Bajan Lions & 4-H Club volunteers clean beach. That’s EXACTLY what this rock needs!

There might be hope yet!

by passin thru

Talk, talk, talk is mostly all you get ’bout this place. I’ve been guilty of it too. “Why doesn’t somebody do something about (fill in problem here)?”

Part of the problem is an attitude of “Guvment do it”, and truth be known Bajans have been told for generations that government is a solution to everything. Didn’t bother to have insurance for that house of yours that burned down? No problem – guvment repair it. Woman has four children by seven different men and can’t find a place to live? No problem – guvment find you a place.

That kind of thing nurtures an expectation of cradle to grave service and problem solving by the government, but we’ve run out of money, and in truth sometimes guvment isn’t much good for anything practical.

Now look here in the Advocate and there’s some children cleaning up Silver Sands Beach – for Bajans and for the tourists. Lions Club prey on unsightly seaweed, issue rally cry

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Thank you to Ranica Worrell, Akera Walcott, Denico Trotman and Bryan Haynes!

Could we do this every three months country wide?

Think about that. Our beaches could once again be the best in the world.

Leaders, please step forward. I’ll give four mornings a year on a national clean-up.

How about you?

(Thanks to the Barbados Advocate for the picture.)

Report: China foremost country in blood ivory trade. Involved at every level.

“Chinese traffickers are present in every range state and operate at nearly every point along the ivory supply chain.”

“Many conservationists believe that there is covert approval from the top levels of the Chinese administration, that ivory processing and possession is their cultural right, a right which cost tens of thousands of elephant their lives in recent years.”

eTurbo News: China involved in almost every ivory bust

 

Why no solution on the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary?

(click photo for large)

Deliberate destruction of a RAMSAR Treaty natural wetlands

The last mangrove swamp in Barbados is being deliberately destroyed by the Barbados government – so that private interests (read ‘friends of the ruling party’) can benefit financially by squeezing out the foreign philanthropist / owner and then developing the area into condominiums and industrial parks. This is not an unheard of scenario in Barbados, especially with agricultural lands and natural / scrub / coastal areas. It also is common for landowners to spend decades trying to re-classify agricultural and other natural lands for development, only to be refused time and time again.

Then some person will come along and offer just a little bit over the agricultural value and the discouraged and beaten owner will sell. A few weeks later, the land is approved for development and quickly resold for a hundred times what was paid. That is the real Barbados!

The only problem with the Graeme Hall swamp is that the owner, a Canadian philanthropist named Peter Allard, doesn’t want to develop the area: he wants to preserve this precious natural resource for the Bajan people. Earlier Allard volunteered to have the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary incorporated into a National Park. That didn’t work out when the greedy hands of career politicians wanted their cut or NO DEAL! Now that political elite is determined to have it all.

It might take more twenty more years for the cabals to get hold of what is probably the most valuable land on the south coast, but the elites think in generations and they know that there are other foreign chickens to pluck until that time arrives. The elites own the courts and the government, so they have plenty of time. 

Bridgetown Careenage and Harbour beautiful… but deadly to Sea Turtles

Honey Bea III refuses to answer accusation of fishing for turtles

Contributed by BFP reader CJB

The Careenage and Harbour used to be a garbage strewn muddy dump. They have spent years cleaning it up and landscaping the surrounds. They have even restored the lift bridge to working order. However now that the area has been cleaned up and the water is far less murky (polluted?) turtles have started to appear, largely attracted by the free food from the deep-sea fishing boats moored there.

Unfortunately some of the deep-sea fishing vessels are now also trying to catch the turtles with rod, line and hook. The boat we saw was Honey Bee III. (Editor’s note: I think he means Honey Bea III)

They had a rope over the side with what looked like the entrails of a large fish at the end of it – two Hawksbill turtles were attempting to get bits off it. One was an adult, another a juvenile. However there was another conventional fishing rod and line with hook also dangling in the water. It was baited with fish – quite why it was there is a moot point. It was this that the adult turtle got caught on – obviously attracted to the bait on the hook. There was quite a struggle by one of the guys to ‘land’ it and the rod bent right down. Eventually the turtle surfaced and its head broke the water – my photo in hi-res clearly shows the line from the rod to the hook in its beak.

Then the line snapped and the turtles (both) swam off. The two staff carried on gutting a barracuda as though nothing had happened. The whole incident also witnessed by a number of tourists. 

New IADB coastal environment loan: Will Barbados now repair the Graeme Hall sluice gate?

Graeme Hall wetlands being destroyed for want of a sluice gate

Congratulations, folks… we got another loan! I’ve lost track of how many hundreds of millions of dollars our grandchildren owe to the IADB and other global bodies. Does anybody know?

According to Prime Minister Stuart, this new loan makes Barbados “a champion of coastal best practices”. Wow! All you have to do is borrow the money for a study (yes, a study), make an announcement and you’re a “champion”. Once again in Barbados it is words that matter, not achieved results. (See Caribbean 360 Prime Minister touts coastal management project)

The amazing thing about these loans is that without many exceptions the money is always for “studies” and “initiatives” that never seem to have a tangible result or quantifiable success. Smart guys, these politicians (for they are 99% men) – they never set themselves up for failure by announcing projects where the results can be measured and compared against pre-established benchmarks for success.

Even when they are supposed to establish a hard infrastructure component, the record is terrible. One example: We borrowed the money for a waste treatment plant then spent the money on something else. We now have no money and no waste treatment plant. Gotta love those politicians!

Also missing from the Prime Minister’s analysis that Barbados is an environmental “champion” is his government’s abysmal record on the environment. We don’t even have an Environmental Protection Act. That’s right folks… Barbados has no environmental laws pertaining to the land, air or inland water. We have no environmental regulations about the storage, use or disposal of deadly chemicals. No environmental regulations requiring pipeline operators to monitor and report leakage. We’re still pulling up jetfuel from coastal wells around the Shell airport pipeline and there’s nothing the government will do about it because there is no law against it and zero enforcement. Not to forget the government itself dumping raw sewerage into the RAMSAR protected Graeme Hall wetlands! Unbelievable.

And, one of the first acts of the new DLP Government when elected four years ago was to remove the environmental protections to allow development on the coastal watershed surrounding the last remaining mangrove swamp. Freundel Stuart and his DLP kissed goodbye to the Graeme Hall National Park so they and their developer friends could make money.

Troublemaker calls for environmental testing at Jada Construction beach project

Director of Jada Group calls complaint “Ridiculous”

Jada Construction Company representatives are quoted in today’s Nation stating that no chemical or waste was pumped into the sea from their Road View, St. Peter project.

Jada Group director Philip Tempro calls a complaint by the troublemaking Mullins Bay blogger “ridiculous” and confirmed that he’s seen the stories and photos on the internet – presumably at Mullins Bay Blog and here at BFP.

Site supervisor Larry Maynard told The Nation that “several gallons” of seawater had been pumped back into the ocean during the construction and that Coastal Zone Management and Town and Country Planning have been “constantly” monitoring the project. (Constantly? I don’t see them in photos of the construction site when the pumping was happening!)

“Several gallons?”

Have a look at the above photo of the discoloured “chemical smell” sea, taken by the Mullins Bay Blog “troublemaker”. Does that look like “several” gallons to you… or several hundred or several thousand?

A pity that our blogging friend hadn’t thought to fill a couple of sample jars for testing. Why two? One for the Environment Ministry and one to be sent to an independent laboratory over and away to be compared with the government results. Everybody knows the reason why you have to do that! It’s the only way to keep things honest ’bout hey where the big money boys can make lab results change by magic.

The Mullins Bay troublemaking blogger also says that the new seawall is being constructed too close to the sea. Companies regularly do that when they can get away with taking a little more of the coast. We’ve all seen it happen a dozen times.

This time though, our blogging friend has asked for the authorities to come in, take measurements and also to test the water coming out of the pumps and in the general area of the discharge.

Will CZMU, the Environment Ministry and T & C Planning really look at the construction site, and deliver a public and transparent examination?

This being Barbados I wouldn’t hold my breath, but maybe we’re being too critical. Maybe the authorities will be on site today. I’m sure we’ll be hearing more on that from Mullins Bay Blog.

Further Reading

Now look here, folks. You should go to The Nation to read Sea Fear. Please do it now.

But.

You know how it is… The Nation has a record for deleting and changing news stories to re-write history, so to preserve the truth and the integrity of our post we have to print their whole story here. But please do read it at the Nation. They did a good job covering this news and they deserve your visit…

SAFETY WARNING: Mullins Bay fouled by dirty water, chemicals from JADA construction site.

Blue sky, Caribbean sea… and the filth near shore

Turtles in trouble – swimming in JADA’s swill

Royal Westmoreland Beach Club patrons also exposed

Our friends at Mullins Bay blog are sending out a safety alert after tying to take a sea dip on Tuesday afternoon, September 27, 2011.

Where is the Coastal Zone Management Unit? Where is the Minister of the Environment? Where is Prime Minister Stuart after his fine fine coastal environment speech at the United Nations? Where is former Environment Minister Elizabeth Thompson whose BLP government couldn’t pass an Environmental Protection Act in 15 years of majority government?

Swimming in JADA Construction’s filth

This blogger was taking such a dip in the sea today around noon and all was going swimmingly until I noticed a foul chemical odor in the water and noticed that it had turned milky. I decided that something bad was happening and that I needed to get out of the water as quickly as possible. It was then that I noticed a juvenile turtle sticking its head out of the milky water in the nearshore area as if it were suffocating and/or struggling to to leave the area…

It was only after complaining to relatives visiting from the UK and USA who had gone about two hundred yards up the beach to Mullins that I learned of the source of the discharge – the JADA construction site opposite the Texaco Service Station in Road View, St. Peter. I was swimming in JADA’s swill.

Full story/photos/video at Mullins Bay Blog: Beware of Mullins Beach Area