Officials at the National Housing Corporation are being urged to demolish a crumbling unit at Martin’s Road, the Pine, St Michael, which residents have identified as another tragedy waiting to happen.

The housing unit, which was destroyed by fire in November 2019, stands at the edge of a busy walkway that connects one side of the community with another, and above a small shack occupied by Evelyn Sealy, a woman in her 50s who had been living in the unit since 1987.

Sealy told Barbados TODAY that numerous trips to the NHC’s Country Road, St Michael office to inquire about alternative housing and to alert them about the dangerous situation, had all come to naught.

She said that although two women from the NHC visited the property on the day of the blaze, it appears there was no record of the event in the state-owned entity’s files.

“From 2019 until now, we are still waiting for directions from housing,” said Sealy.

“After a few trips to the NHC, I realised that not even the General Manager seemed to know about the house burning down. So I made it my problem to go in there on more than one occasion and try to get to him. When I got through to him, he told me he had no record of #11 being burnt, and he was going to send somebody to investigate,” she recalled.

The two-storey structure is cracking in several places, and only a few sheets of galvanise and a branch from a tree in the backyard are believed to be delaying the inevitable collapse.

Chunks of bricks fall to the ground from time to time, landing dangerously close to Sealy’s makeshift house and the walkway, which is frequented by school children.

“I am more than concerned because even though I might not have anywhere to live, children pass here every day. This is a path that has been used for ages since I came here in 87’,” said Sealy.

“Sometimes I am in there lying down, and I hear people saying, ‘look at that building. That wall will fall down’. I was in there lying down one morning, and just as I was getting up, I heard ‘brugadown, brugadown’. It was the wall coming down. It’s crumbling, and with a little push of wind, that will all come down, and if it does come down, it will lick down this [temporary dwelling],” she added.

The crumbling housing unit is a stone’s throw away from the spot where a 17-year-old boy fell to his death in a 100ft well in 2019.

Passers-by gave their two cents on the situation but declined to go on the record.

“That is a catastrophe waiting to happen,” one man remarked.

Sealy, a trained steel bender, first leased the unit in 1987 after losing another house in a fire.

Then, in an unfortunate case of deja vu, the house where she raised her four children and lived in up until 2019 also went up in flames, apparently due to electrical problems.

“It wasn’t easy to take either. I fell flat on my back on the morning that I came and found this house burnt.

After spending some time with another friend, it became evident that she was taking up their space. Then, with assistance from her daughter, Sealy acquired enough materials to construct four walls around her.

At night, she rests her head on a thin piece of sponge with buckets around her to catch water that leaks from the roof when it rains.

“The material is not first-class material, but it is good enough to hold up under the weather,” said Sealy.

She cooks at a friend’s house and collects drinking water from a neighbour’s outside pipe.

Sealy endured last year’s ‘freak’ storm, Hurricane Elsa, and the Ash from the La Soufriere eruptions in the house. But after repeated trips to the NHC, the Urban Development Commission and the Welfare Department, her patience is running thin.

“I want to find out from National Housing, how is it that we have been given these houses, and when a catastrophe like this happens, you are not accommodated in any way?” asked Sealy.

“There were about four fires in the Pine, either before or after mine, and these people were accommodated. Why is it that they cannot find lodging for Evelyn Sealy? I don’t owe them anything and as far as I understand from the firemen, it seems as though the house caught fire from the electricity,” she added.

Another resident concurred: “I would like a house for her. She is a poor, hungry woman like me. At night it burns my heart, and I cry.

“I pray for her that nothing will happen and that [the structure] don’t come down on her when I hear it making noise at night. I want a house for her. There is a spot down the road that her house can be placed on at the bottom of St Ann’s if anybody cared. Nobody cares,” the resident added.

Efforts to reach NHC General Manager Ian Cupid Gill on Friday evening were unsuccessful.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb

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A local non-governmental organisation is calling for stiffer penalties for litterbugs and illegal dumpers, following a national cleanup in which more than 38.9 tonnes of garbage were removed from the environment.

Project coordinator of Cleanup Barbados Ann Harding warned that if the volume of garbage accumulating in the country’s waterways is allowed to continue with impunity, the result could be a repeat of the 1995 drowning of De Great Carew.

“If you can fine people for not wearing a mask, surely you can fine them for illegal dumping,” Harding told Barbados TODAY.

“It’s easy for [dumpers] to throw garbage off a bridge, but it’s darn hard to pull it out and sometimes we give evidence to the police about who it is, and all we get out of that is that they make them go clean up some of the mess, but they need to fine them. These people are not going to stop until you issue fines. So the Future Centre Trust is really asking that you enforce the laws,” she added.

On April 23, 30 groups of nearly 300 volunteers hit the streets and covered 25 locations across the island with the clean-up campaign. At 1st and 2nd Street, Holetown, St  James  alone, they collected 70 bags of refuse comprising mainly discarded bottles and caps as part of the initiative sponsored by the Future Centre Trust.

The largest cleanup effort occurred at the site of an illegal dump at Bucks, St Thomas where over 66,000 pounds of garbage was removed with a team of 66 people that included the Barbados Defence Force, the Coast Guard, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Jose Y Jose Liquid and Solid Waste Management Inc.

Harding said that people were once again dumping in a gully near Weston St James, which was the site of a deadly flood in 1995. She also warned that similar practices at major waterways like the Bucks Gull, Jack-in-the-Box Gully and Blackman’s Bridge were laying the foundation for similar events to occur in the future. The Clean Up Barbados coordinator added that in many cases, many of the same offenders are seen dumping repeatedly.

““Look at the people that got killed in Weston when the bridge broke…It was because of people throwing rubbish in the gully,” Harding said of the infamous ‘Carew flood’

“People don’t realise how serious this is… They drive the trucks up to the bridge on a gully and just dump it over the edge of the bridge. That’s certainly easy for them to do, but it’s not easy for us to pull it back out of there. And these gullies are waterways… and disasters can happen,” she added.

As part of the government’s policy approach Cleanup Barbados called for the introduction of an appliance register.

“The idea is that when an appliance comes into the country, you record its serial number and track who it was sold to so that when you find this thing in the gully, you can trace who it belonged to and we find lots of evidence in the gullies,” said Harding.

But she also called for incentives from state-owned organisations and private sector recycling companies to purchase items like coconut shells for compost to encourage healthy disposal habits.

“We want to see incentives given to people to do the right thing, not just fines, because some of the things like the coconut shells are a valuable resource. If you can fine people for not wearing a mask, surely you can fine them for littering,” Harding added.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb

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Former Democratic Labour party (DLP) first vice president Irene Sandiford-Garner on Friday charged that gender played a role in the dearth of internal support given to former leader Verla DePeiza during her tenure.

Speaking at the inauguration of the party’s newly elected president, Dr. Ronnie Yearwood and the induction of its newest members at the DLP headquarters, Sandiford-Garner applauded DePeiza, whom she noted was the only individual brave enough to “raise her hand and said, ‘Here I am’” during the party’s “worst days” in the aftermath the 2018 trouncing at the General Election.

“But Verla had two strikes against her, she was not a part of the so-called winning circle of the party … and like me she is a woman, which is still something that is difficult in the political environment, which is intensely patriarchal,” Sandiford -Garner said.

Sandiford-Garner — a former Parliamentary Secretary — highlighted the support of the core of loyal members given to DePeiza and her team. She noted that they were tasked with the responsibility of rebuilding the party’s reputation, physical structure, finances and morale of membership and DePeiza performed credibly while at the helm.

“… But we persevered. There were hits and there were misses but she led. There was never agreement on all that was said and done, there were moments of doubt yet we moved forward each time with the sure and resolute commitment to ensuring that this dream of the late great Errol Walton Barrow would never die,” Sandiford- Garner said. 

“We met resistance inside, we met resistance outside but to her everlasting credit Verla DePeiza took every slight, every attack and every roadblock with steely resolve.

“At the same time, she was able to lead this party into a General Election campaign befitting the status and standard of this 67-year-old organisation at a production level that was the same or even higher than some may have had before. The history books will be kind to Verla DePeiza,” Sandiford- Garner added.

Sandiford- Garner also had much praise for former Minister of Social Care Steve Blackett, who since January has served as interim president after DePeiza’s resignation from that position. In addition, Sandiford-Garner endorsed Dr. Yearwood as the new leader, stating that his embrace and public recognition of the value of “the women in the engine room” of the DLP was worth her support.

“Where he has come from in the political arena is of no relevance,” she said, an apparent reference to his recent history as a member of the Barbados Labour Party.

“Where he is now and where he plans to take us is what is of the utmost importance.” (KC)

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Agrofest is back this year after being cancelled in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with chairman of the festival James Paul highlighting the significant contribution the agriculture sector continues to make to the Barbados economy.

Paul said this year’s event will again see the best in local agricultural products on display, as the drive continues to showcase the importance of the sector to the island.

Speaking at the Radisson Hotel at a media launch for the island’s premier agricultural exhibition which will be held May 28-29 in Queen’s Park, Paul said: “It is more than just an exhibition. It is a way of the agriculture sector saying to the country at large, ‘this is our contribution that we are making to the economic activity in Barbados; we want you to appreciate the importance of it, the fact that it is making a significant contribution, the fact that it is employing people in every possible way and, of course, we must find ways to preserve it’.”

He added that this year’s exhibition has been noticeably scaled down compared to previous editions, with no special day set aside for school children.

However, there is still a large number of exhibitors expected – 200, including 50 from Guyana, as an effort is made to include more Caribbean countries in the farmers’ event.

“We have had to scale it down a little bit because in a sense we don’t have Weymouth [Ground], but we have found a way to effectively utilize [Queen’s Park]. We are assiduously working in order to ensure that in every way, we try to bring together those critical things in agriculture to make sure that people will get some kind of understanding of what is happening in agriculture,” Paul said.

“We are expecting around 200 exhibitors; so far we are at 123. I think we should be able to handle them quite comfortably.… At one point in time, we were talking about 58 exhibitors from Guyana, but I’m not sure at this stage. I know right now, for instance, the construction of the house that they spoke about is going to start sometime next week at Queen’s Park… but we are looking for around 50 [exhibitors] overall.”

Senior Manager at Pinnacle Feeds Adrian Yarde expressed his excitement at the showcase being on this year.

“We truly need Agrofest 2022. One could easily argue that its timing is immaculate. If you look at the recent past and what this country has been through, we can clearly see that the agriculture sector has demonstrated its commitment and resiliency by not only contributing but by steadfastly feeding our nation throughout the COVID-19 lockdowns and the early challenges to the global supply chain that we experienced from 2020.

“This is the time that we can show the entire world that a small island developing state like Barbados can devise and implement programmes to feed its people, but we don’t do this alone, we do this with the help of our CARICOM neighbours.” (SB)

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A 40-year-old man has died following a stabbing incident in St Michael,Friday night, police say.

The victim has been identified as O’Neal Farmer of #122 Midway Lane, The Pine, St Michael. 

Police say Farmer’s body was found just before 9 p.m. lying on the floor of an establishment at Jordan’s Lane, Nelson Street, St Michael. 

Farmer and another man were reportedly involved in an altercation when he was stabbed several times about the upper body and subsequently died.

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President of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) Peter Chase is calling on Government to again provide much-needed support to livestock farmers who are buckling under the pressure of rising feed prices.

He said that although registered farmers can now benefit from special water rates, an intervention regarding feed prices was desperately needed.

“What I am asking for is that the Prime Minister and her office step in to help the agriculture sector once again because they have done that before at the start of the pandemic where grain prices went spiralling out of control,” he said on Friday during the official launch of Agrofest 2022.

“The war with Russia and Ukraine has caused us some pain and we are asking for subsidies to be able to keep the prices down, in certainly the livestock sector. Pinnacle [Feeds Ltd] who buys from ADM [Barbados Mills Ltd] is under some pressure to take up the price and we are asking that if we can get a subsidy, hopefully we can keep the prices the same for the meats,” he added.

Chase noted that the industry continues to see much growth in several areas, including in interest among youth who see the value in farming as a career.

However, he cautioned, if the costs continued to rise there could be a reduction in employment opportunities in the industry.

“I must tell you that there are a lot of meaningful jobs in agriculture, and at a time where we are pushing youth – and certainly the Prime Minister is pushing the youth sector… she has created the FEED (Farmers’ Empowerment and Enfranchisement Drive) programme through the BADMC – we want to ensure that we can continue to keep the youth-focused and fixed on agriculture,” Chase said.

“In Barbados, we know what we grow and we have been doing it successfully, so we need help, and I am pleading with her in this regard.” (SB)

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COVID-19 has claimed the lives of two elderly Barbadians.

A 71-year-old female who was fully vaccinated and an 83-year-old male who was unvaccinated, passed away this morning, Saturday, May 7. There are now 405 deaths as a result of the virus.

Minister of Health and Wellness, Ian Gooding-Edghill, has extended condolences to the families and friends of the deceased.

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The COVID outbreak at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is under control.

In an update on Friday evening, the hospital’s Executive Chairman Juliet Bynoe-Sutherland revealed that Ward B7, where three COVID-19 cases were detected, is now clear of the viral illness.

“The QEH is pleased to report that all COVID-19 cases on Ward B7 have been resolved and the ward is once again open to visitors.

“In keeping with the hospital’s exposure to COVID-19 protocols, all patients remaining on Ward B7 underwent routine COVID-19 testing in the form of an initial COVID-19 PCR test and a second test three days later. The results of these tests showed that no other COVID-19 cases were detected,” Bynoe-Sutherland explained.

The three COVID positive patients continue to receive care at the Harrison’s Point Isolation Centre and the Frank Walcott Assessment and Isolation Centre.

Noting that the hospital is a mask mandatory environment, Bynoe-Sutherland implored staff, visitors, and patients to “comply with wearing a well-fitted mask, and to practise regular hand washing as good hand hygiene is a critical part in preventing the spread of infectious diseases”.

“The fourth surge is characterised by a highly infectious variant and though illness may be mild, we have seen deaths so there is no room for complacency,” she added.
(BT/PR)

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NASSAU – RBC Financial (Caribbean) Limited (“RBC”) has been awarded the coveted “Best Digital Banking Services – Caribbean 2022” by Capital Finance International (CFI). The award is an endorsement of the Bank’s strength in the area of digital banking.

“We are honoured to receive this recognition from Capital Finance International,” said Chris Ronald, Head of Caribbean.

“RBC has been on a digital transformation journey. We began this pursuit when we started to make significant investments in the channels we believed would be the future of banking across the region. We are grateful to CFI for recognising the value of our digital banking channels.

“This award serves as a reminder that we are committed to anticipating how our client’s banking needs and preferences continue to evolve so we can serve them today and in the future.

“This recognition supports our vision to be the premier digitally enabled relationship bank.”

A report by the panel of judges made available to the Bank stated “access and convenience were the driving factors for the early investments. People rely on the Bank’s digital services, which have proven convenient in normal times and critical during a crisis, like the pandemic.”

RBC’s digital banking app has more than 170,000 active users who log in more than two million times each month. Transactions have been moving steadily away from the branch into self-serve channels, with a notable surge driven by the initial COVID-19 lockdowns.Today, RBC clients do more transactions digitally than in the branch (over-the-counter).

The report further stated: “RBC Caribbean Banking has no intentions of becoming a digital-only bank. It will maintain a strategic branch network for more complex financial advice, supported by knowledgeable staff and modern banking infrastructure. The idea is to complement the Bank’s growing digital services with that ever-inestimable human touch.” (PR)

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The group, Women in Action, is embarking on a major undertaking aimed at rescuing abused women and girls and wiping out “systemic” incidences of the scourge from the Barbadian society.

The group, comprising close to half dozen non-governmental organisations and individual women from all strata of society and the diaspora, joined forces on May Day and discussed how to assist in the elimination of abuse of the youth in Barbados.

Special focus will initially be on the girls at the state-run Government Industrial School, (GIS) some of whom have been alleging abuse, forcing the Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams to order a series of investigations into the operations of the juvenile reform facility for girls at Barrows, St Lucy and the one for boys at Dodds, St Philip.

The Women in Action will be launching their short-term plan on Mothers’ Day this Sunday with a  Silent Prayer Walk starting at 6 a.m. on Black Rock Main Road near its junction with Dodson Land and Griffith Land.

The procession will travel along Black Rock Main Road to its junction with Wavell Avenue and repeat the route until noon.

“Our medium-term effort will target the structural changes through legislation and institutional practices as well as pushing for accountability in crimes against minors,” the group stated in a press release.

“Our long-term plan is to, through advocacy and strategic action, usher in a juvenile correctional system that is humane and underpinned by the principles of child justice. Our network of organisations in the Third Sector have, and will continue to build their capacity to create programmes and deliver training to staff and care-givers of all government-run juvenile penal institutions and any other facility in need of it,” the advocacy and action group declared.

Women in Action is adamant that any work with the nation’s children aimed at correcting behavior, must honour their sense of dignity and self-worth.

“Mindful of the honourable intentions of this government, we anticipate that they will be willing to engage us and make use of the wealth of knowledge and experience that we are gathering in this umbrella body network of organisations,” the group stated.

The umbrella network organisation also called on the women of Barbados “who have been the backbone of this society since the 17th century” to stand up for the “transformation”.”

“We also need to have the support of the good men and the youth to let it be known that we expect better of our government for all our people.

“Our success depends on the public of Barbados to prevent a situation that is still unfolding from ever occurring again where minors without a voice have nowhere to run, no one to talk to and feel that the only way out of an abusive situation is suicide. Though we cannot put ourselves in their shoes, we can become their voice across this nation and beyond,” the Women in Action contended.

“To the girls of GIS, we want you to know that we have not forgotten you. Our Prayer is that you are the last group of girls on this island that experience these atrocities at the hands of the State.”

Women in Action has pledged to continue to network and collaborate on several initiatives that support the safety and holistic wellbeing of the wards of the State who are housed at the Government Industrial School.   

“Preliminary initiatives are scheduled to occur in this month of May (designated as Child’s Month) and various short to long-term strategies will be implemented until the current structures that enable the aforementioned abuse are dismantled.”

“The problem of systemic abuse in Barbados started during slavery and still exists today in the form of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse, that impact generations of families. On one side of the coin, abuse occurs in the home that is often perpetrated by a relative on women, young girls, and young boys,” Women in Action pointed out.

“On the other side of the coin, abuse is inflicted on minors, who are wards of the State in government-run institutions.  The situation at GIS and Dodds has sparked outrage from as far back as 42 years and because no fundamental changes have been made to this penal system for juveniles, the outrage continues today, in 2022.”

The group comprises representatives from the Global Network for Cultural Development, Praise Academy for Dance, Orgasmik Intelligence, Politically In-correct, Operation Safe Space, Spiritually Aware Group, We the Forgotten Women, Barbados Youth Action Programme, Full Moon Goddess Circle, Sulam Construction & Property Management Services and Omololu The Children’s Foundation and individual women. (EJ/PR)

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Despite increasing its revenue on all business operations, BICO’s success was dented by rising energy costs.

This was outlined by Edwin Thirlwell, executive chairman of the local ice cream manufacturer and cold storage company. The unaudited summary of the company’s financials has reported gross trading revenue of $7.70 million for the financial year ending March 31, 2022.

The gross revenues represented a 22 per cent increase on the $6.31 million achieved for the corresponding period in 2021. According to the figures published recently by the publicly-listed company, the operating income was $310,560, a 35 per cent increase on the $229, 323 registered  the previous financial year.

According to the figures, BICO made a small net profit of $4 872. This was a turnaround from the previous year’s position, when the 121-year-old company reported a $68, 727 net comprehensive loss.

Thirlwell told shareholders: “The company recorded increased gross revenues across its various business operations. However, this gross revenue growth was offset by rising energy costs which dampened overall performance.

“Gross trading revenues increased by 22 per cent and operating income increased by 35 per cent in the period under review.”

The BICO executive chairman disclosed that there was steady growth being experienced in ice cream sales, cold storage revenues and the distribution of hospitality sector supplies. In addition, Thirlwell said the company expected that growth in exports would continue.

He added: “The company will continue to address the challenges of rising energy costs and future prospects remain cautiously optimistic although overseas supply chain disruptions are likely.”

Last year, BICO announced it would soon be in the Guyana market and had dispatched its first shipment to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member.

Sales and Business Development Manager Dwayne Holmes expressed optimism about the Guyana market, noting growing demand for the products in nearby territories had seen BICO Limited working diligently to pursue markets in Trinidad, Antigua, and several South American countries.
(IMC1)

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At least two local groups have welcomed the new series of banknotes unveiled by the Central Bank of Barbados on Wednesday.

President of the Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors and Entrepreneurs (BARVEN, Allister Alexander and Mark A Haynes, Communication, Information and Marketing Officer of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT), said they were pleased with the enhanced security features and the look of the banknotes that are to go into circulation in early December.

They told Barbados TODAY they did not believe the new series of banknotes would deter them from pursuing greater use of digital payment systems.

Over the past two years micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have been encouraged to employ greater use of digital payment systems in order to remain competitive, as Government pushes for a national digital transformation.

Haynes said he believed cash will continue to be king even as he anticipated an increase in the use of digital currencies.

He said while it was still early days to determine if the new banknotes would put a damper on the drive towards use of digital payment systems, he believed privately-owned public service vehicle (PSV) operators were not opposed to making the switch to digital payments completely.

“Digital has its place in this new environment. Let us face reality, we are moving forward and we have to change the way we are doing things and many people are going digital. So that too is a step in the right direction, but when that time comes we will deal with it. If it were to come I don’t see a difficulty with it,” he said.

Haynes said he was impressed with the new design of the polymer banknotes, which feature individuals in a vertical format rather than the landscape of the existing paper currency.

“It is an initiative which I applaud and the PSV fraternity supports. We all are just looking forward to it being rolled out,” said Haynes.

Alexander said BARVEN was also looking forward to the education and sensitisation initiatives ahead of the new series of banknotes going into circulation at the end of the year.

Welcoming the enhanced security features, Alexander told Barbados TODAY the incidents of BARVEN members coming into contact with counterfeit currency were few.

“As was said, you will not have a zero situation where there is no counterfeit at all, but vendors are generally very careful in handling money, there are some who have apparatus to detect counterfeit money but generally we handle it . . . We don’t have a high incidence of counterfeit currency circulated in Barbados,” he explained.

Alexander said he did not believe vendors and other entrepreneurs were concerned that the introduction of new banknotes would slow the process of them employing digital payment systems as they seek to modernise their operations and serve a more global clientele.

Alexander was especially impressed with the design of the new banknotes, adding that it brought back memories of when Barbados first instituted its own currency in 1973.

“I am very impressed. It has even features of the national anthem on it. Those are things that speak to the soul of a people,” he said.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb

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The Massy retail outlets in Barbados have contributed significantly to the half -year growth results of the Trinidad and Tobago-headquartered conglomerate.

Its chairman Robert Bermudez acknowledged the performance in the Chairman’s Report that accompanied the unaudited financial highlights of the group, in which he presented an overview of the performance for the six months ending March 31.

Bermudez described the operation of the pan-Caribbean company as “commendable” when he examined the main portfolios and lines of business.

“Profit Before Tax from the Group’s operating subsidiaries increased by 20 per cent or TT$87.7 million over the same period. Profit Before Tax from the Integrated Retail Portfolio increased by 25 per cent over prior year,” he noted.

While Massy has major investments in Barbados including real estate assets, the chairman said it was the integrated retail sales in Barbados that helped propel the significant increase in revenue from this portfolio within the group.

“The growth in Integrated Retail came from all markets especially Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. The growth in Motors and Machines was driven by the rebound of Massy Motors in Trinidad but also supported by growth in Massy Machinery, Massy Motors Guyana and Massy Motors Colombia,” he stated.

Bermudez added: “The stellar performance of the operating companies in the Group was overshadowed by disappointing performance in the Group’s Divestment Funds (USD investments of proceeds of divested assets) and Captive Reinsurance portfolios, and from higher expenses in the Corporate Office recorded in the first half of the financial year 2022 than in the same period in financial year 2021.”

During the review period, the Divestment Funds and the Captive Reinsurance portfolios contributed TT$35.7 million of income to the head office.

Bermudez, who was upbeat about the performance of the group, said the conglomerate held its Annual Strategy Review in April 2022 in Bogotá Colombia, at which the board reviewed “credible growth strategies” for each of the company’s portfolios.

He indicated that with the accelerated momentum that the portfolios achieved, the Integrated Retail portfolio launched five new Massy Stores in just the first half of 2022 financial year.

According to the chairman, Massy received required regulatory approval for the sale of Massy United Insurance, a general insurance subsidiary it acquired when Massy took control of Barbados Shipping & Trading in 2008.

Massy United Insurance is now owned by CG Insurance which is part of Bermuda-based Coralisle Group.

The board of directors approved a half-year dividend of TT $0.3 cents which represents a nine per cent increase over restated half-year dividend of $0.2 cents per share.
(IMC1)

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ANSA Merchant Bank’s operations in Barbados registered “record revenue” during the 2021 financial year, despite negative pandemic-related impacts on the financial institution.

Its chairman Gregory Hill made the disclosure in a recent public filing of the company’s report and summarised financial statements for the year ending December 31, 2021.

“ANSA Merchant Bank (Barbados) Limited was not spared the continued disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which still continue to affect the economy of Barbados, with its main industry, tourism, being negatively impacted by a shutdown of the country during February 2021, with a curfew remaining in effect up to the end of the year,” Hill noted.

He also said recounted the April eruptions of the La Soufriere volcano in St Vincent and Hurricane Elsa which affected many Barbadians and local businesses.

However, Hill said ANSA Merchant Bank Barbados’ investment in technology and its disciplined approach to financial management enabled the company
to succeed.

Net total comprehensive income for the review period reached $5.24 million and this compared to $514, 222 registered for the previous year.

“We successfully re-named and re-branded the company from Consolidated Finance Co. Limited to ANSA Merchant Bank (Barbados) Limited in December 2021, which was widely applauded by our clients and the business community.

“We welcomed a new Managing Director, Victor Boyce a Barbadian, who we brought back to Barbados to augment our leadership team.

“We successfully deployed a major technology and operational project to centralise the back-office functions into the ANSA Merchant Bank Trinidad office, in order to improve efficiency across the organisation and enhance profitability of the company,” he disclosed.

Hill said during the review year ANSA Merchant Bank “generated record revenue, as well as set numerous other financial performance records in each of our lines of business”.

The company chairman added: “We achieved a robust operating income (comprising net interest income, net lease rental income, fees and foreign exchange income) of $14 million in 2021 compared to $13 million in 2020, an eight per cent increase.

“As a result of this and expense management, the company was able to achieve income before taxation of $5.7 million compared to $1 million in the previous period.

“We remained one of the best capitalised companies in our industry, as our capital base closed strongly at $59 million with a capital adequacy ratio of 34 per cent, which is well above the minimum regulatory requirement of eight per cent and reflects the strength of our business.” (IMC1)

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The ThenWhat? Charity is proud to be the driving force behind the Patsy Layne Mentorship/Scholarship program which is funded by a private donor. This scholarship is open to persons from the age of 15-30 who may be unemployed, under employed or living below the poverty line.

“This scholarship is not the usual scholarships we see, where those whose parents can afford to send their children off to university or even pay for them to go to SJPI or BCC. This scholarship is for those who come from homes, where they may have had to stop school, or have a passion for an area but no money to genuinely pay for the course,” said president trustee Samantha Hazlewood-Ermay.

She added: “We were excited when the donor reached out to us, to ask if we could facilitate the mentorship/scholarship programme, we readily agreed and assured that those persons who genuinely needed the help will be assisted.”

The mentorship/Scholarship programme will see five awardees being presented with the opportunity to pursue a course/CXCs of their choosing. They will also be mentored by someone in their desired field and placed on a job attachment.

However, applicants will have to attend four mandatory courses (networking, financial literacy, technical training and CV preparation/interview skills). Upon completion of the program, they will be awarded with a “monetary seed” at graduation to set them on their way.

Applications for the scholarship close on May 15, 2022. To learn more, log on to www.thenwhatcharity.org under the Patsy Layne Mentorship/Scholarship programme. (PR)

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A total of 455 people, 212 males and 243 females, have tested positive for COVID-19 from the 1,487 tests conducted by the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory.

The cases comprised 101 persons under the age of 18, and 354 who were 18 years and older. There were 111 in isolation facilities, while 3,390 were in home isolation.

The number of deaths from the viral illness now stands at 403.
The public health laboratory has conducted 658,562 tests since February 2020 and recorded 73,198 COVID-19 cases (33,532 males and 39,666 females).

Under the National Vaccination Programme for COVID-19, the total number of persons with at least one dose is 161,871 (70.9 per cent of the eligible population).

The total number of persons who are fully vaccinated is 152,169 (56.1 per cent of the total population or 66.6 per cent of the eligible population). The eligible population represents those persons who are 12 years and older. (BGIS)

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A caution has come from IT expert Steven Williams and Venezuela’s Charge D’Affaires to Barbados Martha Ortega to young Black Barbadians to become creators of content and not just consumers.

It was against the backdrop that if young Black Barbadians are not creators or owners within the field of information technology, they may just be the ones to be a part of modern day slavery.

Ortega and Williams were a part of a panel discussion at the Speightstown Branch Library for the opening of the first art exhibition of the Speightstown Global Freedom Festival entitled “Programmed“.

“Are we truly free if we keep relying on other platforms and not our own? We run and give all of that content to these foreign platforms that have no interest in monetizing it on our behalf but it is owned by foreign interests.

All we are doing is consuming Tik Tok videos and Facebook and we are not creating that balance. For those who have a story to tell, I am looking for that content and the world is too,” he said.

Williams explained that there are stumbling blocks in the way of people of African descent. He also argued that it is only natural for foreign creators of content to develop software that is representative of their experiences.

“We have to create our own and what happens is that the people in overseas countries get a level of capacity and intellectual property [to support them]. If not we will be held to these systems because you’re either going to take what they give you and hope it isn’t flawed. They are going to create images in their own nature — that is normal. You want these people to do something for us and I don’t get it,” Williams said.

Ortega spoke to digital freedoms while asking about the implications of tech owned by those who are in privileged positions.

“Technology is very important for our lives but to be free we have to know and ask how much we depend on technology. Who is the owner of the information and how can that change our society? The owner of the technology, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram — how can we say that we are living free if we don’t [own the technology],” she argued.

Minister of Labour Colin Jordan said that the panel discussion came about as part of the We Gatherin 2020 celebrations.

He explained that a lecture series was held, entitled From Cuffy to Owen and the basis of that lecture was the continuing struggle of Black people for democracy, for the right to determine their own future and for freedom.

“We have come together with the Center for Hybrid Studies which is really in the vanguard for promoting this festival. We in St Peter are happy to be a part of the process. We believe Speightstown was the place where the struggle for freedom manifested. We believe that we should also be the center for discussion on freedom,” Minister Jordan said.

The artists at the showing, curated by award-winning visual artis Evan McDonald, displayed pieces showing their human engagement with technology and its implications for freedom.

Jaron Griffith, an artist who had his work on display, said that he felt honoured to be a  part of the exhibition as McDonald reached out to him first.

“I’m interested in transhumanism, futuristic settings and they thought my work was pretty interesting and reached out to me so I’m very honoured,” he said.

Content creator Xavier Jhon-Clair, who had NFT art on display complete with QR codes for scanning, said his pieces on Errol Barrow and Bussa, the Lion at Gun Hill  and Sir Grantley were all about breaking away from colonization.

He said his pieces, while very Bajan, tend to be well received on the international market.

“I hope that more Barbadians can become aware of the opportunities that exist with intellectual property and being able to create and have access to that content,” he said. (MR)

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An education director says now is a good time for parents to invest in private tutoring especially within the COVID-19 environment.

Director at the Bright Sparks academy Brandon Dowell says too that he is doing his utmost best to ensure parents have access to quality tutoring outside of the classroom.

“The goal is to give students an awareness of where they are at. Due to the pandemic a lot of students have lost ground [academically] and the first step to put them back on track is awareness,” he said.

During a pop-up at Sky Mall, Haggett Hall, on Saturday in conjunction with the Sandy Crest Medical Center, Dowell told Barbados TODAY that he was offering free learning assessments with a primary focus on reading and writing. He said many parents came out mainly querying about the level their children are at.

“Most parents when they come they are  just not aware of where the child is as they know that they are having difficulties but they are just not aware of the extent of the difficulties. So for them it is just a feeling of relief knowing where the child is at,” he said.

The seven-year-old operation was started because Dowell says he needed lessons personally while going to school and saw the benefits of having a teacher volunteer to give him the specialization that he needed.

Parent Katrina Haynes, who waited in line for her son to be assessed, says that it was very difficult with her son — a primary school student — during the pandemic but she was impressed with Dowell’s assessment.

“I am very impressed. In fifteen minutes they did a slight assessment on my son and told me which areas he would fall short in, which is accurate to what his teacher was saying to me for the past year, so now he is going to join them and hopefully the techniques used would at least help him to progress in school,” she said.

“He has not adjusted well with the online platform. I actually had to enroll him with a private tutor during this whole pandemic to get the one-on-one attention,” she added.

Another parent, Camille Clarke, says she decided to stop by the Bright Sparks pop-up because her daughter was having challenges retaining information and she thought it was a good opportunity to seek out Dowell for expert advice.

“I see the [necessity] of private tutoring because of the online environment and the children not being able to focus as they would usually in the face-to-face setting,” she said.

Clarke added that it is a great investment to have private tutoring outside of the school environment. (MR)

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I have heard the queries of several Barbadians concerning the progress of construction of the 150 steel-framed houses which were imported into Barbados by Government last December to fill a need for emergency shelter for 150 families whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Elsa last July.

Accordingly, I wish to provide this update and to assure those families, and Barbadians in general, that despite several unforeseen challenges we have encountered, we are fully committed to ensuring that every affected Barbadian promised such a house will receive one within the next four months.

On August 10, 2021, the Ministry of Housing, Lands and Maintenance signed an Agreement with East-West Solutions (Barbados) Inc. for that company to import 74 single unit houses, 9 quads (36 housing units) and 20 duplexes (40 units) on an emergency basis, as a result of the destruction caused by Hurricane Elsa. These houses, which would include solar photovoltaic panels on their roofs, were to be shipped from September, 2021, and delivered and installed by December 31, 2021, at a cost of $22.6 million. This was seen as a competitive and affordable housing solution which could respond to the need for urgent housing in a quick turnaround period. Indeed, we dearly looked forward for persons impacted to have been restored to their new homes by Christmas last year but unfortunately this has not been the case.

Regrettably, the timely completion of this project has been affected by unforeseen circumstances which have resulted in delays. For example, due to two strong storms in China, the cargo only arrived in Barbados on December 6, 2021. It was therefore clear that the December 31, 2021 deadline could not be met.

In addition, as part of the contractual arrangement, it was expected that key technical personnel, including engineers, would have formed part of a team to be sent from China to provide the technical expertise needed to assist with the erection of the houses and at the same time, facilitate the transfer of critical knowledge to local personnel. This, however, did not occur since these persons were not granted visas to facilitate their travels into Barbados. Only two of the technical team were eventually able to acquire the visas needed and these persons were then required to contract a local firm and provide the training necessary for the local workers. This project has accordingly resulted in the generation of employment opportunities for many Barbadians, as local labour is currently being used in the assembly of the houses. In fact, to reach our new deadline in four months’ time, Prime Minister has agreed that we should retain and train 200-300 more local workers in order to complete the job more quickly.

Another factor hampering progress was the fact that it was found that on a whole, the steel-framed houses were actually designed to much higher quality standards than would normally apply in Barbados. The local teams accordingly had to make the necessary adjustments, which created a steep, but invaluable, learning curve for local personnel.

It therefore required some additional effort on the part of the local contractors to familiarise themselves with the design requirements and to ensure that they were meeting the standards required both for preparing the foundations, as well as with the assembling of the actual structures. The plumbing and electrical plans furthermore took a while to be assessed. Added to this was the fact that the units were comprised of many components which called for greater care being taken with the assembly.

The process was further prolonged with the intervention of the General Elections, Christmas breaks by the contractors undertaking the work, as well as the COVID pandemic. Added to these, the contractors on the project were faced with repeated incidences of theft of materials at some of their work sites, requiring police intervention. All of these circumstances combined to unfortunately extend the time anticipated for the erection and delivery of the houses.

Let me be very clear. We have no issues at all with the quality of the imported houses. In fact, many persons have expressed positive feedback so far about the first house that was completed in Scotts Gap, Brittons Hill, and others that are currently in various stages of erection across the country. And I digress to add that the Prime Minister in her Budget Statement has already indicate that we will continue to forge a partnership in this regard.

But first our priority is on rushing these 150 houses to completion before we move too far into the upcoming Hurricane season. I anticipate that at least 75 of these houses will be assembled by the end of June 2022, with another 55 being completed by the end of July 2022 and the remainder by August 2022.

I deeply regret the length of time that it has taken for these affected Barbadians to be able to return to their homes. As I said before, however, Government is fully committed to accelerating progress in order to ensure that every affected citizen who was promised a house will receive one.

Thank you.

Ministry of Housing, Lands and Maintenance

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