Public flogging of students degrades Barbados

St. Leonard’s Boys’ School senior teacher whips students for lateness
One would think that teachers in a nation that was built upon a foundation of whips, chains, rape and cultural genocide might view the public flogging of students as unacceptable in the year 2009.
We are disgusted with the actions of Dr. Victor Agard [...]

Who’s my true ancestor?

Who’s My True Ancestor?
When I was young they told me
How my paternal great granddad was an ecky-becky (poor Whity)
On my mother’s side I had an Indian great grand
She married a half breed Chinese man
My name was taken from an American Lord
Yankee man who travelled by ship with slaves aboard
They said he was originally from Scotland [...]

Science Traces Barbados Slaves to Different Regions Of Africa

‘We knew from historical records that the plantation was worked by African slaves,’ says archaeologist Dr Hannes Schroeder who led the research while working for his PhD at the University of Oxford. ‘But now we have a method that enables us to identify first-generation captives among the burials and to trace their origins back to [...]

‘District 9′ Alien Movie Drawing Criticism – “A Racist Movie About Racism…”

Unless you’ve been on another planet for the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard something about ‘District 9′ – a science fiction movie shot in Johannesburg, South Africa – where stranded alien visitors become the victims of a new apartheid.
Nope, I haven’t seen it, and yes I’d love to… but some reviewers have been taking [...]

Scottish Sugar Slaves In Barbados vs. African Slave Trade: Do Mr. & Mrs. Bourne Want To Forget or Remember?

George Washington Owned Slaves
Depending upon the source, history records that President George Washington brought seven to nine of his family’s several hundred slaves to New York City in 1789 to work in the first presidential household. One of the presidential slaves was a biracial young lady named Oney Judge – the daughter of Betty, a [...]

President Obama Slams African Leadership – West, Colonialism, Neo-Colonialism “Cannot Be Blamed For African Catastrophe Of Last 20 Years”

“I think part of what’s hampered advancement in Africa is that for many years we’ve made excuses about corruption or poor governance – that this was somehow the consequence of neo-colonialism, or the West has been oppressive, or racism,” Mr. Obama told an African website, AllAfrica , in his only interview dedicated to Africa before [...]

Tiananmen Square Massacre 20 Years Later: Hugs and Kisses From Barbados As We Trade Our Silence For Cash

“I have always found it shameful that Barbados – a nation founded with the assistance of chains, whips, rape and cultural genocide – now so easily supports nations involved in slavery and human rights violations.”
Barbados Continues To Ignore China’s Slave Camps & African Exploitation In Return For Money
Twenty years ago the despots of the Chinese [...]

Would Barbados Be Better Off If Foreign Aid Was Linked To Government Performance Standards and Accountability Structures?

The function of aid is not to make us feel better about ourselves; it is to promote development, and if a well-informed African tells us that we are inadvertently having the opposite effect, we had better take heed…
… from The Independent book review: Dead Aid, by Dambisa Moyo
What Happened To The European Union’s Sugar Grant [...]

Barbados Death Boat Inquest Starts – Senegal Migrants Starved When Abandoned By Smugglers

“I would like to send to my family in Bassada (a town in western Senegal) a sum of money. Please excuse me and goodbye. This is the end of my life in this big Moroccan sea,”
… victim Diao Souncar Dieme wrote his goodbyes. (Times Online: Mystery of death boat that drifted 3,000 miles off [...]

George Ayittey on “Dead Aid” To Africa – Someone The Barbados Government Should Listen To

Africa – Barbados Relations
For years, Barbados as a country has supported the Pan African movement on the island and in Africa itself — admittedly less so since the death of Ikael Tafari –  but the political and social will to do so continues even if Barbadians do not have deep pockets at the present moment. [...]

Murder, Assassination Or Accident In Zimbabwe – PM Morgan Tsvangirai In Hospital, Wife Dead

Zimbabwe Prime Minister Tsvangirai Injured, Wife Killed in Auto Accident
March 6 (Bloomberg) — Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was injured and his wife killed in a car crash today outside Harare, officials from his Movement for Democratic Change party said.
Tsvangirai was with his wife, Susan, a party official and a driver at the time of [...]

Taking A Break From Zimbabwe Cholera Epidemic: Mugabes’ US$92,000 Weekend Fashion Spree!

What’s The Use Of Being First Lady Of Zimbabwe If You Can’t Buy A US$3,000 Purse Once In A While?
You know how it is… all that cholera and famine is just sooooooo depressing that one must simply take a break from the white colonist oppressors who are causing the national crisis for Zimbabwe. And what [...]

Bajan Reporter Talks About Drunken Santas, Barbados Asthma Crisis and Kwanzaa

I don’t know where Ian Bourne gets the energy and time to be such a prolific writer. He works by himself and sometimes publishes three or four articles in a day while four of us at BFP often struggle to produce our promised one article a day. I guess that is the difference between a [...]

Should Barbados Burn George Washington’s House?

Admiral Nelson vs. George Washington – Different Standards Applied
In 1751 at the age of 19 years, George Washington, the future eighth leader of the revolutionary American colonies of Britain, spent two months in Bush Hill House in Barbados with his brother Lawrence. The house was restored in 2006 with the efforts of many under the [...]

Zimbabwe: Young Boy Carries Liquid Death To His Family

UPDATED: BANGO – Barbados Association of Non-Governmental Organisations says that no foreign or even African government should take over Zimbabwe even to save lives – and that Zimbabweans should sort it out themselves.
The BANGO blog also carries a stirring speech by Zimbabwean Army Chief of Staff Major General Martin Chedondo exhorting the youths to be [...]

Barbados Seeks Closer Ties With Nigeria – How Much Will It Cost Bajan Taxpayers?

Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Barbados, H.E. Musa John Jen, is calling for direct airline flights between Barbados and Nigeria as well as business and cultural exchange. And what could be more natural for two countries that share common historical and family ties?
It all sounds so mutually beneficial and again, “natural” for Bajans to want to [...]

How Screwed Up Is This Place? Barbados Government Workers Accidentally Demolish Last Slave Hut – After Being Informed Not To By Member Of Parliament

Barbados’ First Freedom Village Now Ruble – And No One Will Be Held Accountable
What idiocy! At the same time that the government and citizens are putting more emphasis on our roots and bringing clarity to some of the misconceptions of our history, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) demolished that last bit of original history at [...]

Press Release: King of the Ashanti To Visit “Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur” (Hey… What’s That White Powder On Your Upper Lip, Your Kingliness?)

Asantehene to receive Honorary LLD in Barbados
Kumasi, Oct. 16, 2008
GNA – Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene will visit Barbados from October 22 to 25, this year, to receive an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) from the University of West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.
A statement signed by Mr. G. B. Osei-Antwi, Media Relations Manager [...]

China’s New Slave Empire: Africa

Barbados Newest Best Friend Isn’t Quite So Kind To Our Distant Cousins
“These poor, hopeless, angry people exist by grubbing for scraps of cobalt and copper ore in the filth and dust of abandoned copper mines in Congo, sinking perilous 80ft shafts by hand, washing their finds in cholera-infected streams full of human filth, then pushing [...]

China Olympics – Police Ask Bar Owners Not To Serve Blacks Because They Are Pimps, Prostitutes And Drug Dealers

Get Them Darkies Out Of Here!
“Beijing police have been visiting bar owners in the popular Sanlitun area and asking them to sign pledges agreeing to not serve black people or Mongolians and ban activities including dancing.
Bar owners said that police have been clamping down on black people and Mongolians, who are sometimes implicated in drug [...]

From What Gods Are We Born In Whose Image?

A painting, two days ago, one of the most sublime in all the world, is auctioned by Christies for 80 million dollars. It is to go into an obscure mansion, possibly never again seen, when such art should belong to the world, kept safe in an art museum for all who would see it. (Monet [...]

SHOCKING: Hospital Nurses In Barbados Allowed To Practice Without License Or Proper Training!

Unqualified Nurses Allowed To Work For As Long As Six Months!
That nurse who looked after you or your child at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital last week might have previously failed the General Nursing Examination.
The story of this outrageous abuse is carried in the Nation News article Nurses Must Go.
The Nigerian nurses were hired, brought to [...]

Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Morgan Tsvangirai Flees To Dutch Embassy – Chaos

HARARE, Zimbabwe – The Dutch Foreign Ministry said that Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has sought refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare.
Dutch television reported that Tsvangirai entered the embassy shortly after a police raid Monday on his party’s headquarters. (photo above is an old one found by BFP)

… report from MSNBC (June 23, [...]

A City Dies: Robert Remembers Johannesburg, South Africa

The Chelsea Hotel, Hillbrow – Or What’s Left Of It
Jan Smuts International Airport is about seven miles east of downtown Johannesburg, but even in 1991 that seven miles was probably about the most dangerous road I’ve ever driven. We never took one vehicle, always two. Race didn’t matter: black, white, coloured, chinese – nobody cared. [...]

Ikael Tafari Passes On – Will The Barbados Africa Connection Thrive Without Him?

Ikael Tafari Was Much More Than The Public Face Of The Regional Pan African Movement
Doctor Ikael Tafari passed on in Trinidad while attending a conference. The Nation News article (link here) provides some family and personal background but cannot even begin to cover his life’s work as the driving Caribbean force for Pan Africanism and [...]

Ghana International Airlines Contacts Barbados Free Press

Ghana International Airlines Disputes Comments By BFP Reader
We received the following email today from Ghana International Airlines about reader comments left on one of our articles.
That is the great thing about blogs – people who are impacted by the information on the blog can immediately have their point of view published in the same venue [...]

Stranded Africans Were Promised Caribbean Jobs At US$ Ten Dollars An Hour

Fraud Charges Launched In Ghana
Victims of the fraud that saw Ghana International Airways dump a plane load of Africans in Barbados will testify against one of the African-based organisers. From news accounts, it appears that Frank Emmanuel Duncan was not one of the organisers of the charter flight, but sub-contracted for some 43 seats which [...]

Stranded Africans Head Home From Barbados – Will There Be Any Accountability?

Details are scarce, but most of the Africans remaining on Barbados since their Ghana International Airways charter failed to return in February are on their way back home.
So far the government has not revealed exactly how many were on the return flight, how many remain hiding on Barbados or how much the whole debacle will [...]

Stranded Ghana Detainees: BBC Reports Barbados Military Rooms Have Insects On Beds

UPDATE: Barbados Underground Blog reports that an aircraft is on its way and at least one person is in custody in Ghana over the original charter.
The Pan African Commission is apparently involved in enmeshing the government in an operation that they knew was suspicious.
For details check out Barbados Underground link here
Government’s Continuing Inability To Resolve [...]

Zimbabwe: Mugabe’s Forces Seize Opposition Members’ Children

“Undeclared Civil War In Zimbabwe”
From Times Online…
Scores of children and babies have been locked up in filthy prison cells in Harare as Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, sinks to new depths in his campaign to force the opposition into exile before an expected run-off in presidential elections.
Twenty-four babies and 40 children under the age of six [...]

Ghanaian Woman Detainee Sexually Assaulted While In Custody At Barbados Army Base

We Cannot Find Any Record Of This Story In The Oldstream Barbados Media
One of the Ghanaian women stranded in Barbados when the Ghana International Airways charter failed to return to the island was sexually assaulted while in the custody of the Barbados Defense Forces – according to a letter purportedly released by Barbados politician David [...]

Stranded Ghana International Airlines Passengers Avoid Penis Theft Panic Back Home – Army Called Out In Congo To Stop Lynchings Of Penis Thieves

Oops… Our Bad…
The Ghana Penis Riots were 11 years ago, although according to reports (PDF here) smaller incidents of penis theft and associated violence continue in Ghana to this day. The new Penis Riots are in Congo. We misread the date on the CNN Ghana article so we re-wrote the article to correct this.
Our apologies [...]

Zimbabwe Police Raid Opposition Offices – Beatings, Arrests, Destruction

100 People Arrested, Makeshift Hospital Destroyed
Computers Taken By Police
Reuters: Zimbabwe Police Raid Opposition HQ, Detain Scores
AFP: Scores Held As Zimbabwe Police Raid Opposition HQ

Did we really think that the murderous Mugabe would go quietly just because the citizens of Zimbabwe voted him out?
Here’s a little sample from a March 23, 2008 article from The Independent: [...]

Government Of Ghana Says Cost Of Charter Flight Is $250,000

We Say Barbados Minister Of Foreign Affairs Should Replace His Top Civil Servants
The Government of Ghana has just announced that the cost of a charter flight to rescue the Africans stranded in Barbados is, in fact, US$250,000 and not the US$12 million reported by accident in an earlier Ghana newspaper article.
A few days ago, Barbados [...]

Letter From Africa – Six Maasai Warriors To Run London Marathon This Sunday

Barbados Free Press received the following letter from an old friend. Of course we’ll run the story…
Hi everyone!
I know it’s been quite awhile since I’ve spoken to or seen some of you, but I just wanted to pass this on.
The Maasai I was living with in Tanzania, along with Greenforce (the organization I originally went [...]

Child Of The Revolution Looks At Zimbabwe

“But you know how it is … sometimes, even rigged elections can turn out to be, well, real elections…”
Which is what has happened in Zimbabwe over the weekend.
Despite widespread fraud, and intimidation and harassment of opposition supporters, it is now clear that most Zimbabweans voted to get rid of Mugabe and his crew, according to [...]

The Amistad – When One Branch Of The Family Tree Used To Own The Other…

With the Amistad in town, a few of us who are café au lait (or “misto” for our loyal readers at Starbucks) might have a different perspective than some other folks… or maybe not. Everyone looks at the Amistad with their own eyes, but in our home the ship’s visit is a catalyst that makes [...]