The developer of the Caribbean Splash Waterpark in Barbados, Matthew Kerins, placed the following newspaper advertisement on September 13, 2006. BFP has transcribed the advertisement and posted both the transcript and scans of the advert here for all to see.
For background, see BFP’s article Carubbean Splash Waterpark Developer Kerins’ Insulting Advert. For a list of all BFP waterpark articles, link here.
Friday October 13, 2006
LET THE TRUTH BE TOLD
Matthew Kerins,
Caribbean Splash Water ParkAs my grandmother Sissy once said, “If you want to catch snakes in a cane field, then light a fire”
It amazes me that 99% of every article printed by the Nation Newspaper in the past concerning the proposed development of a water park at Graeme Hall in Barbados is decidedly negative. Their articles are based on innuendo, gross misrepresentations, scare tactics and giving a platform to various ill-informed individuals to write negative articles. This is called media manipulation!
In a Brass Tracks radio interview program titled “Not in my back yard” which pertained to my water park, Mr. Peter Simmons inappropriately reminded the Prime Minister of who lives on the Graeme Hall Ridge. Furthermore, in an article pertaining to a community meeting printed July 20th in the Nation Newspaper by Hartley Henry, he states, “In Barbados, you simply do not fight and expect to triumph over the kind of people I saw in that audience.” I would ask Mr. Hartley Henry and Mr. Peter Simmons to choose their words more carefully since it sends a message that Barbados is an elitist democracy which it is not. I would also like to assure Mr. Hartley that I did not come to Barbados to fight or be a punching bug. Only to bring Barbados with a tourism venue no other Caribbean island can boast of having. More importantly, it will bring a unique experience to Bajans and tourists alike to interact with their families in a wholesome manner.
An article printed in The Nation Newspaper on October 8th states, “A New National Park is being proposed which will be for the birds by the Friends of Graeme Hall.” Sweet sounding words cloaking a hidden agenda for the aspirations of a few, at the expense of many perhaps?
I shall address Mr. Allan Marshall since it is apparent that he is the front man along with being a newfound environmentalist who by happenstance also lives on Graeme Hall Ridge. First, my company has two areas of expertise, as a developer and also to prevent or solve environmental problems. My work in this specific area is for the preservation of the Fire Island National Seashore which is a Federal project and the protection and preservation of marshlands for New York State and many local communities. I welcome and encourage you and The Friends of Graeme Hall to read the letters I have from the United States Federal Government, State of New York and local community governing boards attesting to the fine work my company has Contributed in these areas. I also respect the Graeme Hall Bird Sanctuary in its present form and that is why my company is spending over a million dollars in extra incremental costs for its protection. (Two desalinization plants and a new technology to prevent the use of chemicals.)
I have read your statements about the extreme sensitivity of the bird park environment. I would like to ask you when the sewage treatment plant dumped 3-4 million gallons of raw sewage waste into the bird sanctuary recently, why was it not destroyed if it is so sensitive? Don’t forget when the sewage treatment plant was being built they had to pump out one million gallons of water per day from the underground fresh water springs in order to lay the foundation. The Ministry of Agriculture, which is next to the bird sanctuary, has been using pesticides and fertilizers for many years which filter into the bird sanctuary. The surrounding homes use suckwells which means the sewage goes into the ground with a portion going into the bird park. The bird park is still alive and kicking, Mr. Marshal, and for good reason. The environment has a propensity to cleanse itself. The Graeme Hall Bird Sanctuary is continuously being cleansed. Anybody that drives by the bird park can easily see the lock by the ocean that brings in fresh sea water which is also subsidized by underground fresh water springs.
May I ask if you are going to force homeowners to install costly septic tanks in the future, will you be petitioning the Government to force the Ministry of Agriculture to leave, will you be petitioning the Government to shut down the sewage treatment plant? I know that 20% of the homes at Graeme Hall are already zoned for commercial use. Is your friendly committee going to have their zoning status changed back to private use only? Are you going to change the tourist zone designation of Graeme Hall Bird Sanctuary? Let the facts be known!
You and the people you represent are using The National Park epiphany as a smokescreen . This is a blatant and brazen attempt at a large scale land grab that will be at the great expense to the pocketbooks of the general population and certainly to the detriment of your country. I doubt very much that you will fool many Bajans with this ploy. Heaven help us all if you and your cabal are forced to look down and watch Bajan families enjoying themselves at the Water Park or perhaps it would be the appropriate penance for this friendly Committee. But if the friendly committee planning to buy the 120 acres you desire at Graeme Hall for fair market value at $20.00 per square foot which would total $104,544,000.00 I wish you the best. Enjoy your view on the Ridge!
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
Here are the scans of the advert. We had to do it in two passes as the ad was too long for our standard scanner…
Barbados Free Press 
It sounds like Fat Matthew is saying goodbye? While it is glib for him to say “The environment has a propensity to cleanse itself” I for one will feel our environment will have cleansed itself when he leaves.
Amen sister!
Well, what d’you know- by the end of the year Morgan Island Water Park, the largest in the Caribbean (84,000 sq ft) will open in Aruba. This will supplement the ample selection of water parks throughout the Caribbean-
Montego Bay; Half Moon Cay, Bahamas; Cancun; Margarita, Venezuela; 3 in Puerto Rico; 2 in Venezuela; even a modest one in St Lucia.
World Waterparks Assoc. who gave M. Kerins the franchise for Bim is in the process of setting up a waterpark in Grand Cayman. Perhaps that’s where he is these days, charming the natives?
Well now, if this is not to be a waterpark, how on earth are certain people going to get this cheap land in their hands and transferred to condos without being open and brazen about it now?
Oh dear, now…lets see what they bring next…
Have faith, brother. It’s not over, they say, until the fat lady sings, and they don’t mean MM.
If Caribbean Splash is really dead we must concentrate on environmentally friendly development within the context of a Graeme Hall National Park.
Our PM is shrewd and may go along with this instead of commercial tourism-oriented projects once we can convince him that a national park will provide local employment, and stimulate foreign investment.
Blizzard- This is the first I am hearing of all these other waterparks around the Caribbean. Kerins told us in his crybaby ad he was bringing “a tourism venue no other Caribbean island can boast of having”. Now we find he lied. Let Aruba have their waterpark. We can do without, exspecially at Graeme Hall.
http://www.bajangirl.com
Looking for ideas for my new project. What would the people of Barbados like to see on this site?
Please share your input or ideas
thanks
Nsmith91@gmail.com
********************************
BFP message to bajangirl.com
YOU ARE SPAMMING US WITH YOUR COMMENTS… You have no manners. Stop it.
Is the idea of “green” just another set of empty words in Barbados?
Have you noticed how hot Barbados has become in the last decade? I made this statement based on my own observational analysis after being away for the last 11 years.
Barbados was always a warm climate, however, the influence of the Trade Winds made the heat index comfortable and you could look forward to measurable amounts of rainfall in due season. The wind-chill factor would usually offset the heat index factor which made even working in the sunshine tolerable. Today, by 10AM the sun is scorching hot and by 1PM it is unbearable.
Some would argue that global weather patterns have gone berserk. Our winters fluctuate between too mild or beastly cold with storms and unusual snowfall. At the same time, we are witnessing droughts in the Sub-Saharan regions of Africa where rainfall is virtually non-existent and crops are failing creating starvation and famine. Yet in other areas of the world, we are seeing too much rainfall which results in flooding, loss of property, environmental damage and death. The cycle of ecological inconsistency is far and widespread affecting every nook and cranny of planet earth.
Climate change is now part of modern day vernacular. But is this just another exercise in theoretical gymnastics? The reason why I am saying this is due in part to the lack of vision on the part of our governments and other secular and institutional leaders who are blinded by corporate greed, so-called economic development at the expense of our health and well-being and above all, a lack of accountability to the power of the people.
As I look back at the landscape of Barbados, a once lush and edenic paradise, a fusion of the quaint and traditional coupled with the developing, postmodern ethos, I shudder to think what another decade will bring forth. Will this country be inhabitable? The image of Barbados is now crowded by so-called progress, “urban sprawl”, SUV & trucks, mass urbanization and recreation of the traditional and a blatant attempt at destroying the landscape by either concreting it over or paving it over with tar and bitumen.
Developed countries like Britain (where I reside); the emphasis on “Green” is actually becoming a day-to-day reality. It can be seen in recycling programs, efforts towards re-education of the public, and legislation which will combat the destruction of “green-belt” lands…
Major British property developers who build thousands of houses in specifically designated locations “must” incorporate provisions for parks and the planting of trees. The government recognizes that the concept of “Green” must be part of the socialization and psychological development of communities. Research shows that kids who grow up in urban inner cities without the natural ambience of trees, parks and lakes are more susceptible to stress, lack of performance in school and more prone to crime and violence.
The government of Barbados must legislate and enforce environmental measures which will give our ecology greater sustainability. How can Town & Country planning allow the indiscriminate building of houses along the towns and districts of this country and not mandate the incorporation of foliage and trees as a form of environmental sustainability, not to mention, the aesthetic beauty which greenery provides.
Any 2nd Form student in High School knows that trees produces Oxygen and absorbs Carbon Dioxide. Common sense would then dictate that we cannot cut down the trees and plant houses in its place. As the cars continues to pile up on our nation’s roads, burning fossil fuels in astronomical measures, jet aircrafts taking off and landing evacuating unparallel levels of CO2 with almost every roof in Barbados being made of galvanize sheeting which reflects back heat into the atmosphere and all the while the Ozone layer depletes causing the sun’s rays to become more and more intolerable.
Surely, politicians and the others (you know who you are) must be feeling the heat as well. But then, most of you stay in your plush air-con offices and step into temperature controlled vehicles totally unmindful of what is happening to our climate and our ecology.
This is a clarion call to those in leadership who for whatever reasons has not been awakening to the plight of climatology. Equally, for those with no vision and clearly lack any aforethought about what has already transpired in ages pass and what is just up ahead, be warned, that the damage and destruction which we will see happen to our beloved country if we refuse to act swiftly.
It is time to turn our country around in every sense of the word: – spiritually, morally, environmentally, socially, politically, economically and directionally… May God help us all in this quest!!!
I WANT TO BUILD A FYN WATERPARJ INSIDE OF MY RESORT PROJECT ,,,ANY GREAT IDEA?
I don’t think the idea of a water park is that bad if it creates employment and provides a service to both locals and tourists. Personally I would not travel to Barbados to go to a water park.
I agree with the notion that we should protect the environment and perhaps Graham Hall is not the best place to build such a park. The idea though, that this government pays anything other than lip service to the environment is a joke. The reefs have been destroyed, fisheries mismanaged, garbage dumps mismanaged, beaches eroded, watersheds paved over, and the the list goes on. It is all about $$ and it is a shame because Barbados continues to be turned into an ugly remnant of its former self. Progress I guess.