Category: Editorial

As a student of Hegelian philosophy, Karl Marx, the German political theorist and revolutionary socialist once said of compatriot and philosopher Georg Hegel:  “Hegel remarked somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce!” Many will suggest that […]

In the past week, much of the focus has been on domestic violence  – and rightly so – in light of the gruesome murder of 36-year-old Onica King, which occurred in Swan Street, The City, of all places, in the presence of her two small children and allegedly at the hands of her own husband. […]

Barbados desperately needs change. This change has nothing to do with upcoming general elections but everything to do with the vexing problem of illegal dumping, a nasty practice some of us have refused to scrap. All the preaching, teaching, advertising and legislating has somehow managed to evade the indifferent among us that our beautiful island […]

With the fight against chronic non-communicable diseases seemingly a never-ending and unwinnable battle, it is apparent that one of the foundations on which Barbados was built, is at the core of most of our health issues. Before tourism became the prop on which Barbados’ economy was built, sugar cane was king and the industry was […]

“It is regrettable to find people who came in that era facing a struggle to remain in this country, which should be their right. It’s an awful predicament. Seventy years after Windrush, we are again facing a new wave of hostility. This is about people saying, as they said 70 years ago, ‘Go back home.’ […]

During the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida on the afternoon of February 14 this year, students took to social media to share with their families, friends and the world the sheer terror that was being inflicted upon them by former student Nikolas Cruz. “Our school is having a shooting,” one […]

A landmark ruling handed down in the Trinidad and Tobago High Court on Thursday, which decriminalizes sex between two consenting people of the same sex, has been immediately welcomed by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LBGT) community region wide, including right here in Barbados. “This landmark case signifies a necessary step in the decolonization […]

There’s an increasing plethora of issues in Barbados screaming for the attention of those who will be elected to govern this island in the upcoming general election. Of course, foremost are the economic woes – spiralling debt, falling international reserves, a decline in foreign investment, onerous taxes, low productivity, the high cost of living and […]

If the events of October 2010 are to be used as a gauge, Opposition Leader Mia Mottley could possibly find herself in a win-lose situation after the next general election. It is public knowledge that not every member of her current political team has always lined up behind her. And in the weeks leading up […]

An interesting call was made yesterday by the president of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) for Government to ditch its current policy of allocating students to secondary schools. Pedro Shepherd’s call comes amid a worrying increase in violence in schools, with the majority of recent incidents occurring at what are considered “the newer” secondary […]

We are inclined to agree with defence attorneys Andrew Pilgrim, QC, and Arthur Holder that last week’s court ruling in the Lord Evil murder case amounts to nothing short of a national disgrace, if only on the grounds that it should not have taken four years for the prosecution – or more specifically the Office […]

The untimely death of 70-year-old Robert Quintyne that rocked the close-knit community of Passage Gardens, St Michael on Wednesday night was as tragic as it was vexing. Vexing because it was a grim reminder that too many of us are resorting to violence – guns, knives, rocks and fists to settle our differences, rather than […]

A general election in the life of a sovereign state is serious business. In fact, it is the cornerstone of democracy for citizens to freely choose without fear or favour the team who they trust and deem most capable of presiding over their affairs. An election is about serious options. Voters get the opportunity to […]

We have no doubt that regional leaders, like most West Indians, have the best interest of West Indies cricket at heart. We are also completely confident that president of Cricket West Indies Whycliffe ‘Dave’ Cameron has the success of West Indies cricket at the core of his every administrative strategy. Yet, CARICOM’s cricket subcommittee has […]

A few years ago then Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar raised regional eyebrows – and not for the first time  – when she cautioned reporters at a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) meeting in Jamaica that Trinidad and Tobago must not be regarded as the region’s automated teller machine (ATM). In fact, Mrs Persad-Bissessar had made it clear […]

At a time when Barbados has been grappling to stay above the doom and gloom of its economic woes, the vexing never-ending sewage woes on the south coast and the protracted wait for a general election, a dose of hope is badly needed. Thankfully, in this week of murder and other undesirable activities, there were […]

A great injustice was recently done to Barbados. And while the country has been defended in some quarters, the tone of responses from others has been most instructive. Barbadians who can put aside their political allegiances, ought to examine impartially what was written in a British newspaper earlier this month, connect the dots, and ask […]