Friday, August 22, 2014

Barbados’ UWI poor deserted

Barbados’ UWI poor deserted

By Tennyson Joseph

The beginning of the first academic year in which Barbadian citizens have been asked to shoulder the burden of paying tuition fees at the University of the West Indies (UWI) has already begun to bring home the negative impact of the policy upon the poor and the university itself.

The first indicators of the decline in UWI enrolment suggest clearly that both the poor and the UWI will suffer a heavy blow and that the Government, in its unidimensional genuflection to International Monetary Fund anti-social, democratic social policy, had not given sufficient thought to the full social consequence of the reversal of Errol Barrow’s free education policy.

Had it not been witnessed, it would have been difficult to believe that entire programmes such as linguistics, history and French would have recorded total acceptance of offers in the first year as low as six, and four, and the total for the Faculty of Humanities a paltry 90 and the Faculty of Social Sciences about 600. Acceptance of offers, not actual registration!

Given the confusion over bursaries, actual registration will be lower.

A university without history, French, languages, philosophy and political science exists as such in name only. Clearly, if the Government’s tertiary education policy is not reversed or modified, the Cave Hill Campus will be reduced to a pale shadow of what a university is supposed to be.

The deeper story behind these sharp declines in the Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences is a heartbreaking tale of abandonment of the Barbadian poor, since these declines are negligible in the Faculties of Law and Medical Sciences, where the more well-off can afford to pay and where the investment risks are lower.

Indeed, the anecdotal evidence of the class cleavage was revealed clearly at the anaemic queue before the cashier window at Cave Hill. Gone were the long lines of bussed students overflowing outwards through the entrance door.

Instead, a select few of the fortunate students accompanied by cheque-signing parents or self-driven in bulging SUVs was the new reality.

The emptiness of the slogan about Barbados being a society and not just an economy, which was hidden from the wise and the prudent, is now revealed to the babes and the suckling, given that both society and economy are being pushed downwards.

The incidents of crime and gun-related homicides perpetrated by young males, which the Minister of Education felt compelled to address last week, are likely to increase, as more of the young men who would have been occupied with university study are now thrown onto the blocks for a free education of an entirely different sort.

Those secretly resentful of UWI may gloat, but rest assured the chickens are coming home to roost.

Despite the economic urgency, a progressive government would have felt compelled to explore other alternatives.

The poor and powerless were abandoned far too easily.

—Courtesy Barbados Nation

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Tridents On Top


"The Barbados Tridents defeated the Guyana Amazon Warriors by eight runs on the Duckworth Lewis method to win a rain-affected 2014 Limacol Caribbean Premier League Twenty20 final and a place in this year’s Champions League T20.

The Tridents batted first and made 152 for six off their 20 overs thanks to half-centuries from Dwayne Smith (59 off 52 balls) and Shoaib Malik 55 off 42 balls).

For the second straight year, the Guyana Amazon Warriors were left heartbroken following the final after they were restricted to 107 for four after 15.5 overs when rain intervened for the fourth and final time in what was an anticlimactic end to the match.

When the Tridents were asked to take first strike, they suffered two early losses when Kirshmar Santokie sent back William Perkins in the first over and then Jason Holder in the third.

Both Holder and Perkins failed to get off the mark but half centuries from Dwayne Smith and Shoaib Malik as well as 18 extras from the Amazon Warriors made up for the early Tridents setbacks.

The pair battled through a couple of rain delays to put the innings back on track, taking the score from eight for two in the third over to 96 for three in the 13th.

Smith, who struck three sixes and six fours was brutal to pacer Ronsford Beaton who was dispatched for 17 runs in his first over.

"Sunil Narine had better luck against the Bajans, striking with the final two balls of his first over to send back Smith and then Tridents skipper Kieron Pollard for a first ball duck with the score on 96 for four after 13 overs.

Malik then stepped up with a six and a four off Santokie in the 19th over to bring up his half century.

That over went for 15 and the final over bowled by Beaton went for 16 as the Tridents got themselves to a competitive total.

It was never smooth sailing for the Warriors who lost an early wicket when Martin Guptill departed in the third over.

The Warriors then lost the leading scorer in the competition, Lendl Simmons for just 20 off 26 balls in the ninth with the score on 49 and needed something special to get themselves back into contention.

Mohammad Hafeez tried to give them impetus with a 27-ball 28 which included two sixes and a four but he skied a Jason Holder delivery to Rayad Emrit as they slipped further behind at 74 for three off 12.2 overs.

Jimmy Neesham gloved one behind three balls later and the Tridents were in full control right up until the final rain delay that saw the match and the Amazon Warriors’ hopes end prematurely."

Source: Trinidad Express