Barbados’ reputation as the amputation capital of the world has been directly linked to slavery, and has been put forward as a focus point for reparation by Britain.
In a speech delivered by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles to the House of Commons in Britain recently, the island was described as being host to a diabetes and hypertension epidemic, mainly because of two centuries of slavery and genocide.
Sir Hilary, who is chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, said Barbados, Britain’s first slave society, had been the place where the stress profile of slavery and racial apartheid, dietary disaster, psychological trauma and the addiction to the consumption of sugar and salt had reached the highest peak.
“The country is now host to the world’s most virulent diabetes and hypertension epidemic. This Parliament owes the people of Barbados an education and health initiative,” he said, noting similar cases throughout the region.
The University of the West Indies Cave Hill principal said the CARICOM ten-point reparatory justice programme addressed such development issues which were central to the case that Great Britain had to answer. (RJ)
