The Lions Club of Barbados South is ensuring that persons with mobility impairments have a new sense of independence.

Last Thursday, members of the service organisation presented six wheelchairs to the residents of Thelma Vaughan Memorial Home at the Glebe Land, St. George.

Attendant, Cyralene Hope expressed her appreciation to President Lion Steve Burton for the donation, which is not the first of its kind.

President Burton pledged the club’s continued support to the 49-year-old facility which offers 24-hour residential care to physically challenged adults and children.

Also, recognising the residents engagement in gardening, he said that the Lions will be returning very soon to Thelma Vaughan to deliver some gardening supplies.(TL)

We Gatherin’ Barbados 2020 moved to the parish of St. Thomas starting with a multi-faith service at the Lester Vaughan School this past weekend entitled ‘De heart Uh Barbados Harvest Faith Service’.

Present at the service was Dame Sandra Mason, Governor General of Barbados and Cynthia Forde, Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, the latter of which received the national candle on behalf of St. Thomas from Colin Jordan, Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations and St. Peter M.P.

The multi-faith service featured a roll call of the forty-two churches within the parish and two readings from members of the Muslim and the Rastafarian Community. Reverend Ezra Parris from Sharon Moravian Church, Reverend Anthony Harewood of Holy Innocents’ Anglican Church and the Youth Pastor Kirk Mayers of Evening Light Pentecostal Church, all from within “De heart of Barbados”, gave exhortations.

The people of St. Thomas came together to celebrate the parish and the rich heritage it represented including the games Welchman Hall Gully and Harrison’s Cave. Harewood of Holy Innocents’ highlighted the fact that even though the beautiful and natural sites belonged to St. Thomas, just like the fauna of the parish, care must be taken to protect them.

“We should be conscious of our responsibility as good stewards of God’s gift, we should see it as our binding duty to do all within our power to use the earth wisely and to care for it with utmost care."

Harewood challenged all those living in or associated with St. Thomas to be real stewards and ensure that the youth understood the importance of protecting the environment. Not only from within, but the pastor encouraged those present to protect against anyone who would want to undertake acts of illegal dumping in the parish. Reverend Harewood was not satisfied solely with the environment but believed that residents of St. Thomas should take care of each other.

“Too often in this island we hear of communities lamenting the lack of, or the late arrival of help from government institutions. I want to challenge all of us living in St. Thomas not to sit on our laurels, neither look for handouts from anywhere, but to be able to pool all of our human resources together and unite as a people and work towards the common good of building up St. Thomas and enhancing our environment.”

Those in attendance were privileged to be in the presence of Marguerita ‘Sister’ Marshall, who sang and rocked the crowd and allowed them to know she was born and raised in Shop Hill, St. Thomas. Renowned vocalist Sheldon Hope led in worship for the evening and there was also a 100 voice choir made up of school children from the parish.

After a strong performance from the very outset of the evening’s show, Hailey Roach and Kyeil Williams remained on top to the very end to become the 2020 winners of the annual African Awareness Pageant for primary schools. Hailing from the Holy Innocents Primary School, the young queen and king reigned supreme, even after receiving stiff competition from the delegates of the Grazettes Primary and Lawrence T. Gay Memorial Primary Schools.

The competition saw representatives from eight primary schools competing, representing different countries in Africa, in order to showcase their different aspects, cultural styles and customs.

With the first section of the evening being labelled as the Traditional Dance Segment, schools had the opportunity to nominate students, other than the representing delegates, to join the team and display their talent. Though all the entrants had their own take on several dance moves that could be found on the African continent, it was the young seven-year-old from Holy Innocents, Elizabeth Canoville, who completely dominated the category. While her other peers were seen as shy on stage, young Canoville brought an abundance of life to the catwalk as she completely captivated patrons with her moves and confidence on the catwalk.

The Formal Wear segment of the evening was a hotly contested one, as all participants were fittingly decked out in the best of what the nations they represented were known for.

With a little over 50 per cent of the population in Chad being of the Muslim faith, Jalika Walters and Aiden Narine of Grazettes Primary entered the catwalk adorned in beautiful Islamic-inspired gowns, which used the nation’s colours to great effect. Though they won this segment, Ki-ann Pilgrim-Small and Joshua Osbourne also did well in this section with their outfits that were very reminiscent of African royalty.

Organisers of the pageant see this yearly exercise as an important one, in order to teach primary level students more about the African continent. In teaching pupils about the many similarities we share with these nations, it is hoped that they will grow up with a better understanding of where our ancestors came from, and how they would have lived in such a culturally diverse set of nations.

CIBC FirstCaribbean International Bank, on Friday, at Warrens Great House presented the final tranche of their five-year commitment to The Cherry Tree Trust.

CIBC First Caribbean International Bank showed their support of small businesses and micro businesses during the informal ceremony. Mark St. Hill, Managing Director of Retail & Business Banking presented the final tranche of BDS$30 000, the last of BDS$150 000 over the five years to the Executives of the Trust. Present were many of the entrepreneurs who have benefitted from the funds.

“I must say it has been a pleasure. When we first got involved, we never could have imagined how special this partnership was going to be. When I say special, it is when one knows their limitations and being able to find someone to address those limitations. All banks kind of struggle with what we call micro lending and this was a wonderful way for us, from a distance, to help that segment,” St. Hill said.

St. Hill thanked the Cherry Tree Trust for the opportunity to help the beneficiaries and said that behind all the fancy terms and policies, the initiative was all about coming to the aid of others in need.

The Cherry Tree Trust contributes to job creation by giving micro businesses the opportunity to create jobs, to thrive and thereby contribute to the ongoing socio-economic development of Barbados. To date, over 20 people have benefitted from these funds and mentorship. Peter Hall, Director of Cherry Tree Trust, also spoke at the event and expressed thanks to CIBC FirstCaribbean for their contributions. He said that he hoped the bank would continue the relationship with the trust.

Hall announced that it was the vision of the trust to eventually become self-sustainable in the near future.

“Strategically, the trust is also moving to be self-sustaining, so we are currently in a situation where the interest that we are collecting is affording us a pool of funds that we can constantly lend others in the future,” he said.

Owner of MI Consulting 246 Mark Ifill, a beneficiary of the Cherry Tree Trust, explained that he was happy to have the support of the trust and that it was a great facility especially for those entrepreneurs who needed startup working capital. Getting the working capital was just the beginning and Ifill highlighted the mentorship programme which Cherry Tree Trust provides. That programme gives guidance to the the small business owners, and also personal, one-on-one support.

The state in which the Minister in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Investment, Marsha Caddle, found herself in along with her colleagues, after hearing the news of the immediate closure of Chaps Restaurant Ltd early yesterday, was one of surprise and confusion.

During a call into the popular radio programme Down to Brass Tacks, Caddle admitted that the current recovery programme Barbados had implemented in 2019 (BERT programme) had been a slight burden on some operators in the sector, discussions with stakeholders have been occurring often for all relevent people to air their issues for possible adjustments to be made.

“We for the past 21 months have been engaging the tourism and hospitality sector. As we came up with the BERT plan, we looked at the balance of the burden that the sector would be able to bear, and we have had a fully opened conversation with most of the operators in the sector and with the entities and organisations that represent the sector. So we were quite surprised that we did not have a conversation [with the owners] about the difficulties that were being experienced,” Caddle stated.

CEO of Chaps Restaurant Ltd, Joanne Pooler, had outlined in her statement yesterday, that the pressure from taxes including the two per cent levy on the sector, were big parts of the equation that led to the closure decision. Minister Caddle however is not convinced by this, as herself along with the ministry and tourism stakeholders, mutually agreed on the levy’s implementation from the outset.

“When we were writing the BERT programme, we sat in the context of the social partnership, with the sector, and we were looking to equalise the VAT. They were enjoying a reduced rate of VAT, and they said to us, to let them deal with the levy, because they can more manage that, and do not want to move immediately to the increase in VAT. The same levy, the two per cent that they are talking about, was a levy that was reached by the sector as a part of those conversations.

Accusations by Pooler about the taxes being unfair for those stand-alone establishments compared to those restaurants which are attached to hotels, were also debunked by Caddle, who pointed out that it has been the aim of the present administration to make industry as balanced as possible from the start.

“Even before we came to serve as a government, we realised that this was an anomaly in the sector. We always said we would do the work to level that playing field. We had a meeting up to a few weeks ago with operators in the sector to get to the place in the revised incentives regime that would allow us to do that. So we have the Tourism Development Act, and we have other pieces of legislation that govern how we look at concessions in this and other sectors. We said that if we are looking to improve the investment climate in the country, we need to make all of this transparent, predictable, less discretionary and we need to stop the kind of lobbying that wastes time, when businesses could be investing their time and their energy in their [product],” Caddle countered.

The alleged way in which the 149 workers from the three restaurants were dismissed, is also concerning for Caddle, who insisted that such actions from businesses cannot, and will not be tolerated in this country. Though she remained silent about any possible action that will be taken, she promised that the Ministry of Labour would be looking into the matter.

Leader of the Opposition, Bishop Joseph Atherley, has again expressed his frustration with the current administration and their failure to apprise him in a timely manner of what is to be debated in the House of Assembly.

He was speaking in the House of Assembly yesterday afternoon during the discussion on the budget of the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources, as day three of the debate on the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure continued at the temporary location, at the Worthing Corporate Centre.

Atherley, speaking right after Minister of Energy and Water Resources Wilfred Abrahams gave his opening remarks, insisted that Government must “behave itself better”, explaining that it would have been courteous if the Opposition could have been advised that the Estimates of that ministry were to be discussed yesterday. He said his understanding was that yesterday the debate on the Ministry of Youth and Community Empowerment would have been completed and perhaps the Ministries of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology as well as People Empowerment and Elder Affairs would also be done, and so he had no time to prepare for Energy and Water Resources.

“It is not good that we continue to do this. It may be an Opposition of one against 28 or 29, it may be that there are 41 voices for the Government in the Parliament of Barbados and nine on the part of the Opposition, but I think that when we come to matters of the people’s business of this serious import, we really have to be a bit more professional,” the Opposition Leader contended.

Atherley, indicating that he would not be participating in the debate, said that Government must understand that it cannot continue to do “this nonsense”.

“Numbers do not give you the right to do this,” he maintained.

Before voicing his concern about the tardiness with which he said Government informs him of the people’s business, Atherley said had he known that ministry would have been discussed, among the areas he perhaps would have asked to have addressed include the harsh impact of the increased water rates on individuals and businesses; persistent outages in rural Barbados; the Barbados Water Authority’s arrangements with Innotech; an update on the South Coast Sewage Plant; and the building out of the green energy capacity in this country. (JRT)

AN overhaul of the telecommunications legislation to set network and customer service standards is on its way.

Outlining the results of a 2019 Quality of Service Audit conducted on the sector, Acting Chief Telecommunications Officer Clifford Bostic stated a paper may come before Cabinet this week to set a legislative framework for such.

He pointed out that currently while the demand for bandwidth and data was high in Barbados, the island’s infrastructure has not kept up and work was being done with the telecoms operators to address this.

“For the future, one of the things that we also have started to do is have conversations with the Fair Trading Commission (FTC). We are collaborating with them because they take care of consumer protection and what the consumers receive or get is a result of how the network is set up and what metrics are put in place. We are talking about quality of service standards where we are going to set the standards. So that once the network standards are set, the customer service standards can be set the same time and we are working with the FTC to do just that.

“We are going to move into the area of setting a legislative framework to deal with legislation and regulation, because you have got consumer protection, you have utility regulations and you have the Telecommunications Act, Quality of Service Regulation and legislation. So we are working together with them, and this week you should see paper coming to Cabinet for approval for us to proceed in that manner. We believe once we have set this in place that we will have not only the commitment of service providers, but we will know when the quality of service is not what it is supposed to be and correct that before we have to go through years and years of poor service,” he added.

Speaking during the Appropriations (Amendment) Bill 2020 at the Worthing Conference Centre yesterday, Bostic said the mobile sector was only the first step as the entire telecommunications industry would be brought in line.

“We are not going to stop there because there are fixed services, fixed lines in homes and businesses, Internet and IP TV as well as other services. The only way we are going to survive as a digital environment is if we have the right infrastructure in place with the right standards and framework in place that will make sure that as we use more data and have more demand on the capacity that is available and that there is a framework for which this can be improved in a consistent and sustainable way,” he added. (JMB)

Roads in Barbados which are dug up by personnel from the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) in order to fix burst mains and pipes, should not be left for extended periods of time without being patched and resurfaced.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Indar Weir who serves as the Member of Parliament for St. Philip South, made this call during this week’s Estimates debate.

“I think it is very, very inspiring to know that the Barbados Water Authority has moved to a level where there is some change in the way things are being done at the Water Authority. However, there are some things that remain as a humbug to me as an MP and certainly to many of the residents of St. Philip,” Weir stated.

“You repair the mains, you repair the leaks, but oftentimes holes are left in the road and are left for extended periods and are not being addressed and this then leads to further humbug, because people then have problems with their cars, their suspensions etc. and I am wondering what is the strategy for dealing with matters like these,” Weir further commented that at times, months later, road are still not fixed, even when Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Wilfred Abrahams meanwhile pointed out that such a problem is not localised to St. Philip only and it is one the BWA is working on.

“This is perhaps one of the most difficult things that we are battling with. Quite often we respond to burst mains as an emergency, because the main is burst, the water is flowing, probably affecting districts with the water being off and the priority is to get the main fixed as quickly as possible and resume normal service.
That is challenging enough as it is...but the reinstatement of the road after fixing the main has been a difficulty, because that used to be sent out to private contractors, but the Water Authority found itself in a position where we could not keep current with those bills, so nobody wanted to do any work for the Water Authority, unless they got the money up front and the Water Authority was simply not in a position to do it” Abrahams said.

General Manager of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA), Keithroy Halliday also acknowledged that such a problem has been a longstanding one and at present, the issue is linked to finance, since the Authority cannot make timely payments to contractors. He did acknowledge though that the BWA is in talks with the Ministry of Transport and Works to address the matter of the reinstatement of roads after repairs, though actual resurfacing may take some time.

Minister Abrahams however noted that the MTW sends invoices for the road works to the BWA and these remain a debt on the BWA’s books, as the work is not being done for free. (RSM)

Government is reviewing its efforts to date to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within its development policies.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Dr. Jerome Walcott stated a report will be presented to “the United Nations in July that will outline what we have achieved and the challenges we face”. He said, “In preparing for this review, I assure you that the government will engage the private sector to ensure that its perspective is fully reflected.”

He made this disclosure on Tuesday as he addressed the Dialogue on the Private Sector Contribution to the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals at UN House.

Walcott told the audience that it is not possible for government to achieve the 17 SDGs alone. Rather, its best hope in doing so is through partnerships. He noted that the “partnership between the government and the private sector and business community is indeed a critical one,” in this regard.

“We believe that it is not enough today for the private sector to focus solely on profits. They must seek to contribute to the development priorities of Barbados and the region, and to uplift and improve the lives of Caribbean people by incorporating the SDGs into their operations.”

He continued, “By so doing new and innovative initiatives will be created that will increase the well-being of Caribbean citizens and simultaneously increase the productivity and growth of Caribbean companies, which more and more will be required to operate at internationally accepted environmental and other standards. In fact, the private sector should recognise that they too have to be engaged in the global fight to save the planet, and that they must act locally to adopt sustainable practices and contribute to national development efforts.”

Walcott further told the gathering that “the next decade in the Agenda for Development, 2020 to 2030, has been designated the Decade of Action, during which Governments will accelerate their efforts to live up to their commitment to attain the SDGs.” He said “the government looks forward to building on its partnership with the private sector to be able to accelerate these efforts.”(MG)

The days of discoloured water flowing from the taps of homes and businesses around this island may soon come to an end.

Barbados Water Authority’s Director of Engineering, Charles Leslie, explained that while the modern pipes come with a cement lining to ensure water does not come into contact with the material of the pipe, the ageing distribution network does not possess this protective interior.

“So what happens when the salinity has increased, as has happened along the coast or we add water from a desalination plant as we have in the north of the island, you then have some of the rust being removed from the pipe and travelling along with the water,” he stated.

In order to address this, he noted several pipes have been flushed as an immediate solution, but insisted research is being done to find long-term solutions.

“The ultimate solution would be to change all of those pipelines, but changing these will be very expensive, so recently we have been doing research and finding short-term solutions where we can add a suppressing agent to the water and it would prevent the rust from going into the water itself.

“Over the next weeks to months, we would be doing that at a number of pumping locations across the island and we will be starting that in the north and coming right down, because the instances of discoloured water in the north are more prevalent that in other areas,” he stressed.

Speaking during the Appropriations Bill debate at the Worthing Corporate Centre yesterday, Leslie assured, “We will be working with your communities across the north of the island and try to eliminate or reduce that brown water as much as possible.”
(JMB)

Students of the St. George Secondary School were recently encouraged to see their worth and value, and to refrain from settling for mediocrity in their various pursuits.

This key piece of advice came from Reverend Wayne “Onkphra” Wells, as he spoke to the students during their recently held African Awareness Day Programme at the school.

“Sons and daughters, you must realise that you have worth, you have dignity, you can accomplish something in this world, more than being employed, more than being a servant for other people. You can dream, you can create your own businesses,” he told the students gathered.

He then encouraged them to consider what contributions they wish to make to society, going forward.

“It is said that tomorrow belongs to the children. What contribution will you make?” he declared.

Stressing the need for the students to strive to do their best at all times and to focus on what is good, Reverend Wayne “Onkphra” Wells reiterated his call for them not to be satisfied with just good enough.

“The same way God made the world and after he made the world he said everything was good, you have to follow in the same footsteps and the things that you are doing have to be good. Don’t settle for mediocrity, don’t settle for half-way. Half-way will not cut it!” he admonished.

The Reverend punctuated his address with much singing, which was carried out by other Spiritual Baptists members accompanying him. The festivities for the Day were also continued by teachers and students, who eagerly displayed their African attire, much to the delight of those present.

Principal of St. George Secondary School, Dennis Browne commanded the attention of both teachers and students that day, as he entered the school hall fully clothed as a Pharaoh of Egypt. He eventually won a Best Dressed Male prize for his attire. The prize for Best Dressed Female was awarded to Visual Arts Teacher Adebola Oni, whilst prizes for the Best Dressed Boy and Best Dressed Girl were awarded to Elijah Taitt and Ashanti Taitt, respectively. (RSM)

Grave concern continues to trickle through the tourism sector in response to the bombshell news of three of Barbados’ most popular restaurants closing with immediate effect on Monday.

Three establishments owned by Chaps Restaurants Ltd; Cin Cin By The Sea, Primo Bar and Bistro and Hugo’s Barbados, immediately shut down their operations, with many in the private sector and Government voicing their amazement to the news. Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) has finally broken its silence on the matter, with its Chief Executive Officer, Senator Rudy Grant, stating that his immediate thoughts as this point, are with the now unemployed staff.

“We are greatly concerned regarding the 149 employees who will now be out of work. It is always saddening when persons lose their jobs as this has implications in many instances not only for the individuals but for their families as well,” he said.

With the discussion of taxes and levies on businesses being a hot talking point on Monday, as several stakeholders in the private and public sector tried to rationalise the closures, Grant revealed that talks have indeed been ongoing in respect to the concessions standalone restaurants currently lobby for.

“The BHTA, in our discussions with the relevant Government officials, has advocated for stand-alone restaurants which earn significant foreign exchange to benefit from the waiver of taxes and duties. Restaurants which are owned and operated by hotels derive limited benefits from the waiver of taxes and duties through the Tourism Development (Amendment) Act (TDAA) 2014. Since the TDAA was passed into law over five years ago, the BHTA has been continually seeking to ensure that the benefits conceptualised through the TDAA are realised for both hotel-operated restaurants and stand-alone restaurants which meet the agreed foreign exchange criteria,” Grant explained.

The senator also mirrored similar statements made on Monday by the Minister in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Investment, Marsha Caddle, after she gave perspective on the current talks being held between stakeholders and the Government on the ways in which the current concessions could be made beneficial for all participants.

“The BHTA has conveyed to Government that the benefits of the waiver of taxes and duties, as contemplated in the TDAA, could also be provided to stand-alone restaurants provided that they meet an agreed foreign exchange earning criteria. These discussions are ongoing, and we have been informed that Government is reviewing the entire Fiscal Incentives Regime. There are many BHTA stand-alone restaurant members that, from reports, are operating effectively without the benefit of the TDAA concessions and with the increased taxes. There is no doubt that access to the benefits provided in the TDAA would make our restaurants more globally competitive,” he insisted.

The BHTA intends to reach out to CHAPS Restaurants Ltd, in order to gain a wider understanding of the current situation, with the employment of workers being a top priority. (SB)

The Barbados Water Authority (BWA) continues to work on creating additional standby power for its pumping stations.

So says Director of Engineering Charles Leslie, who said the authority is working to find financing to outfit all facilities with backup power in the case of a power outage.

He pointed out that currently, between the waste water and potable water streams, there are 36 generators over 77 facilities providing water to around 70 per cent of the island.

“We have been working over the last couple of years to add additional standby power at the facilities, but it is a matter of financing. We have actually been working out how much it would cost us to install at the 38 remaining potable water facilities, and when you look at supplying those facilities with just a basic standby generator, we will be looking at $4.5 million. We are looking to see how we can finance this and have been in discussion with the Barbados National Oil Company and looking at other avenues to see how we could finance that,” he said.

However, he noted the financing of these standby generators is “extremely expensive”.

Additionally, Leslie said that battery backups have been looked at as an alternative, but these are also cost prohibitive.

“If we were to go battery backup for those facilities, we would be looking at $65-66 million, so we are actively looking at how we can provide that backup for the facilities, but the cost has been prohibitive, in terms of being able to find that money to provide backup,” he added.

At the time, he was responding to questions posed by Attorney General Dale Marshall on how the island would face the aftermath of a hurricane when it was left without water due to the two-day electricity outage last year.
(JMB)

Disruptive!

This is how Educator John Goddard has described the announcement by Education Minister Santia Bradshaw that this may be the last year for the Common Entrance Examination.

“Education is not like instant coffee. You cannot wake up one morning and announce there is going to be a dramatic change in a system that has been going for a long time. It is disruptive and if it is not properly thought out, it will create far more problems than it intended to solve,” he stressed.

He said it was time for a coherent plan to be put forward, which would not treat this nation’s children as test subjects.

“We have to be careful that we do not treat our children like guinea pigs and that we do not simply make changes because they sound sexy. The future of our children is at stake,” he told those gathered for the Astor B. Watts lecture at the Democratic Labour Party headquarters recently.

Noting that children would have been preparing for the Common Entrance since Class Two, he said the announcement had the potential to disrupt the system.

“Teachers just can’t change course and as the Barbados Union of Teachers said, this has to take some time before you can fully abolish the 11-Plus exam,” he said.

Goddard went even further, insisting there be a comprehensive reform of the education system in the island.

“The abolition of the Common Entrance in itself is not going to successfully deal with the issues which we have in education. Let me make that clear as everything will not be hunky dory following the abolition. The curriculum in our schools from primary to tertiary must be looked at. We have to be educating young people for the 21st century and beyond.

“The traditional approaches to education need to change if we are going to prepare our young people to live productive lives in Barbados. So before we make drastic changes to the system, we have the widest possible consultation with all of the stakeholders, including the ordinary people of Barbados,” he urged.

Goddard opined a need to shift from competitive exams like the Common Entrance and instead proposed diagnostic tests be conducted at ages seven, nine and 11 while nixing the suggestion for a middle school system to be set up. (JMB)

AN emotional Selwyn Cambridge, the founder of TEN Habitat, said that Barbados’ current school system is keeping our children back.

Cambridge, who was brought to tears at one point during a media launch recently, said that our children currently go to school to lose imagination and creativity.

He was speaking to how most schools in the Caribbean prepare children for a 9 to 5 job rather than the dynamic future of industry, innovation and the rapidly changing world of work which they will actually face.

“If given the space, what they (children) create will blow your mind,” said Cambridge, who went on to add that they plan to simply provide the space for children to explore and take it as far as it can go.

“We need to change the paradigm if we want to create the type of future we want for our kids.”

Cambridge was speaking about introducing coding to children from a young age rather than having them introduced to it for the first time when they are adults as well as not hindering their ability to come up with games and ideas from scratch.

This comes after the recent announcement by Minister of Education, Santia Bradshaw, that Government will be moving forward with plans to abolish the Common Entrance Examination. At the moment, the alternative system to replace the Common Entrance has not been revealed, though she mentioned a number of alternatives are being looked at to see which is best for Barbados. (CG)

Chair of CARICOM, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, is urging Caribbean nationals to only get their information on the novel coronavirus, also referred to as COVID-19, from credible sources.

She made the appeal during a press conference on Sunday evening following a specially convened meeting of CARICOM officials, representatives of regional institutions, the international cruise industry and the local Social Partnership at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre. She said that because of the rise of “fake news”, it was vital that persons rely on information on the matter from credible and established national, local and international sources.

“I want to ask the public of the Caribbean to work with us in that respect, because you will not catch this by going into a building somebody went into; you will not catch COVID-19 by standing 10 feet or 15 feet from somebody,” she said.

With that in mind, PM Mottley issued a call for public service announcements to be broadcast across the region via traditional and social media. She said such would help ordinary people to better understand and appreciate how to take care of themselves and prevent the spread of the virus.

“We’ve already said wash your hands regularly, that you should be doing anyhow without COVID-19. We’ve already said try not to touch your face; well for those of us who interact a lot in public, we had red eye before we had COVID-19, so you should also not be touching your face regularly. We’ve also said, to be able to manage your environment properly, in some countries mosquito-borne diseases pose a greater likelihood of problems for our people than COVID-19,” she said.

Mottley continued, “So we need to contextualise this and we need to recognise that one thing we cannot do is to start to attack nationalities or countries, or to get a level of xenophobia and to close off borders, to create barriers that will in fact lead to loss of jobs, loss of economic activity, greater social implosion, greater opportunities for crime and all of the other things which are equally public health disorders.”

The CARICOM Chair’s comments came as she said that from what PAHO has said, the probability of the Caribbean having severe cases are one in five and even then, of those, the numbers going into intensive care would be limited and would likely to be persons over 80 years, or who have serious underlying chronic conditions.

Speaking earlier, Director of the Pan American Health Organisation, Carissa Etienne, noted that up to Sunday 60 countries had reported cases, including St. Martin, St. Barts and the Dominican Republic, which are part of the Caribbean. Her comments came as she noted that within the Caribbean, several countries have the capacity to test for COVID-19 including Barbados, Suriname, Jamaica, Dominica, The Bahamas and Haiti. She said while there is some capacity within the region, work is needed to ensure “maximum capacity”. She made the point while noting that the likelihood of the CARICOM region seeing cases is high, as it is already present within the Caribbean.

“As of Friday, WHO has upgraded the risk levels of all countries as very high. WHO has fallen short of naming this outbreak a pandemic, but it is expected that very soon there will be a naming of the pandemic,” she said. (JRT)

Minister of Environment and National Beautification, Trevor Prescod, says that on the Barbados Labour Party attaining office in 2018, the financial situation at the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) was “deplorable”.

Speaking in the House of Assembly yesterday as day five of the debate on the Estimates of Expenditure and Revenue resumed, Minister Prescod said there were contracts given with inflated costs, which he said had to be renegotiated.

“If a Government can pay $2 million a month to an enterprise for a service, but the enterprise can come back and renegotiate it with this Government, who functions on different principles altogether, and we can see a reduction of 50 per cent of the total amount, then I have reason, if I am a lucid man, I have reason to be suspicious,” he contended.

He added, “There were all kinds of things going on up there. The mess is as such as that we are still trying to unearth what infelicities, things that got the potential to emerge as felonies.”

Minister Prescod said that when he took over the reins of the Ministry, the SSA owed more than $27 million to the National Insurance Department; over $10 million in PAYE; $34 million to Sustainable Barbados Recycling Centre and $3 million to other suppliers. His comments came as he responded to a question posed by Leader of the Opposition, Bishop Joseph Atherley, about the longevity of the Garbage and Sewage Contribution, which he suggested was “too burdensome” on Barbadians.

“We had no money in the Consolidated Fund; this was a question now of urgency... Sometimes when a government does not function the right way, it would end up with many people becoming deceased entities because of all the issues that are likely to breakout as a consequence of not being able to move the waste off the ground. We were in a crisis and we could not escape it. The general public was shouting for murder,” he said.

He added, “...We had to do something. So we had to take into consideration the opportunity costs, asking the general public to bear with us in the circumstances, while we bring the levy into place because we could not pull it from the Consolidated Fund. And we then had to use that money to save two major units within the governance of Barbados, which is the Water Authority and the SSA.”

Answering the question as to whether the levy could be discontinued, Prescod said that it is not possible at this time, stating: “We were on our deathbed wallowing in starvation; we are now getting close to a reasonable balance.”

He made the comments while indicating the SSA has been able to acquire 23 new trucks, bringing the fleet up to approximately 35.

Further asked by Bishop Atherley about the cost of the acquisition of those trucks. In response, General Manager Janice Jones indicated that the trucks cost $2,300,000. She explained that there was a $1 million deposit made by the SSA, and the remaining sum was paid for by the Ministry of Finance. Pressed for more information on the acquisition of the trucks, Jones indicated that the entity which imported the vehicles was a local company, registered as FSBT Limited. (JRT)

Yesterday, the Barbados Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition joined with local and international health NGOs across the globe to mark the first unified World Obesity Day.

Under the theme “The Roots of Obesity Run Deep”, the day marked a heightened call for a global response to the critical challenge of obesity and its link to the increasing onslaught of Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs). In a media briefing held at the 3Ws Oval at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, the Coalition lauded Barbados and CARICOM governments for the swift and diligent response to the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the world seeks to minimise the impact of COVID-19.

The Coalition, however, believes that the governments must also respond in similar fashion to the pervasive and ongoing threat of non-communicable diseases as declared by the very same World Health Organisation.

In Barbados eight out of ten deaths are due to NCDs, 16% of which are premature deaths. The alarming concern is that 1 in 3 children in Barbados is overweight or obese, placing them at an increased risk for the onset of NCDs. According to the World Obesity Federation, Barbados has a 1% chance of meeting the World Health Organisation target of “no increase in childhood obesity prevalence by 2025”. The Child Obesity Risk Score of Barbados was also reported by the Atlas of Childhood Obesity, as 7.5/11.

Sir Trevor Hassell, President of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), Government of Barbados Special Envoy on NCDs and Chairman of the Barbados National NCD Commission, was present at the briefing. Sir Trevor explained that the WHO released a report with one of the focuses being the encouragement of governments to implement policies to aid in reducing child obesity.

“The World Health Organisation recently produced a report from the Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity, in which emphasis was placed on the need for government-led policy, together with public education and action.”

Sir Trevor went on to outline the key areas from the Commission report as the promotion of the intake of healthy foods, the preconception and pregnancy care of a high quality, early childhood diet and physical activity, health, nutrition and physical activity for school-age children and weight management.

The Coalition has formulated ideas which could be used as a guide for policy building and as Sir Trevor mentioned, were intricate for the policy truly to be of a meaningful nature. The taxation of unhealthy foods, mandatory frontal package nutrition labelling, banning the marketing and sales of unhealthy foods to children including at schools, are some of these policy actions.

Sir Trevor also challenged the public of all backgrounds to eat healthy, despite the consensus that eating healthy is too expensive and all societal classes would not be able to make the necessary healthy changes.

“We need to get back to eating simple. We need to get back to eating ground provisions. We need to get back to that form of eating and that is true whether we are millionaires or we are not millionaires.”

The path may seem difficult, especially when it comes to “sweet drinks” (sodas) and tackling childhood obesity in light of the results from the Atlas showing that by 2030, it is expected that in Barbados 25% of children ages 5 to 9 will be obese while ages 10 to 19, the percentage is expected to be 19.8%. The president of the HCC, however, highlighted that there was a success story already in history.

“The use of tobacco smoke, the smoking of cigarettes in Barbados has reduced significantly in the last 40 years or so. At the same time, there has been a significant reduction in the prevalence of the disease that is most commonly associated with cigarette smoking, which is cancer of the lungs.”

The process has begun already in Barbados after the 10% tax on sugar-sweetened beverages resulted in a drop in overall sales, while there was an increase in sales of non-sugar-sweetened beverages and bottled water.

The public is kindly asked to note that from 8 p.m. tonight through Monday, March 9, 2020, the main entrance of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) will be closed to both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.

This temporary closure is to facilitate the renovation and reconfiguration of the main entrance and will feature the establishment of a lay-by for the drop off and collection or persons visiting the QEH, and the installation of security scanners in the entrance’s interior.

The interim closure will affect the Admissions and Out-Patient Appointments Sections of the Medical Records Department. The processing of admissions and out-patient appointments will be relocated to the main Medical Records Department, located on the main corridor prior to the Laboratory Department. However, ONLY patients discharged from the Accident and Emergency Department and those with referral letters from private medical facilities which require them to be seen in an Out-Patient Clinic on Friday, March 6, Monday, March 9, and Tuesday, March 10, will be accommodated during this time. The Admissions and Out-Patient Appointments Sections of the Medical Records Department will return to their normal location and resume normal operations on Tuesday, March 10, 2020. `

During this interim closure pedestrians accessing the hospital are asked to do so through the glass doors on the ground floor of the Lion’s Caribbean Eye Care Centre, located to the right of the main entrance.

The main entrance will be reopened to vehicular and pedestrian traffic on Tuesday, March 10, from which time, in order to gain entry to the hospital, all persons visiting the QEH will be required to pass through the newly installed security scanners.

Please note that failure to comply will result in the individual or individuals being denied entry to the premises. As such, all visitors to the QEH are being strongly urged to comply with this new security procedure.

The Board of Management of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital regrets any inconvenience caused, and we look forward to your continued cooperation as we strive towards “Getting Better Together”.ౠ

BARBADOS Water Authority’s technical advisor, Dr. John Mwansa, suggested the Department of Emergency Management’s recommendations of keeping two litres of water per person, per day for hurricane preparedness might not be enough.

His comments came during the Appropriation Bill 2020 where he said what was not made clear is that two litres of water per person, per day is only intended for drinking water purposes.

He said: “And as they also stipulate that storage should be for three days. We have realised that three days based on the recovery periods across the region when we have a disruption due to hurricane damage are longer than the three days. So what is being looked at is a longer period and we are looking at a minimum of 14-day storage.

“We are also looking at providing 50 litres per person for day, which is recommended by the World Health Organisation. Because 50 litres allows you to use that water for more than just drinking, and so going forward, when this Technical Committee has concluded its review, we hope to see each house being provided with storage for potable water and storage for rainwater harvesting.

Dr. Hugh Sealy, also of the BWA during one of this contributions, highlighted the importance of water storage. “So if we had all Barbadians that had a potable water storage tank, a rainwater storage tank and also a way to get the stormwater back into the ground and obviously improve the drainage around the house as well, then that goes a long way to manage water resources a lot better. We have an inherent vulnerability as a small island and we have very little above ground or below ground water storage. With each individual household putting in water storage, that goes a long way.”

He explained that under the Roofs to Reefs project, it is intended that 30 000 households will be targeted, amongst them the most vulnerable. “Our intention is to install rainwater harvesting, potable water, solar PV panels, stormwater drainage and better sanitation,” he said. (JH)