Carib Scope

标签： Barbados

巴巴多斯

  • Foursquare man gets suspended drug sentence

    Foursquare man gets suspended drug sentence

    A major drug smuggling case has concluded in a Barbados High Court, with a local man receiving a suspended custodial sentence for his role in two operations that brought more than 56 kilogrammes of cannabis into the country. Michael Williams, a resident of Foursquare Valley in St Philip, entered guilty pleas to charges of possession, drug trafficking and illegal importation of the controlled substance, marking the end of a years-long legal process tied to the 2012 and 2013 smuggling attempts.

    Court documents detail the sequence of events that led to Williams’ arrest. Acting on specific intelligence in early January 2013, local law enforcement launched a targeted surveillance operation near Bridgetown Port. Officers spotted a flatbed truck being driven by Williams and pulled the vehicle over along Prescod Boulevard. When told he was suspected of moving cannabis, Williams infamously told responding officers: “Officer, I gotta done with this. Wunna keep holding me all the time.”

    A search of the truck uncovered seven barrels and a sofa being transported by Williams. A review of his shipping documents revealed two of the barrels did not have valid gate passes to exit the port. When opened, those barrels contained 86 separate packages of cannabis, hidden inside boxes of everyday consumer goods including cornflakes, dog food, laundry detergent and pasta. The total weight of the cannabis seized from this shipment was 41.72 kilogrammes.

    While Williams was in custody, investigators turned their attention to a second unclaimed barrel that had arrived at the port the previous month and had already been flagged for suspicious activity. When authorities opened that barrel, they found an additional 63 packages of cannabis weighing 14.99 kilogrammes, tied to the earlier smuggling operation that ran between Christmas 2012 and early January 2013. Williams confessed to his involvement immediately, telling investigators he was approached to collect the shipments because he regularly handled freight movement out of Bridgetown Port.

    Presiding Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell acknowledged during sentencing that Williams only played a secondary role in the larger smuggling enterprise, but outlined multiple aggravating factors that justified a harsh starting sentence. The large total volume of cannabis, the premeditated planning involved in hiding the drugs in consumer goods, and the fact that the crimes were motivated by direct financial gain all pushed for significant prison time. Even as a secondary participant, the judge noted Williams’ role was critical to the success of the smuggling operations. Mitigating factors included the complete absence of violence in his involvement, Williams’ clean prior criminal record, his full cooperation with law enforcement, a documented low risk of reoffending, and genuine expression of remorse for his actions.

    Justice Smith-Bovell set an initial custodial sentence of eight years, then issued a series of reductions: one year off for his clean record and cooperation, with additional deductions for his early guilty plea, procedural delays in the case, and time already served in remand. The final adjusted sentence came to two years and 204 days, to run concurrently on all trafficking charges. Williams was formally reprimanded and discharged on the separate possession and importation convictions.

    Both the prosecution, led by Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale SC and State Counsel Paul Prescod, and the defense, represented by attorney Marlon Gordon, agreed that a financial fine would be inappropriate for the severity of the offenses. Ruling to suspend the entire custodial term under Section 6 of the Penal System Reform Act, Justice Smith-Bovell explained the decision was rooted in both public safety and rehabilitation goals. She emphasized that the suspended sentence would act as a permanent warning to Williams: any future offense would result in him serving the full two years and 204 days behind bars. The suspension, she added, also allows Williams to continue his rehabilitation outside of prison and reintegrate into the community as a productive member of society. As he left the court dock, Williams openly thanked the judge for the ruling.

  • Beckles: Reparations movement in ‘final phase’

    Beckles: Reparations movement in ‘final phase’

    On Thursday evening, at the opening of the Third CARICOM Regional Conference on Reparations hosted at the Wyndham Grand Sam Lord’s Castle, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, made a landmark announcement: the Caribbean’s decades-long movement for reparatory justice has reached its final stage, with the current generation fully committed to securing what they frame as full and irreversible justice for centuries of systemic harm.

    A leading historian of Caribbean slavery and colonialism, Beckles framed the current push for reparations not as a narrow regional grievance over historical injustice, but as a global moral imperative that will shape the future of equity and human rights for all peoples. He contextualized the modern campaign as the fifth major “eruption” of reparations organizing across Caribbean history, tracing earlier waves of resistance back to the era of chattel slavery itself.

    Previous efforts, from enslaved people demanding compensation for stolen labor to post-Emancipation petitions for land redistribution, were either violently suppressed or allowed to fade into inaction over generations, Beckles explained. But this moment marks a permanent shift, he told assembled delegates. “This century is going to be the century of impartial justice,” he said. “Historically the reparations debate crescendoed, declined, crescendoed and declined. We are now in the fifth wave, and our position is this is it. There will be no other rise and fall. This is the final eruption of this movement, and we are not going to retreat and let it go into a slumber for the next generation.”

    Beckles grounded the regional claim for reparations in the unique and unprecedented harm European colonial powers inflicted on the Caribbean. He emphasized that chattel slavery, the legal system that classified human beings as transferable non-human property, was invented in the Caribbean as an economic tool of mass extraction. “It was the first time in human history that an ethnic group of people, racially identified, were classified in law as property, as non-human,” he noted. “No other race on this planet has ever been classified in law as non-human property, chattel, and real estate.”

    Citing demographic data from two major former slaveholding colonies, Barbados and Jamaica, Beckles argued that the system amounted to deliberate genocide. Over the centuries of slavery, more than 600,000 enslaved Africans were trafficked to Barbados, but by the formal abolition of slavery in 1834, only 83,000 remained alive—a survival rate of less than 20 percent. In Jamaica, the toll was equally staggering: 1.5 million trafficked Africans left a population of just 300,000 at Emancipation. “How do you reduce 600,000 people over 200 years to 83,000? That is also a definition of genocide,” Beckles said. “So we need to understand it was not only chattel slavery, but genocide. Why? Because it was opportunity — you burn it up, you use it, and you replace it.”

    He also detailed the systematic eradication of the Caribbean’s Indigenous populations, noting that by the time British forces claimed Barbados in 1655, earlier Spanish and Portuguese raids had already depopulated the island’s entire network of Indigenous villages.

    The revised 10-point reparations plan unveiled at the conference is the product of 10 years of public consultation, academic analysis, and empirical review. One of the most significant updates, Beckles explained, is the explicit centering of the gender-specific violence and exploitation endured by enslaved Black women. “Chattel slavery was an institution that was built on the existence of Black women,” he said. “The laws of slavery were built around and framed around centering the Black woman as the seed of slavery. It was her womb that was enslaved. It was the enslavement of the Black woman that enabled slavery to go from generation to generation because the laws were clear: only an enslaved woman can give birth to a slave child.”

    This system of reproductive exploitation created a persistent demographic shift: Barbados became the first society in the Western Hemisphere where women outnumbered men, a majority status that has endured for more than 300 years. “We can no longer speak about slavery in generic, neutral terms,” Beckles argued. “The experiences of Black women were fundamentally different from those of men.”

    Beyond addressing historical atrocities, the updated plan reframes the reparations movement through a universal moral lens rooted in the African philosophy of Ubuntu—”I am because we are.” Beckles stressed that the Caribbean’s fight for reparations carries a broader global responsibility: to entrench global equity and prevent the systematic degradation of any marginalized group in the future. “We have a higher responsibility to the world,” he said. “We are not struggling for reparatory justice only because of our personal ethnic situation; we have a duty to humanity. Justice for us, security for humanity — that is the framework.”

    Beckles pointed to a recent United Nations General Assembly resolution as proof that the global community has already validated the historical and moral case for reparations. On March 25, 123 UN member states voted in favor of a resolution classifying the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity.” For Beckles, this vote means the foundational work has been completed, and it is time for formal negotiations with European powers that built their wealth on Caribbean slavery. “The case for reparatory justice has been made,” he declared. “The United Nations is the court; they have said the case is made, the guilt is clear, the responsibility is clear. Let the negotiations begin.”

    Following Beckles’ opening address, Jasmine Mickens, director of the Global Africa Reparations and Restitution Fund and master of ceremonies for the conference, praised the CARICOM campaign as the most significant political movement of the 21st century. “Movements require both political imagination and unapologetic intellectual leadership, which Professor Beckles has always provided,” Mickens said. “Reparations is a conversation about the imagination of new worlds. It is a project of both preserving memory, but also deciding whose version of the future do we want to live in.”

  • Indigenous chief presses for stronger role in reparations movement

    Indigenous chief presses for stronger role in reparations movement

    At the opening of the third international reparations conference hosted under the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) initiative, a top Caribbean indigenous leader has issued a urgent call: indigenous communities must occupy a core, central role in the region’s fight for reparations for colonial crimes, rather than being sidelined as an afterthought in political and public relations processes.

    Delivering the address on behalf of Ricardo Bharath Hernandez, chair of the Caribbean Organisation of Indigenous Peoples (COIP), Damon Gerard Corrie—Taíno Chief, leader of the Barbados Chapter of the United Confederation of Taíno People, and co-president of the Caribbean Amerindian Development Organisation—brought the collective demands of the region’s original inhabitants to the gathering. The conference itself forms a key part of CARICOM’s long-running campaign to secure reparations for two interconnected crimes of colonialism: the transatlantic trafficking and enslavement of African peoples, and the systematic genocide of the Caribbean’s native populations that followed European invasion in the 15th and 16th centuries.

    Corrie framed the push for historical reparatory justice as a unified struggle, linking the experiences of indigenous survivors and the descendants of enslaved Africans. He opened his remarks by acknowledging the ancestral nature of the land hosting the conference, paying homage to indigenous ancestors who built the Caribbean’s first thriving civilizations before European arrival.

    The devastating toll of European conquest cannot be overstated, Corrie emphasized. Invasion brought systemic violence, forced displacement, chattel enslavement, widespread disease, and the complete destruction of indigenous political and social structures, triggering catastrophic population collapse across the Caribbean and neighboring Guyana. While indigenous communities and their descendants survived centuries of oppression, many continue to face systemic marginalization today: insecure land tenure, lack of formal recognition for customary territorial claims, exclusion from consultation for extractive industry projects on traditional lands, and unequal access to basic public services. In Guyana, these struggles remain particularly acute, tied directly to ongoing conflicts over mining access and control of ancestral territories.

    Corrie paid tribute to the traditional indigenous chiefs, or Kaikhs, who led centuries of resistance against colonial violence, pushing back against efforts to erase the realities of the atrocities that accompanied European contact. He linked historical genocide to the intergenerational trauma that continues to shape indigenous communities today. “Many of our peoples were utterly destroyed in genocidal warmongering launched by Christopher Columbus and the European colonizers who followed him,” Corrie said. “The unimaginable horrors our ancestors suffered throughout the centuries still linger in us. We are their descendants, carrying unresolved intergenerational trauma. Standing together with our African brothers and sisters, we unite in demanding reparatory justice, for we are all the living evidence of the greatest crime in recorded human history.”

    The conference’s focus on reparatory justice must act as a active call to action, not just symbolic rhetoric, Corrie argued. While he praised CARICOM for its consistent political and financial support for the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) since the body was established in 2013—positioning the regional bloc on the right side of history, he noted—he issued a sharp caution to national governments: indigenous leaders must not be reduced to window dressing for public relations campaigns.

    “Reparations must start in the territories of the indigenous survivors,” Corrie stressed. “Please do not merely invite us into the process as a public relations afterthought.”

    Corrie also challenged widespread historical misconceptions about indigenous enslavement, pointing out that Amerindian peoples were not only the first populations subjected to chattel slavery in the Western Hemisphere, but also among the last. He highlighted the system of forced indigenous labor on European rubber plantations in the Amazon’s Putumayo province, which continued well into the 20th century, only ending in 1926.

    Despite the existence of international frameworks designed to protect indigenous rights, Corrie noted that indigenous voices across the Caribbean remain systematically suppressed, leaving communities marginalized and disproportionately landless. He called on CARICOM member states to fully implement International Labour Convention 169 and the 2007 American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as mandatory minimum standards for governance of indigenous affairs.

    “Survivors of these crimes against humanity remain traumatized, often landless, and are the most marginalized social group within the region,” Corrie said. “We submit that despite international declarations, the indigenous voice remains largely ignored, and more often than we want to believe, aggressively suppressed.”

    As CARICOM prepares to relaunch its revised 10-point reparations plan, Corrie called for a dedicated indigenous peoples development program to be fully integrated into every level of the regional strategy. Such investment, he said, is essential to address centuries of systemic neglect and create conditions for indigenous communities to thrive. He also appealed to regional governments to launch public education and advocacy campaigns to build broad public support for the reparations cause across Caribbean society.

    “We call on CARICOM governments, who are charged with the responsibility to initiate reparatory justice programmes, to educate, motivate, and inspire the people of our collective and united Caribbean civilisation,” Corrie said. “We must ensure that present and future generations realise the full benefit from the human efforts being made on their behalf.”

    To contextualize the ongoing struggle, the Taíno—an Arawakan-speaking indigenous group—migrated to the Caribbean from northern South America more than 2,000 years ago. By the time of European contact, Taíno communities were the dominant population across the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, and parts of the northern Lesser Antilles, building settled, complex societies centered on cassava cultivation, fishing, trade, craft production, and traditional chiefly governance.

    Barbados, the host of this year’s conference, sits at the eastern edge of the historical indigenous Caribbean world. Archaeological evidence documents successive waves of Amerindian settlement across the island, from Chancery Lane in Christ Church to Heywoods in St Peter, with remains of Saladoid, Troumassoid, and later Suazoid cultural traditions. Historians and archaeologists note that pre-colonial Barbados had its own distinct, evolving cultural patterns, so the island cannot be simplified as solely a “Taíno island.” By the time English settlers colonized Barbados in 1627, no indigenous population remained on the island.

  • Antigua and Barbuda Falcons book first CPL final spot

    Antigua and Barbuda Falcons book first CPL final spot

    In a stunning display of dominance at Bridgetown’s Kensington Oval on Thursday, the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons wrote their name into Caribbean Premier League (CPL) history, becoming the first side to punch their ticket to this year’s T20 tournament final with a comprehensive nine-wicket victory over the Guyana Amazon Warriors. A tournament breakout for the relatively new franchise, the win was anchored by two standout performances from Player-of-the-Match Shadab Khan, who tore through the Warriors’ batting lineup, and all-rounder Rahkeem Cornwall, who turned a modest run chase into a highlight-reel demolition with a blistering innings.

    Sent in to bat first by the Falcons, the Guyana Amazon Warriors got off to a shaky start, posting 36 for one at the conclusion of the mandatory powerplay, with opener Mavendra Dindyal back in the pavilion for 11 runs. By the end of the seventh over, the Warriors had steadied the ship to reach 40 without further loss, and it looked as though they might build a competitive total. What followed instead was one of the most dramatic collapses in recent CPL history: the side lost eight wickets for just nine runs, crashing to 49 for nine in the 11th over before being bowled out all out for 76 in the 15th over. Only a late 27-run last-wicket stand between fast bowlers Romario Shepherd and Shamar Joseph saved the Warriors from an even more embarrassing low score. Glenn Phillips and Shai Hope topped the Warriors’ batting chart with just 16 runs apiece.

    For the Falcons, the bowling attack was led by spin, with Shadab Khan claiming an incredible four wickets for only 16 runs, while Sufyan Moqim matched his wicket haul, finishing with four for 14 from his own allocation. The devastating spin attack left the Warriors’ batting lineup completely unable to cope with the pressure on a good batting wicket.

    Chasing a tiny target of 77 to secure their place in the final, the Falcons did not waste any time. Opening batter Rahkeem Cornwall put on a six-hitting clinic, blasting an unbeaten 49 from only 16 deliveries, including six maximums and three boundaries. Fellow opener Evin Lewis chipped in with an unbeaten 23 from 13 balls, and the Falcons reached their required total in just the sixth over of their reply, finishing at 77 for one to seal the lopsided win.

    Speaking after the match, Falcons captain Moeen Ali admitted he had harbored quiet doubts heading into the qualifier, after his side had almost a week off from competitive play. “I’m very happy that we’ve made it to the final with that sort of performance,” Ali said. “It would’ve been amazing if it was in the final. But I was a bit apprehensive, obviously. We haven’t played for seven, eight days and you’re not sure exactly what you’re going to get from the guys, but we were amazing.”

    Shadab Khan echoed his captain’s praise for the bowling unit, noting: “I thought the bowlers did an amazing job on a good wicket actually. Then the spinners in the middle just ripped through them.”

    Sunday’s final will mark the first time the Antigua and Barbuda Falcons franchise has reached the title decider, and Ali says the side is motivated to bring the trophy home for their passionate fanbase back in the twin islands. “A big part of it is to make them happy and proud of us. If we can have one more big push, because the support we got in Antigua was actually amazing for us. They have an amazing passion for the game and they really want us to do well. We feel like part of the family and it’s amazing to have that feeling.”

    For the Guyana Amazon Warriors, the campaign is not over yet. They will get a second chance at qualification when they face the Jamaica Kingsmen in the second qualifier on Friday, with the winner earning the second spot in Sunday’s final. Warriors captain Imran Tahir says his side is focused on redeeming themselves for their supporters, who traveled in large numbers from Guyana and the United States to watch the match. “I think only the promise is that we’re going to come back and we won’t let them down,” Tahir said. “I’m just really sorry, you know, they come in massive numbers from the USA and Guyana. So you know, we have to put in a very big performance for them.”

  • National school nutrition in Barbados

    National school nutrition in Barbados

    For any child stepping into a classroom, the first and most foundational challenge to learning is not a difficult curriculum or an unfamiliar lesson—it is an empty stomach. The developing brain, which accounts for roughly 20% of the body’s total energy expenditure, cannot function at full capacity when a child skips their morning meal. This basic unmet need translates directly to tangible learning barriers: shortened attention spans, weakened memory retention, and diminished cognitive endurance that no skilled teaching or well-designed curriculum can overcome. It is against this backdrop that the full national rollout of the National School Breakfast Programme by Barbados’ Ministry of Education Transformation stands as one of the most impactful victories for public education in the country’s recent history.

    This universal free breakfast initiative for all nursery and primary school students across Barbados directly dismantles one of the most fundamental, yet often overlooked, barriers to educational access. Nutrition is not an ancillary concern—it is a non-negotiable prerequisite for effective teaching and strong student performance. Beyond the classroom, the programme also acts as a critical tool for advancing socio-economic equity. Discussions of educational equity often center on access to textbooks, digital devices, and upgraded infrastructure, but the true baseline of student potential is physical well-being. When every child, regardless of their household income or family background, starts the school day with adequate nourishment, the playing field for learning becomes dramatically more level. A universal access model also eliminates the social stigma that often comes with targeted state food assistance, allowing all families to access the benefit without shame, making the programme a truly inclusive public resource.

    While this policy shift is undeniably transformative and worthy of celebration, translating a bold policy announcement into consistent, effective daily delivery across dozens of schools requires honest, ongoing evaluation of implementation challenges. Celebrating the Ministry of Education Transformation for launching this initiative does not require ignoring the practical hurdles that come with scaling large-scale social programmes. For the programme to reach its full potential, four key operational areas demand deliberate, sustained scrutiny.

    First and most critical is the balance between nutritional quality and the pressures of mass production. When catering thousands of meals daily, operational pressures naturally push providers toward options that prioritize convenience, long shelf life, and speed of preparation over optimal nutrition. It is all too common for large-scale catering operations to fall back on heavily processed foods and ultra-palatable high-carbohydrate options that quiet immediate hunger but fail to deliver sustained energy. A breakfast heavy in refined sugars and simple starches may fill a child’s stomach, but it will trigger a mid-morning glucose crash that leaves students sluggish and unfocused just a few hours after the start of class. For the programme to deliver on its promise, every meal must consistently provide complex carbohydrates, lean proteins, and the full range of essential micronutrients that support steady cognitive function.

    Serving fresh, high-quality whole food on a national scale does come with a higher per-meal cost than relying on cheap processed alternatives. This reality makes two factors non-negotiable: long-term partnerships with local Barbadian farms, and sustained, protected public funding for the programme. This conversation around breakfast nutrition also ties directly to the broader national conversation about school food policy that Barbados is already having. The Ministry of Education Transformation has already introduced a National School Nutrition Policy, alongside an approved list of snack options intended to guide healthier choices in schools. While these efforts represent important progress, they highlight a lingering gap in how the system evaluates what counts as healthy food. Many products marketed as “healthy” or “fortified” hide high levels of added sugar, excess sodium, and artificial additives behind misleading labeling. Even on the current approved snack list, many options fail to meet genuine nutritional standards, revealing that the education system is still learning to cut through corporate marketing and decode modern food labeling accurately. This serves as a critical lesson for the breakfast programme: policy compliance is meaningless if the policy itself relies on outdated definitions of nutritious food. To address this, the programme should add independent oversight from certified clinical nutritionists, and publish weekly school menus publicly for community review, ensuring meals meet a strict standard of whole-food nutrition rather than just checking administrative boxes.

    Beyond the content of the meals themselves, the supply chain that powers the programme requires ongoing evaluation. Sourcing ingredients for a national programme demands a resilient, reliable logistics network—and this rollout presents a unique opportunity to build direct, mutually beneficial partnerships with local Barbadian farmers and agricultural cooperatives. Sourcing fresh, locally grown produce for school meals does more than improve meal quality and cut reliance on imported processed goods: it reinvests public funds directly back into the Barbadian local economy, supporting small-scale agriculture and strengthening local communities. Maintaining consistent, seamless supply chains that avoid unexpected shortages or drops in quality will be essential to ensuring every student in every parish receives their daily breakfast without interruption.

    The third key consideration is aligning menus with student preferences, dietary needs, and broader household dynamics. A breakfast programme is only effective if students actually eat the food provided. To avoid widespread food waste, programme administrators will need to actively collect student feedback, track consumption patterns, and adjust menus dynamically to reflect what children enjoy and will eat. If certain nutritious items are consistently rejected, the programme must be agile enough to swap them for alternatives rather than letting public funds go to waste. Beyond menu adjustments, the programme also needs a clear plan for safe surplus food redistribution. At the end of each morning, unserved safe food is inevitable when student attendance fluctuates. In a country where many vulnerable community members and unhoused people face ongoing food insecurity, letting this nutritious surplus go to waste would be a missed opportunity to expand the programme’s social good. Establishing clear, food-safe protocols for redistributing surplus meals through partnerships with local shelters, community organizations, and food banks would ensure every meal prepared serves a purpose, even when demand is lower than expected.

    Crucially, school food does not exist separate from home life. A child’s taste preferences and dietary habits are shaped most strongly by the foods they eat at home. If a child is not used to eating whole, unprocessed foods, they are far more likely to reject the nutritious options offered at school. This is where families can play a critical supporting role: parents can help children build new habits by limiting sugary beverages at home, introducing a wider range of whole food flavors, and encouraging children to try the new wholesome options offered through the school programme. School meals provide an essential foundational baseline, but lasting dietary change for children requires intentional partnership between home and school.

    Finally, this large-scale public intervention requires long-term budgetary protection to remain effective. National economic conditions will always fluctuate, but a child’s need for daily nourishment does not change with fiscal cycles. Protecting the National School Breakfast Programme’s budget from future austerity cuts or administrative shifting is paramount. This programme must be treated as a permanent, non-negotiable pillar of Barbados’ national educational infrastructure, not a disposable temporary initiative.

    Investing in student nutrition delivers long-term dividends that extend far beyond improved test scores. It shapes consistent classroom focus, better long-term health outcomes, and lifelong healthy eating habits that benefit individuals and the entire nation. By celebrating this bold, transformative initiative while holding the line on strong implementation standards for nutritional quality, surplus food redistribution, and home-school alignment, Barbados can turn a simple daily morning meal into a powerful engine for long-term national educational success.

  • Diaspora group seeks smoother donations to schools

    Diaspora group seeks smoother donations to schools

    A diaspora organization connecting Barbados communities in Southern California is pushing for simplified, more direct donation channels to support educational institutions across Barbados, citing persistent logistical barriers that have derailed past efforts to deliver critical school supplies. The public appeal was delivered Wednesday by association president Gregory Chase during an awards celebration at St Philip Primary School, located in Barbados’ Church Village. The event honored high-achieving students and educators after the school posted standout results in the national Barbados Secondary Schools’ Entrance Examination, with awards distributed by Selwyn Holder, a successful local businessman and St Philip Primary alumnus.

    Chase opened his remarks by outlining the association’s longstanding commitment to supporting St Philip Primary, stretching back several years. In their earliest outreach, the group set out to ship classroom supplies from the U.S. to the island campus, but unforeseen shipping delays, customs bottlenecks, and prohibitive costs made the model unworkable. “First, we tried providing supplies, and the logistics became prohibitive,” Chase explained. Faced with these barriers, the organization pivoted its strategy, opting to partner with the local Lions Club to fund the school’s Great Start breakfast programme – a shift that has delivered consistent, tangible results for students.

    For association members, the breakfast initiative has emerged as a cornerstone of the group’s charitable mission. “Of all the things that we do in the Barbados Association of Southern California, it is this programme that gets our membership most animated, and I thank them for their support,” Chase said. He added that the organization centers its humanitarian and educational outreach on two key groups: people living with disabilities, and young people with ambitious goals who are working to lift their local communities. The association also stands ready to collaborate with any individual or local group working to drive positive, sustainable change across the island, he noted.

    Addressing the gathered students, Chase emphasized the enduring support the Barbadian diaspora in the U.S. offers to the next generation of island leaders. “I want to tell you, you have friends in America. You have friends in Washington, DC. You have friends in Southern California. And I hope that you make use of those friendships,” he said. He praised school leaders including Mrs Bhamjee and Mrs Daniel for their work, noting that the school’s strong recent exam results prove the ongoing cross-border support is already delivering meaningful outcomes. Chase also encouraged students to stay dedicated to their long-term goals, even when faced with unexpected obstacles.

    During his speech, Chase paid special tribute to Holder, the event’s award presenter and St Philip Primary graduate, praising him for leveraging his business success to give back to his alma mater and the broader community. Calling Holder a “son of this soil and a product of this school,” Chase noted that the alumnus has remained deeply committed to supporting the campus that launched his career. “He has not held back from his success as a businessman,” Chase said. “I urge you to embrace his charity work, and to take him seriously and to honour his contribution, because really and truly, he is a rock star.”

  • Attorneys raise concerns over compulsory judge-alone trials

    Attorneys raise concerns over compulsory judge-alone trials

    A heated debate over proposed criminal justice reforms in Barbados has emerged after the nation’s top judge called for sweeping changes to trial procedures, drawing sharp criticism from two senior defence attorneys who warn the changes would erode long-held protections for accused people.

    During the official opening of the 2024 legal year on Monday, Chief Justice Leslie Haynes told attendees at the No. 1 Supreme Court that Barbados should scrap the longstanding requirement that defendants give consent before their case is heard by a judge alone instead of a citizen jury. Haynes argued that the existing consent rule undermines the core intent of the current judge-alone trial legislation. Pointing to policy frameworks already adopted in other nations, he recommended the change particularly for drug and firearms possession offences, framing the shift as a way to speed up court processes while still upholding core principles of fairness.

    “Judge-alone trials can deliver the efficient administration of justice we need, while keeping fairness and equity at the centre of the process,” Haynes said in his address.

    But Verla De Peiza, one of the defence attorneys speaking out against the proposal, says forcing compulsory judge-alone trials would put Barbados in an outlier position globally. After reviewing trial policies across dozens of jurisdictions, De Peiza noted only a small number of countries require all defendants to face judge-only trials in specific case types. She pointed to context-specific reforms in other nations: South Africa scrapped jury trials entirely to address systemic racial bias in jury selection, while New Zealand only imposes compulsory judge-alone trials for low-level, less serious offences. No major common law nation has adopted the broad change Haynes is proposing, she argued.

    De Peiza warned the proposal is just the latest in a series of incremental changes that have steadily chipped away at fundamental fair trial protections, including the presumption of innocence that forms the backbone of common law criminal justice. She outlined a string of recent shifts, including cuts to the right of unsworn statements, restrictions on the right to silence, the introduction of mandatory minimum sentencing, tighter bail rules, and a pending parliamentary bill that would expand how previous convictions can be used during sentencing.

    “Drip by drip, these changes whittle away at protections that have existed for centuries,” De Peiza told local outlet Barbados TODAY. “It increasingly feels like the priority is securing convictions and improving clear-up rates, not delivering actual justice – and that is deeply concerning.” She also criticised the government’s approach to criminal justice reform as fragmented and reactionary, saying changes are being made piecemeal rather than as part of a comprehensive, consultative overhaul. Instead of scrapping long-tested legal principles, De Peiza called for a full public consultation to draft a new, unified national criminal code.

    Fellow defence attorney Shadia Simpson echoed those concerns, noting that nearly all recent criminal justice reforms in Barbados have tilted heavily in favour of the prosecution and the state, steadily reducing the procedural rights defendants rely on to secure a fair trial. While Simpson acknowledged that judge-alone trials offer clear benefits for certain types of cases – including those involving complex legal questions or extensive negative pre-trial publicity that could prejudice a jury – she stressed that defendants should retain the right to choose their trial format.

    Simpson noted that jury trials offer unique advantages for many accused people, giving them the opportunity to be judged by a panel of peers from their community. “Juries reduce the risk of individual judicial bias or prejudice, and defendants should absolutely have the right to choose that option,” she said.

    In his opening address, Chief Justice Haynes also noted that most major common law countries including the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia have already eliminated defendants’ right to make an unsworn statement from the dock, and Barbados is currently considering the same change. But Simpson defended retaining the right, arguing it can be a critical lifeline for vulnerable defendants. She noted that for unrepresented accused people or those with limited formal education, the courtroom environment is often deeply intimidating. An unsworn statement allows these defendants to lay out their version of events without interruption, and in a setting that lets them speak more calmly and clearly than they would under cross-examination. For many defendants, it is the only opportunity they get to share their side of the story with the court, she added.

    Despite their strong opposition to the proposed changes to trial procedure and unsworn statement rules, the two attorneys found common ground on another proposed reform: the creation of a dedicated Public Defenders’ Office. Both backed the plan as a critical step to improve access to legal representation and tackle the growing backlog of criminal cases clogging Barbados’ courts.

    De Peiza explained that the current legal aid fee structure has not been updated in more than 20 years, making it impossible to attract young, new lawyers to work criminal cases. A dedicated Public Defenders’ Office would offer salaried positions for early-career attorneys, while also providing structured mentorship from more experienced practitioners to help them build their skills. “This would also go a long way toward easing the backlog we currently face, because right now we have far too few lawyers working at the criminal bar,” she said.

    Simpson agreed, noting that a dedicated public defender system would offer much-needed job security to incentivize young lawyers to enter criminal practice. More working criminal defense attorneys would directly translate to faster resolution of pending cases, clearing the backlog more quickly than any other policy change, she argued. However, Simpson cast doubt on the idea that simply increasing funding for the existing Community Legal Services Department would deliver the same result, noting that most defendants seeking legal aid specifically request to be represented by more experienced attorneys, a gap the current system cannot fill.

  • Media urged to put children before the story in disaster coverage

    Media urged to put children before the story in disaster coverage

    As climate change intensifies the frequency and severity of natural disasters across the Caribbean, a landmark two-day regional training workshop held in Saint Lucia has called on local journalists to rethink long-held disaster reporting practices, shifting the focus from breaking speed to ethical protection of at-risk populations, particularly children.

    Organized with support from regional humanitarian and development partners, the workshop brought together 17 journalists and information officers from eight Caribbean nations: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. The training concluded on Thursday, designed to address a long-overlooked gap in responsible disaster coverage.

    Julius Gittens, a veteran Caribbean journalist and principal consultant of Herald Media Partners Limited who facilitated the workshop, opened the gathering by challenging the core narrative that has guided newsroom disaster coverage for decades. He emphasized that disasters are not just newsworthy events to be claimed by the fastest outlet—they are human crises that demand respect for the rights, dignity, and privacy of the people affected. This responsibility, he stressed, carries extra weight when reporting on children, who are disproportionately harmed by disasters and uniquely vulnerable to traumatic re-exposure through irresponsible media coverage.

    “Disasters are not merely events to be covered. They involve very vulnerable groups,” Gittens said during the workshop. “In the case that has brought us here for this workshop, children, they have a right to the protection of their persons. They have a right to dignity and, in particular circumstances, they certainly have a right to privacy.”

    Gittens outlined core principles for ethical reporting, arguing that all decisions around interviewing child survivors, obtaining informed consent, and sharing traumatic experiences must prioritize the child’s well-being, not a media outlet’s audience or scoop. “We are mindful of operating always in the best interest of the child, not in the best interest of the media house,” he told local outlet Barbados TODAY in an interview after the workshop.

    Beyond child protection, Gittens also pushed back against the long-standing newsroom culture that prioritizes being the first to publish a story during emergencies. In the chaotic aftermath of a disaster, when access to affected areas is limited and accurate information is critical for survival, rescue, and recovery, Gittens argued that credibility and shared access matter far more than speed. “It is not important to be first or to be the only media house covering that story. It’s important that everyone has access to that information and that that information is credible,” he said.

    He also noted that professional journalists now work in a fragmented media landscape where misinformation and deliberate disinformation spread rapidly across unregulated social media platforms. A common tactic bad actors use, he explained, is recycling old images from past disasters to inflate current damage and spread panic. In response, the workshop provided participating journalists with hands-on training in tools and techniques to verify user-generated content and information submitted by members of the public before publication.

    Many participants left the training with a new perspective on gaps in their own past disaster reporting. Demion McTair, a veteran disaster reporter and founder of St Vincent-based One News, who covered events including 2024’s Hurricane Beryl, shared that he had long avoided including children in his coverage out of uncertainty about how to approach them ethically. “Most of my coverage didn’t include children because I didn’t really know how to cover them,” McTair told Barbados TODAY. “This workshop opened my eyes as to how many things we miss when we don’t cover children, and children are some of the most impacted people in the aftermath of disasters.”

    McTair added that the training also raised his awareness of how small editorial choices, such as the angle of a photograph of a child survivor, can shape harmful public perceptions and harm the child long after the disaster ends. He recommended that similar specialized training be extended to photojournalists, who often make critical on-the-ground decisions about representing vulnerable survivors.

    Seigonie Mohammed, Climate Change Editor at Trinidad and Tobago’s CNC3, echoed McTair’s feedback, noting that the workshop pushed participants to strike a better balance between the public’s right to information and the moral obligation to protect the most vulnerable survivors. “It really does push us to be better journalists and be better for the people that we serve and give them the information that they need while protecting those that we need to protect the most,” she said.

    Keith Goddard, Communications and Public Relations Specialist at the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), praised the high level of engagement from participating journalists, who brought candid perspectives on gaps in collaboration between media and humanitarian organizations during emergencies. The discussions, Goddard said, provided responding agencies with valuable feedback on what support journalists need from humanitarian groups to do their work effectively during crises.

    Looking ahead, Goddard said the next critical step is to expand the training to newsroom leadership, as editors and managers ultimately make the final calls on what coverage gets published and what editorial standards are enforced. “We need to begin to take this information or take this training forward, focus more on the editors and managers of the newsroom,” he said.

    Clive Murray, UNICEF’s Climate, Environment, Energy and Disaster Risk Reduction Specialist for the region, described the workshop as “very engaging and thought-provoking,” particularly its focus on balancing timely public information with ethical reporting that protects child survivors’ rights. Murray added that UNICEF was encouraged by the strong interest journalists showed in the organization’s research on climate change’s impacts on the region, which was presented on the workshop’s first day, and the subsequent cross-regional media coverage of those findings.

    “We look forward to continuing the engagement and strengthening the partnership with the media on important matters such as climate change impacts on children, young people and families across the region,” Murray said.

  • National Sneaker Day next Friday, September 25

    National Sneaker Day next Friday, September 25

    Barbadians are gearing up to trade professional dress shoes and formal school footwear for casual, comfortable sneakers on Friday, September 25, when the island nation hosts its 2026 National Sneaker Day. Spearheaded by the country’s Ministry of Health and Wellness, the event marks a return after its launch as part of National Wellness Month, with a core mission to encourage people of all ages to integrate more low-effort physical movement into their regular work and school routines.

    This year’s campaign, carrying the rallying slogan “Lace Up. Get Moving,” aims to break down common barriers to staying active throughout busy daily schedules. Organizers are urging participants to get creative with small, accessible bursts of movement: opting for the stairs instead of elevators, doing gentle stretching at their desks during work breaks, taking brisk walking trips around the office block or neighborhood, jogging in place while waiting for meetings to start, or even having quick impromptu dance sessions to boost energy and activity levels.

    The centerpiece of the 2026 event is the National Sneaker Day Challenge, a social media-focused contest that offers participants the chance to win a diverse range of experience-based prizes just for joining in. The contest rules are straightforward and designed to be accessible to anyone who wants to take part. First, participants wear their sneakers with their regular work or school outfit for the entire day. Next, they incorporate intentional movement into their daily activities as encouraged by the campaign. After that, they capture their activity with a photo or short video. Finally, they post the content to Instagram between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on September 25, include the official hashtag #BBSneakerDay2026, tag the non-communicable disease commission’s account @ncdcommissionbarbados, and follow the Ministry of Health’s official account @mohbarbados to be eligible for the prize draw.

    The list of prizes up for grabs caters to a wide range of interests, from wellness-focused rewards to leisure and adventure experiences. Prizes include single-day attraction passes paired with buffet breakfast for two, complimentary two-day passes to local gyms, a full guided outdoor experience at Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary covering both the popular Nature Trail Tour and the Mangrove Princess Boat Ride, entry tickets for the iconic Atlantis Submarine excursion, and passes to a public rollerskating demonstration.

    Winners of the 2026 National Sneaker Day Challenge will be publicly announced on Friday, October 9, via the official Instagram accounts of @ncdcommissionbarbados and @mohbarbados. The event aligns with the Ministry of Health and Wellness’s ongoing public outreach efforts to reduce rates of non-communicable diseases, which are closely linked to sedentary lifestyles, by making daily physical activity approachable, fun, and rewarding for the entire Barbadian community.

  • Tent Bay assessment ‘underway’ as fishers await haul-out facility

    Tent Bay assessment ‘underway’ as fishers await haul-out facility

    Barbados’ Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Fisheries Santia Bradshaw has formally confirmed that technical and fisheries teams are currently conducting a full assessment to map out the required scope of work and projected funding for restoring the aging haul-out facilities at Tent Bay, a move that comes after local fishing representatives raised urgent alarms over accelerating shoreline erosion and repeated structural failures of existing infrastructure last month.

    The official review was triggered after Moonesh Dharampaul, president of the Black Fin Fleet Co-operative Society, publicly highlighted the growing risks fishers face from disappearing shoreline and the lack of functional, safe facilities to pull vessels out of the water. Bradshaw noted that the Fisheries Division has partnered with engineering experts from the Scotland District road infrastructure project to evaluate the site and outline a clear path forward, building on her past experience leading the public works portfolio when the Scotland District upgrade was first launched.

    “The chief fisheries officer and our entire fisheries team are on the ground working through every detail of the Tent Bay situation,” Bradshaw explained in a recent statement. “Given my previous role at the Ministry of Public Works, I know that the Scotland District project team, which oversaw the regional road upgrade, has deep local knowledge of this coastline, so our officials are now in active discussions with both the ministry and the project leadership to address the concerns that fishers have brought forward.”
    Bradshaw emphasized that the Tent Bay site has a decades-long history of failed engineering attempts to support local fishing and marine traffic. She revealed that multiple haul-out structures have been constructed at the location over the years, but past projects likely skipped critical preliminary geotechnical and coastal assessments, resulting in repeated structural collapse that has left the facility unusable for many fishers today.

    Complicating the restoration effort, the original Scotland District road upgrade initiative never included allocations or planning for marine infrastructure improvements at Tent Bay, meaning a full independent assessment is required before any public funding can be allocated to the project. “The Scotland District project was always focused on road improvements, not haul-out facility upgrades, so our fisheries team has to start from scratch to figure out exactly what this site needs, and how much public investment will be required to properly restore it,” Bradshaw said.

    The minister also cautioned that any immediate work at Tent Bay must be balanced against the island’s broader national budget constraints and existing commitments to large-scale coastal infrastructure projects across Barbados. The government currently has active maritime infrastructure upgrades underway at multiple sites, including Conset Bay, where a contract for a new boat yard facility has already been awarded, alongside planned upgrades to the local community centre and the main landing site and associated buildings.

    Bradshaw made clear that the Mia Mottley administration cannot address every long-standing gap in the country’s maritime infrastructure in a single budget cycle, and appealed to Tent Bay’s fishing community for patience as the government works through competing priorities. “We simply can’t deliver upgrades to every facility across the island all at once,” she stated. “We’ve asked stakeholders to understand that we face both operational capacity limits and significant financial constraints that require us to phase projects. Even the planned upgrades to the Oistins facility required securing international funding to move forward, which demonstrates the scale of the investment we’re working with.”

    While Bradshaw reaffirmed that Tent Bay’s restoration remains on the government’s long-term list of priorities, she noted that immediate national focus has shifted to post-disaster recovery work following Hurricane Beryl, and to expanding safe shelter facilities for fishing vessels along vulnerable coastlines to prevent repeated destruction during future severe weather events.

    “Tent Bay is absolutely on our radar, but right now we have prioritized sites that suffered severe damage from Hurricane Beryl, as well as coastal locations on the eastern side of the island that can provide safe harbour for large numbers of fishing vessels,” she explained. “If another storm like Beryl hits, we need to give boat owners the ability to pull their vessels up onto safe shore along the eastern coast, so we don’t see a repeat of the widespread vessel destruction we saw last year.”