The Eternal Curfew
The Eternal Curfew
New CDEMA building standards, increased African integration, and the death of nightlife in Barbados.
Saint Vincent’s Ralph Gonsalves is the longest serving state leader in the region, clocking in at 23+ continuous years. The man is over 78 years old and is a prime and harrowing example of political stagnation.
This is Disgruntled Musings, a compilation of quick commentary on the latest socio-political news and updates from across the Caribbean region.
Listen on Spotify:
Or Apple Podcasts
Full Transcript:
CDEMA to introduce new building standards
Youtube
A knee-jerk reaction to the potent mollywhop delivered by Hurricane Beryl no doubt. Details of this proposed new building standard are scant. There isn’t even any mention of the thing on CDEMA’s own website which I'll admit has seen better days. Infrastructure in the Caribbean, especially housing, is notoriously poor. Where else are they building houses out of timber in a region prone to monstrous hundred mile wide wind storms? It’s like building a house out of gas soaked thatch at the base of an active volcano. And we’re no stranger to bricks either, yet here in Barbados, my own government is building new homes out of… it looks like plastic or some kind of prefab material. In about 2-3 decades the big one will hit and we’ll be right back to square one. One can only assume that we’ll wait till they are flattened to implement these changes to the existing housing landscape. It’s a bit of a recurring theme in the region, which lends itself to a saying my director is fond of - “There are no natural disasters, only social ones”
Now don’t come for my head just yet. This pointed indictment comes from an essay by Junot Diaz called “Apocalypse” where he argues that “natural disaster” is a misnomer for socially engineered events that merely reveal the shortfalls of a system. That is, a series of bad decisions is made that undermines the integrity of an idea or design. A hurricane or other natural phenomenon comes along and reveals the effects of those bad decisions, often catastrophically.
In the case of the Caribbean, cost cutting measures have resulted in the proliferation of poor infrastructure, acting as a kindling for the next social disaster after a major storm. Barbados, Saint Vincent, Grenada, most of the Lesser Antilles suffer from the same problem whereby we’ve chosen the easy way to build rather than the method befitting of far-flung pebbles sitting in Hurricane Alley.
Now I get it, bricks are pricey. Masonry is pricey. Construction is pricey. But you know what else is pricey? Having to build it all over again in a decade, and the decade after that and after that… you get it right?
Jamaica to send two dozen security personnel to Haiti, Saint Kitts wants more global effort in Haiti
Reuters, WIC News
I think those personnel would be better utilized in Jamaica’s own troubled streets. When your sinking neighbor lends you their only bucket to delay your sinking because you are sinking faster, it does not detract from the fact that you are both very much screwed. In this analogy however, Jamaica is sending a bucket to the HMS Titanic which is already at the bottom of the Atlantic because what exactly is this supposed to achieve? I already found the Kenyan police incursion, yes that’s what I’m calling it, quite laughable after it was announced and somehow executed last year. It feels like a month can’t go by without someone bringing up Haiti, and everyone pretending that this collapsed husk of a nation still qualifies as a salvageable country of sorts. To rehash some of my previous grievances, Haiti will remain a pit of despair until drastic kinetic action is taken. That’s civil speak for full scale military intervention to quell the abject madness it has descended into. No one has the appetite for that. The USA balks at the idea entirely, an Afghanistan on its doorstep, attrition and all would be an embarrassment. Their endorsement of the Joint Force led by the Kenyans was the biggest diplomatic “get someone else to do it” I’ve seen to date.
Saint Kitts’ PM Drew was urging for more global action at a UN meeting, lauding his own administration’s efforts in bringing the USA to the table on the matter. Way to pat your back for the biggest nothing ever. Uncle Sam is still not setting foot in Port-Au-Prince. CARICOM really is kinda on its own in this one. Or you know it could… eject Haiti.
Now wait wait before you get your kerosene soaked pitchforks… Nah I got nothing to salvage that, we really should eject them as a matter of principle. I didn’t say abandon, but right now there is no credible government in Haiti. The cabal that recently got caught trying to shake down a bank president doesn’t count. It likely won’t last the decade. But at present, this sorry state of affairs is somehow still, a member of CARICOM? How? Again I get the whole, they’re our brothers and sisters but I reiterate that the plan is not to abandon Haiti, well not yet anyway, but to eject it from CARICOM as its instability actually undermines the integrity of the entire union. Haiti as it stands is a point of contention for the Dominican Republic which will never sign onto freedom of movement as long as there is an iota of a chance that this allows Haitians in. Bermuda and USVI have also all but killed the notion as well, citing immigration complications, no doubt fueled by the instability of one of the largest members.
Tackling Haiti will require more than an impotent police exchange program and some security personnel. And until the necessary bitter medicine is administered it simply does not meet the baseline criteria for membership in the Caribbean Community. Let me spell it out, Haiti is not a country.
Saint Kitts reiterates support for Moroccan sovereignty over Sahara Territory, Bahamas inks visa agreement with Rwanda
North Africa Post, The New Times
This one came out of nowhere but in case anyone was wondering, the federation (yes Saint Kitts and Nevis are a federation, for those who didn’t know), but anyhow the federation has thrown its support behind Morocco in terms of its sovereignty over Western Sahara. You know, that chunk of the West African coast that’s often grayed out on maps because of no data. Yea, it’s been trying to assert its independence from Morocco for sometime now and Basseterre says no way hosea, that’s all Morocco.
Sticking to the African continent, the Bahamas has signed a visa waiver agreement with Rwanda. That Bahamian passport just got a little stronger. Now if your chartered flight somehow goes down outside Kigali, you can crawl to the nearest hospital without fear of immigration squabbles. That’s the only way I can really see you ending up there to be quite honest.
The easiest path to any African state from the Caribbean is either through London or the Iberian peninsula. That’s Spain and Portugal for the geographically less inclined among us. Look at us learning today!
Besides padding the visa free list, I’m still unsure of the rationale behind this recent push for integration with Africa. The continent is so logistically disconnected from the Caribbean I find it hard to believe that somehow this was the thing we sprung for over say… Latin America.
The trade aspect is non-existent, besides maybe funding and loans from initiatives like Afreximbank you won’t be seeing jollof rice on local menus anytime soon. Tourism is gonna be a hard sell as most destinations in the Caribbean would incur hefty travel fees for a market that is not historically primed for luxury tourism. Most Africans arriving to the region in any significant numbers (since the slavery thing) are mostly on medical exchange programs aimed at making up shortfalls in regional hospital staff.
Even Barbados’ own recent dealings with Ghana and Liberia are a bit eyebrow raising. Guys you have not explored the full range of opportunities provided by our proximity to Latin America. If you can’t even maintain flights to Rio De Janeiro, how are flights to Dakar going to fare any better?
Quick Takes
Saint Kitts starts cruise season early
Caribbean News Now
Saint Kitts and Nevis will welcome its cruise season a month earlier than usual with 10 vessels slated for October. From all accounts the twin island state is doing quite well for itself and so far is the only country in the Lesser Antilles to record 1 million cruise arrivals in a single year back in 2018.
Guyana’s “meteoric” rise as a petrostate
Oil Price
We’re gonna look back at this in amusement someday. I’m still of the mind that Guyana’s metric rise will go more in the direction of Nigeria over Saudi Arabia. Now that its wealth is now literally shooting out of the sea floor, I predict that it will continue to neglect its own tangible development. After all, what’s a paltry population of 750,000 gonna do? Flights between Georgetown and Texas are already in full swing, a likely indicator that most expertise and labor for the newly booming oil industry will be imported rather than sourced from an upskilled local talent pool. I’d love to be proven wrong but the government of the co-operative republic does not have a glittering track record.
Google leases land in Bermuda for Nuvem Cable
Data Center Dynamics
The internet is a series of tubes. If you’re not old enough to get that then… yikes. Maybe I’m just old. Google is adding a new undersea link to the global network via Nuvem, which will connect the Eastern US seaboard to Portugal via Bermuda. Google has leased a coastal plot for the necessary anchor point in Bermuda to the tune of 4.8 million USD. Nuvem adds additional capacity and redundancy for web resources on opposite sides of the pond. It’s not gonna make this episode load any faster but it could prove to be the catalyst for greater transatlantic tech development for Bermuda.
Long Talk: The Eternal Curfew
We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of a venerable friend and once vibrant aspect of our society. Here we mourn the loss of nightlife in Barbados. It was a quaint thing. Long nights in the Gap. Shopping at supermarkets past 9 and chilling at a gas station till the wee hours of the morning. May it rest in peace.
Well it’s dead y’all. What little night life the country had has faded to a pre-pandemic memory that’s becoming increasingly awkward to explain on an island that is a premium tourism destination. Gone are the days when one particular supermarket would boast a closing time of exactly one minute past ten. And they actually honored it. Caribbean islands are understandably mostly sleepy and quaint oversized towns, masquerading as entire countries. Some have outgrown this mold thanks to fortunes from oil, gas and minerals like Trinidad and Tobago. Coupled with a population over 1.3 million, the twin island republic is able to support an economy that continues to function way beyond sunset. But for others like Barbados and Saint Vincent, the village spirit is here to stay.
Prior to the global pandemic, there was significantly more night activity in Barbados’ capital Bridgetown. Today, stores shutter as early as 6 PM and by 9, the city is reduced to almost a ghost town most days. Unlike many countries, which have seen a rebound to norm, Barbados’ opening hours have remained stuck in pandemic mode. It wasn’t just the lockdowns that sealed the fate of our night economy, but a belligerent government which seemed keen to make a point that no one actually challenged, much to the detriment of every bar, corner store and club.
For reasons unknown to even myself, the Barbados government maintained a public curfew well into 2021, first at 7 PM and then slowly easing up to 11. Sometimes a spike in cases would prompt unnecessary snaps back to 8 or 10. But no matter the hour, it carried a disproportionate burden for any establishment that depended on post-work, after hour business. Supermarkets, which are some of the largest logistical operations on the island, needed to close at hours that would allow for cleaning, stocking and the safe transport of their employees, all before the government mandated crackdown. Anyone who didn’t have an “essential worker pass” was at risk of jail or a fine if caught by police. The ever present threat was stress inducing for anyone who wasn’t a government or tourism worker, who needed to move at supersonic speeds to conduct business before the island shut down every day.
Keep in mind many larger economies around the globe had already bucked the curfew trend. The rationale that fewer hours reduced exposure possibility was somewhat understood, but also thrown out the window when the government lifted it entirely for the country’s celebration of becoming a Republic. Perhaps the hope was that COVID was celebrating as well and would be too busy to infect anyone. The curfew mechanic was over used and abused, for an extended period of time which has not just conditioned customers, but the very businesses themselves.
These businesses, the ones that survived, have no incentive to reopen at regular hours anymore. Their customers are now programmed to be in and out by 8 and the supermarkets continue to see pandemic rush revenue due to the urgency of shopping in that time window. Now that they all close 1-2 hours earlier, they don’t need to pay staff and security for those hours either. In essence the country is now in a completely self imposed curfew that is unmistakably taking a toll on the night economy. Chefette, the largest fast food chain on the island has reduced its operating hours down as well, and given the anchor store status it possesses on major streets in the city, this deals yet another blow to any revitalization efforts for Bridgetown.
Listeners this would have been easily preventable if Barbados were actually paying attention to the global trends instead of pretending it was in entirely uncharted waters. I never forgot the praise the head of the WHO piled on the country for its COVID response. I never understood it either. Most of Barbados’ response was poorly thought out, purely reactionary and for the most, rather ineffective in the end considering the virus was ferried right back to our shores via tourism. The island contorted itself well over two years to maintain protocols that we were told were in place to preserve the integrity of our fragile healthcare system. We are well out of the pandemic and that system seems even more broken than during the damn thing. The curfews were part of emergency powers that were held onto by the government, far longer than they should have been and in the end were misused. Now look at us… I can’t get a good pizza slice past 9. (I’ll slap anyone that says Chefette). Someone should be mad at that. I am. And more people should be.