Archive for January, 2008
Liz Thompson gets big UN environmental award
Well well well, what is it they say?…
“A prophet is not without honour, save in his own country, and in his own house.” – Matthew 13:54
Liz girl, De Standpipe Crew is VERY proud of you. Hot on the heels of election defeat in Barbados, our very own Liz Thompson has been named by the United Nations as one of seven “Champions of the Earth” for their efforts to advance sustainable development and combat climate change. She should be collecting her award at an awards ceremony in Singapore on 22 April 2008. Of course, she has always been a champion for many of us.
Well done, Liz! Congratulations!
De Standpipe Crew
http://www.cbc.bb/content/view/13973/10/
Former minister receives UN environmental award
Monday, 28 January 2008
The United Nations (UN) Monday named Barbados’ former Minister of Energy and the Environment, Elizabeth Thompson, among seven persons from around the world who will be awarded for their efforts to advance sustainable development and combat climate change.
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said Thompson, who was among several Cabinet ministers in the former Barbados Labour Party administration losing their seats in the January 15 general election, would be among those acknowledged as “Champions of the Earth” during an awards ceremony in Singapore on April 22.
Others receiving the award include New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark; Atiq Rahman, the Executive Director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies; Prince Albert II of Monaco; former United States Senator Timothy E. Wirth; Balgis Osman-Elasha, a senior researcher at Sudan’s Higher Council for Environment & Natural and Abdul-Qader Ba-Jammal, the Secretary-General of the Yemen People’s General Congress.
“Today, we face environmental challenges of unprecedented magnitude. More than ever, our planet needs committed leaders and achievers like the 2008 Champions of the Earth who spur real, positive change and fuel innovative solutions to environmental problems,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.
“These inspirational individuals demonstrate not only that action and different development paths are possible but also the abundant opportunities arising as a result of a transformation towards a green economy,” he added.
The agency said this year’s winners have all spearheaded exceptional initiatives on issues ranging from protecting the unique biodiversity of Yemen’s islands to piloting climate-proofing strategies in Sudan and boosting conservation in Barbados.
Thompson, who served as Environment Minister for 11 years, described the award as recognition of Barbados’ contribution at the international level and its successes in policy development and implementation.
“This is an illustrious panel of awardees, as are those previously recognised, such as former United States Vice President Al Gore and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. To be the first person from the Caribbean to receive the award is a signal honour,” she said.
“It is also my hope that having positioned Barbados to play an important role in Environment at the international level, that the baton will not fall,” the former minister added.
World Environment Day will be marked this year under the theme “Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy,” with New Zealand as host.
CMC
Add comment Thursday, 31 January 2008, 12:40 am
Lil Rick, dah is you?
Lil Rick… dah is you fuh trute?
After showing up at the 2008 Barbados Music Awards looking like this, perhaps we have to change his name from Lil Rick to King Richard.
Truly REGAL.
De Standpipe Crew wishes to congratulate (big up) Lil Rick and all the other winners at the Barbados Music Awards. His song Caan Wait won the award for Best Soca Single, and he also won the title for Entertainer of the Year- Male.
Check out the full list of winners at the Boyce Voice entertainment blog…
http://www.boycevoice.com/blog/2008/01/28/barbados-music-awards-2008-winners/
De Standpipe Crew
Add comment Tuesday, 29 January 2008, 10:24 am
DLP Manifesto Promises: 94 Days Left
The Democratic Labour Party 2008 Manifesto made a number of promises to the people of Barbados should that party be voted into government. Three of them were promised “within 100 days” and five of them were promised “immediately”. The first official day of work for the new government was Tuesday 22 January 2008. It is now the night of Sunday 27 January 2008 and there are 94 days left until the deadline of 30 April 2008.
The promises are:
PROMISED WITHIN 100 DAYS
Page 9. In the first 100 days of the new DLP administration remove VAT from building materials on houses valued up to $400,000.
Page 12. To this end and within the first 100 days of our administration the Democratic Labour Party government will convene a National Consultation on Education…
Page 42. The DLP Government will therefore: In the first 100 days introduce the Agriculture Protection Act that will require a 2/3 majority of both houses of parliament for a change of use of land from agriculture. We will reserve 30, 000 acres for agricultural use.
PROMISED IMMEDIATELY
Page 11. A new DLP Government will immediately embark on a health promotion campaign to sensitize the public to the dangers of unhealthy lifestyles;
Page 24. Immediately review the current Central Bank procedures for approving capital account transactions with a view to simplifying and speeding up the approval (or denial) process for restricted transactions.
Page 33. Additionally a new DLP administration will: Re-examine the Port charges with a view to significantly reducing these to manufacturers. Tonnage dues are charged twice – on raw materials when imported and again on finished products when being exported. This needs to be addressed immediately since it is a burdensome cost. Free along side charges (FAS) continue to be out of proportion with our competitors.
Page 36. Conversely, a new DLP government will move to immediately enact a comprehensive national Labour Rights legislative compendium which will include the following:
• A Full Employment Rights Act
• An Alternative Disputes Settlement and Arbitration Committee
• A Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Act
• National minimum wages legislation
• Legislation fully recognizing Trade Unions.
Page 48. The Democratic Labour Party will also:
Immediately introduce integrity legislation requiring
• a declaration of assets by public officials,
• a Code of Conduct for Ministers,
• a new Freedom of Information law,
• amendments to the Defamation laws and
• new constitutional provisions to rationalise the powers of the Prime Minister.
SOURCE: http://www.barbadosvotes.org/pdf/2008_DLP_Manifesto.pdf
The people of this country are watching and waiting (some like hawks, some like vultures) to see how many of these manifesto promises will be fulfilled by the new DLP government.
6 gone, 94 to go.
De Standpipe Crew
2 comments Sunday, 27 January 2008, 11:12 pm
Barbados Music Awards – Well Done, Ronnie Morris!
Saturday, 26 January 2008, 1:04 pm
De Standpipe Crew is pleased to take this opportunity to express deepest thanks, appreciation and congratulations to Ronnie Morris, the founder and director of the Barbados Music Awards which were first launched in 2006.
There are not enough words to express the deep sense of pride we all feel as a result of the success which this young black Barbadian man has achieved. Ronnie Morris has proven that he is a big thinker, and with such mindset and determination his future looks very bright indeed, though he has already written his name on history’s page.
We have to support our own people, especially when we have observed that another Barbados blog has for the past two years gone overboard in promoting those who are of a lighter skin tone, or a particular race, especially when they are non-Barbadians.
Please support the Barbados Music Awards, to be held on tomorrow 27 January 2008 at the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium.
Thank you Ronnie Morris and Timeless Entertainment Inc.
De Standpipe Crew
http://www.barbadosmusicawards.com/2.0/news/news.asp?ID=30
Global Music Industry Converge for BMAs
Some of the music industry’s biggest names are making their way to the upcoming Barbados Music Awards, to be held on January 27th at the Garfield Sobers Gymnasium, to share in this celebration of excellence which is becoming a noted international music industry event.
With foreign performers to include Grammy winner Beenie Man, hip-hop icon Swizz Beatz, Jamaica’s Voicemail, Trinidad’s Machel Montano and Patrice Roberts along with Atlantic Records’ Wynter Gordon joining many of the best Barbados has to offer, the 2008 edition of the annual BMAs is taking on a distinctly global presence, in keeping with its five-year growth plan, in an effort to remain relevant, and expand to give local artistes exposure to the multi-billion-dollar music industry.
This year’s workshop, entitled “Turning Music Into Gold II” is also becoming a major showcase platform for local artistes, as they will meet, face to face, a panel which includes Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken (SRP- famous for their work with Rihanna, Shontelle, Kelly Clarkson, N Sync etc.), Ibrahim Darden (Programme Director- HOT 97FM- NYC), Pat Charles (Senior writer- BET 106 & Park & Director BET Wild Out Wednesdays), Don Pooh (former VP of MCA Records, and executive producer of Mary J. Blige’s 7-million-selling No More Drama album), Paul Parris (formerly of Clear Channel, now General Manager of the DPMG Music Group), Swizz Beatz (producer who has worked with Beyonce, Eve, Jennifer Lopez and Whitney Houston etc.) and others.
Attendees at this workshop, to be held on January 26th from 10AM to 2PM at Olympus Theatre, will get the opportunity to present their demos, and to listen to panelists speak on intricate details on breaking into the global music market. A very small cast of performers will also be selected from within the pool of nominees, to showcase their talent live at the Workshop (for more information, email timelessbb@yahoo.com).
“We are totally pleased with our lineup this year, and this is definitely all the evidence we need that the BMAs is moving to the next level as a major regional and international event dedicated to the business of music.
“Our plans for the future include making this event a weekend-long experience, which will include our annual Hip-Hop Festival, the workshop which will be even further expanded, press conference and the after-party, with the awards as the highlight.
“They have done it in France with MIDEM and I can see no reason why we can’t do it here in Barbados . I’m sure it would become a very popular music industry festival, because Barbados is seen as a must-see destination, and the current hot-spot for talent as well. I am sure it would add tremendously to our tourism product,” Ronnie Morris, Founder and Director of the Barbados Music Awards said.
Tickets for the event are currently available at all DaCosta Mannings outlets.
http://www.timelessbarbados.com/index.htm
TIMELESS BARBADOS ENTERTAINMENT AGENCY- COMPANY PROFILE
Welcome to the official online home of the Timeless Barbados Inc., one of Barbados’ leading event production companies, Barbados’ #1 Model Management Company, and the home of Timeless Music, where Barbados’ leading musical acts can be found. www.timelessbarbados.com which has attracted close to 200,000 hits in one month!
What started as a mere modeling group has developed into a refined business, which has produced notable successes within the past five years.
Success stories include Timeless’ director and founder, acclaimed singer/songwriter and former international model Ronnie Morris, who placed 5th in the 2003 Mr. World finals, and has appeared on numerous international television networks including E! Entertainment Television, Showtime, CNN, NBC and others. To date he has released four full-length CDs, and has been featured on several compilations, altogether with sales totaling over 50,000 units sold. He has toured as both a singer and model, the World over, and is now focused on developing the talent of others in his role as Timeless’ director and the founder and producer of the Barbados Music Awards.
Events produced by Timeless have also fared quite well over the years, the most successful of which is the Barbados Music Awards, which generated rave reviews for weeks following the sold-out debut, held at the Sherbourne Conference Centre. The event, held under the patronage of the Rt. Hon. Owen Arthur, Prime Minister of Barbados, and attended by several Ministers of government and business leaders from across the globe, was hailed as one of the most exciting events held in recent times on the island. The second annual Barbados Music Awards, held at the massive Garfield Sobers Gymnasium, attracted four times the audience of the first year, and glowing reviews reverberated across the globe on major websites including MTV, Access Hollywood, ABC, Washington Post etc.
The annual Inter-School Pageant, which has attracted thousands of patrons over the past thee years, was contracted as the official launch of the Paris Hilton line of perfumes in Barbados in 2005. In 2006 over 3,000 patrons attended the glitzy pageant, making it one of the largest audiences ever to view a pageant in Barbados’ history.
The Hip-Hop Festival, Mr. Teen Barbados, Mr. & Ms. St. Michael Pageant and several other events for corporate clients including Hennessy, Stokes & Bynoe and Cable & Wireless to name a few, have ensured Timeless’ place among Barbados’ leading production companies. In 2006 Timeless spread its wings, as its directors served as co-producers for three major fashion events held as part of Carifesta 9 in the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago.
The recently re-launched Timeless Models has achieved a remarkable level of success as well. Well-known Barbadian models such as Nigel Wallace (Mr. Barbados- World 2004-2006), Rhea Ramjit (Banks Callender Girl 2006), Jamaal Ned (campaign model for Cave Shepherd, Nokia, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, NuLook etc.), Robyn Barker (Texaco, Absolut, Nokia, Cable & Wireless etc.), reigning Mr. Teen Barbados Dabian Cumberbatch, multiple pageant winner Jamilah Forde, Mona Crawford (Banks, Nokia, Featherstones etc.) and others, have benefited from the massive exposure and dedication given to each and every model under Timeless’ wing.
Timeless Music, a management company formed to facilitate and encourage the growth of some of Barbados’ finest musical acts, now has under its wing R&B trailblazer Toni Norville, a diva by any measure who has sold thousands of records and is an award-winning, international touring act, soca diva Keann, and several other signees who will be made public when the label officially launches this year.
Fresh new faces, exciting new concepts for live events and the expansion of Timeless’ annual events calendar highlight plans for 2007-2008. Brand new CD releases, posters for the company’s most popular models, the upgrading of the official website and an unprecedented drive to acquire more advertising campaigns for its roster, will place Timeless further ahead of its peers in the local and regional entertainment industry in 2007 and beyond, and we look forward to having you there with us every step of the way!
To apply to become one of Timeless’ models, please send us your name, contact numbers and a recent photo, with your height, age and weight to timelessbb@yahoo.com. Both male and female models are welcomed.
4 comments Saturday, 26 January 2008, 1:04 pm
8 DLP Manifesto Promises: 98 Days Left
The Democratic Labour Party 2008 Manifesto made a number of promises to the people of Barbados should that party be voted into government. Three of them were promised “within 100 days” and five of them were promised “immediately”. The first official day of work for the new government was Tuesday 22 January 2008. It is now the night of Wednesday 23 January 2008 and there are 98 days left until the deadline of 30 April 2008.
The promises are:
PROMISED WITHIN 100 DAYS
Page 9. In the first 100 days of the new DLP administration remove VAT from building materials on houses valued up to $400,000.
Page 12. To this end and within the first 100 days of our administration the Democratic Labour Party government will convene a National Consultation on Education…
Page 42. The DLP Government will therefore: In the first 100 days introduce the Agriculture Protection Act that will require a 2/3 majority of both houses of parliament for a change of use of land from agriculture. We will reserve 30, 000 acres for agricultural use.
PROMISED IMMEDIATELY
Page 11. A new DLP Government will immediately embark on a health promotion campaign to sensitize the public to the dangers of unhealthy lifestyles;
Page 24. Immediately review the current Central Bank procedures for approving capital account transactions with a view to simplifying and speeding up the approval (or denial) process for restricted transactions.
Page 33. Additionally a new DLP administration will: Re-examine the Port charges with a view to significantly reducing these to manufacturers. Tonnage dues are charged twice – on raw materials when imported and again on finished products when being exported. This needs to be addressed immediately since it is a burdensome cost. Free along side charges (FAS) continue to be out of proportion with our competitors.
Page 36. Conversely, a new DLP government will move to immediately enact a comprehensive national Labour Rights legislative compendium which will include the following:
• A Full Employment Rights Act
• An Alternative Disputes Settlement and Arbitration Committee
• A Sexual Harassment in the Workplace Act
• National minimum wages legislation
• Legislation fully recognizing Trade Unions.
Page 48. The Democratic Labour Party will also:
Immediately introduce integrity legislation requiring
• a declaration of assets by public officials,
• a Code of Conduct for Ministers,
• a new Freedom of Information law,
• amendments to the Defamation laws and
• new constitutional provisions to rationalise the powers of the Prime Minister.
SOURCE: http://www.barbadosvotes.org/pdf/2008_DLP_Manifesto.pdf
The people of this country are watching and waiting (some like hawks, some like vultures) to see how many of these manifesto promises will be fulfilled by the new DLP government.
2 gone, 98 to go.
De Standpipe Crew
3 comments Wednesday, 23 January 2008, 8:46 pm
New Government: 100 Days starts from today, ends on 30 April 2008
Barbados now has a new DLP government and a new prime minister in the Right Honorable David Thompson. During the election campaign there were several promises made about what the DLP government would do within 100 days of coming into office. Today marks the first official day of government business and the 100 days will end on 30 April 2008.
You may download the DLP 2008 Manifesto here.
http://www.barbadosvotes.org/pdf/2008_DLP_Manifesto.pdf
What do you think about the election promises?
Which ones do you think should get priority?
How many of them do you think will be achieved within the time limit?
Is there anything which you would like to see implemented within the next 100 days which was not mentioned in the manifesto?
Please feel free to share your views. Leh we hear wuh de people got tuh say.
De Standpipe Crew
6 comments Tuesday, 22 January 2008, 2:26 am
Too many Guyanese? How the Panama Canal transformed Barbados.
In recent years Barbados has seen an influx of Guyanese workers coming to this country. Some are here legally and some are here illegally. Some are black and some are Indian. With Barbados being a predominantly black majority country, the black Guyanese immigrant (like any black Caribbean person who travels to another Caribbean country) is not as easily noticeable as his (or her) lighter-skinned and straighter-haired fellow citizen. There can be no denial that the presence of these newcomers has created some level of unease and discomfort among the native Barbadian population. The view is frequently expressed that there are “too many Guyanese” in Barbados. It is hoped that a future article will focus on that issue, even if only to explain why the children of these immigrants will all become “true-true” Bajans. This article, however, is not about race relations in Barbados. It is about history… our Bajan history.
The reasons why there are so many Guyanese in Barbados today are largely economic. People will migrate to where the money is. And 100 years ago, in the same way that Guyanese are flocking to Barbados to look for work today, black Bajans were leaving this island in their numbers to work on the Panama Canal.
Did you know that between 1904 and 1914, one-third of the Barbadian population, or approximately 60,000 people, were estimated to be working in Panama?
Many young Barbadians (as well as some not so young) remain unaware of how the construction of the Panama Canal some 100 years ago transformed Barbados. There are still a number of older Bajans who remember those days. Please read the selected excerpts below to understand the linkage between the Panama Canal and the gradual but steady shift in economic control from whites to blacks in Barbados.
This is one story which must be told because we as a people must never forget where we came from, what we went through, and how we got what we have today.
Read your history below and think about it very carefully. And try and remember it whenever you see another Guyanese person trying to make a living in Barbados.
Bajan Free Press
Escritos Historicos de Panama
http://www.alonsoroy.com/aroy/book01_01_03.html
Construction took on a new impetus, as did the increase in the number of workers, which was estimated at 24,000 by end of 1906.
Of this number, which represented almost every nation in the world, the great majority were blacks from Barbados–contrary to the popular belief that the Jamaicans were the majority.
Bygone Barbados – Ann Watson Yates – ISBN: 976-8077-64-6
Thousands of Barbadians emigrated to work on the construction of the Panama Canal. Between 1904 and 1914, one-third of the Barbadian population, or approximately 60,000 people, were estimated to be working there. The Canal was constructed between 1880 and 1914 as a vital facility for increased international trade. The Canal saved ships from having to sail thousands of miles through treacherous seas around Cape Horn (the furthest point south on the South American continent.)
The workers were employed by the United States-controlled Isthmian Canal Commission and theirs was a life of hard work, most of it done with a pick and a shovel. The conditions were very poor, the workers suffered discrimination and a high death rate from accidents and disease, especially yellow fever. In spite of all this, they were able to earn higher wages than in Barbados, and some survived to return home with money to buy houses, land and businesses. This enabled their families to be independent of the plantation system, but more importantly it allowed many to qualify for the right to vote. The franchise which allowed this was based on property ownership and income, among other things, and these newly qualified people would start to change Barbadian politics forever.
Two-thirds of the workers did not return to Barbados; many settled in Cuba, the United States and Canada; some stayed in Panama where they form a unique addition to that population. The real work on the Canal started during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, and on a visit to Barbados in 1913, he publicly thanked the Barbadians for their help in its construction, emphasizing the service it would render to mankind in general.
A History of Barbados – Hilary Beckles – ISBN: 0-521-35879-5
Panama Money and Migrants
Emigration had long been conceived by the worker as a major strategy for socio-economic betterment. The economic depression of the late nineteenth century, however, had the effect of expanding significantly that pool of potential migrants. But the emigration outlet that irrevocably changed Barbados and widened the horizons for the black Barbadian appeared in 1904. In that year, the United States renewed the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Labour was required, and Barbadian male workers having never experienced employment on a large scale in a non-agricultural sector, saw the opportunity to reject sugar planters and plantations, and pursue an autonomous path. When, in 1905, the Panama Canal Agency established a labour recruitment office in Bridgetown, it was obvious that persuasion was not necessary.
The initial reaction of sugar planters was that the surplus unemployed labour was being siphoned off the economy which could only lead to better labour relations. By the end of 1906, however, their vision had changed as the flow of migrants was unexpectedly large and eroding their labour supply. The steamers which sailed between Bridgetown and Colon had taken over 10,000 by the beginning of 1908, and by 1914, at least 20,000 men had been contracted and had departed for the canal. it was the largest wave of black migration in the colony’s history, and the impact upon economy and society was considerable. It has been estimated that the total number of non-contracted and contracted migrants amounted to 45,000, in spite of legislative attempts to contain it in 1904 and 1907. The censuses show that between 1911 and 1921 the island’s population fell from 171,983 to 156,312, a decrease of some 15,671. Though many factors contributed to this net reduction, there can be no doubt that the Panama emigration was the chief cause.
The migration opportunity was undoubtedly seen by blacks as a chance finally to cast off the yoke of plantation domination. J. Challenor Lynch, for instance, reported to the Legislative Council that before boarding, blacks would abuse whites and aggressively denounce them. It was also considered, by those who wanted to stay behind, as an instrument to strengthen their hand on the labour market in bargaining for better wages. Bonham Richardson has recalled that labourers would chant the following song during industrial disputes.
We want more wages, we want it now,
And if we don’t get it, we going to Panama
Yankees say they want we down there.
We want more wages, we want it now.
Whereas the drastic reduction of male labourers on the estates should have led to wage increases, planters were able to prevent this by employing women to do what had become ‘men’s work’ at wages below what men generally obtained. As a result, wage levels in the plantation sector did not increase. Black women, who took opportunities to remove themselves from some of the more physically arduous tasks on estates after the abolition of slavery, found that they were unable to refuse the wages which field labour offered and continued to be the dominant sex in field gangs, as well as in the factory.
But it was the remittances of money to Barbados from Panama, and the capital brought back by returnees, which were to have a profound impact upon the island. While in 1910, for example, the merchant community had advanced £80,000 to planters to assist their sugar industry, in the same year official sources show that black Barbadians brought and sent back £83,000. Though many migrants died in the canal zone (one respected estimate is 15.5 per cent), some of those who returned with capital were able to achieve considerable social and economic mobility. In 1906, 3,501 returnees declared £18,000, and in the following year 3,525 declared £26,291. Between 1906 and 1915, some 20,326 returnees declared a total of £171,641. The ex-field hands had hopes of buying land, opening shops, learning a craft or obtaining an education for clerical and business professions. There certainly was a startling appearance of village shops and corner stores in the suburbs that can be attributed to ‘Panama’ money.
Postal remittances sent from the Panama Canal Zone to Barbados, 1906-20
Year – No. of Postal Orders – £ Value
1906 – 3,613 – £7,509
1907 – 19,092 – £46,160
1908 – 26,360 – £63,210
1909 – 31,179 – £66,272
1910 – 31,059 – £62,280
1911 – 24,968 – £51,009
1912 – 28,394 – £56,042
1913 – 31,851 – £63,816
1914 – 22,619 – £39,586
1915 – 14,210 – £22,874
1916 – 11,241 – £17,539
1917 – 10,430 – £15,194
1918 – 8,777 – £12,680
1919 – 7,747 – £12,591
1920 – 5,782 – £9,173
Total – 277,322 – £545,935
Many planters, by sheer necessity, sold off their properties to ‘Panama men’ in small lots, and by 1930 the pattern of landownership had changed significantly. In 1897, for example, the Royal Commission was informed that there were only 8,500 proprietors who owned only 10,000 acres, while in 1929 the number of small proprietors had increased to 17,731. This was not approved of by the dominant white community. In 1910, for example, Dr. E. G. Pilgrim, Assemblyman for St. James, sold a large proportion of his estates at Carlton, Sion Hill, Reid Bay and Westmoreland in small lots to ‘Panama men’. For the first time, black were making significant inroads upon the land-ownership pattern of the island.
Under the influence of the sudden supply of money, land prices rose dramatically, and even in the outlying parishes the price of £125 per acre in 1925 was normal. At these prices only successful returnees could purchase land, and many struggling planters took timely opportunities to speculate on the land market by putting their marginal lands up for sale. By all criteria, most returnees had been able to attain a better quality of life, though for the majority of the labouring poor, conditions worsened during the 1920s, as the wartime boom in the sugar economy had collapsed by late 1920. Panama money, then, had an effect of heightening differences in the material and social standing of black workers; those who struggled to make a living saw the Panama men as symbols of success, and seemed prepared to confront the established order in ways they knew best, for the attainment of a more secure livelihood.
Black Self-Help Organisations
The injection of ‘Panama money’ into working-class communities allowed them, for the first time, to develop islandwide financial institutions, designed and managed by themselves. The friendly society movement was revived, transformed and popularised as the leading force within the financial culture of the labouring classes during the early twentieth century. Societies allowed workers, on the weekly payment of about ten to twelve pence, to insure for sick and death benefits. Located in rural villages and in the towns, their accounts were managed by treasurers who were bound by law to deposit all funds at the National Savings Banks.
2 comments Tuesday, 22 January 2008, 2:11 am
Errol Barrow Mirror Image Speech
De Standpipe Crew
http://bajanfreepress.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/errol-barrow-mirror-image-speech/
On Errol Barrow Day 2008, Bajan Free Press is pleased to present the famous Mirror Image Speech made by the late Errol Walton Barrow in 1986.
Those who are interested in reading more of Errol Barrow’s speeches can do so by reading the book Speeches By Errol Barrow, written by the late Guyanese journalist Yussuff Haniff who died in 1990. Bajan Free Press takes this opportunity to express deep gratitude to the late Yussuff Haniff for putting into writing the speeches of our Father of Independence.
Bajan Free Press strongly believes that Errol Barrow must be very pleased indeed to see Barbados as it is today, with the future of this country now in the hands of new 46-year-old Prime Minister David Thompson and new 42-year-old Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley. The rise to power of these young Barbadians is the crowning glory of everything Errol Barrow worked so hard to achieve in Barbados. He sowed the seeds of free education which we now see blooming in abundance all around us in 2008.
Bajan Free Press
What I wish to speak to you about very briefly here this evening is about you. About yourself.
I want to know what kind of mirror image do you have of yourself? That is what I am concerned about. What kind of mirror image do you have of yourself? Do you really like yourselves? Because you can never really like anybody unless you first like yourself. There are too many people in Barbados who despise themselves and their dislike of themselves reflects itself in their dislike of other people… people who live next door to them, members of their family, husbands, and wives, and the ox and the ass and the stranger within the gates.
I would like to say that in 1951, 1956, 1961 the Conservatives used to do a few favours for people.
A planter would send a man who had a little influence, let us say in Ellerton Village in St. George, send him down to Plantations Limited or Manning and Company and get some lumber to repair the old house, or if he had a cheap canvasser you would send him to Detco Motors and let him trust a new car. And those people would be motivated into giving their support to the Conservative candidate because of the favours which used to be given out to them.
But it really did not matter because the people who accepted that kind of help thought that they would be beholden to the rich people of this island, because the rich people were in a position to do personal favours for them. But what the rich people in Barbados did not realise is that they did not have money to do favours for everybody who had the right to vote after universal adult suffrage.
That was all right when you had 250 people voting in St. Thomas, and probably 178 voting in St. Andrew, and probably 311 voters in St. Lucy, but when you have 38,000 voting alone in St. Michael – voting for two candidates, not even John D. Rockefeller himself would be able to do enough favours for 38,000 people to persuade them to go and cast their votes and exercise their suffrage against the Labour Party’s interest, in favour of that wealthy person.
Which group in wealthiest in Barbados then? Who has the most money to spend? There has never been anybody in the history of Barbados with six million dollars at his disposal. The Tom Adams government had $600 million in each and every year at its disposal to bribe you with your own money, and then spit in your face.
So the Conservatives can now save their money. They are not going to France and Italy anymore because of terrorism, but they are going to Tampa, Florida, Vancouver, British Columbia and California, because they have people now who will spend the workers’ money to bribe the workers and they could save their money and thus go off and live like true politicians, while they use your money against you.
Now what has bothered me in this society is that every time after elections, people expect certain things to take place. And although the law says that he that giveth is as much guilty of bribery and corruption under the Corrupt Practices Act as he that receiveth, we know that even on polling day, people were given envelopes with $100 bills in them.
Philip Greaves and Asquith Phillips and I sat down trying to get people to bring affidavits, so that we could lock up some of them. Our own people, registered Democratic Labour Party people, said they were not prepared to go into court and swear.
So what kind of mirror image would you have of yourself? If there are corrupt ministers in Barbados tonight, you have made them corrupt.
I am not trying to make any excuses for you, but I realise what has happened in this society. You have people who are living on the brink of, and at, subsistence level. I look around and see people who have not done an honest day’s work in their whole lives driving around in MP cars, having an ostentatious standard of living, unlike my poor families in St. John, who the Welfare Officer gives $50 to feed a family of ten for a whole week.
What kind of mirror image can you have of yourself?
Let me tell you what I mean by ‘image you have of yourself’. You so much despair of this society that you queue up at Trident House (United States Consulate) day after day. Those of you who have read Julius Caesar would know the passage that says: ‘You have sat the live long day with patient expectation to see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.’ And you have stood the live long day with great patient expectation for the man to tell you down there that you can’t get the visa to get on the 400 to New York next week.
Your greatest ambition is to try to prove to the people of the United States Consulate that you are only going up to visit your family, when you know very well that when you get up there, you los’ ‘way. And you are surprised when the people at the United States Embassy tell you that you do not have a strong reason to return to Barbados. And you are the only person dishonest enough with yourself to realise that you do not have a strong reason to return to Barbados, because Barbados has nothing to offer you. You are not being honest with yourself, but you tell the man down there, ‘Oh yes, I’m returning.’
If I had to answer that question now I would be in trouble, because under this dispensation for the past ten years, I never had a strong reason to come back here.
But I want to tell you this, that I believe I am as much Barbadian as they are and I do not like my country being run down the way it has been run down since 1976, and that is the reason why I return.
When I went to Mexico, I had to make a decision, and I returned; I went to the Pacific and I had to make a decision and I returned. I had a strong reason. My reason is that I did not want to see my country go down the drain but you who are not in politics, don’t have a strong reason. Tell me one good strong reason you have to return to Barbados.
Your mirror image of yourself is that your ambition in life is to try and get away from this country. And we could call ourselves an independent nation? When all we want to do is go and scrub somebody’s floors and run somebody’s elevator or work in somebody’s store or drive somebody’s taxi in a country where you catching your royal when the winter sets in?
What kind of mirror image do you have of yourself? Let me tell you what kind of mirror image I have of you, or what the Democratic Labour Party has of you. The Democratic Labour Party has an image that the people of Barbados would be able to run their own affairs, to pay for the cost of running their own country, to have an education system which is as good as what can be attained in any industrialised country, anywhere in the world.
It is only now that you are reading that in the state of Texas, the government of that state has asked to make the teachers pass an examination – you know what kind of examination? To see if they can read and write!
The gentleman of the Texas teachers’ union came on the news and he said that he was proud of the result because only eight per cent of the teachers couldn’t read and write!
If (President Ronald) Reagan had to take the test, I wonder if he would pass. But this is the man that you all say in the newspapers, how great he is for bombing the people in Libya and killing little children. I am no (Libyan leader Mu’ammar) Qathafi supporter. I don’t know Qathafi and I never had any desire to go to Libya. But this is the man that you all go up at the airport and put down a red carpet for, and he is the President of a country in which in one of the more advanced and biggest states eight per cent of the teachers cannot read and write, and he feels that they are better than we. And you feel that we should run up there and bow.
What kind of mirror image do you have of yourself? Why don’t you sit down there and start trying to put people on the moon, too? Instead of using $100 million to develop the potential of the young scientists that we have, and the young doctors that we have, we spend it putting up an expression of a monumental edifice behind the Cathedral and call it a Central Bank Building, because we think that people develop by ostentation, by showing off, and not by developing people.
But when a government steals from people in the way of consumption taxes and takes that money and spends it on their own high lifestyles, and unnecessary buildings, then that government not only has contempt for you, but what is most unfortunate, you have contempt for yourself, because you allow them to do it.
And you get the Prime Minister of the country saying that his ambition is to have the same kind of lifestyle as the people in the United States enjoy. I wonder what kind of lifestyle he is enjoying now? And then his successor goes outside of Barbados and says we are drifting away in Barbados from the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy, and we are easing into a presidential system; that we want a presidential system, so that, like Reagan, they can go and bomb. They can go and bomb the mental people in the hospital in Grenada and the little children in Benghazi, in Tripoli? Is that what we want a presidential system for?
We don’t have a Presidential system yet. But you have people who are employed and paid with your taxes who could buy a boat and give it to an Englishman to smuggle arms into Barbados. I can give you the name and the place and everything you want.
We don’t have a presidential system, but you can have people removing money from a Canadian Imperial Bank account and people who are in charge of institutions in this island, and in transferring it to the Barbados National Bank without the authority of the people from whose account the money was being withdrawn. I know it is so, because I told (Prime Minister Bernard) St. John who said it was and that man has not been locked up yet.
I told him then that you should never appoint a person to a responsible statutory corporation in this island who is accustomed to forging people’s signatures. And then he went outside and came back and never said a word. And you allow that to go on in Barbados.
And there are people in high places in this island who conspired to allow that to happen, because the gentleman was fined $1,000 for so doing, and not by the law courts, but by a private group of people who got together and said, ‘You committed forgery; we are going to fine you $1,000.’ So you circumvent the Director of Public Prosecution, and you hold your own dumb-head court martial and then you present him with a big bowl and congratulate him on his achievements.
What kind of mirror image do you have of yourself if you allow this kind of thing to happen?
What kind of mirror image do you have of yourself when you allow the mothers of this nation to be beasts of burden in the sugarcane fields? In Mexico where people suffer under a lower standard of living than in Barbados, they use donkeys to freight canes out of the fields.
In Antigua, they use a small railway; but here the mothers of the nation with sons at Harrison College, the Alleyne School and daughters at Queen’s College, St. Michael and Alexandra – they are used as beasts of burden and there is no shelter in any of those cane fields. I have talked time and time again to the Barbados Workers’ Union about this and you allow that to continue. What kind of image do you have of yourself?
I suggested, and I was inspired by the work done by the late Mr. Ernest Bevin, who was (British) Foreign Minister, who went to work at eight – I don’t mean 8 o’clock in the morning, I mean eight years of age – and those dock workers in London used to turn up during the winter and summer from 5 o’clock in the morning waiting for a ship, and if a ship didn’t come in for three weeks or three months, they wouldn’t get any pay. And Ernest Bevin introduced the guaranteed week for dock workers. I set up a commission of enquiry into the sugar industry and made the examination of the guaranteed week for agricultural workers one of the terms of reference of that commission, and the commission reported that nobody gave any evidence before them in support of this recommendation.
What kind of mirror image do the people of the Workers’ Union, of whom we have members, have, even of you or themselves? And I had to wait until there was a dispute in the sugar industry and we had television and get on a blackboard and say, well these will be the wages from next week and on Tuesday I went into the House (of Assembly) and introduced the guaranteed wages for agricultural workers.
Why should only one man have a mirror image of you that you do not want to have of yourself? What kind of society are we striving for? There is no point in striving for Utopia, but you do not realise your potential.
You have heard the opportunities which our members have taken to improve themselves by going to certain institutions and so on – not that we believe that people with good education are the only people who can be in politics. The very fact that a man has made the effort and taken the time to improve himself shows that he has the kind of calibre which would make him a useful representative of the people.
I lived in a little country when I was young, the Virgin Islands. It was just bought from Denmark by the United States of America. My father was a Chancellor. I was too young to go when he was transferred. So when I was three months old, I went.
There is no unemployment in that country. They don’t manage their affairs as well as we did in the past. They don’t receive any big lot of grants and loans and that kind of thing, even from the United States.
They have to bring in workers. They have the largest oil refinery in the western hemisphere run by a man called Hess. But that is a small country. But there is another small country which is run by a friend of mine. That country has 210 square miles; it is 40 square miles bigger than Barbados. If you took the Parish of St. Philip and put it right in the little curve by Bathsheba that would be the size of the country of Singapore of Lee Kwan Yew.
But you know the difference between Barbados and that country? First, Barbados has 250,000 people. You know how many people Singapore has on 40 more square miles? Over two-and-a-half-million, on an island just a little larger than Barbados.
They don’t have sugar plantations; they don’t have enough land to plant more than a few orchids on. It is one of the orchid centres of the world. They grow orchids in Singapore. They don’t have enough land to plant a breadfruit tree in the backyard and nearly every Barbadian, even in the metropolitan area of Bridgetown, have some kind of fruit tree in the backyard.
Sixty per cent of those three million persons have been housed by the government of Singapore. They don’t have oil for ministers to steal. They don’t have any beaches like we do here. There are people here in this audience, Barbadians who have served in Singapore, who can tell you about Singapore. There is no unemployment in Singapore.
They have developed an education system but they are teaching people things that are relevant to the 21st century. They are not teaching people how to weed by the road. They are in the advance of the information age.
But you know the difference between you and them? They have got a mirror image of themselves. They are not looking to get on any plane to go to San Francisco. Too far away. The government does not encourage them to emigrate unless they are going to develop business for Singapore.
They have a mirror image of themselves. They have self-respect. They have a desire to move their country forward by their own devices. They are not waiting for anybody to come and give them handouts. And there is no unemployment.
Is that the mirror image that you have of yourselves? Anyhow, ladies and gentlemen, I done.
4 comments Monday, 21 January 2008, 3:02 pm
Welcome tuh De Standpipe!
Welcome tuh De Standpipe!
This blog is a cool place to hang out and discuss Bajan politics and news. Not as rough as Cat Piss and Pepper where political yardfowls battle it out, and not as formal as Bajan Free Press where deep thinkers mix and mingle, the Standpipe is mainly for people who want information on the latest political happenings in Bim.
Please have a happy Errol Barrow Day and feel free to pass by any time!
De Standpipe Crew.
Add comment Monday, 21 January 2008, 1:25 am
