Government

Prime Minister’s Statement To The Nation

Good evening, everyone. Yesterday morning I woke up and decided to do something that I don’t normally do. I wrote down my thoughts that I wanted to share with you today.

In this conversation, I do not want in any way for any word to be misplaced or indeed for anything to be omitted. I have already spoken to you about the role that law enforcement in this country must play in curbing the surge of violence, about the additional resources and approaches taken by the Police Service and about the legislative changes that we must bring to increase the efficiency of our court systems and indeed to modernise our criminal justice system which is caught in a 19th/20th century position.

We will continue to speak to you on these issues as we must.

But today my friends, this is a conversation with Bajans and all who live here and who love our country as if it were their own. This country of ours is great because when it has mattered most, we have always come together to confront and rise above challenges. We have done so throughout our history and certainly in my time as leader.

We’ve saved our way of life by saving our dollar and we’ve saved lives and livelihoods as we fought to overcome the personal and societal dread of COVID-19. We have grown stronger to fight this new reality of ours, this climate crisis, and we will continue to work together to become even more resilient because we’re not where we need to be to fight that battle.

But my friends, we must now come together again to confront the tendency towards violence in this country, a violence driven by anger very often and the inability or unwillingness to resolve conflicts peacefully.

We face the scourge of greed and gangs fighting for dominance and territory and we’re seeing a rising incidence equally of mental and physical abuse. The mental health challenges have been compounded especially since COVID brought the restrictions on movement and individual choices. You remember indeed from the same room I addressed you many times.

These matters are made worse by other issues that we must consciously control as leaders wherever we are; whether as parents or guardians and godparents or indeed extended family or neighbours, friends, employers, members of the community, sporting or cultural groups in which we interact. And we must do so whether in our homes, our place of work, our businesses, and indeed we must do so where we worship, in our churches, our mosques, our temples, wherever we go for religious or spiritual worship. We must immediately address the absence of religious and moral grounding of our children.

We have talked about it for too long without serious progress. We must teach them and they must learn the basic difference between right and wrong and the need to respect human life, their own lives, and indeed that of others. We need to control the inappropriate use of social media to circulate memes that hurl insults or share videos that denigrate groups like young women, young girls, or promote the attraction of guns or indeed the sending of direct messages to issue threats and to deliberately generate fake news, news that we know to be fake.

We must monitor and balance the excessive screen time and exposure to violent content. This nation’s children are being desensitised to violence through the non-stop playing of video games and the overuse and misuse of social media through the cartoons that they’re watching in some instances. It is interesting that it is called social media as it quite often leads to anti-social behaviour and this is now being recognised the world over.

This overexposure desensitises not only the children but indeed some of the parents to the presence of guns and killing. Our children, my friends, are spending hours on these devices, pausing only to eat and to drink and returning to the games where they have been killed multiple times for the day already.

And they’re still playing and after a while what happens? Killing means nothing to them. Everything on social media is a trend and unfortunately we have seen gun violence trend not only here but globally reminding us of the fragile nature of our peace.

Zero tolerance for guns and drug abuse must not only be engaged and articulated by law enforcement, but across our society; in our institutions, in our homes and indeed yes on our blocks. You know, Judge Judy has a saying that if a song’s too good to be true, it is normally not true.

If the bulging pocket in your son or your grandson’s or granddaughter’s or your best friend’s pocket looks like a gun, is shaped like a gun, it bulges like a gun, my friends it is most likely a gun.

By closing our eyes and remaining silent we are indirectly authorising its indiscriminate and unlawful use. This is a stage at which as parents, as guardians, as godparents, as teachers, as brethren and sistren on a block, we need to say to each other this is not the right way to go. It will not, this will not have any happy ending. Get rid of it.

And if you don’t trust them to get rid of the guns then ask them to hand it to you and you give it to your pastor if you don’t want to surrender it to the police. We must find a way to reduce the number of guns in this society even as the police do their job and the customs and others do their job to restrict their entry into Barbados. (PR/GIS)

Government

Barbados Will Assume ACP Chairmanship Come September

Barbados will take over the Chairmanship of the Africa, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) Group in Geneva, from September 1, and work with other countries to build a small island developing states (SIDS) coordination mechanism to better advance SIDS’ priorities.

Barbados succeeds Samoa, which, under the leadership of Ambassador Nella Navita Levy, coordinated the group for the past year, including at the 13th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Meeting.

The last time Barbados coordinated the group was more than a decade ago, under the leadership of former Ambassador Marion Williams.

At an ACP meeting held on July 17, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations, the World Trade Organization and other International Organizations in Geneva, Matthew Wilson, was appointed the new ACP Group Coordinator.

Ambassador Wilson, speaking about the chairmanship, said: “Barbados is honoured to serve as ACP Coordinator for the year beginning September 1, 2024. We want to represent all members in a fair, transparent, and inclusive manner. The ACP is a powerful force in the WTO, and this must be maintained.”

As ACP Coordinator, Ambassador Wilson’s primary responsibility includes advocating and representing the interests of a wide range of developing countries with different economic profiles, differing priorities, and diverging interests.

The ACP comprises 79 developing Member States from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific and strives to achieve the sustainable development of its members and their progressive integration into the world economy.

The Geneva chapter of the ACP is focused on work in the WTO around trade negotiations, especially on the fisheries subsidies and agriculture negotiations; WTO reform, including the dispute settlement process; environment and climate change matters; and trade facilitation and wider development issues.

The ACP serves to accelerate the political, economic, and social advancement of ACP peoples through good governance, poverty eradication, promotion of trade, sustainable development, and equitable integration into the global economy.

In addition to coordinating the ACP, Barbados, through Ambassador Wilson, has partnered with the Fiji Mission, through Ambassador Luke Daunivalu, to create a SIDS ecosystem approach that would ensure better coherence and collaboration amongst SIDS in Geneva.

There are currently 25 SIDS accredited to the United Nations Office at Geneva, in addition to Associated States. Due to their size, small budget, and limited human capital, SIDS missions often have to make strategic decisions on where to focus their limited resources.

This makes it challenging for small missions to cover a multiplicity of issues (Trade, Intellectual Property Rights, Health, Labour, Information Technology/Digital, Human Rights/Humanitarian Affairs, and the Environment); share information; and prepare possible common positions.

This SIDS ecosystem approach seeks to better harness the power of SIDS in Geneva to make a meaningful and coordinated impact. (PR/GIS)

Caption: Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations, the World Trade Organization and other International Organizations in Geneva, Matthew Wilson, at an ACP meeting on July 17

Government

Serious Organised Unit Coming To Tackle Crime

Government will be setting up a Serious Organised Crime Unit as another enforcement arm in The Barbados Police Service to bring the crime situation under control.

Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley announced that the new unit would focus “entirely on organised crime and gangs without prejudice to the work of the Major Crime and any other unit in the police service”, during a recent press conference at Ilaro Court.

Ms. Mottley told reporters that the unit was a key recommendation coming from the Independent International Police Assistance Service Report, which was executed through the British Government and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

She added that temporary posts would be created for the unit, which will operate alongside existing police divisions.

Ms Mottley maintained: “The reality is that we … over the course of the last few weeks in particular, haven’t seen an abeyance of it for about 15 and a half months, seeing a spike of crime where persons who know one another, have been the victims of murder…

“The AG will also tell you that the police have indicated to him, in very clear terms, and perhaps they need to do that more so for the public, that in many instances, the cases of what we are seeing are not arbitrary crime but are cases where people know each other, and where in some instances you may even use the word vendetta is being perpetrated. This is not the way to settle business in this country. We have law courts and therefore it cannot be in any way tolerated….”

The Prime Minister also disclosed that members of the police band will be deployed to assist with Government’s community policing efforts. “We believe that The Barbados Police Service Band, which has a history of over a hundred years, is well placed to be able to help us in that effort.

“If they need additional instruments and other things to be able to put out there so that they can give these youngsters a chance to have purpose and skills at the same time, then we will work with them to provide that across a number of communities,” Ms. Mottley said. (PR/GIS)

Government

$1/2 Million Assistance Package For Fishing Industry

Government has received a humanitarian donation of $500,000 from the CAF Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean to assist scores of fisherfolk whose vessels were damaged or destroyed following the passage of Hurricane Beryl.

The CAF donation represents the first injection of funds to a benevolent fund to be set up for the fishing community.

The package of assistance, among other measures to revive the industry, was announced by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley during a press conference at Ilaro Court, recently.

Additionally, Ms. Mottley outlined other measures to be put in place for the industry. “Without prejudice to what’s being done by the wider public and wider donations [to be received], we have asked that a number of measures be put in place. One, those who paid National Insurance, will not be an issue…. Those who are not up to date [with paying] national insurance we are aware, and obviously, you are still suffering.

“Government introduced in the middle of COVID, something called a business interruption benefit, which is slightly less than what you would receive if you had paid national insurance and received a benefit, all will be entitled to receive the business interruption benefit over the next few months, until we can get the industry back on its feet,” the Prime Minister assured.

She further stated: “In addition to that, I have given instructions for us to work with financial institutions to establish and to raise the funding to establish a 30-year revolving fund that will be available to help fishermen finance any new boats.

“I have also agreed that we will give a grant…that will be available to fishermen to the tune of 25 per cent of the cost of any new boat or repair and the Government will carry the cost of that for them, therefore ensuring that access to financing would not become a major issue.”

Ms. Mottley also reported significant damage to the beaches following a tour of the coast from St. Lucy to the Bridgetown Port. She described the situation as “dread”.

“In the normal scheme of things…those things may be able to come back naturally. But as you’re aware, that is the coast that helps pay the bills in this country and therefore the damage has hit where it hurts the most,” she said.

In light of this, she is calling for a coherent approach to dealing with beaches, especially those on the west and north of the island, which took a battering from Hurricane Beryl.

“We believe that in the same way we have a unit to come to work every day to take care of the roads in MTW, we must have a unit that comes to work every day to take care of our beaches,” Ms. Mottley underlined.

Caption: Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley speaking during a recent press conference at Ilaro Court, where she announced an assistance package for the local fishing industry in the wake of damage caused by the passage of Hurricane Beryl. Looking on is Attorney General Dale Marshall.