Carib Scope

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  • Man remanded after admitting to theft

    Man remanded after admitting to theft

    A 26-year-old resident of St Michael, Barbados, has been ordered into pre-sentencing custody at Dodds Prison after pleading guilty to stealing $580 from a local woman who had routinely extended kindness to him by sharing meals. Chad Shamar Springer, whose address is listed as Thomas Gap, Lands End, appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Douglas Frederick at the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court, where he entered a guilty plea for the theft of funds belonging to Angela Downes, a woman who had known Springer for multiple years.

    Prosecution details, presented by Sergeant Reginald Blackman, outlined the pattern of generosity that preceded the crime. For years, Downes had made a practice of offering Springer food whenever he stopped by her residence. On the day of the offense, Springer arrived at Downes’ home at approximately 9 a.m., and as was her custom, she offered him a meal. While in Springer’s presence, Downes set her purse on top of a kitchen cabinet before stepping into another room of the home to attend to an errand. When she returned just minutes later, both her purse containing the $580 in cash and Springer were gone.

    Downes first attempted to contact Springer directly to recover her stolen money, but when those efforts went unanswered, she filed an official report with local law enforcement. Officers took Springer into custody shortly after, and during a police interview, he confessed to taking the cash. Court records note that while Springer later walked back his admission of intent to steal, he did acknowledge that he owed the money and offered to repay Downes the full stolen amount.

    Acting Chief Magistrate Frederick ordered a full pre-sentence report to be completed ahead of Springer’s sentencing. Though prosecutors did not raise any formal objection to Springer being released on bail ahead of his next court date, the arrangement fell through when no third party was willing to act as a surety and sign his bail bond. With no available surety to secure his release, Springer was immediately remanded to Dodds Prison. He is scheduled to appear back in court for his next hearing on August 12.

  • “They Call Him Smiley”: Grandmother Mourns After Fatal Crash

    “They Call Him Smiley”: Grandmother Mourns After Fatal Crash

    In the quiet hours before dawn on a Sunday morning, a devastating motorcycle collision on Mahogany Street claimed three young lives, leaving one heartbroken grandmother to grapple with the senseless loss of a grandson loved by his entire community. Delphina Brooks, grandmother to 24-year-old Theodore “Smiley” Swazo, one of the crash victims, still carries the sharp trauma of the moment she learned of the accident and later saw her grandson unconscious in a hospital bed.

    Brooks recounts that she was jolted from sleep just after midnight by an urgent knock against her window. A young acquaintance brought the terrible news: Swazo had been involved in a serious crash and rushed to emergency care. What unfolded next, as Brooks learned from witnesses, was a preventable tragedy rooted in careless motorcycle operation.

    Swazo had been riding in a group of friends when his helmet slipped from his head mid-ride. The entire group slowed and turned back to recover the lost safety gear, putting Swazo at the rear of the small formation. As they waited, a speeding additional motorcycle collided straight into the group, striking Swazo with full force. “He was at the back and he flew over onto the pavement,” Brooks recalled of the brutal impact.

    Outside of the tragic circumstances of his death, Brooks remembers her grandson as a warm, well-liked young man who lived for his young daughter. Just days before the crash, Swazo had returned home from a work contract on Caye, and carved out two full days to spend with his little girl, before stopping by to visit Brooks as well. “The last time he spent with his daughter was last week, Wednesday and Thursday, because he came from Caye Tuesday because he was working at Caye. And he spent time with his daughter those two days. He brought her here, came look for me,” she shared in an interview.

    While Brooks has publicly stated she does not believe the crash was an intentional act of violence, she is using her family’s grief to push for urgent change around dangerous motorcycle operation in the community. “Make them stop drive cycle crazy,” she urged. “People life dih go for a motorcycle, innocent people life dih go.”

    Swazo was not the only victim of the early morning collision. Allan Arnold and Darwin Monroy also lost their lives in the crash, leaving three separate families to mourn their losses. Assistant Superintendent of Police Stacy Smith confirmed in an official press briefing this afternoon that investigators have recovered one motorcycle helmet from the crash site, and the ongoing probe continues to piece together a full timeline of events to clarify all contributing factors. No further updates on charges or additional findings have been released as of the publication of this report.

  • Antigua and Barbuda Cabinet Approves 60-Day Grace Period for Immigrants to Regularize Status

    Antigua and Barbuda Cabinet Approves 60-Day Grace Period for Immigrants to Regularize Status

    In a specially called gathering held on Monday, August 10, 2026, the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda has formally signed off on a sweeping package of policy adjustments designed to fortify the nation’s border infrastructure and upgrade overall domestic national security. The high-stakes meeting brought together a broad cross-section of key national security stakeholders, including members of the country’s National Security Council, top command from the Royal Police Force of Antigua and Barbuda, senior leadership of the Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force, executive representatives from the Office of National Drug and Money Laundering Control Policy (ONDCP), senior management from the Immigration Department and Customs and Excise Division, as well as leadership from the National Solid Waste Management Authority.

    One of the most impactful policy changes approved during the session is an immediate implementation of a 60-day grace period for foreign nationals residing in the country with expired legal immigration status. This window gives affected individuals a set period to resolve their documentation issues by formalizing their status with the national Immigration Department. Any person who does not complete the status regularization process within the allocated 60 days will be required to exit Antigua and Barbuda, per the new policy terms. Cabinet officials clarified that individuals who are required to leave due to unregularized status do not face a permanent ban: they are eligible to reapply for entry to the country at a future date, provided they meet all standard existing immigration requirements for new applicants.

    In an official statement following the meeting, the Cabinet explained that the 60-day timeline was deliberately chosen to strike a balance between administrative efficiency and fair treatment of affected individuals. The grace period is intended to offer those with lapsed documentation a reasonable, low-pressure opportunity to bring their status into compliance, while also supporting the government’s broader goal of tightening the country’s border management systems and reinforcing the national security framework that protects all residents. The national government is actively urging every person impacted by this policy change to take advantage of the amnesty window to resolve their immigration status and align their residency with the formal laws of Antigua and Barbuda, avoiding enforcement action that will follow after the grace period expires.

  • Sargassum block: seaweed engulfs popular bathing spot

    Sargassum block: seaweed engulfs popular bathing spot

    Known to locals as Miami Beach, Enterprise Beach in Oistins, Barbados has long been a beloved, tranquil coastal retreat. Today, that idyll has been completely swallowed by a thick, uncrossable mat of sargassum seaweed that has turned the once-clear shoreline murky, driven most visitors away from the water, and carved deep into the profits of local business owners who rely on beachgoing tourism.

    When a reporting team from Barbados TODAY visited the site recently, the scale of the problem was immediately visible: towering piles of brown seaweed lined the entire coast and drifted in dense mats just offshore, with only a tiny handful of visitors braving the conditions to enter the water. Among the few who attempted a quick swim was one elderly local, who drew a comparison to sargassum management efforts he saw during a trip to Mexico. In Mexico, he explained, authorities deploy heavy machinery to consistently clear the seaweed, and he argued that constant, large-scale removal using tractors is the only viable solution to Barbados’ growing crisis.

    For the entrepreneurs and workers who depend on Enterprise Beach for their income, the worsening sargassum accumulations have become an unavoidable threat to their livelihoods. David Knight, a chef who has run the Tacos on the Bay food truck in the area for two years after returning to Barbados following 40 years living in the United States, said the recurring bloom has already hit his bottom line hard. “The sargassum definitely slowed the business down,” Knight explained, adding that the heavy seaweed buildup is a predictable seasonal problem that typically arrives around January and February, washing in and out repeatedly through the early months of the year.

    Knight and other local business owners have repeatedly appealed to authorities to address the crisis, but so far those requests have gone unanswered. He said he reached out directly to the National Conservation Commission (NCC), only to be told that part of the beach falls under a private contract, and that the agency has no plans to intervene. Knight argued that disproportionate attention and resources are directed to the more high-profile main beach at Oistins Bay Gardens, leaving Enterprise Beach to deteriorate unnoticed.

    Beyond the sargassum crisis, Knight also highlighted other unaddressed issues holding the beach back, calling for increased public investment to add more vendor stalls and expand food options to attract more visitors, as well as a greater police presence, noting that three tourists have been robbed in the area since he opened his food truck. On the day of the Barbados TODAY visit, the usually popular beach was almost entirely empty of visitors, even amid peak summer travel season.

    Barbados has been fighting increasingly severe annual sargassum influxes since 2011, with the recurring blooms creating widespread challenges for coastal tourism, commercial fisheries, and local communities across the island. The problem is not unique to Barbados: the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, the massive collection of drifting seaweed that spans the Atlantic Ocean, hit near-record levels in recent weeks, just one year after reaching an all-time historic high. Vast mats of the seaweed are currently blanketing coastlines across the Caribbean, Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, Puerto Rico, and parts of southern Florida. As the sargassum decays, it releases pungent hydrogen sulfide gas that smells like rotten eggs, drives away visitors, and disrupts fragile coastal ecosystems.

    The Barbados government has repeatedly promised to ramp up its response to the crisis, including developing plans to collect sargassum offshore before it can wash onto public beaches. In a promising development that could turn the nuisance into an economic opportunity, scientists at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill campus have made breakthroughs that could unlock commercial value from the excess seaweed. Dr. Bidyut Mohapatra discovered three new microorganisms living in decomposing sargassum, while a separate research team led by Dr. Legena Henry completed a successful pilot trial converting sargassum into biofuel. The breakthroughs have raised hopes that the persistent coastal problem could eventually become a valuable resource for biotechnology and energy industries in Barbados.

    Barbados TODAY has confirmed that responsibility for sargassum clean-up efforts falls under the Ministry of Environment, rather than the NCC, which oversees the management of the country’s public parks and beaches. As of this report, Ministry officials have not responded to requests for comment on the ongoing crisis at Enterprise Beach.

  • Salisbury farmers need better roads and safer access, argues opposition leader

    Salisbury farmers need better roads and safer access, argues opposition leader

    A long-running infrastructure crisis that has crippled agricultural activity in Dominica’s Salisbury constituency is back in the national spotlight, as Opposition Leader and local Member of Parliament Jesma Paul-Victor has pushed the government for a holistic, long-term program to rehabilitate and maintain the territory’s network of farm access roads.

    Decades of inadequate road upkeep have created cascading harms for local agricultural producers, Paul-Victor explained during her address to parliament on the national budget. She laid out the all-too-common cycle facing Salisbury farmers: after investing months of backbreaking labor into clearing land, planting crops, and tending to harvests, many are unable to move their perishable fruits and vegetables to regional and national markets due to impassable rural roads after bad weather.

    These delays do not just amount to minor inconvenience, the opposition leader stressed. Perishable produce can spoil quickly when transport is held up, turning months of work into waste. The ripple effects of this persistent infrastructure failure extend far beyond individual farms, she noted, including lost household income for agricultural workers, squandered labor, reduced domestic food supplies for local communities, and forfeited opportunities to tap into profitable export markets.

    Paul-Victor rejected the common practice of only completing temporary pothole patching after heavy rainfalls as an insufficient solution. Instead, she called for a comprehensive engineering-focused approach to road improvements, including the installation of effective drainage systems, targeted slope stabilization in high-risk areas, long-lasting durable road surfacing, and scheduled routine maintenance to prevent roads from falling back into disrepair.

    Notably, she also urged that all new and upgraded agricultural infrastructure be designed with climate resilience in mind, built to withstand the more intense rainfall, severe flooding, and landslides that have become increasingly common amid global climate change. Frameed properly, Paul-Victor argued, upgraded farm roads are not just an infrastructure expense – they are a high-return economic investment that will cut transportation costs for farmers, slash costly post-harvest losses, and boost the take-home income for thousands of agricultural households across the constituency.

    Alongside road repairs, Paul-Victor also drew attention to another critical unaddressed infrastructure gap: hundreds of acres of productive farmland in Salisbury are currently only accessible by fording an unbridged river. While the crossing is passable during the dry season, it quickly becomes dangerous or completely impassable after even moderate rainfall, she explained. A single heavy storm can lock dozens of farmers out of their land for days, preventing them from tending growing crops, delivering fertilizer and new planting material, and collecting ready-to-harvest produce for market. In many cases, producers are forced to wait multiple days for water levels to recede before they can access their property, leading to further spoilage and lost sales.

    Beyond economic losses, the unbridged crossing creates a life-threatening safety hazard, Paul-Victor emphasized. Farmers are regularly forced to navigate rushing, rising waters while carrying heavy produce, farm chemicals, tools and heavy equipment, putting their lives at risk simply to access their own land. “Farmers should never be forced to choose between protecting their livelihoods and risking serious personal injury just to reach their fields,” she said.

    This lack of safe, reliable access adds another layer of economic and food security harm, mirroring the impacts of poor road conditions: reduced agricultural output, less available food for local consumers, and missed market opportunities for producers. Paul-Victor closed her address by calling on the national government to prioritize investment in resilient, farm-focused infrastructure across Salisbury to support the constituency’s critical agricultural sector.

  • Pierre rejects SSDF claims, says UWP completed zero audits

    Pierre rejects SSDF claims, says UWP completed zero audits

    A political controversy over missing audited financial statements at the Saint Lucia Social Development Fund (SSDF) has intensified, as Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre has pushed back against opposition criticism by placing responsibility for the backlog squarely on the former United Workers Party (UWP) administration.

    Addressing reporters at Monday’s pre-cabinet press briefing, Pierre rejected accusations that his Saint Lucia Labour Party government has failed to complete any audits since returning to power in 2021, labeling the claim as a deliberate and high-level falsehood. He clarified that the only completed audits for the SSDF in recent years—covering the 2016/17 and 2017/18 fiscal periods—were only finalized in March 2023, nearly two full years after his administration took office. This timeline, Pierre emphasized, confirms that no audits of the SSDF were completed during the UWP’s 2016 to 2021 tenure.

    “All during the tenure of the present leader of the opposition as Minister of Finance, he has not prepared one set of financial statements for the SSDF,” Pierre told the briefing, referring to opposition leader Allen Chastanet.

    Pierre explained that after taking office, the current SSDF board prioritized clearing the backlog of outstanding financial reporting, but encountered significant barriers when key supporting documentation for the years under the previous administration could not be located. The absence of these critical records made it impossible to produce fully verified, unqualified statements for the backlogged period, leading the board and independent auditors to proceed with qualified financial statements instead. For context, a qualified audit indicates that auditors encountered gaps or issues that prevented them from giving a full, clean sign-off on the organization’s financial records.

    Moving forward, Pierre said the SSDF’s priority is to close out the backlogged years and work toward delivering unqualified, or clean, audits for all recent fiscal periods. A clean audit confirms that auditors have found no significant issues, and that financial statements fairly represent the organization’s financial position. Under the current plan, Pierre noted, the SSDF board aims to complete this full cleanup process by the end of 2026.

    The Prime Minister’s comments came in direct response to public criticism from Chastanet, who raised concerns about the SSDF’s financial reporting in communications sent outside of Saint Lucia. According to Pierre, Chastanet sent letters detailing his claims to foreign embassies, international development partners, and key regional entities including the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). Pierre argued that this move risks undermining Saint Lucia’s international reputation and damaging the country’s long-standing collaborative relationships with global funding partners.

    “The entire world has been told that my government failed to prepare the financial statements,” Pierre said. “Here you have a gentleman who was leader of a country writing a falsity when he himself, who was Minister of Finance for five years, never prepared financial statements.”

    Pierre also took care to draw a clear distinction between the backlog of audited annual financial statements and the SSDF’s ongoing reporting to its funding partners. He confirmed that annual reports for the Basic Needs Trust Fund, one of the SSDF’s key programs, have been submitted to the CDB on schedule every year. All donors, including Taiwan, have also received detailed breakdowns showing how their contributions to the SSDF have been allocated and used, he added. “Anyone who has contributed to SSDF has got a report on how the money was used,” Pierre stated.

    The Prime Minister urged the public to approach discussions about the SSDF with care, highlighting the organization’s critical work supporting vulnerable communities across Saint Lucia, advancing poverty reduction initiatives, and delivering opportunities for young people. “I know what the SSDF means to the people of this country,” he said, describing the fund as “a very important organisation.”

    Pierre also confirmed that shortly after taking office in 2021, he commissioned an independent special investigation into the SSDF’s operations, but has chosen not to release the resulting report to the public. He explained that the decision was made out of concern that public disclosure could harm the organization’s reputation and its ability to secure critical donor funding going forward. Even so, Pierre noted that the SSDF maintains a continuous process of internal review and is implementing procedural improvements to strengthen its financial management and reporting practices.

  • 57 verkeersdoden in eerste helft 2026

    57 verkeersdoden in eerste helft 2026

    Between January and July 2025, Suriname has recorded 57 fatal road traffic casualties, according to new official data published by the country’s Road Safety Institute (VVI). Alongside these fatalities, a total of 2,259 people injured in road incidents have required emergency department (SEH) care across the nation, averaging out to nearly 11 people treated for crash-related injuries every single day. A breakdown of the fatal victims shows just how vulnerable two-wheeled road users are: 18 of the 57 people killed were moped riders, followed by 9 car drivers, 7 pedestrians, 6 vehicle passengers, and 5 bus passengers, among other groups. Geographically, the burden of fatal crashes is heavily concentrated in just two districts. The coastal district of Wanica recorded 19 fatalities, while the capital district of Paramaribo saw 18 deaths. Combined, these two districts account for almost 65% of all fatal road casualties in the country for the period measured. When looking at monthly trends, January was the deadliest month with 15 fatalities, followed by July with 12 deaths, marking two clear peak periods for fatal incidents. Purcy Landveld, VVI’s deputy director for Data, Education and Information, notes that these geographic and monthly trends mean Paramaribo and Wanica must be prioritized for targeted traffic enforcement, infrastructure upgrades, and public road safety education. The emergency department data also highlights a stark demographic gap in crash risk. Nearly 60% of all 2,259 injured patients treated for road crashes were between 15 and 34 years old, a young age group disproportionately affected by traffic incidents. Moped and motorcycle riders again make up the largest share of injured patients, accounting for nearly 59% of all emergency department registrations, with vehicle passengers following at 24%. Researchers also found that weekends carry the highest risk of injury-causing crashes: 45% of all emergency department admissions for road incidents occur between Friday and Sunday, with Sunday seeing the highest number of casualties of any day of the week. The VVI’s analysis also identified specific high-risk routes that have seen repeated fatal incidents, including Indira Gandhiweg, Garnizoenspad, and Martin Luther Kingweg. The institute emphasizes that urgent improvements to road design, street lighting, and public education on safe road behavior are needed to reduce preventable deaths and injuries on these routes. Currently, the four leading causes of fatal crashes in Suriname are loss of vehicle control, failure to yield right of way, excessive speeding, and collisions involving pedestrians or cyclists. Additional contributing factors, including alcohol impairment and driver fatigue, are still undergoing further investigation to confirm their impact on crash rates. Landveld stressed that road safety cannot be addressed by a single stakeholder: it is a shared responsibility across government agencies, civil society, and road users themselves. He called for the rapid establishment of a dedicated national road traffic authority to centrally coordinate all policy areas related to traffic management and safety. Only through cohesive, long-term structural measures, Landveld argues, can Suriname achieve a sustained reduction in the number of road crash casualties across the country.

  • Opposition leader highlights declining CBI revenue, warns of repercussions

    Opposition leader highlights declining CBI revenue, warns of repercussions

    As Dominica prepares its national budget for the coming fiscal cycle, Opposition Leader Jesma Paul-Victor has sounded a public alarm over a sharp ongoing decline in revenue from the island nation’s high-profile Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme, cautioning that the downward trend threatens core public development projects that have long depended on this funding stream.

    For decades, Dominica’s CBI initiative — which grants citizenship to foreign investors in exchange for qualified financial contributions — has been a cornerstone of the country’s development financing. Paul-Victor acknowledged the programme’s outsized positive contributions to the country’s growth over the years, noting it has enabled the government to deliver critical public assets ranging from new schools and hospitals to affordable housing, paved road networks, clean water distribution systems, and large-scale climate resilience infrastructure that protects communities against extreme weather events.

    Despite its track record of success, however, Paul-Victor warned that current revenue projections paint a worrying picture of steady decline. Data she presented during her official response to the government’s budget proposal shows the programme generated roughly $605 million in revenue in the last completed fiscal year. For the current fiscal cycle, the government has budgeted approximately $514.9 million in CBI revenue, marking a 15% drop from the previous year. Looking ahead to the 2027-2028 fiscal period, projections put CBI revenue at an even lower $474.8 million, extending the downward trajectory.

    This consistent decline carries serious risks for all major development initiatives that rely on CBI funding, Paul-Victor emphasized. Beyond the immediate budget challenges, she argued that the trend exposes a critical long-term vulnerability: Dominica’s growing over-dependence on a single revenue stream to power its national development.

    Drawing on lessons from global economic history, the opposition leader pointed to the risks that have plagued other small island developing states that relied too heavily on a single export or revenue source, from bananas and sugar to oil and tourism. No single economic pillar, she argued, can deliver consistent stable growth over the long term, and CBI is no exception.

    To address this vulnerability, Paul-Victor called for a strategic shift in how CBI revenue is used. Instead of directing most funds to one-off infrastructure projects, she argued that a growing share of CBI proceeds should be invested in building long-term productive capacity across multiple economic sectors that can drive sustained private sector growth. Ultimately, she said, Dominica needs to build a diversified, multi-pillar economy that includes agriculture, tourism, manufacturing, international financial services, digital industries, renewable energy, education services, innovation, and the creative economy — reducing the nation’s exposure to shocks from any single revenue stream’s decline.

  • Sour Serpent, Lil Jelo tie for Calypso crown

    Sour Serpent, Lil Jelo tie for Calypso crown

    Grenada’s iconic annual Dimanche Gras celebration closed out the 2026 Calypso Monarch competition with an unprecedented historic first: a tied first-place finish between two seasoned calypso artists that delivered one of the most memorable finals in recent competition history. Sean “Sour Serpent” Niles, hailing from St David, walked away with his second national crown, adding to his 2019 victory, while Jelonie “Lil Jelo” Fleming claimed the first major senior title of his 20-year career in calypso arts. Both competitors finished with an identical score of 494 points, leaving judges unable to split the two standout performances.

    For Niles, the 2026 win caps off a historic carnival season for his entire family, just weeks after his son Christian “Moti” Niles took home the 2026 Junior Calypso Monarch title. Across his two performances, Niles leaned into sharp, socially conscious commentary that has become a hallmark of his work. His opening number, *Last Resort*, confronted the ongoing crises of gender-based violence and femicide across the region, crafting a moving lyrical plea for transformative intervention to protect women from systemic harm. For his second round, Niles turned his attention to policing and public perceptions of crime with *Unwanted Men*, challenging the long-standing convention of police “Wanted Man” posters. He argued that the framing misrepresents the status of violent offenders, arguing “So let we change that poster and don’t make that mistake again. You’re not wanted in the community; you’re not wanted in the society. Let his posters read unwanted men.”

    For Fleming, the first-place tie represented the payoff for 20 years of sustained dedication to Grenada’s carnival and calypso traditions. He launched his performance career in 2006 singing parang before expanding his repertoire to include soca and eventually competitive calypso. Earlier in the 2026 carnival season, Fleming placed 7th in the Power Soca Monarch competition on Bacchanal Friday, but he outperformed all expectations to share the top spot in the calypso competition.

    Fleming’s set blended sharp political commentary with playful cultural satire that resonated with judges and audiences alike. His opening track *Change* leveraged the word’s dual meaning — referring to both electoral political change and loose small-denomination currency — to reflect on Grenada’s recent political shifts. He referenced the New National Party’s once-landslide election victory and its subsequent erosion of public support, weaving the narrative into a thoughtful calypso reflection. For his second performance, he turned a beloved local cultural quirk into comedy with *Bus Association*, playing on the Grenadian slang term “bussing,” which describes when a performer forgets their lyrics on stage. Fleming drew a parallel between the route stickers displayed on public buses and the need for calypsonians to have their own “route stickers” to keep them on track with their lyrics, drawing laughs across the venue.

    The competition carried quiet echoes of calypso history, even as it made new history. Organizers confirmed early in the event that 11-time former Calypso Monarch Finley “Scholar” Jeffrey would not defend his crown, ending his long streak of competitive appearances. Though Jeffrey did not compete, he returned for a special guest performance outside the official rankings. His influence was tangible throughout the competition: it was Jeffrey who first recognized and nurtured Fleming’s vocal talent during Fleming’s early days competing in the Junior Calypso division, laying the groundwork for his 2026 breakthrough win.

    Rounding out the top four were two other standout competitors: Carriacou’s 2024 Calypso Monarch Killa B took third place with 492 points, just two points behind the tied winners, while Valene secured fourth place with 488 points. The 2026 result marks steady upward progress for Valene, who placed 6th in the 2024 national competition and 9th in 2025, climbing steadily closer to a top podium finish. The full top 11 results saw Innocent take fifth place with 480 points, Big J sixth with 479, Jerenton seventh with 477, Randy Isaac eighth with 476, Father Paul ninth with 469, Sherrine tenth with 468, and Messenger eleventh with 464 points.

    Between competitive sets, the Dimanche Gras showcase paused to honor veteran artists who have shaped decades of Grenadian calypso culture, formal recognizing their decades of dedication to the art form. Special tribute awards were presented to Finber “Shortpree” Andrews and Jerry “Papa Jerry” Andrews to mark 25 years of sustained contributions to the national calypso landscape. Veteran cultural leaders Randy Isaac and Elimus “Inspector” Gilbert also received honors celebrating their 40 years of continuous work supporting and performing calypso across Grenada.

  • Paul-Victor wants Dominica among Caribbean’s easiest places to start a business

    Paul-Victor wants Dominica among Caribbean’s easiest places to start a business

    As the Caribbean nation of Dominica debates its upcoming 2026-2027 national budget, opposition leader Jesma Paul-Victor has put forward a sweeping economic blueprint designed to position the country as one of the most business-friendly destinations in the Caribbean. Delivering her official response to the government’s proposed budget last week, Paul-Victor anchored the opposition’s alternative economic strategy around private sector growth, arguing that empowering local entrepreneurs is the key to unlocking long-term, sustainable development for the island.

    Paul-Victor emphasized that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which form the backbone of Dominica’s current economy, continue to grapple with a host of persistent barriers that stifle their growth. These challenges range from limited access to low-cost capital and skyrocketing operational overhead to lengthy bureaucratic delays for regulatory approvals and the inherent constraints of a small domestic consumer market. Without targeted policy intervention to address these pain points, she argued, the country will struggle to unlock its full economic potential.

    To reverse these trends, the opposition leader has outlined a series of concrete policy reforms. Key proposals include streamlining the business registration process to cut wait times for new ventures, rolling out fully digital systems for business licensing and permit applications, establishing clear, predictable timelines for all regulatory reviews, and expanding targeted support services for local exporters looking to access regional and global markets. Beyond regulatory reform, Paul-Victor is also calling for the expansion of low-cost development financing for small businesses, alongside dedicated support programs to spur local innovation and help existing firms scale up their operations.

    In outlining her vision, Paul-Victor stressed that the core responsibility of government is to cultivate an enabling environment where entrepreneurs can thrive. This, she argued, requires stripping away unnecessary bureaucratic barriers, simplifying outdated regulatory frameworks, and modernizing public services to meet the needs of a growing private sector. She pushed back against the current administration’s economic approach, noting that sustained national growth should not rely primarily on government spending and public contracts. Instead, she argued, future prosperity should be driven by the creativity, private investment, and entrepreneurial ambition of the Dominican people.