“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.”
“And if all others accepted the lie which the party imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history and became the truth.”
… from George Orwell’s famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (pages 78 & 37)
Barbados Advocate Removes Caribbean Splash Water Park Article
The Barbados Advocate has removed an online article that quotes Matthew Kerins – the developer of the doomed Caribbean Splash Waterpark – as saying that he has “invested” some $2 million dollars in Barbados waterpark project, and if he cannot do it he would have to walk away from the $2 million …
“And I feel that I have already invested $2 million of my money without an approval. If the Government decides for me not to do this project then I lose $2 million and I walk away”
… Matthew Kerins, developer of the ill-fated Caribbean Splash Waterpark proposed for Barbados. (Note: Mr. Kerins is on record in a few places explaining that this is US$2 million – but this was the exact quote from this particular newspaper article)
On July 12, 2006, BFP reader Hants filed this comment and directed everyone to the Barbados Advocate article at this URL …
http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/NewViewNewsleft.cfm?Record=26811
Last week, Cliverton was clicking through some old BFP posts researching another waterpark post and he discovered that the Barbados Advocate waterpark article that Hants referred to in his comment had been removed.
“Isn’t that interesting?” thought Clive, and he took a closer look at The Barbados Advocate.
What Cliverton found is straight out of George Orwell’s famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four: The Barbados Advocate has deliberately set up it’s website to conceal all past writings from the public.
The website of the second largest newspaper in Barbados is designed to erase the past!
We’ve heard rumours about the destroyed paper archives at The Barbados Advocate, and what we discovered shows an obvious intent to ensure that no member of the public is able to dig into the historical record and, for instance, quote what some government offical or politician said on such and such a date in the newspaper.
The Barbados Advocate does not allow the public to search it’s online archives … AND … it has blocked Google and other search engines from crawling it’s website and including the results in replies to online search queries.
For The Barbados Advocate, The News Is Only What Is Convenient For The Moment.
If what they have written is later found to be inaccurate, an outright lie or evidence of an agenda – well, the proof has already been disposed of.
“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.”
What Foul Intent Is This?
Our blog, the Barbados Free Press, has a “search” box that allows anyone to search any word in our archives and pull up any article we’ve written. We also allow the public to access our archives on a month by month basis, or to search for all articles that are “tagged” in various categories, such as “Africa”, “Environment”, “Politics & Corruption” and the like.
Similarly, anyone can search the archives of The Nation News or the Broad Street Journal and read past articles for free. This is pretty standard stuff. Virtually all newspapers these days allow the public to access their archives and read entire articles either for free or on a fee system. For many newspapers like The New York Times, the online archives provide a significant revenue stream.
This is not high technology. In fact, Google will catologue any website for free and provide a search engine – for free. All one has to do is to insert a bit of code into the website’s homepage. Millions of websites use Google’s little search box because it works, and… it’s free.
The Barbados Advocate has no search function on its website. In fact… The Barbados Advocate blocks Google and other crawlers from making a daily record of it’s articles.
“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth.”