One man was stabbed in an altercation in Baxter’s Road, St Michael, this afternoon.
Witnesses say the two men were involved in a dispute during which one man was injured.
He collapsed at the side of the road and a public service vehicle transported him to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he is receiving treatment.
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Police are investigating a stabbing incident in Baxter’s Road, St Michael.
More details as they come to hand
Head of the Science Department at Frederick Smith Secondary School, Elroy Payne, is elated following the success of the school’s first major Science Fair, held in the auditorium yesterday at Trent’s, St James.
Payne explained the initiative was designed to involve as many students as possible by encouraging collaboration across departments and subject areas.
The Science Fair featured a wide range of exhibits from clubs, subject areas, and extracurricular groups.
The milestone event which attracted other schools including Coleridge and Parry, Grantley Adams Memorial and Alleyne School, is now being considered as a possible annual tradition at the Frederick Smith Secondary School.
With immense support from management including Acting Principal Shanelle Waithe, and Deputy Principal Shawn Forde, Payne said that the Science Department hoped to expand the event going forward to include members of the general public, further showcasing the school’s scientific innovation and creativity. (ML)
The Southern Division of The Barbados Police Service (TBPS) has implemented an enhanced series of nightly Anti-Praedial Larceny Patrols to combat crop theft – a pilot project that may be rolled out in the other divisions across the island.
The initiative, as outlined by Superintendent Anthony Warner, Deputy Commander of the Southern Division, includes the Oistins Station in Christ Church, District B in St George and District C that covers St John and St Philip.
Warner was speaking following a meeting with farmers from across the island last Tuesday, at King George V Memorial Park in St Philip, in collaboration with the state-owned Barbados Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (BADMC).
The farmers, who shared concerns about crop theft, were addressed by Superintendent Warner as well as Southern Division Community Policing Officer, Constable Geba Bowen, Constable Kirk Straker of the Praedial Larceny Patrol Team and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the BADMC, Dr Claire Durant.
The farmers were urged to assist in the anti-crop theft effort by implementing recommended measures such as surveillance cameras and motion detectors and to use the “Certificate of Purchase for Agricultural Produce” receipt books issued to them by the BADMC to help identify legitimately obtained produce.
Superintendent Warner noted that during the meeting the police were able to outline to the farmers the pilot programme, which includes having the entire Southern Division, and particularly the agricultural belt, mapped out in zones where officers will be patrolling.
He stated: “We have a crop patrol team, and they will be patrolling in those zones to address the challenges that some of the farmers are having. What we are seeking to achieve out of that is to strengthen our surveillance of the farm coverage area, to introduce a structured harvest notification procedure and establish standardized produce identification systems”.
The Southern Division Deputy Divisional Commander added: “…most importantly, coming out of this pilot project we are also seeking to improve the relationship, communication and collaboration with (stakeholders) to see how much information we can get and how best we can police and service this section of our community – the farmers that we rely on so much for our food security. We are also looking to disrupt the illegal re-sale market for agricultural produce with zero tolerance….”. (PR)
by Donna Sealy
The Soca Monarch competition is returning to Crop Over.
The announcement was made earlier today by Senator Shane Archer, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Youth and Culture, while he was speaking on the Appropriation Bill, 2026 in the Senate.
The competition, last held in 2019, was won by Mikey. There have been repeated calls from soca artistes and others for the competition to be staged.
Archer did not go into specifics except to say that Soca Monarch was “coming back with force” and “excitement” and that the “top prize” would be similar to that of the Pic O’ De Crop competition where the winner chooses between $100 000 cash or a vehicle, among other things. (GBM)
Government should be testing its proposed projects; if not it runs the risk of wasting morning, Opposition Senator Karina Goodridge told the Senate yesterday.
As the Chamber debated the Appropriation Bill, 2026, Goodridge touched on a number of “ambitious” initiatives of the Government in relation to transforming education, reverse tax credit and flyovers to ease traffic congestion. She said that many of the proposals were temporary measures rather than long term.
For the reverse tax credit that has been presented as a key tool for providing relief to households to work, there must be a time limit in order for it to be effective.
She said she paid attention to the Minister of Finance in the Budget, stating that the Government was not obligated to pay the credit if it did not have the financial capacity to do so.
“This introduces a level of uncertainty that significantly weakens the policy. A benefit that is promised but not guaranteed cannot serve as a reliable basis for a household financial planning. Citizens must be able to depend on the measures announced,” the attorney said.
She said even where payments were eventually made, the delays could significantly reduce their effectiveness as households experienced financial pressure in real time when it came to their routine groceries purchases and other commitments.
“It must be paid consistently. No ifs or no buts about it. It must be paid on time. Without this, it risks becoming a policy that exists in theory, but fails in practice,” she said, adding that while intent behind the measures was commendable, their scale and duration raised some concerns.
A grant of $100 was unlikely to significantly offset the rising cost of living as it could be quickly absorbed by expenses and the grant for mothers with multiple births only benefited a relatively small segment of the population, Goodridge said.
“Whatever policy that the Government brings, it will be questioned, and people want it to make sense. People want it to be one that can benefit a larger majority instead of a very small group,” she stated.
She praised the Barbados Republic Child Wealth initiative as a bold and forward-looking one with potential to address long-term issues of wealth inequality, but warned the ambition must be matched by careful planning.
The Senator questioned how it would be funded and what structures would be in place for its governance and the safeguards to prevent misuse or political interference, adding that such a programme must be supported by strong institutional frameworks.
On the issue of transportation which is linked to economic productivity, Goodridge said that with the proposed infrastructure solutions such as flyovers and road expansions, the public had a right to understand the implications of any proposed changes.
“People have a right to know, and they have a right to know. It’s not that they’re malicious. They have a right to know what is going on when it comes to the transport section and the Government must supply them with the answers.”
She said that the budget presented was a mixture of “commendable intentions and significant concerns” and reflected “a Government that is responsive at a short term, but uncertain in its long-term strategy”.
Senior Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Chris Sinckler is defending Government’s financial management practices while emphasising the need for flexibility.
Speaking in the Senate yesterday as debate on the Appropriation Bill, 2026 continued, he said he heard the “discourse about supplementaries that the Government brings every year” and that “transparency and accountability demand that the public financial managers say up front by presenting estimates or budgets for projects and programmes, what these will cost.”
The former Minister of Finance in a Democratic Labour Party administration after explaining the process of preparing the Estimates, told the Upper Chamber that memoranda contained at the front of the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure showed “quite clearly … the Government has met its fiscal targets, and that fiscal discipline is still very much the watchword”.
“The Government is no longer in IMF [International Monetary Fund] programme . . . . Those memoranda also tell you what is happening,” Sinckler said.
“The Government also has a committee in place with the private sector, with the unions – the Monitoring Committee – which has written on these things to say that the Government has met its fiscal targets. In fact, the Government has so met its fiscal targets that it has been able to have the fiscal room to do some other things, like bring the supplementaries, which came.
“And even in factoring those supplementaries in, the Government is still going to run a primary surplus of over three per cent. … I’m not going to be very difficult or hard, because I know public finance is sometimes boring, it is not sexy, it is not the fancy thing that you want, but in order to really engage, you have to read these things, because it is going to be important down the road to your understanding of how Government functions,” he said.
The Government Senator also spoke about the economic benefits of cultural investments arguing that “investment goes beyond money”.
“Be very careful to understand that there’s not only cost in terms of counting numbers, you also have to speak about the value of the input. I’m not getting into the CARIFESTA thing. If CARIFESTA in 1981 cost $23 million, I don’t know how anybody can expect in 2026 it’s going to cost $4 million.
“But the fact of the matter is, that yes, it costs, and that is a choice, because Government makes choices about what it’s going to invest in. But I’m telling you that when you think not just of the costs, and we have to give account, yes, we have to be transparent, yes, all of those good things. We also have to take into account the value of the investment in the young, in the cultural artists, in the not-so-young, the artists and the artistes. And when you look at the multiplier effect, and there will be a report on this to show the impact of it,” said the minister. (GBM)
Barbados says it is monitoring Chikungunya (ChikV) cases in the Caribbean after the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reported an outbreak in Suriname, with more than 1 100 cases and one death, up to the end of February 2026.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness said while there have been no confirmed cases of ChikV in Barbados, as of March 17, the island had recorded 12 confirmed cases last year.
Chikungunya, like Dengue Fever and Zika, is transmitted through the bite of an infected Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which remains a persistent endemic threat in Barbados.
The infection may be asymptomatic or symptoms may appear three to seven days after a mosquito bite. Common symptoms, similar to dengue, include fever with headache, muscle and joint pains or swelling, fatigue and rash. Joint pain with ChikV infection is often more prominent and may be prolonged for weeks, months, or in some cases, years.
The ministry said treatment is usually supportive with rest and adequate fluids, and directed at the alleviation of symptoms. There are no specific antiviral therapies available for Chikungunya.
“As with dengue, it is suspected of the occurrence of the non-specific symptoms of fever with joint and or muscle pains, which may also occur with influenza. A venous blood sample for serum is taken for analysis at a lab for detection of the virus or antibodies to the virus.”
The ministry is urging Barbadians to continue to search out and destroy mosquitoes on their properties to prevent the spread of vector borne diseases.
It said physicians are reminded that the addresses of suspected cases must be recorded and submitted with samples to allow investigation of their environment. (CMC)
Barbados’ visual arts sector has seen significant growth over the past decade with more galleries, exhibition spaces and artist led initiatives emerging throughout the island.
However, artists and curators say limited infrastructure and a small local market continue to make it difficult to sustain long-term careers in art.
During last weekend’s Caribbean Fine Art Fair, founder of San Antonio’s first black art gallery Eye Of The Beholder Art Gallery And Studio in Texas, United States, Maria Williams, said there was growth in the marketplace and the gallery system with opportunities for artists of colour, stating that it had exploded.
She warned black artists to avoid becoming a trend, something she had seen far too often.
“They’re becoming a trend when we’ve always been here. We just have not had the representation. Now you have more black art galleries, more black curators, an explosion of black artists who are now wanting their work shown, not only in their homes or given to their friends and family, but it actually makes them serious about being artists. We need to go beyond that and we need to build our own industry for black artists,” she said.
Barbadian visual artist and art curator Oneka Small, who was in attendance at the Old Spirit Bond in The City, where the event was held, also noted the development in the visual arts scenes in Barbados over the last ten years.
She said that younger artists were becoming more independent, creating their own spaces, organising their own exhibitions and developing new ways to present and promote their work.
Small also shared that groups like Artists Alliance and the Queen’s Park Gallery helped artist by curating shows, providing exhibition opportunities and encouraging artists to develop their practice but a lack of funding often hindered their ability to support artists.
The challenge, she said, was limited infrastructure to sustain local artists.
“I’m just always happy when artists have opportunities to expand, to develop, and I just see it as being a stage on their path, because we don’t necessarily have the space to keep them within a gallery space or even within Queen’s Park because of the [number] of shows that we do,” she explained.
Small pointed out that the island’s small market made it difficult for artists to consistently sell their work, noting that only a small group of collectors regularly purchased art.
Another challenge facing the sector was the perception of art as a career, according to Williams, who also emphasised the importance of outreach and encouraging young people to appreciate and pursue the arts.
She also stressed that galleries must actively engage the public, rather than wait for audiences to seek them.
“We can’t sit behind a desk. We can’t sit in the gallery. We have to get out and we have to do that work to bring them in,” she said.
Director of the Caribbean Fine Art Fair, Anderson Pilgrim, said forums such as these were important because it was about educating more people about the professional side of the business of art as it was a multimillion-dollar business.
He also spoke of the secondary market where collectors resell art work at auctions and said it was important to understand that process.
“Sometimes you will see in the paper that a piece was auctioned for $2 million. The person that purchased that may have paid $10 000 ten years ago and the artist doesn’t get any of that value.
“What happens is that artist’s value for everything that comes after that has gone up immediately. He will not benefit from the sale of that piece but everything else coming down the pipe will because his prices now are way up and that has set a value. So understanding the business side of it is important too,” he explained.
A pedestrian succumbed to injuries at the scene after being involved in a collision with a vehicle around 7:25 p.m. Tuesday along Alleynedale Road, St Lucy.
According to police, initial investigations reveal that the vehicle was travelling towards Mile and a Quarter, St Peter, when the collision occurred.
A medical doctor visited the scene, examined the body and pronounced death. Investigations are continuing into this matter and anyone who may have witnessed this collision is asked to contact the District E Police Station at 419-1730. (PR/SAT)
Local Ice Cream Manufacturer BICO Limited is reporting a financial loss despite growing its revenue over the past year.
This is due to persistently high energy costs and the escalating cost of imported inputs.
The company’s executive chairman Edwin Thirlwell, who at 90 years old is proposed to be re-elected for a one-year term, said that BICO’s operations were also being impacted by an accounting standard revision implemented in 2024.
This information is detailed in BICO’s annual report for the financial year ending September 30, 2025.
In a report on behalf of the board of directors, Thirlwell said the last financial year “was marked by volatility, as anticipated, with heightened competition across our core ice-cream market segments”.
He shared that “despite this increasingly competitive environment, the company recorded sales revenue growth of seven per cent, demonstrating the continued strength and resilience of the BICO brand”.
The executive chairman added, however, that “notwithstanding the growth in revenue during the year,
the company recorded a modest net loss of $317 188”.
“This outcome was largely driven by persistently high energy costs, which are projected to increase further, and the escalating cost of imported inputs,” he explained.
“These factors remain outside of the company’s direct control and continue to constrain our ability to preserve margins, while maintaining competitive pricing within the local market.”
Thirlwell also noted that “the effect of the revision to International Accounting Standard 19, which was implemented in 2024, and reported on in the 2024 report, continued to negatively impact the performance of the company in 2025”.
“The net assets of the pension plan of $579 229 (2024 – $583 089) are again not recognised in the company’s statement of comprehensive income or the statement of financial position,” he said.
“Recognition of the net assets in the company’s statement of comprehensive income would have resulted in net income of $262 041 for 2025 ($423 440 for 2024). Changes in certain demographic assumptions have also resulted in a higher value of funded obligations in 2025.”
Despite these challenges, Thirlwell said that “encouragingly, the company has delivered a strong start to the first quarter of the 2026 financial year”.
“Early indicators suggest that the measures being implemented are beginning to yield positive results and we remain cautiously optimistic that this momentum will continue into the coming quarters,” he said.
“The board remains committed to prudent financial management, operational efficiency and strategic investment to ensure that BICO continues to deliver long-term value for its shareholders, while maintaining the quality and reliability our customers have come to expect.
“We extend sincere thanks to our shareholders, employees, customers, and business partners for their continued support and confidence in BICO Limited.”
The report also announced that “after careful consideration, the board of directors has recommended that no dividend will be paid for the year ending September 30, 2025”.
BICO is scheduled to hold its annual general meeting on April 21 where, in addition to Thirlwell’s proposed re-election to his current post, director Robert Foster is proposed to return as director for a three-year term.
The other board members are Gregory Hinkson, Peter Downes and Kathyann Ollivierre.
