Why is Dengue Fever up 300% so far this year?

Dengue is serious business, and a secondary infection can be a disaster shutting down the liver or damaging the heart.  That’s serious business alright.

Epidemic Dengue is also serious business when it comes to tourism and the economy.  So what is the government doing about a spectacular 300% increase in cases?

It should be a national emergency, but all I see is the same old, same old.

American complains about Barbados Justice system in child custody matter.

Talk ya talk!

By American “CU”

I feel it is my responsibility and duty to inform your readers, especially the ones here in the United States, on the favoritism and bias or non-decisions handed down as orders by some in your judicial system in Barbados. Especially if the presiding Judge happens to be friends with the opposing counsel, or maybe they both belong to the same labor party.

This all started back in May of this year, when my daughter  finally got an interview with the US embassy to obtain her Green Card for her and her daughter. Even though they were never married the child ended up with the father’s last name and the Embassy requested that he provided a letter of permission.

This ended up in the courts and this one judge that in my opinion did not have the desire to rule and therefore, started in motion a set of procedures that prolonged the request. She even included the Child Care Board and even they did not change her original thoughts, that if the mother wanted to leave the Island, she must leave her three year old daughter with the father.

She has now even added fuel to the fire by giving the order that my daughter cannot bring her daughter to the United States until she comes to the United States and find a job which would show her that my daughter is capable of taking care of her daughter. Have you ever heard such stupidness?

First, the US embassy was satisfied with the evidence that I presented to them, showing that I and my spouse is more than capable of taking care of both of them until the mother finds gainful employment. If my financial affidavit was not strong, the US Immigration would not have allowed the Visas.  So could someone tell me why this madam justice has made such a decision? Tell me this is not a miscarriage of justice just because she has “Black Robe Syndrome”.

Meanwhile the winder of opportunity for my daughter to relocate to the US with her daughter is slowly closing. Everybody knows you only have six months after the interview to leave Barbados or you’ll lose the visa and will have to start from square one all over again.

Maybe, this is what the Judge would like to see happen, so she could keep her friendship with the father’s counsel.

Arab-Israeli Conflict or Jewish-Muslim Conflict? Whatever it is, can it be solved?

A Barbadian engineer and author proposes some answers
Our blogging friend Grenville Phillips II is a prolific writer and what I’ll call an “activist structural engineer” in the best sense of the term. Whether the subject is the proper installation of rebar when building a home, or politics or religion – he looks at all the factors, identifies the problems, researches and then methodically builds his solutions.  Read anything at his Weighed in the Balance blog and you’ll see proof of that.

But Grenville is also a man with a sense of history and humanity – he’s not just a numbers guy. I think it is the combination of structural engineer, historian and teacher with genuine concern for humanity that makes everything he writes so worthwhile. That, and his talent for being able to present his ideas clearly and simply enough to be understood.

Writing under his nom de plume Walter Phillips, he has published two books…

Solving The Arab-Israeli Conflict, (2009) subtitled “A practical way forward that allows both sides to negotiate a solution in good-faith”and

Brothers Kept Apart (2008) “Compelling and explicit evidence that exposes the myths that have unnecessarily divided Christians and Muslims for the past 1,300 years.”

Time to buy Phillips’ latest book!
For some reason I missed Grenville’s blog post Solving the Arab-Israeli Conflict but after recently coming across it and reading the wonderful discussions he provoked from around the world, I think I have to purchase and read his latest book.

Damn, I hate it when Grenville makes an argument in such a compelling manner that I have to rethink my own perspective! (Just kidding – that’s what I love about life, learning and growing.) - Marcus

PS: If Grenville doesn’t mind, I think we’ll put his blog and books on our banner list.

We Were Promised Cricket World Cup Accounting Would Be Delivered NOW. (Did We Stupid Bajans Really Believe That Promise?)

The financial and public relations disaster called Cricket World Cup has come and gone – and with it hundreds of millions of tax dollars that will see our grandchildren still working to pay off the debt decades from now.  We were promised an accounting.

The time we were promised to have that accounting is now.  Barbados Underground has the story, but don’t hold your breath…

Prime Minister Owen Arthur promised years ago that we would have a “full accounting” of the GEMS Hotels expenditures and that has yet to arrive.

As Owen Arthur and company have proven time and time again, we stupid Bajans will believe anything.