Est.2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

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.

Minister of Zrs urgently required

← Back

Your message to the BLOGMASTER was sent

CONTACT THE BLOGMASTER ONLY

In 2018 Prime Minister said to Barbadians – ‘give muh d vote and watch muh‘ and the rest is history. The Barbados Labour Party (BLP) won ALL the 30 seats in the Lower House and repeated in 2022.

There is the saying to who much is given, much is expected. Prime Mottley supported the unprecedented mandate by appointing the largest Cabinet in the history of a post-1966 government. Here defence of the large was simple – ‘many hands make light work‘.

The embededed video made the rounds last week on social media and similar to how we response to the high incidence of homicides Barbadians have become numb to the daily ‘adventures’ of Zrs and Minibuses on our roads.

It cannot be refuted that in the period incumbent Barbados Labour Party (BLP) government has been elected to office public transportation has gotten worse. The Transport Authority like many oversight bodies; FTC, FSC etc struggle to deliver on mandates.

The obvious question Barbadians must asked – although a rhetorical question is- if many hands make light work ‘wuh happen’? Fifty eight years and counting since we declared self government and successive governments continue to fail at regulating public transportation in Barbados. The result is a marauding sub culture that has help to stoke deviate behaviour in our people, especially the youth.

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

46 responses to “Minister of Zrs urgently required”

  1. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    I took a ZR to church this morning, nice church music and even nicer driving.

  2. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    I don’t know how a Minister, political or theological can cure aggression in young men.

    One of my church sisters brought me home and on our way we encountered an aggressive young man [not a ZR man] driving a a big, big truck, who like he want the whole road for his big, big truck on our narrow, narrow roads occupied by just his one.

    Stupssseee!!!!

  3. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    If anybody knows of a cure for youthful, male aggression, please tell the rest of us.

  4. John Avatar
    John

    Cuhdear Bajan
    December 1, 2024 at 12:43 pm
    Rate This

    If anybody knows of a cure for youthful, male aggression, please tell the rest of us.

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

  5. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Well, anybody including the writer, who attached meanings other than a purely rechtorical one, or one which demonstrates hyperbole in language, or one purely political, deserves to be so misled.

    Indeed, that after 58 years of a so-called independence that half the population goes to all lengths to deny the reality of what passes for governance is even a larger indictment than these criminal expressions of all politicians, all politicians, can only give.

    To conjure that this regime and its dictator, in wait then, could have meant anything other than the above is more a function of those who took her seriously and goes past the reasonable limits of wanting to inflict a sentence of the gang incumbent then.

    And those same persons who were fooled for decades, as even now. Those same consumers of propaganda about an innately undemocratic system who continue to hold out hope that this faux system of government will at some point finally become that which firmly resides within their pipe-dreams, imaginings, even with decades of irrefutable proofs to the contrary, must come to see themselves as slaves to such an ungodly system and then therefore make such a public declaration.

  6. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    brand new.

    https://nationnews.com/2024/12/01/police-band-travelling-in-style/

  7. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    she real vex.

  8. John Avatar
    John

    Cynthia is a close neighbor and probably a good friend of Muhdear.

    She obviously has a different experience of ZR’s in St. Thomas.

  9. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    Contrary to what John says I have no idea where Cynthia lives [and I don’t want to know]. I have never met the lady [and have no wish to do so]

    I’ve been taking ZR’s safely for more than 25 years, different routes as I go about my work, worship and recreation and I’ve NEVER EVER seen a Member of Parliament, or former member of Parliament on a ZR or in any ZR stand.

    Haven’t seen David nor John either, lol!

    I am not an owner, driver nor conductor on any ZR, and to the best of my knowledge none of my relatives, friends, neighbors or church community are involved in any transportation industry. Although I have been told that a brother did briefly work as a truck driver in the UK more than 50 years ago.

  10. John Avatar
    John

    Given the choice of believing Muhdear regarding the saintliness of the ZR drivers or a politician I would be tempted to believe Muhdear but for the ocular evidence presented on a daily basis on the roads in Barbados.

  11. David Avatar
    David

    This article points to part of the problem with transportation in Barbados. SOE Transport

  12. Frank Avatar
    Frank

    No article in 5.22am post?

  13. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Good thing the fellows can actually drive. They cause more annoyance than injury.

  14. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    hop on.

  15. John Avatar
    John

    I met a friend today and we were talking about the cat o nine tails and its use in Barbados. Both of us remembered tales from when we were young of the effect of the cat.

    It isn’t that long ago that it was in use.

    He told me an old plantation labourer told him about a criminal she knew who had received some lashes.

    It seems after that he went straight and never committed another crime, ….

    ….. but he walked after that “with a bend”!!

    Only a Bajan could come up with such expressive language.

  16. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    You would love to see black peopld being brutalised again.

  17. John Avatar
    John

    Whomsoever get sentenced, black, white, red, yellow or brown!!

    It was used in the Royal Navy and British Army from the 17th century solely on white people.

    Check WIKI!!

    There was even a cat for boys, called a “boys’ cat” or a “boys’ pussy” which only had 7 tails.

    “Naval types and use
    The naval cat weighed about 370 grams (13 oz) and was composed of a handle connected to nine thinner pieces of line, with each line knotted several times along its length.[4] Formal floggings — those ordered by captain or court martial — were administered ceremonially on deck, the crew being summoned to “witness punishment” and the prisoner being brought forward by marines with fixed bayonets.[4]

    In the British navy, the boatswain’s mate stood two steps from the offender, combing out the tails of the cat due to the thinner parts of the cat sticking to each other. He would then swing it over his head, make a step forward and, bending his body to give more force to the blow, deliver the stroke at the full sweep of his arm.[3]

    Sailor being flogged with a cat-o’-nine-tails while four sailors are waiting for their turn to flog him.

    Drunkenness could be punished by a dozen lashes, which could be administered on the authority of the ship’s captain. Greater punishments were generally administered following a formal court martial, with Royal Navy records[which?] reflecting some standard penalties of two hundred lashes for desertion, three hundred for mutiny, and up to five hundred for theft.[citation needed] One blow was sufficient to take off the skin, and to draw blood wherever the knots fell. Three dozen was a common punishment. Three hundred lashes were frequently given.[5] The offence of sodomy generally drew the death penalty, though one eighteenth century court martial awarded a punishment of one thousand lashes – an equivalent sentence as it would likely be fatal.[6]

    For summary punishment of Royal Navy boys, a lighter model was made, known as boy’s cat or boy’s pussy, that had only five tails of smooth whip cord.[7] If formally convicted by a court martial, however, even boys would suffer the punishment of the adult cat. While adult sailors received their lashes on the back, they were administered to boys on the bare posterior, usually while “kissing the gunner’s daughter” (publicly bending over a gun barrel), just as boys’ lighter “daily” chastisement was usually over their (often naked) rear-end (mainly with a cane—this could be applied to the hand, but captains generally refused such impractical disablement—or a rope’s end). Bare-bottom discipline was a tradition of the English upper and middle classes, who frequented public schools, so midshipmen (trainee officers, usually from ‘good families’, getting a cheaper equivalent education by enlisting) were not spared.[8] Still, it is reported that the ‘infantile’ embarrassment of prolonged, public bare-bottom punishment was believed essential for optimal deterrence; cocky miscreants might brave the pain of the adult cat in the macho spirit of “taking it like a man” or even as a “badge of honour”.”

    British Army
    A soldier who was flogged in 1832, with a cat similar to that used in the King’s fleet, said: “I felt an astounding sensation between the shoulders, under my neck, which went to my toe-nails in one direction, and my finger-nails in another, and stung me to the heart, as if a knife had gone through my body…. He came on a second time a few inches lower, and then I thought the former stroke was sweet and agreeable compared with that one…. I felt my flesh quiver in every nerve, from the scalp of my head to my toe-nails. The time between each stroke seemed so long as to be agonising, and yet the next came too soon…. The pain in my lungs was more severe, I thought, than on my back. I felt as if I would burst in the internal parts of my body…. I put my tongue between my teeth, held it there, and bit it almost in two pieces. What with the blood from my tongue, and my lips, which I had also bitten, and the blood from my lungs, or some other internal part, ruptured by the writhing agony, I was almost choked, and became black in the face…. Only fifty had been inflicted, and the time since they began was like a long period of life; I felt as if I had lived all the time of my real life in pain and torture, and that the time when existence had pleasure in it was a dream, long, long gone by.”[5]

    No wonder it worked!!

  18. The OG Avatar
    The OG

    The guy in the USA says “Make America Great again”
    The guy in Barbados says “We need to go back to the good old days”
    —–x—
    Side note
    To any in Barbados that I have offended, I wish to say “peace be unto you and your family.” At times, I may have expressed myself awkwardly and insensitively but the love was always there.

    If I have to flee the USA, I hope you will open your doors to me for at least a week. I am very comfortable with very little.

    To Hants and NO in Canada, I continue to wish you both well. May there always be room for another in your home.

    To 555, I never believe that you smoke anything.. I was just trying to be funny. Notice that I did not write (000, my hero)

    To TLSN, wishing you well brother. Hoping that you and I are not searching for shelter at the same time.

    Loving you all
    Loving you always
    The OG

    The apology tour has begun.

  19. John Avatar
    John

    They should start the flogging at the top with the 51 imposters sitting in the House of Assembly!!

  20. John Avatar
    John

    Donna
    December 3, 2024 at 11:18 am
    Rate This

    You would love to see black peopld being brutalised again.

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

    It isn’t my fault that there are only black people in the House of Assembly, hang on a minute, they got one play play senator who is white, cut his ass too.

  21. John Avatar
    John

    I really enjoyed the Independence Hike held in my honour by the Barbados Hiking Association from Bushy Park in St. Philip to Belleplaine via Mount Pleasant, St. John’s Church, Hackleton’s Cliff, Bowling Alley, Vaughan’s, Frizers, Mellowes. Saddle Back, Bissex, Chalkey Mount and Isolation Pasture, 13 miles.

    I was down at Belleplaine a bit late for the 5:30 am (Barbados time) last bus to the start at Bushy Park and made it to Frizers before the blisters persuaded me to take the ride offered. Got there about 11:00 am.

    The old foots out of practice and got soft.

    Left Belleplaine, “Louise’s on the Railway” about 3 after lunch drinks and old talk. Caught up with my old friends, remembered those who had departed and got news on the rest and no longer hiked.

    A wonderful Saturday.

    The vast majority were new hikers which was great to see.

    Slept 12 hours from 4:00pm when I returned home with a 2 hour break at midnight to do a little work.

    If you are down that side, “Louise’s on the Railway” is worth a look.

  22. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ The OG,

    If you have to flee the USA, Canada may not be a good option. “Trump suggests Canada become 51st state”

  23. John Avatar
    John

    Trudeau was probably working out a deal with Trump for the sale.

    Macron just invited him over to be present at the reopening of Notre Dame. France probably next.

    Elon should soon send the Brits back to the polls and ol’ Nige, Trump’s good buddy, will deliver England.

    Africa is probably a good bet; Biden is there now.

  24. John Avatar
    John

    I see the French Government has fallen!!!

  25. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    I took a ZR into ‘town on Tuesday and one home again. Excellent driving both ways. Now that I am permanently unemployed [retired] I avoid the rush hour crowds so I rarely leave home before 9, so everybody was pretty chilled, music on the ZR but not loud. One driver went “off-route” to pick up an elder walking with a cane and who was about 50 yards away from the official bus stop. And a parent and toddler who hadn’t quite made it to the bus stop. Both these things are technically illegal but what sort of person leaves an elder or a toddler to stand in the 30C heat until the next bus comes, especially since there are no bus shelters or benches in this rural area. I saw a young man helping an old man by holding his shopping while the old man disembarked. I saw an adult child helping a widowed elderly parent with the shopping bags. I didn’t see any bad stuff. No violence. No reckless driving. No cussing. No pushing or shoving.

  26. David Avatar
    David

    Stuspe

  27. David Avatar
    David

    A case of the tail wagging the dog. Whenever there is a push to make a change what is the result? Last week the head of the PSV sector called for government to weed out the bad apples through rigorous enforcement.

    #hopeless

    https://starcomnetwork.net/blog/2024/09/09/psv-pushback-on-new-regulations/

  28. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    @David December 4, 2024 at 9:17 pm “Stuspe”

    David why you stupseing at me for reporting what I truthfully observed?

    Would you prefer that I tell lies, and join those who have NEVER taken a ZR in their whole lives but yet who choose who portray the ZR men as irresponsible monsters? I see the ZR men as hard working men who provide an essential service to those of us who cannot afford a private vehicle but who must get to school and work.

    I refuse to lie to please you or anybody else. Nobody on earth can make me lie.

    A lot of the complainers are entitled car and big truck drivers who seem to believe that they own the roads. They do NOT. I pay taxes too, although at present I owe BRA $300. I will pay it off shortly.

  29. The OG Avatar
    The OG

    @Cuhdear,
    I suspect that there may be more than one ZR in the country. It does not take much for me to imagine that not all ZR drivers behave in the same way. You may be fortunate in having great ZR drivers on your route, but, again, I suspect that the experience of other passengers and the videos of bad driving are real.

    There is an expression … “One swallow does not a summer make”. You cannot use one or two ZR drivers to describe the population of ZR drivers.

  30. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    There are many a truth and some contradict each other, but to find the universal truth one must consolidate conflicting truths.

    Some say that ZR culture is a burden and a curse to society and others say it is a boon and a blessing. The truth is the ZR culture is the Ghetto-ology culture and is a stable means of transport for the poor man woman and child in a poor man style.

    Jah give me power

    Black Roots Players play roots from the Ghetto 🎶

    Ghetto Dub, Dub-Ology, So Many Dub

  31. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    @December 5, 2024 at 10:11 am “You cannot use one or two ZR drivers to describe the population of ZR drivers.”

    True.

    But I have been taking ZR’s most days of the week, and on multiple routes [work, shopping, shopping, sea bathing, recreating, visiting family and friends] for more than 25 years.

    25 years int 25 days. I know ZR’s better than anybody on this blog, and better than any journalist or Parliamentarian, living or dead.

  32. David Avatar
    David

    How is it relevant what you observed when discussing the sub culture of the PSV sector?

  33. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David
    This is why we are stuck. We are yet to understand that nothing is completely perfect or imperfect. A perusal of BU contributions over the years would reveal a tendency to furnish opinions from personal positions and gloss over the entire picture. It means that discussions usually end up with senseless back and forth of which we are all guilty at some point in time.
    We note a similar situation with call in programs; the moderators get into long arguments with callers. The end result is that after three hours, the number of callers do not reflect the length of the program.
    The more we examine our society, the more we believe that critical thinking needs to be seriously taught in our schools including the university.

  34. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    @David December 5, 2024 at 7:29 pm “How is it relevant what you observed when discussing the sub culture of the PSV sector?”

    Are you implying that a longitudinal observation has no value?

    But the “say-so” from a journalist or an MP or a person who lives outside of Barbados or a 10 second video clip has superior value?

    I am the only person on this blog who has consistently taken ZR’s for more than 25 years. My children and the children of thousands of other children in my community went to and from school everyday on ZR’s and none of them are monsters, but rather they are now respectful, hard working, tax paying Bajans, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers raising decent children.

  35. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    @David December 5, 2024 at 7:29 pm “…the sub culture of the PSV sector?”

    What is a sub culture David?

    And who named it a sub culture?

    I put it to you that the only sub culture in Barbados as elsewhere are the YOUNG MALES who commit murder, who buy and sell drugs, who don’t do honest work on the job nor at home, who torment, embarrass and impoverish their elderly parents who have to struggle to pay legal and undertaker fees. Let us talk about that.

  36. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    And some of the biggest talkers about ZR culture can’t even raise their own children properly.

  37. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    Dozens of ENTITLED YOUNG MALES have been charged with murder this year and not a one is a ZR man.

    In 25 years I have witnessed one sale of a spliff. And yet people who have never taken a ZR want to tell me about “ZR culture”

  38. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    CORRECTION

    My children and the children of thousands of other PARENTS

  39. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    Got to go now and sweep the dust bunnies from under my bed, before I die of dust bunnyitis, instead of ZRitis.

  40. David Avatar
    David

    @William

    We struggle to avoid personalizing positions ignoring the root argument to be made.

  41. David Avatar
    David

    @Simple Simon

    How does your comment about your pleasurable exploits on Zrs address the concern at hand about the sector?

  42. David Avatar
    David

    @Simple Simon

    Forgive a busy blogmaster for ignoring your question.

  43. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Fine! Let us deal in empirical evidence! Somebody, ANYBODY, post me some facts and figures!

    How many accidents have these zrs caused? How many injuries? How many deaths? How many disruptions? Is this bad behaviour more prevalent with ZR drivers than in the general population?

    Some people are talking trash about personlising issues while presenting a few videos as the full picture.

    Quite frankly, I have witnessed both the good and the bad – enjoyed some marvellous oldie goldie love songs and cringed at some pornographic effing songs. Fell asleep due to comfort of some staid, defensive driving and sat on the edge of my seat due to some risky, aggressive driving. Seen them take care of women, children and the elderly just as Cuhdear Bajan said, and seen them do quite the opposite.

    That is since I gave up driving but I did witness the same when competing for space on the road.

    They are no different, I find, from the general population, a mixture of good, bad, and in between.

    I not sure that it is specifically a zr culture problem.

    My personal opinion, in the absence of a study, of course.

  44. David Avatar
    David

    PSV drivers are held to a higher standard because of the life’s they hold responsible in their care. There is a good reason several insurance companies have refused to cover ZRs. We do not need to ignore the obvious. Then there is the loud and lewd music and obvious bad behavior on the roads. That said no one is excusing the lawlessness being seen on the roads daily much of it mentioned in this space.

  45. The OG Avatar
    The OG

    At times you see some thing that you know you should leave it alone.
    At times common sense plays a distant second to awful humor.
    I will not say it, I will only think it
    Give thanks for small mercies…. one less bad driver off the road.
    God forbid, we could have had one more PSV driver on the road.

  46. John Avatar
    John

    The let the cat out of the bag!!

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