Folks, you know what I’m talking about when I say it’s all about power, control and MAYBE that the mother trying to get her child’s Christmas toy out of Barbados Customs has a last name of “Persaud”.
Ya can’t make stuff like this up…
‘What yuh call dis ting? Ah scooter?’ asked Officer McBady
‘Yes. It’s a toy for my son.’ I replied.
‘Dis eh no toy. It have ah battery. Dis could go pon de road. Yuh cahn clear customs till yuh get a licence.’
‘It’s a toy. It can’t go more than five miles per hour.’
‘Man, dis battery have nuff power. I telling yuh dis could go pon de road.’ he repeated.
I sighed. ‘It can’t and he can’t. He is not using this except in our yard.’
‘Well it eh leaving here till it have ah licence.’
‘Okay. What kind of licence do you think I should get? A bicycle licence?’
‘No ah vehicle licence. And yuh go have to pay de 100% duty plus environmental fee, plus licencing fee, plus road tax plus handling and storage.’
‘It’s a toy!’ I yelled.
… read the entire incredible story at Ingrid Persaud’s Notes from a Small Rock blog
Filed under Barbados
‘He (Geoffrey Roach, CEO of the Bridgetown Cruise Terminal) reported cruise ship passengers arrivals to be 760,000 for the last financial year, and projected a six percent growth in the next financial year’.
‘But he said passengers were spending less, as evidenced in a recent Florida Caribbean Cruise Association study which put the average spend per cruise passenger in Barbados at US$69, down from US$111 in 2006.’
From the Midweek Nation, Wednesday 23rd December 2009 ‘Cruise arrivals up, revenue down’
So despite the declared increases in cruise ship passenger arrivals, actual per capita spending is down by a staggering 38% or US$30 million for the last ‘financial year’.
I wonder if this US$30 million figure was factored in to the $100 million loss in tourism revenue recently quoted the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association?
So what measures to redress this situation have been put in place?
What investment has been made by the Barbados Tourism Authority and who is monitoring its cost-effectiveness?
Adrian Loveridge
23rd December 2009
Filed under Barbados, Barbados Tourism
The Al Barrack story gets stranger and stranger at every turn. (See our previous story: Al Barrack is wrong: Justice and the Law are not for everyone in Barbados)
The Government of Barbados owes him $60 million dollars plus due to a court judgement, but won’t pay.
Now we’re asked to believe that perfect strangers are going to pay off the Government of Barbados debt to Mr. Barrack and assume the $60 million judgement on the chance that the Government of Barbados won’t use the courts to delay payment for another 10 or 20 years.
Something is wrong here, folks.
Keltruth Blog asks the questions that our Bajan media should have…
Keltruth Blog: Will a Mysterious “Third Party” Pay Off Debt Owed By Barbados Government to Al Barrack?
Barbados Free Press 