.
    Deputy Commissioner of Police Erwin Boyce said that as part of the immediate strategy, there will be a higher police presence in the communities in question. He also cautioned residents that they would also need to help themselves, stressing that protecting perpetrators with their silence was not going to cut it this time around.
    Boyce said the Barbados Police Service was aware that people were living in fear, as gunmen on several occasions have carried out brazen shootings with no concern for the lives of innocent bystanders.
    “There have been some concerns about the recent gun exchanges especially in those areas identified. We remain very much on the job and we are very much available to the people in those areas.
    “Secondly, I want to say to people that if you see something say something, show us that you are part of the solution and not part of the problem. There are a number of strategies including police being more visible in these communities and these are in motion as we speak. This would allow us to reassure the persons in the particular locations that the police are on the job and that police will ensure that they are secure.”
    Last week the DAILY NATION reported that some residents of Ferniehurst, Black Rock were in mortal dread, ducking for cover as gunmen shot up their homes and vehicles in a second weekend of gunplay that also left two men with multiple injuries. It was the latest in a series of gunplay within the area, which is heavily populated.
    The Deputy Commissioner said it was too early
    to declare whether these acts of gun-related violence were gang-related as the investigations were still ongoing.
    “It is too early to say whether these linked to gangs, but these matters are being investigated. Our investigators are putting the pieces together to ensure that we have a complete assessment of what has happened. We have to determine whether there are linkages or whether these occur within a silo or by individuals and not necessarily groups,” said Boyce.
    Assuring Barbadians that crime was still very much under control, Boyce added: “We have seen a 13 per cent increase in crime according to our last report but this is predicated on minor offences, it does not manifest itself in serious crimes. So, there is no need for an alarm. What we are seeing is [perhaps more noticeable] because we have had a quiet period last year.”
    He noted that apart from the short-term strategies, the police continue to carry out plans to attack crime, especially gun violence at the systemic level. He pointed out that some of these plans were likely to bear fruit in the long term, while cautioning the public that the problem was not going to be an overnight fix.
    “One of the things done over the years is that we created a number of strategies. Some strategies are short term and call for tough law enforcement, some are long term and call for doing the community programmes while making the communities more cohesive. We are still working on those strategies, we are still having the level of response and enforcement activity, so we have a complete package of strategies as part of our response as we go into the next couple of months,” Boyce stressed.
    (CLM)

    Source: Nation


  24. Dear dreamstarworld:

    Can you explain why Satan, Cain, Moses, David, Paul, Judas, the young fella in Taxas, the youn fella in Buffalo, the idiot in St. Vincent who this week threatened to shoot an 11 year old girl are all male?

    Because surely if it was because of original sin, women would be just as murderous as men.

    Yet in NO country do women murder nearly as much as men.


  25. @David May 26, 2022 9:50 AM “Of concern should be the disintegration of the family unit.”

    What family unit you talkin’ ’bout?

    Uni means one, means unified, means together. How many of the families which are producing the murderers a family unit?

    Too many of our men like to boast that “I breed she”, too many of our men act as though their job is to produce pickney for massa’s nigger yard.

    And “yes” Vincent I studied sociology, although not a Cave Hill.

    We will note that the young man in Texas [and please note that at the beginning of May he was a BOY] was living in a house with his 39 year old mother and she 62 year old man who by his admission did not get along with the BOY and rarely interacted with him. And that the grandfather to whose home the BOY fled had a criminal record.

    So who was teaching that BOY right from wrong?

    Who is teaching OUR BOYS right from wrong?

    Is that how any adult should treat any child?


  26. Cuhdear

    A man does not have a cycle like a woman God designed him this way, so that is why a man wants it in the morning, in the midday, in the evening, and at night, because he was designed to produce seed, unlike a woman who has a menstrual cycle.


  27. Right here in Barbados I have had a Cabinet Minister’s kid say to me “my father don’t notice me”

    I’ve had the kid of the head of a tertiary institution say “my father don’t notice me”

    These were children, “outside” children, but children never the less. They deserved better from the men who begot them inside or outside of the martial bed. I remind my male friends and relatives that there are no “outside” children. That ALL children come from INSIDE OUR BODIES.

    Nobody has yet interviewed the Texas youngster’s father yet. Interviews with mother, grandfather, neighbors, school mates, former teachers, governor, police, butcher, baker and candlestick maker. Where is his father?

    Who nurtured this young man?

    Or more correctly, who did not nurture him?

    Who nurtured the HUNDREDS of men at Dodds?

    Or maybe a better question is, who did NOT nurture them.

    If our well educated, eminent men absent themselves from their children’s lives, who then sets the example for the less well educated men? Who is setting the example for the “boys on the block”, many of them young fathers?

    If we do not treat our children better we will have hell to pay. They will be angry with us. They will hate us. The time may well come when we can no longer say “only in America”

    The fathers have eaten sour fruit and the children’s teeth are set on edge.


  28. @ Simple Simon
    You back with this man-bashing shiite again???
    Why don’t you talk about the lotta shiite women that many men have to put up with..?

    Men are brass bowls, and women are brass bowls… (but some of the women are miserable, nagging, brass bowls. Of the sorts that would make a fella CHOOSE to live in a desert…. 🙂 )
    It is only obvious that the poor children will suffer …and become brass bowls too.

    If you are bashing, bash BOTH.


  29. Well, well! So….men don’t like being bashed!

    But when people on here quote Bible ALLEGORIES written by man, blaming woman for leading man astray and being the cause for all that has gone wrong with the world, a woman is to keep her feelings to herself lest she be called a nagging woman who would send a man onto a rooftop or into a desert.

    Of course, we know that the feelings of women do not matter.

    HOWEVER, I sat in a seminar with personnel from the Juvenile Liaison Scheme where I was informed that more than 90% of the inmates at Dodds Prison either never knew their fathers or were ignored by their fathers.

    For WHATEVER REASON, these fathers are not playing the fatherly roles. Human offspring are more complex and difficult to raise to adulthood than animals. Raising a child without a father is very draining for a woman.

    I remember reading a book for Sociology class called “My Mother who Fathered me”.

    This problem has long been with us but…

    In days gone by, the whole village actually did raise the child. Things have changed. Our villages are not as they were. We have adopted the Western “mind your own business” attitude.

    Too, I find, grandmothers often are not as available as they used to be. Granny does not tie her head at forty and declare that she, “dun wid de world”. Granny playin’she still young an’ got she own life tuh live.

    So often the single mother is not enough to manage a difficult child.

    Of course, there are some mothers who don’t give a damn and are into the criminal lifestyle too. Then there are those who allow their new boyfriends to unfair their children.

    As Vincent said, the family solution train has left the station.


  30. Dottin wins $120 000 in damages
    Former Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin has won a libel suit against online newspaper Barbados Today.
    And by consent, the newspaper has agreed to pay him $120 000 in damages, in addition to cost and interest and issue an apology.
    The libel suit, brought against former publisher Roy Morris and editor Wade Gibbons, stems from articles published on September 13, 2013, headlined I’m Out and COP Gone and articles published on September 18, 2013, headlined No Sir – Darwin Dottin Loses Round One Bid For Reinstatement and Dismissed – Suspended Commissioner’s Case Up For Judicial Review.
    The document states: “that between the 18 and 19 June 2013, [Gibbons] encouraged, condoned, connived at and/or permitted or caused to be published falsely and/or maliciously of and concerning [Dottin] on [Gibbons] Barbados Today’s Facebook
    Page or account on the worldwide website at his aforesaid address.
    The suit further said the paper repeated the libel in an article published on February 4, 2019, and again on October 5, 2021.
    The former top cop, who is now a consultant with the Barbados Police Service, was represented by Sir Elliott Mottley QC, and Leslie Haynes QC, while attorney Faye Finisterre represented the online paper.
    Yesterday, Sir Elliott told presiding Justice Barbara Cooke-Alleyne that he was “happy to announce” the parties had reached a settlement on the terms of the matter”.
    “The order reads that Barbados Today Inc. undertakes not to publish the words complained of in [the suit] or any similar words defamatory,” Sir Elliott said.
    “That is worded in that way because that is the
    way in which all injunctions against companies are worded. The settlement, rather than having to bring separate actions with respect to these words, it is intended that this would be a comprehensive settlement,” the senior attorney said.
    The consent order further stated that Barbados Today has undertaken to remove the offending articles within 48 hours from its website, its epaper and its Facebook page.
    “[ Barbados Today] now realises that there was not the slightest foundation for any of these allegations and it is here today . . . to apologise to [Dottin] for having made them and to withdraw unreservedly all imputations upon [Dottin],” the settlement read.
    “As Darwin Dottin brought the proceedings with the sole object of clearing his name, he is content now to let the matter rest,” the statement further read.
    The statement said Barbados Today had agreed to pay Dottin damages in the sum of $120 000, together with interest at a rate of 6 per cent per annum from yesterday, as well as $27 000 in cost with interest of six per cent from yesterday.
    The damages will be paid in equal instalments of $7 500 per month.
    The articles had alleged that Dottin had presided over the police force at a time when the force had been bugging the phones of several Barbadian citizens who were not known or suspected to be involved in criminal activity.
    (HLE)


    Source: Nation


  31. Donna aka give mah back mah virginity,
    but the psychological impact of an absence, controlling and overbearing mother is of no comparison to an absentee father because of the relationship a mother plays in the first few years in the development of that child’s life.
    And moreover, a child has to be mothered more so than fathered, in the first years of life in order for it to developed the right way, so a father input though important does not have the lasting psychological impact of that of an absentee mother.


  32. Donna aka give mah back mah virginity, I vividly called to growing up behind District A Wall, that none of my childhood friends including myself had a father in the home, but we were fortunate to have the Police men at District A as our father figures or males whom we could emulated that took the place of the absentee father.
    And I am proud to say that all of my childhood friends including my 5 brothers, are productive citizens today and even without that father in the home.


  33. You blasted donkey AKA Jackass,

    Leave me out of your stupid nonsense before I give you an AKA related to your time spent watching, with such glee that you still cannot contain it, the sexual assault of minors by grown policemen!

    No way you could have seen so much without actively seeking it out.


  34. @Bush Tea May 27, 2022 10:45 PM “@ Simple Simon. You back with this man-bashing shiite again???”

    Nope. I am not bashing men.

    I am simply pointing out to delinquent fathers that if you do not mentor your sons, some bad boy on the block [or in the house] will be only too happy to do it for you.

    Are you satisfied that nearly 900 young men are imprisoned? I am not. Those imprisoned men are ALL the sons of their fathers.

    Fathers have to do their duty by their sons, regardless of how “miserable” the mothers are. And if the father chooses to live in a desert then he should take his beloved son with him.


  35. Cuhdear, you are talking as though all the fathers in the homes are good examples to their sons. Sometimes it is better that the homes has an absentee father, for to exposed the son to the drinking, womanizing and gambling, is far worse the having an absentee father.


  36. Cuhdear, does a son need to have a father presence in the home for a son to be a productive citizen or know what is entails to be a man or father, when some fathers in the home do not know what it means to be a man or father?


  37. Cuhdear, before my father left the family, all he really did was to go to work early in the morning, came back in the evening showered, leaved out in the evening and came back home in the morning and headed to work the next day. This was my father’s routine before he left family because he had had several outside women, which my mother knew about, and which he took my brothers and I on several occasions, so even though my father were in the home, I hardly considered him a good father because he set a very bad example for my brothers and myself to follow.


  38. @Dompey May 28, 2022 2:12 PM “…drinking, womanizing and gambling, is far worse the having an absentee father.”

    I have NEVER suggested that a drinking, womanizing, gambling man is a good father or a good example to his children. I am sorry to hear that your father was such a bad example to his children and such a bad husband to his wife. There are plenty of good decent men, your father was not one. If you and your five brothers have turned out well in spite of your father, i congratulate you.


  39. @ Cuhdear
    When you reach the stage where Dompey has to put you right – you know it is time to change back to your REAL pseudonym.

    In MANY stable societies, the role of the men is primarily to provide the MATERIAL needs of the family. This often means being away from home for extended periods. Seamen, soldiers, and MANY other occupations come to mind.
    It has ALWAYS been the women who took responsibility for raising children and keeping the family meaningful.

    Up comes the lotta present-day shiite women who want to be ‘men’… work for big money, flaunt nuff bling, and check nuff fellows..
    THEY now go to work, go after material goods, ignore the children …and are mostly miserable as shiite too boot.

    ANY normal man would leave such a mess -even if he have to go live in a damn DESERT.
    Do you REALLY think that so many men leave their house, children and money and SCRAM because they looking for some OTHER shiite woman? …NAH…
    Generally, they just hope to find some PEACE AND QUIET…. even in some mount gay…

    So when ‘miss MISERABLE’ chase the damn man away, only to find that she cannot handle the situation, and things fall apart – you surmise that the ‘problem’ is that the man gone..?
    Steupsss!!!

    @ Dompey
    Hush do!!
    Youn aint no role model…
    You is a HOT mess…. better don’t let Bushie talk yuh business… 🙂


  40. Who the ass is you to decide what a woman’s aspirations should be? What do you know of what women need for fulfilment?

    But there are many women out there who would have been happy to be housewives if the men were not busting their asses with blows because they were financially dependent and unable to leave.

    All old farts want to do is control women!


  41. @ Cuhdear Bajan May 28, 2022 12:22 PM
    (Quote).
    Nope. I am not bashing men.
    I am simply pointing out to delinquent fathers that if you do not mentor your sons, some bad boy on the block [or in the house] will be only too happy to do it for you.
    Are you satisfied that nearly 900 young men are imprisoned? I am not. Those imprisoned men are ALL the sons of their fathers.
    Fathers have to do their duty by their sons, regardless of how “miserable” the mothers are. And if the father chooses to live in a desert then he should take his beloved son with him.
    (Unquote).
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    So what words of advice would you give to the mothers of those daughters who ‘find themselves performing’ in prostitution, porn videos, shoplifting activities and wilful neglect and abuse of their own children?

    Are you prepared to blame also their fathers who have failed to “do their duty” by their daughters or are their mothers solely to blame?

    Why not blame the male priests, pastors and teachers?

    Isn’t the committing of so-called criminal acts endemic to society in order to keep thousands of people employed including those making up the political establishment?

    Now what would your world be like if your concocted Adam had not disobeyed your god, or Eve not put a horn in Adam with Satan and Cain not killed Abel?

    The world has always been the way it is and there is Nothing under the Sun you or anyone else can do to change the moral nature of Man.


  42. RE All old farts want to do is control women!
    ARE THERE FEMALE OLD FARTS TOO?
    LOTS OF WOMEN LIKE TO CONTROL MEN TOO—–ESPECIALLY THEIR MONEY. UH LIE?
    NO BALANCE ON BU
    ON BU ONE MUST JUST FOLLOW THE NARRATIVE WITHOUT THINKING OR HAVING THE ABILITY TO THINK.
    HILARIOUS.


  43. @ Dompey May 28, 2022 2:27 PM

    Fenty boy, why don’t you regale the BU audience with a rehash of those sessions of indoctrination and breaking-in ‘broke-back mountaineering’ you experienced at the hands of those ‘only-to-eager to service’ members of the constabulary behind those Chinese whispering walls of District A?

    Maybe we should re-christen you ;Dompey the Bajan American; with the Rose-shaped bottom.


  44. Miller aka balla

    Balla, I know you love dem stories bout behind District Wall, but I in hear tah send yah imagination wild, causing I hear talkin bout minor girls, and you switched de top tah little boy, man I sah where yah predilection lies.


  45. Miller aka balla

    I only knew two Ballas in the Force back in the day and they were Corporal Beckles who died of a heart attack in the early 70s, and Boville, whom was tried convicted and sentenced to prison for Buggery in the early 80s. And by the way, Corporal Beckles never hid his sexuality because he was openly gay, when being openly gay was a taboo in Bim.


  46. @Miler at 5:49 PM “So what words of advice would you give to the mothers of those daughters who ‘find themselves performing’ in prostitution, porn videos, shoplifting activities and wilful neglect and abuse of their own children?”

    EXACTLY the same advice that I would give to the men. If you do not nurture/mentor you children, somebody else is only too happy to do it for you. Except that you will not like it when your son or daughter becomes a murderer, prostitute, etc.


  47. @Miller “Isn’t the committing of so-called criminal acts…”

    This blog post is about the murder rate.

    I would not call murder a “so-called criminal act.”

    Would you?


  48. @GP May 28, 2022 5:51 PM “LOTS OF WOMEN LIKE TO CONTROL MEN TOO—–ESPECIALLY THEIR MONEY. UH LIE?”

    I don’t know whether you lie or not, as I do not know what sort of women yoo have CHOSEN to associate with.

    How can a woman control a man’s money?
    Are you foolish enough to you share your banking information with an untrustworthy woman?
    Are you stupid that you would share your PIN number with strange women?


  49. Sons and daughters who are loved and nurtured by their PARENTS tend to turn out well.

    Does anybody on BU disagree with that statement?


  50. I don’t know why the BU men are so antsy and defensive.

    I trust that none of them have been abusive, negligent or absent fathers.

    Goodnight all.


  51. @ Cuhdear
    “I don’t know why the BU men are so antsy and defensive.”
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Bushie can tell you why the men are so….
    But ONLY if you explain why most women are so miserable and bitchy…

    Of course if you did that, you would get the Noble Prize, since no one has been able to explain it before.


  52. Balance is when old farts pull out some old allegory and blame all the sins of the world on women!

    STEUPSE!

    Of course there are controlling women, wicked women, MISERABLE women!

    The big difference is that we women haven’t written a religious book of indoctrination and concocted a whole philosophy of control of men based on a blasted allegory to justify our bad behaviour.

    Controlling women, wicked women, MISERABLE women need to check themselves!

    Upon these things the women of BU would ALL agree! WE are not looking for excuses. We are not trying to restrict the ambitions of men simply because WE DON’T WANT TO PLAY OUR PART.

    Some women are capable of calculating equations that can send a man to the moon! Yet, with this “GOD-GIVEN” brain capacity, some “sage” (who cannot reach the heights of mathematics that they can) believes that such women should be satisfied to cook, wash, iron and clean, change shitty diapers and talk baby babble all day.

    This is the dream of some women and there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with that choice. But to insult all other women who NEED the challenge of maximising the use of their academic and other capabilities as “women who want to be men” is ridiculous. These women did not DECIDE that they wanted to be men. They had a NATURAL DESIRE to use their abilities. This natural desire for interesting pursuits and challenges was crushed in earlier patriarchal societies, just as the Taliban still does today. But who cares about the frustrations of women, huh? Not old farts! They, never having inhabited the body and mind of a woman, remain convinced that THEY can determine their essence. THEY can determine what a woman was made for and should desire. What would a woman know about what she needs for fulfilment, after all?!! Her wish should be to be an obedient sex supplier for her husband (with convincing fake orgasms for his ego), a great homemaker for his creature comforts, a baby machine for his manly image and a dutiful mother to produce children of which he can boast, “A chip off the old block!”

    Of course, the blasted old allegory does take convenient pains to relay that woman was created for man, not man for woman.

    With a little help from the fathers of their children WOMEN can fulfil their dreams outside of the home and still raise children who will be assets to society.

    But some old fart wants to tell women where they should find their fulfilment!

    Or else they are not “real women”.

    And yes, igrunt old farts of that opinion do make me want to scream!

    But you old farts label that as being miserable, absolving yourselves, AS USUAL, of any part in creating the “misery”.

    Is this what “real men” do?

    Pathetic!


  53. A beautiful day to all of Barbados, but especially to my favorite group of Barbadians.

    You make my day interesting, providing both food for thought and at times a smile.

    Stay strong, stay beautiful.


  54. But would agree that devoid of the Temple, Mosque and Church, when we look at the Animal Kingdom ( even though the Animal Kingdom isn’t the place to search for morality), we see females with the different habits playing the nurturing and mentoring role to their offspring? Now devoid of the Command Devine Theory, I do believe that Nature ( not man) has designed the specific roles for the male and the female based on their congenital attributes.


  55. It is evident that a lot of the female and male behaviour is shaped, and conditioned by the culture or society in which the male and female is raised, because when we look at the seven emotional states( laughter, sadness, hatred, joy etc), we see both male and female possessing these seven emotional states, but we also see how society has conditioned the way in which these seven emotional states are expressed by both the male and the female.
    For example, society has taught the female how to embraced her emotions, while on the hand, the male is taught that any outward showing of emotions in public or private is viewed as a sign of weakness.


  56. @Bush Tea May 28, 2022 10:50 PM “Bushie can tell you why the men are so….
    But ONLY if you explain why most women are so miserable and bitchy…”

    In my 70 years I’ve only met 2 women who may be described as “miserable and bitchy” the behavior of one can be explained by the fact that her father was murdered by another MAN when she was at elementary school, so we can call her behavior Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The other was a “foreigner” a no-Bajan woman. I think that maybe she was WARU’s sister.

    P.S. Apologies to all BU men who are married too lovely foreign women. You know that I don’t mean your beautiful wives.


  57. In my 70 years I’ve only met 2 women who may be described as “miserable and bitchy”
    ~~~~~~~~~~~
    Yuh LIE!!


  58. @cuhdear
    “P.S. Apologies to all BU men who are married to lovely foreign women.”

    Rewriting

    P.S. Apologies to all BU men who are married or are in a relationship with lovely women.


  59. When the courts break
    By Garth Patterson

    Lady Justice sat on a wall, Lady Justice had a great fall, All the Queen’s Counsel and all the President’s men, Couldn’t put Justice together again.
    As citizens of this country, as in most civilised societies, we have certain basic, legitimate, inalienable rights and expectations. Among these are the rights to life, to liberty, to own property and to the protection of law. These fundamental rights are enshrined in our Constitution, the preamble to which declares that “the people of Barbados . . . proclaim their unshakeable faith in fundamental human rights and freedoms . . . and affirm their belief that men and institutions remain free only when freedom is founded upon respect for moral and spiritual values and the rule of law.”
    Section 18 of the Constitution contains provisions that are intended to secure unto every citizen the protection of law; and section 24 provides the mechanisms for the enforcement of the fundamental rights provisions by means of an application to the High Court for redress. For without the institutional framework to enforce the rule of law, and to safeguard the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution, the proclamation of those rights would be nothing more than sterile aspirations in a meaningless document.
    Our courts, therefore, play a central, indispensable role in the organisation of civilised society in accordance with the modern precepts of justice and the rule of law. In the discharge of their constitutional remit, the courts are mandated to afford every accused person and civil litigant “a fair hearing within a reasonable time”. This is a hallowed, immutable principle that undergirds any reputable system of justice. From it springs the trite, much-weathered, truism: justice delayed is justice denied. But those words are rendered threadbare and hollow in the absence of an effective mechanism to provide redress when the court system breaks down and is no longer capable of ensuring unto the citizenry a fair trial within a reasonable time.
    Numerous cases
    A cursory review of the civil cause list will reveal that the Barbados High Court is, in 2022, still routinely dealing with numerous cases filed over a decade ago, many filed over 20 years ago and even some cases filed in the 1980’s. (Full disclosure: my own matrimonial cause has been clogged in the system for 15 years and counting). The same picture emerges in respect of the criminal docket, where matters languish within the criminal justice system for several years. These inordinate delays in dispensing justice have clear and unmistakable adverse implications for fair hearing and the notion of justice and unquestionably engage the provisions of the constitution that are designed to secure the protection of law. But is access to those provisions more illusory than real when, in order to seek redress, a litigant must turn to the same courts against which the complaints of unreasonable delays are being levelled? We face an intractable crisis, and the real prospect of anarchy, when we cannot depend on the courts to adjudicate matters within a reasonable time and have no recourse, other than to the same courts, when the system breaks down.
    In one Jamaican case, the Privy Council said that in considering whether a reasonable time has elapsed, consideration must be given to the past and current problems which affect the administration of justice. It said that in giving effect to the rights granted by the Constitution, the courts must balance the fundamental right of the individual to a fair trial within a reasonable time against the public interest in the attainment of justice in the context of the prevailing system of legal administration and the prevailing economic, social and cultural conditions.
    The complex problems that affect the administration of justice in Barbados cannot be adequately covered in a short article, and
    I can attempt only a precis of some of the more obvious and prevalent issues. They include: (i) inadequate State resources to ensure that accused persons are provided legal representation; (ii) inadequate State resources to properly staff the public prosecution office and the Solicitor General’s department; (iii) inadequate State resources to properly staff the courts and the judiciary; (iv) judges and magistrates who are frustrated, demotivated and disillusioned due to poor working conditions, inadequate support, low salaries, heavy caseloads and too few judicial officers; (v) the absence of effective legal mechanisms to hold judges and magistrates to account for habitual bad performance; (vi) lax enforcement of the procedural rules designed to secure the prompt disposition of matters and (vii) the all-too-frequent zeal of some unscrupulous lawyers in “gaming the system”.
    Excessive delay
    The existence of these problems has been the subject of frequent comment by the Caribbean Court of Justice, which in the 2015 case of Walsh v Ward, where the period of delay was 17 years, said: “Regretfully, we are forced to comment once more on the excessive delay that characterises many cases coming to us from Barbados . . . . This type of delay imposes hardship on the litigants. This is a case where the hardship is obvious. The delay also reflects adversely on the reputation and credibility of the civil justice system as a whole, and reinforces the negative images which the public can have of the way judges and lawyers perform their roles.”
    Lamenting that the delays were systemic, the CCJ said: “The consistent need for the repetition of this disapproval, and over such a long period, of the delays in the system accompanied by calls for remedial action makes the situation extremely deplorable. Reaction can no longer be put off. This is an aspect of the judicial role for which there should be accountability. We urge the judiciary to take steps to address the problem of delay in the judicial process and ensure that citizens enjoy the benefit of the constitutional promise of a fair and expeditious resolution of disputes.”
    Endemic problems
    In 2019, recognising the endemic problems being caused by delays in judges delivering decisions, Parliament amended the Constitution to include a provision that, in addition to misbehaviour, a judge could be removed from office for delay of more than six months in delivering a judgment. Sadly, however, in the three years since that amendment, the systemic problems of delay, not only in the delivery of decisions, but also in bringing matters to hearing or trial, remain endemic. Practitioners, like myself, daily find ourselves in the invidious position of advising clients that the system is hopelessly broken, and that we can give no meaningful estimate as to when their matter is likely to be heard and decided.
    Dereliction in duty, in failing to bring matters on for trial, or deciding them, within a reasonable time arguably amounts to misbehaviour. Yet no judge in Barbados has ever been sanctioned for misbehaviour or delay.
    To be sure, the fault cannot, and should not, be laid at the feet of the judiciary alone. Those at the highest echelons of power who are charged with the administration of justice are equally to blame. Moreover, it takes two hands to clap, and lawyers (and their clients) must also play their part in supporting the due administration of justice by eschewing the unsavory practices that promote delays. But, in the courtroom, the buck stops with the judge or magistrate, and he or she must shoulder a good deal of the responsibility for delays. In the end, the accused persons and civil litigants are the ones who must pick up the mangled and bloody pieces of their lives after being chewed up and spat out of the woodchipper that presently passes as our judicial system. It is a completely unsatisfactory situation, and we can, and must, do better.
    Garth Patterson is a Queen’s Counsel.
    PART 2

    Source: Nation


  60. I like Garth’s (GP3) article, but it documents what we are already aware of and mentioned previously.

    At some stage we have to move beyond recycling a laundry list and start working on putting solutions in place.

    TheO’s rating: Taking your girlfriend to the zoo a second time. You like the animals but there is nothing new. A good article by GP3, but nothing new.


  61. The article spelled out the basic rights which every person in a democracy ought to enjoy, but I felt a little disappointed when the article failed to make mention of what I consider the fundamental of all Rights, and that is the Right to Vote.


  62. @GP “(Full disclosure: my own matrimonial cause has been clogged in the system for 15 years and counting). ”

    Good Lord!!! Does this mean that the couple is in legal limbo, not married and yet not divorced for 15 years?

    Ridiculous. In 15 years I have raised children from birth to 5th form/CXC. In 15 years Little Susie went from an 8 pound swaddled new born in hospital to having earned 8 CXC’s, while at HC. The 16th birthday occurred after the CXC results came back.

    How can it take 15 years for a matrimonial matter to be settled? I would have though that settling a matrimonial matter was far simpler that raising a child almost to adulthood.

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