Merry Christmas From The Barbados Sanitation Service Authority – Langston Hughes Would Approve!

Construction & Demolition Quarry Operating Hours during Christmas Season

The Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) is notifying all construction firms that the Parsons Quarry in Foster Hall, St George will be closed as of 13th December 2007 to 2nd January 2008.

Anyone wishing to dispose of construction and demolition waste (C&D) is asked to use one of the following sites – the Edgecumbe Quarry, Bennetts Tennantry, St Philip or the Mangrove Pond Landfill.

AT NO TIME WILL ANY TRUCKS BE ALLOWED TO ENTER THE PARSONS QUARRY DURING THAT PERIOD

You are also advised of the operating hours at Edgecumbe during 13th December 2007 to 2nd January 2008 is as follows; –

Christmas Eve, December 24th – closed by 12:00 noon
Christmas Day & Boxing Day, 25th and 26th December – closed to the public
December 31st, Old Year’s – closed by 12:00 noon
January 1st, New Year’s Day – closed to the public

The SSA thanks you for your cooperation and reminds Barbados that regular hours will resume at both Edgecumbe & Parsons Quarries by 2nd January 2008.

Langston Hughes – Black Nativity

A few years ago I saw a production of “Black Nativity” put on in a Detroit church. I mention it now because that play eventually took me back to school. It is a long story but I’ll credit Langston Hughes with inspiring me to complete my degree. (For all the good it does me!) 😉

A popular and still controversial black writer from the 1930’s to the mid 1960’s, Langston Hughes was a writer, poet, activist and sometimes “negro film maker”. He was hauled before the various government committees of the 1950’s for impure thoughts about Communism and travels to Russia in the 1930’s. His book of poetry “Fine Clothes To The Jew” set off a firestorm of criticism surprisingly not from Jews or Whites, but from contemporary “negros.” If you read the book, the title is not what it seems. Many have wanted to rename the poetry collection (because it is difficult to publish today) but I say leave history as history.

So what does this little blurb have to do with an announcement by the Barbados Sanitation Authority about Christmas closings?

Perhaps it is a way of having folks who are interested in black history pay attention to their garbage, and of having folks who are interested in the landfill hours pay attention to black history. 🙂

And Christmas is coming!

Former Nation News Journalist Angry At Barbados Free Press

Pretty Girl Rips Out Cliverton’s Heart, Stomps It Into The Dirt

“Naive”

“crass sensationalism and irresponsible journalism”

“careless and cowardly”

Oh! Oh! Oh!

Cliverton is in agony. He fell in love with blogger Caribbean Lionesse last winter as the snow was whipping through his dormitory window in the US of A. Much like a convict in jail looks at a pretty girl’s photo to sustain him until his sentence is up, Clive saw Caribbean Lionesse as a reminder of all that was good about home. (Cliverton’s original story is HERE. Editor’s comment: Knowing Cliverton, there were probably more than a few photos taped to his wall, but why ruin a good story?)

And now this.

Cliverton’s sweetheart says that BFP is baaaad. The worst of all things.

She’s upset that we criticized The Nation again. Presumably it is our latest article about the Greenland Dump where we call the Nation News “a pathetic excuse for a newspaper” after they yet again printed a government press release like it was a real piece of journalism… and never bothered to ask a single obvious question.

As we said in our article…

After reading our story that the Greenland dump was showing new fissures, you’d think that a real newspaper would have sent a reporter and a photographer at first light to check out the damage. You’d think that the true status of such a controversial and expensive over-budget project after an earthquake might be newsworthy.

A real journalist would be wondering about unstable soil under the dump that previously caused 20 million dollars of work to be thrown out the window.

A real newspaper would have asked to interview the engineers and workers who were on site. A real reporter would want to print the engineers’ names and tour the facility with cameras clicking. Someone with the public interest in mind would have been at the gate of the Greenland dump at sun-up the very next morning so their couldn’t be any monkey business with the contractor filling in the fissures.

That would be a real newspaper run by real journalists.

Instead, we have The Nation News helping out with Government damage control three days after the earthquake. This rag of a paper simply printed the government’s press release without a single follow-up question.

The pathetic government lapdogs at The Nation News and the CBC should be ashamed of themselves.

Professional Barbados Journalism

I guess that Caribbean Lionesse prefers Barbados “professional journalism” where the news media doesn’t dare ask a Minister of Government how he became a millionaire in three years of government service. She prefers a professional news media that ignores stories for weeks until they are shamed by the blogs into covering major news events. (Think 3S Fly-over scandal, Nation News editor’s rape charge, shots fired at DLP Candidate’s home)

She prefers a professional news media that refuses to cover many stories at all when the doing so would embarrass the government – even if the evidence of legal documents or photos is posted online for all to see! (Think the Director of Public Prosecutions and Ronja Juman, blank search warrants, Prime Minister and Chief Justice charged with fraud in Canadian court, Tourism Minister orders Barbados Advocate editor to fire columnist Adrian Loveridge, Minister of Public Works builds home on expropriated land and so many more NEWS stories that have never been mentioned in the media.)

Caribbean Lionesse takes the blogs to task for remaining anonymous cowards, but then makes an excellent argument that the professional journalists are cowards with names.

Remember when the blogs broke the story that the President of the flyover contracting company had been accused of fraud and kickbacks in a similar project in Jamaica? For almost two weeks Barbados blogs published court documents, dug up background and chided the news media until they were FORCED to cover the story!

Here’s what our friends at Barbados Underground wrote at the time…

“As each hour passes, the failure of our media houses to break this story confirms what many individuals already know about them. They are dogs who must be fed by their masters. Where are the strident voiced of Dennis Johnson, Tony Marshall and David Ellis? What about the voices of outspoken and leading talk show hosts Maxine McClean and Peter Wickham? It is inconceivable that they would be ignorant of this story.”

… from Barbados Underground Media Houses In Barbados In Collusion With Government To Suppress News, Press Freedom Under Threat ~ The Voices Of The People Must Be Heard

Media Silence About Barbados Police Strip-Searching Woman Over Unpaid Rent

What did Caribbean Lionesse say about the state of “professional journalism” at the time? What does she say about the media’s silence over the Ronja Juman scandal – when the Director of Public Prosecutions Charles Leacock had the police drag his female tenant off in the middle of the night to have her vagina searched over back rent? The blank search warrant and other legal documents are posted online here for all to see.

What does Caribbean Lionesse say about the media not covering the story of a woman brutally dragged off in the middle of the night by police thugs… when the legal documents are available for all to see?

Cliverton, My Old Friend…

Cheer up old friend. We never said we were professional journalists, but thousands of our fellow citizens appreciate what we are attempting to do for Barbados. That’s why our online readership is double that of the Nation News – a “real” newspaper.

No friends, we aren’t professional journalists, but we know what democracy, freedom of the press, political corruption and conflicts of interest are.

We also know that if the “real” professional journalists did their jobs, Barbados Free Press wouldn’t exist.

Caribbean Lionesse: What Journalism is (supposed to be) all about

Barbados Chief Justice David Simmons – An Evil Threat To Our Democracy. (Yes, We Said Evil)

“If it can be confirmed that Simmons has acted improperly, then Keltruth Corp. feels that the Governor-General, Sir Clifford Husbands, should intervene and impeach the Chief Justice.” … from Keltruth Blog article Police, Army and Chief Justice in Barbados

Barbados Chief Justice Calls For All Police And Military Power To Be One Force Under Government

In a recent speech to senior Caribbean police officials, David Simmons showed that he continues to have a political agenda that always supersedes his role as Chief Justice. His every word and action during his very political speech underlined that there is no independence of our judiciary and that he continues to function as a political leader.

David Simmons should not be making political speeches. He should not have even been attending a conference of senior police officials let alone instructing them in his new vision of Barbados government where the police and the military are to become, and in many ways have already become, one entity.

David Simmons is no fool. He is an educated, powerful and experienced politician and effectively is still acting as a senior Cabinet Minister for his BLP Government.

Simmons knows exactly what he is doing, and he has chosen the side of evil.

Our Chief Justice is an educated man and a student of history. He knows full well of the importance of an independent judiciary and he also knows how important it is that the judiciary can be seen to be independent.

Yet, because David Simmons is unethical and values his personal benefits more than the independence of the Barbados judiciary, he accepted the position of Chief Justice when he knew he should not. He knew that as a career politician and former Cabinet Minister, his appointment would politicize the courts – but it did not matter to David Simmons.

We have called for his resignation on this matter alone, but now Sir David Simmons has gone even further and shown his and his BLP government’s true lust for power.

Now it can truly be seen that David Simmons had both a personal and a political agenda when he accepted the office of Chief Justice.

The New Barbados – Envisioned By Our Chief Justice And His Political Party

History is replete with examples of what happens when the balances and independent cross-checks in a society break down. This naturally leads to abuses. History tells us what happens to democracy and freedoms when the boundaries between the military and the police become blurred – which is why every dictator in history sought to consolidate control of these most powerful societal institutions.

Good Men And Women Everywhere…

Good men and women instinctively realize that the consolidation of government powers in the hands of any small group is dangerous. That is why democratic societies take care to split powers and responsibilities among of the various arms of government, and to ensure that societal institutions function with independence and always under the scrutiny of other balancing entities.

No one person, group or institution should have the power to operate without being accountable to society at large, and this accountability is often structured into the system on multiple levels.

There can be no real justice or real democracy when the political arm of government also controls the day-to-day operations of the police, public prosecutors, court administration, judges, military and other power bases and institutions in society. Throw in a weak and cowardly news media and you have all the elements necessary for a dictatorship.

Chief Justice Sir David Simmons Is No Fool – He Is A Man With A Political Agenda

It is a fundamental truth that the consolidation of too much power weakens democracy and undermines individual rights.

All Bajan citizens had better start to pay attention to what is happening to our little democracy.
Read the entire story at Keltruth Blog before you do anything else today.