reslax

Pgtips,

I wasn't going to come back to this thread, but I remembered something that I neglected to comment on previously that I would like to mention. After PM Thompson announced Barbados' amnesty policy for illegal Caricom nationals in May 2009, I started reading the online version of Guyana's newspaper, "Stabroek News." In the comments section of that newspaper, people, who are supposedly Guyanese, encouraged each other to badmouth Bajans abroad and boycott Barbados. Some said they hoped Barbados would be wiped out by a hurricane, and some said they hoped the island would go under water as a result of global warming. Many said Bajans are inhumane.

Now fast forward to January 2010. A couple of days after the earthquake struck in Haiti, an opposition leader in Guyana suggested that some Haitians, who are Caricom nationals, be resettled in Guyana, a country that Barbados can literally fit into 500 times. You should have seen the responses. About 5 times as many people who normally comment on stories commented and said they don't want Haitians resettled in Guyana. They said Guyana doesn't have the money or jobs to resettle Haitians. They said Haitians don't speak their language and that many of them are not literate. A couple of them commented on the behavior of Haitians. Some of the commenters who were the most vicious in their attacks on Bajans for advocating the removal of illegal Guyanese from Barbados were the nastiest and most vicious in their opposition to the resettlement of Haitians in Guyana. Some of them rudely mocked a few compassionate Guyanese who are in favor of resettling Haitians in Guyana.

I was flabbergasted when I read the comments. I could not believe that the same Guyanese who said Bajans are inhumane for denying some of them the right to stay in Barbados were coldly stating they don't want Haitians resettled in their country. Some Bajans rightfully told them they are hypocrites.

PS. Pgtips

You live in St. Lucia. Bajans employ St. Lucians at Bajan owned companies in St. Lucia and at businesses in Barbados. We employ thousands of Guyanese and other Caricom nationals in Barbados legally and in their homelands, like St. Vincent, so you all shouldn't wish for us to fail or be wiped out by hurricanes or other disasters. What will the thousands of Caricom nationals and their family members who depend on them do if Barbados fails or disappears?

Ikon

I think I'm gonna force myself to stop reading this thread.

I think the debate has all got a bit too specific and personal, and I don't see what interest it has to BRITISH EX-PATS anymore. This is going off on a whole other tangent. Someone who started off with a general point about immigrants is being dragged into a whole debate about Guyana, Haiti etc, and being asked to answer for individual commenters on a foreign newspaper's website. I think it'd be better if we all moved on from this, because it's becoming irrelevant......

pgtips

Now reslax, nobody wishes this for Barbados, I for one enjoy my stop offs in Barbados, so that is a proposterous suggestion. All this was about the way immigration officials were acting without compassion, absolutely nothing else.

In fact I am currently living in the UK, and one of the nicest neighbours I have ever had are Bajan and we have always got on like a house on fire.
Not to mention the Caribbean darling of the moment Rihanna is bajan. Do not take any notice of the rantings of a few ignorant people. The majority of people in the caribbean like our brothers and sisters in Barbados, do not let anyone fool you otherwise. On another note a lot of the islanders inter marry so have ties to many islands, so again this would make no sense.

pgtips

Ikon, this is one of the beauties if this site and forums in general, the conversations really get interesting when they go a bit off tangent.
Don't worry when I stop off next in Barbados reslax better have a shot of Mount Gay waiting for me

reslax

Ikon,

There you go again. I don't think either I or Pgtips is seriously offended anymore by our comments to each other. I do believe he started the thread to be intentionally provocative, though. I understand the original purpose of this site, but you can only answer the questions, "Where should I buy a house?" or "How expensive are things in Barbados?" or "When can we meet up next?" so often without boring most people. Every now and then you need to discuss something different, and it is human nature to go off on a tangent sometimes.

I disagree with you when you state this discussion doesn't have anything to do with expats. If I were moving to a new country, I would want to know something about the social conditions in the country, as well as such things as the cost of products and services, where to buy a house, and where to send my children to school. I would want to know what groups of people live in the country, how they get along, and what their likes and dislikes are. I think one of the reasons why certain people have difficulties in Barbados is that they don't understand the likes and dislikes of the people and proceed to say and do things that turn off the people and get themselves into trouble. What better way to learn about some of the people than to read comments on a forum like this? I personally have learned a lot about what some visitors to Barbados really think about the natives from reading comments on this site. People are more honest when they have anonymity. At the end of the day, I think the more people know about each other and what buttons to push and not push, the better they are likely to get along. Anyway, I am getting off of this tangent now. This is definitely my last comment on this thread.

Ikon

I think you were warned by Mitzyboy about making personal comments. Rude dismissive phrases like "There you go again", which serve no purpose other than to create conflict, will be the reason that you will probably eventually be banned.

There's something very wrong when you attack someone for suggesting the two sides just agree to disagree, and move on. Maybe you're the one who is being "intentionally provocative" on this thread?

Anyway, as I said, the debate has become boring, personal and irrelevant, and I think most of us are fed up of reading it. I'd be the first to welcome more conversation and debate on this site, but too many of the posts here have been ill-reasoned and taken it in a direction that has nothing to do with anything. You want us to debate one person's comments on a foreign newspaper's website, who doesn't belong to this site? What's the point of that?!

This forum has been infiltrated by 1 or 2 posters in the last couple of months that seem to revel in conflict, and no one is standing up to them. As a result, the regular posters are hardly using it and fewer people are asking questions. I find myself avoiding asking anything here because these usual suspects seek to find controversy with everything.

pgtips

Ikon, from my experience of forums, (and believe me in my time I have many years experience of financial and caribbean forums) is that over a period of time a lot of the typical questions have been answered several times over, and are in the forums library. Just because people are'nt making new post it does not mean they are not reading the various question and answer sessions the site has built up which is quite vast.

Compared to other forums such as the Aussie, Canadian, USA forums etc, when it comes to the hot stimulating conversations the Caribbean forum is pretty tame and a bit boring, so we should welcome a bit of fresh debate and ideas and new members. A bit of controversy is not always bad, ask the newspapers how they survive ?

Ikon

I think the forum ceases to be useful when people feel discouraged from using it. There's a big difference between reasoned debate and pointless sh*t-stirring for the sake of causing conflict. All too often, it has veered towards the latter, nobody has said anything about it, and it's clearly having a negative impact on people making use of the site.

If you think "reasoned debate" includes some of the nutcase crap that's been posted here lately, then by all means continue. I have a feeling there will only be 2 or 3 of you left before long though.......

Mitzyboy

Lets leave this now eh?
Its rare that everyone agrees on matters on internet forums. Warnings have been issued, people are aware of what is required from them in the future and if they dont respond then its down to the mods to act

Thanks
Mitz