From: Anthony_Maillard@Mdd.comm.mot.com (Anthony Maillard)
Subject: Barbados ( If Yuh Int'rested)
Followup-To: soc.culture.caribbean
Organization: Motorola, Mobile Data Division - Seattle, WA
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 03:14:50 GMT

These articles may have been posted before. If they have ....sorry.
Christmas break and all that.
All copyright sources are listed but some articles have been edited.

Anthony Maillard - If Yuh Int'rested



Barbados


Island To Get Funds For Economic Management

Bridgetown, Dec 2 (ips) The Barbados government is to receive help to
improve the island's economic management as part of a new package of
assistance from the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) totaling 579,000 U.S.
dollars.
The UNDP-funded programmes are expected to be finalised by year's end and
put in place next year, according to that organisation's resident
representative Jan Wahlberg. Noting that specific areas are still to be
identified by the Erskine Sandiford administration, Wahlberg said steps to
improve the efficiency of the public service and social programmes to
cushion the effects of structural adjustment are likely to be included in
the new programme. The Barbados economy, after years of being the most
buoyant in the Caribbean, collapsed in 1991.
Wahlberg explained that 360,000 U.S. dollars of the UNDP loan funds will be
available almost immediately and the remainder in three years' time when
the Eastern Caribbean island is expected to reimburse the U.N. agency for
the first tranche.
Barbados no longer qualifies for grant funds because of its per capita
income (now 6,880 U.S. dollars) and so is categorised as a net contributor
country. The island is eligible however, for assistance from other U.N.
agencies.
''So that the man in the street can understand where they're heading,'' he
said. The UNDP representative believes there will be interest in getting
help for re-training programmes for persons who have been laid off and
support to start small businesses.
Since the economic crisis, 4,000 mainly civil service jobs have been cut.
''Clearly that is where one has to go. There's not going to be any massive
employment programmes, certainly not in the near future,'' he told ips. 
The island's main foreign exchange earner is tourism but development for
the industry has damaged the environment. The water at the Carlisle bay
beach, near the capital Bridgetown is polluted and the sewage system in
areas surrounding Accra beach on the south coast is inadequate.
''From a tourism point of view that is what you are marketing, the beauty
of the islands and if that's endangered in any way the country becomes less
and less attractive ... I think there is an urgent need to have a firm
action plan to deal with these issues, '' Wahlberg said. 

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.



Barbadians Move To Outlaw Blue Movies.

Barbados authorities are moving to outlaw porn movies. Under a new bill
which seeks to broaden the legal definition of film & extend the powers of
the government film censorship board. The proposed film act is intended to
replace a 1940 law. The ciematograph film censorship act in which the
definition of film is limited to ciematograph film. After the bill was
introduced, former cultural minister David Bowen, who was switched to
agriculture in a cabinet reshuffle said that the definition of film was
being broaden to include video tapes and other media which produced visual
images as moving pictures. The bill which was later referred to a select
parliamentary committee at the request of the opposition would bring video
shops - some of which rent blue movies under the counter - under the
scrutiny of the film censorship board. Films to be banned under the act are
those showing human or animal activities or acts of force or restraint
associated with such activities; mutilation or torture of or other acts of
gross violence towards humans or animals; human genital organs or human
urinary or excretory functions.
Persons who supply un-approved videos to the public face fines of up to
$25,000 US. and or 2 years imprisonment.
The bill also seeks to establish a new classification system for films here
in which the ratings will include family, parental permission, adult
supervision and adult.
Bowen chided the state run Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation for showing
adult movies on its television service. New culture minister, Evelyn
Graves also expressed dissatisfaction with some of the movies CBC
television was offering the public.
Opposition leader, Henry Ford, however, described the bill as defective and
suggested it be sent to a select committee for further consideration. Ford
said the government in seeking to clamp down on film which were an obvious
offense to public morality, should be careful not to intrude into what
people did in their bedroom. 
He also said the act should seek to offer greater protection to Barbadian
artists in respect of their work to encourage the growth of the cultural
industry.