Here is NEWS that was mailed to my readers on March 16, 1999:-
March 16, 1999 BAJAN NEWS ---------- POLLUTING PARADISE ------------------ I have continually deplored the dumping of garbage all over Barbados... I have photographed it when out on my expeditions into the "bush"... at last something is about to be done about it... one million pounds of GARBAGE is being removed from Sailor Gully in St. Peter by order of the "authorities".... the $20,000 operation, which involves private sector assistance, comes as a result of the discoveries of the health inspectors who discovered Culex mosquito larvae with over 40 mosquito breeding sites in the gully. I am hoping for agressive new laws that will jail these illegal dumpers that are polluting paradise... let the clean-up crews head for Belle Gully next and keep going... don't stop till paradise is restored ! SACRILEGE --------- Churches hit 12 times already for the year... among the stolen items, microphones, amplifiers and speakers are the most popular targets... but communion goblets and plates are a close second, since many of these are gold in the established churches. Pastors have come to realize they need more than prayer to guard their property.... electronic surveillance and buglar alarms, guard dogs, barbed wire and bars.... and one church (Emmanuel Baptist) has the men on roster for nightly guard duty. Except when services are being held churches are locked and bolted .. however there are still daring Sunday morning robberies... in which the entire collection can disappear in the twinkling of an eye.. however one pastor argues that should they try that in his church some of his BIG men and rather hostile women might get violent.... they aint going just sit an watch their money dissapear... POLICE BRUTALITY ---------------- Two weeks ago the United States issued a human rights report decrying police brutality in Barbados, beating of suspects and overcrowding in jail. On Friday, the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) announced that five policemen were guilty of "breaking the rules" while investigating a recent bank heist.. the results of the internal investigation has been forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions for his attention. For a long time I have been hearing about fellows getting hold for various offences and striped of their clothes and shocked in the balls with electric wire to make them confess... but I never paid it much mind... but the other day one desperate guy who they were trying to apprehend for "questioning" climbed an electric pole and walked along the high tension wire causing a "stir" in the City.... lawmen prodded and poked at him with sticks till he eventually fell off the wire and into their clutches... Maybe he will get a double beating for giving them so much trouble. .. who knows ? But human rights or not dont mess wid our LAWMEN... it might be a long time before the "appeal" gets heard... and a lot could happen to you while you are waiting on it. You gotta respect de LAW.... it's as simple as dat... and it's a bad day for everybody when people have scant regard for laws and justice. An Australian tourist was held last week for beating a minibus man.... and regardless of what I have said in past UPDATES about minibus men... this tourist was in de WRONG.... Apparently he jumped into the van and ordered the minibus man to take him where he wanted to go... the van was not going in that direction... and the driver did not take too kindly to being ordered about in his own vehicle.. that is when the fight ensued. That Australian is lucky.... he got off with just a fine... but be warned you cant expect to come in we island and behave like you is a bad john... any more than Bajans can expect to go way and do as dey like in other countries. RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN THE USA -------------------------------- This is a BAJAN newsletter and generally we dont talk bout what is happening elsewhere... but a concerned Bajan reader asked me to publish these items... lest it be construed that I have dropped the torch.... in fighting for FREEDOM from OPPRESSION for our people.... which are still being discriminated against because of skin color or other EQUALLY STUPID reasons. >>>>>>>Subject: Discrimination extends to Caller ID usage >>>>>>>30 November 1998 >>>>>>> >>>>>>>DATELINE-Detroit, Mich. >>>>>>> >>>>>>>Color ID >>>>>> >>>>>>A Detroit newspaper investigation reveals that local businesses >>>>>>>are using Caller ID to screen calls originating from traditionally >>>>>>>African-American neighborhoods. >>>>>>> >>>>>>>A Michigan daily newspaper has published an investigative report >>>>>>>outlining a statewide conspiracy to violate the civil rights of >>>>>>>African-Americans. >>>>>>>The report accuses merchants in several major metropolitan areas of >>>denying >>>>>>>service to residents of traditionally African-American neighborhoods. A >>>>>>>month- long undercover investigation conducted by the Detroit Advertiser >>>>>>>revealed that store owners would routinely use the Caller ID function of >>>>>>>their telephone service to screen out calls originating from "bad >>>>>>>neighborhoods." >>>>>>> >>>>>>>The Michigan daily's investigation even found a number of electronics >>>>>>>vendors hawking so-called Color ID Boxes specially programmed to >detect a >>>>>>>preset list of telephone prefixes. The list, also available on certain >>>>>>>Internet sites, indexes the prefixes of predominantly African-American >>>>>>>and Latino neighborhoods throughout the state of Michigan. >>>>>>> >>>>>>>Among the cities mentioned in the Advertiser report are Detroit, Flint, >>>>>>>Lansing, and Grand Rapids. The Color ID scandal began to unravel more >>>>>>>than a month ago when a Detroit high school teacher moved across the >>>>>>>street and began having problems ordering in food. Willie Kennedy, who >>>>>>>teaches calculus at Detroit's Coleman A. Young Jr. High School, recalls: >>>>>>>"For the longest time I didn't know what was wrong, I thought there was >>>>>>>something wrong with my phone." It was Kennedy's inability to order a >>>>>>>pizza on her first night in her new apartment that led to revelations of >>>>>>>systemic discriminatory practices. >>>>>>> >>>>>>>When the schoolteacher moved from the west to the east side of Woodward >>>>>>>Avenue in mid-October she was assigned a new prefix by the telephone >>>>>>>company. From that point on she was unable to call in her weekly >order of >>>>>>>a "Friday Night Special" pie from a local pizza joint. "The phone just >>>rang >>>>>>>and rang and it was absolutely the same number I'd dialed the week >>>>>>>before," Kennedy told the Advertiser. "It was so strange. I walked >>>>>>>across the street to my old house and got through right away." At first >>>>>>>Kennedy believed her telephone line was at fault but a quick test of >>>>>>>other numbers soon dispelled that theory. >>>>>>> >>>>>>>The mystery would be solved less than 40 minutes later, when her pizza >>>>>>>order arrived. After Kennedy joked about the ordeal with the delivery >>>>person, >>>>>>>the latter asked "Well, what's your telephone number?" It was then that >>>the >>>>>>>restaurant employee explained that certain exchanges were being >"filtered >>>>>>>out" by the pizzeria to "insure the safety of its delivery people." The >>>>>>>delivery person also mentioned that this was "standard procedure" among >>>>>>>many of the businesses that service Detroit's fringe neighborhoods. >>>>>>> >>>>>>>It is illegal in Michigan for a business to refuse service to a location >>>>>>>within its stated delivery area. To avoid breaking this law, the >>>>>>>Advertiser asserts that some businesses use Caller ID to avoid phone >>>>>>>calls from "risky" addresses. >>>>>> >>>>>> After being tipped off, Kennedy began >>>>>>>going through the phone book calling up establishments which ostensibly >>>>>>>offer delivery service to her neighborhood. She subsequently found she >>>>>>>could no longer reach more than a third of those businesses from her new >>>>>>>phone number. Shortly thereafter, Kennedy contacted a reporter >friend at >>>>>>>the Detroit Free Press who then passed the news to a staffer at the more >>>>>>>aggressive Detroit Advertiser. Within a month, a team of journalists >from >>>>>>>the Advertiser had confirmed similar discriminatory usage of Caller >ID in >>>>>>>over a dozen municipalities statewide. By November 16, when the >>>>>>>Advertiser ran as its lead story the first of a four part series >entitled >>>>>>>"Color ID," the Michigan State District Attorney's Office had already >>>>>announced it intended to "conduct a full investigation of the matter." >>>>>> >>>>>> Jean-Paul Barloe, a spokesperson for >>>>>>>Ameritech Inc., was quick to distance the telephone company from the >>>>>>>growing controversy by insisting that "Caller ID and related >technologies >>>>>>>are not the culprit here." Barloe went on to add that his company >had no >>>>>>>prior knowledge of the special Color ID Boxes or the Internet sites >>>>>>>devoted to screening minority telephone prefixes. >>>>>> >>>>>>As for Kennedy, she now >>>>>>>avoids even the possibility of being screened out by using a cellular >>>>>>>telephone to make outgoing calls even when she's at home. "The funny >>>>>>>thing is," Kennedy jokes, "I'm like the last person on this side of the >>>>>>>street to switch to cellular." >>> >>> > (Here followed something about Tommy Hilfiger and Ophrah Winfrey.... apparently it was untrue...... so no need to place it here) Until next time.... I gone.
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