October 2012 - Barbados Free Press

BY FOR AND ABOUT UK BAJANS

OCTOBER 2012

Researched, Edited, Produced and Distributed by Leigh Bourne and friendsContact : 07961 048071 - [email protected] - Facebook

If you can imagine arunaway traingetting completelyderailed and thenexploding …then

you can just about to begin to visualisewhat happened and is happening to theDLP UK branch – but were therewarning signs ? Did history repeat itself

.. and where is the org now ? … moreinside !

A collective of over100 Brummie Bajansand friends playedand holidayed inBarbados back in

August – you would think some publicrecognition or appreciation would’vebeen showed or uttered by somebodysomewhere … but no .. why was thatthen ? our opinions are inside !

Are you a fifty somethingBajan yearning for a little bitof roots ? There’s more to ourculture than souse on a

Saturday or flying fish and cou-cou .. butother than family visits where else canyou go to socialise, network and re-familiarise yourself with the lingo etc ina safe and friendly environment ? Readour preferences inside !

Barbados probablyhas the largesttourism budget of all

Caribbean islands – hotels in the regionare struggling .. a few have closed andnumbers planning to are increasing – theAPD effect ..its acceptance by the regions’governments meanwhile …Turkey isnow the most popular holidaydestination for Brits – there is dire needto think outside the box – read ourtuppence worth next issue !

We’ve had HighCommissioner Anthony(Tony) Arthur - left .. andDeputy HighCommissioner Donville(Donjo) Johnson - below

..now for almost a full term– we’ve collected someopinions to present ageneral view on what youthink of their performanceso far .. also ..do we needa high commission ? lookinside !

Plus other snippets and titbits …

ENTER IF YOU DARE !!

I hear wunna ! and to be honest I was very surprised by the responses… all those FB likes, the texts and emails said loud and clear ..wewant Ping Yark back … well all right ! To be honest.. people who

previously said a tentative ‘hi’ from across the room are now fearlesslyconversing face to face - its scary and it has to stop !

There’s now a team of Yarkies responsible for content but still in the PY style –our sideways glances, the gossip and the p*sstaking all remain…, which means ..nobody’s safe ! So without further ado … here goes !

TheCommittee

Time tough ! so sang Toots and hisMaytals back in the 70’s – well its2012 and times feel even tougher

…even charities are feeling the pinch in fact… we hear The Samaritans have startedcold calling !These days our ever shrinking disposableincome rarely finds its way into the coffersof the ever dwindling number of £50 and£60 per head events. We’ve gone from beingvibrant thriving and involved to …well …barely anything happening at all….also ofthe few remaining community organisationsthree ..four at a push ..have healthy bankbalances … and to be blunt ..the rest ain’tworth a damn.TO THE MORTIFICATION of the powers thatbe this now applies to the reformed DLP UKbranch .. to call their recent dinner dance a

‘FUBAR’ would be a massiveunderstatement .... the DLP UK train didn’tsimply tap the buffers …it was drivenblindly at breakneck speed into theimmoveable object – this FUBAR is the talkof the town - but it all started out sopositively … so what happened ? This couldbe a very brief article cos in short …Anderson (champaign tastes and sweet waterpockets) Connell ..happened.WHEN YOU REMOVE INTENTION andambition ..policy and procedure and all thepretty words in a Memorandum ofAssociation for most organisations theirprime or sole remit is to raise funds ..be itfor legacy, charity or for.. as in this case ..political purposes. The DLP hierarchy waskeen to revive the UK branch as they wantedthe group to at least equal the donationsmade by the Canadian branch. Many of usknew Andy’s track record .. you may recallreading in these very pages criticism of hisleadership at the NCBA’s 40th independencedebacle for example ..but when action was

eventually taken to reform the UK grouprightly it was ‘out with the old and in withthe new’ ..for that reason alone he receivedthe benefit of the doubt and was elected chairin the new start org. However ..the supporthe received was not universal .. the chasmsbetween the new committee ..the oldcommittee and the breakaway group calledFriends were and remain decidedlyunbridgeable. Few if any of theaforementioned supported the first event inSeptember 2011 and to be honest .. thewriting was on the wall.AND SO IT HAS COME TO PAST that yet againego and a sycophantic desire to impress haveoutweighed the funding ability of the group.History has repeated itself and this time inthe presence of Prime Minister FreundelStuart, his entourage and HighCommissioner Anthony Arthur. .Embarrassing or what ! Its not hard toimagine the shortfall when at a £60 per headfunction less than 100 patrons attend.. andwere reliably informed that one supporteralone was responsible for nearly half thatnumber. We’ve not yet ..and probably neverwill see the financial breakdown but itappears that rubbing shoulders and photoopportunities carried a higher priority thanthe welfare and or future prospects of thegroup.THE DLP UK BRANCH appears to be in astate of limbo and according to popularopinion ..has regressed ten years. The trainhas been derailed and the driver may havesuffered mortal wounds. Will he survive ?and if not ..who will take his place ?

Watch this space.

THREE PROUD EX PLEBS !Only a politician ..an out of touch one like AndrewMitchell would commit a public order offence, come close to being arrested andstill get full support from his boss .. another out of touch politician.. David

Cameron. Both thought issuing an apology wrappedin a denial would abate the furore … maybe youcan explain how ‘I’m sorry for what I said but Ididn’t say it’ did not equate to calling the officersconcerned liars .. cos we can’t. Thankfully the affairbrought about Mitchell’s political demise – can’tspeak for my colleagues … but I’m sure my ‘servesthe so and so right’ response ..was echoed by mostserving and ex plebs.

Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy ! For 16years Keith has been the Chairperson of the HighCommission’s Health and Welfare Group. They hold

a sponsored walk every year in Hyde Park to raise moneyfor various projects in Barbados and have sent 50 BloodPressure machines there to help the fight against Diabetes.Nathan 7 was born blind but with sponsorship travelled tothe U.S.A where he received stem-cell treatment and is nowattending school. This year they’re supporting a UWIstudent.. gave the Mental hospital a television set and B’dos’

Blind School various aids for independent living. Keith is a member of the CaribbeanVolunteers Readers and Performance Project (CVRPP) .. helping Caribbean boys achieve.He is also involved with the Probationary Service working part time with young offendersand he continues to be involved with his local church. Keith says “I was humbled by therecommendation ..it started with a call from the Cabinet Office in Barbados informing me thatI was successfully recommended for and was being offered the Barbados Service Medal ..I thankGod for my insight and energy to assist those less fortunate ..also I must thank the members ofmy committee and those at the HC who were instrumental in processing the various forms”.Keith is married to Loleta who helps keeps a watchful eye on their five grand children.

DHC DonjoJohnson

Keith PilgrimBSM

TonySandiford

LeighBourne

DaltonMcConneyMBE QPM

Meet Max.. Marathon Man ! To well over a thousand Facebookers he’sknown as Bajanrumshop Max and they all know that back in April Max ..a

former amateur athlete ..completed the London Marathonand raised over £1600 for his preferred charity ..Actionfor the Blind (an RNIB affiliate).. his is grandmother hasbeen blind for over 30 years. He plans to repeat the feat in2013 and with more support ..especially PY’s cajoling andthreats to expose your meanness .. we think he shoulddouble that amount even though you can still donate here.Twenty five miles is a train ride for most of us - so a heartywell done to Max from Yarkies everywhere !

In Homage to FelixBaungartner's leapfrom space, two lil

boys thought they toowould become famous ifthey performed a similarstunt. Their plan was tojump off an upsidda down

bucket down near the chicken coupat the bottom of the yard. The boys

tried but failed to attract the attention ofthe local media …’duh doan give a toss’said the email …which ended with thewords …’we sent it to you cos we knowyou like sh*te like this’. Charming.

The Sebian FA has beenforced to put asidesome of its spare

change in anticipation of ac-tion to be taken by UEFA inresponse to multiple racist in-cidents a few weeks ago.Serbian officials denied there were anyracist chants before and during the Eng-land Under-21 match insisting that someof the England players provoked thecrowd by spending the entire game de-liberately being black.

David Blaine has unveiled hisnext feat of incredible humanendurance …he intends to watch

an unedited recording of Prime MinisterFruendel Stuart’sspeech at the last DLPParty conference.Blaine will bestrapped in chains toa chair in front of awidescreen television

for the duration of the speech …he hascalled the prospect ‘terrifying’ andexperts agree adding that Blaine’sattempt is just … ‘pure recklessness’ !

Mitt Romney is sofar behind in thepolls his

supporters all but admit itwould be ‘kinda helpful’ ifBarack Obama wouldpublicly go out and shoot

someone ! Mitt’s bestest buddy thegaseous Donald the Trump ..is tryinghard but not really helping…his input is

about as useless as usedtoilet roll its been said !We believe Mitt willcome second andhopefully …disappearnever to be seen again.

Entry tests for people wanting tobecome teachers will be more

rigorous to ensure theyhave at least theintelligence of a thirteenyear-old child thegovernment hasannounced. Teacher

trainees in England face tougher tests inEnglish, mathematics and reasoningfrom next September, raising the veryreal prospect of the teacher being thebrightest person in some class rooms.

Researched, Edited, ProducedAnd

Distributed byLeigh Bourne and friends

Contact : 07961 048071 - [email protected] - Facebook

I wish my husbandwas really hot !!

They should name the next hurricaneShaniqua or Keyshawn or something? Ithink if we give hurricanes ghetto names

people will be more inclined to get out of theirway. Hurricane Sandy sounds too friendly.

Hurricane Dijonae sounds like it would rip your weaveout if you look at it the wrong way !

HURRICANE SANDY UPDATE : Mitt Romneyhas advised everyone in the path of HurricaneSandy to make their way to their 2nd or 3rd

homes immediately !

My mate went to New York for the first timein his life at the weekend.What a City! he was totally blown away !

They say you can always tell a Brummie ..but you can’t tell him much !Rubbish ! Last august ..with impressive organisation.. over a hundred BajanBrummies and friends got together and took a trip to play cricket and domino

matches against local teams on the island.The assemblage was a combination of the2nd Generation group and the BCA(Barbados Community AssociationSlammers) and its scale was a first fromBirmingham’s Bajan community. For twoweeks they played and holidayed – whodidn’t come back darker came back agood few pounds heavier.Ping Yark is using the Brummies’ trip tohighlight what in our opinion is the lipservice often paid by visiting Bajanpoliticians to what they like to refer to asthe ‘diaspora’ ..but their discourses are

invariably to the usual suspects or anyone who can make it to the High Commissionat short notice. To a man each repeat the same mantra .. grateful for the remittances

.. the importance of the Bajan pound .. our vitaleconomic contributions ..etc – but somehowneither them nor any one in their ministries everpublicly acknowledge this in Barbados.You would think that a travelling collectivethat size would warrant some mention or pressattention .. but despite getting a heads up … nota single word was uttered in either praise orthanks ..and were it not for the social networksthe trip would have remained known only toBirmingham .. a handful of Bajans here in the capital and few others nationwide.That said .. the group cared not one jot ..they started off with a domino match atBuffy’s in Christ Church and ended with a last lap party at Moontown St Lucy…memorable times were had by all – but we would urge the group to mek nuffnoise starting now ..so that ..even respected as they are ..Birmingham could be partof any visiting ministers’ itinerary and help remove the prevailing London centricattitude ..after all …they do say that it’s the squeaky wheel that gets the oil !The Committee : Back Row: President Lester Burke: Committee Member Clifford Elcock:

Secretary Suzanne Dottin-Payne: Asst Secretary Joscelyne Mapp-Daniel:Asst PRO Jacqui Daniel: PRO Arlene Bourne:

Front Row: Vice Chair Angela King: Chairman Aaron Mapp:Treasurer Euclid Mahon.

Representing Birmingham !!

UNITY Fundraiser

A few picstaken Unity’sFundraiserat AnnerleyTown Hall

earlierthis

Month

To our knowledge there are 13Caribbean high commissions in theUK .. bearing in mind that CSME

exists and that these are harsh economictimes ..is it necessary that every individualnation have to spend untold millions yearlyon overseas high commissions ?At a time where three Caribbean nationsare listed in the top ten of most indebtedcountries ..surely an eye must be cast inevery area to see where spending could bereduced. For your information ..St Kitts Nevisand Anguilla is at number three – Jamaica is atsix and Barbados is at 10. Zimbabwe heads thelist.Fair enough some islands do co-operate andshare the role of high commissionerespecially in Europe ..but not so in Canada,the USA or the UK. This means highexpenditure for.. rents usually in capital cities..wages for employees.. homes, cars anddrivers for the High, his Deputy and theMinister Consul .. plus utility bills andtechnology.But lets be honest here – we all know thatthe job of High (HC) and Deputy HighCommissioner (DHC) are usually given asa reward .. a job for the boys.. but howeffective influential community focused oreven useless any of the appointees are rarelyhits news print.

We’ve had HC AnthonyArthur and DHC DonvilleJohnson now for almost afull term and we wonderedjust how well or not youthink the guys are doing. Weasked 86London 28B i r m i n gham and 15

Reading Bajans threesimple questions.(1) Can you name eitherthe HC and or the DHC ?

(2) Have you ever been or had need tocontact the Barbados high commission ?(3) Do you own a Barbados passport ?Since we asked in person we got a 100%response to each question. To keep it simpleof the 129 .. 17 named the HC and 51 namedthe DHC - 22 said they’ve had need tocontact the high commission – 35 said thatthey’ve visited .. and 9 owned a Barbadospassport.Many still hanker for the long gone daysof DHCs Owen Eversley and the inimitableHerbie Yearwood... you can make of thosefigures what you will.. however you look atthem the conclusion has to be that the guyswould not win any popularity contests .. andwith the on going dilution those figures willonly get worse. Questions must be asked.

So here you are. You’re wellinto your fifties and thesedays you prefer less

energetic pursuits .. to themajority parachuting .. bungee jumping ..skiing.. night clubs .. all night raves ..ingesting nefarious substances ..and stumblinghome out of your skull in the wee hours areall out of the question because you’ve longsince turned into your parents .. you’re feelingan almost painful tug from your roots and theBajan in you hollering real hardfuh something cultural.If you know how to turn on acomputer you sign up to FaceBook and make links.. howevertenuous.. to peers and the likeminded – not good enough. You keep an earout for community events even though yourparents warned you about the ‘teefs’ in someBajan organisations. So.. what do you do ? Tohear the lingo.. get some cerebral exercise ..fillyer face ..socialise and make new friends - letPY make a suggestion - if you got a sparecouple hours come on down to WIFFA nextMonday night .. we guarantee you’ll like us.

Silly season’s here ! – there’s an independence dance or function nearlyevery Saturday between the start of October and the first week or so inDecember. Its also maximum earning season .. a time for a few of our fading

almost obscure organisations to get as much into coffers as possible .. and then ofcourse there’s black history month …a month where you’ll always find an explo-sion of books, films and performances.

Is it only about dosh ? are we just cynics? Is black history month (BHM) neces-sary ? Last Monday we prepped for

WIFFA’s debate on the subject later thatevening by reading opinion from sceptic andsupporter alike.. we started out with the no-tion that all BHM ever seem to focus on is

slavery or theWindrush arriv-al ..it was ourintention tocontribute tothe debate butfirmly againsthaving a BHM.

We discovered facts about the origins ofBHM ..we noticed the air brushing of blackinvolvement and contribution to UK history

.. we noticed that a student learning aboutBHM comes away with a list of names andinventions and little else .. UK teens aremore likely to know about US events like theMillion Man march and Martin Luther Kingthan the Notting Hill race riots. On a microbut not lesser level there was no mentionanywhere about the contributions to blackUK life by the likes of the late great JeffCrawford ..PY hero Phil Sealy or the tirelessWinston Pinder.

In 2010 Boris Johnson demonstrated hispriorities by slashing funding for blackhistory events from £132,000 to just

£10,000.. we also read ..with astonishment..the state of Arizona’s recent ban on ethnicstudies. As you can see ..the assault on or aresistance to inclusion continues.Its all about history. The history taught to us[navelstringers]though important was solely

about Britain ..not the Caribbean or Africa..and not about people that looked like us ..‘we knew more about Lord Kitchener theField Marshall ..than Lord Kitchener theCalypsonian !’Todays national curriculum in history says it

"helps pupils develop their own identities ...it helps them toask and an-swer questionsof the presentby engagingwith the past".Great ! but itmust be accepted that including African andCaribbean figures in UK history is not doingblack people a favour – it is simply tellingthe truth. It can be argued that so far ..BHMis merely an annual observance that is yet tohave any real political or sociological effect

..and that that won’t change until our contri-butions become focal points rather than foot-notes in history books.In striving to achieve this we must not fallinto the ‘let’s show white people how strongand proud we are’ narrative. If it’s equalitywe seek, we must strive to become part ofthe everyday story.. be a recurring characterand not just make the occasional guest ap-pearance. History is about power.. the powerto control the story even for a brief period oftime.. and we’re now convinced a historymonth is the ideal way to do just that.

The lecture was presented by Mr Denton Rouseand the lively debate led by Mrs Rouse - theteam made a few converts – and once again

WIFFA showed what a progressive and membercentric organisation it is ! It was an educational andenjoyable evening.