Carib Scope

标签： Barbados

巴巴多斯

  • Export Barbados pushes entrepreneurship to industrialisation

    Export Barbados pushes entrepreneurship to industrialisation

    Against the backdrop of long-stagnant economic transformation across the Caribbean small island developing states, Barbados’ lead trade and investment agency is calling for a fundamental shift in regional ambition: moving beyond small-scale entrepreneurship to build intentional, scalable industrial capacity that can drive sustainable growth and global competitiveness.

    The Barbados Investment and Development Corporation (BIDC), which operates under the Export Barbados banner, recently underscored this vision while presenting a US$5,000 sponsorship cheque to support the University of the West Indies (UWI) International Undergraduate Students’ Leadership Conference and Entrepreneurship Exhibition, scheduled to run in Jamaica from September 23 to 25. The total value of the commitment amounts to BBD $10,000.

    Mark Hill, Chief Executive Officer of Export Barbados BIDC, emphasized that the sponsorship is far more than a one-off charitable contribution—it is a targeted investment in advancing the regional shift from startup entrepreneurship to systemic industrialisation. Hill drew a clear distinction between the two roles that are often conflated, noting that while an entrepreneur identifies a market opportunity, takes calculated risks, and launches a new enterprise, an industrialist expands that work to build a large-scale productive system. “The entrepreneur creates a business. The industrialist builds productive capacity,” Hill explained. “We need both. But we have long needed more of the latter to transform our regional economy.”

    Hill pointed out that the Caribbean is not lacking in creative ideas or ambitious, enterprising people. The core gap, he argued, is a clear pathway to scale ideas out of small, individual operations and into large, sustainable production systems that generate high-level intellectual property, mass employment, specialized expertise, and growing export volumes. It is this gap that Export Barbados aims to close through initiatives like its purpose-built International Food Science Centre, and the new GIGA framework for green industrialisation.

    Hill reintroduced GIGA, his agency’s initiative designed to connect the next generation of innovators with the resources they need to scale. The framework acts as a bridging platform linking new ideas and entrepreneurial talent to critical inputs: financing, cutting-edge technology, dedicated production facilities, international product certification, affordable clean energy, and access to global consumer markets. Hill said he wants participating UWI students to imagine a different future for themselves—not just as future employees or small business owners, but as a new cohort of intelligence-driven industrialists. These future leaders, he noted, would be equipped to build factories and research labs, commercialize scientific breakthroughs, launch technology platforms, develop climate-smart intelligent farms, and grow globally competitive enterprises.

    The ultimate goal of this investment, Hill added, is to lay the foundation for a long-term collaborative industrial relationship between BIDC, the private sector, and the regional university system. “It is an investment in new intelligence, and in the possibility that the young entrepreneur benefiting from this conference can grow into a transformative industrialist,” he said.

    Professor Winston Moore, Deputy Principal of UWI’s Cave Hill campus in Barbados, echoed Hill’s call for more targeted investment, noting that small island developing states face unique structural barriers to research and development (R&D) that hold back economic progress. Unlike large economies, small states cannot compete on production volume—their competitive advantage lies in innovative ideas. However, Moore highlighted that regional R&D spending consistently falls below 1% of GDP, a level too low to foster consistent development of new, commercially viable ideas.

    Moore stressed that partnerships like this sponsorship point the way forward for Barbados and other small developing states. Outlining his vision for the university, he noted that UWI aims to create a dedicated portal that connects private sector challenges directly to student innovators, creating a structured pipeline for turning ideas into solutions that can scale into new industries. “This is exactly the kind of investment we need to be making to unlock our region’s potential,” he added.

  • Labour shortage ‘challenges’ construction boom

    Labour shortage ‘challenges’ construction boom

    As Barbados undergoes an unprecedented wave of construction activity driven by large-scale tourism and infrastructure investment, the island nation is grappling with a critical shortage of trained skilled workers, according to Minister of Technological and Vocational Training Sandra Husbands. Speaking at the launch of the Barbados Annual Construction and Design Conference (BACDC) hosted by the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Council, Husbands detailed how the current construction boom—fueled by a surge of hotel expansions, new builds, road upgrades, renewable energy installations, commercial developments and public infrastructure projects—has stretched the local construction labor force far beyond its current capacity.

    Husbands highlighted the massive scale of ongoing investment, pointing to the $800 million Beaches Barbados Sandals Heywoods development as a centerpiece of the current activity, alongside dozens of other residential and hospitality projects across the country. While this wave of investment has created widespread opportunity, generating future jobs not only in construction but also in hospitality and local supply chains, it has simultaneously exposed deep gaps in the skilled labor market that impact even small-scale projects.

    “When you look around our country, what is it you’re seeing? We are seeing hotels being refurbished and expanded. We are seeing new hotels being built. And then there’s some that are still to come,” Husbands told reporters. She added that ordinary homeowners are among the groups most affected by the shortage, as they struggle to find available tradespeople for small home repairs and renovations. “The people who may be experiencing the most pain will be householders who are struggling to find a carpenter to do something in their home or a mason to come and do some repairs because we simply do not have sufficient labour to be able to meet the demand in Barbados,” she said.

    Despite the challenges, Husbands characterized the labor shortage as “a good problem to have”—a byproduct of strong economic growth after years of stagnation. She explained that the current gap has roots in decades of economic decline, when prolonged downturns forced small contractors out of business and discouraged young people from pursuing careers in the skilled trades. The COVID-19 pandemic further delayed planned investment, leading to a backlog of projects that all launched at the same time once global restrictions lifted. Today, the country is managing nine major construction projects simultaneously, putting unprecedented strain on every segment of the construction labor market.

    “So instead of coping with one or two hotels at a time, we now find ourselves with having to manage nine, all wanting foreign exchange, staffing, and supplies in order to get their investment to work,” Husbands said. She outlined the core policy dilemma facing the island: whether to allow investment to shift to neighboring competitor countries like Saint Lucia, Guyana, and Jamaica, or to permit temporary foreign labor while accelerating vocational training to ensure Barbadians can capture the long-term job opportunities created by the boom.

    The shortage touches nearly every skilled trade in the sector, from plumbers, tilers, welders, and masons to heavy equipment operators, refrigeration technicians, and construction supervisors. The gap is particularly acute for licensed heavy-duty truck drivers, where companies are offering weekly salaries ranging from $700 to more than $1,100 to attract qualified candidates—yet still struggle to fill open roles. “Without drivers, materials don’t move, equipment does not move, and projects will slow down,” Husbands noted. She added that Barbados is far from alone in this challenge, with neighboring Caribbean nations including Antigua and Barbuda, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica reporting similar skilled labor gaps in their construction sectors.

    To address the crisis, Husbands argued that Barbados must dramatically accelerate its technical and vocational training programs while shifting long-held cultural perceptions that only traditional academic qualifications lead to successful careers. For too long, skilled trade occupations have been overlooked, even as demand for certified, practical workers has continued to grow.

    “Today, the realities of the labour market are telling us something different. The skilled trades matter, technical expertise matters, and certification matters,” she said. The Ministry of Technological and Vocational Training was created in part specifically to help the Barbadian workforce pivot toward these high-demand, lucrative careers available through the TVET system.

    Beyond attracting new entrants to the trades, Husbands noted that the industry also faces challenges around workforce soft skills, with many employers reporting concerns about work ethic and professional conduct among existing employees. “Many employers express concern not only that young people are not entering the construction sector in numbers, but also they are concerned about the work attitudes that our labor force now bring daily to the workplace,” she said. “The technical skill is insufficient; the attitude with the skills will make them unstoppable.”

    As part of the government’s comprehensive response, the ministry plans to launch a targeted skills upgrade program for existing contractors, giving them access to training through local institutions like the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute (SJPI) and the Barbados Vocational Training Board (BVTB) to learn modern construction technologies and update their professional capabilities. “One of the things we’re looking forward to is establishing a programme where we specially target the existing contractors and provide space and opportunity for them to get the necessary training… so that they can upgrade their skills and use those modern technologies and stay in the game,” Husbands explained.

    The minister also emphasized the critical role of formal certification, particularly for experienced workers who have developed advanced skills through on-the-job experience but lack formal credentials. She framed prior learning assessment recognition as a transformative tool to unlock career mobility for thousands of Barbadians who have the talent and experience but no formal certification. “Certification is becoming the passport to opportunity,” she said. “Prior learning assessment recognition is a powerful passport to accelerating the career opportunities and mobility of thousands of Barbadians who have talent, who have experience and expertise, but never had a certificate in their life.”

    Husbands stressed that the TVET Council and local training institutions must prepare both new entrants and incumbent workers for a modern construction industry that is increasingly shaped by digital innovation. Today’s construction sector is far removed from outdated perceptions of manual labor, she noted, now requiring expertise in digital tools, modern project management systems, precision surveying, building diagnostics, sustainable design, smart building technologies, and drone operations.

    The newly launched BACDC will serve as a collaborative platform for industry stakeholders, policymakers, and training providers to discuss the sector’s most pressing challenges and opportunities as Barbados continues to see sustained development activity. Ultimately, Husbands said, the country must leverage the current boom to build a resilient, future-ready skilled labor force that can meet immediate project demand while adapting to the evolving needs of the global construction industry.

  • Five top-10 drivers set to miss BMF Rally2

    Five top-10 drivers set to miss BMF Rally2

    The 2026 Barbados Rally2 Championship is bracing for a dramatic shake-up of its standings this Saturday, as the fifth round of the Barbados Motoring Federation Championship kicks off without five of the current top 10 drivers. The most high-profile absence comes in the form of series leader and 2022 title holder Stuart Maloney, who is stepping away from his usual driving seat to take on co-driving duties for his brother Mark at the iconic Sun & Stars Rally, launching on September 12.

    Heading into this weekend’s blue-riband event, the championship battle is already unusually competitive. Three different drivers have claimed victories across the opening four rounds, and an additional three racers have notched podium finishes, leaving the title fight wide open for contenders to seize momentum. The gap at the top is razor-thin: only 30 points separate current leader Stuart Maloney from his brother Mark, who sits in sixth place, meaning a strong showing this weekend could completely rearrange the overall standings.

    The potential for disruption does not end with the Maloney brothers. Third-placed Jamaican driver Kyle Gregg and fifth-placed Jeff Panton, a four-time winner of the Sun & Stars Rally, are also absent from the entry list, opening even more opportunities for lower-ranked competitors to climb the table. Currently sitting second and fourth in the overall standings are 2024 champion Josh Read and Adam Mallalieu, the youngest driver on the 2026 grid. Read already claimed victory at this season’s opening round at BRC Shakedown Stages, while Mallalieu is chasing his first ever Rally2 Championship win after taking second place behind Stuart Maloney at the First Citizens King of the Hill event earlier this year.

    This year’s Sun & Stars Rally, hosted as part of the MCBI championship, will see competitors cover 12 stages spanning 62 kilometres across the parishes of St John and St George. The on-track action is scheduled to get underway at 1:55 p.m., starting with the first of three runs along the 4.3-kilometre Society-to-Pool stage, which will alternate with three passes over the 6.1-kilometre Malvern-to-Sweet Vale route. Following a dinner break at the Service Park located at The Lodge School, crews will complete the remaining stages in reverse order. The first Sweet Vale-to-Malvern run is set for 6:30 p.m., with the final Pool-to-Society stage expected to wrap up by approximately 10 p.m.

    MCBI President David Williams shared insights into the lead-up to the event, noting that the cancellation of the 2025 Sun & Stars Rally dealt a significant blow to all involved. “Losing last year’s Sun & Stars was a big blow, not only in financial terms, but also for our competitors and volunteers. A lot of work goes into the planning of these events and it is disappointing for everyone when something out of our control means we can’t go forward,” Williams explained. Still, he expressed optimism about this year’s running, pointing to strong competitor interest as a positive sign. “It is encouraging to see such strong support from competitors again this year; with a couple of days before entries close, we are already in the mid-thirties — there are some close battles in the classes and just two double-header speed events to go after this, so the guys are keen to keep scoring points.”

  • Barbados @ 60 timeline ‘seeks to preserve national story’

    Barbados @ 60 timeline ‘seeks to preserve national story’

    As Barbados gears up to celebrate two landmark national occasions – the 60th anniversary of its independence and five years as a sovereign republic – a pioneering interactive digital timeline has been unveiled to open up the island’s rich history to wider audiences and protect its national narrative from erasure or misrepresentation.

    The launch of the Barbados @ 60 Timeline took place this Wednesday at Pelican Village, where project leads outlined the decade-long evolution of the initiative. Prince Bazawule, co-founder and head of design at local digital firm ESLOV Digital, explained that the current project grew out of a smaller community effort held 10 years ago, to mark the island’s 50th year of independence.

    “A decade ago, we created the 50 in 50 project,” Bazawule shared during the launch event. “In the 50 days leading up to Barbados’ 50th independence anniversary, we collaborated with students from the Barbados Community College to publish one creative piece every day, each telling a distinct chapter of Barbados’ story.”

    That early grassroots project left the team with a pressing question that inspired the new, expanded platform: What if people could explore the full breadth of Barbadian history through a simple, easily accessible tool?

    The final product is a user-friendly digital platform that organizes the island’s history by decade, stretching from the 1960s, when the nation gained independence, through to the current 2020s. Unlike dense, academic historical archives, the timeline structures history around digestible, bite-sized key milestones. Every milestone entry is paired with a diverse range of multimedia resources, including original photographs, archival video footage, traditional and popular music, curated slideshows, and official historical documents.

    Bazawule emphasized that the milestones themselves are the core of the platform, noting that each entry includes a short, accessible description designed to make the country’s history easy for any visitor to absorb. For readers who want to dive deeper into a particular event or development, every milestone includes a direct link to its original source, allowing full access to complete documents and archival materials.

    The timeline spans all areas of national life, capturing major milestones across legislation, arts and music, sports, public health, and other key sectors of Barbadian development. In a future update, the platform will also open the door to user-generated content submissions, though all public contributions will go through a rigorous fact-checking and verification process before being added to the official timeline.

    David Comissiong, Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM, who partnered with ESLOV Digital to bring the project to fruition, said the initiative carries far more meaning than simply documenting historical events. He warned that without a cohesive, widely accessible narrative of national identity, a dangerous vacuum forms.

    That vacuum, Comissiong argued, can easily be filled by inaccurate, harmful narratives shaped by outside interests that distort the country’s true story. He noted that Barbados’ unique history gives the nation a distinct identity that must be preserved and shared.

    “Barbados is a very special country,” Comissiong said, pointing to the island’s fraught history as the world’s first full-scale slave society, and the extraordinary resistance, resilience, courage, determination, and cultural creativity that its people have demonstrated through generations.

    As the country prepares to mark its 60th independence anniversary, Comissiong said the milestone offers a critical moment to reflect on the landmark events that have defined the nation, and to use that history to guide the country’s future path. “When something as important as a 60th anniversary comes around, you have to embrace it,” he added.

  • Unsung Hero toasted for community service

    Unsung Hero toasted for community service

    On a ceremony held Tuesday at Barbados’ iconic Warrens Great House, regional banking group CIBC Caribbean has named community-focused Barbadian activist Desmond Bruce as the country’s 2026 Unsung Hero, shining a long-overdue spotlight on grassroots volunteers who lift vulnerable communities without fanfare or public acclaim.

    During the awards event, CIBC’s Country Head for Barbados, Victor Boyce, honored both Bruce and fellow local honoree Shermena Kirton for their extraordinary, uncelebrated contributions to public good. Founded to lift up quiet changemakers who prioritize service over recognition, the Unsung Heroes program celebrates the unsung builders of Caribbean nations, a point Boyce emphasized by drawing from beloved calypsonian Red Plastic Bag’s 1996 classic *Issues of the Day*: “We must know who our heroes are and we must hail them from near and from far. This nation wasn’t built by our leaders alone, so many heroes out there are unknown.”

    Boyce explained that the initiative was created specifically to center ordinary people who carry out consistent, transformative work in their communities without chasing public praise or material reward. “They are not looking for a pat on the back, or rewards. They are just looking to help somebody else,” he noted of all nominees and honorees.

    For Bruce, his life of service is rooted in honoring the legacy of his late Combermere School teacher, Harold “Harry” Sealy. Rejecting the model of temporary charity, Bruce founded the volunteer group “Harry’s Dreamers” to deliver a “helping hand up” rather than a one-time hand out to people facing hardship. What began as a local effort across Barbados has grown into an international mission, with the group extending support to vulnerable communities as far as Ghana. The organization’s impact spans multiple critical needs: it has distributed medical supplies, art materials, agricultural tools, and staple groceries to families in need, and completed full renovations of a community playground to support local children.

    Fellow 2026 Barbados honoree Shermena Kirton, a registered nurse and midwife, was recognized for her decades of volunteer work with the Breastfeeding and Child Nutrition Foundation. Beyond her formal professional duties, Kirton coordinates free breastfeeding education classes and one-on-one consultations, and makes herself available 24/7 to new mothers seeking guidance during the fragile early stages of their children’s lives.

    Boyce extended special gratitude not only to the two honorees, who sacrifice countless hours away from their own families to serve their communities, but also to their loved ones, whose steady support makes their volunteer work possible. He also paid tribute to all other nominees for the 2026 award, noting that every act of kindness that improves another person’s life deserves celebration.

    With his national win, Bruce will now advance to the regional finals of the CIBC Caribbean Unsung Hero program, where he will compete against national winners from nine other Caribbean territories where the bank operates for the title of 2026 Regional Unsung Hero. Closing out the ceremony, Boyce expressed the nation’s support for Bruce’s regional bid: “Desmond, we are keeping our fingers crossed for you!”

  • Youth market ‘moving away from rum’

    Youth market ‘moving away from rum’

    Barbados is undergoing a profound transformation of its export economy, driven by evolving global consumer preferences, particularly among younger generations, according to Mark Hill, Chief Executive Officer of Export Barbados. In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Hill outlined how long-standing core export sectors are being disrupted, while new high-growth areas are emerging to meet shifting global demand.

    One of the most noticeable shifts is impacting Barbados’ centuries-old rum export industry. Hill explained that the global push toward health and wellness has reshaped alcohol consumption patterns, with younger consumers leading the move away from traditional rum and strong alcoholic beverages. Instead, this demographic is opting for alcohol-free mocktails, lighter low-alcohol cocktails, and convenient canned beverage formats, creating a drag on traditional rum export growth. Beyond beverages, broader dietary and lifestyle changes among younger consumers, combined with demographic shifts from aging populations across many major markets, are driving widespread changes in what global buyers demand from Barbadian exporters.

    To position the country to capitalize on these new trends, Export Barbados has launched targeted initiatives to address key structural challenges holding back export competitiveness. Hill noted that high energy costs have long been a barrier to scalable, cost-effective local production. The organization’s Green Industrial Gateway for Global Investors (GIGA) programme was designed specifically to tackle this issue by reducing industrial energy costs, enabling Barbadian producers to compete more effectively on the global stage.

    Hill also emphasized that modernizing production and expanding into new export sectors requires strengthening Barbados’ technological and scientific foundations. Access to artificial intelligence is becoming a critical tool for improving product design, development, and production efficiency, and Export Barbados is working to build this capability locally. At the same time, tightening international certification requirements have emerged as a major barrier to market entry for many new products, pushing the country to scale up its scientific capacity and meet strict global standards. “We’re just strengthening the fundamentals of our capacity to produce new goods, strengthening the fundamentals of our productive sector so that we can respond to the changes that are happening within the globe,” Hill explained.

    Alongside changes to goods exports, Barbados is seeing rapid growth in a new range of exported services that extend far beyond its traditional finance and insurance sectors. Hill reported particularly strong growth in scientific and certification services, alongside emerging sectors including software development, artificial intelligence solutions, and engineering. Even Barbadian construction and engineering skills are seeing rising global demand, as skilled labor becomes an increasingly traded global commodity. Hill noted that this new scientific and engineering export base has expanded consistently over the past several years, establishing a durable new pillar of the country’s export economy.

    To feed this growth with a skilled workforce, the Barbados Centres of Excellence programme has become a key intervention. The initiative trains young people to meet global industry skill standards, combining structured learning with hands-on internship opportunities. Trainees can then launch their own independent operations with targeted financing support, creating a pipeline of new export-focused businesses. Hill explained that the programme’s model removes many of the biggest barriers facing new entrepreneurs: the public sector invests in capital equipment, infrastructure, and core capabilities, so emerging business owners only need to focus on product quality, marketing, and distribution, without carrying heavy upfront capital or operating costs.

    Another innovative new initiative is Export Barbados’ International Fashion Technology Institute, which is taking a unique approach to the global fashion industry by focusing on technology-enabled services rather than traditional clothing production or design. Hill pointed out that the boom in online apparel shopping has created a huge unmet demand for custom fit adjustments: most mass-produced garments ordered online do not fit consumers properly, creating a fast-growing market for on-demand alteration services. The institute trains students in ergonomic design and custom fit adjustment, while investing in cutting-edge technology like full-body scanners that can quickly map individual body types to create custom patterns. By combining advanced technology with skilled craft, the institute is able to deliver faster, more efficient, higher-quality services that meet evolving consumer needs. Like the Centres of Excellence programme, the institute supports emerging fashion tech entrepreneurs by covering capital expenditure, allowing founders to focus on growing their businesses rather than covering upfront infrastructure costs.

    Overall, the shifts underway represent a deliberate reorientation of Barbados’ export strategy to align with 21st century global demand, turning consumer and demographic trends into new economic opportunities for the island nation.

  • Ambulance driver remanded on serious bodily harm charge

    Ambulance driver remanded on serious bodily harm charge

    A 48-year-old ambulance driver has been placed into pre-trial detention at Dodds Prison following his court appearance on charges of inflicting serious bodily harm on a local man in the parish of St Michael. Identified as O’Brien Antonio Franklyn, a resident of Quarry Road in Bank Hall, St Michael, the defendant appeared before Magistrate Jared Richards at the District ‘A’ Traffic Court to answer to the criminal allegation.

    Court documents allege that on September 2, Franklyn intentionally caused severe physical injury to Andre Harry, with the explicit intent to maim, permanently disfigure, or disable the victim. Represented by experienced legal advocate Senior Counsel Andrew Pilgrim, Franklyn was not required to enter a plea at this initial hearing, as the charge against him is classified as an indictable offence that will proceed to a higher court for trial.

    Following the brief hearing, Magistrate Richards ordered Franklyn to be held in custody at Dodds Prison until his next scheduled court appearance, which is set for September 30. No further details about the circumstances of the alleged incident, including the current condition of the victim Andre Harry, have been released to the public as the legal process moves forward.

  • Young Barbadian developing new approach to athlete assessment

    Young Barbadian developing new approach to athlete assessment

    A young Barbadian former competitor is revolutionizing athlete development and post-injury care across his home country with a data-driven new program that addresses longstanding gaps in local athletic support. Nineteen-year-old Michael J.D. Hall, who competed competitively in both swimming and karate before turning his focus to sports science education, has developed the Barbados High Performance Athlete Assessment Initiative, a groundbreaking project designed to overhaul how personalized training plans are created and how injured athletes rehabilitate.

    Set to launch publicly on September 12 at the Hilton Barbados Resort, the initiative will operate as a free public resource, with young athletes under the age of 20 identified as its core priority group. For Hall, the project is rooted in personal experience and a desire to give back to the Caribbean community that shaped his athletic journey: after earning his bachelor’s degree in Strength, Conditioning and Sports Nutrition from University College Birmingham in the UK, he’s bringing cutting-edge sports science home before returning to the institution to pursue postgraduate study.

    “Having competed as an athlete myself, I know exactly which critical resources today’s young Barbadian athletes are missing,” Hall explained in comments ahead of the launch. “When I began preliminary testing, I was shocked to find that many athletes don’t have access to structured rehabilitation programs after getting hurt. Earlier this year, we all watched multiple athletes get injured at the CARIFTA Games, and several still haven’t made a full recovery. This initiative is built to fix that: we identify individual weaknesses early, build resilience, and prepare athletes to compete at their best.”

    Hall’s approach leverages advanced sports science technology, specifically the VALD System, a tool that maps muscular imbalances that often go undetected until they result in injury. To date, he has already completed baseline assessments for more than 30 athletes across four popular Barbadian sports: football, swimming, road tennis, and track and field.

    As Hall notes, subtle muscular imbalances are a normal part of athletic development – most people have one dominant leg or arm, for example – but when that imbalance exceeds a 10% gap, the risk of acute injury rises dramatically. His program flags these risks early, before athletes take the field, and creates customized training and rehab plans to close gaps and reduce injury risk. After each assessment, participating athletes receive a fully personalized plan, including targeted recommendations for recovery and performance improvement.

    Initial feedback from the pilot testing phase has been overwhelmingly positive. Many participants had no idea they had underlying imbalances that put them at risk, and coaching staff have welcomed the initiative as a way to offload the work of strength and conditioning planning, letting them refocus their energy on skill and technique development. “Athletes have been really grateful for the insight, and coaches love the support,” Hall said. “When an athlete gets hurt, I can step in to build and manage their rehab program, taking that work off coaches’ plates.”

    The public launch event this weekend will feature an in-person appearance from a VALD System representative, plus talks from leading guest sports experts and an open mic session where attendees can ask questions about the initiative and athlete care. After the launch, Hall will return to the UK to complete his master’s degree, with plans to specialize in either strength and conditioning or sports analytics – a path he has dreamed of since childhood.

    “From a young age, I knew I wanted to work in sports, even when I moved from competing to the science side of the field,” he said. “I can’t stand sitting behind a desk all day – I need to be active, working with athletes, and making a tangible difference in the sport I love.”

  • Envoy backs Jamaican reparations push

    Envoy backs Jamaican reparations push

    A decades-long fight for reparations for the transatlantic chattel slave trade has taken a groundbreaking new step, as CARICOM’s top ambassador has voiced full regional backing for Jamaica’s formal legal push against the United Kingdom, voicing confidence that the British Privy Council will formally rule that racialized chattel slavery was never lawful under historic English law.

    As a constitutional monarchy that retains King Charles III as its official head of state, Jamaica has taken advantage of a unique constitutional provision to file a formal petition requesting the monarch refer three critical legal questions about slavery and British legal responsibility to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council – the Caribbean nation’s highest appellate court. The three landmark questions cut to the core of the reparations debate: whether the mass seizure, forced transatlantic transport, and chattel enslavement of African people was ever legally valid under English law; whether these systematic abuses committed on Jamaican soil violated existing international law standards of the era; and whether the United Kingdom holds a binding legal obligation to provide reparative compensation to the people of Jamaica.

    In an interview with Barbados TODAY Wednesday on the sidelines of the Barbados @ 60 Timeline launch held at Pelican Village, CARICOM Ambassador to the regional bloc David Comissiong made clear that Jamaica’s unprecedented action has the full solidarity and backing of all 15 CARICOM member states. “Jamaica’s presentation of this petition to King Charles III does not come as a surprise to us in CARICOM. In fact, CARICOM has given Jamaica its solidarity and support,” Comissiong confirmed.

    The ambassador explained that Jamaican legal teams identified this little-used constitutional pathway specifically for current constitutional monarchies in the Caribbean, which allows petitions to be submitted directly to the reigning British monarch to request advisory opinions on core legal questions from the Privy Council. Comissiong noted that the question of slavery’s legal status under British law stands as the foundation of Jamaica’s entire legal push. “One of the questions they have placed is, was slavery legal under British law at the time that it was practised in the British Empire back in the 19th, 18th, 17th century,” he said.

    Comissiong acknowledged that Jamaica’s strategy carries both advantages and limitations, particularly for CARICOM states that have already transitioned to republican status, such as Barbados. Former constitutional monarchies that have cut formal ties to the British crown no longer have access to this same constitutional legal avenue. For these republics, the core principle of the reparations movement centers on self-determination: achieving full sovereignty and national self-repair as a foundational form of reparative action. “For those of us who have become republics, we are conscious that a fundamental principle of reparations is the self-help, self-repair remedy of reappropriating your full nationhood, sovereignty, and self-determination,” he explained.

    Even with these considerations, Comissiong emphasized that Jamaica’s petition could mark a turning point for the entire regional reparations movement that has been building for decades. “If the King responds positively, and if those three questions are put to the Privy Council, and if the Privy Council gives a positive answer, particularly in relation to that question about the illegality of slavery when it was practised, that will be a very big victory and a big step forward for our reparations cause,” he said.

    The ambassador also offered a clear note of caution, stressing that even a favorable ruling affirming slavery’s illegality would not automatically result in tangible compensation for Jamaican people. “That by itself will not deliver reparations. It is one thing to declare that slavery was illegal back then, but it’s another thing to go from that to actually establish and win a judgment for actual payment of compensation,” he noted. Still, he reaffirmed that a formal ruling from the Privy Council would represent a transformative symbolic and legal victory for the movement. “I have no doubt that they will come to the conclusion that slavery, certainly the racialised chattel slavery that was inflicted on our ancestors, was never legal under the constitutional regime of Britain,” Comissiong said.

    Looking ahead, the regional movement is preparing for a major gathering next month: Barbados will host a landmark CARICOM reparations conference from September 17 to 19, bringing together all strands of the global reparations movement to coordinate strategy. Comissiong explained that the conference will create a critical space to align the overlapping initiatives of CARICOM, the African Union, Ghana, and Jamaica to build a cohesive, collective strategy to advance the global reparations campaign forward. “This conference will give us an opportunity to pull together all the different strands of the reparations movement that have really come to the fore over the last year or so… plan the next [steps] collectively to take forward our reparations campaign,” he said.

  • CWI appoints veteran coach as batting consultant

    CWI appoints veteran coach as batting consultant

    Cricket West Indies (CWI) has announced the appointment of seasoned New Zealand-born coach Bob Carter as its new batting consultant, tasking him with a core mission to lift batting performance across the Caribbean region and build a sustainable pipeline of elite talent for coming generations. The official announcement, made Wednesday, lands at a pivotal juncture for West Indies cricket, as the side prepares for a stacked schedule of upcoming international competitions over the next two and a half years.

    Bringing more than three decades of high-level coaching experience to the role, Carter officially stepped into the position on September 1, and will collaborate across CWI’s men’s, women’s, and youth cricket programs. He will partner with existing regional and high-performance coaches to reinforce the local coaching ecosystem and nurture a deeper talent pool of skilled batters.

    In comments following his appointment, Carter emphasized his long-standing coaching philosophy: “My focus has always been on supporting players and coaches to reach their full potential, and I am looking forward to working alongside the regional and high-performance coaches to help achieve that.”

    Carter boasts an extensive resume across top global cricket circuits. From 2012 to 2025, he held the position of High-Performance Coach with New Zealand Cricket. He also served as head coach of the New Zealand Women’s national team between 2019 and 2022, and held two stints as assistant coach for the New Zealand men’s side. Earlier in his career, he took on head coaching roles for New Zealand domestic sides Canterbury and Wellington, and served as director of cricket at England’s Northamptonshire County Cricket Club.

    His first on-the-ground assignment will kick off later this month, with a regional tour covering all six of West Indies’ first-class cricket territories: Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the Leeward Islands, and the Windward Islands. During the tour, he will work directly with local players and coaching staff to assess current standards and implement early improvements.

    Carter’s role is structured around two central priorities. First, he will deliver specialized technical guidance to both current elite batters and emerging young talent. Second, he will build the capacity of regional and high-performance coaches to design and deliver personalized, effective batting training programs for players at all levels.

    CWI Director of Cricket Miles Bascombe explained that the appointment forms a key part of the governing body’s broader push to upgrade regional coaching infrastructure. “West Indies teams will participate in at least six global events over the next 24 to 30 months, including the Men’s World Cup Qualifier next February. The steps we take now are intended to lay the groundwork for success. Bob’s immediate job is to raise the technical standard heading into these events,” Bascombe noted.

    Bascombe added that the long-term success of the appointment will be measured by sustainable change, not just short-term results: “But the measure of this appointment is not what our top six look like in twelve months. It is whether the coaches he works with come out of it better at teaching batting than they went in, and whether that reaches the coaching education modules the rest of the region is taught from. That is what lasts.”

    The hiring comes as part of CWI’s wider technical development initiative, following a review by the Cricket Strategy and Officiating Committee that identified two key priorities for West Indies cricket growth: targeted specialist technical support, and systematic strengthening of regional coaching capacity. With the 2027 Men’s ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier set to take place between February and March next year, the appointment comes at a critical time to prepare the side for upcoming global competition, while building long-term strength across the regional cricket ecosystem.