British hero soldier Brian Mulligan stabbed to death in Barbados

No arrests reported

Brian Mulligan has been worth only a paragraph or two if that in the local news media since his stabbing death early Sunday morning at the tourist-popular St. Lawrence Gap, Christ Church. Today the British papers are full of his photos in Barbados and holding his new-born. (London Evening Standard: London father-of-two stabbed to death in Barbados…)

At this point, who knows what happened? Mr. Mulligan was mostly deaf after having both ears ruptured by a grenade in Iraq. He had been here for a few weeks working for Lime Telecom.

One thing we do know though: this island does not feel the way it felt even five years ago, and ignoring the problem is no solution.

Today the world’s newspapers are full of Brian Mulligan’s death in Barbados, but once again a foreign national has died at a Bajan tourist area and we see nothing in our own news media. No words from the PM or the Tourism Minister. No press conference by the police to communicate that Barbados is horrified and doing everything it can to find the culprits.

Nope. None of that… while the world’s news media goes big on the story. Just like what happened when Canadian tourist Terry Schwarzfeld was murdered.

How long until our leaders recognize that you can’t hide stuff like this anymore?

Barbados ignores court orders to pay Shanique Myrie, Al Barrack

Al Barrack reduced to this to try and have the government obey the court.

What if you sue the Government of Barbados and the court orders Barbados to pay you? What then?

For contractor Al Barrack, it has been eight years since the court ordered the Government to pay up $34 million. The government’s response was to thumb its nose at the court and attempt to destroy Al Barrack as his world crumbled around him. And that’s what they have been doing to Al Barrack since 2006.

And why shouldn’t the government thumb its nose at the court? Everybody on this rock knows how cosy things are between the political elites and the courts. If a judge isn’t married or cousin to a political elite, it’s a surprise ’bout hey. Even our last Chief Justice was himself a politician. In small island nations you can’t get away from this incest. It’s just the way things are.

But once the court orders payment, you’d figure there would be compliance, right? Ha! What do you know?

The government is broke – so payment of court settlements and orders are no priority at all. If the government doesn’t just do what it wants and send in the military, it will ignore you like Shanique Myrie, Al Barrack and others who usually fade away and give up.

Shanique Myrie though is high profile and poisoning Jamaican-Bajan relations so she’ll probably be paid. The AG says Miss Myrie will be paid this week, but Myrie probably won’t believe him until the money is actually in her bank account.

And Al Barrack? The government says it will pay him next month. Wuhloss! That’s the same thing PM Stuart said two years ago!

Sure, sure: Barrack will be paid. And the tooth fairy is real.

Was a bribe paid to Town and Country Development Planning Office?

Were promises made?

by passin thru

We know how it is on this rock. How many examples do we have of historical buildings rezoned and torn down before anyone knows? How many examples do we have of land-use changes that are pushed through on a Friday afternoon with no notice, and often in opposition to common sense? One of those ‘unexplained’ land use changes murdered a family, or have we forgotten?

This time another historical was building torn down without notification and in the middle of controversy.

Was someone in the Town and Country Development Planning Office paid off? Was a promise made?

We know how it is on this rock, and my stomach turns every time I see another ‘mistake’ by which somebody profits.

To HELL with them all. My anger is righteous because the rule of law is nothing in this place. If I could only get a green card I would be gone.

Landmark torn down

“We were working with a number of Government agencies to secure this building,”

“The only difficulty we were aware of, in terms of its safety, was its balcony that was overhanging the road. The fact that we got to this stage – that an historic building was demolished without any notification being given to either the National Trust or anyone else – it shows a huge failing in the system,”

The fact the building was delisted by the Town and Country Development Planning Office “for no viable reason for which a building should be delisted” was worrying, but delisting was still of no merit since it was in the World Heritage Site.

“It should have come under consideration. It is a serious matter to demolish one of these buildings,”

… Peter Stevens, Vice President of the Barbados Historical Garrison Consortium Inc. quoted in The Nation