Barbados

Bridgetown—The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) recently hosted a strategic donor meeting at the offices of the CDB in Barbados to discuss ways to support CCRIF’s new excess rainfall product and to coordinate with donors’ disaster risk management initiatives in the region.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC - All is in place for Monday’s sitting of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in Barbados to hear evidence in the case of Shanique Myrie, the Jamaican woman who took the Government of Barbados to court on allegations that she was assaulted by an immigration officer in 2011.
The CCJ will hear from Immigration department officials who came into contact with  Myrie when she landed at the Grantley Adams International Airport in March 2011.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Incumbent West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) president Dr Julian Hunte is dismissing claims that he informed fellow directors that he would not be seeking re-election. In an interview ahead of the WICB’s annual general meeting in Barbados on March 27, Hunte sought to set the record straight against the background of earlier reports that suggested he would not be going after a fourth successive term.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Marijuana use has reached worrying proportions and is no longer confined to boys on the block and the unemployed. The National Council for the Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Dependency (NCPADD) and the National Council for Substance Abuse (NCSA), think the alarm bells are ringing in relation to marijuana use which according to them is now prevalent among children as young as nine.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Some Bds$100 million will soon be made available to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean through an investment project funded by the European Union, in co-operation with a number of development banks. The Caribbean Investment Facility (CIF), which is due to be launched next week, will provide seed money to the Caribbean region of the ACP (Africa-Caribbean-Pacific) countries.

BRIDGETOWQN, Barbados, CMC – The Barbados government says it plans to spend an estimated BDS$3.8 billion (One BDS dollar = US$0.50 cents) during the 2013-14 fiscal year, according to the estimates laid in Parliament. The Freundel Stuart government which was re-elected to office by a narrow 16-14 margin in the February 21 general election will spend BDS$227.5 million more than had been budgeted for the 2012-13 revised figure.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Sub-regional Office for Barbados and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT) will host the finals, expo and award ceremony of the Caribbean Innovation Challenge (CIC) on April 25-26, at the Hilton Hotel Resort in Barbados. The Caribbean Innovation Challenge (CIC) is an international entrepreneur competition and business start-up accelerator for young people in CARICOM member states.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s founding father, was named the winner of the country’s presidential election with 50.07 per cent of the vote last Saturday.
He has the name, the wealth – and the burden that comes with his heritage.
Unlike the late Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Uhuru faces indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity committed after the previous elections in 2007, which left more than 1 000 people dead.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbados will be establishing a drug treatment court this year as it seeks to deal with a high prison population and the recurring problem of recidivism. Home Affairs Minister, Adriel Brathwaite said the issue is providing a “major headache” for the authorities and that the government is continuing to explore all avenues to tackle the problem including the soon to be introduced Drug Treatment Court (DTC).

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - It is good to know that at this time when rising fuel prices continue to impact on the general cost of living, fresh thinking is being encouraged for Barbados to revisit its absence from among the countries of the Caribbean that have long been beneficiaries of Venezuela’s significantly subsidized Petrocaribe project.