Daniel | Educator, Creative & Writer living in Barbados 🇧🇧 | I tweet uncensored thoughts, politics and the weather here.
| Snap/IG: indigo.rex | In Deo Fides
I hope we don't forget that the Paralympics matter too and support our lone athletic representative Antwahn Boyce-Vaughn. Swimming in Heat 3 on Monday in the 50m freestyle
As I sit here in a shelter knowing people here have already lost their houses... I'm too tired to acknowledge that people like this are so proudly, loudly ignorant and complacent
If you're passing Two Mile Hill today and want a plant or advice on plant care, my mum is out with plants. She's a certified and experienced horticulturalist so tip her if you only stop for plant advice because she would just give you advice for free✌🏾 and it's Christmas Eve
The Year Lil Rick drop Guh Down was magical year for Crop Over. If you're not old enough to remember, a Tropical Storm threatened to cancel Kadooment and had offset the final weekend of Crop Over. So Lil Rick hit the studio and gave us a "Guh down in the rain roadmix"
Does Crop Over not have buzz or are y'all depressed? Does Crop Over not have buzz or did it start late so only now kicking in? Does Crop Over not have buzz or is everyone kinda broke/poor? Does Crop Over not have buzz or is everyone emotionally overwhelmed, numb and it's too hot?
Barbados has maybe 300 or more vacant positions being advertised right now... plus staff shortages in police and other essential areas... AND people planning to retire... but getting hired is still a tall task
Y'all see that news story about the fella foot drop in in Broad Street cos the road cracked under him? OK Let me repeat this again:
BRIDGETOWN IS SWAMP LAND & IS SINKING. THE LONGER WE IGNORE IT THE MORE LIKELY A CATASROPHE WILL HAPPEN. I CAN LITERALLY SEE THE BRIDGES SEPARATING
Hey Progressive Barbados! Hey! A boy shouldn't need to be Rastafarian to be able to grow his hair out as long as it's kept neat, tidy & clean. If there are genuine, unbiased concerns for hygiene then sure ask for it to be cut but otherwise we need to move away from colonial codes
"Barbados has no natural resources" has always been a lie... 400 years of being a colony and making British filthy rich should make you realise that can't be true. What we don't have is the quantities to merit exploitation as they've done in Africa eg oil, coal and diamond mining
Anyways, 😭😭😭 Apparently, my students went home and told their parents all week that I'm the best teacher in the school and they only look forward to my classes... and I got called to the principal's office and told so. I thought I was in trouble for something😭😭😭
Jill Walker was known for her work capturing Barbadiana and its architecture and more. She was also known for the Best of Barbados stores and memorabilia. She's been a part of our cultural landscape for a long time, living a good 94 years. She will be missed
This week rough.
A star whose light was dimmed too soon. A spice which flavoured many lives. An agent of joy, chaos and colour who will be missed on our TLs. A talent and a human deserving of the biggest stages. May you rest in peace and smile always in our hearts. 🙏🏾🕊️💔
A hurricane mashing up your country don't make you homophobic. Let's be very for real. "Choreogrpahy", "Barbados Pride", "want stoning" OK... umm hmm... if you think this wasn't meant to be homophobic you clearly don't pay attention to how the region talks about Barbados
In Barbados if you grew up poor or in certain neighbourhoods but are living comfortably or earning well as an adult male automatically you bull for that, selling drugs or somebody give you money... it's never that you worked hard or even put yourself in debt you gotta pay off
Actually, general advice if you're going into your first in-person classes as continuing students: UWI and their classrooms does get COLD and be WINDY - get sweaters and thick hoodies. Morning classes are great with tea tho I alone used to do that LOL. Learn the bathrooms early.
No but seriously. I not gonna skim this. Olympians, athletes, entertainers, artists, creatives, advocates, entrepreneurs... Represent Barbados on the international stage at 18... But to represent Barbados in Barbados it's somehow beyond their capabilities?
At this point this govt needs to stop announcing plans before doing the work to make sure they can implement them... Cos having to backtrack EVERY time you announce a major legal policy just screams poor governance and lack of planning and foresight
Barbados is a country with plenty talent but not enough opportunities* being given to those who are actually talented rather than just through nepotism, favoritism or party loyalty
BTW when Sir Garfield Sobers was knighted he was 37/38 years old. Clement Payne was Rihanna's current age in 1937 and died in 1941. Bob Marley died at 36. Samuel Jackman Prescod was 37/38 even elected. Don't get things tie up about age
Full disclosure I haven't applied for the new ID yet either... however, y'all being vex at them "rushing" people is annoying me... y'all do realise that is tax money being spent to keep those centres open right?
I have no idea what I missed that triggered this conversation but the fact that y'all saying that
@miaamormottley
say no more bank holidays is hilarious to me because the most profitable shopping days are all connected to bank holidays - NYE/Old Year's, Kadooment, Easter 1/
The dinosaurs in Barbados will legalise weed when everyone else has and it no longer is profitable... Also, our decriminalisation is a joke. The reason why marijuana is even illegal is also a joke
Sarah Ann Gill is national hero because she fought for religious freedom... BUT it's frequently glossed over that the people she was fighting against were Christians... And it was the Church persecuting her... Not Muslims or Gays or Satanists... Christians...
I still can't believe that Barbados has had several stabbings in schools or with school children and several shootings in or near schools but the people having another protest rally to "protect our children" are spending thousands to be homophobic yet haven't spoken out on this
I gotta be vex at the Government for not explaining better to y'all that the fire station really needed to move... but I also acknowledge no one wants to listen or admit that. The QEH is also a problem but having only one hospital there's not much you can do... a discussion:
I had dengue and showed up every single day to work still, put a smile on my face and did the work. People died, I had injuries and life threatening illnesses at other times. Never took time off. Worked all through vacations. But I am the worst person now I had to take time off.
I wish Bajans would realise preserving means actually preserving...so places like the empire and farley hill need to be maintained and reinforced... instead of simply fencing off and left to run to further ruin and collapse. All now Empire could be in use since it's been cleared
Seriously, considering the number of cases, we would have opened schools then had almost all of them closed within a week with positive cases... because if businesses have staff shortages you think schools won't? Am I being too logical?
Every time Bajans kick up a fuss about "protecting our children" I'm reminded that less than 1% of child sexual abuse cases are successfully prosecuted here and I doubt that has changed since I last looked at the stats. I also doubt it's gone over 5% for child abuse cases overall
@X_KrysJ
To be fair, Beyonce is closer to that level of fame than Drake, or any other active artist alive... But MJs cultural impact alone ... And they asking about MJ at his peak? The only metric that Drake tops in is social media... And with great irony Lil Nas X is bigger but he's new
Machel's reach is unquestionable for numerous reasons but to argue incorrectly about catalogue because he was singing for 30yrs (it's over 40 actually) isn't an argument when Lil Rick was opening for Buju as teen. Some may not understand how big Buju was to get that significance
Dear "Poor whites" and their descendants in Barbados,
You were sent here in bondage (but not enslaved) by the rich whites. You were mistreated and still are by the rich whites. Your poverty, especially those of you on the East Coast, is because of the rich whites.
If you're passing Two Mile Hill today and want a plant or advice on plant care, my mum is out with plants. She's a certified and experienced horticulturalist so tip her if you only stop for plant advice because she would just give you advice for free✌🏾 and it's Christmas Eve
Can't even get the Trident ID sort out and we still ain't get a new constitution but renaming Independence Day... priorities out of whack... the rest of the buses like they get lost too but launching the digital payment system... after laying off much of the IT staff... IDEK
Pleasant reminder that across the past two decades every major public institution in Barbados has had some kind of cybersecurity breach or attack ... police, banks, QEH, govt depts... what should also concern you is how many private entities been breached and you don't know...
There's a certain level of privilege y'all showing by saying that people could have just stop home or use their sick days. Y'all really forget what country y'all living in and how these same employers does call people in during stronger storms and fire people or dock pay?
You can't get Bajans to unite and really agree on anything but they're uniting on being opposed to this name change. The petition already has 3,000+ signatures in less than 24hrs. Mia really need to call and tell them to reverse this decision to stop giving Ronnie political clout
Paranoia. When you've convinced yourself that everything is an agenda and enemies are everywhere that will happen. Combine that with a culture where we always WANT to be outraged first without investigation, context or complete information - a perfect storm.
For a country that does provide free education we so embarrassing…. How gender day at school could sound like anything else than….. the 2 genders doing activities separately for the day🫠
this may not be the time to say this but... you can't be against bullying and be homophobic when most bullying against males in Barbados is rooted in homophobia due to actual, perceived or assumed stereotypical indicators of queerness or "femininity"
I gine say something completely different from everyone else. The reason a lot of places have mold issues is that we don't train people in archiving nor take book/paper storage seriously so even if you clean buildings you keep re-introducing spores & we in the humid tropics
Children going school hungry & leaving school illiterate but they got time + money to march every month and hold symposiums cos one set of people get DQ'd from NIFCA... Yet they "care about children" and have their best interest at heart. I HATE people who use children as pawns
I said this before but Barbados needs to have a moment of national mourning for those lost during this pandemic because a lot of us are burdened by grief and need the collective release of communal mourning. The death toll may not be high but the emotional toll certainly is
Right: Bridgetown is built on swamp/marsh land. Earthquakes cause liquefaction and as there's lots of watery soil without necessarily solid bedrock under there parts of Bridgetown sank in the 2007 Quake especially along the River banks. Buildings naturally "settle" as well
Someone asked me to expand on the 3 reasons I wanted to put us in rice so here's the tsuanmi one.
@indigo_rex
can expound on the sinking of Btiwn since the earthquake of '07 I think he said.
And I'll drop a pic of my good sxs with the missing brick below.
As a lit student I've had to read quite a bit of racist texts and the justifications for slavery, racism, segregation, apartheid and colonialism... So when I tell you that these church folks are quoting the exact same scripts, I'm not using hyperbole. They're in strange territory
The unhinged thing about this entire drama is all the non-Bajans weighing in who have no clue about Bajan culture or how funerals work here, far less how small the country is... because the replies in defense of her are ssssooo ridiculous in ways that feel offensive to me
Every time these "Guyana is not a Caribbean country" people raise their heads I will point out that by these arguments Barbados is also not a Caribbean country.
Randomly, Harrison College (1733) is gonna be 290 next year. Tricentennial in 2033. American independence was 1776. George Washington was born in 1732. Emancipation proclamation was 1834. Like, Kolij is OLD old OLD. That's remarkable longevity
AND y'all was vex and on here talking about hating the old IDs for YEARS now... and y'all was vex that Freundel promised new IDs and then fumble that and the money disappear... looooool at some point you have to ask what it is y'all really want?
And we want to build high rise buildings on it but there needs to be a geological survey done and reported on publicly of the situation. Seriously, consciously look down and around whenever next y'all go into town and you'll see it. It's VERY visible if you look. LOOK DOWN!
Imagine how much revenue the govt is missing out on because they can't monetise their own YouTube channels. It's so duncy. NCF should be able to make so much money from Streaming like how they had full stream for NiFCA online and for Payperview Crop Over events
I here crying that I do a whole degree at UWI, study under people that have professorships of Caribbean culture, history and music and wrote research papers on these topics, even doing a thesis on Orality which covers some of this, only to be told that I'm the one that ignorant
Ok SOOOOOOO I looked up articles so I can have some evidence and not just rely on my memory or speculation. Since Empire was brought up and I realised a lot of people don't know what's happened here's a brief thread on it and why I'm mad about it. Follow along
And the first time man of us heard it was when one one of the bands was crossing the stage. As the familiar bars transitioned to a new and unfamiliar refrain the heavens opened up and people started to give truth to the lyrics and went down in the rain... showers of blessing
IDK if this is petty but when I'm talking to someone & I find they never ask me anything, I stop talking to them. I mean like for example I ask how they are but they never ask how I'm doing Or they never ask about my day, myself or my work. I always think they're not interested
For it's Harrison, Harrison, All for Harrison, Those who will never give up...
All in the run of it, All for the fun of it, Harrison, Harrison Up!
LOL Happy Founder's Week as Kolij celebrates 290 years (honestly that's never not gonna be wild cos it's older than the USA)
LOL cos honestly most Bajans don't even know that Nov 30th is St Andrew's Day so the Coat of Arms carries St Andrew's cross in form of the sugar cane on top... Which also connects us to Scotland who has him as their patron saint and has the cross on their flag... Symbols matter
@chynnadotcom
@Khalii_B
Very much this... as a former journalist I have to point out the reason people can get aid and assistance in disasters is because people do their jobs. People have to see the devastation for it to be real for them and they understand the scale as insensitive as it may seem.
Fun Fact: Barbados used to be "two" islands separated by the St George Valley. The southern half of the island is younger and there seems to be easily accessible crude oil deposits under quite a few spots, particularly in Ch Ch and St Ph as well as offshore
A lot of people don't know this but Barbados has been producing oil & gas from since 1896 - it's just that domestic demand heavily outstrips national production.
People from Marvel, DC & Hollywood, International actors, voice actors, cosplayers + celebrities have come to Barbados for AnimeKon... IDK why some people are being cliche 90s characters by being insulting to "nerds & geeks" but who you think makes your games, music & movies?🖖🏿🖖🏿
Where the "PROTECT OUR CHILDREN" statement of condemnation? Where the United Pastors against chid abuse comments? What is The Hon Leader of the Opps RAT's position🥴? Everybody does be quick with a statement if they even sniff a rainbow but never quick to condemn a .pdf file
And I know for a fact that if any journalists ask how much it's costing to keep the centres open, I bet y'all gine get vex at that too (not like y'all ain't always vex)... and then later when you gotta wait 4hours in a line up Warrens cos you didn't go to a center you gine be vex
Ok so hear me out: I'm not gonna go into deep detail or explain much but I think you'll get it from the visuals. Basically Bridgetown is a chokepoint and we need to focus more on moving people rather than getting them to and from town
3) A coherent and more logical route system because the ZR route system has become utter nonsense... The changes would obviously start and be focused on Transport Board tho... I've often considered submitting this in writing but I know I'll get ignored so meh I'll tweet this
I see this as a dry run for Crop Over and what we can and can't do if we choose to have one. Even if we didn't like hearing it, they were right the real protocol breach was with quarantining and as long as that's properly enforced we can let people in...
AnimeKon in Barbados has even gotten to see trailers even before SDCC or anywhere else in the world... They put in the work and it's a fun, safe and welcoming space for all - nerd, geek, queerdo, jock or otherwise - and it's been going a decade now so very weird behaviour on here
Wharf Road, Duncan O'Neal Bridge, Hinks Street, Broad Street, Bay Street, Roebuck Street (by the Globe)... ALL HAVE VERY VISIBLE SIGNS OF SHIFTING. Not just pot holes... but one or two areas you can see straight down to the water or the joints where the bridges join the road
I in my head searching historical records for whenever Barbados needed Jamaica's help because I know that certainly hasn't happened in the decades I've been alive... Barbados didn't even ask for help last year during our 1st hurricane in nearly a century. Not even trolling.
Barbados observes African Heritage Month not Black History Month because most of our history is Black and we don't shove it under the carpet... however the fact that "Black history" for those people does not include Caribbean history will always make it a joke to me
#IYKYK
To be completely fair, this building is ugly... it lacks any real warmth or charm and stands out as a sterile modernist monument to the industry itself - big, white and out of place. It lacks a sense of Caribbean or Barbados or for that matter, beach. You could put it anywhere
The Indigo Hotel will also feature 3 restaurants and will be open to all, visitor and Barbadians alike. This is a major milestone for Barbados, our economy, our tourism product and our people.
Hurricane Season has unofficially started and we're all in no place to be prepared for a single hurricane - financially, emotionally, resources wise or even in many cases, physically. I pray for my people and this region.
I actually love that this year's Kadooment route honours the origins and history of the festival. The thing is, I don't think enough Bajans know this history or care to know it to appreciate it. Nevertheless after 50 years of Crop Over it's time for some deep introspection on it
Sometimes I think Mia too big for our little Barbados. She don't let us or the region get walk Pon on the global stage but I often feel we don't deserve her and the rest of the leaders ain't pulling their weight to match her energy and let us progress so we end up disconnected
"Prayers" in school never taught me anything or made me feel connected to God. They were uncomfortable, crowded, often hot, too long & boring or worse, offensive to me. And they just regurgitated or skimmed certain things and punished you for not being there, often by beating
You know what's amazing, the previous govt paid UWI students to ride buses and conduct surveys and also did research on the transport system.. no idea what happened to that research tho... I'm bringing this up because if I push the idea to reform bus routes we'll waste money
Social media really empowers people to be disrespectful thinking there's no consequences because that slur was pulled from the big toe and hawk tua'd. Brainrot for sure. May the Lord bless this lost child and give them the guidance, love and healing they desire. Shalom Aleichem.