Sargassum seaweed, which has covered several beaches and coastal waters in a thick red carpet, is here to stay, and water resources minister Wilfred Abrahams is urging government, individuals and businesses to find a way to make money from the algae.

Abrahams told Parliament today: “In reality, sargussum is here to stay. We can’t look upon it as a novel problem. We can’t look upon it as something that we need to skip. We can’t look upon it as how are we going to placate the tourist for the time it is here.

“The reality is that we as a Government and we as a people need to make long term plans as to how we are going to deal with this.

“This is going to become a feature of our calendar year as the exact same way as the rainy season, the hurricane season, the mosquito season and the fly season. We are now going to have the sargassum season or seasons.”

Abrahams spoke as the House of Assembly approved supplementary funds of $282 570 for the National Conservation Commission.

Abrahams said that while he did not see the sargassum as either good or bad, much could still be gained from its presence on the island’s beaches. He said there were several ways in which the seaweed could be used to generate revenue.

Abrahams said: “We now need to be incentivizing people and encouraging our people to find creative ways of dealing with this. It is not simply how do we get it back off the beach.

“It is what do we do with it when it is there. How do we maximize the potential for something that right now is a nuisance? How do we encourage people to harvest it and how do we make it less of a problem for Government and more of an opportunity for entrepreneurs inland, and we can’t be thinking small scale.

“We need to not be doing it as a cottage industry. We need to be doing it as a major industry. We can’t be looking to pull little bits of it to make couple bars of soap, we need to be looking to pull all of it and make soap and then export it. We have to accept it is not going anywhere.”

Scientists have not determined conclusively what has caused the mass seasonal invasion of Sargassum in the Caribbean Sea region since 2015.

Experts speculate that the bloom of the algae could be linked to rising sea temperatures and changing sea currents due to climate change. Nutrients for agricultural fertilisers and wastewater runoff from land are also being blamed for the red seaweed which has piled up on popular beaches, leaving a foul odour as it decays and posing a problem for the tourism industry.

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The Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) is calling for an air quality test to be conducted at the Coleridge and Parry School after environmental issues interrupted classes at the St Peter school for two days last week.

BSTU president Mary Redman told Barbados TODAY that she was appalled that teachers were working under “horrid” environmental conditions “for what was obviously a very long time”.

“The union is asking for an air quality test to be done because there was something in the environment that persons are reacting to. The conditions at Coleridge and Parry were in some cases very surprising to me in the sense that persons could have been working in such circumstances. Those conditions at the school didn’t just start,” said Redman.

The BSTU president noted that last week the school underwent industrial cleaning. However there is still more work to be done before environmental issues at the learning institution are fully addressed.

“Even after industrial cleaning there were outstanding problems that needed to be addressed swiftly. Even after the intervention of remedial action, we need to prioritize what has to be addressed. So we had those discussions with the principal and the Minister of Education,” said Redman.

She also told Barbados TODAY that even the manner in which the industrial cleaning was done, resulted in some staff members falling ill.

“There was the industrial cleaning at a section of the school during school hours on the Tuesday. On the Wednesday when we went back to the school, based on reports reaching us and based on what we saw when we went there, persons were still reacting very negatively to the environment, because there wasn’t sufficient time allowed for airing the industrially-cleaned area,” she said.

Last week it was reported that there were a host of environmental issues at that school, which included an infestation of bat droppings. As a result, the administration block was closed off as well as other areas of the school. There was also a report of the presence of a container with some sort of unidentified chemical contents.

Today Redman revealed that apart from the industrial cleaning the Ministry of Education has assured the union that further remedial work will be done.

“There has been on-going work and we did see that and we did hear of plans to remedy some of the things that have been posing a problem. We are seeing evidence of this,” she noted

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It is unrealistic to expect ten years of wrongs to be put right in nine months.

This is the view of president of the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU) Mary Redman, amidst recent criticism of the Santia Bradshaw run Ministry of Education, for perceived inaction, as it relates to pressing concerns of educators.

Last week Redman’s counterpart at the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Sean Spencer said his members are increasingly frustrated that their longstanding concerns continue to be trivialized. Spencer charged that there is little to indicate that teachers are better off under the nine-month old ministry than they were during the ten years of turbulent industrial relations under Ronald Jones’ stewardship.

At the time Spencer was referring to issues of security and occupational health and safety at schools, which he believes were not being given the requisite urgency from the ministry.

Spencer said: “We are seeing a lot of PR but when one looks at the actual functionaries within the education system, we have not seen anything as yet to suggest that we are going in a different direction.”

However, this morning Redman made it clear that while actively keeping the issues of the BSTU on the front burner, the BSTU is fully cognizant of the fact that these problems, “built up and allowed to fester for over a decade, could not be realistically solved overnight, even in the best of economic circumstances.

“These problems did not start this year and they didn’t start last year. They have been on-going for a decade. Essentially we have had ten years of neglect of school plants, a total lack of concern for the safety and well-being of our members and those who occupy the school compounds generally . . . complaints expressed and action previously demanded by the union to address them generally fell on deaf ears. All of these matters existing across the system as they do, practically and objectively cannot be fixed in nine months,” said Redman.

The BSTU president also pointed out that given Government’s economic challenges, it is understood that the matters will not be fully addressed as quickly as everyone would like.

“This has to be taken in the context of very profound financial constraints and as members of the Social Partnership we have access to all types of information that help us make decisions at the level of the union. We know that the financial limitations of this administration have constrained what they have been able to do in the nine-month time frame. We are not saying that this in any way diminishes the real concerns of the teachers or the seriousness of the problems that we are facing in the schools,” she explained. She noted however that what has changed is the willingness of the highest ministry officials to communicate with the union and listen to concerns.

“There is a stated willingness, in many areas, to work more closely with the union. The explanation for the lack of faster action, as expressed by the ministry in many instances, has been a lack of funds and sometimes a lack of appropriate information from school administrations.”

Redman noted that the situation must also be assessed within the context of a change of three permanent secretaries in the first three months, the health challenges of the substantive minister and the efforts of acting ministers who themselves have their own portfolios.

“The BSTU has never been unreasonable,” she added.

Redman noted that in recent months the Ministry of Education had given the assurance of improved dialogue and increased involvement in decision making as it is related to teachers’ affairs. In her assessment, teachers and the ministry are prepared to work together in a manner that was not encouraged before.

“In fact working together was actively discouraged before. Regarding addressing the environmental problems and other problems at the schools, we are expecting that far more consultation is planned than has been the case before,” she said.

Redman further revealed that she has had discussions with the Minister as this relates to more “democratic” involvement of members of schools experiencing environmental problems as this relates to prioritising and addressing remedial measures at those schools. The union head noted that the teachers are the ones working directly in those environments and are strategically placed to make input.

“We are expecting and demanding far more involvement in things related to education. We are expecting a greatly improved relationship between the Ministry of Education and the teachers’ union because really and truly it cannot get worse than what existed prior.”

Redman made it clear that after ten years of being sidelined, her union has no appetite for dictates from above and prescribes thorough consultation and involvement . . . “inclusion and respect in how we move forward in the best interest of teachers and students in the country”.

colvillemounsey@barbadostoday.bb

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A war on rats is being stepped up by a Ministry of Health-led task force in response to the increased sightings of the rodents, Acting Chief Medical Officer, Dr Kenneth George, said today.

Declaring that the ministry took the issue of vector control “extremely seriously”, Dr. George said Cabinet has given the go-ahead for a scaled up response after ministers received a white paper on the crisis two weeks ago.

The health ministry has allocated $155,000 for a “multi-sectoral team to implement a scaled-up vector control programme”, the chief medical officer said in a statement.

So far, the ministry’s Vector Control Unit had stepped up baiting in high density areas, including the west and south coasts, using the conventional bait, an anticoagulant, as well as an acute bait, he said.

Dr George said school premises were routinely inspected and baited under the vector control programme and the unit is continue to closely monitor schools.

A multi-agency task force, comprising the Sanitation Service Authority, the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Commerce and a number of private sector entities, will hold its first meeting next week.

The Chief Medical Officer also urged residents to be proactive in fighting the rodents.

Dr George said: “We cannot succeed in tackling any vector control problem without the cooperation of the public. We know there are issues with garbage collection, so therefore, residents must take responsibility for properly securing their garbage until it can be picked up. Additionally, they must seek out alternatives to garbage collection such as recycling and composting.”

He encouraged residents to bait their premises, noting that bait was available free of cost at all polyclinics.

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While outspoken Senator Caswell Franklyn believes that former Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin’s removal from office in 2013 was a “nasty” move, he does not understand why the Attorney General wants to take advice on policing from someone other than current Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith.

Franklyn said that while many have raised eyebrows at Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s decision to appoint Dottin to Attorney General Dale Marshall’s ministry as a consultant on crime, he has remained relatively quiet.

In fact, Franklyn said he holds the view that Government was trying to make up with the former Commissioner, who was sent on administrative leave by Governor General Sir Elliott Belgrave after the Police Services Commission (PSC) recommended his retirement “in the public’s interest” amid allegations that Dottin was involved in wiretapping.

“What they did to Dottin was nasty,” Franklyn told Barbados TODAY. “If they accused him of an offence, there is a way to deal with offences. You bring him before the commission, the commission would set up a panel, and the panel would hear the evidence against him. That is called natural justice. No, they put him out and put him on pension,” he added.

Meanwhile, the senator said that while he has nothing personal against Dottin, he does not like how his appointment as a consultant “looks”. Furthermore, Franklyn said he does not know why the Attorney General thinks that he needs to have someone, other than Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith, to advise him on policing.

“The Attorney General says that the Commissioner of Police is an excellent Commissioner of Police. So if he is an excellent commissioner, then he should be taking advice from that excellent commissioner,” Franklyn said.

On the matter of Dottin’s retirement, Franklyn contended that the PSC failed to realize that compulsory retirement is a punishment. Franklyn said, in his opinion, Dottin was punished without being given the opportunity to be heard.

“So I don’t know if this is a way to redress the injustice that was meted out to Mr. Dottin. It might be, I don’t know. If you look at the Public Service Act, compulsory retirement is a punishment. The Pensions Act provides for it, but that is only the mechanism to deal with it. Not that you can just go and tell somebody you are over 60 you can go home. If you look at the penalties in the Public Service Act, compulsory retirement is one of those challenges.

“So he has been penalized without a hearing. He was the Commissioner of Police and he put a lot of people before the court. So you mean to tell me he has been practicing this for years and then when it comes to him he ain’t get a chance? That is nasty . . .I don’t know all of the facts of Mr Dottin’s case, but Mr Dottin is not a dog, he shouldn’t have been treated that way. Anybody treat my little dog so, I wouldn’t be pleased,” Franklyn said.

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The International Monetary Fund has praised Government for  executing its homegrown Barbados’ Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) plan, funded by an IMF Extended Fund Facility.

In statement today, the IMF mission here revealed that the Government met all indicative targets up to the end of last year. “Barbados continues to make good progress in implementing its ambitious and comprehensive economic reform programme,” said team leader Bert van Selm.

The report card highlighted that targets for foreign exchange reserves, domestic assets and the primary surplus of income needed to pay back its debt, were all met by a wide margin.

Government is well on the way to meet its six per cent of GDP primary surplus target, said the IMF, as it gave the thumbs up to on-going job cuts in the public sector and looked forward to grading the budget for the 2019-2020 financial year which begins on April 1st.

The IMF statement said: “Preparation of the budget for financial year 2019/20 targeting a primary surplus of six per cent 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 on-going 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.”

The IMF team, which visited Barbados from February 5–8, suggested that Government is well on the way to striking a deal with international creditors, following
Government’s decision to default on those payments last June.

“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 IMF team stated.

Government also received kudos for introducing two key pieces of legislation, the Public Financial Management Act, and the Town and Country Planning Act, which were adopted in early 2019.

The team revealed that it will return in three months to follow-up its assessment of the country’s performance under the programme.

The IMF said: “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 last Government’s controversial ten-per cent tax on sugary drinks seems to have turned off some Barbadians from buying as many sweet drinks as they did three years ago when it was implemented, a joint University of the West Indies-Cambridge University study has concluded.

Although it appears Barbadians are buying fewer sweet drinks and getting more bottled waters and non-sugar alternatives, sugary drink consumption here is still “three to four times” the global average, a team of researchers has said.

And the overall reduction is still not significant enough to suggest a meaningful dampening of the appetite for the beverages, linked to diabetes, obesity and other health problems, they suggested.

The research is co-authored by Professor Alafia Samuels, director of the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre of the UWI and Cambridge’s Mariam Alvarado, among other academics.

The study, titled Assessing the impact of the Barbados sugar-sweetened beverage tax on beverage sales: an observational study was published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

It found that the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages declined 4.3 per cent within a year of the tax being implemented by Finance Minister Chris Sinckler during the Freundel Stuart administration.

“This price change reflected the manner in which the tax was designed and applied, namely on manufacturers’ and distributors’ cost, rather than on final retail cost”, the researchers said.

They found evidence to suggest that consumers may have changed their behaviour in response to the tax by purchasing cheaper sugary drinks, in addition to substituting with tax-exempt products.

The researchers said: “A policy that encourages consumers to substitute towards cheaper [soft drinks] may lead to an increase in sugar consumption in cases where cheaper [drinks] are associated with higher levels of sugar. On the other hand, if cheaper [drinks] are lower in sugar content, such as sugar-sweetened flavoured waters, overall sugar consumption may still be reduced.”

One hundred per cent juices, coconut water, unsweetened milk and powdered drinks are exempt from the tax.

A previous study revealed that the tax resulted in an increase in the price of sodas, juice drinks and energy/sport drinks by 5.9 per cent.

At the same time, this most recent study found that sales of non-sugary drinks had surged by 5.2 per cent.

Consumers also appear to be buying more water, with sales of the bottled water increasing 7.5 per cent, which the researchers concluded was encouraging from a health perspective.

When it imposed the tax in June 2015, Barbados became one of the first countries in world to do so.

This paved the way for other Caribbean countries to follow suit, though some have applied the tax at a higher rate.

In Bermuda, the tax is applied at 50 per cent.

Noting the ongoing challenge posed by non-communicable diseases, the researchers said there was still scope to reduce even further the sale and consumption of sugary drinks.

They point to a recommendation by the World Health Organization that such taxes be designed to increase prices by 20 per cent to have the most meaningful impact on health.

The prevalence of obesity among Barbadian adults 25 years and over stood at 33.8 per cent compared to a global prevalence of 12 per cent.

For diabetes, the prevalence was 18.7 per cent compared to 8.3 per cent global average.

Both children and adults were consuming very high levels of sugary drinks, with Barbadian adults drinking three to four times as many as the world average.

The group said: “The World Health Organization has advocated for sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes as part of a broader strategy to prevent obesity and non-communicable diseases, including Type 2 diabetes.

“Public education campaigns around the health risks of sugary drinks are important to support the tax and could be funded through revenue generated by the tax.”

Last month, Gates Scholar and PhD candidate Alvarado, presented research that indicated that 40 per cent of products are escaping the tax.

She recommended that the Government close loopholes by amending the definition of taxable goods to include a broader range of products such as powdered juices and other types of sugar-laden drinks like mauby syrup.
carolwilliams@barbadostoday.bb

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The Blackman and Gollop Primary School, which has been plagued by an itchy issue, will soon get relief, Minister of the Environment and National Beautification Trevor Prescod has promised.

Some of the $282 570 supplementary funds the House of Assembly voted today for the National Conservation Commission (NCC) is to go towards ridding the school’s environs of cow itch vine, whose pollen from nearby idle fields causes severe itching.

The primary school in Staple Grove, Christ Church, has been forced to close its gates on numerous occasions due to the presence of cow itch. Smoke from grass fires has also afflicted students and teachers there.

The NCC is to return to the area to eradicate the troublesome vine, Prescod indicated.

He told Parliament: “This morning while I am here I have to be studying what is happening at the Blackman and Gollop School. I have to respond to that at some point and the NCC would also be very much involved in that exercise.

“I would like to say that I will probably have to use some of these funds to deal
with those problems at the Blackman and Gollop School which are being expressed loudly, sometimes not as just as they ought to be.

“I have visited the area on Sunday and I recognize the concerns of the persons of the PTA, the community and the school, but in the interest of the children I could not send in any officers, any workers from the NCC to pick the cow itch during the five day period, but I want to give the residents and the general public of Barbados the assurance that workers will be in there over the weekend and hopefully by Monday we would be able to resolve some of the problems.”

But while he gave the promise those issues would soon be rectified, the Minister said the owner of the farm land would have to reimburse Government.

The Minister said he would not be spending the Government’s coffers on “wealthy” landowners.

Prescod said: “I am not going to spend the Government’s money cleaning up the private property of wealthy men in this country.

“I am not going to do that so if the Government is to spend any money on labour in the cleaning up of that estate, let it be mentioned to the owners of the estate that they would have to pay back every cent to the Government if the Government cleans up the property and that will be done if the landowner does not take on his responsibility to do so.

“And if we do that work and the landowner does not compensate us for doing that work he will find himself in the civil courts of Barbados facing a civil charge.”

But it was not immediately clear how the bill for the clean-up would be settled as Staple Grove plantation is reportedly one of the properties owned by the collapsed CLICO insurance group.

Another 140 acres of the land formerly owned by the disused plantation had been earmarked for residential development which has so far not got off the ground a decade later.

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The Mia Mottley adminstration tonight tabled its first appropriations bill - known as the Estimates - since coming to power eight months ago, with projections of a small deficit of $32.369 million for the new financial year.

In the 714-page document that was laid in Parliament in the absence of the Prime Minister, who was on official business overseas, the administration outlined plans to spend $3.181 billion and rake in about $3.148 billion in revenues.

Debate on the appropriations for the new fiscal year which begins on April 1st is set to begin on Monday.

The deficit is in stark contrast to what the previous Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration outlined in its Estimates for the 2018/2019 financial year, when it projected a massive deficit of $1.4 billion.

“Current Revenue collected to December 31, 2018 increased by 0.2 per cent from current revenue for the same period in fiscal year 2017-2018. Current Expenditure to December 31, 2018 decreased by 26.9 per cent from current expenditure for the same period in fiscal year 2017-2018. Capital Expenditure at December 31, 2018 decreased by 52.8 per cent from capital expenditure for the same period in fiscal year 2017-2018,” said the document.

The highly anticipated Estimates comes as the country receives a passing grade from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the first six months of its Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme, which was implemented in June last year with the introduction of revenue raising measures.

Phases two and three of that programme includes the retrenchment and retooling and retraining of civil servants, the merger of some government departments and agencies, and the modernization of all government processes.

The document, which includes minor changes, showed that Government is expecting the majority of its income to come from tax revenues in the amount of $2.889 billion.

Among its revenue intake, Government is expecting to rake in $1.48 billion from goods and services, $1 billion from taxes on income and profits, $216.5 million from taxes on international trade and $186.7 million from taxes on property.

The major chunk of its spending will go towards the general public service in the order of $1.029 billion. Capital expenditure is expected to be in the region of $199.9 million.

MP for Bridgetown Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic announced Tuesday night that the Estimates would be discussed next week.

[caption id="attachment_289693" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Minister of Health and Wellness Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic.[/caption]

Bostic said: “Before I beg to move for the adjournment of the honourable House, let me just remind members that given the recent amendments to the Standing Orders, the Appropriation Bill on Monday will stand referred to the Standing Finance Committee when the House resumes on Monday, and that the House will be dissolved immediately into committee for consideration of this bill, that consideration will continue throughout Monday, Tuesday and on Friday. Further consideration, the dates will be given on Friday next week.”

The House now lies suspended until Monday when debate on the Estimates begins at 10 a.m.

A breakdown of projected spending showed that Government will spend about $1.386 billion on operating expenses, of which $411.2 million will go towards goods and services and $491.32 million will go towards grants to public institutions.

Of the $882.54 million to be spent on “statutory expenses”, $605.941 million will be on “statutory personal emoluments” while $270 million will be spent on retiring benefits.

With Government currently involved in a debt restructuring exercise, the Estimates make provision for the payment of some $711.89 million towards the servicing of debt, of which $333.935 will go towards interest expense, $4.569 million for expenses of loans and $373.386 million for debt amortization.

As for the various ministries, the Ministry of Education, Technology and Vocational Training will take the biggest slice of the pie with a total subvention of $524.2 million, compared to the $386.1 million last financial year.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness is next in line for a massive grant of $311.55 million, with $167 million of that going towards “hospital services”.

The Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment is to receive $481.1 million, while the Office of the Attorney General is to get $152 million for the 2019/2020 fiscal year.

The Ministry of Transport and Works and maintenance will receive $120.66 million, an increase of about $16 million.

[caption id="attachment_289694" align="aligncenter" width="339"] Minister of Transport, Works and Maintenance Dr William Duguid.[/caption]

The Estimates make provision of $143.2 million for the Prime Minister’s Office, compared to the $109.4 million outlined in the 2018/2019 revised estimates.

The Sam Lord’s Castle project, which falls under that portfolio, is to be allocated $30 million for the 2019/2020 financial year. The Barbados Tourism Investment Inc will receive $3.64 million.

Of the other key areas, the Ministry of Housing, Lands and Rural Development will get $94.2 million for the 2019/2020 fiscal year, down from a revised estimate of $110.9 million in the last financial year. The amount to be allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has been shaved down to $65.58 million, from the revised $77.3 million in the 2018/2019 fiscal year.

[caption id="attachment_289695" align="aligncenter" width="310"] Minister of Housing, Lands and Rural Development George Payne[/caption]

The island’s vital Ministry of Tourism and International Transport will receive $23.18 million, about $2 million less than the revised estimates for the last financial year. Meanwhile, $67.67 million will go to the Ministry of Home Affairs, down from the revised $78.5 million last financial year; and the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources will receive $33.2 million.

marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb

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Police are investigating the unnatural death of an elderly male at Walkspring, St Thomas.

The man, whose name has not been disclosed, was the victim of a cutlass attack, which occurred around 11:05 p.m on Tuesday.

Police say a person of interest has been taken into custody.

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Police have identified the elderly male who died at Walkes Spring, St Thomas last night.

He is 74-year-old Douglas Barker.

Barker was the victim of a cutlass attack, which occurred around 11:05 p.m.

Police say a person of interest has been taken into custody.

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Twenty-year-old Teriq Kaareem Linton was granted $20, 000 bail today when he appeared before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant in the District ‘A’ Magistrate Court on multiple charges.

Linton, of #2 Canewood Road, Tichbourne, St Michael is accused of kidnapping, aggravated burglary and robbery.

He is scheduled to reappear in court on October 9.

[video width="640" height="352" mp4="https://barbadostoday.bb/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/VID-20190213-WA0010.mp4"][/video]

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Several teachers at the Ellerton Primary School stayed off the job today in an apparent response to the Ministry of Education’s perceived failure to adequately address their security concerns.

Barbados TODAY understands that earlier this week and for the second time in as many months, a seemingly mentally unstable man barged onto the premises. Barbados TODAY visited the school, which currently has neither perimeter fencing nor a security guard, but was unable to ascertain if classes were disrupted by the absences.

On January 7, the man, who was later picked up by police, barged onto the compound, alarming teachers as they were attending a meeting in preparation for the start of the school term. On Monday the man returned, this time coming into contact with students, who were reportedly terrified by the encounter.

“Luckily no one was attacked. The first time it happened it was planning day so no children were around but children were around on Monday. This time around he was spinning around in some incoherent manner and also had a conversation or two with some of the children. The kids were quite shaken by the ordeal,” said one teacher, who did not want to be identified.

Another teacher said, “This situation cannot be allowed to continue because these are people’s children that are being put at risk. That’s all I have to say.”

On this occasion teachers and their bargaining agent, the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), were not satisfied with the reactionary response, calling in the police or dispatching officers from the Ministry of Education to the school.

“So far the ministry’s response has been to send an officer who comes and takes notes and we have to wait and see. So yes some of the teachers stayed off of the job, that was their response and I have been in conversation with a few of the officers,” said BUT president Sean Spencer.

Back in January Spencer had lamented that the school in question has been without a proper perimeter fence for over ten years.

“The fence has been very porous. It could be one where you could say that the poles and the fence have long divorced and gone their separate ways,” Spencer said.

The union boss said at the time that the incident brought into sharp focus teachers’ concern regarding the security at the island’s schools and he queried whether a more serious incident would have to take place for measures at schools to be urgently improved.

“And it really and truly is not a tenable situation. The teaching fraternity is really and truly highly desirous of seeing that these needs be addressed urgently . . . and we are going to have to look into this matter more thoroughly,” he promised. 

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Broken glass, blood stains and tight lips summed up the scene at Walkes Spring, St Thomas, after the community was rocked by a vicious cutlass attack that robbed it of one of its elderly men - the nation’s 10th murder for the year.

The scene also bore witness to the pandemonium that broke out when Douglas Barker, 74, was attacked in the dead of night by a man who eyewitnesses said is a well-known resident.

At the house Barker shared with his daughter, Cathyann Barker, the mood was sombre as gruesome reminders of the pensioner’s death lingered.

[caption id="attachment_289730" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Neighbours at the home of Douglas Barker were offering comfort to his grieving family.[/caption]

According to reports, a man approached Barker’s home around 11:00 last night in a fit of rage and began banging on windows and doors, eventually breaking in. After inflicting significant damage to the house, he unleashed a brutal attack on the elderly man.

“He [Barker] couldn’t survive that attack. He was too badly slashed,” recalled one eyewitness, as a team of cleaners had begun to cleanse the house of the scent and sight of blood.

Shaken relatives declined comment, but neighbours told Barbados TODAY they were shocked by the attack as Barker was an extremely reserved man.

“He just used to go town early on mornings and then he used to be on that 12 o’clock [afternoon] bus coming home, if they had one. He would walk and come up the gap and he would speak and everything and you wouldn’t see him after that,” said a middle-aged woman of Barker, a Walkes Spring resident for as long as she could remember.

In a statement, police revealed that a man had been taken into custody in connection with last night’s fatal attack.

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The Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs is finding difficulty in accepting that three elderly people have been brutally killed in less than one month.

In the wake of 74-year-old Douglas Barker dying after a vicious cutlass attack at his Walkes Spring, St Thomas home last night, Forde told members of the media this morning that she has a tremendous difficulty, and was feeling disturbed, with what has been happening in society, where the elderly are being abused in this manner.

“I too am concerned about it, and the rest of Barbados is. I pray that when people go into their houses at night, they will secure themselves properly and that the perpetrators be the ones who will turn their lives around and seek the Lord and remember that they too have grandparents, parents, children and others that they would not like anybody to brutalize, or disfigure.

“But we know there is this violence across the world. It is permeating Barbados as it is in other countries in the region. And I pray that God would continue to bless the family in these moments of grief. And as I said earlier, not only the family of the deceased but the family of the perpetrator, because at the end of the day, almost everybody is family to each other in Barbados and we need to value human life in a different way,” she said.

The Minister alluded to the fact that abuse of the elderly goes beyond the brutality that is being seen, as some of them are also being financially abused and abandoned.

“Only yesterday morning I heard of two that I have got to report to the National Assistance Board and I told the lady call the police and then the officer can call me, and we will try to institute measures to make sure that those senior citizens enjoy the rest of their lives in their twilight years, with a measure of peace and comfort . . .” Forde said.

The St Thomas Member of Parliament also noted that her ministry has been seeking to address the issue of elder abuse, through the implementation of relevant policies and programmes. She said the ministry has also asked for additional funding in the 2019 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, to be able to ensure that the needs of the elderly are thoroughly met.

“As we go forward, we pray that all persons in Barbados would look out for each other. No longer are you getting the neighbour looking after another neighbour. The other thing is that people have so much information and they want to share it sometimes, but they do not know with whom to speak, for fear that there would be reprisals. As long as they are identified they are called snitches,” she said.

On January 22, American educator, 68-year-old Dr Sarah Sutrina, who was a lecturer at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, was discovered at Northumberland, St Lucy next to her vehicle with wounds about her body.

Hours before Dr Surtina was discovered, 69-year-old Martha Doyle, was killed at Vauxhall Senior Citizens’ Village, Christ Church on Monday January 21. Doyle was reportedly stabbed to death.

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The union representing Sanitation Service Authority workers is reporting that it is making slight progress in negotiations for the restoration of overtime pay.

The National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) and SSA management met again today at the authority’s Wildey, St Michael offices to continue talks on the issue. The perk had been slashed under the IMF-supervised Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme, which has affected agencies and ministries across the Government.

Shortly after exiting the hour-long meeting, Acting NUPW general secretary Delcia Burke told Barbados TODAY that the union would report back to its members on the newest developments.

Burke said: “We have made a few strides. We are going to meet with the workers within a week and put the two sides’ case to the workers and get back to SSA management in a week’s time with the position of the workers.

“We are cognizant of the fact that there is an IMF programme in place and there are certain measures that have to be put in place so that that plan can be effective, but we are also mindful that our workers must not always be bearing the brunt of that programme. We put that to the SSA and we would have made a slight move and they made one as well, so we’re going to discuss it with our workers.”

Burke also contended that SSA workers were more efficient in collecting garbage than the private haulers who Government was paying to collect refuse. She pointed out that it would be almost impossible to avoid paying overtime to sanitation workers.

Burke added: “We are saying that in some instances overtime is going to be necessary and for the SSA we would have had the example of when the workers worked three weekends and you would have seen the difference with the streets when they worked those weekends.

“We also know that when we compare the tonnage of garbage that they collect to what the private haulers collect it is significantly larger. Obviously there are still going to be areas where persons are going to have to continue working overtime because the streets have to be cleaned everyday.”

At their last meeting held on February 1, the union’s acting deputy general secretary Wayne Walrond had charged that the nation’s health was being compromised for the sake of a few dollars, after a decision was taken to stop weekend collections to prevent paying overtime.

SSA spokesman Carl Padmore had revealed that the overtime cut had indeed contributed to irregular garbage collections in several rural communities, especially in the north of the island, as well as in St Joseph, St George and St John.

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In the clearest indication yet that Barbadians could face a rise in bus fares and likely more private operators in mass transit, Government has slashed its subsidy to the Transport Board by one-third - even as the state bus company plans a new electric fleet to replace its dwindled and aging stock.

In the Estimates of Government’s spending and revenue targets for the next financial year, laid in Parliament on Tuesday, the cash-strapped bus company is to get $15.8 million, cut by $7.5 million from the 2018/2019 fiscal year.

The subvention to the Transport Board is “to assist with offsetting the operational cost”. The cut is in keeping with the mandate to cut transfers to state-owned enterprises under the IMF-backed austerity plan known as BERT.

While not indicating an imminent fare hike, Prime Minister Mia Mottley has already said the $2 fare for any journey on public transport would inevitably end - even as she rejected notions of a $5 bus fare.

Mottley had given the assurance that pensioners and police officers would continue to ride free on Transport Board buses.

“Will we have to sensibly review what the Transport Board and the minibus and ZR drivers get? Yes, we would,” she said during a joint media conference with the International Monetary Fund last year.

Mottley said: “We are sensitive to people’s plight and that is why there will not be a $5 bus fare in Barbados. But we have to increase the bus fare from the $2. And the Government will continue to maintain its role to support those who cannot carry that cost as we have always done.” 

The 2019/2020 Estimates also made provision for a $1.58 million grant to the state regulator, the Transport Authority, for spending on improvement to public transport.

But this is also a roughly one-third reduction from the $2.12 million received in the previous fiscal year which ends on March 31.

At the same time, the Transport Board is to get $400,000 for capital works at Roebuck Street, Mangrove, Fairchild Street, Speightstown and Princess Alice bus terminals and depots - the same amount approved last year.

Overall, the Ministry of Transport, Works and Maintenance is earmarked for $120.66 million for the new financial year, which begins on April 1, an increase of about $16 million for the last financial year.

The Transport Board, which is currently experiencing a severe fleet shortage, is in the process of introducing between 120 and 180 electric buses over the next 18 months.

At the same time, Williams Industries is to embark on a pilot project with the state bus company to retrofit some of its redundant buses into electric-powered vehicles. 

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A man’s torrent of abuse in which two tourists were threatened with violence - captured in a video that has gone viral - has been strongly condemned by Minister of
Tourism Kerrie Symmonds as an act of “unreasonable incivility”.

The incident comes halfway through the make-or-break winter season for the bread-and-butter industry.

During an irate rant, the man, so far unidentified, threatens to hit one of the tourists with a rock.

He is also heard telling the tourists that he sells drugs and that he does not care about the Government.

Speaking on the sidelines of the official launch of a project to renovate the country’s lone airport financed by the Caribbean Development Bank, Symmonds said he was not aware of all of the details which led to the incident. But he stressed that under no circumstances should the incident have spiralled out of control.

Symmonds told reporters: “I am appalled at the fact that something could escalate to that level in circumstances where I am sure if the individual on camera had it all to do over, he would on hindsight want to do it a lot differently.

“The most polite word that I can use about that video is that it was very unsettling. At a personal level for me it is deeply distressing that some folks are not getting the message.

“I believe that I would hear that there are extenuating circumstances and I probably will be told that there are justifications which can be advanced, but I believe that what we are dealing with is a situation that goes beyond just how you treat a tourist. This strikes at the heart of how we as Barbadians treat ourselves and how we interact with each other. ”

Describing the man’s actions as a display of “incivility that went beyond that which is reasonable or expected”, the Minister said it was another sign of the declining morals in society - a situation which had now become too familiar.

Symmonds said: “If the snocone vendor puts the wrong colour syrup in a snocone he is likely to be greeted with a similar type of torrent of abuse, or if the bread vendor has a dispute with his client that too will happen.

“It goes right up the scale. I have heard of these types of displays between lawyer and client and doctor and patient and the problem in Barbados is that we have to learn to disagree without being disagreeable in the process. I think that is really where the process begins.”

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Although high taxes on Caribbean air travel remain a concern, the region’s tourism watchdog is cautiously optimistic that the industry is set to continue to deliver solid results into 2019.

After months of recovery efforts from hurricanes in some Caribbean destinations, the region recorded its second highest visitor arrivals on record last year, according to the Caribbean Tourism Organisation.

The Caribbean remains the most tourism-dependent region of the world.

Overall, the region welcomed some 29.9 million visitors in 2018, representing a slight decline of 2.3 per cent over the previous year, when 30.6 million visitors came to the Caribbean.

[caption id="attachment_289750" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Secretary General of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation Hugh Riley (right) and Acting Director of Research and IT Ryan Skeete.[/caption]

Delivering a review of the industry in 2018 this morning at the CTO’s headquarters at Warrens, Acting Director of Research and IT Ryan Skeete said with a strong performance during the last four months of 2018, including a robust showing by countries impacted by the 2017 hurricanes, “the evidence suggests that Caribbean tourism is on the upswing”.

The top five destinations in the region last year were Guyana, registering a 15.9 per cent increase; Belize 14.6 per cent, the Cayman Islands 10.7 per cent, the Bahamas 10.5 per cent and Grenada a ten per cent climb.

Hurricane-affected islands all recorded double-digit declines.

Skeete told journalists: “The contributing factors to the excellent performances in the countries not impacted by the hurricanes included sustained targeted marketing, upgraded tourism infrastructure, additional rooms and enhanced airlift.” 

Despite registering a 6.3 per cent decline, to reach 13.9 million American tourists last year, the US remains the region’s largest source market for tourists. But it was Canada that outperformed all other markets last year with 5.7 per cent growth or 3.9 million visits, mainly due to seat capacity to the region.

The fall in visitor arrivals from the US was attributed mainly to steep declines in arrivals to popular destinations hit by hurricanes, such as Puerto Rico, which was down by 45.6 per cent, and St Maarten, which fell by 79 per cent.

Arrivals from Europe improved modestly by an estimated 1.3 per cent, partially reflecting the fact that more UK tourists were switching to domestic holidays due mainly to uncertainty surrounding Brexit.

UK arrivals remained flat at an estimated 1.3 million for last year.

Back at home, intra-regional travel had its best performance ever, reaching a record two million visits, representing a strong 5.3 per cent rise.

This was followed closely by South America, which produced 1.9 million visits, or a 3.6 per cent increase.

Skeete said: “The outlook for Caribbean tourism in 2019 is cautiously optimistic . . . Of course, we must recognize that there are significant headwinds to navigate. These include, but are not limited, to the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, the on-going trade war between the US and China and potential extreme weather events in the destinations and marketplaces.” 

CTO Secretary General Hugh Riley said while he celebrated the Caribbean’s victories and he was satisfied that destinations were doing “a lot” to market the Caribbean as a favoured destination, he remained concern about high government taxes and instances of crime.

Riley also urged regional authorities to give travellers more reasons to come to the Caribbean all year round, suggesting that destinations should focused more on niche areas including family travel and romance.

“The question of taxes in the tourism sector is an ongoing one,” said Riley.

But, he said, he was aware that Caribbean governments used aviation taxes to “pay for facilities that are needed to enhance the experiences that we want our visitors to come and enjoy”.

“So we need to make sure that the value that we offer actually does exist. The good news is that the numbers are increasing and we are paying a lot of attention to that aspect of keeping the balance and we can see where the money is going,” said Riley.

Adding that safety of citizens and tourists was a “number one concern”, the tourism official said the CTO was “comfortable that the authorities throughout the Caribbean are focused on all aspects of safety”.

Based on the UK-based travel data organization OAG, air capacity in the Caribbean for 2018 decreased by 3.4 per cent, while the number of flights declined by 4.3 per cent.

Skeete added: “However, as with arrivals, there was a reversal of these numbers in the fourth quarter, with seat capacity rising by 5.3 per cent, while frequency grew by 5.2 per cent.” 

Also reporting on hotel trends in the region for last year, Skeete told journalists that in line with the overall decrease in arrivals, hotel occupancy fell by 0.8 percentage points.

“However, the average daily room rates increased by 1.7 per cent to $207.61, while revenue per available room grew by 0.6 per cent to $135.46,” the CTO official said.

In relation to the cruise industry, Skeete said last year was one of the best for the region, after a “rapid recovery” from the 2017 hurricanes.

The number of cruise passenger visits reached an estimated 28.9 million, up by 6.7 per cent.

The CTO is projecting that tourist arrivals will increase by between six and seven per cent in 2019, as the damaged infrastructure in the hurricane-impacted destinations returns to capacity. Cruise arrivals are also projected to expand by a further four to five per cent.

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