For the next four days, Needham’s Point will be Barbados’ own version of Fort Knox.

With the president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, and representatives from all 15 CARICOM member states converging on Barbados from today for the second ever Mexico-CARICOM Summit, Hilton Barbados is expected to be the most secure place in Barbados.

This weekend’s event has triggered a massive security undertaking, to be led by the Royal Barbados Police Force.

Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Erwin Boyce revealed yesterday that the summit would be catered to by uniformed and plainclothes police, as well as a tactical response team.

http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/security-tight/

POLICE ARE INVESTIGATING the apparent suicide of a 51-year-old United States Embassy security official.

The body of American George Gaines, a Caucasian male, was found at White Sands Beach, Dover, Christ Church, around 8:30 a.m. yesterday with a bullet wound to the head.

The discovery was met by an immediate response from United States government officials, including Chargé d’Affaires for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Christopher Sandrolini, who was among those gathering at the scene.

When a team from the Sunday SUN arrived, Gaines’ body, partially covered with a white sheet and clad in khaki pants, white socks and suede boots, lay a few feet away from the sea, in a bushy area of the beach.

http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/embassy-man-found-dead/

A 41-year-old St Michael man is to appear in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court today on charges of indecently assaulting four boys.

St Elmo Wilbert Lewis of Clevedale Road, Black Rock, is accused of committing the molestation between January and June 1.

The victims are between five to seven years old.

Lewis is also accused of loitering with intent to commit a similar act while at Rockley, Christ Church last week.
Reports indicated that a group of men aggressively subdued him before he was arrested by lawmen.


Nation

5/18/2012

While some changes must be made to the current voluntaristic system, moving towards a total legalistic system is not the way to go for Barbados.

This is the consensus reached by the four panellists at the panel discussion on “Voluntarism or State Regulations: The Way Forward for Barbados”, held recently at the Grand Salle.

One of these panellists Cedric Murrell, CTUSAB President, said that they were able to recognise a “linear equation” and a utopian concept can also be considered. “At the end of the day, all of these systems are managed, controlled and cemented by men and women who are fallen with the grace of God. Essentially speaking, we have to accept that there will be the tensions of people interacting.”

With regards to the mute, he said that we have to examine our societies “very closely” and the evening’s discussion talked about the current industrial relations construct that Barbados has and whether or not it should be changed and they agreed that there should be some change.

He also stated that “we are sweeping some of these things under the carpet and we need to bring them out into the light because if we don’t, one of these days we are going to wake up and find that we don’t have a country”.

Another panellist, Gail Springer, BEC Representative, said that the concept of industrial relations and employment relations is not a clear-cut issue and this is why she doesn’t like strict regulation or legislation because after all is said and done, you still have to go and work with those people.

“At the end of the day, you still have to go back and ... live with those people … so if you have a dispute with the people, you still have to find a way of managing them, you still have to find a way of motivating them to make them productive and to get the outcome at the end of the day that you want from the business.”

She said an employer can have a dispute with his/her employees and run to a lawyer and get a decision either way, but then there are still those who have to come back into the business.

Therefore, she said that whatever system is implemented, it must be one that the business and its productivity as well as the livelihood of the employees, who are still working in the company, are all addressed.

She believes that the best solution is to incorporate the current voluntaristic system with other things rather than going to a completely legalistic system because the latter would not work in Barbados given our history.

Vincent Burnett, Chief Labour Officer, said that dialogue is important and while the voluntaristic system has its advantages and disadvantages, a completely legalistic system is not the answer. Rather, we must address those areas that are absent from our current system and put these mechanisms in place.

Lawrence Nurse, UWI Lecturer, said that any changes to the existing system must still take into account “the exercise of voice and agency. It must respect property rights of employers within the right to run an efficient business as well as the human rights of labourers”.

“It should also foster a positive employment relations climate and we can find a correct system by experimenting with different approaches for managing the workplace under changing circumstances and whatever system we choose, it should not be a bureaucratic system, but instead one that is flexible.” (PJT)

The head of the Barbados Workers’ Union, Sir Roy Trotman, is threatening to call out his troops for what he describes as an act of unfair dismissal, by an “Egyptian Jew” of 20 jewellery store employees.

The workers, said Sir Roy, were fired on Monday after they attended a weekend meeting to decide if they should establish a bargaining unit at their workplace.

Sir Roy made his comments in a fiery address to those at the annual May Day rally at Browne’s Beach yesterday afternoon.

Calling the dismissals “reprehensible”, Sir Roy urged all employers, especially Barbadian ones, “to tell these foreign people that this is not Syria, this is not Damascus, this is not Libya”.

http://www.nationnews.com/images/cached/inc/uploads/articles/greensaccident_8-450x350.jpg

A collision between a Transport Board bus and a car at the corner of Drax Hall Hope and Greens, St George, resulted in the car being wrecked and the bus ending up 100 feet in a cane ground yesterday.

Ambulance personnel responded to the accident treating three passengers from the bus and the two people from the car before transporting them to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The driver of the bus, BM106, was Ethelbert Rollins. (KB)

http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/bus-car-collide/

Teachers, head in dispute again


Published on: 12/9/2009.


INDUSTRIAL ACTION has once again hit the Alexandra School.

In a release yesterday, the hierarchy of the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union (BSTU) informed parents and guardians of students that its members would be attending all-day meetings at the union headquarters in Belleville, St Michael, today and therefore would not be attending school, so they should “act accordingly”.
The union’s president is Mary Redman.

This latest move stems from a three-year-old dispute with principal Jeff Broomes at the Queen Street, St Peter school.
In November, 2006, about 36 teachers walked off the job after Broomes sent 14 of them letters asking them to verify their attendance at a BSTU workshop at Solidarity House, St Michael, on Teachers’ Professional Day on October 20 that year.

The letter also stated that teachers who did not do so would be marked absent. They subsequently took industrial action on November 10, protesting the letter and Broomes’ behaviour.

Yesterday’s release stated that this most recent action was “a direct result of the refusal of the principal of the school to meet with officials of the Ministry of Education, the management team of the school and the BSTU as part of the understandings reached towards resolution of the initial dispute in November, 2006.”

The teachers went back to work on November 23, 2006, after the matter went to the then acting chief education officer Idamay Denny who met with the protesting teachers and the union.

The union charged that the Ministry of Education informed them in a letter dated December 8, 2009, that Broomes had “reiterated his unwillingness to meet with members of staff if accompanied by the BSTU”.

“The efforts by the BSTU to have several outstanding matters at the school meaningfully addressed have been frustrated by the principal, despite initiatives from the Chief Education Officer requiring his attendance at meetings she organised both with the chairman of the board of management and those members of the union affected by the actions of the principal (most recently on 26th June, 2009).

“The last such effort by the chief education officer was her letter to the principal asking him to meet with her, the management team of the school and the BSTU on November 24, 2009. The principal did not attend. The BSTU is satisfied that Mr Broomes has thus far demonstrated a lack of respect for his staff and ministry officials,” the release said.

The union charged Broomes with denying workers their constitutional right to union representation and, by extension, their right to freedom of association and called his refusal to meet “open contempt for the BSTU”.

Nation

Dark clouds appear to be looming over Barbados’ tourism next year, with predictions of more hotel closures, a drastic reduction in the number of cruise ship calls and significant fall-off in the number of visitors from the island’s major source markets.

And the hotel sector is calling for speedy Government action to avert the doom.

In a gloomy picture painted yesterday by the Barbados Hotel & Tourism Association (BHTA) at its fourth quarterly meeting at Hilton Barbados, BHTA president Colin Jordan warned of a “crisis” in the cruise industry and said he was “amazed with the sloth that seems to characterize the approach of policymakers to the situation”, while prominent hotelier Gordon Seale warned of “substantial problems that must be dealt with right away”.

Seale pointed to the plight of some South Coast hotels and a few others on the West Coast, which he said faced certain closure next year unless Government intervened and gave some assistance.

Executive vice-president of the BHTA, Sue Springer, presented data indicating possible negative prospects for Barbados’ tourism from the major traditional source markets of Britain and the United States, owing to the impact of the global economic crisis on both countries, as well as the effect of the Air Passenger Duty and the 2012 Olympics on tourism from Britain.

http://www.nationnews.com/index.php/articles/view/dark-days/

Some said they didn’t get enough for their money, but what little they saw at the Kensington Oval was awesome.

Last Sunday night’s show Zero Gravity promised daring stunts 50 feet high, and the patrons screamed at what they were offered, but many left hungry for more action.

After a near two-hour late start, Zero Gravity got under way with four bikemen – two from Texas, one from Missouri and the other from Atlanta – showcasing mind-boggling skills as they soared through the air.

Both children and adults cheered loudly from the packed stands for both the local and international daredevils.

While the international stuntsmen did back flips, free hands and 360-degree spins in mid-air, the Bajan contingent were “jonesin”, doing free-hand wheelies and a few donuts.

But less than an hour after the show officially started, the rain brought it to an early end.

Those seeking more entertainment headed over to the Party Stand where they were thrilled by Crimeson and his crew during the after party.

Promoter Nigel Scotland said he would definitely be looking to host the event again.

Scotland apologized for the late start, and admitted he had a few challenges, but said he wanted to “ensure safety first”.

“We are learning from our mistakes, but we had to make sure it was a safe and controlled environment before we started, but I’m hoping to do it again and make it bigger and better!” Scotland told the DAILY NATION. (CT)

http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/what-gravity/

by Emmanuel Joseph

Vagrants and the homeless in Barbados can now expect to be fed fewer times per month.

That’s because the organisation established specifically to cater to their needs has made it clear that an increasing number of these persons were only turning up for food every Wednesday, but showed little or no interest in its rehabilitation programme.

Arguing that vagrancy had become a major problem in Barbados, Chairman of the Vagrants and Homeless Society, Kemar Saffrey, told Barbados TODAY this afternoon that its purpose was to rid the streets of such people and reintegrate them into the community. However, Saffrey pointed out that there was now too strong a dependence on the feeding programme.

“The more vagrants we take off the streets and put into rehabilitation, the more vagrants replace them. The men just come out on Wednesday nights to feed. So we will be cutting back the four Wednesdays a month feeding to two. We are going to cut back on a lot of things we do, because we alone can’t do this work with the homeless and vagrants. We need major financial assistance,” declared Saffrey.

He endorsed the sentiments of Chairman of the National Conservation Commission, Tyrone Lowe, expressed in a story in this newspaper yesterday, that the solution to the problem required action by all stakeholders, including government, the church, community groups, professionals and the business sector.

“The level of vagrancy is not only an increasing problem in Queen’s Park, but across the City of Bridgetown as a whole. There must be a strong alliance between the ministries of housing and lands, family, labour and health and the private sector.

“The ministry of social care has rendered significant assistance to us, but we need all the others to come on board,” he suggested.

He and Acting Vice-Chairman Imran Richards agreed that vagrants were not only posing a health threat to the workers of the NCC who have to encounter them, but were also having negative implications on the tourism industry.

“They are harassing visitors on Broad Street and on the beaches,” said Richards.

They agreed that it was in the interest of the business sector to help fund their society to help rid the streets of these vagrants.

“How can a business that makes millions of dollars contribute $1,000. That doesn’t make sense. These vagrants are the ones who congregate on their properties,” Suffrey stated.

He announced that his organisation had been feeding an average of 120 vagrants and homeless men per Wednesday night. There are about 160 of them in Bridgetown and between 300 and 400 in Barbados, he estimated, and revealed that the VHS had just opened a new office on Bay Street with a view to expanding its work.

Suffrey announced that it had worked with 12 men so far, eight of whom had been put back into society and 10 given jobs. Six are now in drug rehab and it was currently working with 16 new cases.

Meanwhile, the Salvation Army said while it did not start out feeding vagrants, it was now doing so because of the increasing number showing up for food. However, outgoing Divisional Commander, Major Dewhurst Jonas made it clear that his church would not be cutting back its feeding programme.

The Police Anti-Gun Unit has seized 77 guns, including a high powered AK47, and charged a registered gun dealer for the haul.
Michael Ian Holder appeared in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court on three charges that included possession of a firearm without a valid licence.
See full story in this evening’s edition of Barbados TODAY.

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Commissioner Dottin laments metal theft increase

5/16/2012

By Regina Selman Moore

Metal thieves in Barbados are getting bolder and they are now stealing copper in particular from water heaters, and causing headaches as well for utility companies.

This was the information delivered yesterday by Police Commissioner Darwin Dottin, after he toured B’s Recycling company, located at Cane Garden, St. Thomas, with other members of the Royal Barbados Police Force.

“(For) several months now, I believe (well) over a year, we in the Force have spoken about the difficulty of metal theft, particularly copper. It has reached the stage where some of the utility companies have started to complain that metal theft has started to have an effect on their operations,” Commissioner Dottin announced.

“We in the Force have noticed as well, that there is theft of copper ... from water heaters ... so the problem is increasing. And so, this is a follow up to a meeting that we have held over a couple months ago with the operators of metal dealers,” Dottin said of the visit to the recycling plant.

Commissioner Dottin further explained that the visit to the recycling facility came after an invitation was sent to the Force by B’s Recycling Managing Director, Paul Bynoe, recently, opening up the doors for the Force to witness the arrangements put in place for the receipt of metals. The company also asked the Force to review security and surveillance measures at the plant, so as to find ways to enhance the security systems there.

“From a practical standpoint, we feel that if we can dip into the source and we can have robust security systems here, perhaps we can deal with people stealing metals, particularly copper. And so, this is the purpose of our visit,” Commissioner Dottin explained.

After the tour, the Police Chief indicated that he was satisfied to date with the security systems in place at B’s Recycling, which not only collects and buys plastic and glass bottles, aluminium cans, batteries, cardboard boxes and vehicle bumpers and the like, but scrap metal as well. The security system at B’s Recycling requires all individuals bringing materials to the plant to show some form of identification and all activity on the compound is monitored and recorded with the help of security firm Secure One, with vehicle registration numbers also being recorded. A receipt bearing the individual’s ID number and materials bought is also issued and the data stored.

“From what we have seen, (the security) seems to be quite adequate. But that does not mean that it cannot be improved” Commissioner Dottin said of the process.
He also noted that a crime prevention officer who also visited the site will be following up with an audit and will make whatever suggestion is warranted to Mr. Bynoe, so he can make his systems more robust.

Meanwhile, Dottin has acknowledged that the Police Force has had some breakthroughs, when it comes to the theft of copper.

“We have had some arrests for persons stealing copper and some of them have been convicted for this offence. You would have heard the Attorney General speak recently and we are actually improving the legislation to deal with this operation, because the statute on the books is really very old. Penalties are derisory and so, new pieces of legislation I anticipate will be prepared to deal with the temporary problems of metal theft,” he said, while noting that other countries in the region were also tackling the problem.

“So we are being proactive, we are working with the metal dealers, we are strengthening our legislation, because I believe that this is a legitimate business as you’ve seen this morning. They have taken a lot of metals and bottles and so on off the street and I suppose their business is environmentally friendly, but it also has a dimension for the commission of crime and that is what we want to stamp out” he concluded.

Meanwhile, Managing Director of B’s Recycling Paul Bynoe acknowledged that he has been hit by thieves looking for copper as well and he wants to ensure his business does not fuel the crime of theft of metals.

“I welcome (the Force’s) ideas and decisions, because I also would like to stamp out all crime when it comes to metals disappearing from around people’s places and properties and so on,” he told members of the media.

http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/newsitem.asp?more=local&NewsID=24725

Two-day Kadooment in 2012 likely


Published on: 3/18/2010.


TWO DAYS FOR Kadooment could be coming sooner
rather than later.

Minister of Culture Steve Blackett made this clear in the House
of Assembly yesterday, during debate on the 2010-11 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure.

In fact, if Blackett gets his way, Crop-Over 2012 could be the first time
for a two-day jump-up
to culminate the country's largest and most important national festival.

"I think it's about time the Kadooment component of Crop-Over becomes more attractive and marketable," Blackett told the House.

"Barbados is still among the few countries that offers only one day for the street parade. I am seriously considering, not for this year, but for next year, that we have to move aggressively towards presenting Barbadians and our visitors alike, with two days of street parade in Barbados. With the extra day, it would make Crop-Over, and especially Kadooment, more marketable and presentable for whatever agency is responsible for marketing the event," Blackett said.

Noting that it was an ambitious plan, Blackett added that he would pursue it without a doubt. "We'll have to use the two bank holidays that are available to us in the month of August in a better way."

According to the minister, Crop-Over remained a unique event when it comes to return on Government's investment, since $1.7 million is spent on Crop-Over annually.

Blackett, Member of Parliament for St. Michael Central, told the Lower House that culture continued to contribute to the vibrancy of the country's overall tourism product through its various festivals, and major focus would have to continue to be paid to its development.

"I believe the Crop-Over Festival should be fully embraced by the Barbados Tourism Authority," he told the chamber.

"Crop-Over is integral to our tourism offerings. It's the single largest money earner of all the festivals. While there is a need for cuts, it has to be remembered that the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) is constrained to stage the major national festival in such a way as not to compromise its high quality," Blackett added.

He said employees of the NCF should therefore be congratulated for their yeoman efforts in producing a high quality product in spite of enormous economic challenges.

"Because of these challenges, the true value of the Crop-Over festival on the national economy will be revealed, since a watered-down version would result in challenges to the entire business sector of the country," the first-time parliamentarian concluded. (BA)
Nation

BY MID-YEAR Neal & Massy will reveal what it has planned for its struggling Almond Resorts investment which reported staggering losses of $20 million last year.

Gervase Warner, chief executive officer of the Trinidad and Tobago-based regional conglomerate, conceded that the local hotel brand has been a drag on the group’s profits, and Neal & Massy as well as Almond shareholders “want us to find a solution”.

Neal & Massy gained 51 per cent ownership of Almond after its takeover of Barbados Shipping & Trading (BS&T) – the largest shareholderin Almond Resorts – in 2008. In an interview in Port-of-Spain last week while attending the Arthur Lok Jack Distinguished Leadership & Innovation Conference, Warner said Almond Resorts expanded from two to five hotels under management but the timing could not have been worse.

“That was a big stretch for the management team and . . . those hotels opened into the worst tourist season Barbados has seen – even worse than [after] 9/11.

“So not only did you have finance cost incurring because money was borrowed to open these hotels, but now we had operating losses,” Warner told Barbados BUSINESS AUTHORITY in an exclusive interview.

“Over the course of the last two years, going on three years, those operating losses have continued. While the banks have been supportive, it is a really fortunate thing that Neal & Massy became the 51 per cent owner of Almond Resorts because I shudder to think what would have happened if they were on their own.

“If [Almond Resorts] were on their own, they would not have been able to sustain themselves,” he added.

He pointed out that commercial banks continued to extend credit to the hotel group on the strength of its Neal & Massy ownership. Further funding was also provided by the parent company.

“We are in the middle of a process now of restructuring, looking for a sustainable solution for those hotels. We are not at the point where we have the answer but we are are exploring all options and getting closer to the answer. Give us another three to four months and we will be able to share with you the full restructuring plan,” he added.

http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/almond-resorts-plan-coming/