Two British tourists shot in broad daylight – Sunday afternoon walkabout in Bridgetown

UPDATED: Latest radio reports indicate a purse snatching – and when the tourists resisted both were shot.

Does the Barbados Tourism Authority have an action team in place now?

Serious Injuries: 70 year-old man shot in side, woman shot in thigh

The debate over the ‘cash for gold’ businesses and the growing number of street robberies took another serious turn today when two elderly tourists were shot in broad daylight in the city. We are speculating that the motive was robbery because precious little information has made its way to the television and radio even 7 hours after the first report.

“Two tourists shot on a Sunday in broad daylight? Everybody should be working full days to find out what happened and to arrest those responsible.

We should be looking after the injured tourists and keeping their loved-ones informed.

We’re only talking our entire economy here, ya know!”

What we do know is contained in the Nation article below.

There are good and bad things happen to tourists all over the world, but Barbados has to this point maintained a reputation as a generally safe destination as long as people use the same care that they would when back home – doan be walking down dark sidestreets at 2am and expect nothing to happen. That is true in Paris, London, New York and Bridgetown.

On the other hand, if two elderly tourists can’t be safe on Hincks Street at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon, then we have some real, heavy trouble.

Were they from a cruise ship or yacht? Perhaps taking a long walkabout? Did they take a taxi into the city for some shopping? That might be the case. On the other hand (and we are just wild talking here) suppose that the two tourists were trying to purchase drugs or engaging in some other high risk activity? This is just wild talking on are part to make the point that the information matters, and getting that information to the public matters too. Is there a madman on the run? Was this a robbery that went bad? Was it fallout from a domestic dispute? Bajans should know something more by this time than we currently know.

Only last week a Brit wrote to Barbados Free Press and said he and his wife wouldn’t be returning. (See BFP’s “With great sadness and best wishes” a British tourist says goodbye to Barbados forever)

What is known so far…     

Energy & Environment: We cannot continue on the way we have been…

“At best, the age of cheap energy is over…”

Former energy Minister of Denmark

“You need to think of energy in a fifty-year timeframe, and our elected officials are thinking of energy in two year election cycles. That’s ridiculous!”

John Hofmeister, former Head U.S. Shell

One of our old friends sent us a link to the PBS video Earth: The Operators Manual / Powering the Planet – and what an interesting and well-done documentary it is. You can disagree with some of the program or with some of the technologies that are presented as solutions (as I disagree about large scale wind farms) – but you cannot disagree with the theme that we cannot continue on the way we have been. We cannot continue what we are doing. We must find better ways.

Where I disagree with some of the experts is in the area of self generation vs large scale energy generation. The current societal model is to have large central generating facilities – whatever the technology – and accept that over 50% of power generated will be lost during transmission. I say that smaller individual and local community power generation is not only viable, but cheaper and less prone to interruption.

This 1 hour program is well worth your time.

Thanks friend!

Looking for family history of Mary Piggott, Bajan buried in Liverpool

(click photo for large)

Dear readers at Barbados Free Press

I am searching for any information which may be of assistance in helping locate the birthplace and ancestry of a lady named Mary Piggott, whose tombstone is in the churchyard of St George, Everton, Liverpool,UK, which states she was of Barbados, but unfortunately no information as to whether she was a resident or visitor to the UK, her place of residence before death, or familial status exists.

Here lieth the Body of
MARY PIGGOTT,
of Barbadoes, who departed this life
on the 20th day of July 1825,
Aged 57 Years. (57 or 37?)

Here the wicked cease from troubling:
and the weary are at rest.

To the present I have been unable to find any record of Mary Piggot, other than the record dating her interment at the above graveyard. However, I was intrigued to find that there was there was a slave owner called Mary Piggott in Barbados, and that there is a Mary E.Piggott primary school in Barbados, and that on neighbouring islands there also exist Mary E.Piggott streets. I was wondering if there may, however tenuous, be a link between the similarly named persons. Any information on the ancestral background of Mary E. Piggott may assist in my future search with my Liverpool Mary Piggott.

Thank you for taking the time to read my request, a little short of detail I know.

I’m hoping you or maybe some interested party may find my plea worthy of consideration.

Dave Mattocks