Mega Cruise Ships: Disaster risks for the Caribbean

Carnival Triumph – Yet another cruise ship drifts helplessly

by Robert MacLellan for Barbados Free Press

In considering risk assessment for Caribbean nations in relation to cruise ship emergencies, let’s do the math…

Nearly sixty percent of the world’s cruise ship fleet is in the Caribbean from November to March each year. Over forty per cent of the world’s cruise ship fleet is owned by Carnival Corporation (Carnival, Costa, Cunard, Princess, P&O, Holland America, Seabourne, Aida and Ibero cruise lines). At least four major incidents have occurred in the last twenty-seven months on that company’s ships alone.

Two potential disasters for Barbados and other small Caribbean countries

Let’s consider just two of many potential Caribbean disaster scenarios, based on the fact that three of Carnival Corporation’s cruise ships have each drifted helplessly for approximately ninety miles. If a ship leaving or returning to the busy cruise home port in Barbados loses all propulsion and steerage-way when west of that island, wind and current might very likely make it drift the ninety miles to the wild and rocky east coast of St Lucia – with huge risk to human life, to the marine environment and to the country’s tourism based economy. If a ship leaving or returning to the principal Caribbean cruise home port in Puerto Rico experiences the same situation when south-west of Anguilla and St Maarten, a ninety mile drift could take it to the pristine but dangerous reefs of the Virgin Islands.

Unlikely disasters? No – very possible based on recent events.

Barbados not immune from the coming storm

The Greek experience: terrifying for ordinary people

Can you feel it? Can you see how Europe’s troubles will touch Barbados in a big way?

It doesn’t take a fortune teller to predict the future in Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean. We’ve counted on tourism and offshore banking and excluded manufacturing and hi-tech industries and services. Agriculture is in ruins with sugar a liability not an asset to the economy. We have failed as a region and as a country to embrace energy creation and conserving technologies to any meaningful extent.

Our leaders counted on the same old same old ability to sell our version of the sun, sea and sand that everyone else is pushing at much lower prices. Our tourism plant is old and many of the new projects are stalled or dead in this economy. We have no savings. We spent everything and more during the good years. Our leaders for the last 15 years are bailing out for Canada, Europe and the USA and taking their families with them. In most cases the children have already been educated over and away.

So what can the ordinary folk do? We’ve said it time and time again:

1/ Shun debt. Shun expenses. Live as frugally as you can.

2/ Work hard, save what you can.

3/ Look after family and friends as you are able because you might need their help someday.

4/ Learn to grow food, repair your own car, maintain your home.

It’s coming folks. Can you feel it?

20 Facts About The Collapse Of Europe That Everyone Should Know

Submitted by Tyler Durden

The economic implosion of Europe is accelerating. Even while the mainstream media continues to proclaim that the financial crisis in Europe has been “averted”, the economic statistics that are coming out of Europe just continue to get worse.

Manufacturing activity in Europe has been contracting month after month, the unemployment rate in the eurozone has hit yet another brand new record high, and the official unemployment rates in both Greece and Spain are now much higher than the peak unemployment rate in the United States during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The economic situation in Europe is far worse than it was a year ago, and it is going to continue to get worse as austerity continues to take a huge toll on the economies of the eurozone.

It would be hard to understate how bad things have gotten – particularly in southern Europe. The truth is that most of southern Europe is experiencing a full-blown economic depression right now. Sadly, most Americans are paying very little attention to what is going on across the Atlantic. But they should be watching, because this is what happens when nations accumulate too much debt. The United States has the biggest debt burden of all, and eventually what is happening over in Spain, France, Italy, Portugal and Greece is going to happen over here as well.

The following are 20 facts about the collapse of Europe that everyone should know…

1. 10 Months: Manufacturing activity in both France and Germany has contracted for 10 months in a row.
2. 11.8 Percent: The unemployment rate in the eurozone has now risen to 11.8 percent – a brand new all-time high.
3. 17 Months: In November, Italy experienced the sharpest decline in retail sales that it had experienced in 17 months.
4. 20 Months: Manufacturing activity in Spain has contracted for 20 months in a row.
5. 20 Percent: It is estimated that bad loans now make up approximately 20 percent of all domestic loans in the Greek banking system at this point.
6. 22 Percent: A whopping 22 percent of the entire population of Ireland lives in jobless households.
7. 26 Percent: The unemployment rate in Greece is now 26 percent. A year ago it was only 18.9 percent.
8. 26.6 Percent: The unemployment rate in Spain has risen to an astounding 26.6 percent.
9. 27.0 Percent: The unemployment rate for workers under the age of 25 in Cyprus. Back in 2008, this number was well below 10 percent.
10. 28 Percent: Sales of French-made vehicles in November were down 28 percent compared to a year earlier.

Lawsuit in Arch Cot cave-in deaths

Codrington family survivors seek justice

Five years after five sleeping members of the Codrington family were buried alive when their home collapsed into a known cave, lawyer David Comissiong has announced his intentions to sue the negligent parties on behalf of the surviving family members.

Named in the lawsuit are the Attorney General, the Town Planning Department, apartment building owner Peter Cox, Mahy Ridley Hazzard Engineers Limited, Lemuel Rawlins (original land owner) and Dr. Jerry Emtage, who was constructing a building behind the apartment where the Codringtons died. (Nation News: Arch Cot Suit)

Civil Cases often take 20+ years in Barbados courts

In January of 2012 we predicted that an Arch Cot civil case would be at least 22 years in the Barbados Courts. We didn’t pull that figure from a hat, you know. 22 years is a reasonable estimate based upon the size of the case and the known and proven non-performance of the Barbados Justice system and island lawyers who will be opposing Mr. Comissiong.

See Arch Cot Justice will be delayed another 20 years

BFP will continue to follow the Arch Cot Disaster story

Cover-up: AG Marshall said nobody was to blame

Barbados Free Press followed the story from the early morning of August 26, 2007 and joined the Codrington family survivors in shaming the government into calling an inquest. This was after then Barbados Attorney General Dale Marshall actually announced the results of his ‘investigation’ a mere six days after the disaster by concluding that nobody was to blame.

“It could have happened to anyone” said then-Attorney General Dale Marshall before the bodies had even been pulled from the rubble.

Yes, of course it could have happened to anyone in Barbados with people like Dale Marshall in positions of power and authority – who are part of and responsible for the corrupt public institutions that issued the building permits and failed in their duty to protect innocent citizens.

It was Barbados Free Press that first published the work of noted Professor Hans G. Machel, who said right out that the deaths were caused by “gross negligence”

“The five Codringtons were murdered just as surely as if someone had put a gun to their heads and pulled the trigger – especially in the crimes that were committed when the ticking-time-bomb of a house was built upon a known cave.”

from BFP’s March 17, 2009 article Expert: Arch Cot Cave-In Victims May Have Been Killed By Wrong Decisions, Actions and Inaction By Barbados Emergency Officials

When Barbados newspapers and electronic news media refused to publish Professor Machel’s letter to Prime Minister David Thompson, Barbados Free Press published the story of how witnesses lived in fear because they know how things go ‘pon de rock….

Campus Trendz deaths: What criminals allowed bars on the windows, no fire exits?

“The criminals threw the firebombs, but it was an irresponsible government, building owner and shop owner that made the firebombs inescapable death.”

Six died at Campus Trendz because there was no fire exit

by WSD

For the last few days the papers and the television focused upon the growing violence in our society as Barbados remembered the six young women burned to death two years ago at Campus Trendz store. That is natural because everybody knows somebody who lost a friend or a sister on that day.

The man who threw the firebomb is put away in jail for six life terms. No one knows what happened to his accomplice and speculation is that the court and government are waiting for the anniversary to pass before he is given a light sentence as part of the negotiated court deals that saw no trial.

The government authorities are happy with the press coverage because the focus is on the criminals who robbed and threw the firebomb, and not upon the other criminals who allowed our loved ones to work and shop in commercial buildings with bars on the windows and no fire exits.

The press does not discuss the fact that our six sisters died because our government, the building owner and the shop owner gambled these lives away. Nobody in government thought these women’s lives were important enough to pass a building code and laws that make fire exits mandatory. That is still true to this day.

The government, the building owner and the shop owner bet that no spark, no short circuit, no forgotten cooker would set an accidental fire. They bet others’ lives and the women lost.

Memories of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire – New York 1911

On March 25, 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory caught on fire in New York City. One hundred forty six workers lost their lives when they could not escape because the managers had locked the stairwells and fire exit doors to prevent thefts. The building owners were charged with manslaughter, but were not convicted because the prosecution could not prove they knew the fire exits were locked.

In the case of the Barbados Government, the building owner and shop owner of Campus Trendz, the case is clear because there was no fire exit at all.

Barbados signs environmental deal with one of the world’s worst offenders: China

“During the visit, Barbados Environment Minister Dr. Denis Lowe said he was aware of China’s commitment to good environmental governance and its concerns about climate change and other issues which occupied the consciousness of global planners.”

… from a Barbados Government press release (reprinted at the bottom of this post)

“China warns foreigners to stop monitoring its pollution. The Chinese government claims it’s making serious efforts to clean up pollution. But as this horrifying report shows, much of their ‘success’ has involved simply moving their toxic industries out of sight…

Untreated industrial waste is pumped directly into rivers… the water is used to irrigate crops.”

… from the new documentary film Cancer Villages – China

What exactly does Barbados hope to learn from China about managing the environment?

If you’re going to speak, at least speak the truth – better to just keep silent than to perpetuate a lie. At least that’s what I was always taught.

In recent years China has seen mass riots and violent government responses when the citizen-slaves stand up to stop the ongoing slaughter of humanity caused by their government’s callous and long term disregard for people and the environment.

All those low priced Chinese goods you purchase are low priced for a number of reasons: government & private slave labour camps, sweatshops, rampant pollution and the communist disdain for individual human rights and human life.

“I often wonder about folks 200 years ago who purchased cotton and sugar…

Did they care that slaves suffered to provide the products at a certain price?

Every Barbadian should ask their own heart…

“Should we be taking gifts and buying products from a Chinese Communist government that relies upon slavery as a vital part of the economy?”

… from the BFP article Citizen Journalist Beaten To Death By Chinese Government Officials – Filmed Waste Disposal Near Homes

To the communists, people are always a government resource – never individuals. Where the state is supreme and individuals exist only to serve the state, these kinds of environmental abuses and disasters are at their worst. (See China Hush: Amazing Pictures, Pollution in China)

Disposable people feed China’s industrial machine. This man paid the price for low-priced Chinese goods in Barbados.

In the eyes of the Barbados Government, China can do no wrong. Like a dog begging for a cookie, Barbados will do anything and say anything for China – just as long as we know we can pick up some scraps thrown our way.

In memory of Darlens

N’ap Degaje Nou…

This roughly translates to, “We are making due with what we have.”

We’ve followed the work of Licia, Enoch, Charles, Lori, Anna and their fellow angels at the Real Hope for Haiti Rescue Center since the devastating January 12, 2010 earthquake. Two and a half years later and the nurses are still sleeping with the little ones so they aren’t alone when they die of malnutrition – too far gone to be saved when they arrive at the clinic.

Barbados, and to be fair the rest of the Caribbean, did little to nothing for Haiti before or since the earthquake. In the first few months afterwards when so many lives could have been saved, Health Minister Donville Inniss and Foreign Affairs Minister Maxine McClean basically said, “No stinkin’ Haitians aboard the good ship Barbados. Not a one. Let ‘em die.”

And so the Haitian children continue to die, while the angels at the Rescue Center make do with what they have…

Darlens

I was lying in bed late at night, with one of the kids in my care sleeping next to me, as his crib and the extra child’s mattress in my room had two kids on IV and oxygen sleeping in them.  I had just come back from preparing a little girl for burial, and wanted to try to sleep for a couple hours.  It’s not often that I find myself getting emotional about sick or dying kids anymore, but this night was overwhelmingly tough.  I found myself closing my eyes trying to hold back the tears, praying that these kids’ suffering would just end.  I felt small hands grab onto my neck and shoulders as a child pulled his body closer to mine.  He put his hands on my cheeks and touched his nose to mine, holding himself there until we dozed off.  This is one of many memories that I have of an amazing little boy named Darlens…

… continue reading about Darlens at the Real Hope for Haiti blog

Barbados storm watch for Crop Over

HERE IS A SPECIAL WEATHER BULLETIN issued by The Barbados Meteorological Services at 10:30 am on Tuesday, 31st July, 2012.

The Barbados Meteorological Services is monitoring an area of low pressure over the mid- Atlantic, centered near 9N 39.6W or about 1400 miles or 2255km to the east-south east of Barbados.

Model analysis indicates that there is a very strong possibility that this system could become a Tropical Storm by the time it approaches Barbados and the southern Lesser Antilles late Friday / early Saturday.

This department will continue to monitor the development of this system and will be issuing further statements on its progress over the next few days.

Resources:

StormCarib – Caribbean Hurricane Network

US National Hurricane Center – Atlantic weather outlook

Canadian store collapse brings memories of Barbados cave-in disaster

Where are the men?

Dear Barbados Free Press,

As a Bajan living in Canada I thought you would be interested in the following article from the Toronto Sun newspaper because it made me think about what happened in Bim at the Arch Cot collapse when the police, fire and military dithered for a whole day before venturing into the wreckage. Then they chopped down the apartment wreckage into the hole, without regards to anyone who still might have been alive.

This Toronto Sun article by Joe Warmington points out that people live for over a week in collapsed buildings. That didn’t matter in Barbados and it didn’t matter in Elliot Lake Canada where government prevented rescue teams from entering the building, saying it was “too dangerous”.

Where are the men? Where are those who devote their lives to rescuing others in these kinds of disasters? When the crunch time comes they always seem to fail us.

They always talk about “lessons learned” but never seem to apply those lessons on the next time. The lesson for each of us is that you cannot rely upon the government. You must be prepared to save yourself.

The death certificate for Donavere Codrington says he died two days after the collapse and that fact got short shift at the inquest.

The Sun article says that Elliot Lake will not forget. That’s a lie: yes, it will. Barbados did, Canada will too. Barbados forgot and nobody was held accountable for building on a known cave.

Justice Mottley and daughter Mia Mottley

Nobody was held responsible for removing the prohibition against building on the land. Mia Mottley and her family were involved. They owned the land at one time. Nothing more need be said.

sign me “Never Forget”

Further Reading

Please read the following article at the Toronto Sun: Warmington: Elliot Lake will not forget

Warmington: Elliot Lake will not forget

“It’s just not safe.” — HUSAR leader Bill Neadles.

Was Juno beach safe?

How about Vimy Ridge or Helmand Province?

When would such an emergency rescue mission, which would require bringing in the Heavy Urban Search And Rescue Team (HUSAR), ever have safe conditions?

Only in nanny-state Ontario could somebody decide the working conditions for rescue workers in a catastrophe were not safe enough to do what they are trained, and paid, to do.

Breaking: ANOTHER mass casualty bus accident – 11 injured near Globe Drive-In, Christ Church

UPDATED: Sunday, March 18, 2012  12:17am Bridgetown

Everybody is alive. ZR van went onto its side, car spun upside down along the road. Some injuries. More information at The Nation.

Saturday, March 17, 2012 – 8:12pm Bridgetown

We’ve lost count of how many public transit accidents there have been in the last week. Is it three or four? The most serious so far was last Thursday when a mini-bus overturned and left 37 injured. Five passengers are critical, including Troy Codrington – the last remaining adult male in the Codrington family of the Arch Cot disaster.

The toll of ruined lives, broken bones and faces destroyed continued this Saturday evening with the crash of a route taxi near the Globe Drive-In. All we know so far is 9 children and 2 adults injured.  (Nation News: Report of serious accident near the Globe Drive-In.)

File photo of ZR taxi by Shona

Another mass casualty bus accident: 37 injured, 5 critical

–

8 Ambulances, Scores of Police, Fire, Barbados Defence Force members respond

Another day, another horrific traffic accident with lives, faces and families ruined. You’re looking at an overturned minibus on Pinders Bottom Main Road in St. George. Thirty seven people hurt with 5 critically injured.

There’s no indication as to how many people the bus was carrying* but if you’ve ridden one of the yellow perils you know that 37 people is getting top heavy and makes bus sway and shift. Was the suspension in good shape? If a spring broke we might hear about it, but if there was a general lack of maintenance that contributed to this accident they will bury that deep. Don’t want to hurt the tourism industry you know. They might make the driver the scapegoat when the big factor was the bus wasn’t safe to drive. We’re just guessing here, but who knows what they will do.

(* Latest report says 37 passengers plus the driver and that the bus ‘skidded on oil’ – Barbados Today)

Why are we so cynical and critical when it comes to mass-casualty bus accidents? We’ve learned to be because there are never any satisfactory answers as to cause or remedial actions taken afterwards. We’ve learned.

Had the driver been drinking? The police will have to guess because they have no laws or tools to do otherwise.

And, once again, our Royal Barbados Police Force cannot complete a professional accident investigation because we have no laws giving them power to demand tests to see how much the driver had been drinking.

Successive Barbados governments promised to pass modern anti-drunk driving laws for decades. Our BLP and DLP governments talked about setting and enforcing maintenance and driver standards for public transportation vehicles. They promised to build safer roads and increase traffic law enforcement. They promised much and delivered little.

The government’s neglect proves that our leaders don’t see passenger safety in public transit as a priority. The carnage continues. Visitors from the United Kingdom have a 240% higher chance of being killed in a motor vehicle accident in Barbados than back at home.

Whatever happened to this mini-bus, I’d bet my house that it could have been prevented with a little less speed, a little wider road and a little more maintenance.

And true to form whenever there is a new mass-casualty road accident, Health Minister Donville Inniss says… don’t worry, government has formed a committee!

“We’ve seen the establishment of the Road Safety Council chaired by the Prime Minister and we will be getting very busy over the next couple of months as we seek to address the issue of safety on our roads and endeavour to reduce the number of accidents on Barbados’ roads,” (Minister Inniss) said.

Barbados Today: Job well done!

Further Reading

Barbados Today: Trauma and terror

Nation News: Mass Casualty in St. George

Photos courtesy of The Nation.

Arch Cot Justice will be delayed another 20 years

Barbados Free Press has yet to write about the Coroner’s verdict in the Arch Cot cave-in deaths because we are waiting to read the entire verdict as is being published in installments in The Barbados Advocate.

In this day and age it is inexcusable that the Coroner herself hasn’t published her complete verdict online, but that’s Buhbadus and doan say it’s not so!

From the start BFP covered the deaths of the Codrington family extensively and it is probably not an exaggeration to say that Barbados would still be waiting for an inquest without BFP, the Codrington family and the other voices who steadily demanded an inquest until the government finally gave in.

Even after the inquest belatedly started, the coroner had to be dragged kicking and screaming into hearing evidence from Professor Hans Machel, a specialist in earth and atmospheric science at the University of Alberta in Canada, who conducted an independent study of the cave after the apartment collapsed.

Although BFP will wait to read the full verdict before commenting in detail, some of what we’ve read in the papers shows that the Barbados news media still has a great reluctance to name names. The Barbados elites are well-protected by the local press. Of course, we at BFP have no reluctance to name the names.

Justice in Barbados: A decades-long process that often never ends

The Codrington family lawyer, David Comissiong, made statements shortly after the verdict that the family would be pursuing legal action in the Barbados courts…

“Based on all of the evidence that was revealed over the past year of this inquest, we feel that we need to take this matter further. We think that these deaths could have been avoided. We think that there are four possible cases of negligence. So we would be exploring all four of those possible cases,”

David Comissiong to the Barbados Advocate

22 Years and counting down

We wonder if the remaining family members really know what they are in for. Barbados is a country where a simple condominium dispute or a pedestrian accident can remain before the courts for more than twenty years with no resolution. Ours is a country where court files and government records appear and reappear for the convenience of the elites and to deny evidence to ordinary folks.

Barbados has a system where there are no court reporters in the civil courts. How does anyone remember or know what really happened in the course of a few hours in court with no records being kept? You may well ask that question… not that you’ll receive a satisfactory answer.

Just last week our Barbados Court of Appeal issued a decision in the 1993 road accident case of Edward Roach. That’s almost 19 years after Mr. Roach was injured, and he still hasn’t been paid a dollar.

What happened at Arch Cot is far more complex than a road accident – by many orders of magnitude. Unfortunately the Barbados Courts will be unable to deliver justice to the Codringtons in under two decades.

Our guess of the time it will take the Barbados courts to reach a decision in the Arch Cot Disaster case: 22 years at minimum.

Here is a recent example of Bajan justice, courtesy of Barbados Today…

Still liable despite different decision

Barbados’ Court of Appeal has re-allocated the liability of a substantial monetary award made to a pedestrian injured in a road accident more than 18 years ago. But in the historic decision, made late last month by the highest court in the land, those found responsible will still jointly have to pay the affected individual close to a quarter of a million dollars in damages.

The court, in reaching its judgment, was also forced to go the uncommon route of amending a decision of a trial judge in such matters.

On November 23, 1993 Edward Roach was struck in a collision involving vehicles driven by Nigel Ward, who was driving along Brighton Main Road in the direction of Black Rock Main Road, St. Michael, and Milton Lowe, operator of the other automobile, which was traveling along Farm Road leading onto Brighton Main Road.

Nicole Codrington: Family never received any monies collected after Arch Cot disaster

Calls for Investigation into Arch Cot Charity Funds

“I would also encourage all persons who sent in monies to these respective funds to report the matter to the police so that a full fledged investigation by the appropriate authorities can be made.”

Dear Readers at Barbados Free Press,

Please be advised that neither I Nicole Alicia Codrington nor any of the immediate surviving relatives of Donavere Codrington, namely his mother Patricia Codrington, grandmother Sheila Codrington and eldest son Doniko Codrington have ever received or in anyway benefitted from any monies collected following the Arch Cot disaster which killed my brother Donavere, his wife, my niece and nephew.

To reinterate none of the above named persons have received any monies from the Barbados Media Relief Fund, Government Trust fund or any other fund which collected money regarding the disaster.

In December 2010 I requested an attorney acting collectively on the behalf of Donavere’s estate to investigate the disbursement of monies under these funds since it is widely held that the above named persons have been receiving and accessing monies from these funds. This is incorrect and written responses from the Attorney General of Barbados, the Barbados Media Relief Fund, the Barbados National Bank, Mr. Hilford Murrell, Mr. Leroy Inniss and several others substantiates this.

Further please note that all legal fees regarding the Codrington Estate and Coroner’s Inquest have been paid by me solely.

As recently as last Sundays Sunday Sun it has been implied in an update regarding assistance to these families in which my name was mentioned that in excess of $180 000 have been paid out. I hope no further errors of this sort is made.

I would also encourage all persons who sent in monies to these respective funds to report the matter to the police so that a full fledged investigation by the appropriate authorities can be made.

On a separate note I wish to extend sincere thanks to all those, particularly Chefette Restaurants Ltd who have offered genuine assistance to my niece and nephews who are thriving in their own little ways.

without wax,
Nicole A Codrington

(BFP editor’s note: We believe this letter is from Nicole Codrington, but we have not contacted her to confirm this.)

Where did the money go? Barbados Media Disaster Relief Fund

click photo for large

The above photo was sent anonymously to Barbados Free Press with the message “Remember 180 thousand”

As with everything you read here or at the New York Times – take it with some salt, but let’s hear what folks have to say about the subject of the Codrington family survivors and the Barbados Media Disaster Relief Fund.

 

Japan’s disaster as reported by Expat Bloggers

Deserted streets and chaos. Tragedy and plum trees blooming

BFP’s Robert remembers Japan and finds some bloggers on the ground.

Many of our regular readers know that there was a time in my life when I visited Japan weekly. That was years ago but Tokyo’s Narita airport is still my second favourite airport in the world. I’ve staged through Narita more than a hundred times and every final approach was a challenge to keep my concentration centered on the task at hand because, for all the faults (and there is one fault in particular that enrages me), I love Japan and the Japanese.

I love the way they revere their parents and ancestors. I love their funeral services, their movies, their music. I love that there is no looting in the aftermath of the earthquakes and tsunami. Anyone who’s visited Japan for more than a week won’t be at all surprised.

Last December we published a photo of some Japanese school children trying out their English on a passing tourist. I wonder where they are now, if they are alive, if they are in need. Nothing I can do for them, but I’m on the internet all the time these past few days and I’ve met some new friends.

Sometimes the big picture is too large, too impersonal. Sometimes we lose perspective if we only focus on the big picture. Sometimes the truth is not a large truth, but becomes apparent only in consideration as the sum of many smaller truths.

Let me share with you some of my new friends on the net. The international news organisations tell one truth. These folks tell smaller stories, smaller truths, that need to be heard…

Tokyo Times

“And, for a city that can certainly be very frosty, it’s noticeably more friendly. Nods, smiles and the odd konichi-wa are suddenly commonplace, with a definite feeling of, ‘we are all in this together’, now prominent.

Plus, where once the presence of others would be merely put up with, it’s now happily embraced — sought out even.”

Japan Probe

“Good lord. Look at the crap they’re reporting in the Sun:

Mass exodus from Tokyo

A MASS exodus from Tokyo is under way as those left behind pray for the wind to save them from a new radiation nightmare.

The airport of Japan’s quake-hit capital was besieged as levels of the invisible killer soared to ten times the normal level there.

And that was before a FOURTH explosion and a fire at a stricken nuclear plant sparked fresh terror – that of a poison cloud of nuclear rain.

The leaking station was officially abandoned this morning after radiation levels around the plant “increased rapidly”.

Other international media sources are reporting similar stories of the masses fleeing from Tokyo. They based on internet hearsay or interviews with foreign residents of Japan.

Reality check:

There is no “mass exodus” being reported anywhere in the Japanese media. According to the Wall Street Journal, the only people rushing to the airport to flee the country are foreigners. (Could it have to do with the fact that they’re getting their information from sources like the Sun?)”

Champagne sipping Barbados Finance Minister pleads against “excessive discourse” about CLICO disaster

Minister Chris Sinckler cautions against a “frenzy”

Oh yes, Minister Sinckler, his friend Leroy Parris and all the other big ups who helped build the CLICO house of cards would love to see limits on public discussion about CLICO.

The Minister of Finance urged “all parties, including the media, not to try whipping up a frenzy”.

We’ve got news for Minister Sinckler: There’s a whole lot of people on this island and throughout the Caribbean who don’t trust Minister Sinckler or the DLP government. The DLP and senior Ministers (including the late Prime Minister Thompson) have an all too close and non-transparent relationship with CLICO, Leroy Parris and the rest of the people who took our money.

Minister Sinckler and the DLP government still have too close a relationship with Mr. Parris.

Here’s a photo (above) published in The Nation last week showing our Minister of Finance socializing with Leroy Parris. It looks like business as usual to us and just about everybody else who saw the photo.

Frankly Minister Sinckler, we’re not interested if you “just happened” to be standing next to Leroy when the photo was taken. It’s a small thing when compared to your party’s long history with Mr. Parris.

Tell us this, Minister Sinckler: How much money did the Democratic Labour Party receive from CLICO and associated companies and people over the years?

Is the DLP going to give that money back to the folks who lost everything?

Minister Sinckler, did the fact that Leroy Parris and CLICO supported the DLP have anything to do with the lack of government oversight about Clico? Did the fact that former Prime Minister David Thompson was CLICO’s lawyer for years and years influence the DLP government’s policies towards CLICO? Does the long term close relationship between CLICO, Parris, the DLP and David Thompson still have any influence on the DLP government?

Hello? Minister Sinckler? Hello?

Arch Cot Disaster: Links to Mia Mottley & family discovered

Updated May 14, 2011

Canadian geologist Professor Hans Machel testified the week of May 9, 2011 at the Coroner’s Inquest into the deaths of the Codrington family at Arch Cot. We’ll be putting up a new Arch Cot story, but for now have a read or re-read of our March 13, 2011 piece about the Mottley family connection and the unanswered questions about how a powerful Barbados family received land permissions when others were denied…

Powerful Mottley family obtained Arch Cot land use permissions denied to previous owner!

Will the Arch Cot Inquest follow up on our story?

“The Mottley family bought Arch Cot scrub land that couldn’t be built on and then got planning permission when the previous owner couldn’t. They made some quick and easy money.”

“Look at these documents I’ve attached. The people of Barbados deserve an explanation from the Mottley family and from the government officials who granted the land use permissions to the Mottleys that they refused to give the previous owner.”

The following was received via an anonymous emailer. Once again we remind all readers to keep an open mind and to keep asking the questions that need to be asked. Just because somebody says so, doesn’t make it true, but this story should be simple enough that the coroner could find the truth if she wants to.

DISASTER: Japan Nuclear MELTDOWN HAPPENING

The above video shows the moment the reactor containment building blew up. Now that most of us are up and following events through the regular news channels, we’ll unstick this from the top and put it back into the chronological order.

Reuters Live Feed: Japan Earthquake

NHK World English News from Japan

BBC Live Feed – (Frequent Updates)

10:01 GMT (06:01am Bridgetown) (Reuters) – Radiation leaked from an unstable Japanese nuclear reactor north of Tokyo on Saturday, the government said, after an explosion blew the roof off the facility in the wake of a massive earthquake.

09:52 GMT (05:52am Bridgetown) Second nuclear reactor in grave danger. Five nuclear reactors “declared emergency”.

Are you or your friends on this Arch Cot Inquest witness list?

Please notify these witnesses that the Codrington family is counting on them to testify

The Coroner of Barbados, Mrs. Faith Marshall-Harris is currently conducting an Inquest into the death of the five members of the Codrington Family who died on August 26, 2007 at Arch Cot Terrace, Brittons Hill, St. Michael.

The following witnesses are asked to attend the Coroner’s Court, in Roebuck Street, on Thursday, February 17, at 2:00 p.m. to give evidence concerning this matter…

Aubrey Carrington
Kendrick Gill
Oneeka Levius
Rudolph Lovell
Mark Matthias
Winstan Pollard
Lamuel Rawlins
Renaldo Simmons
Donald Tull
Suel Whitehall