Banner promoting anonymous crime reporting with a phone and contact number 1 800 TIPS (8477), featuring the Crime Stoppers logo and a QR code for submitting tips.

← Back

Your message to the BLOGMASTER was sent

Is Barbados trapped in a vortex of incompetence?

Chief Education Officer – Dr. Ramona Archer-Bradshaw

In light of today’s fiasco which went horribly wrong at the Springer School earlier today the following comments posted by the blogmaster on the blog Education Transformation – Substance or Smoke? to which Bush Tea replied are instructive.

@Bush Tea

When a society and by extension people lack confidence in the leadership, there will be negative consequences. We can discuss, distill, slice and dice these proposals all we want but if people lack the confidence and complementary self esteem, it will be an academic exercise.

In the land of the blind, a one eye …

@ David
It is not that people ‘lack confidence in leadership’.
There is NOTHING that Bajans would like better than to have leaders in whom they can have confidence.

The problem is that the people lack COMPETENCE in leadership…. and even with the most expensive PR in the world, the most rancid of their yard poultry is being forced to lose confidence…

A bunch of emotion-driven ‘leaders’ appealing to party loyalty can only go so far…. Even Santia has now fallen into the trap (with that ill-advised speech a few days ago).
Clearly, these are TOUGH assignments – requiring WISE leadership….

…and Boss, ‘WISE’ has ONLY ONE origin…..

Education Transformation – Substance or Smoke?

Implementation of projects and activities will sometimes go wrong; milestones have to be changed because additional resources maybe required, events outside the control of project management may occur and so on. However, under successive governments and especially the incumbent, the label that Barbados suffers from implementation deficit has grown.

There is one example the blogmaster likes to use to define the ineptness of successive governments starting from the Tom Adams era in the mid-1980s. No it is not the government of the day ignoring Auditor General reports. It is how we have allowed the Zr/Minibus subculture to take root. To the extent it has compromised our once orderly society. An orderly society that differentiated Barbados from Jamaica, Trinidad and the others. In was a characteristic in the 80s which encouraged immigrants from other islands to flock to Barbados to enjoy our quality of life. This is no longer the case.

Here is the question.

If the government cannot bring order to the transportation sector that is responsible for a negative subculture- we see it on our roads daily- where are Barbadians to be infused with the confidence that the largest Cabinet in the history of Barbados can be a successful agent for transformational change?

It is no secret the blogmaster for years has always adopted a cup half full outlook. In recent years it has become difficult to maintain a positive outlook with the level of inertia and incompetence being visited on the people of Barbados by elected officials. The irony is if a general election were to be held next week a Barbados Labour Party (BLP) would probably be reelected.

Here is another question.

Is Barbados trapped in a vortex of incompetence?


Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

163 responses to “Simulated Incompetence”


  1. Bushie

    Yuh wrong bout leadership but maybe right bout education.

    The confidence of the people was never a necessary precondition for success.

    In fact, we are prepared to contend that the best leaders invariably have trod a lonely path and are only seen as good leaders after the fact.

    However this writer, having read much and taught the literature in this area remains unconvinced that people need leadership, as if sheep.

    We will propose that people must lead themselves.


  2. Bushie..? Wrong…?
    LOL
    ha ha ha !
    No further comment.

    Re: the situation today at Springer:
    LOL
    ha ha ha !
    No further comment.

    They SHOULD have STOPPED digging… as advised.

    Now we can only wait to see where Kaye and Ramona will be PROMOTED to….


  3. Ouch! My words ain’t fall to the ground:

    “I encourage you to apply this data/evidence first approach more often not only when it fits your narrative.”


  4. Are the I’ll intentioned intruders going to notify parents and students when they intend to break into a school? Today, the administration of the Springer Memorial School, the police service and the BDF know more about the needed preparation needed to prepare for and face such a potential crisis in the future.


  5. It is all about the optics. Teachers who should have been aware reacting in panic, children feinting, parents hanging on to limp bodies of children tell a story that is not complimentary of how the simulation was executed.

  6. Terence M Blackett Avatar
    Terence M Blackett

    ARE THERE ANY ADULTS IN THE ROOM – OR JUST GAGGLE OF WAGE-EARNERS?
    https://youtu.be/edwFn2u-D2E?si=UO_K9Cww2swT-pJV


  7. “Are the ill intentioned intruders going to notify parents and students when they intend to break into a school? Today, the administration of the Springer Memorial School, the police service and the BDF know more about the needed preparation needed to prepare for and face such a potential crisis in the future.”

    I can see that you do not give a damn about the terror and abuse inflicted on teachers, school children and some parents.

    Traumatizing children to provide GoRoBPF and GoRoBDF with data points should be off the table. Besides, I am not convinced that these Forces will be able to make meaningful use of the collected data.

  8. Terence M Blackett Avatar
    Terence M Blackett

    National Association of School Psychologists purview on this issue is as follows – (“OPERATIVE” word-USE* here is): COMPETENCE –

    https://www.nasponline.org/resources-and-publications/resources-and-podcasts/school-safety-and-crisis/systems-level-prevention/conducting-crisis-exercises-and-drills


  9. It bothers me when some will excuse cruelty inflicted on a segment of the population. They use sweet sounding phrases to mask the horror experienced by others.

    One group should act a guinea pigs so that others can benefit. Horrible.


  10. Anyone who is “ok” with what happened yesterday should be fired.

    Just saying

  11. Terence M Blackett Avatar
    Terence M Blackett

    @DAVID

    Thanks for giving this story wings…

    Had some unfortunate child suffered a coronary arrest – parents across BIM* would have been up in arms with God knows what kind of consequences…

    This is what the medical research shows:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7769772/


  12. Folks… Here is the bottom line…

    ‘Good Intent’ is a viable address in Barbados…
    but as a management strategy, …IT SUCKS!

    What we have is a bunch of clueless, emotional, ‘leaders’, who all MEAN WELL, but who have NO IDEA of the complexities of the modern world, and of the systemic dangers and risks involved in tinkering with its complex mechanisms.

    An innocent policemen, parent or other concerned citizen who happened to visit that school during the incident could EASILY have pulled a license weapon and shot one, or more of the ‘intruders’ (innocent actors).
    A panicked child could have jumped through a window and sustained serious injury…
    Quite apart from the OBVIOUS trauma and strife caused, NUMEROUS other bad scenarios COULD have resulted…

    Drills ARE needed, and they are important, BUT LIKE PRACTICALLY EVERYTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD OF 2023, these things MUST be managed by competent, experienced, trained professionals – who are able to safely manage such complex issues…

    Now if you DEMONSTRATE your incompetence to properly transfer a few dozen teachers, ….AND you can’t organize a simple ROUTINE drill safely….

    How the Hell will you manage to reform the WHOLE broken eddykashun system?

    …by magic…?
    Steupsss


  13. In baseball it’s three strikes and you’re out, some officials at the MOE are batting with an unknown number of strikes perhaps infinity is the number.

    I find it hard to believe that the MOE was kept in the dark about a security “simulation” that involved the Barbados Defence Force, Barbados Police Service, and the Barbados Ambulance Service. How can one school involve these branches of state without reference to the overriding authority? At the risk of dating myself, my first job out of high school from Service Commission was a two week assignment as a temporary clerical officer to the Ministry of Education. I was placed in the “Registry” where I was given the task of recording every piece of mail that came through the door where it was supposed to go to the then PS- Major Rudolph Daniel. Maybe things haven’t changed, the notification must have been sent by snail mail and is somewhere in the “Registry” awaiting delivery to whomever is in charge.

    Unbelievable.


  14. @The A Guy
    I have admiration for those who can retrieve an old comment to prove their point. Perhaps, you can share how this is done.

    I am looking for a post where it was highlighted that at two times the Ministry had no knowledge of an activity that fell within its domain. The old brain is not remembering one of the three times and my search of BU is not finding anything.


  15. I am surprise that none of the 30-0 crew rushed in to claim that this bungling was justification for a next 30-0.

    The bungle/screw-up/mess up/misstep/fail crew often rush here (after a screw-up) with two statements
    (1) a next 30-0 in your backside, and
    (2) The great Ronnie O is a lightweight and night watchman

    This is like a crew member of the sinking Titanic giving the captain a vote of confidence.


  16. Is the blame all political? What is the role of BUT and BSTU?


  17. Lord first the questionnaire bout if you gay or not and now this! What next pray tell?


  18. Today’s press conference was thin on details.

  19. Terence M Blackett Avatar
    Terence M Blackett

    @David

    Had a proper concise, Black conscious history been taught to the last generation of scholars – those we call the “BABY-BOOMERS” et al, the current impasse our young Black men & women face would be virtually nonexistent…

    The Protestant Ethic has done nothing but whitewash, mar and stain the soul of the melanated man – leaving him nothing but a relic of who he is/was & could possibly be…

    “HISTORY” has been used as a “GENETIC WEAPON” to level our mitochondrial ethnocentric consciousness – leaving us with no real “DISTINCT” person-hood or genealogical legacy that we can relate to, or carve out an understanding of our roots, far beyond the ravages of the African Slave trade…

    The MIS-education & DIS-education of the Black man (MIS-leading, DIS-sonance) remains the historical shackles that still holds him captive in a land called ^NOD^ (far outside the EDEN* sought, relished & occupied by the just & the good)…

    What is truly tragic we ask: where do find those “CONSCIOUS NEGROES” who are willing to open reservoirs of knowledge based opportunities for our GENZers??? Do they even have a thirst for something better??? Has every last drop of blood been squeezed from their poor souls by a system of engineered treachery – where the “MODERN GATEKEEPERS” are the ancient ‘slave-catchers’ who sell their own for a bedeviled trinket, a tipple of rum & few meaningless coins???

    Who will offer them hope beyond the sword & the musket??? Is the “Glock” & the “Rambo Knife” the new suit of armor???

    The school system has/is a colossal failure and needs to be completely re-VAMPED, if not done away with altogether, lest we end up with a society of youths similar to the Japanese ‘Hikikomori Phenomenon’ – where their neural pathways have been so truncated, atrophied & morphed into a “Metaverse” from which there will be no possibility of living in the real world, anymore…

    The youth are the future. Sadly, the future is satiated with existential minefields which no one seems to have any real answer to and our leaders (DEAF, DUMB & BLIND) as they are, believe that you can put a sticking plaster up a cancerous melanoma (somehow, expecting it will heal up) because it is out of sight!!!

    In the words of Scripture: “WHO HAS DECEIVED & BEWITCHED YOU, O, FOOLISH GALATIANS”??? (3:1)


  20. @TB

    As the blog ‘thesisarizes’ we lack competent leadership.


  21. Terrorists: A+
    Those who were assigned the task of terrorizing the children are the only characters in this debacle who should receive an A+ grade. They played the part well. Their success at traumatizing, terrifying and abusing these children probably kept a few children at home today

    Min of ED + CEO: F-
    Be honest now!

    Do you think that these arrogant “idicators’ who cannot conduct a simple drill/simulation should be responsible for transforming the education system in Barbados?

    This is a group that never apologizes or accepts responsibility. Its fallback positions are “it did not know”, “it was misinformed” and just added “it was informed late”
    .
    Do you think they should be responsible for transforming our education system? Perhaps, we need to tell them “Hold off”


  22. @David
    yours@1.25pm

    Agree with that assessment, the Chief Education Officer finally admitted that they were aware of the drill, and I interpreted her other comments to mean that although they were informed, they didn’t know of the nature of this “simulation” because they in her words don’t “micro-manage” principals. I thought that everyone was trying to justify the exercise, and no one answered the question as to why this model was necessary. However, the President of BSTU brought up examples where staff were threatened or intimidated by intruders (including parents), I don’t know if any of that rises to the level of the “simulation” that was carried out.

    I got the overall feeling from the lot as “we do what we do and to hell with you”, but if body language is anything to go by please spare a thought for the poor guy sitting to the right of the Chief Education Officer who spent the whole PC with his head down perhaps thinking “wuh wunna drag me in here for”.


  23. There’s a video on here where the CEO admit that they were informed
    It was posted last night by David

  24. Critical Analyzer Avatar
    Critical Analyzer

    Wherever you look, the problem is all the same. People in decision making positions lacking the necessary common sense and critical thinking skills necessary to anticipate certain actions and aske pertinent questions.

    All they were thinking about is making the simulation as realistic as possible. No one deploys smoke bombs during a fire drill otherwise people will think it is a real fire.

    At some point someone along the way should have said we making this too realistic with the fake weapons, etc. Faced with a weapon, very few people are going to take the time to notice if it real or fake unless it is made from white Styrofoam.

    What the simulation should have been was
    1) The principal announcing a school lockdown on the PA system with one or more multiple intruders on the compound.
    2) Some teachers should have been dressed as the intruders with clearly fake weapons but faces visible so students know it is a simulation with fake intruders walking the compound to determine who followed the school lockdown procedure.
    3) Finally to test the police, BDF and security guard response time.


  25. judge for yourselves.

  26. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    @David, in the absence of all details one hesitates to respond to what as most have described is an absolute unconscionable act of stupidity by Mia’s admin!

    The BushGriot said above that “drills …MUST be managed by competent, experienced, trained professionals” and as we saw from the debacle of the police response to the mass shooting in Texas at the elementary school when 21 children and adults lost their lives senselessly the CRUX of any attack drill MUST be the RESPONSE and perimeter security PROTOCOLS !!!

    It is unimaginable that in the face of repeated multiple deaths in these school massacre which these kids see repeatedly on social media and of course the brutal and very real RECENT scenes out of Gaza that any rational, experienced education or security official would approve what we have been told took place.

    That was madness; Parents should sue Min of Ed for the distress and trauma caused to their children.

    Such drills – again as noted above – are focused on 1) how to mitigate the risks – so you review loop holes the simulation may uncover and 2) how well the SWAT and related teams execute their skills.

    You NEVER place real people (unknowingly) into direct harm and trauma !

    It is clearly understood that a real attack will be brutal and deadly but to mimic that in a simulation to SCARE innocents particularly in a school setting is exactly the opposite thrust of what is desired!

    That was utter and complete unprofessional absurdity. Parents must seek re-dress aggressively.

    Lata.


  27. In answer to a question about accountability, the CEO said that when she hears “accountable’ she hears blame. I think she also said she is a scientist and relies on facts/ evidence; that in a nutshell is why there is no one to blame for the fiasco about the questionnaire, the botching of the transfers of the principals and deputies and the debacle of a “simulation”.

    Now you know


  28. It is not incompetence David. It is a whole set of foolish know-it-alls who feel that nobody can tell them anything.

    They large and in charge.

    This morning I reminded my grandchildren that adults are sometimes foolish.


  29. Somebody, very likely many somebodies are to blame.

    But I want to hear from the Captain. A Captain is responsible for his ship even when he is sleeping.

    Where d’ captain in dis t’ing?


  30. Well our bright leaders have discovered that if you are armed with a gun [the children didn’t know it was mock] while the other person is armed with a pencil, then the pencil wielder will be scared, will run, will scream, will faint.

    Well I cudda tell them all that without charging anybody one cent.

  31. Terence M Blackett Avatar
    Terence M Blackett

    @David

    “As the blog ‘thesisarizes’ we lack competent leadership…”

    AGREED!!!

    But for over a decade of observational analysis of the BU FAMILY, Barbados does NOT* lack intellectual acrobats & persons of credible genius…

    WHY ARE THEY THE SILENT MINORITY???

    I could pick “HALF-A-DOZEN” gifted BU members (you included, my beloved, Bruh) who are not only inspired individuals but have a profound grasp of social policy and the ability to implement practices, programs & procedures that would have a “COMMON GOOD” (excuse my use of prima facie ‘Catholic Theology’) upon a small growing nation state…

    This is not the theatrics of Robin Hood and his band of merry-men!!!

    I also agree that “we get the leaders we elect…” but for a nation such as ours with so much potential & possibilities – it is inexcusable that we tolerate “POOR PISS-ARSE LEADERSHIP” from a group of “PARASITES” who leech of the sinews of the people and provide “ZERO VISION” for our young men & women going forward into their futures (if there will be any at all)…

    You wonder why in Black countries there is such a “BRAIN DRAIN” & “MIGRANT CRISIS”???

    Your #PrimeMinister can articulate verbatim all she wants (without “PROPS” or visual cues) – at length, on any subject of sociopoLIEtical strategy, but it does not amount to a hill of beans – when folks will argue vociferously at the damnably defunct nature of the state of conditions in the country and often how a group of virulently, truculent leaders who are still paid handsomely for mediocrity, abject failure & occupational inertia!!!

    So while the nation is being held at “GUNPOINT” by dark, sinister forces – operational suspects within all facets of the society, (from hierarchy to grassroots) – the 1% feed themselves off the “FAT” & “CREAM” (feathering their nests like birds of prey) while a vast majority literally eat the bread the “DEVIL” kneads!!!

    Have they not yet fathomed the notion that too much build up in a pressure cooker can cause it to blow??? What happens then???

    These are not days for any nation to be playing games with the lives of its citizens. Yes, there will always be “RICH” & “POOR” – that is Scriptural – however, the poor have been left amongst us as a test of our humanity and systematic benevolence but moreover, that we should work assiduously to express the “CARE” & “CONCERN” that is required – were we in a similar vein…

    I do NOT* FEAR ANYTHING (“#ButGod”) but I have an insalubrious fear for the country of my foreparents who were militarily geographically displaced by “World War Z” (the greatest WAR” against any peoples since time began) where too many millions lie dead in the largest graveyard in human history – (THE ATLANTIC OCEAN) but to envisage that conditions would be as they are today, pays irreverence & irrelevance to their memory given the price that was paid…

    AWAKE, AWAKE, BAJANS*, time to put on your beautiful garments…

    On that note, I’m done!!!


  32. @ Cuhdear Bajan on October 12, 2023 at 11:21 PM said:

    “Somebody, very likely many somebodies are to blame.
    But I want to hear from the Captain. A Captain is responsible for his ship even when he is sleeping.

    Where d’ captain in dis t’ing?”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    One set of people you, Ms Simple Simon(e), can’t blame this time around are the “MEN”.

    You used to argue that the problems plaguing Bullbadus were as a direct result of men being in charge.

    Now that women are the bosses, what has gone wrong?

    You owe Captain Bush Tea an apology along with a 100,000 Hail Marys, as he was spot on all along.


  33. You owe Captain Bush Tea an apology along with a 100,000 Hail Marys, as he was spot on all along.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Thanks Miller…
    But Bushie don’t want any ‘Hail Marys’…
    100,000,000 hail the ‘Boss Bushman’ could be a start….


  34. @TB

    There is a stigma attached to serving in the public among quality citizens. It is an enigma if you consider our best people should want to serve in the public interest. How can you be a quality citizen and relinquish an inherent responsibility and obligation to serve the public.


  35. In Barbados, when the real crisis occurs in a school the calls for emergency assistance will go to the Police Service and the Barbados Defence Force. The object of the exercise is to report on all the weaknesses including the need to manage psychological and physical harm so that these agencies can learn from the simulation. In medicine and other sciences, we all learn from bad outcomes.


  36. @BMcDonald

    All agree the drill as attempted by Springer Memorial is necessary but it was in the implementation that it came up short. We can take the learnings from the experience and to improve our readiness.


  37. The biggest joke of this whole affair is the DLP’s reaction… typified by the Bascombe chap on Brass Tacks.

    The ONLY thing worse than the BLP’s current performance with eddykashun in living memory was the totally asinine DLP clowns who proceeded them…
    ..led by ‘Froon’ and Ronald Jones…

    If Bushie was a ‘D’, the bushman would keep his donkey muzzled and let the BLP have their day in the jobby… and NOT inspire recollections of THEIR tenure..

    What a cursed country….



  38. @Bush Tea

    Good point. These self styled talk show dlpites do nothing to enhance the reputation of the New Democratic Labour Party ((DLP). They are synonymous with the lot who were dumped at the polls last two general elections.

  39. Is it true, we will get a simulation redo Avatar
    Is it true, we will get a simulation redo

    Lawd, help us

    Mia’s touch is one to be feared. We are so accustomed to having her miserable, motley and mistake prone crew doing a redo or do over that I am afraid of what will happen when they attempt a second simulation to cover up the last fiasco.

    I am still amused that as the good ship BLP continues to flounder and sink some will remind us of the sinking of the good old ship DLP. It goes without saying that all Barbadians do not want to see a second sinking, but the captain of the BLP reminds me of a driver who hits every pothole in the road.


  40. David
    on October 13, 2023 at 9:18 AM said:
    Rate This

    @BMcDonald

    All agree the drill as attempted by Springer Memorial is necessary but it was in the implementation that it came up short. We can take the learnings from the experience and to improve our readiness.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Sorry, but this needs proper planning before there is any implementation attempted.

    Here is one of many training videos schools use.

    You will see the pupils do go through training drills but they know upfront what to do.

    Are our schools even set up for lockdown?

    Can the classrooms even be isolated?

    To do that our schools need to be air conditioned and windows removed in classrooms removed!

    The practicalities seem insuperable if classrooms are setup as I remember them.

    If you fail to plan you plan to fail.

  41. Steel or steal houses Avatar
    Steel or steal houses

    Do you recall that a few weeks ago someone was talking about nuclear power? Do you think that was a good idea? Thank God that some things occurs only in our imagination.
    -xx-
    https://nationnews-brb.newsmemory.com/?publink=0aaf29437_134ad89
    Excerpt
    “Recognise that the value is higher than what we can utilise for Hurricane Elsa, so you have to be fair to Government as we are fair to the citizens of this country.

    “We agreed to replace 1 709 displaced families to the tune of $124 million by three agencies – UDC (Urban Development Commission), RDC (Rural Development Commission) and NHC – with the majority being done by NHC, but the value of those light gauge steel units is higher than the wooden houses [they would be replacing].
    “We can’t be giving you a [steel] house at a time like this when the structures which have been damaged are wooden structures,” he said.

    That’s about the steal houses. Look like the administration is coming around to thinking that steal houses are too good/expensive for the average Barbadian. Don’t get distracted, keep your eyes on the 150 steal houses that are already here.


  42. All the exercise has shown the public is that Springer Memorial is an extremely soft target and officials and students do not have a clue what to do in the event of an emergency.

    There isn’t any option now for all schools to plan for any eventuality.

    Somebody is going to make a bundle.


  43. Dear mama mia,

    please promote the lady to be the High Commissioner of Barbados in Ottawa.

The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading