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Random construction and consequences

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Submitted by Overseas Bajan

Barbados with its poor land use will not survive any high winds. The land use policy driven by the politicians on behalf of their financiers to build houses on water courses and individual homes rather than high rise.

A Guyanese inexperienced contractor just handed over wooden houses in 2025 at Clifden St Philip without back doors. I must say this is the smartest government with the most energetic prime ministers.

Equally, the most wreckless government with high tax revenues with zero accountability on how money is spent. In which other country can a prime minister forgive her millionaire father taxes.

Blogmaster’s Note: The prime minister does not have the single authority to unilaterally make a decision to forgive taxes, also the Guyana house manufacturer Duravilla Homes was incorporated in 2008 in Guyana.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCdfDoUvo74

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25 responses to “Random construction and consequences”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Minister Dwight Sutherland responsible for housing was fired.

  2. David Avatar
    David

    Lowdown battling for survival

    I trying to knock out a next column with one finger ’cause the medical expenses ain’t nice and I need the cash. So first, a little poetry to get things moving. But, Lord, some dog pee in this computer room and the ambiance isn’t conducive.

    The foolishest man: Lord Nelson is about the bravest man who ever went to sea; he fought many battles and won many victory. But bravery and foolishness does often walk hand in hand; and that is when Nelson prove, that he was a foolish man.

    Trafalgar battle raging, everybody tell Nello don’t wear he admiral clothes; medals does shine in sunlight as everybody knows. But Nello insist he’s no coward, display everything pon he chest, a Spanish marksman climb a 50foot mast, and put poor Nello to rest. So he was one of the bravest and foolishest who ever went afloat; but not as foolish as Lowdown, he get knock down by a goat.

    A fellow up in Chah Rowe Bridge wasn’t foolish but unwise; he must be thought that nine-inch rain was a whole heap or pack of lies. People beg him ‘don’t venture out’ but like Nelson, he was brave; the floods come down, the poor man drown, and went to a watery grave. But he wasn’t foolish, only somewhat unwise. In this life you got to believe sometimes, even if you think it’s lies. And for foolishness he can’t match Lowdown, check all them columns he wrote; you know the man so stupid, he get lick down by a goat.

    I could think of other people but the Nation may not call them name, changing up this li’l island, like changing up is a game. We who love our old Bimshire, try to point out when things are bad, but all we can do is suck salt, cry at home and feel real sad. We see foolishness at the highest levels, but we protest in vain, even the Lord made His feelings felt, when He sent that nine-inch rain. Still class is class and many will say, Lowdown still got the crown, he got to be the foolishest fool, to let a stupid goat knock him down.

    I had a next rhyme about how the PM does make speech about everything: if anybody miss and dead, speech; Bajan cricket captain, speech; Trump and Venezuela, speech; climate change and global warming, speech; renaming Barbados, speech. But when it come to that recent nine-inch rain, I didn’t hear her say a word. Santia did a proper oration. But I leffin’ out dat rhyme.

    Well, peoples, the position is I go to the QEH next Tuesday (remember I’m writing this a week ahead). I want to thank all those who wished me well and took the trouble to call or write. I’ve had over 80 years, mostly good, so can’t complain.

    A special shout-out to Guataka, who have tried over many happy years to teach me that parang is not calypso. Although nearly all the others are not originally from Barbados, we lived like a family in which I was probably the black sheep. I hope parang will continue to thrive here and maybe an entity called Guataka.

    Outside of work with animals, which I love, music has been my life. I’ve played dance music here and in Trinidad starting around 1960, hotel music, Celtic music with John Moss and Ridley Greene, standards with Kean Springer on piano. Mandolin, guitar, recorder, keyboards, sax. I’ve played Frank Collymore and Government House, LESC and Sam Lord’s Castle. Not forgetting in a goat’s pen in Flagstaff. The goat did background vocals.

    Harold Hoyte and Al Gilkes gave me the opportunity to write for the Nation back in 1989. I’ve tried my best and never missed a column. Long live the

    Lowdown!

    Que sera, sera, from here on.

    Richard Hoad is a farmer and social commentator. Email porkhoad@gmail.com.

    Source: Nation

  3. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Wheel and come again Boss…
    “Minister Dwight Sutherland responsible for housing was fired.”
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Says who?… Fired for what !!!???
    All Sutherland did was TALK shiite about 10,000 houses.
    And NOBODY talks more shiite than the person who fired him…

    Now let us talk about DOING shiite…

    Seems that he was fired for taking over shiite that was CREATED by Doo Shiite, while Doo Shiite lives to do even more shiite – with Four Seasons now in the cross hairs.

    SMH!
    It is SO EASY to fool some people…
    Bajans are SOOOO gullible!
    As Lowdown points out, LAND SPECULATION is currently the biggest SCAM going on in this cursed place.
    EVERY SHIITE else has ALREADY been sold off, GIVEN AWAY, RE-ZONED or somehow DE-enfranchised from Bajans… except the agricultural lands…

    And THAT is in progress…
    Dwight was just ‘used’ to distract the blind…
    What a CURSED place!

  4. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    He was the fall guy?

  5. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Chinese.

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2025/11/28/hope-farm-institute-set-for-early-2026-handover/

  6. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    High rise ?

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-fire-services-thorncliffe-park-fire-9.6995215

  7. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    The absence of a back door? How many highrises got back doors? BU fulla comedians!!

  8. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    LOL @ Enuff
    Most.
    AKA – a fire exit.

  9. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Bushtea
    You mean them old buildings. Modern high rise residential buildings do not come with external fire exits through a window. It is “stay in place” or down the internal fire stairs/evacuation lifts for the disabled. Those Cliffden houses have a side door. So unless there is a law saying one can’t exit a fire through a side door, a backdoor is not a necessity and there absence is not new in Bim. Look, when I say BU is a circus I am dead serious! Overseas Bajan all now musse in a no backdoor dwelling twanging. Piss in muh pocket!

  10. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    I have to agree with Enuff.

    Sometimes I believe we ‘nit-pick’ in an effort to find something to criticise about the current Mia Mottley administration.

    To be FAIR, over the past 20 to 30 years, houses have been built in Barbados WITHOUT ‘backdoors.’

    If you look at PRIVATE housing developments in Greens, St. George, Duncans and Emerald City in St. Philip, Mile & A Quarter, St. Peter, have ‘side doors,’ and not ‘backdoors.’

    Houses built by Signature Properties, for example, located at Meadow Greens Park, Lower Estate, Prospect Ridge, St. James, Hopewell Park, Christ Church, are all designed with ‘side doors,’ a WITHOUT ‘backdoors.’

    Things change. We’ve moved from shingle houses to elaborate, exotic wall bungalows.

    And to mention something about “fire exit,” is simply folly. The architects would’ve designed those houses with fire exits in mind.

  11. David Avatar
    David

    @Artax

    Political rhetoric flows from both sides. With a general election looming, expect it. We have to separate the wheat from the chaff.

    https://youtu.be/EIsqAyi6Zts

  12. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    “Modern high rise residential buildings do not come with external fire exits through a window”
    ~~~~~~~~~~~
    Bushie missed that part… where ‘a fire exit’ means through a window…

    You seem to be getting rattled though Enuff…
    Did you not say that nobody takes BU seriously? ..take it easy Boss.

    You asked ‘how many HIGH RISES have ‘back doors’ (ie alternative exits), and now wants to make a political point about an OBVIOUS answer?
    Perhaps the St Vincent situation got you offset…?

    Cuhdear…

  13. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Artax – Thank you.

    Bushtea – Do they jump out the back door? 🤣i guess you’re a fire safety expert now. Sometimes it’s better to accept being wrong than to prove to all and sundry that you’re plain dishonest or a jackass. SVG, or SLP?

  14. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    “… Sometimes it’s better to accept being wrong than to prove to all and sundry that you’re plain dishonest or a jackass”
    ~~~~~~~~~
    So which choice exactly are you…?

    Hint!
    Look up ‘Fire exit’ before choosing …

    What a [*your choice goes here]
    LOL

  15. David Avatar
    David

    The real issue is that construction in Barbados is random. We built any rh where, water course or not, agricultural belt or not, close to a roundabout or not, we select suppliers based on handshakes, we import steel houses based on a whim and fancy.

    Barbados is starting to look like a confused place.

  16. TheOG Avatar
    TheOG

    Perhaps we are taking the word backdoor too literally. The idea of (possibly) having more than one route of escape from a building is not a new one. It does not matter if it is immediately at the back or the side of building a second egress/exit should always be an option.

    Going through a window not on the ground floor or reachable by a ladder is not my exit of choice. Despite what is thought, some folks do not bounce when they hit the ground.

  17. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    “The real issue is that construction in Barbados is random. We built any rh where, water course or not, agricultural belt or not……”

    @ David

    You forget to mention that the ILLEGAL ACTIVITY of SQUATTING is RANDOM as well, with both Barbadians and non-nationals building housing “any RH where.”

    Squatters in Bellevue squatting near or on a water course, and non-nationals predominately occupying a section of land, which is called CARICOM because of the number of Guyanese, Jamaicans, St. Lucians and Vincentians living there.

    And, to make matters worse, this Mia Mottley administration decided to reward those ‘law breakers’ with social services, such as the provision of water and roads.

    Only in Barbados.

    “What a place.”

  18. David Avatar
    David

    @Artax

    You have been a strident advocate on the matter of squatting. The blogmaster’s position is known, we have to discourage it but when we allow it to the point it becomes entrenched, we have to manage humanely.

  19. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ David

    A few years ago, statistics indicated squatting was becoming a major headache not only for Government, but private land owners as well.

    Squatting is not a common course of action taken by Barbadians. What should be a matter of concern for ALL law-abiding citizens is the fact that the MAJOR SQUATTING COMMUNITIES in this island, are PREDOMINATELY OCCUPIED by NON-NATIONALS.

    These people come to Barbados, and rather adhere to our laws as GUESS, they disrespect our hospitality by ILLEGALLY CONSTRUCTING HOUSES on private property and state-owned lands.

    And, to make matters worse, there are reports of immigrants either ‘commandeering’ or running Barbadian squatters from land, to SECURE ‘house spots’ for their relative and friends.

    It is NOT FAIR Barbadians have to ‘suck salt’ to pay their mortgages to prevent foreclosure, or the BRA insisting to AUCTION their properties, for land tax arrears……

    ……while Guyanese or Jamaicans, for example, could enter this island, ILLEGALLY CONSTRUCT HOUSES on people’s property, and government decides to REWARD those LAW BREAKERS with loans, grants, houses, house spots, roads, water service, and infrastructure to facilitate the provision of electricity.

    By so doing, government has essentially set a PRECEDENT, whereby squatters in other communities would rightfully anticipate similar SHOULD be given to them.

    I am AGAINST any form of humane management or empathy being EXTENDED to those individuals.

    In MY opinion, ALL NON-NATIONAL SQUATTERS SHOULD be DEPORTED, simply because they BROKE the LAW.

  20. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    CORRECTION:

    ******GUESS…… should be GUESTS.

  21. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Ah ha…but we are a nation of laws?
    The squatters are right, do like the GoB, break laws with impunity, and tell them “do something then nuh?” And suddenly that gnarling, barking German Shepherd (laws) begins wagging his tail and licking you.
    Laws in Barbados have become little more than recommendations.

  22. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ NO
    The problem with laws are they need to be applied by the LAWFUL.

    -It is VERY difficult for a lying lawman to find fault with a dishonest accused.
    -Stressful for a bribe-taking politician to rebuke a bribe-demanding public servant
    -Not to mention moral deviancy in high places…

    So if the ‘Laws’ are constructed with built-in escape routes for the law makers, all we can expect is wagging tails at the squatters…

    There is a path that SEEMS RIGHT to brass bowls, but the end thereof is death.
    Righteousness lifts up a nation, but sin is a disgrace in any society.

    A little righteousness (seeking to do what is right) at the top can work miracles.

  23. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Scary.

    “The fire chief said in his 30 years of service, he has never witnessed a fire as complex as this one.”

    https://www.villagereport.ca/village-picks/thorncliffe-park-fire-highrise-still-burning-11564481

  24. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Hants
    I have to believe the fire chief needs to contact a construction fella. The issue is limited to combustible elements placed over a building expansion joint. It looks like a brick clad structure. They’ll likely be no more than 4. And one in particular, as fire isn’t jumping 100ft between joints. If they go onto the roof, and remove the flashings, there should be a physical space, down which they can access the offending elements.
    Depending on access, they may need a swing stage. Not typical fire dept methods?

    At least it isn’t HK, where their massive fire, it was found the fabric over the scaffolding wasn’t fire resistant. But…wait for it…the scaffolding was made out of bamboo. 😂 Methinks they might contemplate how they provide access to the exterior, and use non combustible products, prior to worrying about protective fabric.

  25. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    My above comment is incorrect, for the video on TV I saw incorrectly identified to location of the expansion joint.
    It is actually between two adjacent structures, of different heights. And is not related to the typical wall construction elsewhere on those structures.
    The access is via the flashing, but it extends several stories and the full width where the structures adjoin.

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