The last few weeks have provided a cornucopia of news which would have warmed the cockles of the hearts of newshounds while being deeply disconcerting to the average citizen.
It was a pleasing national relief that the 30 Alexandra School teachers, whose union supported their withdrawal of labour in January and again at the beginning of the current critical school term, were persuaded to return to the classroom while a commission of inquiry investigates.
United public opinion was overwhelmingly against their actions. The education and overarching welfare of students must always be paramount. To hold them hostage in a dispute with the headmaster was seen as misguided and worse by parents and the wider public.
The solution proposed in January by the Prime Minister was said to be multiphased. We heard him say that he went past phase two a long, long time ago. Barbadians are at a loss about that phase’s nature and will remain so since, apparently, it is secret, high-level information not to be shared.
One hopes that the teachers have debunked the myth that they can successfully call for the “separation” of the headmaster. This country subscribes to established laws, rules and regulations. They are now calling for him to be sent on paid leave during the inquiry. We shall see what we shall see.
A major casualty of the “Alexandra affair” was Minister of Education Ronald Jones. Not only was he not, as line minister, part of any discussions between the Prime Minister and the teachers union, he has not acted as Prime Minister, like previously, on the last two occasions when Mr Stuart was out of the country. Interesting!
Of equal national concern was the revelation that the largest hotel, Almond Beach Village, will close this week putting 500 workers on the breadline. Two other hotels, Peach and Quiet and Edgewater will also close.
I am advised that this brings the number of hotels closed in the last 20 years to 35.
This must be most troubling for all Barbadians, especially when only one international brand, Marriott’s, has established here during that time.
With Four Seasons stuck in the mud and the much touted White Paper on Tourism and the Master Plan seemingly still-born, those with investments in the industry are like cats on a hot tin roof.
Directly related to this situation is the globally pressured airline industry. With REDjet grounded and major investor Bizzy Williams’ promise that it would bring a million passengers to Barbados this year now in the same league as pigs flying, the much heralded Dallas/Fort Worth three times a week flight with potential to open up the western United States has been reduced to one.
The British government’s stubborn refusal to revisit its punitive Airline Passenger Duty (APD) buttressed by Almonds closure are a double whammy for our major market which has seen British Airways cut its London schedule from 11 to seven flights a week during the summer season.
Another hot topic was former Barbados Labour Party minister Gline Clarke’s charge last Sunday that major building contracts were going to “a certain class of people” to the exclusion of black contractors.
Race and racism, real or perceived, are issues which Barbadians prefer to sweep under the carpet rather than acknowledge or discuss. Without examining whether it was true or not, blistering personal attacks were launched against him on the blogs.
I am sure he would not have ventured into this highly contentious issue without gathering the necessary factual information on which to build his case. Barbados is today at the high water mark of crypto-racism and whether out of shame or cowardice prefers to let sleeping dogs lie. The society will be all the better for full, frank discussion.
After the landmark Shanique Myrie hearing before the Caribbean Court of Justice meeting here, it was music to the ears of right-thinking West Indians to hear that Trinidad and Tobago will replace the London-based Privy Council with our own final court for criminal appeals. Why not also the civil jurisdiction?
With Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, publicly committing to that country joining sooner rather than later and promising noises coming out of the Eastern Caribbean, the road ahead looks cleared for a full complement of states supporting our indigenous final court staffed by our own brothers and sisters.
I have always found it difficult to rationalize how some Caribbean states, having cut the umbilical political connection with Britain, did not understand the severe contradiction of having the Privy Council, culturally and ethnically at odds with the majority of our population, remain as our final court.
Last year’s message from London that it was time for the Caribbean to dispense its own justice seems to have brought two major dithering states to Christian understanding. Let’s hope the others follow soon.
