Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, when one
listens to the Honourable Member for St. James North, one
gets the impression that rural Barbados is some place one
should not live. I was wondering where he got that
impression from. But when I look at the manifesto of the
Barbados Labour Party I observed that it is in the
manifesto of the Barbados Labour Party that he got this
impression:
“But many districts in rural Barbados have not kept
pace with modern development due in major part to
the dislocations and loss of employment resulting
from the indiscriminate fragmentation of prime
agricultural land.”
It goes on:
“The decline of traditional communities poses
considerable difficulty in maintaining law and order
and sustaining the stability and prosperity of rural
society. We will rebuild strong, vibrant rural
communities in which our people will find it desirable
to reside, work and play.”
I cannot believe Sir, that this is the same rural
Barbados I know, because if you want to talk about vibrant
communities in Barbados the place to find those vibrant
communities is in rural Barbados where you get the
oneness and sharing of ideas etc. So I cannot see how you
can associate crime with rural Barbados when the
Honourable Attorney General, the Member for St. Thomas,
at one stage in this same Parliament was talking about
closing the police station at Crab Hill, St. Lucy.
Hon. R. C. EASTMOND: On a point of order, Sir, if
I heard the Honourable Member for St. Lucy say that I
associated crime with rural Barbados. I am objecting to any
suggestion that the Honourable Member for St. Lucy is
suggesting that I linked crime to the conditions of rural
Barbados. I never at any point mentioned crime.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Nor did I say so. I said it
was the manifesto that said that
Asides,
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: I am not going to
get involved in that, Mr. Speaker. To structure a rural
development policy based only on agriculture in rural
Barbados is a big flaw because if one has to be serious….
12.00 noon.
Hon. Miss B. A. MILLER: Mr. Speaker, Sir, on a
point of order. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I hold in my hand the
1984 Manifesto of the Barbados Labour Party. I am
looking at page 29 - Rural Development The third
paragraph. No reference whatsoever to crime. It is a grave
misdirection of this Chamber for the Honourable Member
to suggest that the Barbados Labour Party Manifesto is
seeking to link urban development with crime. If I may
read, Sir. The third paragraph says that a decline of
traditional communities poses considerable difficulties in
maintaining law and order and sustaining the stability and
prosperity of rural societies. How can this possibly be
interpreted to import crime?
Mr. SPEAKER: Let us proceed, please.
Mr. D. St E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, I am no
lawyer but law and order …
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: I have no problem with
that, Mr. Speaker, but I am saying, Sir, if we are going to
have a policy which states that agriculture is going to be
the bedrock one would have thought that as I have said in
this Honourable House already that the Barbados
Agricultural Management Company should set up an agroprocessing
plant and I have not seen that so I cannot see
how you can be speaking about agriculture and giving the
impression that the only job that can be created for the
people in rural Barbados is jobs from agriculture.
I am saying, Sir, that in rural Barbados there is room
for hotel plant I am saying, Sir, that at the Naval Base
Facility the facilities are there that a hotel can be
constructed or the buildings can be refurbished where
people in rural Barbados can get employment, and I am not
talking about at the end of the ladder. I am saying that we
have a good opportunity to provide local management for
something that is owned by Barbadians at the Naval Base
in St Lucy.

Further to that, Sir, it gives a good opportunity and I
believe that is what the Honourable Member for Christ
Church West had in his mind when he took a strong stance
against the Naval Base being in St. Lucy because he saw
the opportunity where we could have developed the Naval
Base for poor people in Barbados to get an opportunity to
be involved in the hotel industry in this country.
At North Point, Sir, we have another facility there
which could be developed, and you are talking about
developing rural Barbados? In rural Barbados we have
areas where we could develop health tourism.
Aside.
Mr. D. St E. KELLMAN: No problem, Sir, but it is
in our minds. That is the important thing. Further to that,
Sir, we have the Cove Bay and we have River Bay. These
are all areas that if they are developed properly that we can
provide meaningful employment for our people. I see Pico
Teneriffe, the Drax Hall area, the area of the Lion at Gun
Hill and also in St. Philip. When I hear people talking
about rural Barbados sometimes I wonder where is Ruby
Park and all those developments that you mentioned last
Tuesday. I wonder if it is the same rural Barbados that we
are speaking about.

Mr. Speaker, I hear people come to this House of
Assembly and they would give the impression that nothing
has been done for rural Barbados. It is true that some
things might not have been done that were planned. Prior
to 1976, in the Manifesto of the Democratic Labour Party
there was a plan for a small airport in St Lucy at Spring
Garden. As the Honourable Member for Christ Church
South would know, that is on flat land and it would
have been a good area for a small airport He would also
know that after 1976 the Barbados Labour Party came to
Government and what happened to that plan.
I also remember, Mr. Speaker, that Heywoods was a
project started by the Democratic Labour Party to help
develop Speightstown and we knew that you could not only
have a hotel but you had to have other things. That is why
we bought the St. Joseph Hospital to make sure that when
you develop rural Barbados, especially in the Northern
areas, that you would have the necessary health facilities in
those areas.
I want to go back to the agro-processing plant and I
want to tell you that if you are thinking about agriculture
and you are only thinking about agriculture dealing with
sugar cane you have no plans because I cannot support it.
You are not going to get small people going back into the
planting of sugar cane. If you are going to encourage small
people to be involved in the agricultural industry what you
have to do is set up an agro-processing plant.
This is my plan, Sir. I feel, as I have said before, that
the Barbados Agricultural Management Company is on a
good foundation now to set up an agro-processing plant It
has leased many plantations and it needs to lease some
more.
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: No, no, the Barbados
Agricultural Management Company because there is a need
for the BAMC and the BADMC to come together. The
time is right. We should not have two bodies. I am saying,
Sir, that since 1991, after the structural programme of the
Democratic Labour Party, a lot of Barbadians got involved
in agriculture. Do you know what they were doing, Sir?
They were using the land at the back of their homes and
planting vegetables and this caused us to have gluts. The
only way that we can solve that problem and at the same
time make sure that the consumers in this country can pay
a good price for the produce they are buying is if we
encourage people to mass produce, or encourage everybody
to produce. But, Sir, if you do that you are going to have
a surplus we have to ask ourselves, what are we going to
do with the surplus? Are you going to continue dumping
the surplus, Sir? But if you have a processing plant, Sir,
you can these things. You can do many things with them.
But with the Barbados Agricultural Management Company
which will be given the mandate to buy the vegetables and
distribute the vegetables. When I say distribute the
vegetables, I do not mean locally because I honestly feel
that with the amount of land that they have in their
possession and the technology that they have in place they
should be exporting to the other Caribbean countries and
they should also be exporting to North America. I cannot
understand why we should be buying vegetables from
North America when they can only grow vegetables in
three months out of the year and we have the capacity of
growing vegetables for 12 months and yet we want to buy
vegetables from them.

I cannot understand that, Sir, and I am saying that
with the structure in place at the BAMC that we have a
good foundation to be exporting vegetables to North
America instead of importing, Sir. But we must have the
processing plant, Sir. The small fanners will be able to
grow the vegetables and supply the local market. The
BAMC will be able to plant their vegetables for the export
market. Any surplus from the other plantations and other
growers whether it is the Springhall Land Lease Project
will be able to come to the BAMC and decide whether
they want to export the vegetables or whether they want to
can them.
But I go back to 1967 again, Sir. I do not mind going
back and talking about the no cane blade speech, Sir. I
maintain that, if that statement was taken in the right
context, I would not have to be here today talking about an
agro-processing plant because we would have done it since
1967 and we would not be importing all of these
vegetables from Trinidad and Jamaica. Because we would
have been exporting these vegetables to Trinidad.
One would not believe, Sir, that a country like
Trinidad that depended on oil dollar for all of the years
could now be exporting vegetables to Barbados when we
had the golden opportunity to be exporting vegetables to
Trinidad. If they could have done it in those short years,
think of what would have happened if we had started in
1967.
Mr. Speaker, Sir, we also have to be very careful on
how we are closing schools because in rural Barbados if
we really have a good plan for rural Barbados the evidence
is there that, instead of people leaving rural Barbados to go
to urban Barbados, you are going to have people leaving
urban Barbados to come to rural Barbados. With that
scenario, Sir, you will have a situation where there will be
a great demand for schools in rural Barbados. It might not
happen tomorrow, Sir, but it is going to happen.
Talking about the problems of rural Barbados, Sir,
road improvements. That is true. Road improvements and
lighting - that is true. You see, Mr. Speaker, one has to
understand rural Barbados. Rural Barbados is that part of
Barbados where people as soon as they get money they
construct homes and they do not normally construct a home
where a road is. They construct their home where they own
a piece of land or where the land is owned by someone
who is close to them or a friend that is prepared to rent
that piece of land to them. So what you will get is
1604
a situation where a piece of land that was once used for the
cultivation of sugar cane, a youngster comes along and gets
involved with a lady -1 am being practical about this, Mr.
Speaker - sets up a family and he realizes that he has to
get a home. He goes to his neighbour or his father or
somebody like that, Sir, and he says that we are involved
and we want to marry and we need to have our own roof.
Permission is given that there is a quarter acre of land out
there and you can put your house on it. That is the talk you
hear in rural Barbados. They go and construct the home
and they do not think whether there is a road. They think
of the home. Then someone realizes that Mr. X built a
house next door and the trend goes on. Then you get 12 or
15 houses on one side. Then there is the need for lighting
and there is the need for roads and the other amenities.
So when you are speaking about rural Barbados, rural
Barbados cannot really be compared to urban Barbados
because the thoughts are different You take the Democratic
Labour Party. They might go in and build 20 roads and by
the next 5 years there would be 20 more roads to be built
somewhere else. Because in rural Barbados instead of
waiting on Government to build apartments, Sir, you find
a situation where the individuals look after the building of
the homes, et cetera and then they look to Government to
come along and put in the necessary amenities. That is why
sometimes, Sir, you will find such a situation. You take the
constituency in which I represent, Sir. You can build so
many roads but in 5 years time you will need another 40
because those people get together and help one another to
build houses and when the houses are built the roads are
needed. So nobody has to come and tell me that I sent a
letter for 40 roads because development in rural Barbados,
especially the one that I am representing is growing so fast
that you can never keep pace with the number of roads or
street lighting that you have to put in place. That is why I
can afford to say, Sir, that you have to be very careful of
how you are closing schools down in rural Barbados
because there is going to be a great demand for schools in
rural Barbados within the next five years.
Craft, Sir - we have to ask ourselves what we are
going to do about craft and what we are going to put in
place to make sure that when all of these all-inclusive
hotels are set up on the West Coast how my people in rural
Barbados will be able to attract the tourists into rural
Barbados and get some of the money. Because by the time
all of the hoteliers decide that they want all-inclusive
tourism we have to find a way in rural Barbados whether
it be sports tourism or craft to make sure that we can
attract the tourists into rural Barbados. I am saying that any
rural programme must have things in place to facilitate
craft and sports tourism also, Sir.
We are hearing a lot of talk about how many roads
would be built, et cetera. But I want to remind this House,
Sir, that September 7, 1994, and I know that the new
servants would not forget this date, that we had a lot of
rain in Barbados and many roads in Barbados were
damaged. Yes, Mr. Speaker, many roads in rural Barbados
were damaged because the majority of rain was in rural
Barbados and I have not seen the repair job yet. If you go
through Crab Hill, whether it is No. 1 or No. 2, or if you
go through Stroud Bay Road - Yes, down by your friend
- you would realize, Mr. Speaker, that the roads in rural
Barbados and I am not speaking about new roads but I am
talking about roads that have been destroyed since
September 7.

There is the need to have them repaired and
I do not want to hear that the Democratic Labour Party was
in Government and they did not repair them. Because there
was no need to repair them. It was according to them the
showers of blessing that destroyed the roads in rural
Barbados.
Aside.
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: Mr. Speaker, as I have
said before, rural Barbados is expanding at such a rate that
we need to see the main road going right through Crab
Hill. It needs widening and, if you are discussing rural
Barbados the same road that the Honourable Member for
St. James North mentioned in Stroud Bay leading right
down to the beach and since we are dealing with ways to
attract the tourists away from the hotels on the West Coast
and get them into rural Barbados, I want to see a road built
from the top of Stroud Bay Road right down to the beach
in rural Barbados. In that way the youngsters in Stroud Bay
Road will be able to set up their craft centres, et cetera and
get some of the tourist dollars in the same way as the
people on the West Coast who believe that all of the
money belong to them. My people in rural Barbados might
get some, yes, as you would know.
I also would like to see, Sir, in developing rural
Barbados a bridge constructed from…yes, this is part of
rural development in rural Barbados…River Bay to Bishops.

I would like to see a bridge constructed from River
Bay leading to Bishops, Sir, so that when they pass through
River Bay they can go straight on to Bishops, on to the
Cove. Free access, Sir. We will save some foreign
exchange, we will not have to waste so much gas driving
right around. We would like to see a lot of things being
done in rural Barbados, and I would really encourage you,
Sir, to take a trip to rural Barbados in the constituency of
St. Lucy and you will realise that there are certain
amenities. We do not mind it being called rural, but we
like the development that is going on. Once you come and
you do the things I have asked since September, once you
do the things in rural Barbados, little Barbados would be a
paradise, but the problem is not doing the things, it is
doing them correctly.

I hope that after the notes have been taken and the
policies put in place - and I hope they will accept what I
have said and put them in place - because if I observe that
they are putting the right things in place, I also have
another master plan for them which I will not give them
now. They have to show me that they are genuinely willing
to assist - I cannot really use the word “assist” after the
work that the Democratic Labour Party has done in rural
Barbados - after they have shown me that they are willing
to continue the policy…..
Aside,
Mr. D. St. E. KELLMAN: That is not true. Mr.
Speaker, I saw in the newspaper that there was this $200
million or $400 million rural programme and I saw that the
main beneficiary of this rural programme was the
Honourable Member for St. George South and the
Honourable Member for St. Lucy. That was started in the
90s. I do not know, I have to investigate it I do not know
if they have plans for isolating St. George South and St.
Lucy and that is why it was in the newspaper, but I know
that there was a rural programme left by the Democratic
Labour Party, which was started, I know that we started to
get some benefits and I am aware that my friend got some.
All I am asking is that they will continue the rural
programme and not only do the highways, but that they
will do the tenantries, because there is a belief in this
country that once you build highways people in rural
Barbados will benefit. That is not true, Sir. When you build
a tenantry road, the people in rural Barbados will benefit
from it, because they know how to do the necessary to
improve their infrastructure, el cetera.
I also want to see in rural Barbados the infrastructure
in place, the same thing you have in urban Barbados. I do
not see why a constituent of mine would have to leave St.
Lucy to come to Bridgetown to get a passport. I am not
saying that you should put an office in St. Lucy, but you
can put it in Speightstown. I also would like to see that my
constituent should not have to go to the Pine to renew his
driver’s licence. He should be able to do the same thing in
Speightstown. Likewise, those from St. Philip have to go
to Christ Church, as the Honourable Member for St. Philip
North will agree. I am saying that if you put a proper
facility in place in rural Barbados, where the people from
rural Barbados can access these services, the demand for
having to go into urban Barbados would not be there and
they would be able to attract people coming the other way.
When you are coming to this House fo speak about
rural Barbados and you are going to bring a half-baked
policy, I cannot support it. I want to see everything, I want
to see the infrastructure in place, because it is a waste of
time asking people to go and do certain things and at the
end of the day they do not have any place to market their
produce or to provide services. These things must be put in
place and if you put these things in place the people will
believe that you are serious and they would give you 100%
backing.
I remember when we wanted to put an agricultural
policy in place to export vegetables. We set up the BMC
and then encouraged the farmers to produce more. The
farmers did it because they were aware that the Democratic
Labour Party had set up the BMC and they could produce
and send their produce to the BMC. If we did not do that,
the farmers would have ignored us, but they knew that the
BMC was there to buy the vegetables, and they knew the
BMC would have bought their produce no matter what
quantity they produced. I am saying that if you want to
develop agriculture in rural Barbados you have to find
outlets for the farmers to gain their confidence that there
will be somewhere for them to sell their produce at the end
of the day.
One has to be very careful. I do not mind large
farmers taking advantage of the market, but sometimes we
have to be very careful how we encourage small farmers to
get involved in things. If you take a drive from Warren’s
roundabout, Sir, to Mobil gas station in Redmans Village,
you would see a large structure where very soon you would
be able to buy all the produce you want. That produce
would not be bought from small farmers, it would be
grown on large estates in Barbados. What you are having
is that the small men, as I refer to them, in Redmans
Village who would normally sell their vegetables at the
street corners are going to be competing now with some
large farmers who have come together and applied some
more pressure to my people. I am saying if you have a
rural programme and the large farmers are coming together
- and they have the land, they know where to put up their
structures. The small farmers cannot do it, because they
find sometimes that they would go and set up, let us say,
in Redmans Village and three days after something else is
opened and somebody will come to them and say: “This is
my land, you will have to move.” It is those people we
have to protect, If we are encouraging people to go into
agriculture, we must first convince those people that we
have outlets for them and avenues where they will be able
to get rid of their produce.
Sir, I would also like to see the Minister of Tourism
encouraging or asking the Barbados Tourism Authority to
get together with the various groups in rural Barbados -
and if she wants advice on this she can seek the advice
from the Honourable Member for St. Michael South East
- to see how we can develop our community tourism, our
sports tourism, so that when the people come off the cruise
liners they can come into the districts and be part of our
community.

Mr. Speaker, tourism in Barbados has been developed
by the people of Barbados and what saddens me is to see
that there is a group of people who are forgetting that
tourism was developed by the people of Barbados and they
are trying now to alienate the tourists from Barbadians. We
are fast asking Barbadians to behave like Jamaicans or
other Caribbean people, or other people in the world, where
they see tourists as not part of them. Tourism is supposed
to be our business, so if tourism is our business we must
be part of the business. We cannot just be people seen as
those who would just say “Yes, Sir”, “Yes, Ma’am” and
that is all, we must share in the cake; and in order for us
to appreciate it more, we must get some of the benefits.

Mr. Speaker, I have already said what I had to say on
all-inclusive tourism and I will not say anymore. The day
is going to come in this country when we will brag that we
are making $3 billion from tourism and then the bankers in
New York or in Miami will be saying that they have
accounts holding for people in tourism for $5 or $6 billion
dollars and it will not be of any benefit to the people here
in Barbados. Then you will get a situation where the
bankers down town will start to cry out and they will start
supporting the small people in the districts in rural
Baibados. Do you know why, Mr. Speaker? Because the
hoteliers will not be borrowing from them anymore. They
will be using some of their funds overseas so they will start
feeling the crunch and they then will understand the
feelings of the small people in this country.
It seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that once people are
getting through they do not care wh$t happens to other
people, but that is not me. 1 represent small people in this
country and whenever 1 see something happening to my
people I must speak out against it. That is why I will speak
out, whether it be all-inclusive tourism, whether it be
people who decide to set out large plants to run out small
people or not, I will speak out, Sir. Thank you very much.