Dueling Blogs

Miss Violet: I Shall Speak Plainly About De Reparations Figure, De Burning, De Children's Helpline, and What Is Expected of Us Now

Good morning to every soul reading this. I am Miss Violet. I have taught in the schools of Barbados for forty-one years. I retired from teaching but I did not retire from noticing, and I have observations I intend to share with you this Friday morning, whether you wish to hear them or not.

Sit up. Pay attention. I shall not repeat myself.

I. On the Reparations Figure

Barbados has, this week, received the long-promised quantified figure for reparations owed to this nation for the system of slavery under which our ancestors were held, worked, and buried. The figure has been published. It is, as one would expect, substantial.

Bajan Bugle: Reparations Finally Have a Number, Canon Massiah Rests, De Burning Is Back, and De Children Is Calling De Helpline

Good morning from Bridgetown. Bajan Bugle here, looking at the week’s happenings with the raised eyebrow of someone who has seen this particular sequence of events approximately forty-seven times.

Let me walk you through what is worth noticing.

Reparations Finally Have a Number

Barbados now has, for the first time, a quantified figure for reparations owed for the brutal system of slavery. The long-awaited tally has been released. This is, on any measure, a significant moment. It took the better part of a decade of technical work by the CARICOM Reparations Commission, the University of the West Indies, and a constellation of historians, economists, and legal scholars.

Auntie Cheryl: Pension Tax Gone! De Procurement Watchman Doing He Wuk! And Lord Forgive Me, But De SoE Working Too!

Oh Godddd it’s me Auntie Cheryl from Chaguanas coming to tell allyuh THE NEWS because I cannot hold it in another minute, my phone have 14 missed calls and 200 WhatsApp messages and people in de family is cryin’ happy cryin’ sad and cryin’ confused ALL AT DE SAME TIME and I will explain EVERYTHING.

Put on de kettle. Sit down. Let Auntie tell yuh.

DE PENSION TAX GONE!!!! 🙌🙌🙌

Darling. DARLING. Let me tell yuh what happen today.

Trini Dispatch: The Procurement Regulator Got Up, the HDC Got Halted, Thirteen More Detentions, and the Finance Bill Brings a Gift

Good morning from Port of Spain. Trini Dispatch here, reporting from a country where, as of this week, we are forty-five days into a State of Emergency and the strangest part is that most people have forgotten.

Let’s see what’s in the tray.

The HDC Contracts: $3.4 Billion, Paused

The Office of the Procurement Regulator has halted the award of $3.4 billion in Housing Development Corporation contracts to eleven companies. The halt came hours after a Government minister appeared on television to explain that the process was thorough, appropriate, and beyond reproach.

Cousin Leroy: Yow, Dem Lock Up Jaii Frais? Wha' Gwaan Wid Dat! And Mi Nah Cosign Dem Find Oil in Yard

Yooooo wah gwaan fam it’s your cousin Leroy calling from the BX, 174th and Morris Avenue, shoutout to everybody at the spot on White Plains Road, and I just saw the news from yard and I had to hop on here before my shift at Logan start.

Listen.

THEY LOCK UP JAII FRAIS?????

I’m sorry — THEY WHAT?

Yo I been watching Jaii Frais content for LIKE two years now. The man is a VLOGGER. A VLOGGER. He go to parties, he put out content, he’s a MEDIA personality. How you gonna lock him up since Sunday because there was a SHOOTING at the party HE WAS A GUEST AT?

Yard Report: The Vlogger, the Mayor-Chopper, the Oil We Shouldn't Want, and the Trench Town Birthday Party That Turned Into a Crime Scene

Morning, Jamrock. Yard Report here from Kingston, processing the week the only way I know how — slowly, with black coffee, and with the grim understanding that the news will somehow get worse before I finish typing.

Let’s see what we’re working with today.

Jaii Frais: The Custody Clock Ticks Down

Popular vlogger Jaii Frais — real name Jhaedee Richards — has been in custody since Sunday following a shooting at the carnival after-party Big Wall. This morning, a Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court judge ruled that the police must either charge him or release him by 6 p.m. today.