Bajans slam Canadian newspaper for “misleading” Elaine Sibson article
On Monday May 17, 2010 at 7:13am EDT, the Canadian Globe and Mail newspaper online published their article “Dark Days in Barbados“ with the subtitle “Elaine Sibson thought she landed her dream job only to realize it wasn’t the paradise she expected.”
Barbados Free Press found the article, title and sub-title to be highly misleading and an unjustified attack upon Bajans. We said so in our reply article Why a PWC PricewaterhouseCoopers partner quit the Barbados office and went home to Canada.
BFP published our story at 9:29am EDT – a little over two hours after the Globe published online.
In the next few hours many hundreds of Barbados Free Press readers clicked the link in our story and went to read the Globe & Mail’s original article.
Some Bajans and friends of Barbados left comments at the Globe’s story slamming the newspaper for “misleading”.
At 1pm, almost six hours after the Globe and Mail online first published the story, the headline was changed from “Dark Days in Barbados” to “Dream jobs aren’t all they’re cracked up to be”
The changed headline at the Globe and Mail's website
The Globe and Mail changed its headline because unfaired Bajans visited the Globe website and gave them a piece of whatfor!
BUT the Globe’s subtitle still reads “Elaine Sibson thought she landed her dream job only to realize it wasn’t the paradise she expected” which sure sounds like it’s still our fault that Elaine was lonely on our beautiful island.
Misleading Print Edition headlines not changed
Too bad that changing the web version didn’t help the print edition. On Monday over 320,000 newspapers were distributed across Canada and the USA bearing the Business Section headline “Dark Days in Barbados”.
Elaine Sibson is not the villain here
If you read the article fully, Elaine has some nice things to say about Barbados, and she probably told Gordon Pitts, the reporter, much more than Pitts revealed in the story. Despite the “culture shock” and her inability to deal with Bajan staff and an office where “things were like they were 15 years ago”, it seems that Elaine’s loneliness for friends and family caused her return to Canada.
You’d never know that by a quick read of the headlines though. “Dark Days in Barbados” and “wasn’t the paradise she expected.”
The Globe & Mail headline seems clear that Barbados was the problem, not Elaine Sibson’s inability to adapt and thrive in a new country and society.
No, we don’t do things the way they are done in Halifax or New York City. We do things the way that suits us. Sure, we’re still working at making a better society in Barbados. We’d like to see some changes and God knows we at BFP criticise the political and business elites and our broken Parliament and civil service – but that is because of our love for our country and our children.
Elaine Sibson never walked the rugged East Coast in the morning with the spray flying in her face, the sun rising on the promise of a glorious new day and her lover’s arm around her. I’m sorry she only saw Barbados through her self-imposed isolation in her condo but I hope she has some good memories of her time on beautiful Barbados.
Elaine is probably a nice lady who enjoys life on her home ground surrounded by family and longtime friends. Nothing wrong with that. She’ll probably do very well in her new job on the Board of Directors for Nova Scotia Power Inc.
No Excuse!
Elaine’s loneliness doesn’t excuse Gordon Pitts and The Globe and Mail though. Whether by design or poor journalism they have created a very negative and misleading article on Barbados – based upon Ms. Sibson’s loneliness and her apparent reluctance to supervise an employee who spent a day and a half to do a 30 minute job. (Kind of makes you wonder about who they are employing at PricewaterhouseCoopers Barbados office, doesn’t it? The “binder girl” in the Globe & Mail story would get the sack where I work!)
We think that the Globe and Mail owes an apology to the people of Barbados – and we hope they come through next Monday in their paper edition so that the same people who read about how bad we Bajans are can appreciate how misleading the current story is.
But if that doesn’t happen, we at Barbados Free Press know how to work the online search engines. Right now if you Google “Elaine Sibson”, our story is ahead of the Globe and Mail story in the Google results. Yup… from now until eternity (or when Google dies), folks who search for that Globe and Mail story on Elaine Sibson are going to have an opportunity to read the Barbados Free Press version too.
Something for Gordon Pitts and the Globe and Mail to remember next time they do an unjustified hit piece on Barbados.
Google rates BFP's "Elaine Sibson" article ahead of the Globe & Mail story.
Barbados Free Press 
She had a divorce, was awarded custody of her 12 year old daughter and what did she do? She requested a job thousands of miles away from the girl’s father. That sounds not nice to me and any other divorced father who knows the pain.
Move-Away Moms Harm Children
http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/move-away-moms-harm-kids/
Moms who take their children and move away from their children’s fathers create life-long hardship for their children. Granted there are rare exceptions when a move may be warranted. But they far rarer than NOWers admit.
Generally, move-away-moms move primarily for their own best interest and not their children’s.
Children who lose their biological fathers for no reason other than maternal malice, greed or other child-negating interests are children who are put at a life long disadvantage in every area from self esteem to academic success. The simple fact is, physically present biological fathers will have a vastly more significant positive influence on their children than any non-related boyfriends or step fathers will. Children who are robbed of their biological fathers are children more often at risk.
Pennsylvania law, in August 2000, recognized this and now gives the children of our commonwealth at least a fighting chance to prevent a malicious mother from robbing them of their father’s presence with an unnecessary move away. The law was decided in the Gruber case where the court recognized for the first time that the monetary best interest of the mother is not identical to the best interest of the child.
Now in Pennsylvania, in theory at least, a mother cannot simply pick up the children and move off to Kansas with her rich new boyfriend while harming her children in the process.
I normally enjoy reading the articles here on BFP, but this piece of drivel is garbage!!!
She made mild references to Barbados, nothing compared to the guy that said Canada is full of nothing but racists!
BFP has really failed here, attacking this woman for nothing.
I disagree that BFP is attacking the woman. They were very fair in both articles. The BFP piece is about the yellow journalism of the Globe Mail newspaper sensationalizing and spinning a story that was not about the failings of Barbados or Bajans. The BFP story shows that when big media gets it wrong they can be pressured to correct the story. This is a story about bloggers holding the news media to account.
Adapting to a small island culture is no easy task. Some people do well and others get up and leave for a whole host of reasons. One can become terribly isolated if they don’t get out and mix.
I agree this article is a bit of overkill for a single woman who was simply expressing her experiences in Barbados.
There is a definite work ethic difference but that has a lot to do with living in a tropical country and accepted norms.
I don’t know how you manage the google results like you do BFP. A few hours and your article tops the largest newspaper in canada at Google. Does anyone at BFP work in the search engine optimization business?
At the risk of incurring your wrath, I don’t think that the Globe and Mail or Gordon Pitts set out to do a hit piece on Barbados. They have no motive to do so. Canadians actually like Barbados and their media give us pretty good coverage. CHUM FM have been doing Breakfast in Barbados every year for nearly 30 years. I suspect Mr. Pitts did not even write that headline. It was probably written by a sub-editor who wanted something short and catchy for the website. Thoughtless? Perhaps. Deliberately demeaning? I don’t believe so. As for Ms. Sibson, I suspect she regrets her comments about the PwC staffer. But sometimes in the flow of an interview you say things to illustrate a point that may offend someone somewhere. We need to have thicker skins. From time to time people will say things about Barbados that rub us the wrong way. But we can be pretty uncomplimentary of others too.
Regards
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Wonder how she got the job in the first place. I can think of many persons more qualified? Can I aspire to a top job in Canada too? Probably not white enough?