Irene Sandiford-Garner is stepping back from elective politics, and also will not seek re-election for the position of First-Vice President of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP).

She made this announcement to members of the media yesterday, on the eve of the Executive and General Council elections slated to be held during the DLP’s 65th Annual General Conference this weekend.

The Party’s candidate for the parish of St. Andrew since the 2008 General Election, and former Senator said that she reached the decision after very careful consideration.

As a senior filling positions on the Executive of the DLP from 2000, Sandiford-Garner explained that she wishes to give the ‘young blood’ of the political party a chance to prove themselves.

“I am not seeking re-election. I had said I was going to serve one year, and I ended up serving two. But, I do believe in my case that I have come to the stage where I should be in a position of mentorship, and guidance for some of our young people. We have some very bright young people coming forward in the party who need space, and if persons like me who have been 1st Vice-President on three separate occasions over the years – if we continue to take up positions on the Executive then you don’t leave space for those young persons to grow, and any institution needs to have some type of succession plan,” she maintained.

“We can only have that if those of us who are more mature politically, make the decision to give the young ones some space. You can be accessible with information and share experiences without holding an official position, give them the chance now to learn how to lead with your guidance. So, that’s one of the reasons why I am not coming back a third year.”

“I think that people like Simon Alleyne, and Ryan Walters need some type of space to grow with some of the older persons like Steve Blackett, who is returning, who can guide them and give that assistance and I am prepared to do the same from behind the scenes,” she pointed out.

Sandiford-Garner said that her decision not to contest the 2023 General Election was relayed to the branch long ago.

In fact, while not disclosing a name, she has given the assurance that the party’s next candidate for St. Andrew is fit and ready for the job.

“I am stepping back from elective politics and I spoke with my branch a long time ago and we have a new candidate who has been ratified by the party, and who has been out on the ground in St Andrew and I have given him all my support – materially and morally to get through,” she revealed.

“This is not something I woke up thinking about yesterday. I gave this careful consideration after the 2018 elections, which I did not plan to contest, but I did anyway. But, my decision now is firm, that I will help any young person who plans to carry the flag for this party – who is committed, sincere, and not opportunistic. Because I see politics as an opportunity to serve; not as an opportunity to get by.”

General Secretary Guyson Mayers also disclosed that he will sit out this year’s election, “Like Irene, I am not offering myself this year for re-election as General Secretary. But, I am just trying to ensure that we have a transparent and fair process and that everybody is given a fair shot at realizing their ambition to serve the party in whatever capacity.”

DLP President Verla De Peiza declared that the young people of Barbados have not turned their backs on the party.

“We have a crop of young person’s coming through who are very promising. It is very much encouraging for the party to know that despite the setbacks that we had in our current history,  we still have young people who are willing to be a part not only of the process of shaping the party and modernizing the party, but also being the face and the front of the party.”

“We have had some of them already ratified by the Party as candidates and we are very much active in that process,” she said also revealing that the DLP’s candidate for St. George North will be announced next week. (TL)

FORMER General Secretary of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) George Pilgrim has raised a red flag following the announcement of the decision to replace former Cabinet Minister Gline Clarke with General Secretary of Barbados Workers’ Union Toni Moore.

On Wednesday night Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley made the announcement that the National Executive Council of the BLP overwhelmingly supported Moore for the post. Clarke will resign as Member of Parliament of St. George North on September 30. The date of the by-election has not yet been called.

Pilgrim, in a statement issued yesterday, congratulated Moore on her nomination and thanked Clarke for his 26 years of service to Barbados, but said the nomination raises quite a few questions.

According to Pilgrim, “Can Ms. Toni Moore as a declared candidate for the Barbados Labour Party credibly continue to serve as the co-chair of the “Independent Body” charged with monitoring the implementation of the much touted “BERT Programme?”.

“Can a member of the Barbados Labour Party serve as a member of such a monitoring body?  Is Ms. Moore a member of the Barbados Labour Party and if so how long has she been a member?”

“Should such membership have been declared when she was appointed to serve as Co-Chair of an “Independent” monitoring body? Was Ms. Moore duty-bound to declare any formal party affiliations before taking the oath as an “Independent senator appointed by the Governor General. Will Ms. Toni Moore be reassigned to a Senate seat if she loses in the by-election?”

Pilgrim noted that during a recently held DLP meeting, he questioned the “troubling issue” of the fragile nature of our democracy and what needs to be done to strengthen the bonds as a society. He challenged that the state of the democracy in Barbados is in unchartered waters.

“We are familiar with political unionism and the courtship between unionists and political parties. This is not new to Barbados, think Sir. Frank Walcott, Leroy Trotman, Bobby Morris, Evelyn Greaves and so on. What is new however, are the times we are in and our expectations, as well as the fact that the political stripes of these gentlemen was no secret while they practiced unionism.”

“Citizens are demanding greater transparency and democracy as promised by the current administration when in Opposition. How is our democracy advanced by the co-option of the leader of the largest private sector leader to the fold of a government that already holds all 30 seats?”

“Barbadians are watching on,” he warned.

TRADE unionist Senator Toni Moore says she is humbled by the support of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) by naming her as the candidate to run in the upcoming by-election in the constituency of St. George North.

Her comments came on Wednesday night following the announcement by party leader and Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley who fully endorsed Moore’s candidacy.

Moore acknowledged that there are persons within the party who were more than willing to serve, but stepped aside for her sake. “Not because I’m better than they might be in the service they can offer, but to give labour a platform to serve, not only the people of St. George North, but to serve more widely.

“I am humbled that my own executive council at the BWU, that they have seen it necessary at this time as well by large majority to share me more widely with the country through my representation in St. George North. Not if I win but when,” she said.

Moore, the General Secretary of the BWU over the last six years, also sought to allay the fears of union members who may not be comfortable with her decision to join active politics.

“My commitment to those members of the BWU, who may be uncomfortable, who may wish to support or who are not sure if they are liking this right now, I am not leaving the union. I am not joining this movement to be silenced, but on the contrary, my decision is to not only be heard but heard more loudly in a way that I can impact meaningful change and bring difference to this country.

She told the members of the executive in attendance that she is looking forward to meeting with them. “I have not been a party person, don’t hold that against me, neither do I expect you to hold previous statements made by me of not seeing the necessity to walk the political road that was taken at a time where that was my belief. But things have changed.”

“Not only COVID has caused change but experience has changed that and during the coming weeks and months we are going to hear a lot of things. A number of opinions formed, a number of attempts to undermine what is on the table right now and this union, my joining you, is intended to achieve. And anyone who has followed me will understand that I can bear the humps and grunts because for me it is more about doing and less about being preoccupied with the negatives around.”

Parliamentary representative for the constituency Gline Clarke will be resigning on September 30. The date for a by-election for the constituency has not yet been announced.

He described Moore as a “tower of strength” adding that she will add value not only to the BLP but also to labour “I am looking forward to the campaign. I will be walking with her. I will be encouraging all my young people, the old people of St. George North to give her the same support you gave me. I will expect her to do better than I did. I was able to secure 81 percent of the votes last time, I expect her to do even better than 81 percent,” he said.

THE COVID-19 pandemic has not only changed consumer behaviour in some areas, but it has changed the way some local farmers conduct business with their customers.

Andrea Power, Owner and Managing Director of Hatchman’s Premium Cheeses, acknowledged the above recently, as she spoke with The Barbados Advocate following a presentation which she made at the close of a Backyard Gardening Training Workshop held by registered local charity, The Emerald Project, at the Valley Resource Centre in St. George. During that session, Power shared with participants how she was able to keep her business afloat during the previous lockdown period, on account of the pandemic. She later acknowledged that one positive spin-off from the pandemic has been a change in the way farmers now deliver produce to their customers and the subsequent rise in demand for fresh produce and products manufactured locally, in general.

“I think that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed patterns of consumer behaviour. First of all, with supermarkets closed, people still wanted food and it meant that farmers who typically might not have been interested in delivering, because delivery is expensive and there is a cost attached to doing it, but you nevertheless had a number of farmers now willing to deliver products to consumers. They got the critical mass, because very often the problem is that you are just delivering to one person or two persons. But I found that farmers were now using social media a lot more, to reach their customers. So I had a group of farmers that would send me a WhatsApp message at the end of every week, telling me what vegetables were available, like a Veg Box and I would order every week,” Power explained.

“So that took care of my supermarket shopping, in terms of vegetables. We know that everybody shops for vegetables fresh every week, so I felt that whereas before a customer might have said that St. Lucy was too far to get to, all of sudden it wasn’t that far anymore. The lockdown made everything feel so remote, so much so that you were glad to get out of the house and do the drive to St. Lucy as an excursion and I found that people were more connected to their food. So when you go to the farm or the processor, you are getting a better choice of what is available,” she added.

“So I think that if there is a silver lining that we can pull from COVID-19, it is a reorientation of behaviour. I hope this reorientation continues, because that is what is going to drive sustained demand for farmers and it is also going to improve rural livelihoods,” Power stressed.

Speaking about how she was able to manage her own business, Power noted that for her Barbadian-based artisanal cheese manufacturing company, which produces high quality products from the milk of local cows and goats, she had to scale back on sales during the lockdown. However, on the plus side, greater emphasis was made in the area of production, which has proven key, as demand rose again for her products, once the country reopened.

Minister of Energy, Small Business, and Entrepreneurship, Kerrie Symmonds, is calling for a collateral registry in Barbados.

The minister mentioned this during his address at the “How To Run A Successful Business” course held at the Lecture Theatre, Warrens Office Complex earlier this week.

Symmonds elucidated that many cannot afford to go to financial banks with the collateral of land, a building, or a new vehicle. He noted that this situation should not exclude people from getting the financial assistance that they need.

“We also have to be mindful of the fact that there are a lot of people who don’t have (traditional collateral), but what they do have are assets or other assets that can be used,” said Symmonds.

He said that some people have individuals who owe them money, and those accounts receivables can be leveraged to help Barbadians get financial assistance. Symmonds also added that with farmers, their livestock and crops could do the same.

“(Collateral registry) can’t happen in Barbados today, but it can happen in the future. These are ways in which financial opportunities are created for people, especially micro, small business people all around the world,” he said.

Importance of future planning

In his remarks, the minister also emphasised the need for entrepreneurs to plan for the future. He told the audience that some business persons would make money and rather than invest it back into the business, they spend it on personal items. He also stressed that entrepreneurs must plan for their retirement and put plans in place to pass on their legacy.

“We must have intergenerational businesses and intergenerational wealth in this country,” said Symmonds.

In addition, he pointed out that business funds and personal funds should be kept separate from each other.

“Our party must reconnect, our community must reconnect and our society must reconnect.”

So says former General Secretary of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), George Pilgrim, who believes that the idea that “every one has value” must be the compass to guide the policy agenda for the party going forward.

Pilgrim, who is vying for the position of president in the DLP’s upcoming annual conference, was putting his case to the party faithful attending the Annual General Meeting of the St. Michael West branch held at the St. Leonard’s Boys’ School on Sunday evening, where he stressed the importance of developing the country’s social capital.

“I am firmly of the view that the level of social capital those bonds that keep us together is the single biggest asset Barbados possesses and our ability to succeed in the face of the most overwhelming and debilitating of challenges, as well as our ability to craft opportunities for a better Barbados depends on that level of social capital.

“Restoring and then enhancing the level of social capital in Barbados will be the central plank of a future DLP. We must ensure that our community and our society does not fall apart.”

He said the agenda of the DLP must be located in relationships with people. “The current posture of leaders in the political space is designed and managed by algorithms and a team of full-time surrogates. This entire BLP episode we are watching live is not about Barbados and its people... It’s only about managing information. This Government is doing a great job at managing information.”

As it relates to the crime situation, he said this must be tackled at the policy level by the State. “The erosion of those bonds that bind our community together and by extension our society is evident... We are seeing our social capital weakened. The reality of the shocking murder rate in Barbados is ignored. Entire families in this country are murdered while asleep.

“How did we get to be a society … where it is so easy to murder somebody? This is NOT who we are. How did we get to be a society where human life has so little value? Everyone must have value,” he exhorted.

Pilgrim also believes that greater attention must be placed on sustainable development, consumer rights and fiscal prudence in Barbados.

“Barbados will require a commitment to fiscal prudence in the management of the affairs of Barbados. As a party, we felt that Barbados had the competencies to deliver on a home-grown fiscal agenda... The current administration feels otherwise and sent for the big guns,” he said, referring to White Oaks and the International Monetary Fund.

“The DLP, under my leadership, will advocate for fiscal discipline to be embedded into the legislative framework of Barbados. Integrity legislation is a facet dealing with individuals, but I think we need a tier of oversight.

“The DLP of the future must lead the way and be bold, that’s why I have no fear in saying publicly and advocating for the passage of a Fiscal Responsibility Law and the establishment of an independent Fiscal Commission. We must find ways of managing our fiscal affairs prudently,” he said. (JH)

THE United Progressive Party (UPP) candidate for the upcoming by-election in St. George North, Ambrose Grosvenor, has described Member of Parliament Gline Clarke’s departure as “really good news for constituents”.

He said that constituents “will have the opportunity to free themselves from the illusion of representation that has been the hallmark of the lost decade and more, a period that constitutes almost half of his time in Parliament”.

Clarke, who served the people of St. George North since 1994, announced on Sunday that he will be retiring from his post as Member of Parliament, having been appointed Barbados’ High Commissioner to Canada, replacing newly appointed President of the Senate, Reginald Farley.

Grosvenor, the UPP’s former Campaign Manager, is of the view that St. George North has been adrift from as early as February 2008.

He went on to identify, “Residents of The Glebe are still unable to use their homes as collateral to borrow money to pay for their children’s advanced education because they do not have title deeds. Residents of Airy Hill still have to walk to Charles Rowe Bridge, sometimes through neighbours’ properties, to catch a bus or PSV to go about their business.

“The heavily used road in Thorpe’s Cottage remains the same nightmare that it has been for decades. Thrice weekly water outages in Jericho, Paradise, Retreat, Roach Village, and Sweet Vale are perennial.  The safety of children in Lower Estate has been at risk for decades because there are no speed humps. Traffic in Charles Rowe Bridge, The Glebe, Lower Estate and Walkers continue to be near chaotic.”

Grosvenor said these problems are neither inconsequential nor insurmountable. “These are matters that affect people’s daily lives.

“These are issues that must attract the interest of a MP or a potential MP,” he maintained, while disclosing, “I have already started to tackle these problems and have met with success. To get things done while one is outside of Parliament is a tell-tale sign of a prospective MP of consequence.” (TL)

Across the region there is improved performances in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certifi-cate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) subject areas, Registrar and CEO of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Dr Wayne Wesley reiterated, yesterday.

“The vast majority of individuals would have received acceptable grades.”

His comments came during a press conference called  regarding the release of the July 2020 examinations results.

Since the official release on Tuesday, Ministries of Education across the region reported to the Barbados based examination body candidates dissatisfaction with grades.

Education Minister, Santia Bradshaw said that the disquiet among students who received the Caribbean Examinations Council’s CAPE and CSEC examinations results was definitely cause for concern, and called for an urgent investigation to be carried out by CXC. She also called on CXC to consider the waiver of fees associated with the review. However, the Registrar made it clear to members of the media that CXC hasn’t given any consideration to a waiver of any fee.

“I am saying while all this discussion is going on where representation has been made – the general approach for CSEC results and CAPE results – remember the vast majority of individuals would have received acceptable grades. So, if persons have concerns with those acceptable grades we expect that they would submit them through the requisite processes that we have for reviews.”

Dr Wesley also pointed out that each year, candidates may have questions regarding their results and CXC has a long-established process in place for addressing these concerns.

He therefore said that if candidates have questions about an absent or ungraded result, they may submit a query. Whereas, if candidates have been awarded a grade, and have concerns about the grade achieved, they may submit a request for a review.

“With a query no payment is required. However, there is a fee associated with this review process,” he explained, emphasizing that the deadline for the submission of enquiries and requests for reviews relating to the July/August 2020 examination is October 23rd. (TL)

Yesterday, the Ministry of Health and Wellness in conjunction with the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI) released the country’s updated travel protocols, which will see the UK moving to the High-Risk category effective October 1, 2020.

Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Senator the Hon. Lisa Cummins, spoke to the reason for the change. “We have been closely following the developments in the UK, particularly the surge in their COVID-19 numbers within the past week which Prime Minister Boris Johnson referred to as a second wave. These large increases are of concern to our public health officials, who have recommended the new classification of the UK to the High-Risk category,” she said.

Visitors travelling from the UK – in addition to the mandatory COVID-19 PCR test taken at least 72 hours prior to arrival in Barbados – will now also be required to undergo a second COVID-19 PCR test in Barbados, five days after the date of their first accepted test.

Until the second test is taken, visitors from the UK will remain in hotels designated by the Ministry of Health and Wellness and their movements will be restricted within that property. They will also be monitored for seven days after arriving in Barbados, including daily temperature checks and reports to their assigned health officer.

“Travel has changed. In light of COVID-19, we all understand that it will not be business as usual and we have to prioritise the health of all parties involved. We welcome all visitors to our shores, however we must ensure that we do so safely and responsibly. Many of our visitors are travelling to have that mental health break from the challenges of going through this pandemic. We need to ensure that we can welcome them to a Barbados that is able to keep them safe and healthy. I am confident that our protocols, as we continue to revise them in keeping with the fluidity of the situation, accomplish this goal.”

Public health gatekeepers

Cummins lauded the work of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, adding that “Since we resumed commercial flights in July, our public health officials have been our gatekeepers, proactively managing the flow of passengers through our airport. And if you examine our track record, you’ll see that thanks to our protocols and the round the clock work of our professionals, we have been able to capture almost all of the COVID-19 cases at the point of entry. This has allowed us to manage our risk and to ensure that anyone impacted by the virus has been isolated from the wider community.

“At the same time, our hoteliers have done an exceptional job of ensuring that their properties are able to welcome guests safely. I have toured several properties in the past few weeks and it has been impressive to see how much attention they are paying to sanitisation and keeping people safe while they are enjoying the facilities. It’s peace of mind that many people want to have in this environment.”

More hoteliers are following The Crane Resort’s example, by opening up their doors to guests who need to quarantine or self-isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Senator Lisa Cummins, acknowledged the above, as she toured the St. Philip property yesterday, with tourism officials. The tour was led by Owner of The Crane Resort, Paul Doyle, who was accompanied by John Doyle, Director of Business Development at The Crane.

Noting that The Crane was one of the first hotels to open its doors as commercial flights resumed to allow guests into the country and for Barbadians to come back home, Minister Cummins stressed management’s welcoming approach and its move to make guests feel at home, whilst still following strict COVID-19 protocols.

“Since Mr. Doyle has done that here at the Crane, we’ve seen more and more of our hoteliers also equally standing up and opening up their properties. So now we have perhaps probably close to 25 hotels that have reopened and a growing number of them that continue to indicate that they are preparing to reopen and they are willing to do both quarantine and self-isolation in their hotel properties,” Minister Cummins remarked.

She meanwhile noted that Barbados’ health officials have done a phenomenal job in keeping Barbadians safe, capturing up to 99 per cent of all COVID-19 cases at the border.

“That is really a significant accomplishment for a small country like Barbados, with the kind of resources that we have had. We do not have the kind of infection rates that we are seeing in other places and we are also able to say that we have not had deaths in months at this point and that really is a credit to our health officials. And it is a major selling point also for our tourism product,” Minister Cummins stressed.

Paul Doyle spoke of the strict protocols in place at The Crane, for keeping the facility in a sanitary state and to ensure that guests can feel confident in the spaces allotted to them. All guests are required to wear their colour-coded wristbands, for the full length of stay. Guests with red wrists bands are restricted to their rooms for self-isolation. Those with blue ones who are in need of a second test are restricted to certain areas of the resort, whilst those with green wristbands have full resort and off-property access. Doyle also noted that a well-trained doctor is on hand to administer tests and anyone who does not comply with the protocols, is dealt with by the authorities in the Ministry of Health.

Minister Cummins meanwhile says those desirous of engaging in a staycation can feel safe as well, as the wristband system ensures that guests are separated in different spaces, in keeping with protocols. (RSM)

THE Barbados Light and Power Company (BL&P) is reporting that even though the COVID-19 lockdown affected construction on its Clean Energy Bridge (CEB) project at Trents, St. Lucy, which started in January, significant progress has still been made.

In fact, in a release issued to the media yesterday, the utility company disclosed that the project is progressing well and the CEB is expected to be fully commissioned by next February. According to the BL&P’s Managing Director, Roger Blackman, the CEB project, which will see a 33-megawatt medium-speed diesel generating plant being commissioned, was envisaged and designed to maintain a consistent and resilient supply of electricity to the grid, as the country moves towards its goal of becoming 100 per cent renewable energy over the next few years.

Blackman added that though COVID restrictions resulted in an unavoidable change as it relates to the commissioning date, that shift had no bearing on the project’s objectives.

“This 33MW medium-speed diesel plant will serve as a ‘bridge’, allowing us to maintain a reliable supply of electricity and will serve as the resiliency backup while facilitating the transition to renewable generating technologies. The new plant will perform at the highest industry standards for environmental protection, and will deliver energy efficiently and reliably for many years,” the managing director stated.

With that in mind, Blackman said that the efficiency to be achieved will have immediate benefits. He explained that it will not only contribute to fuel savings for customers, but help to bring down foreign exchange spend, resulting in “a meaningful cost benefit to the country”. He made the point while noting that the plant can be converted to cleaner fuel such as natural gas, should such become economically feasible and available on the island.

His comments came as he gave the assurance that the BL&P is an “environmentally conscious company”, which he said they have demonstrated through the implementation of eco-friendly policies designed to preserve and minimise the impact on the environment.

“By extension, our company equally cares about the comfort, health and wellness of the people who live within our communities. I wish to assure the residents of St. Lucy that Light & Power has made conscious efforts and plans to ensure that the plant will operate in a safe manner, compliant with the highest environmental standards at all times. We have taken many steps to ensure minimal environmental impact due to noise, dust or any other emissions. We intend to continue our engagement of our neighbours in St. Lucy, not only to keep them abreast of the CEB project and other energy developments on the site but also, in due time, to invite them to tour the facility,” he stated.

According to the media release, the CEB plant is also being built in keeping with “stringent” World Bank standards. Moreover, the company says the environmental impact assessment (EIA) includes assessments on the impact of the plant on air quality in the surrounding areas, employing wind data collected over a number of years.

“The height of the CEB’s four stacks was also determined based on the EIA, and environmental monitoring programs will be implemented in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Protection Department (EPD),” the release stated.

Moreover, it was added that the project, which still has about five more months of construction to go, is generating a number of jobs in the country in both the skilled and professional trade, including finance, civil works, building construction, electrical contracting, consulting and engineering services. It was also noted that it is providing spinoff benefits for the local economy, through other services such as accommodations, rental cars, freighting, transport and rental of equipment.

“In addition to providing jobs, the project will ensure the transfer of talent, skills and technical knowledge from its overseas contractors to local personnel,” the company indicated.

ONE Human Resource practitioner is strongly encouraging employers to engage with mental health professionals in order to look after the mental health of their employees.

Brittany Brathwaite, President of the Human Resources Management Association of Barbados (HRMAB), highlighted this as she spoke during the 2020 Domestic Financial Institutions Conference Virtual Series, titled “The Psychosocial Impact of COVID-19”, which was hosted by the Central Bank of Barbados and HRMAB.

She revealed that throughout the world and interviews done by persons who would have spoken anonymously to the press, there was a common concern that persons had an overwhelming fear when it came to returning to work.

“I think the approach to managing this fear that we have seen, particularly through the surveys that we have done at our HRMAB membership, etc., is that a lot of business owners and practitioners are reiterating and practising the national protocols, but the one thing that I think is missing and we have to use more often are mental health professionals,” she said.

“I by no stretch of the imagination am a trained psychologist; I don’t know how to manage mental health issues, I don’t. That’s not my sphere of expertise and I think that we need to acknowledge very much when we are dealing with this concept of fear, and the reintegration into work that many of us who are trying to manage this fear. We are not equipped with what we need in order to manage this fear.

“So even if we have shared the protocols and told them that they are safe and fine, a lot of people are dealing with more trauma than we can imagine.”

She noted that while it may be easy to categorise the trauma persons are experiencing as fear, she had reason to believe that it was more than that.

Brathwaite expressed that it was certainly beyond the scope of employers, in many cases, to tackle with and truly understand what persons were dealing with. So it is against this backdrop that she believed it was important for employers and employees to engage with mental health professionals, whether in a group setting or individually, to deal with the issue and not “castigate persons to simply being conspiracy theorists”.

Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy, Kirk Humphrey, believes more Barbadians should receive training in the area of maritime.

He told this to the gathering at the Ministry’s Charnocks, Christ Church headquarters where the Minister’s Award Ceremony was held in recognition of outstanding performances by Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology (SJPI) students in maritime studies.

“I have a view that Barbados should be training about five to six times ... the amount of people that we are training. I also have a view that persons who are to be trained in maritime, that I should be able to go almost any place in Barbados and pick up almost anybody who has an interest in the ocean, regardless of their qualifications, at least introduce them to the ocean and be able to train up people to the point where those who want to stay, can stay and those who don’t, well, they wouldn’t stay, but I feel we have to make it open to more people and to broaden the base. Not to broaden the base because we want to broaden the base, but to give people economic opportunity.”

The awardees were Kyrell Millington, who was the Most Outstanding Student – Certificate in Maritime Operations and Michael Olton, who was the Most Outstanding Student – Diploma in Maritime Diesel Engineering.

Humphrey congratulated both individuals who have also been awarded an internship for six months by the Barbados Port Inc. He urged them to give of their best.

“You are the most outstanding students, this is only for that chapter in your life. Be the most outstanding employees. Get to work on time, give 100 per cent every time, be focused, be honest [and] look for other opportunities for growth. Tell us where the gaps are, but be humble in so doing.”

Giving his remarks, SJPI’s Principal, Ian Drakes, thanked the Port for again offering an internship to SJPI students. He encouraged the awardees to “grab the bull by the horns and just run with it… SJPI, we are still striving for par excellence and we will not stop and we keep flying the flag high and we will continue to be very dynamic in our rollout of training for the young persons in this country.” (MG)

Students of the Samuel Jackman Prescod Institute of Technology (SJPI) have been complying with the COVID-19 health and safety measures instituted at the school.

SJPI Principal, Ian Drakes, stated presently it is week three and so far there are no major challenges.

“For us at SJPI, it has been a very smooth transition from the pre-COVID to the COVID now and living with COVID because we would have been planning from the time we closed down in March actually. Therefore, we have found that our protocols were approved by the Ministry of Health and Wellness and they actually commended us for the great job we had done on our protocols and we have found that our staff and students have been very receptive to what we have put in place.”

Drakes said measures have been set up to reduce the number of students at the campus at a given time. This has been done through the use of blended learning where classes and labs are taught some online and others face to face. He also said there has not been a falloff in student enrolment.

“We do have a full complement of staff and a full complement of students as it relates to all of our programmes. We don’t have no programmes that are under-subscribed right now.”

He continued, “We have reduced some of the numbers as it relates to COVID-19, but what we have also put in place in terms of our protocols is that it is compulsory to wear masks or face shields at all times in terms of the delivery of instructions, so that we are really meeting the protocols. If we can’t meet the three or six feet, then you have on all the PPEs… We are very strict. We have been able to put a lot of sanitisation stations across the campus. We had extra exits and entrances apart from just the main campus. So there have not been any bundles for the last two weeks since we have started. There have not been any disruptions and it is really a good, calm [environment]. Persons are conforming in terms of the young adults.”

A statement issued on Thursday by the United Progressive Party (UPP) challenged that while union leaders are no strangers to partisan politics, they do so in pursuit of the interests of workers and not at their expense.

The statement was made in response to the announcement by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley that the National Executive Council of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) nominated General Secretary of the Barbados Workers’ Union, Toni Moore, to be the candidate for St. George North following the decision of parliamentary representative Gline Clarke, who will be resigning on September 30.

The statement challenged, “Leading up to the 2018 General Election, we saw big business and unions march arm-in-arm to ensure the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) won every seat in Parliament. Toni Moore’s championing of the BOSS programme was another indication that she had shifted allegiance from the workers to the BLP and big business.”

The failure of the Integrity in Public Life Bill in the Senate was also called into question. “Governments do not allow important Bills to be thrown out by the Senate.”

It was stated that it will be difficult for Senator Moore to convince the people of St. George North that she is a woman of independent thought and action. “Did she sacrifice the workers of Barbados for a shot at the St. George North seat? The goodly people of St. George North would be well within their rights to soundly reject Toni Moore at the poll.”

The UPP has put forward Ambrose Grosvenor as their candidate for the St. George North seat. A date for the by-election has not yet been announced.

THE establishment of a public-private partnership (PPP) is important as we look towards fighting cyber-security threats.

This was highlighted by Derek Manky, Chief, Security Insights and Global Threat Alliances at Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs, as he spoke during Fortinet’s recent virtual forum that was hosted in association with the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology (MIST).

As we look forward to the future, Manky expressed that persons could expect to have COVID-19 around for a long time and in order to address the issues caused by COVID-19 on cyberspace, it was important to band together and act now.

“We need to work from a point of a public-private relationship. I believe this is critical,” he said.

“We need to work together to make it more expensive to take these cyber-criminals offline, and expose who they are, especially when they are preying on people in bad situations, such as the COVID-19 landscape and when they are trying to take and inadvertently cripple economies for their greed.

“So these are things that we need to address and we can probably only effectively address these when we work together.”

Manky said that even though there was a lot of work to be done in improving cybersecurity, good progress has been made so far. However, it was noted that it was important to understand threats, such as the world of 5G and operational technology, as these were landscape threats that showed no signs of slowing down.

It is against this backdrop that Manky strongly advocated for the devel-opment of PPPs, in order to come up with security solutions.

Senator Kay McConney, Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology, acknowledged that Barbados would actively seek to foster regional and global corporations with partners in order to build its capacity and keep up to date with threats in the cyberspace, as well as come up with solutions to these problems.

“Our Government has recognised early on the need to have public and private partnerships and we have therefore formed a cybersecurity working group of experts from both the public and private sector that would provide policy recommendations and advice and general support as required,” she said.

“We know that we have to evolve this working group into a more robust structure and this structure will further help us to shape our cybersecurity governance posture as well as the institutional framework as it relates to standards and compliance within the sector.”

AS the Government moves rapidly along with their digital transformation agenda, it is critical for more focus to be placed on cybersecurity.

This was highlighted by Senator Kay McConney, Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology, as she spoke during Fortinet’s virtual forum that was hosted in association with the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology (MIST) recently.

She stated that the recent global pandemic has driven many small and medium enterprises to transform and to transition to e-commerce platforms at an unprecedented pace and believed that this was also an indication of the importance of cybersecurity, as more than half of the global population was online.

“This highlights an important need for an increased cyber-protection. The number of persons using the internet will only increase as governments worldwide, including developing countries like Barbados, focus on building digital societies as a key component of our social and economic agendas. In this context, governments will be required to focus on e-governance security measures and national cyber-security policies that provide the right legislative framework to ensure a resilient IT infrastructure and services,” she said.

“Cybersecurity is one of the focus areas for Barbados. We are acutely aware of the work that still has to be done if we, like other Caribbean countries, are to improve our readiness and resources.”

McConney noted that Government did not plan to only undertake this exercise in an effort to improve Barbados’ position globally, but rather, their cybersecurity efforts were more about taking care of people and ensuring that their data, which is now an asset to them, is protected.

It is against this backdrop that she was proud of the fact that the current administration was able to pass data protective legislation, as this was an important step in the regulation of collecting, keeping and processing the use and dissemination of personal data and the protection of the privacy of individuals in relation to their personal data.

Dr. Delores B Lewis, a member of the Kiwanis Club Barbados Central has become the first Governor elected from Barbados in the 46-year history of Kiwanis in Barbados.

In an exclusive interview with The Barbados Advocate, Dr. Lewis expressed her excitement at making history in becoming the first Barbadian governor. 

“I am excited about it because we have had Kiwanis in Barbados for 46 years. Our first club was founded on September 17th, 1974, so we just achieved 46 years and I would be the first Governor from Barbados and that is exciting,” said the new governor.

Dr. Lewis will head the Eastern Canada and Caribbean district of over 260 clubs and over 7 000 members, one of the largest districts in North America. These clubs are located in Eastern Canada and most of the Caribbean including the English, French and Dutch-speaking Caribbean. 

The new governor admitted that it was an interesting time to inherit the district as the situation of the pandemic caused some changes in the plans she would have been developing over the last three years. The Kiwanis official explained that her journey towards district governor began when she was first elected to serve as Vice Governor for one year and then Governor Elect for another year before taking up the post as District Governor.

“Now is a great time to be governor of the district because now it would really test the metal of a person in terms of how you will bring your district forward, keep it growing and keep it serving because our international organisation is one that serves the needs of the children in the communities,” said Dr Lewis.

The district governor highlighted that the COVID-19 environment was an important one where the effect of the pandemic must be analysed along with an assessment of the needs of the children within the district.

“It is going to have a serious effect on our children in education, in nutrition, in health and safety and I believe as a service organisation that caters to children, we have a lot of work to do to help the children,” explained Dr Lewis.

Recipient of numerous awards including the Mel Osbourne Fellowship Award, Kiwanis fellow Award and the George F. Hinkson Fellowship Award for outstanding leadership and service, Dr Lewis is a life member of Kiwanis International. She pointed out that in the midst of the pandemic the service clubs of the district were continuing to function, though not as they used to.

“Because we are an organisation dedicated to improving the lives of children, there is so much that we can do even in Covid. It has changed the way we function as we are hands on people but we have had to do a lot of things online on virtual platforms but we have been working,” said the official.

Dr. Lewis outlined that her district covered seven provinces in Eastern Canada, fourteen Caribbean countries along with the South American countries of Suriname and French Guiana. She added that the communities had been responsive to the initiatives of the clubs including locally in Barbados where electronic devices have been provided for the students.

“Even here in Barbados, our clubs have been providing tablets to students, who did not have tablets for their education. We have clubs in Jamaica who are actively trying to bring internet access to poor communities, so the children can take advantage of the online education,” highlighted the governor.

Dr. Lewis also mentioned the initiative by the Kiwanis Circle K Club of the Barbados Community College who have put together a collection drive for school supplies for students. (AS)

Chairman of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association, Geoffrey Roach, encouraged hoteliers to use the time of reduced tourism activity as a result of the vagaries of COVID-19, to improve on their services.

In a press statement released yesterday by Roach in celebration of World Tourism Day, he pointed out that tourism has gone through crises before and recovered and it is for this reason he believes that the tourism industry will indeed be able to recover from this current crisis.

“In planning for our recovery we must seize the opportunities that arise to build an enhanced visitor experience and form more strategic and sustainable linkages. The opportunity is before us to retool and upgrade the skills of our people – to develop enhanced leaders, to develop new skills that will appeal to a changing traveling demographic while continuing to provide first-class experiences to our numerous repeat guests,” he said.

“As tourism has changed, so has just about everything in the world in which we live, with much of the change in the past couple decades being driven by technological change. The opportunity is before us to embrace technology to a greater extent and employ it in our operations for greater efficiency and an expanded guest experience.”

Roach strongly encouraged persons and businesses across Barbados to consider how they could use technology in an effort to make their lives and businesses more comfortable and efficient.

Additionally, he stated that opportunities to improve the value chain with agriculture, the cultural industries and others also needed to be explored and advanced as new ways of thinking and operating in these industries were imperative.

The Chairman went on to express and extend his gratitude on behalf of all persons in the tourism industry to all persons, the Government, all its agencies and frontline and essential workers, who have worked over the past few months, and continue to do so, in the fight against and in managing COVID-19 on the island.

“To all of the teams within the tourism industry, a huge thank you to each and every one of you for the roles you have played. I look forward to the roles you will continue to play as Barbados responds in a transformative manner to the re-engagement of visitors in increased numbers in the future. As the saying goes, tough times do not last but tough people do,” he said. (CLJB)