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After all that has gone on in the Mullins Bay area this year and reported to the country, like most right-thinking Bajans I was stunned by the two puff pieces today in the local press fawning all over St. Peter's Bay, Port Ferdinand and their developer. Even more troubling was the revelation that the developer wants "to see Barbados become to the Caribbean what Monaco is to Europe." Far be it from this blogger to tell a transplanted Scandinavian what to dream for Barbados or anywhere else; but, in my humble opinion, the larger question should be what do we Barbadians as a people want and dream for our own country, and do we really want to be Monaco or anywhere else. The urgency is that the Monaco Vision Thing for Barbados is happening before our very eyes and it is leaving in its wake unprecedented disruption and destruction as this blog has chronicled over the last four years. If we do not wake up we will be strangers in our own country very soon - that is, what's left of it.
I am a visitor from UK I certainly don't want this sort of development, not my country & none of my business I suppose, BUT I love Barbados & don't want to see it ruined.
ReplyDeleteI am a Canadian and I come to beautiful Barbados yearly and this man's ideas are not a vision, they are a NIGHTMARE!!!
ReplyDelete"Barbados continues to be a nation of mendicants" « Barbados Underground.
ReplyDeleteI understand that the need foreign currency to pay for the imports, maintain ratios etc will from time to time create demands\occasions for us to sell assets, but do we have to make it Government policy to sell all of them…if so we are living beyond our means. We are "tiny" so to maximize space we should be building Hi-rise buildings, but should the high rise buildings be for luxury hotels\tourist infrastructure or for multi-family housing. Are we content to sell all of our stuff and put the money into Tourism and every time there is an international event beyond our control we are scrambling.The above isn't to take away from the pertinence of the topic, in fact I thought the question was too PC and could have been presented as the statement
ReplyDelete“Is Barbados a Prostitute to Tourism & Foreign Dollars". For the answer just look at beautiful Sandy Lane & Port St.Charles facilities and the once beautiful Mullins Bay.... notice that I said "look" never mind that locals can't enter either of them, can't afford or avail themselves of their amenities and because of walls\fences & big rocks can't use the beaches… and Mullins Bay mash up for the benefit of a select few to ther detriment of the masses.
I am against progress when it is only for the benefit of a few people; Barbados’ success was gained through the hard work, sacrifice, discipline and education of the masses. All of a sudden a select few (including politicians) want to become rich over night and will say, do or thief anything and to hell with the masses. If the carving up & selling off of land is not for benefit the masses then it should not be allowed, and recent economic events show that it is not the wisest thing to have most if not all of your eggs in a single Tourism basket. Secondly we seem to lack vision, the millions of dollars that were spent on CWC could have been better spent and would have gone a long way towards a new hospital and could have created lots of jobs modernizing the water system; so similarly let’s be certain that the effort to turn Bridgetown into Monaco don’t leave us with Calcutta. Remember we didn’t set out to give Sandy Lane & Port St.Charles private beaches and we didn’t intend to destroy Mullins beach either… Maybe we are so busy trying to accumulate personal wealth that we ignored doing what is right for the island and the masses. Maybe if we heed the advise that an old timer told long me ago we wouldn’t be so inclined to sellout and susceptible to wiles of the “smart men & women” The old timer told me that "when the outflow is more than the inflow there is a drought, and if you didn't notice the flow change it is because you were busy doing the wrong things.... anyhow now that you notice the change it is time for you to cut back, cut down, cut out and cut back whatever you were doing and deal with the reduced flow." Maybe it is time for the people to start paying attention to what the elected officials are doing and saying and start demanding answers and responsibility from them - cut out the greed, and kick backs, close door deals and start working with the reduced revenues in the interest of the people and the country and we wouldn’t need to be prostituting ourselves.
Suppose we weren’t # 1 developing nation in the world and instead we became the best managed, healthiest, happiest and brightest nation….ahhhhh about this “brightest” thing.... what did it get us????? A bunch of teefing politicians & crooked lawyers. Maybe too much money into education too little into health & welfare.
IT DOESN'T GET BETTER THAN THIS! - http://www.stpetersbaybarbados.com/images/newsletter/newsletter_01.jpg
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