Who Sold Barbados Sand To Cap Juluca Hotel In Anguilla?

Cap Juluca Resort Beach - Barbados Sand

Cap Juluca is burning through money. Wish they’d give me some. The barge load of sand due three weeks ago finally arrived last Sunday from Barbados. But, it’s ‘bad sand’, a darker colour than the ‘good sand’ on the beach. So, they’re digging huge pits on the beach. Like twenty feet deep full of water. They are piling up the ‘good sand’ in big mountains of sand. They’re filling the holes with ‘bad sand’ and then topping them off with ‘good sand’. You’ve got to see it to believe it. Forecasts call for large seas tomorrow. We’ll have to see what happens to these mountains of sand. Really pouring some bucks into the old place. They open on Monday.

What a start to the tourist season!

… from the Corruption-free Anguilla blog story Development

Barbados Sand: Who Profits? Who Gives Permission? Who Buys? Who Sells?

It is interesting how you can see something happening all your life and not really know anything about what you’re watching. Then one day you start to ask yourself a few questions about what you’ve seen and you discover that you know very little.

Take sand, for instance.

Last week a barge-load of Barbados sand arrived in Anguilla where it was spread on the private beach of the Cap Juluca resort. As I read Don Mitchell’s article about it I wondered what part of Barbados the sand was taken from. Considering the poor state of some of the beaches on the West coast and the apparent shortage of sand to dress them up occasionally, the question about where the sand was taken from is more important than some people from abroad might imagine.

Then I wondered about who collected the sand, who owned the sand and what government permissions they might have needed to collect and sell the sand off the island.

I’d love to know the answers to these questions. Can anyone assist me?

BFP Reader “Akabozik”

UPDATE:

To thieves, Caribbean sand is pure gold

Beaches disappear by the truckload for construction projects. The islands suffer.

By Danica Coto
Associated Press

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Ahh, the Caribbean. Sun, surf. But where’s the sand?
It is disappearing at alarming rates as thieves feed a local construction boom.

Caribbean round grains, favored in creating smooth surfaces for plastering and finishing, are being hauled away by the truckload late at night. On some islands, towns and ecologically sensitive areas are now exposed to tidal surges and rough seas…

… continue reading this article at the Philadelphia Inquirer (link here)

Three arrested in stolen sand probe
BY KARYL WALKER Crime/Court Co-ordinator
Friday, December 12, 2008

Three men were yesterday arrested in connection with the theft in July of 500 truckloads of sand from a Trelawny beach after cops from the Organised Crime Investigative Division (OCID) raided premises in the Corporate Area, Trelawny and Negril.

The identities of the men were not released by the police who, in a release yesterday, said they were being processed and interviewed by investigators.

According to the police, two of the men were held in Kingston while the other man was picked up in Trelawny.
The police raided the Corporate Area head office and a Trelawny branch of Bedrock Building and Aggregates early yesterday. Another raid was reportedly carried out in the resort town of Negril in Westmoreland. (continue reading at the Jamaica Observer here)

Thanks to a BFP reader for pointing out these articles. You know who you are and so do we! Thanks, old friend.

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Wandering Scotsman Has A Simple Plan To Improve Barbados Tourism

Before I moved to Barbados I had been here numerous times on holiday and was well aware of how beautiful an island it was, that it had some of the best beaches in the world, amazing food and friendly people, even though you have to wonder who trains some of the people in the service and tourism sector, some of them haven’t got a clue. You need to take a look at the USA and Canada and you will see a massive difference as to how people treat tourists and customers!

The Government spends millions of dollars every years tying to attract tourists to come to Barbados, I personally feel that more should be done to make them want to come back again and go home and recommend the island to all their friends, family and rave about it online.

I came up with 5 Simple Steps To Improve Things for Tourism…

You really must read Garry Wynters’ new piece at The Barbados Blog. Love it or hate it, no one will be neutral about what Garry wrote…

The Barbados Blog: 5 Simple Steps To Improve Tourism In Barbados

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 Barbados National Trust and, as expected, is a big tourist draw that has gained international attention.

Using the same logic of those who oppose the statue of Admiral Nelson in Bridgetown, (and tongue in cheek) I state here and now that I believe the government of Barbados should burn the George Washington house to the ground in an internationally broadcast television spectacle.

Folks want to remove the Bridgetown statue of Admiral Horatio Nelson, because he strongly criticised anti-slavery crusader William Wilberforce and, although he never owned a slave, Nelson expressed support for the institution of slavery as a foundation of the British Empire.

In contrast to Nelson’s verbal support for slavery, George Washington actually owned slaves – hundreds of them. At age 11, George Washington owned ten slaves, and thus was a slave owner when he stayed in Barbados in 1751. When he died, Washington had 316 slaves at his Mount Vernon estate with the ownership of these wretched human beings split between Washington and his wife. Oh yes… Washington also rented 40 slaves from a neighbour.

Nothing Like A Little Walk At Night To Warm The Blood!

And just like the other Virginia slave owners and other big men of the day including Thomas Jefferson, good old Georgy Boy visited the slave quarters once in a while to claim all the benefits of owning other human beings. Female slaves couldn’t say “no” to Massa, and Washington’s late night walks increased his slave holdings in the most economical way. Do a little research if you have any doubts – save your outrage for Georgy-Boy himself, Okay?

So what do you say folks? Should the Nelson statute be tossed in the ocean (because arguments about “moving” the statue aren’t really about moving the statue, they are about dishonouring Nelson publicly.)

And if we dishonour Nelson without the same treatment for Washington, aren’t we the biggest hypocrites?

Or should we leave history as history, and instead of destroying or concealing it – explain these two great men in the context of their times, warts and all?

What say you?

Further Reading

Nation News: The Moore Things Change – Admiral Nelson

CNN: Barbados saved home where Washington Slept

Official Website: George Washington House Barbados

Wikipedia: George Washington and His Slaves

History News Network: George Washington’s Slave Child?