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A beloved pillar of Barbados’ religious and local community marked a historic life milestone this week, as Ena Jones celebrated her 100th birthday surrounded by loved ones and national leadership, and opened up about the core values that have shaped her extraordinary century of life.

The birthday celebration, held at Bethel Methodist Church where Jones has been a dedicated, long-time member, drew a crowd of family, close friends, and Barbadian President Jeffrey Bostic, who joined the occasion to honor the island’s newest centenarian. Even at 100, Jones impressed every attendee with her quick wit, sharp recall of life events, and gentle, steady composure. Looking back on decades of change and challenge, she shared vivid anecdotes from her youth, from carefree days attending community dances to the quiet hardships and resilience of life during World War II.

When President Bostic asked Jones what wisdom she would pass on to younger generations during a warm, lighthearted conversation, her response was brief but deeply resonant: *“Try to be the best you can. Do not follow bad company…. If you see a person going the wrong way, don’t follow.”*

As a formal tribute to Jones’ remarkable milestone, President Bostic presented the centenarian with a celebratory gift basket holding fresh flowers, a bottle of non-alcoholic wine, and a personal birthday card on behalf of all Barbadians. The card read: *“Reaching the remarkable age of 100 years makes you a national treasure. This calls for celebration, and so I salute you. Accept my heartfelt congratulations and those of the people of Barbados on this most significant day in your life. Happy birthday, and may God continue to shower His blessings on you.”* Bostic went on to hail Jones as the event’s “Birthday Queen” and lead a toast to her long and meaningful life.

For those who have known Jones for years, her warmth and love of life have long made her a central part of the church community. Wendy Darlington, a fellow member of Bethel Methodist Church and long-time friend, recalled how the pair first connected: they bonded after sitting next to each other in the same pew one Sunday, and eventually formed a close bond that has lasted for years. Jones’ cousin, Stevenson Tull, shared that even after he and his family moved to the United States, stopping by Jones’ home during return visits to Barbados became a beloved family tradition. Confident in Jones’ continued vitality, Tull said, *“She loves life, she takes care of herself, she made it to a hundred and I know that we are going to celebrate another birthday… for her.”*

In a post-celebration interview, Jones reflected that reaching 100 was a milestone she never imagined possible. Neither of her biological parents lived to see their 100th birthday, and Jones lost her mother at a young age, growing up raised by her adoptive mother, Ms. Trotman. When asked what she credits for her long and healthy life, she pointed to three core principles: intentional discipline, unwavering faith, and the intentional choice to step away from negative influences.

Expanding on her guidance for young people, Jones emphasized the value of steady, purpose-driven living: *“Live a clean life. Work… don’t worry about other people and what they do… and that’s how you get through life.”* She noted that she enjoyed the pleasures of youth in her earlier years, but always prioritized making intentional choices to build a stable, fulfilling long-term life.

Faith, Jones added, has been a foundational guiding force throughout every stage of her journey. Her biological mother first introduced her to church as a small child, and Jones has maintained a deep, consistent spiritual practice that she says saw her through every hardship and joy across 100 years. Jones described her 100th birthday as “very cool and quiet”, saying she approaches the milestone with deep gratitude for every year she has been given. Far from slowing down, the centenarian continues to bring joy and wisdom to everyone around her in her community.

Each dry season, residents of St George and St John parishes brace for smoke, ash, and disruption. This year, however, a relentless wave of blazes that blanketed both communities in toxic haze this week has pushed frustrated locals to speak out, demanding officials finally address the root causes of the annual crisis instead of only responding to emergencies after they break out.

At the center of the problem lies vast stretches of abandoned and under-managed agricultural land across the island’s rural agricultural heartland. For decades, dozens of fallow plantations once used for sugar cane and vegetable cultivation – including the Pool, Henley, Wakefield and Todds properties, formerly owned by the defunct insurance conglomerate CLICO – have been overrun by invasive, fast-growing species: cow itch vine and river tamarind. These dense, dry plants act as perfect fuel for seasonal brush fires, creating massive blaze zones that spread quickly and generate thick, acrid smoke that drifts into residential and commercial areas.

For long-time St George resident Brad Harper, the severity of this year’s fires hit him unexpectedly while driving through Middleton. What he first assumed was a mechanical fault in his car’s air conditioning system quickly revealed itself to be dangerous air pollution. “The smoke was very irritating to the sinus,” he recalled. “I was driving with the AC on, and at first I thought something was wrong with the vehicle, so I checked all the instruments and everything looked fine. It wasn’t until I rolled down the window that I realized just how hazy the outside air had become.” That evening, a return trip to the area with a friend confirmed his worst fears: conditions had grown even worse, with smoke thick enough to cause persistent respiratory irritation. Having lived in the region for most of his life, Harper said he has never seen smoke levels this high, even as local fire chiefs have already acknowledged a steady increase in the frequency and scale of these fires in recent years.

The blazes are far more than a minor inconvenience: they pose a direct, daily threat to vulnerable community members. Susan, an asthmatic woman in St George, described this week’s smoke as suffocating, with a strange oily quality that triggered persistent coughing fits. “It wasn’t pleasant because the ashes and the smoke from the ashes had me coughing a lot, and I’m asthmatic too,” she explained. “It feels like burning tires, that thick black smoke. Then after it fades, everything gets covered in a white coating of ash. It’s not good at all.”

Local small businesses have also suffered direct financial losses. Taylor, who owns a mini-mart in St Judes, St George, was forced to close her shop early and throw away contaminated stock after soot and ash blew into her store, covering fresh produce and other goods. “It was really bad,” she said. “It even got on the vegetables. We had to pack up early because the ashes and dust were blowing right past the place. It’s terrible for people with sinus issues. They’ve got to get rid of the cow itch – it’s affecting all of us, even small children. I just hope they find a way to stop these huge smoke plumes from impacting our daily lives.”

In St John, local farmers have a front-row seat to the growing crisis. Maria Simpson, who farms land in Wakefield, says the constant cycle of fires means emergency fire crews are spread thin across the parish, with new blazes breaking out almost daily. “This is ridiculous,” she said, gesturing to the charred, blackened horizon stretching across the former plantation. “Every single day there’s at least one fire truck out from the station. If you have one fire here, another breaks out behind it, and you hear sirens nonstop. This is a real public health crisis. It’s unbelievably hard.”

Simpson points out that the common practice of controlled burning to clear cow itch only makes the problem worse during the dry season. When the invasive plants are burned, dry particles of cow itch blow across the region, worsening respiratory irritation, and the infestation has already grown out of control, alongside unmanaged brush and even wild monkey populations on the abandoned land. Instead of reactive burning, she says officials should focus on early intervention: “Deal with them from early. If they could remove the plants before they start to flower and spread, that’d be real good.”

For long-time St John resident Mavel Knight, the fires came right to her doorstep this week, forcing her to lock herself inside her Massiah Street home from mid-afternoon through the entire night as a blaze on Donkey Hill poured smoke into her neighborhood. “Last night there was so much smoke because there’s just so much unmanaged bush, that’s what creates all that smoke,” she said. “I had all the windows closed. To be truthful, I didn’t open the house at all. I told my daughter I was buckling down, I wasn’t moving, I kept the door locked.”

The frustration with years of inaction is most palpable in Cherry Grove, where resident Marcia Clarke says the community has been stuck in a repeating cycle of cleaning ash and dealing with coughing fits for decades. She traces the problem directly to failed land management: what were once productive sugar cane fields are now neglected tinderboxes waiting to ignite. “Yesterday, I had to wash my clothes three times,” she lamented. “And then you have to close all the windows in the house. Years ago, when this area out front was sugar cane, we didn’t have this problem. But from the time the grounds got out of hand, this is what we get. We’ve told our member of parliament, but nothing ever happened. It’s terrible up here in St John.”

As this week’s smoke begins to clear, residents of both parishes are left with the same unresolved problem, and their call for action has never been louder. With local fire services pushed to their breaking point and community public health at severe risk, locals are demanding a comprehensive, long-term plan to manage overgrown abandoned farmland and break the annual cycle of devastating seasonal bush fires. Until that plan arrives, as Simpson puts it, residents remain trapped in a “ridiculous” cycle of fire, smoke, and disruption.

As rising violent crime in Barbados sparks growing alarm over its cascading harm to national livelihoods and community stability, a leading Caribbean academic and behavioral specialist has issued a urgent call for enhanced, focused law enforcement intervention in high-crime hotspot areas. Professor Dwayne Devonish, a management and behavioral science lecturer at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, put forward his policy recommendations in the wake of two back-to-back fatal shootings that claimed the lives of a 22-year-old father of two from Gall Hill, Christ Church, and a 50-year-old resident of St John. These two killings have pushed the island nation’s total murder count for the current year to 18, amplifying long-simmering public anxiety over violent crime.

Professor Devonish emphasized that the steady rise in violent offenses is placing unanticipated and severe economic strain on Barbados, a country still recovering from recent economic shocks and relying heavily on tourism and small business activity. He explained that the human cost of these killings translates directly to widespread financial hardship for impacted families, many of whom have lost their primary breadwinners to violence. “When a person is killed or seriously injured in a criminal attack, the entire family is left to absorb the long-term financial and economic consequences of that loss,” he noted. “For households where the victim was the main source of income, that burden can be crippling.”

Beyond household-level economic harm, the academic warned that rising violent crime in public spaces is already inflicting measurable damage on Barbados’ commercial sector, particularly local businesses that rely on social and leisure activity. The most recent shootings all took place in widely accessible public areas: one in a residential neighborhood on St Stephen’s Hill, St Michael, one in the aftermath of the popular annual Oistins Fish Festival in Christ Church, and a third near the well-known Brownes Beach bar and restaurant Lazy Lizard. Because of these brazen, open attacks, Professor Devonish said growing public fear is keeping many Barbadians inside their homes rather than patronizing local businesses, social venues, and tourist hubs.

“This pervasive societal fear that stems from public attacks is hitting local commerce directly,” he explained. “If people are scared that they could be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time just by going out to meet a friend or grab a meal, they will choose to stay home. That means less foot traffic for shops, restaurants, entertainment venues and other businesses that depend on public gatherings to survive.” He projected that commercial areas that normally see high levels of public foot traffic will see a sharp drop in patronage in the coming months, if the current trend of violent crime in public spaces continues.

The specialist also pointed to a secondary economic cost: a sharp uptick in private security spending across both residential and commercial properties. As residents and business owners lose confidence in public safety, they are diverting limited income and revenue toward private protective measures including surveillance cameras, alarm systems, reinforced gates and security fencing, and private guard services. This reallocation of capital takes away money that could otherwise be spent on local consumer goods, business expansion, or household essentials, further dragging on broader economic growth.

Beyond economic impacts, Professor Devonish highlighted a deep, ongoing breakdown in trust between the Barbados Police Service and local communities, a barrier that he says prevents effective crime prevention and solving. He noted that widespread public distrust keeps many people from reporting crimes or sharing information with law enforcement, allowing violent actors to operate with impunity in hotspot areas.

To address these interconnected challenges, the professor outlined a multi-pronged strategy centered on more aggressive, targeted policing in high-crime zones. “Law enforcement agencies need to be far more proactive in the areas that have been hit hardest by violent crime, the persistent hotspots where violence has become a regular occurrence,” he said. “We need to double down on community protection to make residents feel safe again.” In addition to increased visible patrols, he stressed that police must prioritize repairing fractured relationships with local communities, to encourage greater cooperation.

A key part of this effort, he argued, is strengthening the country’s anonymous crime reporting systems, to eliminate the fear of retaliation that keeps many witnesses from coming forward. He also called on local media outlets to take responsibility for rebuilding public trust by improving their protocols for protecting the identities of crime witnesses and victims, noting that past failures to protect vulnerable sources have eroded public confidence in the safety of reporting.

“Media outlets have a critical role to play here,” Professor Devonish said. “Some organizations have failed in the past to properly protect people’s identities, even when those people are children. It is essential that media put the right protocols in place to support the anonymous reporting systems that are critical to solving and preventing crime.”