The office of the Chief Pharmacist and Pharmacy Inspector has been temporarily relocated to the ground floor of the new wing (phase 2) of the General Hospital, St George’s

View the full post Temporary Relocation of Chief Pharmacist and Pharmacy Inspector’s Office on NOW Grenada.

“All the experts are singing from the same playbook, thus as individuals we need to act to protect the natural environment and our human health”

View the full post Garbage in, Garbage out on NOW Grenada.

Range Developments collaborated with the office of St David’s Constituency to make the lives of our elderly and physically challenged in Grenada a little easier

View the full post Range Developments donates wheelchairs and canes on NOW Grenada.

View the full post Raising minimum wage to alleviate food insecurity on NOW Grenada.

View the full post Ministry of Health partners with Grenlec at Mt Gay Psychiatric Hospital on NOW Grenada.

The University of Guyana (UG), now in its 60th year, is set to host its 2nd Diaspora  Conference at the Turkeyen Campus, Greater Georgetown, Guyana, during the period  May 8-10, 2023 under the theme “Calling 592: Honouring, Researching, Reigniting  Diaspora.” The Diaspora Conference is one of several signature events being hosted by the  University this ...

The GCPI is funded through 5% of Grenlec’s pretax profits to improve the quality of life of communities in which the Company operates

View the full post Care institutions thankful for annual Grenlec grants on NOW Grenada.

By Jenique Belgrave

Former Prime Minister Freundel Stuart is not in favor of any plan to relocate Government Headquarters from Bay Street to make room for any future tourism development.

He made this clear while speaking on the current administration’s decision to move the Geriatric Hospital on Beckles Road to the Botanical Gardens in Waterford, St Michael.

“I passed where we are going to have the new Geriatric Hospital so that we can release the land in Beckles Road to private investment. When I was Prime Minister, some people came to Barbados telling me that where Government Headquarters is would be good for tourism development and that the Prime Minister’s office should be moved up to Ilaro Court.

“I said ‘I don’t have any problem with that suggestion, just come back and tell me when the White House is going to be moved in the United States; come back and tell me when Number 10 Downing Street is going to be moved and when 28 Sussex Drive In Canada will be moved and where’. I haven’t heard from any of them since,” he stated.

Saying the island once had the belief that the achievements of its people are important and in need of protection, the former leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) lamented that now “all life in Barbados today is about transactions” with no concern being given to the societal impact. 

“They do not discuss the social implications of anything going on in Barbados. It is just the bottomline, what the transaction will yield and what it will yield for certain people’s pockets,” he charged.

Speaking at the DLP’s City branch meeting at Baxter’s Road over the weekend, Stuart said the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) is failing both residential and commercial Bridgetown. He said that since the current administration came into power there has been no transformation of The City either for those who live there or who work there.

The former prime minister pointed out that while Bridgetown was a bustling hub of commercial activity for 69 years, this has declined significantly over the past decade and that the current government has done little to address it.

Commenting on the residential areas in the capital however, he acknowledged that these have not been given any attention for decades.

“Whenever there is upheaval, residential Bridgetown is not regarded as being deserving of economic attention,” he said, while pointing out that several of its communities including Greenfield, New Orleans, Nelson Street and Chapman Lane are in serious need of development.

“The people in Nelson Street do not want any open space. They want proper housing, proper roads, access to the services and the amenities that people in other areas in Barbados have. People in Greenfield want that, in Chapman Lane and the Orleans want that. Residential Bridgetown has been ignored for the last 77 years,” he said, while pointing out that Barbados could not be developed without its main town.

Stuart told the meeting that now is the time to develop forward-thinking policies to take the nation further.

“We also have to formulate policies to carry Barbados into the future. I do not think that we can credibly formulate any policy to carry Barbados into the future, unless we have policies for residential Bridgetown because for too many years they have been the Cinderellas in City politics, stereotyped as the criminal element…and we cannot credibly come back to the people of Barbados unless we have a policy to rehabilitate residential Bridgetown.”  

jeniquebelgrave@barbadostoday.bb

The post Former PM not supporting shifting Bay Street offices; bemoans lack of concern for societal impact appeared first on Barbados Today.

By Sheria Brathwaite

The Black Rock, St Michael resident at the centre of the environmental issue affecting St Stephen’s Nursery School says she was shocked that a problem with odour from her chicken pens was not brought to her attention by the school’s administration before it became a national issue.

On Monday, the 60-year-old woman who did not want to be identified, told Barbados TODAY that she had no idea her chicken coop was affecting the school, which is an arm’s length away from her family home. She said she is somewhat puzzled about the turn of events that threw the matter onto the national stage.

Particularly troubling for her, was that her family has had a long-standing relationship with the school and they always did anything they could for the wellbeing of the students and staff.

She questioned why school officials did not contact her about the problem first before it was escalated.

“The scent was unknown to us and nobody ever came to me and tell me about the chicken pens. Nobody came here and had a talk with me. I didn’t even know it was in the paper till somebody phone and tell me,” she said. “It made me feel very bad and shocked. I have a lot going on right now. I have to bury my aunt Wednesday and my uncle died four months ago and now this here. It is torture, it is hell, but my God, My Redeemer lives.”

The woman said that management at the school had contacted her prior about an overhanging mango tree that was causing a mess on the school’s compound and she believes that the same way she was contacted about the fruit free, the odour from her pens could have been brought to her attention.

“In January when the headmistress wanted the mango tree cut down she came and holler for my name. So if she knew she could smell chickens, before it blew up like this, she could have come here the same way she came here before and call me, but she said nothing. She had a right to come to me and tell me instead of making it a whole issue.

“If she could come to me in January that means we were corresponding. She has called me on my phone too, on my landline, so she has my number. So why now, she couldn’t contact me? 

“It didn’t have to escalate to this. They treated me like I am a damn criminal. If she had tell me she was smelling something I would come and rectify the odour.

“. . .Then when I heard they had the children at the church, that they had their lunch in the yard and had to walk through the graveyard to get to the washroom, I thought that was more unsanitary than what they say I was doing to them.”

The environmental problem affecting the school was first raised on Monday March 13 when the school closed early and two days later, parents were given the option to collect their children from the facility though it remained open. The school was closed again on Friday March 17 and the Ministry of Education gave the assurance that the issue would have been rectified but the following Monday the school was closed again.

The next day students were relocated at the neighbouring St Stephen’s Anglican Church but that was later removed as an option after teachers and parents complained that the environment was not conducive to learning.

The ministry then closed the school for the remaining week and made provisions for online classes on Wednesday and Thursday.

Meanwhile, President of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) Rudy Lovell said that things went relatively smoothly as the students returned to the classroom on Monday.

“From all accounts things went well today. The staff is comfortable and the students are comfortable and we are thankful that it appears as if the issue has been resolved at least for the time being,” he said.

Meanwhile, the neighbour said that a health inspector told her she had to get rid of the birds and she did so at a loss to her.

Though she preferred not to go into detail about the situation she said she had been rearing broilers and layers for about a year. 

“I had to get rid of them before their time so I incurred losses,” she said about the last set of birds.

The woman’s 79-year-old mother, who also did not want to be identified, said that she was responsible for erecting the gate at the back entrance of the school as the school abuts and abounds her property. She added that when staff at the school needed supplies they would shout for her.

“When the water was off and they didn’t have water to wash up the wares I put my hose through the fence so the school meals workers could wash up. If they want anything they come here. If they want a shovel, they come here, if they want a broom they come here. 

This was going on for years,” she said.

Asked if any contact was made to the neighbour before the situation escalated, Lovell said: “That is not an issue that the union can speak on. All we can say is that concerns were brought to our attention by our members who teach at the school and we then brought those concerns to the Ministry of Education who then contacted the Ministry of Health.” 

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb

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