Temas Blog Publishes Major Article: A Sustainable Energy Plan For Barbados?

Keith Ripley is a rare find: an expert who can actually communicate his knowledge and ideas in a manner that is easily understood by non-technical people in leadership and the general population.

A Balanced, Easily Understood Critique Of Barbados’ Draft National Energy Plan

The Temas Blog has published an excellent summary and analysis of the recently presented Barbados Draft National Energy Plan. We urge all our readers to head over to Keith Ripley’s blog and take the time to read his report.

And for our BFP readers who are elected or appointed government officials, that advice goes double.

The world is in big trouble with energy and the environmental trade offs that were made in the last 50 years, but in some respects Barbados is much more fortunate than countries further north. As UWI’s Professor Oliver Headley said many times and in many different ways “The sun will still shine when the oil runs out.”

Here is an excerpt from Keith Ripley’s report, taken almost at random…

The draft Energy Plan hits all the right environmental notes and themes that international institutions, lenders and investors applaud these days — market liberalization, source diversification, GHG cuts, energy conservation, energy efficiency, biofuels and other renewable sources, fuel efficiency and emission standards for vehicles, etc. Probably it should be praised for at least being mindful of such things — lord knows I have read many energy plans in LAC that ignored the environmental impacts of their proposals.

Perhaps too many “smooth” and “sounds good” notes: there is too little feel of the tough trade-offs such policies usually entail, of calculating cost-benefits, of considering where the different items on the laundry list of policy measures might work at cross-purposes or even undermine one another. No firm sense of priority-setting, and everything is spoken of in terms of near- (2010) or long- (2026) term — nothing in the medium-term, as if it does not exist and transitions will take care of themselves.

The paucity of current, hard data in the Plan certainly does not inspire confidence…

… read the entire report at The Temas Blog: A Sustainable Energy Plan For Barbados?

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When Rich Folks Don’t Like To See Barbados Chattel Houses…

February 27, 2007

The Editor,
The Advocate,
Fontabelle, Bridgetown

Dear Sir,

Barbados history

At a recent political meeting in St Andrew, the newspaper reported that the Prime Minister, Owen Arthur, was against poor people being made to move to accommodate rich people building up-market housing in their area. It was dealing with the developments at Apes Hill and Waterhall by Sir Charles Williams, whom he described as “silly”.

The public record will show that about 6 years ago a number of persons living in chattel houses in Speightstown, on lands owned by government, where most of the families had lived for over 50 years, were forced to re-locate against their will, to a development at Mount Brevitor, near Mile-and-a-Quarter, St Peter, in the Prime Minister’s constituency. These residents were not happy to be moved as most were old, and it was a settled community. This land was part of the old Sanitation Services truck depot. However, when Schooner Bay was built, it was decided that this up-market development did not wish to look out on chattel houses.

I recall that in about 1995, when government announced that the new garbage dump would be sited at Greenland in the Scotland District National Park, Penny Hynam, CEO of the Barbados National Trust, wrote to the press objecting, as it is the Trust’s mandate to protect places of historical significance and beauty for the people of Barbados. The President of the National Trust, Mr Paul Altman, received a telephone call from the Prime Minister that the Barbados National Trust must not object publicly to his plan, and the President of the National Trust ordered the CEO of the National Trust to write a letter withdrawing this objection. This was done.

The Minister of Health of the day made a public statement that her government would listen to responsible agencies like the Barbados National Trust, in making a policy decision on the site of the garbage dump at Greenland, and the National Trust had not objected.

Basic investigative journalism would show that the President of the National Trust at that time is also one of the major developers of Schooner Bay. It is a classic case of you scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours. I love to watch politicians ballet dancing and fooling the Barbados public. Perhaps history will show who are the real Barbados heroes.

Yours faithfully,

Richard Goddard

photo courtesy of Barbados Photo Gallery.Com (link here) 

Barbados Government Solution To Police Recruitment Problem: LOWER STANDARDS

New Lower Standards Show That Government Doesn’t Really Value Policing

No Matter What The Governments Says – Look At What They Do!

Maybe we should forget about those shiny new flyovers and pay the police enough to attract and keep our brightest, most dedicated, career-oriented young men and women? Don’t we want to hire the best people we can to protect our families and enforce the laws of our society?

Nah… let’s just lower the standards so we can hire lower-qualified people. The kind of people that we never would have trusted before with a police officer’s authority. Yes, let’s hire people who aren’t educated enough to compete in the real world employment market.

Now that’s a plan!

More Police Needed

Government has taken steps to shore up the numbers in the Royal Barbados Police Force as it copes with a negative response to its ongoing recruitment drive.

Attorney General Dale Marshall went to Parliament today with a bill to change the qualification requirements for special constables who don’t meet the minimum qualifications to enter the force.

It’s called the Police Amendment Bill 2007.

… read the original article online at CBC (link here)

Also see BFP’s Barbados Police Officers Heading Elsewhere

Government Supporter Critical Of Barbados Free Press Is Posting Under Different Names

BLP Government Spin Master Makes A Mistake – Deception Revealed

Defends Corrupt Government Minister Gline Clarke – Uses 3 Identities!

It is amazing how those accusing Barbados Free Press of hiding an agenda, often themselves stoop to posting false support for their own position – posting again and again under different names to give the appearance of strength in numbers!

We’ve seen government supporters do this many times before, so we thought we’d share this latest deception with our readers.

While we were not able to see exactly where our government supporter was located, he or she used the same internet access point each time – not knowing that simply changing their internet name would not conceal that all the comments were coming from the same person.

Identity #1 “Kelly”

It started yesterday (26th) with a “Kelly” posting a comment on our article Former Barbados Tourism Authority Chairman Arranges Security Breach For Strangers At Cricket World Cup.

We had mistakenly indicated that Hudson Husbands was still Chairman of the BTA and “Kelly” alerted us to this – but in a most critical manner. You can look at “Kelly’s” comment here.

Our moderator corrected the article and left a thank you for “Kelly” for pointing out our error.

“Kelly” then posted another comment on our article Nation News Article About Political Blogging And Websites Ignores Barbados’ Most Popular Political Blog

“Kelly’s” comments were a backhanded slap at Barbados Free Press, accusing us of using our blog to “to spew untruths, deceptions, lies and propaganda.” You can read “Kelly’s” comment here.

Identity #2 “Sharon”

Earlier today (27th), our government supporter surfaced again, this time using the name “Sharon” to comment on our article WINNER ANNOUNCED: Barbados Piggies At The Trough Award 2006.

“Sharon” launched into a lengthy comment supporting the BLP government and Prime Minister Owen Arthur, who had won the 2006 Barbados Piggies At The Trough Award. “Sharon” called Barbados Free Press a “DLP Propaganda Website” and generally tore into us – taking a misinformed or deceptive position that we at BFP are not critical of wrongdoing by the opposition DLP and their leader David Thompson.

Not realizing at the time that “Sharon” was posting under multiple names, a BFP moderator once again left a respectful response for “Sharon”. You can read “Sharon’s” comment and BFP’s response here.

Identity #3 “Rufus”

Less than an hour after posting as a female “Sharon”, our government supporter returned to the same Piggies At The Trough story and posted under another name – this time using the male name of “Rufus”.

“Rufus” addressed his comment to “Sharon” and said he agreed with what “she” had said. “Rufus” further added some political comments directed at Opposition Leader David Thompson.

Our government supporter had quite the conversation with herself / himself! You can read the comment here.

Then the fun starts when “Rufus” engages another BFP reader in conversation and accuses that reader of being a “David Thompson DLP operative”. You have to appreciate the irony, folks!

“Rufus” then launches into a smoke and mirrors defense of our corrupt Minister of Public Works, Gline Clarke – saying that Minister Clarke lives on his father’s land in St. George and not with his defacto spouse on expropriated land. (For background see Barbados Government Minister Gline Clarke – House and Mercedes On Expropriated Land)

You can read the second comment by “Rufus” here.

The Truth Is Discovered

These government operatives whose job is to do damage control at Barbados Free Press by posting in the comments section often attempt to have conversations with themselves under multiple names, but our readers seem to sniff them out after a day or two. It is usual for our readers to become aware of multiple identities before the editors do because our attention is focused on spam control and writing new articles – thus our moderators politely thanked “Kelly” and engaged “Sharon” in conversation without realizing they were the same person.

After two BFP readers became suspicious and sent us an email, Cliverton looked at the IP data and discovered that “Kelly”, “Sharon” and “Rufus” were the same person.

Just Another Day At Barbados Free Press

We thought our readers would be interested in some of the intrigue that goes on behind the scenes.

Is it past noon yet? Good!

Darlin’ – grab me a Banks please!

🙂

Marcus

St. Andrew MP George Payne Highlights Land Slippage In Area Of Greenland Dump

George Payne’s Speech Heavily Criticized Own Government’s Failures

MP George Payne apparently pulled no punches at a recent BLP meeting – even though the Prime Minister was sitting right beside him.

The article in the Nation News is worth reading just to see a sitting MP listing the unfulfilled promises made by his own government – which are promptly answered by more promises from Attorney-General Dale Marshall. Same old, same old.

One of the unintended highlights of Mr. Payne’s talk was the mention of land slippage in St. Andrew – the area of the Greenland Dump where his government says that land slippage is not an issue.

I guess the land slippage that Payne is talking about magically stops at the Greenland dump’s property lines!

Story link: The Nation News – Payne: St. Andrew Left Out 

A Tale Of Two Barbados Fete Promoters – One Good, One Evil

Elite Entertainment Should Be Ashamed!

The Barbados Sanitation Service Authority blog has posted an article about two recently held fetes – one by the local organising committee of the Cricket World Cup, and another by the irresponsible, uncaring idiots who call themselves Elite Entertainment.

The above photos show the streets after both functions. You can guess which is which.

IF the government was on the ball, they would make clean-up of the area as much a part of receiving permission to hold a public event as is crowd safety and traffic control.

Head over to Ian Bourne’s Barbados Sanitation Service Authority blog for the full story and many more photos that show the disgusting result of Elite Entertainment’s lack of concern for the community and their fellow citizens.

Story link: Bajan Health Protectors

UPDATE

We received this unconfirmed comment by BFP reader “Michael” …

Dear Sirs,

We just want it known, that ELITE SOUND SYSTEMS LTD, a locally registered sound company in Barbados , is in NO way associated with the Elite Entertainment Inc .

**************

George Replies:

Dear Micheal,

Thank you for letting us know. That is the wonderful thing about blogs. If anyone disagrees with a story or wants to clarify or add information, they can get your message out to the same readers right away. If there has been an error in a story or the clarification is important (as your information is), then it is highlighted in the original story and remains for all to see.

Our stories are audited for accuracy by thousands of readers each day.

Thanks for helping to make Barbados Free Press one of the most accurate sources for Barbados news!

George

Celebrity Cruise Cricket Advert Warns Against Inter-Island Flying “Tiny airplanes, long lines, delays, lost luggage, cancelled flights”

The Cricket World Cup Series is just around the corner in April 2007. It is being held in the beautiful Caribbean. But getting between islands to watch your team will be a challenge. The big jets don’t do the inter-island hops. Can you imagine flying from island to island in tiny little planes to get from one stadium to the next. Can you imagine the long lines, the delays, the cancelled flights the lost luggage?

… from a Celebrity Cruise Line’s Press Release (link here)

Will the tiny airplanes be able to pull it off, or will it be the disaster predicted in the Celebrity Cruise Line advert?

We’re still hearing about passengers being stranded without baggage, so if I were a betting man (and I am!) I wouldn’t look at a shuttle airline ticket to or from Grantley Adams International as anything more than a lottery ticket with extremely good odds.

And remember – to hedge your bet, make that carry-on luggage only!

robert

Previous BFP Story: Caribbean Star Airlines Still Not Telling Passengers That Luggage Will Follow In Several Days