Barbados

HAMILTON, Barbados, Nation News – There is “an urgent need” for Caribbean Heads of Government to come together and meet on tourism. The Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association (CHTA) board of directors said a tourism summit needs to take place within the next six months to meet on issues “adversely impacting” the region. The last Heads Of Government Summit On Tourism was in July 2001.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Nation News – THE FOCUS ACROSS BARBADOS at this time is on the pending February 21 general election. But it is also the high point of our 2012-2013 winter tourism season, which – no matter which party is victorious in the poll – will have to pay detailed attention to visitor arrivals and spend, an area that is critical to our economic prosperity. Hopefully, we will hear from the platforms and also read in the manifestos of the plans to further develop and diversify the tourism product for the benefit of all Barbadians.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - LATER this week the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will be having its say on the way regional economies performed in 2012. It is an occasion which many in the region looks forward to since the reports on regional economies allow analysts and other stakeholders to see just how good/bad these islands have been doing in what remains a brutal global crisis. One important consideration expected from the review later this week is what the Bank has been doing to improve its position following the downgrade by one of the international rating agencies.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate - Prime Minister Freundel Stuart is giving the private sector the assurance that Government has listened to their concerns about the impact that some new pieces of legislation could have on their businesses. His comments came last week while addressing a wide cross section of the business community at a luncheon hosted by the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Stuart told the packed room at the Hilton Barbados Hotel that their concerns have not fallen on deaf ears and that his Government will continue to show sensitivity to their needs.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The main opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) has launched its campaign for the February 21 general elections promising voters strong leadership to deal with the island’s socio-economic problems over the next five years. BLP leader and former prime minister Owen Arthur Saturday night told party faithful that he was offering “a leadership that has been tried, leadership that has been tested and leadership that has been proven”.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - SO PRIME Minister Freundel Stuart has finally announced the date for next month’s general election. And he did so with a ‘scoop’ (as we say in the media) by upstaging all and sundry, including real and pretentious political gurus, in naming February 21 as the day when Barbadians will trek to polling booths to elect a new government for the next five years.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Caribbean countries will be automatically alerted in the event of any major differences in sea level rise or major displacements due to earthquakes.
Acting Director of the Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU), Dr. Lorna Inniss, speaking at the launch of Caribe Wave 2013, said the system was important given the fact that tsunamis were waves that travelled between and among countries.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Late Chairman Mao Tse-Tung of China reportedly once said that without the loneliness and desolation of winter one would not appreciate the warmth and splendour of spring. This seems not to be the case with Egyptians and North Koreans.
After initial flashes of goodwill from the new leadership in North Korea and Egypt, the situation appears to be going from bad to worse. In the case of the former, the march of folly and intransigence in the pursuit of nuclear weapons continues. 

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Prime Minister Freundel Stuart and leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), says that the best is yet to come from that political party.
His comments came as he spoke yesterday at the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s luncheon at the Hilton Hotel, the first for 2013 and ahead of the mass rally that DLP had planned for last night.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - POLITICAL SCIENTISTS Dr George Belle and Peter Wickham yesterday weighed in on the announcement by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart that the general election will be on February 21. Dr Belle maintained that the election was “unnecessarily delayed”. “We knew that the Constitution and the law allowed him to call it after the five years had passed since the last election but it was the practice in Barbados and most of the Commonwealth that you would call the elections before the anniversary of the last election date.