What would be his opinion on the current state of Barbados if he was alive? The uptick in criminal activity, the runaway tourism development – the latest being the proposed plan announced by Senior Minister William Duguid to relocate the Civic Centre in Holetown?
Barrow did say one day Barbadians would wake up and find that we don’t have a country. It is fair to say successive governments in recent decades have gone all in on tourism. He would also be disappointed about the state of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), its demise since his passing has been well documented.
The blogmaster has reposted a 2008 blog to show that the more things change in Barbados, the more they remain the same. Note several of the links in the blog are broken due to circumstances out of the control of the blogmaster.
The local newspaper which Barbadians have supported over the years but which has failed the PEOPLE more and more of late is at it again. In today’s version the newspaper was encouraged to print the story that the Holetown Beach is scheduled for a $5.5 million beach upgrade. The reason given for the upgrade by the Coastal Zone Management Unit is to “stabilise the shoreline and improve public access to the beach.” The editor needed to go on, maybe an Editor’s note? We thought we would never say it but with the departure of Harold Hoyte the Fontebelle print has gone to the dogs.
We welcome the remedial work which is to be done. It does not take great effort to understand that beautiful beaches is a major component of our tourism product. Barbados has avoided going the route of establishing casinos, water parks and other ancillary tourist attractions which some say would attract more tourists to our shores. If we allow our beaches to deteriorate it would obviously have a negative affect on our tourism product. Over the years we have never truly diversified our economy to relieve our dependence on the tourist dollar.
The upgrade on the West Coast should interest Barbadians a great deal. The newspaper report suggests that part of the upgrade is to improve public access to the beach. The BU family would know that we have been very critical of the Barbados authorities who have folded to the almighty dollar, the end result is that we have a West Coast concrete jungle which has obliterated most of the windows to the sea.
I took these photo’s by Sandy Lane, the first one is self explanatory, in the second one you can see one of these notices in the left hand side of the image. Does Sandy Lane own the beach here? I don’t think so, so why have they these notices along the stretch of beach outside the hotel.
If I want to go and sit on the sand amongst all these guests will I be asked to leave? Advice please, cause I think myself and my husband fancy a swim on the West Coast this weekend!!
Submitted by BU Commenter Sundowner
Barbados has now lost its island appeal to locals and tourists alike. More significantly the pedestrian trails which provided access to local beaches have been excavated to be replaced by concrete or locked gates. The prophetic words in the song Jack which the Mighty Gabby made famous in 1982 have come to past (please go to the nearest record shop and buy this CD).
SOME WORKERS and commuters in Holetown, St James, are not in favour of Government’s plan to relocate the historic area’s Civic Centre to make way for tourism development.
Last Friday in the House of Assembly, Senior Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Dr William Duguid revealed that a new civic centre will be built at nearby Trents to cost in the range of $40 million, while a $172 million, 80-room hotel will be constructed.
The almost 75 000 square metres of land to be acquired at Trents will house the police station, courts, Barbados Revenue Authority, post office, library and other services within the Holetown Complex.
Yesterday, some upset people in Holetown – which is celebrated as the landing spot of the first European settlers – told the DAILY NATION they wanted the centre to stay where it was, while complaining that the country was heading towards a path where locals were being denied further access to coastal areas.
“Years ago you could walk down this whole beach here,” said a taxi driver who gave his name as Tyrone. “Mark my words, before you die you’re going to realise you can’t even walk down the beach.”
Fellow taxi-man Derek Greenidge felt the relocation was unnecessary, adding there were already enough tourism developments restricting beach access along the area.
“One of the things the people would want is for things to be transparent and make sure that a greater number of people benefit from it. In my view, I don’t think it is necessary right now because we got a lot of hotels on the beach. So if you move it (the civic centre), it has to be for the betterment of the locals, not just a few and not just for the tourists,” he said.
Judy Welcome-Brenes, a commuter, reckoned that the relocation will be an inconvenience noting that the central nature of the centre, near the bus stop and supermarket, was invaluable.
‘Here is central’
“I prefer it out here because out here is central where everybody is shopping and the hotels and everything. From the time I was small, this post office was where I went with my grandmother to collect her pension, and go to the library.
“The police station and different things we need are around here so if you need anything, they are right there,” she said.
Tyson, who was waiting outside the Barbados Revenue Authority, said both Trents and Holetown needed improvements to the drainage system before anything could be built.
“You get so much water coming down St James into Holetown and they don’t have proper drainage in this area yet, so if they gonna think about hotels, first thing they have to consider is proper drainage.
“I would hope they don’t have these tourism developments at ground level because in a half-hour rain you have a foot and a half of brown water in this area,” he said.
Highlighting some of the benefits of the project, Duguid told the House that the inland relocation was a safer alternative to safeguard the facilities from the constant flooding in the area. He also noted that the centre was constrained by its lack of space and thus limited in its expansion.
He maintained that Government’s strategy prioritised economic growth essential for overcoming the country’s financial challenges.
Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne called for greater transparency on the development plans for the Holetown area. He stressed that Government must ensure the public was fully aware of any deals involving public land and urged it to provide assurances that public access to the beach would remain unimpeded, even if the land was sold or leased to private entities.
A SIGN at the lot in Trents, St James, denoting plans for erection of buildings to use as a Civic Centre and formation of vehicular access. (Pictures by Reco Moore.)
Source: Nation
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Pachamama
How confusing!
On the one hand, the country, especially under the present regime, whose leader invited the population to “geh muh the vote and watch muh”, has failed to do anything else but rinse and repeat this antidevelopment tourism trap on which we have fecklessly embarked under and before Errol Barrow.
Having been so trapped, everything else being allowed to fail, not only by successive administrations but the wider culture as well, the country can now only proceed on a death march which must reach the preditable end as pointed to by social indicators.
These include rising crime, population decline, wealth consolidation into fewer and fewer hands, the growing failures of any government to do anything about where the country is going, foreign ownership, a rise in lawlessness etc.
As a result, all this government and several previously, can do is to double down on the easy option of more tourism. Rinse and repeat! But with growing competition worldwide in this sector such efforts will continue to be bedeviled by the laws of deminishing marginal returns.
Someone once said that a one-wing economy cannot fly, well!
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Terence Blackett
IF THIS IS ALL ABOUT MONEY AS A TINY ISLAND NATION BEGGARDLY ATTEMPT AT FOREIGN EXCHANGE: FORGET THE MAN-MADE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, RATHER LOOK AT WHAT WOULD BECOME OF THIS ONCE BEAUTIFUL PARADISE ISLAND WHEN IT IS SUDDENLY OVER-RUN BY VULTURES OF EVERY KIND
Do a bit of research on the following countries to see what “UNABRIDLED TOURSIM” has resulted in:
1. Santorini, Greece
2. Lucca, Italy
3. Versailles, France
4. The Vatican inside St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome
5. Yosemite National Park, USA
6. Banff National Park, Canada
7. Lisbon Market, Portugal
8. Singapore
9. Angkor Wat, Cambodia
10. Rio, Brazil
11. Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland
12. Phi Phi, Thailand
13. Prague, Czech Republic
14. Kyoto, Japan
15. Machu Picchu, Peru
16. Mount Rushmore, USA
17. Santa Monica, USA
SORRY FOLKS, YOU GOV* ARE A BUNCH OF JACKASSES!!!
This piece alone is worthy of a dissertation, but “WHAT WOULD BE THE USE” when so-called “INTELLIGENT HUMANS” do not have as much “COMMONSENSE” as my neighbours cat, that is now “SHYTING” on my front lawn (thankfully, it’s AstroTurf) because the “ORGANIC BACK GARDEN” is covered over for the winter!!!
Nothing surprises me anymore about Barbados – for things were already bad as I watched it over time deteriorate in the last 30 years – but “NOW”, the “MADNESS” that is evident due to “INDUCED MASS VACCINE PSYCHOSIS”, with the “SNAKE VENOM EFFECTS”, that Black folks allowed to be “INJECTED” into their arms, simply shows that “FOLLOW-PATTERN KILL CADOGEN” & the “SHEEPLE” are all “BRAIN-DEAD” walking “ZOMBIES” – marching in sync into a bottomless abyss, from which there will be no coming back from!!!!
GOOD LUCK WITH ALL THAT CRAP* FOLKS – HOPE IT WORKS OUT FA Y’ALL
#WhatACuntry
#WhatCreatures
#WhatASteemingPile of you know what!!!
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NorthernObserver
Some Trump changes which could affect Barbados.
He signed an executive order saying that a global minimum corporate tax deal supported by the Biden administration and negotiated with over 100 countries has “no force or effect” in the U.S. without an act of Congress.
Trump ordered agencies responsible for the U.S.’s foreign development assistance programs to “immediately pause new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds” pending reviews of the programs, which must be conducted within 90 days.
It is the policy of United States that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States,” the order said.
Trump’s nominee for U.N. ambassador, Representative Elise Stefanik, voiced her strong support for the administration’s decision to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Representative Elise Stefanik expressed strong support for President Trump’s vision of a reformed United Nations, emphasizing an “America-first” approach.
Dot connection? The IMF and World Bank are both U.N agencies.
Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord
Dots…Debt for climate swaps involving UN agencies maybe a thing of the past.
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John
If the US economy turns around with Trump, it will be good for the world … and us!!
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Pachamama
Trump is only a braggart.
On the Gulf of Mexico, his executive order is not what he promised. For just a very small piece near his shores was renamed.
Trump is all forth and no beer.
An executive order on the Mexico cartels, he did some shiiite, but nothing has happened yet.
What he should do is not deal with supply but with the millions of drug heads in America who can’t but demand illegal drugs, who he has much more control over.
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Cuhdear Bajan
His brother was addicted to alcohol and died early from his addiction, so maybe the President has a soft spot for addicts.
They can’t help themselves you know.
Starting on drugs, and continuing legal or illegal is always somebody else’s fault you know.
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Cuhdear Bajan
@John January 21, 2025 at 5:04 pm “If the US economy turns around with Trump.”
If John?
From your ardent support of Trump I though that a new golden American age was a sure thing.
And now you say “if”?
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Hants
“An Extreme Cold Weather Alert is issued for southern Ontario (including Toronto) when the temperature or wind chill is forecasted to reach minus 30°C for at least two hours.”
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555dubstreet
Trump may not be going all out scorched earth and may be acting surgical or may have realised that going against the barrio could become an all out war and will achieve nothing.
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Frank
which is it. dont let your arse get sore sitting on a fence.
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NorthernObserver
@Pacha
When after all which has occured, your only comments are about the name of a body of water and actions in <24hrs on Cartels, Trump must have struck a chord.
Ok, the relisting of Cuba as a terrorist state, was pure politics, 100% expected.
His UN nominee stating Israel's "biblical rights" to the West Bank. Or what seems like a defunding of all things UN, and we're unsure what else. Will there even be a Secty Gen?
This looks like a special financial operation.
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555dubstreet
I’m calling it option (c)
Geezer called all undocumented immigrants animals and criminals,..
the premise of an immigration policy that ends up criminalizing all immigrants
to win votes
transnationality of gangs
.. then backtracked and said he was referring to 10,000 MS-13 members
which is about 1% of the 33,000 violent street gangs in the United States
with a total of 1.4 million members..
.. It is outrageous Trump presents them as the cause, when gangs started in the United States. In fact, the vast majority of migrants from the Northern Triangle come to the United States escaping gangs.
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Hants
One less injun
Vivek Ramaswamy exits Trump’s government efficiency commission, leaving Elon Musk to run it alone
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Cuhdear Bajan
@Northern Observer “His UN nominee stating Israel’s “biblical rights” to the West Bank.”
Wait there is a biblical right to anyplace anywhere?
And if the Bible as we know it was written principally by Jews can we say that those writers were impartial, or were they self interested?
The same thing as when Bushie quote things from the Bible which speak to silencing women. If as we believe men wrote those things, were the male writers impartial or were they self interested?
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Cuhdear Bajan
According to Politico “Elon Musk has already achieved his first cut at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency: his co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy.
Musk, the tech tycoon and Donald Trump confidant, made it known that he wanted Ramaswamy out of DOGE in recent days, according to three people familiar with Musk’s preferences who, like others for this article, were granted anonymity to discuss them. An ill-received holiday rant on X by Ramaswamy about H-1B visas apparently hastened his demise.”
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Cuhdear Bajan
RE: Vivek Ramaswamy.
One gone. Many more to go.
Some will jump, some will be pushed.
Is dog eat dog.
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Cuhdear Bajan
Fortune is reporting that “Elon Musk’s co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency Vivek Ramaswamy stepped down from his position after reportedly upsetting Trump with a post saying American culture “venerated mediocrity over excellence.”
Pharma billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy is out as co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency a month after posting that American culture prized mediocrity, reportedly upsetting President Donald Trump.”
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Cuhdear Bajan
@Donald Trump February 2016 “”We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.”
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Cuhdear Bajan
Even though I don’t think that any culture should venerate mediocrity over excellence, the truth is most human beings are mediocre.
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Hants
Fishermen catching probably jacks or johns in a seine net below Paynes Bay fish market.
Should come shore in an hour or so.
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Hants
” A major winter storm slammed the southern United States Tuesday, blanketing parts of the Gulf Coast with record-breaking snowfall in a region largely unaccustomed to extreme winter weather.”
The biggest snowstorm in 50 years maybe in 100 years in the south. Un Presidented lol
An interesting issue raised by Richard Ashby from Hills Milling on today’s VOB news. Because of the high cruise ship berthing it has been negatively impacting the ‘unstuffing’ of container cargo. This will impact cost of living because of the demurrage fees to be paid to the port and shipper.
Progress!!!
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Donna
By definition, just as most people are average.
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Donna
Tourism here, tourism there, tourism everywhere! Nothing wrong with upgrading your hotel stock, but this seems to be all the focus. What is going on otherwise? I shudder to think of the effects of climate change on tourism, not to mention expected pandemics!
Business as usual on the rock, despite all the promises.
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TLSN
“Problem!
undocumented Bajans in the USA could be deported back to Barbados.”
I hope not. A small number of them will bring their gun and drug’s culture with them which they inherited from the good ole USA.
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Donna
What is the cruise ship passenger spend? I seldom see any of them with shopping bags. Many walk or take our subsidised transport. How many tours do they take? Is it worth it?
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NorthernObserver
@Donna
Good question. The ships pay a fee at the Port? They ‘may’ buy supplies locally, likely water and ????? A few passengers will buy something, a few more take a tour, a few more likely rent an umbrella/beach chair. Some actually begin or end here, requiring transport to and from GAIA. And potentially food.
Since they get free food on the ship, don’t expect many splurge on a big meal on land, unless someone is specifically after something local.
I expect based on schedule and popularity, the ships all know what a certain port/stop is worth. And negotiate to suit.
You may recall a few years ago when Barney Lynch was MoT there was talk about implementing a head tax for cruise ship passengers. Barbados declined to make the decision. During Covid 19 again there was talk about the damage cruise ships did to our reefs. Did the cruise sector pay us?There is a conversation worth having regarding the cost benefit of the cruise ship industry.
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Bush Tea
“What is the cruise ship passenger spend?”
That is a taboo question, one that leads to all kind of embarrassing responses…
The concept is an excellent one. When PROPERLY managed, it has the potential to bring benefits to the entire society, while at the same time protecting that society from the exploitation of its vulnerable citizens.
However, when materialistic vultures are given free reign, we can be GURANTEED that significant exploitation will follow…. and it is always the most vulnerable (and gullible) who suffer most.
The Cruise ships make a fortune. However without ports like the Caribbean to service their business, they have nothing. The REAL profits however are realized in London, New York and such jurisdictions … while the bare minimum, unavoidable expenses are incurred in ports such as ours.
It would require creative, innovative and collective actions from Caribbean governments to bring balance to this exploitation.
Unfortunately, such competencies do not exist among that group.
The main land based tourist business is just as bad. Much of the FOREX paid for local stays – remain in foreign accounts at ‘Head Office’, with bare minimum disbursements locally.
It is the owners of these businesses that reap the sweets – everyone else are collectors of crumbs, and are expendable, minimum-rate, facilitators… especially once beautiful locations such as Brassbados – which they transform into polluted, concrete jungles full of porters and taxi drivers…. and with barely a ‘window to the sea’ left.
Then they move on to their next gullible victim, and identify the Judases needed….
LOL
Even originally local-based businesses seek to establish overseas headquarters – in order to get in on the sweets, such as double invoicing and exploiting the naive locals.
Tourism…
The spiritual equivalent of prostitution…
Same end result too.
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TLSN
How much sewage do they dump in our sea? How much potable water do they extract when they refuel at the harbour. Who cares?
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Hants
St .James primary school. Frederick Smith Secondary School. Maple cricket ground.
New civic centre and Police station.
WITH A MULTITUDE of cruise ships rolling in, thousands of passengers will be landing on these shores.
Five ships landed yesterday and six more are expected on Sunday. The combined maximum capacity of the vessels yesterday equalled 7 568 passengers and included the Royal Caribbean Odyssey of the Seas, which has a passenger capacity of 3 844 and was calling at Barbados for the first time. The other ships due to arrive yesterday were the Aurora (1 878), Evrima (214), Viking Sea (930) and Sirena (702).
The next very busy day will be Sunday when the Queen Victoria (2 014), Iona (5 206), Marella Discovery (1 830), Sea Cloud (64), Sea Cloud II (74), Club Med 2 (372) all are scheduled to arrive, totalling 9 560 passengers. (CA)
Here, some of the cruise ships docked in the port yesterday, including the Odyssey of the Seas. (CA)
AS BARBADOS GETS READY to mark 400 years of colonial history, an important aspect of that record is about to undergo a radical change.
In St James, where the Holetown Monument stands in testament to the celebrated landing of the first European settlers in February 1627 and where the civic centre houses the Holetown Police Station, the Holetown Magistrates’ Court, a branch of the Barbados Licensing Authority and the Barbados Library Service among other services, the area is set to be handed over for tourism development.
The news, though not new, struck at the heart of some Barbadians last week when Senior Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Dr William Duguid piloted debate on a resolution in the House of Assembly to compulsorily acquire 75 000 square metres of land at the nearby Trents, St James to relocate the civic centre. This action has brought confirmation that change is inevitable for the historic location.
Barbados is at a crossroads in its development where it deeply depends on tourism and international business for economic survival but at the same time transitional justice makes a strong case worldwide for countries such as ours to remove or rename things connected to the oppressive white colonial past. The monument marks the spot where it all began.
While some Barbadians pass the Holetown area up and down daily with little regard for its significant history, there are others locally and internationally who would be intrigued by having trodden on the same spot where the Olive Blossom landed and where settlers claimed the land in the name of King James I of England in much the same way as occurred with Jamestown in the United States 20 years prior.
The new purpose of the area would, ironically be for tourism development, a $172 million 80-room playground hotel for international visitors many of whom, according to surveys, crave heritage tourism, defined by the National Trust as “travelling to experience the places, artifacts and activities that authentically represent the stories and people of the past” and cultural tourism.
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has stated that while there is little to be proud of with regard to the country’s prominence in the transatlantic slave trade, it was a moral duty to preserve the historical record.
She was speaking in relation to the Newton Burial Ground where more than 500 slaves were interred but under the tourism circumstances this conservation may well apply to other areas of Barbados’ history especially those rooted in the European influence.
The question is whether we should also be inclined to keep the contested parts of our heritage in the interest of being as truthful to our history as we possibly can if we are soliciting the heritage tourists. The black and white debate has been a contentious one for centuries, probably from the time the first set of slaves arrived and though it may quiet down at times, the race issues continue to simmer in Barbados.
The divide on the treatment of our history, will not be as black and white a matter as some may hope and is one that must be sensitively navigated to the satisfaction of all Barbadians.
Source: Nation
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NorthernObserver
Remove the Monument during construction, and replace it after, in a prominent spot within the hotel grounds. Matter done. With the standard plaque, which some politician can unveil, ensuring their name is committed to history.
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NorthernObserver
“They are building modular schools in an industrial warehouse in Pinto, Madrid, with the goal of transforming education for thousands of students in Barbados. These modular schools, akin to prefabricated kitchens, are being constructed in a 16 by 60-meter warehouse where individual components are assembled.
Barbados, with its urgent need to expand its network of 68 public schools, will benefit immensely from Powell Jobs’s innovative two-story, equilateral triangular modules. Designed to withstand the harsh Caribbean climate and hurricane-force winds, these school buildings are not only safe and durable but also energy-efficient and termite-resistant.”
“Highlighting some of the benefits of the project, Duguid told the House that the inland relocation was a safer alternative to safeguard the facilities from the constant flooding in the area. He also noted that the centre was constrained by its lack of space and thus limited in its expansion.”
So the Hotel is to built on stilts?
And they cannot add an extra floor to the existing structures?
What about all the flood mitigation work done?
When these politicians arrive with such obviously flawed explanations, the first thing you try to guess at is the truth.
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TLSN
“The town was originally called Jamestown after King James I. It is said that the English seamen named the area Holetown because the river that empties into the sea here reminded them of the Limehouse Hole on the River Thames.” Barbados
Org.
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TLSN
“Globally, wetlands are under severe threat, being lost at three times the rate of forests, making them the most threatened ecosystem on Earth. Over 80% of all wetlands have been lost since the 1700s, with 35% lost since 1970. In Barbados, many wetlands were drained to make way for agriculture and urbanization. The last remaining coastal wetlands include Graeme Hall Swamp, Long Pond, Green Pond and Chancery Lane, with small, isolated wetlands scattered along the south and west coasts. These remnant wetlands are further threatened by water pollution, dumping, land clearance, and invasive species.”
Waaait didn’t the BU intelligentsia announced with much pomp and pageantr, tourism is dead a few years ago? The reductive on steroids! The continued banality of BU. #busybeingproductive
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Hants
The Trump effect.
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Bush Tea
@ Enuff
Who said tourism was dead?
We said that Barbados is deading…
Being choked with concrete hotels, guns, drugs, inflated real estate prices – such that we youth don’t even BOTHER to dream of owning a piece of the rock now…
But, YES!!
The foreigners who OWN and make money from ‘our tourism’ coming out licking… while wunna counting heads and de taxi trips to the airport…. crumbs.
Part yuh went doh?
Bushie missed yuh…
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