Fifteen-year-old Harrison College student Samara Murrell is looking forward to saying goodbye to a pain she has known all her life.

From a toddler, a brave Samara has been fighting a battle with a painful growth disorder that has warped her legs and affected her ability to walk.

[caption id="attachment_292572" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Samara Murrell taking in the sights and scenes of inter-school sports last Friday.[/caption]

The disorder was made even more painful when people who were ignorant to her condition laughed at her.

But October 17, 2018 marked a new beginning for the teenager.

She underwent corrective surgery for Blount’s disease at the St Louis Shriners Children’s Hospital, a US$500 000, 18-hour procedure that was paid for by the Sandy Lane Charitable Trust.

“All I can say is that I am forever grateful to those who played a role in helping me to get to where I am today. It has not been easy. But since the surgery I have been going to physiotherapy and everything is going well so far.

“My feet are hurting a little, but it is good to be back out,” Samara told Barbados TODAY last Friday, while in the stands at the National Stadium where she took in the action on the final day of the Barbados Secondary Schools’ Athletic Championship (BSSAC).

Standing with the assistance of crutches and fixators on her legs, Samara said returning to school on February 25, after five months of recovery, which is ongoing, was a humbling and heartwarming experience.

She had been away from school since September 2018.

“When I went back everybody was willing to help me. My classmates and even teachers are willing to carry my bag for me. But I like to keep positive.

“It would have been a little hard. Sometimes I don’t want to get up; sometimes I don’t want to go to physiotherapy. But at the end of the day I will be walking strong. The road to recovery isn’t easy, but it can only benefit me positively,” she said.

Commonly mistaken for ‘bow legs’, Blount’s disease is a growth disorder that affects the bones of the lower leg, causing them to bow outward. It can affect people at any time during the growing process, but it is more common in children younger than four and those in their teens.

Samara’s mother, Faye Murrell, is also extremely happy to see the progress the first of four children has been making.

“The tears were worth it. When you see her now, you can see that the legs are perfectly aligned. For the first time in her life, both are aligned. It is just about healing right now,” Faye said.

Faye who accompanied the teenager to St Louis, Missouri, said that while she was now feeling a sense of joy, she would never like to walk that road with her daughter again.

The 42-year-old said it was the most difficult thing she has ever done in her life.

She said she often had to leave the room to wipe away tears so that Samara would not see them.

“From the very next day after Samara had the surgery, they had her up, on her legs and walking round. That in itself was a big difference for us, because here in the Caribbean we are accustomed to having a surgery and lying down.

“But with that programme you were up and moving around. Of course, she was on a lot of pain medication because she was in a lot of pain. There are no excuses. She had physiotherapy for hours at a time, whether you wanted to do it or not. With this type of programme if you don’t move, the pain gets worse and they would have to take you back to surgery,” Faye said.

The mother recalled that in addition to having to force herself to move around while enduring a lot of pain, her young child also had to be treated for multiple infections.

Samara is currently fighting an infection.

“There are different wires and screws that are going through the bone, and everything is exposed. So as you could appreciate, you are picking up whatever is in your environment. I mean I have been going with Samara and supporting her through umpteenth surgeries, and this was a first for us,” she explained.

“But I must commend Samara for being brave, because it is not easy. If I had to show you the videos we took as she was progressing and how they were turning these devices in the legs, at different degrees every day. That was somebody turning your bone every day.

“She shed a lot of tears but she did not quit. At one point they were saying she wouldn’t be able to return to Barbados in December as was planned, but like more around April, because of the amount of healing and getting her up walking and stuff like that.

“And Samara took a child’s crutches and walked with them, and they freaked out. The doctors could not believe what they were seeing. And they give her her own crutches and allowed her to come home”.

To assist the teenager, who competed in the 2017 Junior Monarch Competition to stay on top of her school work, Harrison College provided an alternative three-tier programme that included tutoring during last summer vacation, online tutoring via Google Classroom while she recovered in Missouri, and a combination of face-to-face and online teaching as she underwent therapy treatment in Barbados.

Faye said her family was grateful to Harrison College for ensuring that Samara does not suffer academically.

While in Missouri, Samara’s story was highlighted by the CBS network. She also opened for international recording artiste Javier Mendoza during his popular Christmas Charity event, and was featured on the front cover of Town and Style Magazine, a trendy publication featuring the who’s and who of Missouri.

Faye thanked The World Pediatric Project, Sandy Lane Charitable Trust, Sagicor General, John Roett, Hilton Hotel, Faith New Testament Church of God, Pegwell Community Church, Soaring Eagles Ministries, Home Away Ministries, and the principal and deputy principal and teachers at Harrison College for going above and beyond to ensure that Samara was comfortable whilst at school.

The mother also had a special thank you for the head of the Physiotherapy Department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Dr Gerry Warner, who is playing a key role in Samara’s recovery programme. anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb

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Nineteen-year-old Akela Keanna Gittens was granted $8,000 bail when she appeared in the Holetown Magistrate’s Court today on a charge of assisting a man who is suspected to have committed a capital offence.

It is alleged that Gittens of 5F Madison Terrace, St Michael, believing that Kadeem Clarke had committed murder, provided accommodation and financial assistance to him with intent to impede his arrest.

She was not required to plea to the indictable charge, which is alleged to have occurred between February 16 and March 23, 2019.

As part of her bail conditions the accused must now report to the Black Rock Police Station every Monday and Friday before 9 a.m.

Gittens will reappear before Magistrate Wanda Blair on September 17, 2019.

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While cases of HIV have declined marginally over the past decade, health authorities are struggling to combat outbreaks of other Sexually Transmitted Infections and diseases (STIs/STDs) including chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis.

Senior Medical Officer, Dr Anton Best said health officials recorded a sharp increase in sexually transmitted diseases, revealing that the ministry had since been unsuccessful in bringing the troubling outbreak under control.

Dr Best was delivering the feature address at the National HIV/AIDS Commission’s report on the findings of the Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs and Sexual Practices Survey.

“Data is showing us that we have sustained high rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea and then there has been an outbreak of syphilis and since then the annual rates of syphilis have remained high.

“These observations are further indications that behavioural campaigns have not been as effective as we would have liked,” Dr Best revealed.

He said while public awareness campaigns, studies and other forms of research focus mainly on the transmission of HIV, other STIs could not be ignored.

“Please appreciate that our goals and objectives of our national HIV program also speak to the need to prevent and control the spread of other sexually transmitted infections in Barbados.

“So while this survey is an integral part of the research agenda for HIV, we must utilize these findings in conjunction with others in teaching information to design and implement evidence-informed interventions and policies to better control and prevent HIV and STIs in Barbados,” he said.

Frowning on the seemingly nonchalant attitudes displayed by some Barbadians to the transmission of STIs, Best argued that a tremendous amount of work was needed to combat the infections and diseases. He was responding to new information which indicates that a lack of condom use, reduced STI testing and numerous sex partners have stifled the efforts of authorities.

“Our behaviors and sexual practices are the result of our cultural norms and social structures. Social research is therefore key for us to have the best possible understanding of the local context of HIV vulnerabilities.

“Best available evidence is indicating that this is due to the use of antiretroviral therapy rather than the alteration of sexual habits of people in Barbados. So we are faced with a conundrum and need to find more effective ways to modify people’s attitudes and their behaviours,” said the senior medical officer.

He further expressed hope that some of the strides made in the reduction of HIV would be transferred to other sexually transmitted diseases.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb

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The hike in bus fare from $2 to $3.50 will have a significant impact on the homeless.

This assessment has come from the President and Founder of the Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society (BVHS) Kemar Saffrey who is appealing to Government to exempt the homeless from having to pay bus fare.

Saffrey told Barbados TODAY that his request was relevant since almost on a daily basis, the Society assists several clients with money to pay for transportation to and from various destinations to conduct personal business.

He said clients often needed to travel to various Government departments to reapply for identification cards, seek health care, or collect medication among other necessary activities.

Saffrey argued that the increase would put a dent in the finances of the organisation, which does not receive a subvention from Government, but depends on donations from private entities.

“That would be on an every day basis, depending on who has to get ID cards, who has to get medication, who has to go for job interviews, who has to get to work for a week or two before they could support themselves, who has to go to look for rooms through the welfare system. People would come and tell us they have to go and look for a house today but they don’t have any bus fare.

“And this has nothing to do with the other financial assistance that we give to people. When you could have given a guy $4 to run around, now you got to look to give him $7. It would have a serious impact on the less fortunate, and it would have a serious effect on the homeless.”

During last Wednesday’s Budget  Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced the increase in bus fare and two days ago, she outlined a system in which frequent travellers on Transport Board buses could benefit from discounted fares by buying multi-fare packages.

“I am not saying the Government should accommodate everybody and give away free for all rides. But again, we need to look at the times that we are in, and the fact that it would become problematic for some people to get around, especially those who are unemployed and have to go one place and that place for a stamp and the next. So we need to look at this in a serious way,” Saffrey said. 

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Students who spend an “unacceptable”, inordinate amount of time commuting to and from school are being seriously disadvantaged, according to Senator the Reverend John Rogers.

Speaking during a wide-ranging presentation in the Upper House today, the Anglican cleric urged Government to improve its bus service in short order.

“There is a link between education and transport at this time. While we understand that there is a shortage of buses I believe that every child in this nation should have an equal opportunity if not we cannot measure them by the same yardstick neither can we treat them the same way.”

He cited instances relayed to him by a principal of students waiting at a bus stop up to three hours after school was dismissed.

Senator Rev Rogers said: “I am concerned about the lack of transport of some children in our nation on evenings. I had a chat with a principal of a rural secondary school he was telling me that sometimes the children of that school, some who have to catch two buses are there at 7 o’clock at night because the bus hasn’t come.

“Sometimes a private citizen has to take them in their car to a place where they can get a connecting bus. This is unfair to those children by the time they get home after 9 or 10. They have no time to reflect on homework. No time to do the things that children do. It is just time to sleep and get up to the grind of the next day. That is not good enough.”

The Senator said while he understood there had to be an increase of bus fare, a quality service is also needed.

“I know that we have heard much about the raise in bus fare and while I understand the raise and the need for the raise. I also believe that a person should receive a service commensurate with the rate being charged. I encourage the Government to get the buses here as soon as possible,” the Senator said. 

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Government is expected to begin tackling a worrying backlog of cases in the courts from next week, when a refurbished Supreme Court complex opens at Whitepark Road, Attorney General Dale Marshall has told Barbados TODAY.

The building, home to the High Courts and Registration Depearment has been closed since last May due to environmental issues. The closure and move of courts to office complexes in Manor Lodge and Cane Gardens, had hindered the appointment of additional judges to clear the case backlog, according to Marshall.

He revealed that the Court Registry has already begun moving back into the building and by next week the High Courts are to follow suit.

A late notice issued by the Government Information Service advised that the Registration Department  is to reopen on Monday at Whitepark Road, and not Thursday, as previously announced.

The notice added: “Urgent applications for births, deaths, the registering of deaths, marriage certificates and the registering of marriages where the parties are non-resident will continue at the Whitepark Road, St. Michael complex. Meanwhile, certificates that were to be collected on or before March 21 may be collected up to Friday, March 29, at the complex.

“Court will continue to be heard at the Manor Lodge Complex and the Cane Garden Complex until Friday, April 5.”

Earlier, the Attorney General said: “All of the work at the court in White Park Road is completed. The Registry has actually begun to move and by weekend they will be up and fully functioning. Next week the court themselves will move over down from Cane Garden and Manor Lodge. So, by April 7 we will have the entire White Park complex up and running again.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY back in January, Marshall explained that with the White Park complex out of commission, the long-promised three additional temporary judges to assist the decongestion of the court system was not feasible due to the lack of secure locations to hear criminal cases.

He said at the time that two courts at the Cane Garden complex were currently being used for criminal matters in the High Court because they already have holding cells. He said that to retrofit other courts with cells because of a temporary displacement, was not a good use of taxpayer dollars, especially since additional courts were being built at the Supreme Court Complex.

Today, the Attorney General reported that all systems were still go for the appointment of the temporary judges as well as new permanent judges. He explained that priority would be placed on the 65 murder cases backed up in the system, which would address the troubling issue of murder accused remaining too long on remand and eventually receiving bail.

He revealed that Government was “still pursuing” the appointment of temporary judges to help clear the backlog of criminal cases.

“We are committed to ensuring that trials take place in a speedy fashion but with over 1,000 indictable matters awaiting trial and two High Court judges, that is an impossible equation. We are going to eliminate some of the cases that are too old to prosecute properly. We are also asking the Director of Public Prosecutions to prioritise murder cases. It is evident based on what has been happening in Barbados that we deal with these murder trials.

“We are using two different strategies. We are providing for judges on a permanent basis and the Prime Minister has set up an appointments committee and the chairman of that committee is Sir David Simmons.”

Marshall also revealed that Chief Justice Sir Marston Gibson is to join other notable jurists on the committee.

But the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs revealed that future searches for new judges will not just be limited to Barbados, to ensure the expediency without compromising transparency and quality. He declared that there will be no watering down of justice and that the new measures will clear up a significant portion of the backlog within 18 months.

Marshall said: “It will be impractical to do 60-plus murder trials in a short space of time because we still have to make sure that the trials are done properly. It is in the interest not just of the accused but also in the interest of the society that the court deals with murder cases and all cases in a methodical way. I hope to eliminate much of this backlog in the next 18 months.” (CM)

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A senator and a player in the digital economy here has argued for digitisation to become a driving force behind economic growth.

Senator Rawdon Adams, chief executive of digital financial services firm, BITT, told the Upper House today during the Appropriations Bill debate that digitisation can increase productivity while at the same time reduce costs to Government.

He said: “Digitisation speaks to another form of growth -- that is productivity. When you have efforts to digitise payments or reduce the amount of cash in an economy that is a huge driver of productivity and a reducer of cost in your economy. There is a body of research: The Federal (Reserve) Bank of St Louis, the Bank of England also.

“The Fed research says if you are able to substitute a third of the paper noted and coins in your economy for digital cash you can expect a permanent increase in your rate of growth of a three per cent point. If you substitute 30 per cent of your economy to digital you will push your growth rate up.”

The Government senator said while he had no intentions of bashing commercial banks, there was a significant cost attached to carrying out simple bank transactions daily.

Senator Adams continued: “Carrying cash is expensive. There is cost of convenience. You get in a car you go down to the bank to draw out your cash. There is a cost to that. Cost in terms of convenience cost in terms of time. Somebody has calculated that time spent per month doing that is 20 minutes. 20 minutes in your car or in a bus just to pull out your money
. . . . Over time that could equate to a month. What if you could do that whole process digitally?”

The Bitt Inc CEO said digitising the economy could also address the menace of companies collecting Value Added Tax and not paying it over to Government.

The senator said: “There are quite a few ways you can imagine that digitising can help. I know there is a lot about people who aren’t paying VAT if it is digitised it is far harder for you to escape that method of taxation.”

Saying that world trends, global studies and figures could prove how digitisation can enhance an economy, Senator Adams suggested that neighbouring economies had already recognised the need to go digital.

“There are many savings you can extract through digitisation,” he said. “Some countries are putting their money where their mouths are. [The] Eastern Caribbean Central Bank intends to reduce the amount of cash in their economy by 50 per cent over four years.”

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A new electronic payment system from one of the world’s largest financial services companies, with the vocal endorsement of Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds, was unveiled here today.

MasterCard Inc. introduced a mobile merchant machine that will allow any provider of goods and services to collect payment using smartphones.

Making the pitch on Wednesday ahead of a meeting with MasterCard representatives, the Tourism Minister argued that the development would create a critical link between the tourism industry and the financial sector.

He said it was important that all segments of the society were “carried along” on the journey of the development of the country.

“It brings our vendors into the 21st century.

“We cannot have a society in which people are being left behind, and in the same way there is a sense of confidence that small business in Barbados can be nurtured to stand on its own feet, we must spend some time to look at the one man operation,” he said.

Symmonds noted that while focus has been placed on forming closer linkages between tourism, agriculture and manufacturing over the years, the linkage between the tourism and financial services had been neglected “for all time”.

He explained that the new payment system would allow a range of micro and small business operators, including coconut vendors, taxi operators, vendors selling paintings to tourists, renting beach chairs and operating watersports activities, and fish vendors to accept credit and debit card payments.

“They are in danger of being excluded from the financial system by virtue of the fact that as we move towards a society that is increasingly cashless, and to some extent, not as safe as it used to be. Then there must be an opportunity for those people who are doing legitimate commercial activity,” the Minister said.

He warned that visitors who preferred not to use cash would leave the island without spending on products and services and this would leave vendors financially disenfranchised and by extension the country would lose a chance at needed foreign exchange - without the mobile phone payment system.

Symmonds added: “We have to correct that and we have to make sure that we are sufficiently inclusive to keep our micro business people as part of the supply chain so that the service they supply is seen as equally valuable in terms of an opportunity for sale as any other commercial transaction including those in a multi-million dollar investment.”

The project is to be rolled out by July, following a number of public meetings with members of the vending community.

Similar initiatives have been rolled out in The Bahamas and Jamaica.

Symmonds explained that following the swiping or tapping of the credit or debit card against a small electronic device, vendors would be able to use a mobile app on their cellphone to generate a receipt that can be printed or e-mailed.

He said this was also a way for the bank to know more about vendors and make it easier for them to come to a decision whether to offer loans when those vendors apply.

Officials of MasterCard, who are said to be here to offer technical advice, said the intention was to help various industries do more commerce.

Pointing out that the system would encourage millennials to return to the island more often, MasterCard financial services representative Irina Fulcher said it would also prevent vendors from being targets of criminals

Fulcher said: “We are here to help the industries and the society.

“As you know millennials travel with their phones and use their phones to pay now. So how do we make Barbados to feel like home to them now . . . they usually come from cashless societies so how do we provide the same experience to them here.” 

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With mounting public frustration over the matter of bail being granted to persons accused of murder, Government may be seeking to make adjustments to the 1996 Bail Act, in response to this issue.

This revelation was made by Attorney General Dale Marshall, who told Barbados TODAY that while he was not in a position to state the nature of the proposed changes, as the measures have not yet received Cabinet’s stamp of approval, it was clear that it could not be business as usual.

“While an individual will have his personal views on who should or should not get bail, our 1996 Bail Act allows for every defendant to receive bail. The whole idea that a murder accused can’t get bail is not now supported by our law,” he said noting that even though the law has been in existence since 1996, it was not until 2007 that a murder accused was first granted bail.

He added: “There are a number of things which we have to do including making amendments to the Bail Act so as to tighten up on the system of bail.”

However, the AG made it clear that any tightening of bail granted to murder accused must be accompanied by speedy trials for these persons.

“We can’t just deal with bail and tightening the grant of bail unless we also deal with the speed at which justice is dispensed. Every accused also has rights and to delay trials for five and ten years does not benefit the society. In some cases, witnesses’ memories will go dim and persons who are innocent would be left with this [Sword of] Damocles over their heads for over a decade,” he explained.

In addition to the proposed revisions to the Bail Act, Marshall told Barbados TODAY that Government was seeking to implement measures to take out some of the discretionary components to sentencing and replace them with a system similar to that of the US with mandatory minimum sentencing for certain categories of crimes.

“Another measure that we are seeking to put in place is a practice direction issue as it relates to sentence indicators. The whole idea is to create a logic to sentencing and not a case where a judge decides to give one individual five years and give another ten years for the same crime. That is not how sentencing works. There has to be a structure to sentencing so that the law is consistent. Individuals with similar charges and similar circumstances should be able to expect a similar sentence. That is what justice is, it has to be equal across the board,” he explained.

The Attorney General argued that this system would also be helpful in moving the judicial system along faster, as perpetrators would be more inclined to plead guilty since they would be able to gauge their length of stay in prison.

“The system of minimum sentencing indicators would allow for an accused person to make a determination as to the kind of sentencing regime he would be subject to if he pleads guilty. We have already seen some of this bearing fruit as we see those who will say ‘this is the type of sentencing range I would get, so maybe I should consider pleading guilty.’ This would be in cases where the evidence is strong,” he contended.
colvillemounsey@barbadostoday.bb

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A recent study has found that inconsistent condom use, relationships involving multiple partners and a refusal to be tested for HIV are among a number of deeply engrained social norms stifling efforts to reduce the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases.

On Wednesday morning, the National HIV/AIDS Commission released the findings of a report on Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs and Sexual Practices Survey among adults ages 15 to 49 in Barbados.

While the study indicates that Barbadians are well educated on how to reduce the possibility of contracting the disease, they continued to practice a number of harmful sexual habits.

During the report delivered by Assistant Director of the commission Nicole Drakes at Government’s Warrens Office Complex, it was noted that researchers came to the conclusions after a thorough examination of the sexual experiences and past sexual behaviour of respondents.

Approximately 86.0 per cent of the over 1200 respondents were sexually active in the 12 months preceding the survey. However just 41.5 per cent reported using a condom the last time they had sex, with the most common reason for refusing was because respondents “didn’t think it was necessary”.

During her presentation, Drakes admitted that while the national aids programme focused on influencing positive behavioural changes, deep-seated practices have proven very difficult to change.

“…Success may not be something that we will see in our lifetimes, but we’re going to have to work on it. Understanding behaviours and understanding the motivations behind the way people behave are challenging, because sometimes people themselves don’t know why they’re doing what they do,” said Drakes.

In an interview after the presentation, she added that a greater level of “community will” was necessary to successfully tackle the problems.

“We need people in different parts of society and from all walks of life to tackle HIV, because sometimes we go to outreach and we offer people condoms and they’re saying they don’t need condoms, but you’re walking around with a partner and having sex.

“You may be faithful, but your partner may not be, so you need to protect yourself. If you can’t do it for you, find a motivator. Do it for your children or for somebody that you care about,” said Drakes.

The number of people being tested for HIV has reportedly also declined significantly to 33 per cent; down from 40.1 per cent in 2013.

Drakes also expressed concern with the number of people engaging in sexual intercourse under the influence of alcohol and other drugs, impairing their ability to make wise sexual decisions.

“Roughly 42 per cent (41.7 per cent) had sex under the influence of alcohol, 15.3 per cent under the influence of non-prescription drugs and 14.4 per cent had sex under the influence of both alcohol and non-prescription drugs,” revealed Drakes.

During the presentation, Senior Medical Officer of Health, with responsibility for communicable diseases, Dr. Anton Best added that social factors were also to blame for the lack of positive action from members of society.

“The main vulnerabilities for HIV in Barbados from my experience and in my professional opinion are male behaviours and poverty.

“When you can say male behaviours and poverty are driving HIV, then that covers so many people. There are so many different drivers and you have to be able to implement the programmes and interventions based on best available evidence,” said Dr Best.

Amid the worrisome figures there were promising signs. While respondents largely refused HIV testing, they maintained the belief that testing and practicing safe sex were essential to determining their HIV status.

Generally positive attitudes towards people living with HIV were also recorded with at least eight in ten persons being willing to care for a sick family member in their household, support the presence of HIV+ teachers and students in the school environment provided they were not ill and work alongside a co-worker living with HIV. Problems with discrimination fuelled by misinformation still exist, however.

“On the other hand, about 44 per cent had no desire to conceal the HIV+ status of a family member, while roughly one in three persons were willing to buy food from an HIV positive person. About one in four persons felt that landlords and co-workers should be informed of the HIV positive status of tenants and workmates respectively,” the study revealed.

The survey revealed that most respondents obtained information on HIV from television (85.1 per cent), radio (75.6 per cent), social media (53.9 per cent), pamphlets/brochures (50.1 per cent) and email/Internet (43.0 per cent). The deputy director however added that reform in the area of awareness was desperately needed.

“We’re all in this together, because HIV affects everybody regardless of whether or not you’re infected and it’s something everyone has to work on. HIV is a social disease, which affects humans, so we need to take off the blinders and realise that it is a country effort.

“More funds would help in some instances, but I don’t think it is everything. We need money, additional skills and volunteers.

“ . . . But we also need not to rest on our laurels or to continue doing the same things because that worked in the past. The past may be a good starting point to give us an idea of where we need to go, but we need to look at what is happening now and work accordingly,” said Drakes.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb

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Former Prime Minister Owen Arthur is warning Caribbean leaders not to expect a major trade deal with the UK when it leaves the European Union (EU).

“I do not think, based on history, that the region can expect any major benefits from England, the UK, when it exits the EU,” Arthur told a public lecture on BREXIT and the new Caribbean Trade Agenda at the Sagicor Cave Hill School of Business and Management on Tuesday night.

With the opportunity to negotiate new independent trade deals, Britain would gravitate to more powerful nations and the region would be excluded, he argued.

“The Caribbean can hardly occupy any special place on the UK’s agenda once it leaves the European Union,” he said.

Instead, he is advising the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to ensure that any future trade deal brokered with the UK should be one of “a developmental corporation regime”.

Pointing to uncertainties surrounding Brexit and pointing to past experiences under trade deals with the EU, Arthur said there was an urgent need for the region to “recalibrate its trade agenda to remove all of the constraints that is standing in the way of its enterprises penetrating and holding market access and sustained activity on a competitive basis”.

The former Prime Minister told the gathering: “In short, the region needs to build a genuine export culture to be able to function successfully in a globalized economy where trade liberalization has become the dominant practice.”

Arthur said the region failed to take full advantage of the ten-year-old Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), which was signed between the regional bloc CARIFORUM and the EU to promote trade between the EU member states and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)states.

He said information sourced from the UK revenue and customs report showed that British imports from CARIFORUM countries declined from £662 million in 2008 to £449 million in 2017.

“Only the middle income public seemed to have taken advantage of the generous market access offered by the EPA,” Arthur declared.

Despite the “generous market access” for CARIFORUM under the EPA, “the region has not been able to significantly diversify its exports to the European market in any substantial way”, said the economist and former finance minister.

The region’s tourism industry has also been unable to receive any “bounty” as a result of the EPA, he added.

Arthur told the audience: “There is no reason to believe that there has been any radical improvement in the penetration of Caribbean service providers to the European Union or the European market.

“In order for the region to have taken advantage of the provisions in the EPA for the movement of natural persons, the market access of the EPA would have to be supplemented by a mutual recognition agreement and visa application agreements between nations from the two groups of nations.

“These matters seemed not to have received the requisite attention since 2008.”.

He called on Caribbean nations to increase their capacity to export, adding that greater focus should be placed on services industries.

But the senior statesman also took a swipe at the EU, accusing Brussels of  “launching an assault” on the Caribbean financial services sector through the creation of blacklists and threats of sanctions.

Arthur said: “There is no basis in international public law for the European Union to first of all ask other countries to change their tax laws, and secondly, to do so on the threat that they would enforce sanctions.” marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb

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Sex workers, members of the lesbian, gay and bisexual community and people with disabilities have been given a place at the table of the Social Partnership in a new body alongside faith-based and a raft of non-governmental organisations.

With the decision, the Labour Party Government has moved to keep a campaign promise to introduce a “Social Justice Committee” to broaden the membership of the tripartite Social Partnership to include a wider range of interest groups.

Introducing the committee on Wednesday, Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations Colin Jordan said the committee was in line with the principles of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Jordan, who is the social justice committee’s chairman, said its main objective was to consider and make recommendations to Government, directly through the Social Partnership and Cabinet, on social justice issues.

The committee’s remit includes poverty alleviation; the role of the family in fostering cultural and social norms and values; discrimination; access to education; integration of people with disabilities; access to employment; safety and security and the environment.

“It is not intended for this committee to be a talk shop,” said Jordan, who added that the time had long come for civil and non-governmental organizations to be involved in discussions with Government on issues affecting residents.

The committee is made up of 23 individuals, 19 of whom are appointed by the Labour Minister. Each member is to serve for a period of two years.

The deputy chair of the committee is the Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Cynthia Forde.

Other representatives on the committee come from trade unions, the Rastafarian community, women and men organizations, the media, youth development organisations, the credit union movement, parent teachers associations, social workers, the private sector and the Family Planning Association.

The committee will meet once per month and will report to the Social Partnership and Cabinet quarterly and also annually within three months of Government’s fiscal year, which ends on March 31.

Jordan said: “A social justice committee, from its name, has to do with ensuring that people across the country can function.... So feel free to share your views as strongly as possible always being respectful to the rest of us.

“What we want to do is to speak from our perspectives as representing organizations. We know what is happening in our organisations, we know what is happening on the ground. Sometimes though, we are going to need to have some research to drive that discussion and decision making.”

He pledged to call on the University of the West Indies and other institutions to provide research support.

The representatives of the various groups told the convening of the Social Justice Committee they welcomed the opportunity, expressing the hope that their members’ concerns would be adequately addressed through the new framework. 

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Barbados Union of Teachers’ (BUT) presidential candidate Pedro Shepherd has refuted claims that he plans to use the post to boost his political agenda if he is elected in next month’s elections.

A post being circulated to BUT members on social media, warns that Shepherd, who has publicly expressed interest in running for the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), would use his position as BUT president to attack Government if successful in the April 12 elections.

“Please let Pedro Shepherd who has signalled his intention to run for party politics know that we will not allow him to use BUT as a forum for him or the DLP to attack Government,” the post states.

However, in an interview with Barbados TODAY, Shepherd, who served as BUT president from 2012 to 2018, maintained that he was only interested in representing the interests of teachers.

Furthermore, he said this was not the first time he had expressed an interest in representing the DLP, as he had done so on two previous occasions.

In fact, Shepherd who was defeated by Shawn Spencer in last year’s BUT elections said he had agitated for teachers when the DLP was in power.

“For a person to make those comments shows that person clearly does not know me because this is not the first time that I have expressed an interest in running for the DLP. I expressed an interest as far back as 2013 and then again in 2018 and now I’m doing it for a third time so it is not new.

“And anybody who followed my trade unionism, as well as my political life, would know that the DLP was in office from 2008 until 2018 and I as the president of the BUT, was the most vocal person against Minister [of Education] Ronald Jones and by extension, other members of the Cabinet. So if it had anything to do with politics, I would have been the most quiet BUT president over the last six years,” Shepherd contended.

He said he had been asked to run for president by the union’s members, because of his strong representation in the past.

Shepherd said during his six-year stint as president, he had always put the needs of teachers first.

“It is not about politics, it’s about teachers. Whoever is in power and there is reason for me to have to represent the interests of teachers that is what I am going to do.

“It doesn’t matter if the BLP is in power, the DLP is in power, Solutions Barbados in power, the UPP in power or Atherley’s party is in power, as president of the BUT I am representing teachers,” Shepherd said.

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LIAT has been forced to cancelled some of its flights as two of its aircraft undergo unscheduled maintenance.

According to Chief Executive Officer Julie Reifer-Jones, this will result in the aircraft being out of service for several days and as a result changes have to be made to the flight schedule.

[caption id="attachment_292667" align="alignnone" width="432"] LIAT's Chief Executive Officer Julie Reifer-Jones.[/caption]

Stressing that the safety and comfort of passengers was the top priority for the company, Reifer-Jones said the company was working to return to its full flight schedule by next week.

The CEO also assured passengers that their Easter travel plans would not be affected.

“The airline has already put in place adequate arrangements to ensure smooth trips for this peak travel period,” she said.

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Nineteen-year-old Kadeem O’Brian Clarke has been charged with the murder of Graeme Addison Norville.

Clarke, of Johnson Road, Workmans, St George is scheduled to appear before the Oistins Magistrates’ Court on March 29, 2019.

Norville,22, was shot and killed on February 16, 2019 at Rock Hall, St George.

The deceased was recorded as the country’s 11th murder for 2019.

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There is a very real possibility that regional carrier LIAT could be grounded for good.

The airline’s fate now rests with trade unions, who were given until 5 p.m. this evening to report back to LIAT’s management on whether their workers would be willing to accept a pay cut.

A well-placed source told Barbados TODAY that during an almost six-hour meeting at the Hilton Barbados yesterday with Prime Minister Mia Mottley and chairman of the LIAT shareholder governments, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, trade unions agreed to a six per cent pay cut in an effort to  keep the regional carrier afloat.

However, those trade unions, which also included the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), said they would first need to report back to their membership before any agreement could be reached.

The source said if the trade unions and LIAT management failed to reach an agreement by 5 p.m. this evening, the airline could collapse.

“Today at 5 p.m. is do or die. LIAT’s finances are so dire that if they do not come to an agreement to allow for savings for the shareholders, which would keep LIAT viable, the airline could fold,” the source explained.

The source further explained that the timeline given was critical as Barbados’ financial year ends on March 31.

The source said officials in the Ministry of Finance were working “around the clock” so that in the event an agreement was reached, an emergency injection of funds would be made available to support the cash-strapped airline.

If that money is not accounted for this financial year, Barbados, the main shareholder, will be unable to inject any funds into LIAT due to IMF restrictions, the source said.

In a telephone interview with Barbados TODAY from St Vincent just after 9 p.m. - four hours after the reported deadline had passed – Gonsalves, who was in a meeting, said he had not yet heard of any further developments.

“I don’t know if they have sent anything to the CEO of LIAT . . . but I am in a meeting right now,” he said.

When contacted, Roy Morris, Press Secretary to Prime Minister Mottley confirmed that the trade unions had asked to report back to their membership at the end of yesterday’s meeting.

“The meeting really was to try to achieve certain agreements from staff that would allow the airline to proceed on a restructuring programme given its dire financial position. That meeting achieved certain results, but the unions needed to go back to their membership to get certain proposals that were hammered out in caucus here, ratified since a number of them had said they were not authorized by their membership to alter at that stage and hence were given a timeframe within which to return information on whatever they agreed to the shareholders,” Morris said.

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb

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Farmers are predicting that the price of locally-produced food will rise sharply as production costs go up.

Small farmers in particular, say they have found themselves at a crossroad. They must either evolve or exit the vital industry after the most recent announcement of an increase in commercial water rates.

Farmers have been crying out ever since the Garbage and Sewage Contribution levy, announced during Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s mini Budget last June started cutting deeply into their profits.

During last week’s Budget, the Prime Minister announced that from May 1, commercial entities would have to pay $4.66 per cubic meter for up to 40 cubic meters of water and $7.78 per cubic meter for usage in excess of 40 cubic meters.

Against the odds, many farmers have committed themselves to the supply of locally-produced food.

However, the most recent announcement has left some agriculture workers, particularly livestock farmers who rely on a heavy supply of water, concerned that they may not be able to compete with similar products imported from developed countries.

“If Government doesn’t protect domestic products and if you don’t have food, we have lost a part of our anatomy as a nation. If we develop a pattern here in Barbados where the importer is king and not the farmer who lives in the country, we have a problem for future generations,” argued young farmer, Mikkel Rogers who specialises in pig farming and root crops.

[caption id="attachment_292695" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Mikkel Rogers[/caption]

“When you look at the cost of water and the water tax implemented in the mini Budget in 2018, that was difficult for us . . . now if you are a commercially rated customer and you grow a crop like lettuce, which requires a daily supply of water and the cost of that lettuce used to be $2.00, now you have to go to the consumer with a higher price.

“So in the supermarket the cost of lettuce may have to increase by a dollar to accommodate the rise in costs, while the price of romaine lettuce from overseas remains the same,” he said, adding that countries like America, Canada and England had the resources to subsidise their agricultural inputs and drive up production, while reducing the cost of the products on supermarket shelves.

Rogers added that farmers would now have to find more tactful ways of getting the same production, while using less water. He also suggested developing desalination plants or rainwater harvesting and using emerging techniques like reverse osmosis.

“We farmers have to be innovative and I am not going to just blame the Government. The recent measures are going to hurt us as farmers, but we have to find new ways to beat the system,” he said.

CEO of the Barbados Agricultural Society, James Paul earlier this week predicted that some farmers who were now operating at “break even” could “go under” due to the increased cost of the important resource.

“The water bill has gone sky high and I definitely have to use a lot of water,” said 47-year-old Junior Foster, a pig farmer with over 30 years of experience.

He said since the introduction of the GSL, his bill has increased by almost $200 per month and would increase even further when the new measure is implemented.

Foster however told Barbados TODAY that he would never consider giving up on farming.

“This is my livelihood so I’m not thinking about closing right now. Some of these farmers around here are part time. Agricultural work is always difficult regardless of which Government is in power, but certain measures have been put in place and they will either make us or break us.

“But I just can’t pack up and shut down just like that. If you are a 24-hour farmer, the farthest thing from your mind is closing down, whether you’re into livestock, food crops or whatever,” he said.

Rico Dyall, a 23-year-old, who started farming at the tender age of 15, specialises in the cultivation of kale, but also grows beans and peppers. Dyall said he would continue to press on despite the challenges, but admitted his business was under pressure from all angles.

[caption id="attachment_292694" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Rico Dyall[/caption]

“Sometimes supermarkets don’t want to pay the price charged by the farmers and try to make us bring down our prices and I can’t do that if I have water bills and all kinds of bills to pay. I can only give them according to what I pay to produce the crops,” he said.

“The prices are definitely going to go up. I am hoping that the people who usually like to support local farmers, will continue to do so.” kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb

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One veteran banker has likened Government domestic debt restructuring plan to that of “an axe in the heart of banks”, while giving a strong indication that commercial banks will no longer be willing to take on Government debt, other than what they are mandated to by law.

Chairman of Republic Financial Holdings Limited Ronald Harford suggested that banks would be even more skeptical about investing in Government paper, following the deal reached with them last year.

He was speaking while taking part in a panel discussion at the 10th Domestic Financial Institutions Conference at the Central Bank on Thursday under the theme Repositioning Barbados’ Financial Sector.

“Banks have to revisit their thinking about lending to Government. I think the goal that the Government has, of having a debt to GDP of 60 per cent is going to visit them [banks] in their needs to access capital from today . . . [and] the banks are going to take a view that if they are going to lend to Government the debt to GDP must not exceed 60 per cent,” said Harford.

“So the vast majority of the islands will not be able to access capital from the banking system, they will have to go to the CDB [Caribbean Development Bank], IMF [and others] to finance their debt, and that is a lesson that came home very clearly and has sunk into the psyche of the banks in the region,” he said, as he pointed out that the banks lost heavily on a number of Government securities in the region.

In its 2018 annual report published last December, Republic Financial said that increased provisions resulting from the impact of the Government default and subsequent restructuring of its debt had resulted in a $22 million decrease in the profit of its Barbados operation after tax.

As at September 30, 2018, the bank’s commercial banking subsidiary had made a total provision of TT$727 million for its exposure to the Barbados Government.

“When in negotiating the restructuring of the debt, the Barbados Government could say to the banks if you lend to a country whose debt to GDP exceeds 140 per cent, you can’t be serious about getting back all of your money, that was like an axe that went into the heart of the banks. We will need to be [wiser] about how we go forward, it is a very strong and brutal lesson that we have learned,” said Harford.

As at December 2017, commercial banks were required by law to hold 20 per cent of their deposits in stipulated Government securities and at September last year, commercial banks had a total of $180.7 million in Government debt.

Back in September, Government had announced that it had reached a debt restructuring deal for domestic holders of Government debt, while promising that a similar deal for external creditors would be announced in the not-too-distant future.

Under that deal, which was finalized for domestic debt holders in last October, the majority of loans were swapped for new debt instruments, with lower interest rates and a longer period over which they would be repaid.

However, external creditors have been adamant that they were not prepared to take a similar deal, while presenting Government with their own proposal.

Economist Dr DeLisle Worrell, who is an advisor to a group of external creditors, had revealed last December that “a proposal, which meets the Central Bank’s foreign reserves needs, and at the same time, is acceptable to the holders of US-dollar denominated debt, is now in the hands of the Prime Minister and her advisors”.

While the details of the proposal have not been made public, Government is seemingly sticking to its original offer.

Meanwhile, a central banker is indicating that the March 31 deadline, which Government was working towards winding up negotiations and coming up with a mutually beneficial debt restructuring deal with external creditors, is no longer a reality.

Responding to questions at the Domestic Financial Institutions Conference at the Courtney Blackman Grande Salle on Thursday, Acting Deputy Governor of the Central Bank Michelle Doyle-Lowe said with March now coming to an end no new date has yet been identified for Government reaching a deal with external creditors.

“We are already at the ending of March. It is a negotiation and ultimately our ideal is to have it wrapped up because obviously it is creating unnecessary or additional uncertainty. But at the end of it there has to be some coming together of minds as to how we move forward,” said Doyle-Lowe.

“Remember we are dealing with international investors where their holding of Barbados Government debt is a very small element in their overall debt portfolio, but we know that at some stage we want to be able to partner with entities again and go back to the international capital market. So it is important how we proceed on these matters. So ultimately, there is no definitive date that I can say to you it will be completed by X time. Our ideal is that it be wrapped up sooner rather than later,” she explained.

About 20 per cent of Government debt is external.

“I think it is important to understand that there is a difference in perspective between your average domestic investor and the foreign investor. So it really relates to what they consider to be their stake and what they want to contribute to the reprofiling and overall exercise for Government to reposition itself,” Doyle-Lowe said.

“Part of it is related to them trying to understand where our economic fundamentals are at and what form the domestic exchange would have taken. But ultimately it is a case of creating some balance between them (external creditors) feeling comfortable that they are not bearing more than they want to in terms of the brunt of the external exchange versus what we need to achieve by way of repositioning the external debt,” she explained.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb

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Barbados must review its business model if the financial services sector must effectively respond to the “disruptive challenges” it faces, the Governor of the Central Bank, Cleviston Haynes, has suggested. 

He said the Central Bank has recognised the need for more emphasis to be placed on constantly developing new ideas and solutions for challenges facing the sector.

Stressing the importance of maintaining a liquid, robust and resilient financial system that supported economic growth, Haynes said the central bank remained committed to help in the transformation and repositioning of the locals in financial services industry.

Haynes was addressing the 10th Domestic Financial Institutions Conference (DFIC) at the Central Bank on Thursday under the theme Repositioning Barbados’ Financial Sector.

He said: “While our why has not changed, our what and our how are facing disruptive challenges including the internationalisation of services; technological advances and disruptions; consumer pressure for cheaper financial products; convenience and caring service; tough competition; the demand for simplicity in a world of complexity and stricter international rules and standards.

“How can and must we respond to these circumstances? What must we do to reposition the sector? It is my belief that we must reexamine our business model. We need a model that reinforces and supports our purpose or why and addresses our how and what, a model that is customer centric and technology driven, but which also accommodates the not so tech savvy among us, a model that promotes economic and social transformation while strengthening financial stability, a model that helps us to manage our risks both traditional and non-traditional,” he said.

Experts in the financial services and representatives from commercial banks, credit unions, the Barbados Stock Exchange, investment firms joined with other financial services representatives to discuss a range of issues and come up with solutions.

While welcoming Government’s ongoing efforts to use an electronic method of payments, Haynes pointed out that Government has already started to make necessary changes including ongoing efforts to eliminate cheque payments and the implementation of the regulatory sandbox.

But Haynes said issues such as derisking remained a bugbear, with a lot of the focus being on the loss by regional banks to the access of correspondent banking.

“We want to access the implication of this phenomenon in the context of the national and regional discussion about things like legalising cannabis for medical purposes, the expansion of gaming services and even the emergence of the new fintech sector.

“After Government’s recent debt restructuring, we must reform the securities market,” added Haynes.

Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Services Commission Kester Guy said as institutions move to incorporate more and better technology in an effort to make their operations more efficient, the regulator was also doing what it could to help advanced that cause and build out the sector.

“We are also, at the FSC, considering and reviewing a digital asset framework, including the rules and operations, to determine applicability and the appropriateness for operations within our market.”

“We are continuing to strengthen and aggressively fine-tuning our legislation to enhance our service standard so that we can meet our growing and ever demanding stakeholders concerns and demands before us,” Guy said.

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Everton Heru Holligan will lead the United Progressive Party (UPP) for at least the next year.

Holligan beat out Ambrose Grosvenor and Wayne Griffith for the top post following the completion of online voting to elect a new Executive Committee to serve from 2019 to 2020.

The UPP’s former chairman Lynette Eastmond who did not seek re-election was voted in as vice-chairman.

Eastmond, who founded the party in 2016, had said she would not be contesting the top post as she thought it would be appropriate to give as many people in the party as much exposure as possible.

The remaining members of the committee comprise general secretary Wayne Griffith; assistant general secretary Raquel Gilkes; chief financial officer Ambrose Grosvenor; assistant chief financial officer Edison Bynoe and Ria Riley who was elected public relations officer.

In a press release to announce the new committee, the UPP said one of Holligan’s goals would be to change the political landscape in Barbados.

“Mr Holligan is deeply honoured to take up the post of chairman and carry on the mandate of the UPP and continue this progressive movement. He also thanked the outgoing executive management committee for their stellar work over the past year,” the statement read.

“The new chairman indicated that our journey is one to change the political landscape of politics in Barbados and hopefully also inspire the region to function differently in the political arena.”

The statement went on to add that “the voting population is surely disenchanted with the present way in which politics is practiced as it shows a disconnect with the reality of the public experience.”

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