Opposition leader sees Barbados as ‘wasteland’

BRIDGETOWN — Barbados has degenerated into a “wasteland” under the government of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) of Prime Minister Owen Arthur, according to Opposition leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), David Thompson.

In a sizzling commentary in his weekly Wednesday column in the Nation newspaper, Thompson, an attorney-at-law by profession and former finance minister and leader of the DLP, lamented the absence of vigorous intellectual debates and deafening silence of voices of dissent once strident, and even feared, across the political divide.

Alluding to the “politics of inclusion” associated with the BLP’s leader and prime minister, whose party is in its second five-year term and controls 26 of the 28 seats in parliament, Thompson asked:

“Where are the voices of our nation’s conscience? Have they all been silenced? Or strategically picked off?”

According to Thompson, who shares the opposition bench with Dennis Kellman, “the mass castration of our people has taken place right under our noses and it has destroyed the soul of our country.”

He said that “those who now cry out about how they want a strong Opposition (in parliament) are, at the same time, hypocritically doing everything to denude any expression of uncontrolled public-spiritedness…”

In extending his case against what he views as disturbing silence in the national interest on issues that need to be publicly discussed, Thompson rhetorically posed a number of questions, such as:

“What of the feared and fearless trade unionists? What of the outspoken clerics? What of the objective editorial writers? How will history rate their courage and sincerity? Where are their voices? What has silenced them?”

He concluded that they may all have been “included”, and claimed that this “inclusion” was the “mightiest political con game played on them and perpetrated against an innocent and unsuspecting people”.

Policing plan for youth

BASSETERRE — St Kitts and Nevis is focusing on a new “policing plan” for 2002 with a special emphasis on youth, according to Police Commissioner Calvin Fahie.

Under the theme of “Justice is rooted in Confidence”, the Commissioner is pursuing a liaison programme between the police force and the nation’s schools with a view to influencing a “positive impact” on their lives from early”.

Fahie said that his force would continue to work closely with the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE).

Meanwhile, a professional artist from Venezuela was due to arrive in the twin-island federation yesterday to conduct a series of workshops catering to youth groups across three targeted communities — Basseterre, Sandy Point and Lodge Village.

Organised by the Youth Department of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Information, the youth will be involved in a mural painting project called “Walls of Peace”, as part of activities planned for this “Youth Month 2002”.

American among three killed during carnival

PORT-OF-SPAIN — An American and two citizens of Trinidad and Tobago were murdered during Trinidad and Tobago’s carnival that officially climaxed on Tuesday with workers returning to their work place in a different mood yesterday, “Ash Wednesday”, marking the start of the Lenten season.

The American, Mark Staley, an engineer of Wyoming, was enjoying himself playing mas in the St James area when he became the victim of a “pick-pocket” robbery. He chased after the three fleeing men and was stabbed by one of them when he caught up with him. He died on the spot.

The police have also reported the beating to death of a security guard, Narine Babwah, of Gasparillo, by a group of carnival revellers, largely teenagers, when he refused them permission to use the washroom of the school where he worked.

On J’Ouvert morning, Monday, 19 year-old Andy Williams, a bystander enjoying the carnival celebration, was fatally shot in the head when a man, outraged by his girlfriend gyrating with another man, started shooting.

The police are also treating as a suspected murder case the unidentified body of a man found by the roadside in the Valencia community.