Barbados

Fellow Barbadians
One week has passed since the General Election in Barbados on February 21. I should like to express my heartfelt thanks to all citizens and residents for taking Barbados peacefully through one of the most exciting and exacting election campaigns in our post-independence history.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – One after his ruling Democratic Labour Party (DLP) scored a narrow two seat majority in the general election, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has announced the composition of his Cabinet dropping former Commerce and Trade minister Haynesley Benn. In a television broadcast on Thursday night, Prime Minister Stuart said the new members of his Cabinet had been chosen in pursuit of his commitment to maintaining the highest standards of leadership.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - “IF you are importing $800 million in food, there must be opportunities to produce food; but if you want to eat New Zealand lamb, Idaho potatoes and Texas beef, then we have a problem. We will not survive if we continue importing, we have to produce more of what we consume in this country for the good of the economy, to save foreign exchange. Our estimate is, we can cut that food import bill by half in five years if we do what has to be done. But you can’t do it by believing agriculture is backwards,” charged Agriculturalist, Chelston Brathwaite.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - There needs to be a diversification of the tourism industry, greater job opportunities in the food and beverage sector, a development of our natural resources and wider education of farmers to help them be more marketable and earn more. This challenge was voiced by Agriculturalist, Chelston Brathwaite, who says that there needs to be more job creation.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbados health authorities Wednesday said that no meat product containing horsemeat had been imported into the country in light of the controversy currently sweeping Europe. Senior Veterinary Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Mark Trotman, said “extensive trace back investigations” had been conducted and to date, none of the identified products had been imported into the island.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - THE Principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies is asking government to sit down with them and develop a strategy for its growing debt problem. Professor Sir Hilary Beckles maintained that the debt problem began to increase significantly with the death of former Prime Minister and Minister of Finance David Thompson, who had a firm grasp on the University’s finances.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - Americans are travelling once again to the Caribbean and visitor spending is beginning to rise. This was part of Chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation, Beverly Nicholson-Doty’s, State of the Industry Report presented recently. “All indications are that Americans are coming back to the Caribbean in their customary numbers. US arrivals went up 4.1 per cent in 2012 when compared to 2011, holding steady with the pre-recession levels of five years earlier. US numbers increased in all of the reporting countries,” she stated.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - Other countries within the region would do well to learn from Barbados in terms of this country’s care for its elderly population. That is according to Caribbean Programme Co-ordinator and acting PAHO/WHO Represen-tative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Dr. Ernest Pate. He was speaking at the Multi Stakeholders Consultation on Healthy Ageing at the Savannah Beach Hotel yesterday. Pate pointed to Barbados’ record number of centenarians, maintaining that Barbados is ahead of other Caribbean countries in terms of elderly care.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Less than a week after he led the Barbados labour Party (BLP) into its second consecutive defeat, Owen Arthur, has been replaced as leader of the party. Mia Mottley, a former attorney general, who in 2010 lost the leadership of the BLP, was named as the new leader, by BLP executive member Gline Clarke flanked by 13 parliamentary members. The BLP lost the 2013 general election by a 16-14 margin.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - Are we ready and open for business? Recently, Dr. Patrick Antoine, chief economic advisor to the new Grenada Government declared this was now so in his country. You would be aware that Grenadians also had the opportunity last week to speak with the vote. A mere two days before Barbadians headed to the polls, their regional neighbours elected Keith Mitchell to the helm of government. Against the backdrop of acute unemployment, low investment and a reported debt of EC$2.01 billion, Dr.