Carib Scope

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  • Rider safety warning over unlicensed ‘pirate’ transport

    Rider safety warning over unlicensed ‘pirate’ transport

    On Monday, senior insurance and public transport industry officials issued a critical public warning to commuters across Barbados: any passenger paying for travel in an unlicensed “pirate” private vehicle will have no financial protection if a crash occurs, and they are urging both riders and unregulated operators to bring their operations into full compliance with national licensing and insurance rules.

    Randy Graham, Chief Executive Officer of CG United Insurance and a former president of the General Insurance Association of Barbados, explained that the persistent practice of private vehicle owners operating as informal, fare-charging public transport remains a major red flag for the country’s insurance sector. Speaking exclusively to Barbados TODAY, Graham emphasized that private vehicle registration under the island’s Road Traffic Act explicitly prohibits operators from collecting fares from passengers.

    Any driver who wants to carry paying passengers must first secure a formal commercial operating license from the national Licensing Authority, and purchase a specialized commercial insurance policy that matches the higher risk of public transit operation, Graham outlined. “A standard private vehicle insurance policy does not extend coverage to fare-paying passengers,” he stressed. “If you are operating illegally and are involved in an accident, there is no guarantee that either the vehicle or the injured passengers will receive compensation from the existing insurance plan.”

    Graham went on to explain the core difference between private and commercial coverage: commercial vehicles like taxis and minibuses spend far more time on the road transporting groups of passengers, so their licensing and insurance frameworks are designed to account for this elevated risk. Private policies are priced and structured for personal use, not regular commercial passenger transport, and do not offer the same level of protection for injured passengers that regulated commercial policies provide.

    To address this ongoing risk, Graham called on unlicensed operators to update their paperwork and secure proper coverage immediately, while urging riders to proactively choose only fully registered and licensed transit options when paying for travel. “We are asking passengers to only use properly registered and licensed vehicles when they pay for a ride, because if they don’t, there is a very high chance that any injury costs from an accident will not be covered by insurance,” he said.

    Roy Raphael, Chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT), echoed Graham’s warning, and noted that the Barbados government has put new accessible pathways in place to help informal operators transition to legal operation. Raphael pointed to the recent approval of 150 new permits under the government’s Transport Augmentation Programme (TAP), administered by the national Transport Authority, as a clear opportunity for unlicensed operators to regularize their work.

    “If you want to transport passengers and offer a legitimate service, go to the Transport Authority and apply for a legal permit to operate,” Raphael said. “That way, if an incident does occur, you and your passengers are fully covered.” He also warned commuters against turning to unlicensed pirate operators even when regular public transit services are delayed on under-served routes, noting that riders are knowingly putting their own safety and financial security at risk. “People don’t expect accidents to happen, but when they do, there is no safety net left,” he added.

    Raphael highlighted that the TAP program includes flexible payment plans for permit fees, making it far easier for small operators to bring their services into compliance with national rules. “Get yourself legalized. Stop putting children, elderly people and other commuters in unnecessary danger,” he urged. He also added a urgent note tied to rising road safety concerns across the island: the country has seen a growing number of severe road crashes involving passenger vehicles, including multiple incidents of vehicle overturns and mass casualties. Unlicensed operators often flee the scene of crashes because they know they have violated the law, leaving injured passengers with no one to turn to for compensation. “Don’t put yourself in that position,” Raphael warned.

  • OP-ED: The personal responsibility trap

    OP-ED: The personal responsibility trap

    The escalating childhood overweight and obesity crisis across the Caribbean has ignited a urgent public debate over who bears ultimate responsibility for protecting young people’s health, with public health leaders pushing back against narratives that center individual choices over systemic policy failures. New data reveals that 42 percent of children in Barbados currently live with overweight or obesity, a sharp jump from just 33% a decade ago. This public health emergency is already leaving tangible damage: affected children face drastically elevated risks of developing type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and other life-altering non-communicable diseases (NCDs), placing crippling financial and social strain on families, local communities, national healthcare systems, and the broader Barbadian economy.

    The conversation reignited recently after the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados launched its ENOUGH campaign, which calls for strict new regulations to ban the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages within school settings. During public discussions surrounding the campaign, many speakers repeatedly circled back to the idea of personal parental and individual responsibility as the primary solution to the crisis. Public health advocates do not dispute the critical role that parents and personal choice play in shaping children’s dietary habits: caregivers play an irreplaceable role in encouraging nutritious food and drink selection, and youth education around healthy lifestyles delivers clear benefits. But these leaders argue that expecting families to push back against pervasive, predatory junk food marketing that saturates every corner of school environments without any systemic policy support is an unfair and unrealistic burden.

    When nearly half of an entire nation’s children are affected by the same public health crisis, the problem cannot be blamed on individual failure, advocates argue. This is a predictable outcome created by broken systems, unregulated environments, and weak policy frameworks that prioritize corporate profit over children’s well-being. The core of the current debate centers on whether harmful food and beverage marketing should be allowed to operate unchecked in school spaces. Public health experts draw a clear parallel: no government would permit tobacco companies to sponsor school events, distribute branded promotional materials to students, and build lifelong brand loyalty among children, then turn around and blame kids for failing to exercise enough self-control. The same standard is applied to alcohol companies, which are barred from marketing their products to minors in school settings. Why, advocates ask, do we treat unhealthy processed food and drink marketing differently?

    The global public health community has long agreed that schools should be protected spaces where children’s health and safety take priority over commercial interests. But when it comes to obesogenic foods linked to diet-related NCDs, the conversation almost always shifts back to what parents and children should do differently. Experts acknowledge that children are exposed to highly sophisticated, research-backed marketing tactics designed to exploit their developing brains. Children do not have the same cognitive capacity as adults to critically analyze persuasive advertising messages, and they are universally recognized as a group that deserves extra protection from harmful commercial practices. If children lack the ability to critically evaluate these marketing messages, it is unreasonable to expect them to consistently resist their influence, advocates say.

    Over the past 15 years, Barbados has spent more than $6.1 billion on healthcare costs tied to NCDs and obesity. Today, taxpayers, working families, and the under-resourced public healthcare system continue to bear the enormous financial burden of the crisis, while the food and beverage companies whose products and predatory marketing practices drive the crisis keep all the profits. The evidence is unambiguous: ultra-processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages are aggressively marketed to children, even within school grounds. Brand loyalty for unhealthy products is cultivated from early childhood through a range of tactics specifically designed to influence youth behavior, including school event sponsorships, in-school promotions, free branded giveaways, and targeted advertising that permeates school campuses.

    Unfortunately, when public health regulations are proposed, governments too often repeat a narrative that has long been pushed by powerful commercial industry groups: the idea that the core problem is a lack of personal responsibility. This framing shifts blame away from corporate actors and government regulators, reassuring industry that its harmful practices will not face meaningful scrutiny while reducing political pressure on governments to enact tough new rules. History, public health leaders note, makes the outcome of this approach clear.

    For decades, tobacco companies pushed the same framing, arguing that smoking was simply a matter of personal choice, even as they cultivated new young smokers to replace those who died from tobacco-related illness. Alcohol producers today continue to emphasize “personal responsibility” for drinkers while aggressively fighting any policy that would restrict marketing to minors or limit product access. The language of this corporate strategy is polished over time, but the core approach never changes. When the entire public debate centers on personal responsibility, blame is placed on the group with the least power to change the harmful environment around them, while accountability is removed from the powerful corporations and government bodies that have the ability to rewrite the rules.

    Major public health progress has never been achieved through personal responsibility alone, advocates point out. Mandatory seatbelt laws did not reduce road fatalities because drivers suddenly became more responsible: they saved lives because governments created a safer environment that made the healthy choice the easy choice. Tobacco control did not succeed because smokers got better personal advice: cutting tobacco-related illness and death required governments to implement strict regulations on advertising, sales, and use that created environments where non-smoking was the default. The same core principle, leaders say, must apply to the childhood obesity crisis.

    If governments and public health leaders are serious about reducing the growing burden of diet-related NCDs across the Caribbean, they must stop asking the group with the least power to solve a crisis created by those with the most power. The focus cannot remain on blaming parents and individual children while the corporations that profit from unhealthy diets escape meaningful scrutiny and accountability. After all, parents and children do not have the power to decide what products are marketed to them in schools. They cannot set national public health policy. They cannot negotiate with multi-million dollar corporations that design their business models around cultivating lifelong, loyal consumers from early childhood.

    These arguments come from Maisha Hutton, Executive Director of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), the Caribbean region’s leading civil society alliance focused on NCD prevention and control. The HCC grew out of the 2007 CARICOM Heads of Government Declaration on NCDs, and was first established informally in 2008 before being officially registered as a not-for-profit organization in 2012. Today, the HCC is the only regional NCD alliance, bringing together more than 80 health and non-health civil society organizations across the Caribbean. The group works closely with regional and international global health leaders to strengthen civil society capacity, supporting member organizations to implement programs that reduce NCD-related illness and death across the region.

  • BFA Champions Cup semifinal lineup completed

    BFA Champions Cup semifinal lineup completed

    The final spots in the Barbados Football Association Champions Cup semifinal lineup have been locked in, after a weekend of high-stakes quarterfinal action that delivered dramatic late goals, extra time drama, and a tense penalty shootout. Both surviving winning coaches have echoed the same message: their squads still have room to grow ahead of the next round of the competition.

    Sunday’s opening quarterfinal at the Wildey Technical Centre delivered a thrilling comeback, as Brittons Hill United overturned an early deficit to claim a 2-1 extra time win over UWI Blackbirds. Teon Codagan put UWI in front just before halftime in the 38th minute, holding the lead until Corey Hoyte found the equalizer for Brittons Hill in the 65th minute. With both sides unable to break the deadlock through regulation, the match stretched into extra time, where Hoyte clinched the victory for his side with a dramatic 117th-minute winner.

    Brittons Hill notched a fourth-place finish in last season’s Champions Cup, and head coach Richard Forde made clear the squad’s target is to outperform that result this campaign. “It was a struggle with these boys today, but I keep telling them that we can’t improve and we can’t execute under pressure if we don’t put the work in at practice. We’re still pulling everything together, and this is something the whole group is working really hard on,” Forde said after the match.

    In the late evening quarterfinal, defending champions Weymouth Wales delivered a dominant 3-0 shutout victory over Eyre’s Meat Shop Pride of Gall Hill, to book their own semifinal spot. Mario Williams got the defending champions on the board first, before Armando Lashey, the league’s all-time leading goal scorer, added two late goals to seal the win. Even with the comfortable three-goal margin, head coach Asquith Howell said his side has not hit its full stride yet, identifying finishing as a key area for improvement ahead of the next round.

    “I think our attack looked sharper today than it has in previous outings, but we still need to convert more of the chances we create. That’s been our weak spot so far this tournament,” Howell explained. “We created plenty of clear opportunities today, and you can see we’re building solid attacking momentum, we just need to clean up our finishing in the final third.”

    The first two quarterfinal matches kicked off on Saturday at the same Wildey venue, with Paradise edging Pro Shottas 1-0 thanks to a late 87th-minute match-winner from Sheran Hoyte. The day’s second quarterfinal was decided by penalties after a 1-1 draw through full time between Mavericks and Ivy Rovers. Deondre Brown put Mavericks ahead in the 23rd minute, before Jarad Maxius equalized from the penalty spot for Ivy Rovers just before halftime in the 43rd minute.

    Neither side could find a winner in extra time, sending the clash to a penalty shootout, where Mavericks emerged with a 5-4 win on penalties. The hero of the shootout for Mavericks was Kaliq Lashley, the national Under-17 goalkeeper, who notched the only save from either side to send his team through to the final four.

  • LIU Director Says ‘We Never Paid People to Hold It Down’

    LIU Director Says ‘We Never Paid People to Hold It Down’

    A sudden suspension of a community-focused work programme run by Belize’s Leadership Intervention Unit (LIU) has pushed more than 500 participants into immediate financial uncertainty, with many facing severe daily hardship, acting LIU director Andrew Dawson has confirmed.

    In an interview with local outlet News 5, Dawson acknowledged the acute stress the pause has inflicted on the programme’s enrollees, noting that widespread uncertainty over access to basic needs has created palpable tension among affected groups. “It does create some tension as it relates to these individuals, not knowing where the other meal comes from,” he told reporters.

    The suspension has reignited long-running public debate over the LIU programme’s purpose and implementation, prompting Dawson to push back against two pervasive criticisms of the initiative. First, he rejected the widespread claim that the programme exclusively serves people affiliated with gangs, emphasizing that it was designed to support a broad cross-section of vulnerable Belizean residents. This population, he clarified, includes low-income university students and unpaid office interns seeking stable work experience alongside at-risk community members.

    Dawson also addressed a decades-long critique that frames the programme as a scheme that simply pays participants to avoid criminal activity, a characterization he called categorically inaccurate. “Let me put that on record. Since I’ve been at LIU and even with the previous director, we have never had an intention to say that we’re paying people to hold it down. It was a social protection programme,” he stated.

    While Dawson openly admitted that the programme has fallen short in key areas, including accountability protocols and consistent work output from some participants, he emphasized that the initiative has delivered meaningful, life-changing positive results for a large share of enrollees. He argued that discarding the entire programme over the actions of a small uncooperative minority would be unfair to the many participants who have made significant progress toward reintegrating into mainstream society.

    “What do you do? You dash away everyone. How about those who have made changes or those who have made strides to becoming better persons within their society? We can’t just get rid of those persons because of a handful who do not want to cooperate,” he argued.

    Looking ahead, Dawson confirmed that LIU leadership is currently exploring alternative income-generating models for the programme, moving beyond its existing focus on community beautification projects. However, he stressed that a final decision on whether to restart the programme rests with higher-level government authorities, not LIU management.

  • ‘No control’: PM Pierre on Ireland’s abrupt visa demand

    ‘No control’: PM Pierre on Ireland’s abrupt visa demand

    In an unexpected announcement that has upended decades of seamless cross-border travel, Ireland has imposed new mandatory visa requirements for all Saint Lucian passport holders, a policy that went into effect this Monday and caught the Saint Lucian government completely off guard. Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre told reporters at a pre-Cabinet press briefing on Monday that his administration only received formal notification of the policy change from Ireland’s embassy in Ottawa, Canada, this past Friday, with no advance bilateral discussions or consultations held between the two nations ahead of the rule being enacted.

    The new visa mandate applies not only to ordinary Saint Lucian passports but also to diplomatic and service passports, and Saint Lucia is not the only nation targeted: Ireland added Saint Kitts and Nevis and Nicaragua to the list of visa-required countries alongside it. This move marks the end of a long-standing visa-free travel arrangement between Saint Lucia and Ireland, and comes just months after the United Kingdom implemented a nearly identical restriction on Saint Lucian travelers, a decision British officials justified by citing a uptick in asylum applications from Saint Lucian nationals and stated security concerns over the island nation’s Citizenship by Investment Programme.

    In contrast to the UK’s explicit reasoning, Ireland’s official notice only framed the policy adjustment as a routine step to align the country’s immigration practices with those already in place in the UK, the Schengen Area, and Northern Ireland. No specific concerns related to Saint Lucia or its citizens were named in the official notice.

    While Pierre acknowledged that Ireland holds full sovereign authority to craft its own immigration rules, noting that “I have no control over Irish internal policy… The Irish government decides what’s in the best interest of Ireland,” he argued that the abrupt change is far from an isolated policy tweak. Instead, he framed it as a clear symptom of a spreading anti-immigrant and increasingly insular trend taking hold across Europe and other developed nations.

    “The situation is that these countries have decided that they are going to be anti-immigrant. That’s why it’s so important that our region… get together, because the whole world seems to be getting very insular,” Pierre said.

    Pierre’s observation aligns with broader regional dynamics across Europe, where immigration has emerged as one of the most divisive and politically charged issues in recent years. In Ireland specifically, growing public discourse and even periodic public protests over migration policy have pushed the issue to the top of the domestic political agenda in recent months, creating pressure on Irish officials to adjust border rules.

  • Bajans mixed on BiMPay as opinions shape early response

    Bajans mixed on BiMPay as opinions shape early response

    Just days after Barbados’ latest digital payment infrastructure BiMPay made its official debut, public opinion across the island has fractured sharply, with residents debating whether the platform will redefine the future of commercial transactions or remains a confusing service that many have yet to fully grasp. While early adopters have already praised the platform for its unmatched convenience in cross-bank instant money transfers, a significant share of the public is taking a wait-and-see approach. Many of these observers question whether the tool aligns with their unique daily needs, while advocates warn that marginalized and vulnerable populations must not be sidelined as the country transitions to more digital financial services.

    Katelia Murrell is among the first users fully won over by BiMPay’s functionality, saying it resolves a longstanding hassle she encountered regularly when sending money. “It’s noticeably more convenient for people like me who need to send funds to contacts that don’t share the same bank provider,” Murrell explained. She already tested the platform just one day after it launched, noting that “I used it once literally last night, and it was honestly incredibly straightforward to use.”

    What left the strongest impression on Murrell was the unprecedented processing speed. “The platform said it would take 10 seconds, but I swear the transfer went through even faster than that,” she said. “When we tested the reverse transaction, where the recipient sent money back to me via the platform’s QR code feature, everything worked perfectly without any glitches.”

    For self-employed worker Shaquille Hewitt, BiMPay offers a promising solution to the constant frustrations he faces when receiving customer payments. “As someone who works for themselves, it’s always been a headache dealing with cross-bank transfers or checks drawn on institutions other than my own,” Hewitt said. “I’m optimistic this platform will streamline that whole process and make it far less stressful.”

    Other residents welcome the government’s push for digital financial innovation but have emphasized that policymakers must prioritize inclusion as Barbados expands its digital transaction ecosystem. “There need to be alternative options for people who can’t use BiMPay, especially older adults who don’t have digital literacy or people who don’t own a compatible smartphone,” said Holford Walrond. “Everyone needs to be able to access their money easily, that’s my main concern. Even though I support what the government is trying to do, keeping choice available to consumers is absolutely essential. If the government sees this as the right path forward for Barbados, that’s fine, they’re making a good effort to modernize our financial system. But I still firmly believe people should get to choose how they manage their money.”

    Rico Simpson, who has already completed the sign-up process and is preparing to activate his account, says BiMPay clears key hurdles that limit existing digital payment services. “I already signed up for BiMPay, I just haven’t activated it yet,” Simpson said. “I chose to join because I see it as a really convenient way to send transfers, similar to CIBC First Pay, but with much more flexibility. With that existing service, you have to be a CIBC customer and have your cell number linked to the account to use it. But with BiMPay, you don’t even need a traditional bank account number to use it — you can hold all your funds directly in the BiMPay app itself, which I think is a big advantage.”

    For Joseph Cummins, the main barrier to adoption is not opposition to digital innovation, but a lack of clear personal understanding of how the service would work for him. “It’s hard for me to wrap my head around it right now because I haven’t gotten the chance to dive into the details yet,” Cummins said. “The information is out there, but I need to do my own research to figure out how it fits into my own financial life, especially how it interacts with the banking services I already use to manage my money.”

    Even so, Cummins acknowledges that BiMPay carries meaningful broader benefits for Barbados’ financial inclusion. “People who operate outside the traditional formal banking system will get an opportunity to join the formal financial ecosystem and use that access to improve their lives,” he noted. Still, he remains unsure whether the platform will lead him to change his own long-standing money management habits. “I keep wondering how it will affect me at my age, since I’m pretty set in my ways and only really use my current bank for things like paying bills. The big question for me is: does this actually impact my daily life? Will it make sense for me to change my habits to start using it? Right now, that’s still unclear to me.”

    At Bridgetown’s Pelican Village craft hub, Sandra Padmore, owner of souvenir business Nafai Creations, says her customer base makes her decision to adopt BiMPay far from straightforward. “I’m still thinking it over, I haven’t tried it out yet,” Padmore said. “My main question is that my shop caters almost entirely to tourists. If BiMPay is mostly built for local users, I’m not sure it makes sense for me to adopt it. We barely get local customers coming through these souvenir shops, so that’s got me a bit confused. Most tourists pay with credit or debit cards anyway, and I already have a card terminal set up. I just need more clarity on how this would benefit my business specifically.”

    Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has emphasized that BiMPay was designed specifically to serve small business owners and informal vendors, creating a faster, more inclusive system for sending and receiving payments across the island. But on the streets of Bridgetown, as vendors and everyday residents weigh whether to add the new platform to their financial tools, the debate has less to do with the technology itself and more to do with core tradeoffs: convenience against long-held familiarity, innovation against broad accessibility, and whether a system billed as the future of payments can actually work for every single Barbadian.

  • Construction worker charged with possession of 23 AK-47 assault rifles

    Construction worker charged with possession of 23 AK-47 assault rifles

    In a major illegal firearms crackdown in Guyana, a 27-year-old Venezuelan construction worker has been remanded to custody following his Monday arraignment in connection with one of the largest illegal weapons seizures the country has seen in recent weeks. The Guyana Police Force confirmed that Jonathan David Gans, who resides in Great Diamond on the East Bank of Demerara, appeared before Magistrate Rondell Weever at the Wales Magistrate’s Court on 15 June 2026 to face two criminal charges: unlawful possession of unlicensed firearms and unlawful possession of unlicensed ammunition.

    Gans was first taken into law enforcement custody on 11 June during a targeted operation in Schoonard, West Bank Demerara, where authorities recovered 23 illegally trafficked AK-47 assault rifles and more than 500 rounds of ammunition. After the charges were formally read in court, Gans entered a plea of not guilty to both counts. Magistrate Weever subsequently ordered Gans held in prison ahead of his next court appearance, which has been scheduled for 14 July 2026.

    The investigation into the illegal weapons cache remains active, and authorities have confirmed progress in tracking down additional co-conspirators. In a development on 14 June, a second person of interest identified as Randy Jagdeo turned himself in to police voluntarily as part of the ongoing probe. Law enforcement officials are still actively searching for a third suspect, Orlando Gabriel, who is also wanted on charges of illegal firearms possession in connection with the Schoonard seizure.

    This bust marks the second major recovery of illegally trafficked AK-47 rifles in Guyana in less than a month. Just three weeks prior, on 22 May, law enforcement officials discovered 10 unlicensed AK-47 rifles during a separate operation in the Berbice region of the country. The back-to-back large-scale arms seizures have drawn renewed attention to cross-border weapons trafficking challenges facing the South American nation.

  • COMMENTARY: Elderly Abuse Awareness Day

    COMMENTARY: Elderly Abuse Awareness Day

    Elder abuse remains one of the world’s most underrecognized human rights violations, flying under the radar in communities across every continent with far too few systemic responses to address its widespread harm. New data from the World Health Organization (WHO) underscores the staggering scale of this crisis: one in every six people aged 60 and older experiences some form of abuse, translating to nearly 141 million older adults impacted globally. Public health and human rights experts warn the true number is almost certainly far higher, as most cases of abuse, neglect and violence against older people go unreported, making this one of the most underdocumented violations of fundamental rights today.

  • Arthur Smith stun West Terrace in NSC, BICO football competition

    Arthur Smith stun West Terrace in NSC, BICO football competition

    The National Sports Council BICO Primary Schools Football Competition delivered a dramatic round of quarterfinal matches this week, headlined by a stunning upset that saw defending champions West Terrace Primary crash out of the tournament at the hands of 2025 runners-up Arthur Smith Primary.

    Played out before a buzzing crowd at the Greens pitch in St George, the highly anticipated clash ended in a decisive 2-0 win for Arthur Smith. The breakthrough came from a clinical strike by forward Giovanni Edwards, before a late own goal sealed the defending champions’ fate, sending Arthur Smith through to the tournament’s final four.

    The day’s second quarterfinal fixture saw Milton Lynch Primary book their own semifinal spot with a narrow 1-0 victory over St Stephen’s Primary. The only goal of the tightly contested game came from Yashiro Brown, who found the back of the net in the decisive moment of the match. Milton Lynch’s goalkeeper Demetri Hope was captured celebrating the hard-earned win in post-match photos, credited to photographer ZM.

    Two of the day’s fixtures went the distance, requiring penalty shootouts to separate evenly matched sides. The first was a battle between St Cyprians Primary and Wesley Hall Primary, which ended level at one goal apiece after full-time regulation. Christian Reid put St Cyprians on the scoreboard in regulation, while Zidane Hinds equalized for Wesley Hall to force penalties. St Cyprians held their nerve from the spot, converting four of their attempts to secure a 4-2 shootout win and a place in the next round.

    The final quarterfinal tie between hosts St George Primary and Deacons Primary was another hard-fought contest that could not be decided in regulation or extra time. Armani Herbert opened the scoring for St George, before Emilio Morgan equalized for Deacons to make the score 1-1 after 90 minutes plus added extra time. No further goals were scored in extra time, sending the tie to penalties, where St George held on to secure a 3-1 shootout victory.

    With the quarterfinals now complete, the semifinal matchups have been set for Thursday at the Wildey Technical Centre. St Cyprians will face off against Milton Lynch in the first semi, while Arthur Smith will take on surprise package St George Primary as the four remaining schools compete for a spot in the tournament final.

  • Food security push hinges on private investment, Munro-Knight says

    Food security push hinges on private investment, Munro-Knight says

    As the Caribbean grapples with a rapidly expanding food import bill that drains critical economic resources, regional leaders are calling for transformative, large-scale private investment to reverse deepening import dependence and kickstart long-term economic restructuring. In a keynote address at the opening of the Regional Food Systems Investment Forum held at Barbados’ Hilton Resort, Barbados’ Agriculture Minister Dr. Shantal Munro-Knight emphasized that incremental, small-bore changes will never deliver the systemic shift the region urgently needs.

    Decades of growing reliance on foreign-sourced food has left the Caribbean with a staggering import burden, a trend Dr. Munro-Knight highlighted as a clear wake-up call for an ambitious, investment-centered overhaul of regional food systems. She tied this call to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)’s landmark 25 by 25 target – an initiative designed to cut the region’s food import bill by 25% by 2025, later expanded with additional goals – noting that the framework was born from a shared recognition that food security demands bold, unified action.

    Official data underscores the severity of the challenge: over a recent three-year period, total Caribbean food and agricultural imports hit $13.76 billion, a sum equal to roughly 5% of the region’s entire annual gross domestic product. “That’s not small, that’s not insignificant,” Dr. Munro-Knight told attendees, stressing that the current trajectory is economically unsustainable for small island developing states across the region.

    A core part of the minister’s message was a call to reframe how the public and investors view Caribbean agriculture. For too long, she argued, the sector has been reduced to small-scale production and subsistence farming, but it must now be repositioned as a modern, high-potential economic sector packed with lucrative investment opportunities. “The dialogue around food systems has moved beyond just production,” she explained. “What we have come here to talk about today is a conversation that revolves around one of the most significant economic and development opportunities that the Caribbean has to offer.”

    Unlike narrow traditional farming frameworks, modern regional food systems span an entire value chain: from logistics and agro-processing to cold storage infrastructure, digital innovation and agricultural technology. Dr. Munro-Knight pointed out that expanding investment across these interconnected segments not only creates strong returns for private investors but also directly strengthens the region’s long-term food security. “When we think about food systems, we have to break out of that traditional frame,” she said. “We can challenge ourselves, and we can look at the big investable opportunities that are there.”

    Drawing a parallel to the landmark Bridgetown Initiative, which has reshaped global conversations around climate financing, Dr. Munro-Knight outlined the critical role governments must play in unlocking private capital for food system development. She emphasized that governments are meant to act as catalytic partners, working to “crowd in private capital” rather than bearing the entire burden of investment themselves.

    But for private investment to flow at the needed scale, the minister stressed that investors require stable, transparent governance. “Capital needs surety. It needs governments that have clear policies, clear pathways, frameworks, that are transparent and data-driven,” she said.

    Dr. Munro-Knight also highlighted technological innovation as a game-changing lever for cutting import dependence. She noted that targeted investment in tech-driven agriculture and modern farming solutions could improve the region’s food production balance by up to 15%, a major gain toward meeting the 25 by 25 target.

    In Barbados, this commitment to transformation is already taking shape through the national Strategic Crop Escalation and Production Plan, which prioritizes expanding domestic output of 15 high-demand staple crops. The minister also spotlighted the proposed Barbados-Guyana Food Terminal as a flagship example of the large-scale investment opportunities available. The $25 million infrastructure project, she explained, will leverage Barbados’ strategic geographic location to build a regional logistics hub, strengthen cross-island food distribution networks, and support broader efforts to build a more resilient, self-sufficient Caribbean food system.