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 [...]

Barbados Business Could Face Immigration Backlash Throughout Caribbean

Dear Barbados Free Press:
I will just state for the record that my job involves extensive travel throughout the Eastern Caribbean and I have been in the same job for over 11 years. Let me also state that I am for managed migration, however, I must admit that I have a soft spot for my Caribbean [...]

President Obama A Class Act: Interrupted By Quacking Duck Ringtone During Gay Rights Speech – No Problem Without The Teleprompter

This Guy Is The Right Blend Of Approachable, Dignified Authority & Leadership – And Yes, He Does OK Without A Teleprompter
I haven’t agreed with everything that President Obama has done since he took office, but that’s ok – he probably wouldn’t agree with everything I’ve done either. He’s trying to implement some big changes in [...]

Will Chubbie’s Rude Employee Kill Their DVD Rental Business In Barbados?

My first post after a long break and I’m damned cranky.  I had planned to write something nice, not this.  But a trip to Chubbie’s DVD rental this morning changed my mind for me… (snip)

…In his typically friendly manner, Greg says to the clerk, “Good morning.  We’d like to take these, please.”
The clerk recoils.  She [...]

Rickey Singh on Immigration & Free Trade: “Witch-Hunting Atmosphere In Barbados”

“In the absence of data in support of official claims of huge numbers of illegal Caricom migrants in the country, and the extent of pressure their presence is causing for the social services, the amnesty, which went into force on June 2, has unleashed a witch-hunting atmosphere and is nurturing tensions never before known in [...]

Impotent and Frustrated Barbados Auditor General Rages Against The Political Machine – And Bajan Culture

“There is general consensus that something has to be done. How we go forward from here, I am not too sure that we know how to go forward. But we concede that something has to be done. It just cannot keep going on like this all the time“
… Barbados Auditor General Leigh Trotman talks about [...]

Source: Rape-Accused Roy Morris Bought Off Girl’s Family – About To Be Re-Hired By Barbados Nation Newspaper

Barbados Rapists Can Buy Their Way Out Of Jail – Larger Societal Interests Forgotten
While we compose our thoughts about the Roy Morris rape charges fading into the mist, we’ll print this letter received anonymously through an anonymous remailing service in Russia. We remind folks that the letter is anonymous and may contain falsehoods. We also [...]

Reader Fires Broadside At Bizzy Williams’ Nation News Letter – “Xenophobic, Stupid, Intolerant”

UPDATED: Bizzy Williams’ letter added at the bottom…
Dear Barbados Free Press,
This letter is in response to Mr. Bizzy Williams’ letter to be found on page 13 of the Weekend Nation (May 29, 2009).
Dear Mr. Williams:
Let me say for starters I have not read such a xenophobic piece in a long time. I am a born [...]

BBC TV Looking For Role Model Bajan Family – For Reality Television Series

Dear Barbados Free Press,

I am a Producer in the BBC series and we are looking for a Bajan family to take part in a programme on parenting. Please can you add the information below onto your website?
Thank you
BBC TV ARE LOOKING FOR A ROLE MODEL BAJAN FAMILY
Do you believe in instilling good old-fashioned values, discipline [...]

Racial Hatred In Sucre Province Bolivia – An Article By Damon Gerard Corrie

Editor’s Comment: Barbados Free Press publishes this article exactly as received from the author, with the exception of a few spelling corrections. We were concerned about two references in the article, the first being the statement that the current version of Coca Cola beverage uses coca leaves in its formula and that leaves are imported [...]

When Did Ian Bourne’s Bajan Reporter Dump Link To Barbados Underground?

Major Barbados Blog Removes Link To DLP’s Barbados Underground Blog

Last Thursday we were doing our morning surfing – visiting our regular websites by following the links from one to another – when we noticed that The Bajan Reporter no longer featured a link to Barbados Underground blog in the sidebar link list.
“Hmmmmm, that’s interesting” we [...]

May Is Mixed Experience History Month: Bi-Racial? Tri-Racial? Mutt? Mixed-Marriage? May Is For You!

Two years ago our friend Light-Skinned-ed Girl declared May to be Mixed Experience History Month. Shona and I hope the idea catches on because those of us who are Heinz 57 and/or in mixed-race marriages need to reflect upon our roots once in a while.
If you have to ask “What’s the big deal?”, well, perhaps [...]

Barbados Police Receive Training From China – Chinese Law Enforcement Handbook Instructs How To Beat People Without Leaving Marks (Were I’Akobi’s Cops China Trained?)

Slippery Slopes Get Very Slippery Indeed
Officers of the Royal Barbados Police Force already receive training from China’s police both in Barbados and during exchanges in China. As Barbados Free Press has pointed out on numerous occasions, we don’t believe that Barbados police officers have much to learn from a country that drives tanks over teenagers, [...]

I’Akobi Maloney Inquest Verdict On Friday, April 24, 2009 – Coroner’s Court, Bridgetown Barbados

“If the Barbados government and police think that calls for an inquiry into the death of I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney will just fade away, they are very mistaken…”
From the August 28, 2008 Barbados Free Press article Harvard Law School’s Global Voices Translates I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney Articles For Major Worldwide Audience
Inquest Into Suspicious Death Of I’Akobi Exposed [...]

Indigenous Peoples Cry For Justice As Caribbean Nations Conveniently Submit To USA’s Will

“This ‘Human Prosperity’ theme of the OAS Heads of State Summit to follow us immediately in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago CANNOT be implemented for the benefit of the non-indigenous citizens of the OAS states at the expense of OUR Indigenous peoples – because for far too long that is EXACTLY what has been [...]

Barbados Law Supports Women Who Commit Paternity Fraud

How many times have you heard, “That little chile doesn’t look like [ insert man's name here ]“?
Women have been playing the same tricks since this world was born. Men have their tricks too, but only the women have the ability to pull the cruel trick of deceiving the world about who fathered a child. [...]

Layne Redman: A Bajan Finds Himself Living In Dubai

Bajans Here, Bajans There… Bajans Everywhere!
It is said that wherever you go in the world you will find a fellow Bajan, and Layne Redmond is one more proof of that old truism. Redman has lived in London, New York, Boston and for the last six years, Dubai. He makes it home to Barbados about once [...]

Barbados Lodge School Old Boys Battle It Out: “Dear Rodney” vs “Dear Peter”

Class, Race and Old Memories In Barbados – White vs Black vs Red
Dear Barbados Free Press,
Hey guys,
The Nation newspaper has not published the self explanatory letter attached. Please feel free to post on line if you wish.
Rodney Jones
Carol Martindale
Editor
Sunday Sun
24th March 2009
Dear Ms. Martindale
Re: Mr. Peter  Simmons’ column on Sunday  22nd March
I am submitting [...]

Hello Gun Tattoos – Goodbye To Our Barbados Sweetheart Rihanna

We Don’t Understand Rihanna’s Message, But We Don’t Like It
Guns are about power and control through violence and threats of violence. Does Rihanna believe that tattooing two guns on her body is some outward show of inner strength? That message becomes hollow mek sport when the person wearing the gun tattoos is a victim of [...]

Ping Yark Hammers Barbados Government – Online Petition Demands Inquest Into Codrington Family Cave-In Deaths

Worldwide Online Petition Calls Upon Barbados Government To Hold An Inquest
The February, 2009 issue of the U.K. basted (or based?) Bajan newsletter Ping Yark is out and can be downloaded in PDF format here. (3.9mb)
Although still full of the naughty humour and cartoons you’ve come to expect from this irreverent offering, the latest comes down [...]

Irish Newspaper: Many Barbados Reds Suffer From Mental Problems Due To Inbreeding!

Today, there are about 400 individuals living in the north east corner of Barbados known as the ‘Red Legs’, due to their ancestors having arrived there as slaves in the mid 17th century; many were wearing kilts and so their legs were horribly burned due to the sun, the stalks of working in the sugar [...]

Full Colour Photo Of Barbados Underground’s Race-Baiting Author “Black Woman Who Reads”

Barbados Underground’s Most Prolific Race-Baiting Author Is Really A Washed-up Old White Guy!
David at Barbados Underground has a problem. He surrendered his audience to “Black Woman Who Reads” and “her” supporters to allow the most vile of threats and racial attacks against people like Adrian Loveridge, the Knox family and others whose skin is not [...]

Will Rihanna Be In Danger When Performing In Malaysia?

When the Islamist fundamentalists decide that a woman is too sexy or too anything, violence is nearly always a possibility.
This time the target is Rihanna who is due to perform in Malaysia. She has agreed to conform to the dress and behaviour regulations, but that’s not good enough for some.
Is our girl in danger?
Ian Bourne [...]

The Silver People Chronicle: The Right To Be Different

“Not him, you can’t pair off with him. He is ugly!” they said to one little girl. They didn’t realize that they had just marred the innocence of a little Spanish girl who we were growing up with. We were the only pair of black kids and whom she had known since her family [...]

From The Mouth Of A Child “Previously, I lived in Barbados… so I know the feeling of being judged by people who are prejudiced.”

“Previously, I lived in Barbados, where 96 percent of the population is black and the minority is white, and because I am white, I was judged by my skin color, so I know the feeling of being judged by people who are prejudiced.”
… from Alisha Erozer, second place winner in the Martin Luther King middle [...]

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 [...]

A First In The History Of The Americas: Dominica Issues Diplomatic Passport To Indigenous Kalinago-Carib Leader

In a move that was widely hailed as a stunning breakthrough in the equitable treatment of Indigenous peoples – and being of great historical significance, the small Independent Caribbean State of Dominica (not to be confused with the Dominican Republic) – has accorded the democratically elected leader of it’s indigenous Kalinago-Carib community, Chief Charles Williams, [...]

Qatar Police Use Whips On Asian Labourers “Because The Asians Do Not Understand”

“You will never see me accepting another contract in the Middle East. I don’t care how much money I’m offered next time, it is not worth the indignity of being looked at like I’m some sort of lower lifeform by people who don’t even wash their hands after doing the necessary.”

BFP’s Robert talking about working [...]

President Barack Obama – Not A Bloodless Revolution

 
The Long Walk Of Dorothy Counts Comes To The White House
A black man named Barack Hussein Obama is now the President Elect of the United States of America and, unlike some previous elections, there is no doubt that he was truly elected by the majority of the people. At the time of this writing there is a six million [...]

How About President Obama and Vice-President Palin?

We all laughed pretty hard when we saw the above photoshop of Barack Obama and Sarah Palin on Dancing With The Stars – but then I thought “An Obama/Palin ticket would have been pretty good!”
Barbados Free Press came out early for Obama and on February 26, 2008, we predicted he’d be the next President of [...]

Thank Barbados Newest Diplomat For “Bitches”, “Niggers” and “Hoes” – OH… Not To Forget More Gambling Coming Soon To Our Island

Robert L. Johnson Created B.E.T. – Black Enslavement Television
Only one day after proclaiming that Barbados television should be projecting Bajan images, values and culture if it wants to receive government funding, Prime Minister David Thompson appointed Robert L. Johnson as Barbados’ honorary consul to the Carolinas, United States.
Yes… that Robert Johnson of Black Entertainment Television. [...]

Roy Morris Rape Charge Fading Into The Barbados Mist

UPDATED: April 19, 2009
We read Dr. Leonard Shorey’s latest article in the Barbados Advocate with some sadness and not a little amusement. In Perspectives: Different Strokes For Different Folks – Why? Dr. Shorey rightly highlights and condemns that the Barbados Justice system and society have little concern for the rule of law. Members of various [...]

Obama Kisses White Women – What Would Happen To A Barbados Politician Doing The Same?

BFP’s Shona Upsets Husband, Makes Observation
I came into the kitchen last week to find the girls oogling a photo of Presidential candidate Barack Obama on the beach and making a joke that went something like “Ohhhhhhhhhhh – Baam – meee!” and maybe a few other little comments that I shall not (read “cannot”) repeat here.
Well, [...]

Pakistani Parliamentarians Defend Mass Honour Killing: 5 Women Buried Alive… But What About Bajan “Traditions” About Women?

“Part Of Pakistani Tribal Traditions”
Five young Pakistani women who wanted to marry for love rather than mate with their family’s choice of a husband were murdered last month. After being tortured, the young women were buried alive.
Last week, two Members of Parliament spoke in defense of the tradition, and in defense of the police who [...]

Obama Assassination Plot In Denver – White Supremacist Link

“They’re Just Good ‘Ol Boys – Never Meanin No Harm”
Any candidate for the Presidency of the the United States of America faces threats that range from wackos without the means to serious people who have the resources and don’t care if they get caught or die as long as their mission is completed.
Where do the [...]

Suspicious Death Brings World Attention Upon Royal Barbados Police Force

Was I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney Murdered By Police?
Harvard Law School’s prestigious Global Voices project is now covering the extremely suspicious death of I’Akobi Tacuma Maloney while in the custody of Barbados police officers – but the coverage is expanding towards larger questions of ongoing human rights abuses and professional incompetence by the island’s front line law [...]