TALK BACK: Readers full of praise for GG-designate

By Carol Martindale | Mon, May 28, 2012 - 12:00 AM

Hearty congratulations have gone out from our online audience to retired High Court Judge Elliott Belgrave, who will be sworn in as Barbados’ seventh Governor General on Friday.

Prime Minister Freundel Stuart made the announcement last Tuesday in Parliament.

Many welcomed the news and quickly posted their congratulatory messages on our Facebook page, as well as NATIONNews.

Yogi Ni: Justice Belgrave is well deserving of the post of Governor General of Barbados. He has served his country well. May he continue to serve the people of Barbados for a long time. May God grant him good health to enable him to perform his duties to the best of his ability.

Pan Wallie: Congratulations and best wishes to you, Justice Belgrave. A really sweet, bright, no-nonsense man with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working.

Lisa Greaves: I am heartened to learn of this. The Prime Minister has made a wise decision. Justice Belgrave has served the country well in other capacities and will continue to do so when he is appointed officially. Congrats!

Our readers were also happy to learn that this country had won the Silver Gilt Certificate at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show in England. Some members from the Barbados Horticultural Society (BHS) pulled together the beautiful exhibit Summer Holiday.

Yvonne Inniss: Lovely; well done!

Judy Whitehead: Congrats to the BHS team.

The other major story which grabbed the attention of our readers highlighted the concerns of residents of Lakes Folly, The City, who said they were under siege from people holding illegal dub fetes in an area known as “Gaza” on Friday and Saturday nights. Many residents are concerned about the noise and the violence that follows these fetes.

JCP: Licences were always needed to keep a fete; [the law] was just never enforced. You think you could blast music like that in America? You would get one or two warnings. The third time the police show up at your place. They are free to tell everybody to go home or get arrested for disturbing the peace, confiscate the sound equipment and auction it off. This whole Gaza and Gully thing came from Jamaica. That’s what they sing about in their music. Some Barbadians wanted to follow fashion and copy it.

Sylent River: How are dub fetes illegal? The main issue is the noise. It’s just a lot of people with a speaker or two. I guess if you live in the area it would be an issue, but I’d rather have young men out enjoying themselves than out on the streets causing havoc.