Black Immigrant Daily News

Under the theme “Feed the Future”, a revamped Barbados Food and Rum Festival was launched last Friday evening.

After a two-year hiatus, the official launch, which took place August 26, kicked off with a motorcade that travelled from the headquarters of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI) in Warrens to Golden Square Freedom Park in Bridgetown. There, the launch activities culminated in an extravagant display of the finest liquid and culinary fare which was on offer to the crowd that converged at the central location.

In her official address, Minister of Tourism and International Transport, Senator Lisa Cummins promised that the festival had returned, bigger and better than before.

“Our team has put together not just the four nights of amazing events, we have the Cask Fest, you have the Rum Festival that’s going to take place, you have the St. Lawrence-based event where in St. Lawrence Gap you’re going to have a mini carnival-type atmosphere. We’re going to be going from one location to the other, sampling food,” Minister Cummins explained.

Propelling the festival will be 28 chefs and mixologists and the minister explained that it will be receiving international coverage.

“We have a couple of familiar names that are going to be flying in as our international partners, including from the Food Network, who are going to be here to say to all of you and to the rest of the world that Barbados competes on an international stage and can hold its own alongside the best chefs in the world,” Cummins stated.

The Minister also disclosed that the BTMI had partnered with lifestyle travel magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, which would provide further international exposure for the festival and provide for one of the island’s chefs with an opportunity to visit its New York City office.

In addition, Cummins also stated that pre-launches of the festival had already taken place in all of Barbados’ major tourism source markets including the United Kingdom, New York, Washington and Canada.

The Food and Rum Festival is slated to run from October 27 to 30 but there will be several events in its lead-up, including monthly community-based culinary pop-up experiences which will be hosted in partnership with the National Cultural Foundation (NCF).

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Prime Minister Andrew Holness is warning that his Government will not stand by and allow crime and squatting to derail its plans to construct 70,000 houses across the country over the coming years.

Holness is also contending that squatters can no longer be allowed to gain access and build illegally on public property.

The planned construction of 70,000 houses was one of the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP) key campaign promises heading into the 2020 General Elections.

Speaking at the handing-over ceremony of 60 keys to new homeowners at Catherine Estates in Spanish Town, St Catherine on Friday, Holness said while he understands the need for more housing developments in Jamaica, it was not right for squatting to take place.

“There are some persons who no matter how many houses you put up, they believe in going and taking over private land or public land and say it is theirs, and there are some who are audacious to say they don’t own the land, they don’t have any title for the land, but yet they selling the land,” he said.

Further, he said there are some persons who even demand that the Government build roads to get to the illegally acquired lands.

“They want the Government to put water there, and Government didn’t even know about it (the illegally acquired land), and they want title after spending all this money building on the land. It’s a real challenge,” shared Holness.

To further explain the extent to which squatters will go, the prime minister pointed to satellite survey which showed one community in St Catherine where squatting is prevalent.

“… When we did the satellite survey, we see some massive structures going up; 50 times the size of what is here (in Catherine Estates). None of those people have titles for the land!

“I’m being very clear when I say, ‘We will not allow you to capture and take the public property!’” warned Holness.

Meanwhile, Holness said more Jamaicans are prioritising, and he is proud to be delivering homes across the country.

In noting that the demand outstrips the homes that are currently available locally, he said this situation “has only served to fuel our resolve to ensure that more Jamaicans can turn their own keys”.

The prime minister pointed to the Catherine Estate development in Spanish Town as one of the largest housing developments in St Catherine since Greater Portmore.

“It is expected to deliver over 1,600 affordable units for young, first-time homeowners upon completion,” stated Holness.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation (MEGJC), Senator Matthew Samuda, has hit back strongly at critics who have made snide remarks about the frequent cutting of ribbons at ceremonies by the Government.

There has been much criticisms, especially from supporters of the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP), that such ceremonies, including the presentation of houses under the New Social Housing Programme (NSHP), are being used by Prime Minister Andrew Holness and his Administration as a distraction from the state of the nation’s economy.

However, Holness has used such handing-over ceremonies to lash such critics by pointing to the economic growth the island is experiencing even amid inflation and rising food and energy prices both locally and internationally.

In commenting on the criticisms at the commissioning of a water supply project in Negril, Westmoreland on Thursday, Samuda argued that a ribbon-cutting is symbolic of the completion of a multi-million dollar investment made by the Government or any other investor.

“This is yet another ceremony that has almost been religiously scheduled on a Thursday as our project and… we have called it ‘Turn on the Pipe Thursdays’, but generally, we have been on the road every single Thursday commissioning water systems,” he explained.

“Now that speaks to the amount of work that has gone into creating the volume of systems and to building the amount of new pumping stations and connecting and replacing old pipes, to have several Thursdays of work to do,” the minister continued.

“I have heard a recent criticism in the press which I found very strange. I’ve followed politics all my life through the news, and I’ve never heard in all my life someone being criticised for cutting ribbons,” Samuda lamented.

He described the criticisms as being “very strange”, as the process to bring such developments as the water system project to a reality in Westmoreland started in 2004.

“A ribbon is a representation of the closure or the completion of thousands of man hours. In many cases, hundreds of millions and sometimes billions of dollars in investment,” he shared.

Samuda, in responding directly critics of the Government’s efforts, said more ribbon-cutting ceremonies are on the horizon.

“So, when a Government is cutting ribbons, is breaking ground, commissioning projects, it is because that Government is working hard!

“So, I can’t understand where this criticisms could come from for cutting ribbons. I want to put on record this afternoon that we will be cutting a lot more ribbons,” he assured.

The minister also promised further ribbon-cutting ceremonies for projects in the Western Westmoreland constituency where the Jamaica Labour Party’s Moreland Wilson is the Member of Parliament (MP).

“… And MP you have my commitment that while I have my hands on the baton, you can expect more ground-breaking, more ribbon cuttings, and more commissioning within your constituency,” declared Samuda.

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