Police are seeking the public’s assistance to help locate 15-year-old Kiara Sandiford of Mount Hillaby, St Andrew.

She left the home of her mother, Sophia Sandiford, sometime between 7- 8 p.m on Saturday, February 9.

Kiara was wearing a grey plain shirt, long sky-blue jeans and black slippers.

She is about five feet tall, eight inches and has a dark complexion. She has an oval face, thick lips, black hair that is cut in a boyish high top style and speaks with a soft voice.

Anyone with information about Kiara’s whereabouts should contact Police Emergency at 211, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-8477, District 'A' Police Station at 430-7242 or the nearest police station.

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Police are seeking the public’s assistance to help locate a missing man.

Peter Pete Phillips of  7F Factory Avenue, Wildey, St Michael was last seen leaving his residence around 11 a.m. last Thursday, February 7.

He is five feet, nine inches tall and is slim.

Phillips has a brown complexion, black beard and moustache, a broad nose and thick dark lips.

Anyone with information about Phillip’s whereabouts should contact Police Emergency at 211, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-8477, District ‘A’ Police Station at 430-7242 or the nearest police station.

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Attorney General Dale Marshall strongly believes some business owners are using their establishments to bring guns into the country.

And he has warned, that any owner who is found culpable will feel the full weight of the law.

His strong position is getting support from a prominent businessman and former head of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce, Eddie Abed who said at a time when Barbados was battling increased gun crimes, any measures to catch the perpetrators were welcomed, once done fairly.

“I am a Barbadian first and a businessman second and I am as concerned about gun violence as every other Barbadian,” Abed said.

“I would applaud the Attorney General with any action that he deems necessary to curb the importation and smuggling of guns and drugs into this country and I would back him wholeheartedly, but I wouldn’t want this to become a situation where it can be seen as being over zealous and perhaps certain individuals are targeted,” Abed added.

Marshall’s warning to the local business community came at the St Christopher Primary School yesterday evening, as he reviewed the Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) performance in its first six months in office. While admitting that firearms were perhaps the “biggest problem” in Barbados today,” the AG said police might be forced to increase searches within the business community.

Marshall said of the nine murders committed for the year, illegal guns had been used in four of them and he promised that no stone would be left unturned in efforts to rid Barbados of illegal guns.

“We do know that there are connections with the business community and I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again, the same way that none of you can feel safe as long as some of these guns are on the streets, I want to make it clear that any member of the business community who either allows or facilitates his shipment to be used as a method of getting guns into Barbados, will not be safe from law enforcement authorities either,” Marshall said to rapturous applause.

“The same way the police is going to have to knock on house doors and search people’s cars and those kind of things, the business community will have to feel some of the weight if they are involved in this. There will be no sacred cows in this exercise.”

In response to Marshall’s comments, Abed told Barbados TODAY he had no problem with the suggestions.

“If it is a blanket approach and all individuals and businesses are equally searched and action taken against them to ensure that they are running a clean and straight business, then I would be all for it. We do have a problem and it can’t be business as usual and I think any citizen would recognize that whatever is necessary to deal with it should be absolutely explored.”

The AG also revealed that as the country stepped up its fight against crime and the importation of illegal guns, additional scanners would soon be placed at the Bridgetown Port. He maintained that due to a lack of scanners at the port, too many packages and containers were being allowed to leave without being scanned.

Marshall revealed that only about six per cent of containers passing through the Port were being scanned.

“The Prime Minister is making some funds available so that the port can get some additional scanners, so within the next few months the Port will have an additional two scanners,” he disclosed.

“The truth is you can’t scan every container. Customs doesn’t search every suitcase that comes through the airport and in many respects a lot of these things are intelligence driven. But the fact is, we need to scan and we need to subject for examination a significantly greater percentage of containers than we currently do if we are going to be successful at seizing some of these weapons.

“Those additional scanners are going to make a world of difference,” Marshall assured. Meanwhile, the AG said a recent decision to call on the forces of 80 Barbados Defence Force (BDF) personnel to assist the Royal Barbados Police Force had paid dividends. He said since those soldiers had began participating in patrols and traffic stops, there had been a lull in reports of violent crimes taking place.

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb

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Limitations on joining the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) such as tattoos and age may soon be a thing of the past.

That is according to Attorney General Dale Marshall who says the RBPF’s top brass had already been instructed to step up its recruitment drive and such adjustments in limitations might be required if the force is to attract more young people.

Marshall said similar to how then Attorney General Mia Mottley had lowered the height requirement to become a police officer, other changes could soon be coming.

“We have a policy in place of no tattoos because of the possibility that the tattoos can be indicators of particular gang allegiances, so the BDF, police and the prison, they all have a policy. Sometimes it’s enforced sometimes it’s not.

“Maybe we need to get away from that . . . we may have to rethink that. If you treat these things as fixed in stone, then you don’t make changes when you need to,” Marshall said as he addressed a gathering during a Barbados Labour Party (BLP) constituency meeting at St Christopher’s Primary last night.

Marshall revealed that there were currently only 18 recruits at the Regional Police Training School.

“Now what does that tell you about the long-term viability of the police force in terms of maintaining the strength that it needs?

“We are now looking at the possibility of increasing the age because the cutoff age now is 30. Maybe the time has come where we should start to ask ourselves what is the magic about 30? . . . We have to review how we police, we have to use technology more and in order to increase that number from 18 to 80 we have to start thinking more about the cutoff points that we have, whether it is age or tattoos, because we simply need to be able to attract more people,” the Attorney General maintained.

Marshall said young people no longer saw the police force as a viable career choice and government needed to find a way to make policing an attractive option.

“It is a fact that we have challenges recruiting our young men and women to the force . . . . Today we find that we cannot attract people to the force in the numbers that we used to.

“We simply need to have more recruits coming into the force because we need to have that continuity. We have to start thinking of ways and means to start having our young men and women interested in the police force as a career,” Marshall insisted.

He said while persons were talking about offering higher salaries, that was a challenge for Government at the present time. However, he added, that whatever resources the force had needed to be put to good use.

He said redeploying officers from some duties was also on the cards.

“There are a number of departments that are staffed by police officers such as the police certificate of character office, where there is no need for them.

“I cannot be complaining that we do not have any policemen on the ground when I have half a dozen or a dozen on the ground processing requests,” Marshall said, while recounting how police used to issue driving tests and passports at one point before those jobs were given to civilians.

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A Canadian R&B recording sensation of Barbadian and Jamaican parentage is the toast of three nations - and his mother’s St James family - for his first-ever Grammy Award on Sunday night.

Daniel Caesar, 23, son of Hollace Burnett, formerly of Lower Carlton, has been making waves across Canada, the United States and Britain since 2015 with his debut extended play (E.P.) record, Praise Break.

[caption id="attachment_289550" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Ashton Simmonds with his Barbadian born mother Hollace Simmonds.[/caption]

While Caesar, real name Ashton Simmonds, may not be a household name in Barbados, his relatives from in and around the west coast community, are ecstatic about Sunday’s achievement.

“The family as you would expect is very ecstatic about it. In fact, I hardly slept last night,” Caesar’s uncle Trevor Burnett said of his nephew’s Grammy for Best R&B Performance with his track Best Part, a collaboration with American singer-songwriter H.E.R.

While Burnett said he always believed Caesar was destined for greatness, the journey was not seamless. He was nominated for Best R&B Album at last year’s 60th Grammy Awards for his debut album Freudian and Best R&B Performance for his single “Get You” but went home empty-handed.

“Last year, he was nominated for about three and he didn’t get any. Bruno Mars got the bulk, but this year he came back with a bang and it has just been amazing. The interesting thing is that life is such a paradox. Last year he had the bulk of nominations and we were very hopeful and nervous. This year he just had one nomination and we were not that intense and look at how he brought it home this year,” Burnett said with a chuckle.

Caesar’s feat is all the more significant for an independent recording artist without the backing of a major record label.

His uncle maintains that the young R&B star’s ties to Barbados remain strong.

Burnett said: “His mum, my sister, Hollace Burnett left for Canada when she was very, very young and then she came back to Barbados and had her secondary schooling here, at St. James Secondary (now Frederick Smith Secondary), and then she went back to Canada when she was around like 18, 19, and she’s been there ever since and she’s also a very good singer.”

Caesar’s artistic lineage extends to his father Norwell Simmonds, a Jamaican-born gospel singer who has produced two albums, and the Burnett clan in Barbados.

Burnett added: “His whole family is artsy and I am talking about the whole Burnett clan is artsy. I am an artist; my dad, Oliver Burnett, who passed away in 2010 is perhaps Barbados’ leading landscape painter. So he has a very strong lineage of art and a culture of art.

“Ashton [Caesar] and I are very close. Ashton actually came to Barbados two to three years ago to hang with me. He was at the crossroads and he wanted to connect with the other prominent artists in the family, because the life of an artist is quite different. An artist has a different set of rules governing him or her so there’s a high degree of sensitivity. So Ashton and I are indeed quite close.”

Caesar has visited Barbados on only three occasions, but has dreams of performing here, Burnett said.

He added: “He really is passionate about performing in Barbados and about owning a home here. So this award is really Barbados’ other Grammy award. That is his view, because he loves his mother’s country and he loves his experiences with it.”

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City businesses that do not properly secure their cardboard packaging are creating a double headache for the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA), as vagrants turn boxes into both home and toilet, an SSA spokesman has revealed.

The authority’s public relations officer, Carl Padmore, said sanitation workers are increasingly being confronted with boxes of faecal waste. He called on businesses to take better care of their refuse until it is collected by the SSA.

Padmore said: “We need to make an appeal to the business owners in Bridgetown to secure the garbage, especially cardboard boxes before we remove it. As we traverse Bridgetown, we are seeing that the card board boxes are just placed outside of the store just like that without any security and it becomes a haven for vagrants and then naturally rodents. When the vagrants go into these card board boxes, they are often stooling in them. So, there is urine and faeces in these cardboard boxes and then our men have to go and interface with this.”

The SSA spokesman suggested it was time that businesses consider recycling their packaging materials.

He said:  “There are businesses that do quite a bit of recycling. One such company removes Cave Shepherd’s garbage twice per day,”

Padmore, acknowledging that not all business will be willing to take on the additional cost of having their refuse removed twice per day. But he argued that disposal cost was no excuse for leaving empty boxes unsecured to be taken over by the homeless.

He said: “We know that businesses depend on us but they really need to partner with us otherwise it would make our job extremely difficult. We have to very cautious with our workers because we don’t want them going through garbage that may contain both body fluids and rodents. We are obligated by law to clean Bridgetown six days per week and all people see are see are the streets cleaned on a morning but they don’t understand what the workers go through.”

Padmore sugessted that the firms collapse the boxes and secure them with cord or keep them in a caged receptacle.

In addition to the mess created by vagrants, Padmore charged that ordinary citizens continue to relieve themselves in Bridgetown’s alleys.

He noted that while cleaning these alleys involve power washing them, the pungent odour is intolerable for workers and creates a bad impression for visitors.

“This is totally ridiculous. This is not vagrants that we are talking about. This is regular people that do these things. The only thing that our workers should be encounter in these alleys is few loose pieces of garbage not body fluids. We are coming up on Valentines day and Barbadians need to ask themselves if they truly love their country. This is something that simply cannot be allowed to continue anymore.” Padmore added

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A broken seal at the Bridgetown sewage treatment plant, blamed for a stench that has spread over the surrounding area, has been fixed, but grease continues to dog the waste disposal system, Minister of Water Resources Wilfred Abrahams revealed today.

He declared that although the Lakes Folly plant had been completed (at rehabilitation) just last October at a cost of $12 million, parts do go bad from time to time.

Abrahams explained to reporters: “They had an issue with a seal that is now fixed. I mean the reality is that everything requires maintenance and while we accomplished what we accomplished, you have to maintain the plant on a continuing basis. The best-kept plant is going to have issues every once in a while. So we had a slight issue, we diagnosed it and then we replaced the seal.”

But the Minister complained that oils and fats, items specifically restricted from the sewage stream, continued to clog the system.

He called on commercial user to desist from the practice of dumping grease down the drain.

Abrahams said: We’re doing our best to try to minimize the effect of that on your system, but the public needs to step up to the plate, stop pouring things down the sink.  We are at the point now where we are going to start our investigations, we’re going to do inspections and we are going to disconnect people who are not toeing the line.”

The minister repeated an earlier threat to ramp up inspection of businesses and seek to disconnect and prosecute offenders.

The water resources minister said: “When you pour it down the sink you figure that problem has disappeared. The problem might have disappeared for you, but you’ve now created a problem for everybody else. We have done a lot of work both at Bridgetown and with the south coast system. But it would amount to nothing if the public of Barbados does not change its behaviour and be more responsible.  It is our sewage system. It is our sewage network. People need to stop being selfish and be responsible. Think of it as yours. Consider how you would treat it if it was yours alone and act that way.”

He declared that under his watch, Barbados was not going to revert to days of sewage flowing on the streets of the south coast, nor the days of the Bridgetown treatment plant functioning at less than half of its capacity, because of the poor disposal habits of a few.

He told reporters: “If we need to change legislation or upgrade legislation to be able to prosecute people criminally for it, then we are prepared to do that. We are not going back to the situation that obtained in Bridgetown last year when the plant was almost on the verge of collapse and we are not going back to the situation that obtained on the south coast when sewage was all in the street. We will do whatever we need to do to ensure that protect those systems.”

Abrahams, who is also energy minister, spoke to the media this morning after presenting prizes to Tai Gill of the Lawrence T Gay Memorial Primary for placing second in the ministry’s renewable energy essay competition.

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The pending ban of styrofoam and single-use plastics may give rise to food price extortion, Minister for the Blue Economy Kirk Humphrey has warned, urging consumers to boycott food vendors who raise prices sharply.

He told Barbados Labour Party (BLP) St Michael South branch at the Graydon Sealy School at The Garrison,  that the Government’s phased ban on plastics starting on April 1st has already seen some vendors speculating that their prices would have to be increased although an environmentally-friendly replacement utensil costs about 30 cents more.

The first phase will end the trade in single-use, petroleum-based plastic cups, straws, cutlery, stirrers, plates, egg trays, and Styrofoam containers used in the food retail industry.

Humphrey said: “For all the things that we’re banning there are already on-island replacements that are either compostable fully, or bio-degradable fully.”

But the minister said some vendors have indicated they intend to hike meal prices considerably because having to switch to biodegradable containers is costly. He also noted other vendors have said the cost of the replacement items amounts to no more than a 30 cents’ impact on the cost of a meal.

Humphrey told constituents: “Let us say your containers gone up by 50 cents, how your food could go up by two dollars?

“People looking for every opportunity now to gouge out people’s eyes.

“If you see that your food price has gone up in a way that doesn’t reflect the cost of the container then go and shop with somebody else, and eventually those prices will come right back down.”

The maritime affairs minister said the increased food prices are minimal “compared to the cost that we have to endure as a Government and as a country for dealing with the clean-up of styrofoam”.

“Even if it might be a little bit inconvenient, do it for your country because we only have at the end of the day one Barbados,” he said.

The second phase of the ban on single-use plastics will end the issue of grocery bags from next year.

Said Humphrey: “We are not banning plastics that are used at the end of a manufacturing process. The bags you got the bread and so on, we’re not banning those, [and] pharmaceuticals, medicines . . . We’re not banning styrofoam associated with packaging for now, only the styrofoam that you would get when you go to the food vendor.”

“It is just to get rid of those empty plastic bags that end up on the street,” blocking drains and eventually washing into the sea but not disintegrating for perhaps thousands of years.

“But you can still use biodegradable bags . . . hopefully in a very short time the bags will disintegrate, not into smaller plastics but into something organic that goes back into the earth and does no harm.”

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The Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme is on track.

That is the word from Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn, who has revealed that officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are pleased with the country’s performance.

An IMF team arrived on the island last week to receive an update on the programme which was introduced last June by Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

Speaking at a Barbados Labour Party (BLP) constituency meeting at St Christopher Primary on Sunday evening, Straughn said, “We have already had the second disbursement with respect to the funds from the IMF. We have worked really, really hard to make sure that we can give you the citizens the confidence that this plan is working.

“Now some persons would have been laid off and that is unfortunate, but we are working to make sure that the opportunities that we said we were going to provide, that we will actually provide,” he added.

Straughn said Government would continue to keep citizens abreast of what was going on throughout the duration of the four-year programme.

“The critical thing that I want to emphasize is that as we move through this, the confidence that you as citizens will have and surely businesses and investors will be critical in creating the conditions for better and greater and even more inclusive growth for the economy.

“Unlike the seven, eight, nine, ten plans that the previous government had, what
you will hear quarter after quarter, after quarter as we go through what we say we are going to do, we are communicating to you what is being done, who will be affected and how we plan to mitigate against it,” Straughn said.

“As those things happen, the report of the IMF represents that objective assessment of the success of the programme.” 

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Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations Colin Jordan is calling on training institutions in Barbados to increase their enrolment numbers in an effort to accommodate unemployed individuals who wish to study.

At the same time, Jordan is giving the assurance that the Mia Mottley-led administration was doing all it could to help the hundreds of retrenched workers explore new employment possibilities.

His comments came on Monday as he addressed the first in a series of workshops designed to help retrenched workers regroup.

[caption id="attachment_289569" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations Colin Jordan.[/caption]

The workshop, which is being led by the Barbados Employment and Career Counselling Service (BECCS), forms part of Government’s Retooling and Empowering, Retraining and Enfranchising (RERE) scheme under the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme.

“I have been informed that we are currently experiencing a bottleneck at the point of entry into some of the training institutions. I want to encourage training institutions, both government and non-government, to try as far as possible to increase quotas so that people who are desirous of taking up these training opportunities have the opportunity to do so,” said Jordan.

Stating that it simply “cannot be business as usual”, the labour minister said it was important that training institutions here increase their quota in order to accommodate applicants from BECCS.

“I would also like to encourage other training providers, especially those with accredited programmes, to make your proposals through BECCS to the National Insurance Department for consideration and approval. There is a need for more to be done in this area,” he added.

Speaking specifically to the workshop on Monday, Jordan said it should be seen as a chance for participants to “broaden their skills or to explore possible new avenues of employment and/or self-employment”.

Adding that the Government was focused on the development of citizens “who can operate globally, but remain rooted in Barbadian values”, Jordan said Government had determined that “where jobs are we will find them and seek to unlock the possibilities for our workers”.

“In this digital age, Barbadians must be able to work anywhere in the world. We must become global citizens,” he said.

Pointing to farm labour, hotel-related and meat production employment opportunities in Canada and the USA, Jordan said opportunities would be presented later this month for nurses in the UK when a recruiting firm conducts interviews.

The workshop, which is being held in collaboration with the Human Resource Development Strategy unit, will last for three days, accommodating up to 60 people per session.

The areas covered during Monday’s seminar included financial planning, personal interests and goal setting, job search techniques, CV writing skills, interview techniques and entrepreneurship.

Jordan told participants he was confident the workshop would help them on their journey to better opportunities.

“We know that it will raise your awareness of the kind of assistance that is available to you and where you can access it. In fact, BECCS is currently working to have a system where an employer can view the CVs posted by BECCS’ clients and contact job-seekers for an interview. Likewise, a job-seeker will be able to view vacancies and apply online,” said Jordan.

Yvette Walcott-Dennis, acting Director of the BECCS said the response to the workshop has been very good and promised that there will be more workshops in March for unemployed youth following a similar pattern.

[caption id="attachment_289567" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Acting Director of the BECCS Yvette Walcott-Dennis.[/caption]

Walcott-Dennis said BECCS would be carrying out some community sessions later this year in those areas where persons can more easily come and offer the same services so that they don’t have to worry about the bus fares.

“There is the need out there especially among the youth. The youth though, it is sometimes difficult to motivate them, especially those who may never have had a job. It is difficult but we do our best to help them to see what is possible,” she said.

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The Barbados Government will be seeking another loan from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as it accelerates its modernization plan.

Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations Colin Jordan, disclosed that he was to meet with IDB officials today (Monday) to secure a loan from the Washington-based financial institution for the digitization of government.

He did not disclose the size of the loan Government was seeking in this round.

“That meeting that I am going to has to do with the modernization of the Government and you may have heard it referred to as the digitizing of government records. But the digitizing is just one part of a larger programme that we are seeking funding for, through the Inter-American Development Bank and we are fighting the battle on a number of fronts. I want you to stay the course with us,” Jordan told retrenched government workers on Monday as he addressed the first in a series of workshops at the Warrens Office Complex.

Under the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme, Government is expected to reform state-owned agencies and employ greater use of technology in an effort to improve its processes.

It is also hoped that a number of retrenched workers would receive training in specialized areas to  be prepared to assist with digitizing government records.

So far, Government has received a promised $200 million from the IDB in support of the BERT programme, helping to drive the island’s once precarious international reserves to just over $1 billion as at December last year.

Pointing out that Barbados was “on the road to progress”, Jordan said this will continue to happen because of the partnerships.

“We have made strides as it relates to closing our fiscal deficit. Tomorrow (Tuesday) the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for 2019/2020 will be laid in Parliament and those estimates have been the results of quite a lot of work,” said Jordan.

“But they will be the estimates that speak to keeping Barbados on the path to recovery. We have seen a closing of the fiscal deficit and we have seen significant improvements in our level of foreign reserves and this gives us some room where we can focus more on economic growth and economic recovery,” he said.

Late last year Barbados also benefited from a promised $150 million loan from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in support of the BERT programme and later this week Government is to also be
presented with a further US$40.4 million infrastructure loan from the CDB to carry out upgrades to the Grantley Adams International Airport.

Government is benefiting from a US$290 million Extended Fund Facility under an International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement as it carries out its BERT programme.

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Prime Minister Mia Mottley is now in Washington to meet with the world’s major multilateral lenders and American lawmakers, in a bid to ease the country’s foreign debt burden and explain the administration’s new financial services laws. She told the radio call-in programme Brass Tacks Sunday on Voice of  Barbados: “Over the next two days I will have meetings with the Inter-American Development Bank’s Caribbean grouping, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, along with the US Congress and the Financial Services Commission. We wanted to make sure we had as many people on board with the changes we have made, and only yesterday we were called to meet in Romania with the European Union to discuss how these changes will affect our relationship with them.”

Mottley said talks were continuing with overseas creditors and on reducing the level of indebtedness.

She told the programme: “The public will be advised shortly on what we will be doing regarding our foreign debt situation. This is now the smallest part, but we know we will have to bring resolution to that in the next few months. Others have recognised this as well and have not made this a prerequisite to anything we have now signed.”

Likening the economic reconstruction effort to a marathon, she said:  “We have to stay the course and remain focussed. The country was suffering for a decade, so we need to give things a chance. The medicine being applied is far less bitter than it would have been. There were those who thought we should not have restructured our local and foreign debt, but in the end we will save millions in the amortization of the principals of those loans.”

The Prime Minister suggested that without her administration’s intervention, the state of the economy could have worsened, and would have led 10,000 public workers losing their jobs rather than the planned 2,500 job cuts.

Noting that Government had been consulting with the tripartite Social Partnership on aspects of the restructuring process, she also backed the restriction of overtime pay in the public sector as a job-saving exercise.

Mottley said: “The restriction of overtime in an effort to save jobs came from the Social Partnership, not the Government, and in all honesty, if we can restrict overtime so we don’t send more people home this is a good thing.”

The Prime Minister  said the economic recovery programme is going well and suggested that Barbados is regaining its reputation for social and economic stability.

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The Holetown area is in line for a Government “rejuvenation” plan to boost tourism, which Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds suggests must benefit ordinary citizens, not just overseas investors.

Symmonds told the launch of the 42nd annual Holetown festival, which celebrates Barbados’ first European and African settlement 392 years ago, that although the area had become the Caribbean’s  most sought after real estate, that it was Government’s role
to ensure Barbadians from all walks of life could benefit.

Symmonds said: “There is a reason why it is referred to as the Platinum Coast and here in Holetown, of course, you are at the centre of the Platinum Coast and that is simply because this is the place that is home to some of the most lucrative and expensive and highly sought after pieces of luxury tourism and investment to be found anywhere in the Caribbean. Because it is so sought after, it is exceptionally valuable in commercial terms.

[caption id="attachment_289588" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Director of Tourism Development in the Ministry of Tourism Dr Kerry Hall enjoying the performances with Minister of Tourism and International Transport Kerrie Symmonds.[/caption]

“Philosophically, I must tell you as far as I am concerned, this tourism thing means nothing if all cannot genuinely say that tourism in Barbados is not a business created by foreigners, run by foreigners for foreigners. It must be about the Barbadian people and if we can come to that point where all of you feel that you are genuine stakeholders in the tourism product then I think we have satisfied ourselves on a mission that is very important in terms of economically enfranchising the communities of this country.”

The tourism minister, who is also the area’s parliamentary representative, then announced that Government is to lead a mission to rejuvenate the island’s first town, under the guidance of the ministry’s Director of Tourism Development, Dr. Kerry Hall.

Symmonds declared: “As we refresh, reimagine and rethink Holetown, to make it the best possible visitor experience that it can be in terms of entertainment, culture, and commercial activity, it must encompass more people who reflect the average Barbadian person.”

He also challenged Barbadians to re-imagine the tourism product, arguing that what made Barbados wealthy was not just real estate, but its history and culture.

He told the large crowd: “That oft times untold story about the role Barbados plays as it fitted itself into the shaping of the global community is what makes this country so sought after and this strip of land here because of its rich history which is so valuable. But to marry that with the culture of the place and to get an even fuller understanding.

“We offer the world world-class entertainers, world-class award-winning musicians, world-class award-winning beers, world-class award-winning rum, world-class award-winning mixologists and chefs.”

According to Symmonds, the Holetown Festival was the perfect opportunity to combine the best of what the area had to offer and present it to the world as a full package.

He said:  “All of our studies and all of our research in the Ministry of Tourism and in the Ministry of Culture is pointing us to the fact that yes people want to spend a little time and money on memorabilia to say this is a piece of Barbados that I brought home with me. But what they are really seeking is an opportunity to immerse themselves in an experiential way. To have an experience of what it is to live like a Bajan. What we do in our communities, they want to learn, those things that we take for granted, they want to take part in an understand and be a part of. And as we evolve as a tourism product, we need to help them be able to do this.

“My ministry is ready to place itself at the disposal of the festival committee. We want to elevate this festival to the next level. It is time that the festival benefits from the technical expertise of the Barbados Tourism Authority which is staffed by professionals… it is time that the festival also benefits as best we can in difficult financial circumstances from some of the financial assistance of the state so that we can life it to the next level.

“You have been tested and tried and placed in the balance and have not been found wanting. Forty years is a long time and you cannot be allowed to fail.”

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As the world seeks a solution to the political instability in Venezuela, Barbados' Prime Minister Mia Mottley says the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) have agreed with their international counterparts that the Caribbean must remain a zone of peace.

Speaking on the Brass Tacks Sunday radio programme, the Prime Minister, who is in Washington, DC said she had just returned from a meeting in Uruguay with representatives from regional groupings to decide on the best solution to the crisis Venezuela is facing.

“We held meetings with the United Nations Secretary General, along with other delegations across the world such as the African Union, the European Union, Russia and their allies and the Latin American community. In CARICOM, we agreed that our region must remain in total peace, because we are small nations with a thin buffer and any form of instability would destroy our stability economically and socially, both individually and as a region.”

With military intervention ruled out, Mottley said, “Two or three weeks ago, the wider international community was considering military intervention, but CARICOM's position on that was very clear and that is why we went to the UN and said military intervention was a no-no.” She added that the European Union had also agreed not to go the route of military action.

Prime Minister Mottley noted that Barbados was not choosing the sides of either elected President Nicolas Maduro or the self-appointed interim President, Juan Guaido, but believed dialogue was the best way to resolve the dilemma.

“Small countries can only survive if they uphold the rule of law, and both the UN Charter and OAS Charter are based on principles of territorial sovereignty, non-interference and non-intervention, and respect for the rule of law. So to have someone declare themselves as interim president of a country in circumstances where the constitutionality of it may be in serious dispute, requires some talk at the very least.

“There are numerous political parties in Venezuela, and if you replace the party in power tomorrow, you are dealing with a country that has 30 million people, and there are millions who will remain unsatisfied. And when the world's attention turns from Venezuela, that country as well as its neighbors will still have all the repercussions to deal with, which could create instability in the region.”

Following the meetings in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, Ms. Mottley said the leaders gathered came up with what they called the “Montevideo Mechanism” which will govern how the peace process will work.

“We agreed that we would put together a team of people who would help bridge the gap and enter into a four-stage phased dialogue with direct contact among the players involved in a secure environment. All parties will get to put their views on the table, try to find common ground, and then there will be a commitment phase and once they reach agreement, they will have to stick to certain timelines and then there will be the implementation phase.

“We have identified four people who will work on this, including former Barbados Chief Justice Sir David Simmons, former Inter-American Development Bank President Enrique Iglesias, Mexico's former Minister of Foreign Affairs Fernando Sepulvedo and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.”

The prime minister said so far the Maduro government had agreed to take part in the negotiations and the group was still trying to reach out to the opposition.

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The snack vendor who played a role in returning a lost wallet to its owner last Monday is feeling proud and satisfied.

As she plied her trade outside of the Princess Margaret Secondary School this morning, Margaret Payne told Barbados TODAY she was pleased that she was able to help Reynold Weekes Primary students Nathan Leon Blackman, his twin sister Natalia Blackman, their cousin Jaquon Blackman, and friend Jerome Forde, return the property to its owner Reginald Jones, with all of the money and other personal intact.

But according to the vendor of almost 25 years, what gave her true satisfaction was the fact that “those four children were honest to not touch that money, but try to get it back to the owner”.

[caption id="attachment_289587" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Margaret Payne is the vendor who played a role in returning a lost wallet to its owner last week.[/caption]

“For me, what those children did is what really makes me proud,” Payne said.

The Lead Vale, Christ Church resident was selling outside the Four Roads, St Philip primary school when the students approached her with the wallet, which they had found nearby.

“The kids came to me and say ‘Aunty Margaret, Aunty Margaret, we found this purse’. But I didn’t pay them no mind because I thought they were fooling around. I just glanced and say that is good. When I look I see the purse there. I asked ‘where you all get that? Give it to me’, she recalled.

Payne said she immediately contacted a friend whom she believed would have known Jones. Before Jones met with Payne, he asked her if money was in the purse.

“I asked him how much money was in the purse. He told me how much money was in the purse and when I checked, the exact money was there. When he came over in Six Roads and he come to me, I presented him with the purse, and he was very glad to see that he got back his money, ID card and everything.

“And I was very glad the children bring it to me because there were four other people out there. There was the pizza man and another younger vendor. They didn’t return it to the school. So I say the children trusted me and I was very pleased,” she said.

Payne said she decided to take a picture of the children and asked her daughter to post it on Facebook along with a story about the good deed they did because she believed they deserved the publicity and praise. She said, at a time when Barbados was trying to recover from the spate of crime in January, it was a breath of fresh air to see young people do something positive.

“I say let me take this picture and show that we still have honest kids here in Barbados. Not only all of this fighting should be on social media. But it is not only me to get the praise; I think charity begins at home. If those children were children that in a home accustomed to stealing I guess they would have taken home the money,” she said.

The mother of three indicated that she is constantly reminding the students who buy from her, both at Reynold Weekes, and at Princess Margaret, that they should always be on their best behaviour, which includes practicing honesty.

“My mother always told me that it does not matter how poor you are, you should always be honest. If something does not belong to you, do not keep it because it is not yours. I am glad to see that those four children’s parents teaching them the same thing my mother taught me,” Payne stressed.

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The International Monetary Fund ( IMF) said Tuesday that Barbados continues to "make good progress" as Government continues efforts to revive the economy.

In a statement issued today following last week's visit by the IMF team led by Bert Van Selm and yesterday's talks with Prime Minister Mia Mottley in Washington ,  the financial body said the country had met all its December 31  targets  under the Extended Fund Facility ( EFF).

Below is the full text of the IMF statement.

“Barbados continues to make good progress in implementing its ambitious and comprehensive economic reform program.

“All indicative targets for end-December under the EFF have been met. The program target for Net International Reserves was met by a wide margin, as was the target for the Central Bank of Barbados’ Net Domestic Assets (NDA). The target for the primary surplus for end-December 2018 was also met by a wide margin.

“Good progress has been made in implementing end-December 2018 structural benchmarks under the EFF. Two key pieces of legislation—the Public Financial Management Act, and the Town and Country Planning Act—were adopted in early 2019.

“Preparation of the budget for FY2019/20 targeting a primary surplus of 6 percent of GDP is well underway. Full year effects of reforms set in motion during the current (2018/19) fiscal year, including the introduction of several new taxes and ongoing streamlining of public sector work force at state-owned enterprises, should help achieve this target. A detailed assessment of the budget will be made when it is finalized.

“Progress being made by the authorities in furthering good-faith discussions with external creditors is welcome. Continuing open dialogue and sharing of information will remain important in concluding an orderly debt restructuring process.

“The team is looking forward to return to Barbados in May to conduct the discussions for the first review under the EFF and would like to thank the authorities and the technical team for their openness and candid discussions.”

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The Supreme Court is moving to develop new sentencing guidelines with support funded from Britain and the United States.

A 12-member committee chaired by Chief Justice Sir Marston Gibson met last Thursday at the British High Commissioner’s official residence to explore the feasibility of creating sentencing guidelines for Barbados, according to a statement from the High Commission.

Sir Marston said: “This is a significant move for the dispensation of criminal justice in Barbados and I am very grateful to the US and UK governments for their support.”

A judge of the England and Wales Supreme Court who has “extensive experience in drafting sentencing guidelines across multiple jurisdictions” is assisting the High Court here in the developing the guidelines.

Justice Maura McGowan also sits on the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Sentencing Advisory Committee.

The meeting also involved “a range of stakeholders in the criminal justice system, including criminal judges and magistrates, the Director of Public Prosecutions and
academics from the University of the West Indies”, the statement added.

Director of Public Prosecutions Donna Babb-Agard QC, who expressed enthusiasm about the new thrust towards developing sentencing guidelines, said: “The work of this committee is a great step forward in ensuring fair and consistent sentencing, which is as important for victims and witnesses as for the accused.”

Sentencing guidelines set out the rules for judges and magistrates to weight the seriousness of an offence and its appropriate punishment, in order to ensure that the sentence meets the crime and meets the broad constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

Legal experts say the guidelines should ensure that judges across the board apply consistent standards in sentencing.

Another goal of sentencing guidelines is to improve understanding of how a particular sentence has been reached in a sentencing process that is more transparent to complainants, accused persons, lawyers, and the general public.

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Electric buses are to start running on routes throughout Barbados by year-end, Minister of Energy Wilfred Abrahams announced today.

An initial 20 buses are to be ordered by the Ministry of Transport in a phased approach towards an entire all-electric fleet of Government vehicles over the next 11 years, he said.

“The buses will be here by year-end,” he said, suggesting that Government will follow a careful examination of the best buses for use in Barbados’ terrain.

Abrahams said: “We may have to get a certain spec (specification) to run a route like Highway 7 and we may have to get another spec to do Horse Hill. We are not looking to buy 100 buses at one time, as I understand it the [Transport] Minister Duguid is sourcing in the initial stages 20 buses. We will run those and see how it works before we rush in and buy hundreds of buses to replace our fleet. But . . . we are moving to a completely electric fleet not just of buses but Government vehicles as it is our commitment under our 2030 plan and we have to do it.

“Our process involves speaking to the manufacturers and making sure that we are comfortable that they can deliver what we need for the routes that the buses run on before we launch off and spend the Government’s money. We are going to be responsible at every step of this process and we are trying to get them in as soon as possible.”    

The Energy Minister said policies were coming to build out battery charging infrastructure, train mechanics and encourage consumers to buy electric vehicles but suggested that these plans might be constrained by the International Monetary Fund-sanctioned austerity programme, known as BERT.

Abrahams said: “Against the base of our solidified programme it would be very hard now to make promises but I have been speaking to [Finance] Minister Straughn [because] I more than anyone else want to see electric vehicles on the road in Barbados and I know that we have to incentivize persons to make that change but it has to be done in the context of what is best for Barbados and our overall country at the moment.

“There is some misconception that people have about electric vehicles; you do not need to charge an electric vehicle every hour or two once you charge it overnight that vehicle is going to work for two days. With the range of electric buses I think that the range that we were [specifying was] over 200 miles for a charge and you can drive around Barbados a couple of times to hit 200 miles.”

The Minister responsible for Energy and Water Resource Management said the Ministry of Education Technology and Vocational Training will seek to train mechanics to maintain and repair electric buses.

“The Ministry of Education is pushing to train persons at the vocational sector. We are trying to incentivise mechanics to take this on as it is going to open a new avenue for electricians in Barbados.

These things are not impediments as they are new possibilities,” Abrahams said.

Abrahams was speaking as he presented prizes at Good Shepherd Primary, whose student Blake Belgrave, seven, won third prize in the energy ministry’s 2018 Energy Month essay and colouring competition.

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Government is now exploring ways of getting loans to fishermen to buy, upgrade, or refurbish boats, in a bid to turn around both perceptions and fortunes of the fisheries industry, Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy Kirk Humphrey has said.

Ignorance and a lack of appreciation of the ocean’s potential for Barbados’ development might have led to fishermen being neglected and fisheries becoming unattractive to investors, the Minister said.

Among options being examined is a lease-to-own arrangement for new boat purchases in which “the fishermen will lease the boats from Government but over time. By paying for them, they will own the boats so that we could fill the gap for now that the banks wouldn’t fill because we determined that fishing and fishermen in this country are too important to be left behind”.

Humphey said that the disregard of fisheries is so great that the continuity of business for many fishermen is being threatened.

Addressing constituents at the weekend, the St Michael South MP described as “unfair, unfortunate and wrong” the inability of fisherfolk to obtain bank loans despite the presentation of financial records.

Humphrey said: “How can we be saying we want to complete the circle of enfranchisement for everybody else and leaving out the fishermen, the people who need it most?”

He said that the grief of the fisheries industry was made even worse in the past by an all-round shortage of money for support.He said: “If you have limited resources they’re going to put those resources where you are going to get the most bang for your buck.

“People didn’t think it was the ocean because they didn’t understand the fact we’re 400 times bigger out there than we are here.”

Noting that his newly-coined ministry absorbed the Fisheries Department from the Ministry of Agriculture, he said: “People who work in fisheries would tell you that they often felt like the left-out step child of the Agriculture Ministry and that no attention was paid to the issues in fisheries for a long time.”

Humphrey was at the time reporting on his ministerial portfolio to the Labour Party’s St Michael South branch at the Graydon Sealy School at The Garrison, where he also touched on fish market conditions, seafaring training for young Barbadians and security at the shipping port.

Humphrey said: “The state of our [fish] markets, in some ways, is embarrassing….  They still have a lot of these countertops that are tiled and between them a lot of dirt”.

He said that there are broken tiles, leaking plumbing, cupboards falling apart, and complained that “the market hasn’t seen any real repair in a long time”.

“We want to make all the countertops in every market in Barbados eventually a stainless-steel top. So that you wouldn’t be able to deal with fish in an area that would lend itself to bacteria.

“That is one area where I feel we can make an urgent and immediate improvement,” he said.

Further explaining the urgency in this regard, the Minister said some countries refuse fish from Barbados because “they don’t think we have the standards”.

“We have to elevate our standards,” he said, explaining that such improvements will benefit all.

As part of the overall government effort to get some of the unemployed off the block, Humphrey said he will “very soon” begin a training programme for young men to be seafarers.

He told constituents: “We’ve been speaking to a lot of these international shipping and cruise lines and different people who are involved in the industry.

“If we train them up, they [industry operators] have the capacity to take almost all we train.”

Regarding port security, Humphrey said that when he was appointed to office at the end of May last year, most of the cameras in the port were found to out of order, “so that if something came in or left the port you couldn’t tell because the cameras that were supposed to tell you ain’t working”.

Confidently speaking of security improvements that included repairs to the single malfunctioning container scanner and adding another one, the Minister declared: “Anybody who determines that they want to come through the port and . . . engage in activities that they should not engage in this country, they got  to be real smart to get through, or real foolish to try now.”

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Concerned about the impact climate change could have on the island’s tourism industry, university officials are ramping up their efforts to create a more sustainable product.

Through the Sustainable Tourism, Optimal Resource and Environmental Management (STOREM) project, new and existing students of higher education institutions in participating countries will have the opportunity to carry out vital research and develop skills in the area of environmental protection.

The three-year project is being carried out in collaboration with the University of the West Indies (UWI), universities in Italy, France, Columbia and Costa Rica, associated partners, with an overall budget of €893,820 (BDS$2.2 million) from the European Union under its Erasmus+ programme.

At the end of the three years, at least two new Masters of Science programmes and courses in sustainable tourism and resource management will be developed and introduced or integrated into existing programmes.

STOREM Project Coordinator Anna Pinna, a professor at the University of Cagliari in Italy, said officials were “responding to a call” to help the regions of Latin America, African, Caribbean and Pacific states protect one of their most valuable natural resources.

[caption id="attachment_289657" align="aligncenter" width="600"] From left, Programme Manager, Delegation of the EU to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Stephen Boyce, Erasmus+STOREM Project Coordinator of the University of Calgliari Professor Anna Penna and CERMES Lecturer Dr Janice Cumberbatch.[/caption]

Pointing out that tourism was a source of health for the Barbados economy but a finite one, she said “This is the reason why we have to talk about sustainability and the fact that we have to think about how to manage our resources in an optimal way.

“This means we have to think differently and about how we create and pass on our knowledge to young people. Young people have to be aware of what are the challenges that come from climate change,” said Penna, who added, “We can see clearly how tourism is imposing a pressure to the land. We have to think together how to manage these threats.”

She explained that the three-year project would consist of one year of planning and sharing of experiences, while year two would be dedicated to the development of course modules, workshops and establishment of observatories in each partner country.

Year three, she said, would consist of project reports, training for tourism professionals, a course evaluation workshop, and implementation of project quality assurance and student exchanges.

During a press conference on Monday at the UWI, Cave Hill Campus, officials said they were expecting between 35 to 40 people for the new MSc courses, which will last about a year-and-a-half.

Penna said the establishment of observatories in the participating countries would allow officials to continuously collect data and analyze it, with the hope that such research would help to influence policies at all levels.

“We are not just offering a new degree. It is really that we are offering some new skills and competencies which are useful for the territory, which are useful for firms and useful for administrations,” she said.

Lecturer at the Centre for Research Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES) Dr Janice Cumberbatch said she was hoping the programme would be a useful tool for relevant stakeholders to enhance the skills and knowledge of the staff.

“We are the most tourism-dependent region in the world, and as we try to support our national economies and our citizens’ livelihoods through tourism, we struggle to do this with challenges being presented to us by climate change.

“In this regard, we know that the work completed during this project will help us to develop tools, learning technologies and content and enhance the management competencies of regional higher education institutions,” she said, adding that the universities would be partnering with a number of stakeholders in the tourism industry.

“We want to be sure that the beach, the sand dunes, the forests, rivers and whatever else is there that the tourists and we locals want to enjoy, can still be enjoyed,” said Cumberbatch.

Welcoming the idea, Director of Tourism Development in the Ministry of Tourism Dr Kerry Hall said it was necessary that measures be put in place to sustain the region’s natural assets both for its people and for the bread and butter tourism industry.

“Without tourism the very survival of our nation will be called into question. So we have to put the measures in place today to secure our tomorrow,” said Hall.

“We need a cadre of environmental gladiators on the frontline to protect this nation. From everything I have seen in tourism so far that is the area I feel is the critical link that is missing,” she said.

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