#Government of Barbados

[allottavabassa]

Congratulations to Hyrule for being one of five countries with women as both head of state and head of government

[afrotumble]

Mia Mottley | TIME100

[aconcernedgp]

also butting in as someone from the west country to say that it's not just the north that has it really bad! fun fact, ten people in my county own one sixth* of the land in it! that includes the current MP, a descendant of old aristocracy who was supposedly told to hide his aristocratic name** by David Cameron in the 2010 General Election. It's a really common misconception that southerners tend to be more well off than northerners, but the reality is that the majority of the richest people and institutions are in the south of the country.

On top of that, we're also held back by the fact that the south is a Conservative Party stronghold, which means that the people who end up influencing policy down here are people who want to preserve the status quo. Not to mention the fact that, even in the UK, people from my part of the country are stereotyped as yokel farmers.

On top of that, with the current cost of living crisis, parts of the south cost more, too. For example, in a comparison between Liverpool and Bournemouth, People living in Liverpool have a 43.6% higher *** purchasing power than in Bournemouth. that means a person earning 40,000 pounds in salary in Bournemouth can afford the same amount as a person earning 30,000 in Liverpool. And it is extremely evident around here. I myself have to work just to pay for my own ability to go to school at the moment because nothing pays enough anymore. At the same time, we can't qualify for bursary because even though we as a household are earning more than the average salary of British Citizens, that money doesn't go as far.

The truth of the matter is that pretty much everywhere in England is extremely divided in terms of economy, and the past fourteen years of Conservative governance has all but completely reversed any attempts at improvement for the lowest rungs of society.

If you're gonna insult us, keep this kinda stuff in mind. and eat the rich

LINKS:

*The ten landowners who own one-sixth of Dorset – Who owns England?

**Richard Drax hits out over name change claims | Dorset Echo

***Cost of Living Comparison Between Bournemouth, United Kingdom And Liverpool, United Kingdom (numbeo.com)

I say this as an Irish person who is very anti-British imperialism for very obvious reasons, but I think a lot of people need to think about just who they mean when they insult English people or make fun of English accents.

for a start, the English accent that is almost universally mocked is a working-class accent. light-hearted joking is fine, everyone does it, but the insinuation that the English are all uneducated, incapable of pronouncing things "correctly", or jokes about how they all have bad teeth and that's why they can't talk "right"? it's straight-up classist.

class divisions in England have not changed much since the Victorian era. a lot of it has been forced underground, but it's very much alive. people with working class accents are judged, unfairly profiled, and often lose out on job opportunities. certain fields are completely closed to them. there is an entire system within a system that ferries upper class people through private schools and elite universities, right into the highest jobs in business and government -- the ""sexy"" ~British~ accent that a lot of foreigners find preferable, and see as the "proper" English accent, is the accent of the upper class and is shockingly rare once you get out of London amd the surrounding counties. the accents being mocked are those of regular, working-class people, and historically, working-class English people have always been the first victims of British imperialist greed.

when we insult "the English", we need to be sure that we're not throwing fellow victims under the bus. working-class English people, especially from the northern counties, often live in extremely deprived areas with some of the highest poverty rates in Europe. slums are very much still alive here, and the government has zero interest in changing the class system that so benefits it. I support the English working class the same way as I'd support any other victims of oppression, prejudice, or discrimination, so I think it's probably better that everyone went back to ridiculing the royal family and the politicians and left regional dialects and accents from historically deprived areas alone.

[nakeddeparture]

Barbados. The government houses at Lancaster look great - just the right size.

https://youtu.be/WqHoBI1nMXQ

You too should do a walkthrough and let people here know what you think about the layout. Naked!!

Like. Share. Subscribe.

[sankofaspirit]

List of notable slave revolts in the Caribbean during the Transatlantic/European Slave Trade. These Slave revolts emphasise the collective struggle for liberation, unity, and self-determination:

1. The 1638 St. Kitts Slave Revolt: Enslaved Africans resisted early attempts by European colonizers to dominate the island. This uprising showed that from the very beginning, Africans refused to accept their dehumanization and fought to retain their dignity.

2. Barbados Revolt of 1649: Africans in Barbados challenged the plantation system, laying the foundation for future resistance. This revolt demonstrated the shared struggle of African people across different colonies.

3. The 1675 Curaçao Revolt: Enslaved Africans, many of whom were from the Akan and other warrior societies in West Africa, plotted to overthrow the Dutch colonists. This revolt highlighted the persistence of African resistance traditions, even in exile.

4. Tacky’s War (1760, Jamaica) :Led by Akan warriors like Tacky, this revolt was deeply rooted in African military traditions. It was a call for liberation and unity, showcasing the resilience of African cultures under enslavement.

5. Berbice Slave Rebellion (1763, Guyana): Under Cuffy (Kofi), enslaved Africans controlled parts of Berbice for over a year. This Pan-African hero envisioned an independent African-led society in the Americas, directly challenging European colonialism.

6. Coromantee Wars (1765–1766, Jamaica): Enslaved Akan Africans led revolts against British plantation owners. The unity of African warriors in organizing these rebellions demonstrated the spirit of Pan-Africanism.

7. 1773 Grenada Revolt: Africans resisted their French and British oppressors, reflecting a Pan-African vision of collective liberation and defiance against European exploitation.

8. The First Maroon War (1728–1740, Jamaica): Maroons, descendants of escaped Africans, fought the British for autonomy. Their victory in establishing independent territories was a significant Pan-African triumph.

9. Haitian Revolution (1791–1804, Saint-Domingue): The most powerful expression of Pan-Africanism in the Caribbean, this revolution united enslaved Africans and free people of color. Leaders like Toussaint Louverture, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and others overthrew French rule, ending slavery and creating the first Black republic.

10. Bussa’s Rebellion (1816, Barbados): Bussa, inspired by the African tradition of communal resistance, led this uprising against British slavery. It echoed Garveyite ideals of self-determination before their time.

11. Demerara Rebellion (1823, Guyana): Led by Jack Gladstone and Quamina, this revolt sought freedom for Africans in British Guiana. It reflected a broader Pan-African consciousness and the demand for dignity and justice.

12. Baptist War (1831–1832, Jamaica): Also known as the Christmas Rebellion, it was led by Samuel Sharpe, who united enslaved people under the banner of Christian and African liberation. This revolt hastened the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.

13. The Second Maroon War (1795–1796, Jamaica): Maroons resisted British incursions into their autonomy, preserving their African-rooted systems of governance and solidarity.

14. 1837 St. Lucia Revolt: Enslaved Africans rose up against British oppression. Their resistance embodied Pan-African ideals, rejecting the colonial domination of their homeland.

15. Trinidad Slave Revolt (1838): Enslaved Africans on the brink of emancipation staged a revolt, demonstrating their refusal to accept anything less than complete freedom.

16. 1733 St. John Slave Revolt (Virgin Islands): Enslaved Africans, many of whom were Akan, took control of the Danish colony for several months. Their strategic unity reflected a Pan-African ethos.

17. Leeward Maroon Wars (1730s–1740s, Antigua and Jamaica): These wars involved guerrilla tactics by escaped Africans who maintained cultural and spiritual links to their homelands.

18. Martinique Revolt (1833): Enslaved Africans rose up against French rule, signalling the unity of Black people against colonial oppressors across linguistic and cultural divides.

19. Santo Domingo Resistance (1795, Dominican Republic): Inspired by the Haitian Revolution, enslaved Africans rebelled, resisting both Spanish and French colonial systems.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Made to labor for nearly double the hours of British yeoman farmers, African slaves would have an average working life of just seven years on the plantations of Brazil and the Caribbean. In the 1630s, a Jesuit plantation manager in Bahia, Brazil, wrote that the high mortality among slaves required an annual 6 percent replacement rate. A Barbados planter reported the same rate of slave losses, saying that “he that hath but a hundred Negroes should buy half a dozen every year to keep up his flock.” As long as the transatlantic human traffic could feed this voracious appetite for fresh slaves, plantations proved sustainable and highly profitable. Indeed, an econometric analysis of US agriculture in the early nineteenth century found the Southern slave plantation was 35 percent more efficient than a northern family farm. By literally working massed teams of slaves to death, the tropical sugar plantation maximized the energy output of the human body, creating a cruel economic logic that would drive the relentless expansion of the slave trade for the next four hundred years.

Alfred W. McCoy, To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change

[fatehbaz]

when the Empire's researchers realized that the cause of the ecological devastation was the Empire:

much to consider.

on the motives and origins of some forms of imperial "environmentalism".

---

Since the material resources of colonies were vital to the metropolitan centers of empire, some of the earliest conservation practices were established outside of Europe [but established for the purpose of protecting the natural resources desired by metropolitan Europe]. [...] [T]ropical island colonies were crucial laboratories of empire, as garden incubators for the transplantation of peoples [slaves, laborers] and plants [cash crops] and for generating the European revival of Edenic discourse. Eighteenth-century environmentalism derived from colonial island contexts in which limited space and an ideological model of utopia contributed to new models of conservation [...]. [T]ropical island colonies were at the vanguard of establishing forest reserves and environmental legislation [...]. These forest reserves, like those established in New England and South Africa, did not necessarily represent "an atavistic interest in preserving the 'natural' [...]" but rather a "more manipulative and power-conscious interest in constructing a new landscape by planting trees [in monoculture or otherwise modified plantations] [...]."

Text by: Elizabeth DeLoughrey and George B. Handley. "Introduction: Toward an Aesthetics of the Earth". Postcolonial Ecologies: Literatures of the Environment, edited by DeLoughrey and Handley. 2011. [Text within brackets added by me for clarity and context.]

---

British colonial forestry was arguably one of the most extensive imperial frameworks of scientific natural resource management anywhere [...]. [T]he roots of conservation [...] lay in the role played by scientific communities in the colonial periphery [...]. In India, [...] in 1805 [...] the court of directors of the East India Company sent a dispatch enquiring [...] [about] the Royal Navy [and its potential use of wood from Malabar's forests] [...]. This enquiry led to the appointment of a forest committee which reported that extensive deforestation had taken place and recommended the protection of the Malabar forests on grounds that they were valuable property. [...] [T]o step up the extraction of teak to augment the strength of the Royal Navy [...] [b]etween 1806 and 1823, the forests of Malabar were protected by means of this monopoly [...]. The history of British colonial forestry, however, took a decisive turn in the post-1860 period [...]. Following the revolt of 1857, the government of India sought to pursue active interventionist policies [...]. Experts were deployed as 'scientific soldiers' and new agencies established. [...] The paradigm [...] was articulated explicitly in the first conference [Empire Forestry Conference] by R.S. Troup, a former Indian forest service officer and then the professor of forestry at Oxford. Troup began by sketching a linear model of the development of human relationship with forests, arguing that the human-forest interaction in civilized societies usually went through three distinct phases - destruction, conservation, and economic management. Conservation was a ‘wise and necessary measure’ but it was ‘only a stage towards the problem of how best to utilise the forest resources of the empire’. The ultimate ideal was economic management, [...] to exploit 'to the full [...]' and provide regular supplies [...] to industry.

Text by: Ravi Rajan. "Modernizing Nature: Tropical Forestry and the Contested Legacy of British Colonial Eco-Development, 1800-2000". Oxford Historical Monographs series, Oxford University Press. January 2006.

---

It is no accident that the earliest writers to comment specifically on rapid environmental change in the context of empires were scientists who were themselves often actors in the process of colonially stimulated environmental change. [...] [N]atural philosophers [...] in Bermuda, [...] in Barbados and [...] on St Helena [all British colonies] were all already well aware of characteristically high rates of soil erosion and deforestation in the colonial tropics [...]. On St Helena and Bermuda this early conservationism led, by 1715, to the gazetting of the first colonial forest reserves and forest protection laws. On French colonial Mauritius [...], Poivre and Philibert Commerson framed pioneering forest conservation [...] in the 1760s. In India William Roxburgh [and] Edward Balfour [...] ([...] Scottish medical scientists) wrote alarmist narratives relating [to] deforestation [...]. East India Company scientists [...] [including] Roxburgh [...] went on to further observe the incidence of global drought events [...]. The writings of Edward Balfour and Hugh Cleghorn in the late 1840s in particular illustrate the extent of the permeation of a global environmental consciousness [...]. [T]he 1860s [were] a period [...] which embodies a convergence of thinking about ecological change on a world scale [...]. It was in the particular circumstances of environmental change at the colonial periphery that what we would now term "environmentalism" first made itself felt [...]. Victorian texts such as [...] Ribbentrop's Forestry in the British Empire, Brown's Hydrology of South Africa, Cleghorn's Forests and Gardens of South India [...] were [...] vital to the onset of environmentalism [...]. This fear grew steadily in the wake of colonial expansion [...] particularly [...] after the great Indian famines of 1876 [...].

Text by: Richard Grove and Vinita Damodaran. "Imperialism, Intellectual Networks, and Environmental Change: Origins and Evolution of Global Environmental History, 1676-2000: Part I". Economic and Political Weekly Vol. 41, No. 41. 14 October 2006

---

The “planetary consciousness” produced by this systemizing of nature [in eighteenth-century European science] […] increased the mobility of paradise discourse [...]. As European colonial expansion accelerated, the homogenizing transformation of people, economy and nature which it catalyzed also gave rise to a myth of lost paradise, which served as a register […] for obliterated cultures, peoples, and environments [devastated by that same European colonization], and as a measure of the rapid ecological changes, frequently deforestation and desiccation, generated by colonizing capital. On one hand, this myth served to suppress dissent by submerging it in melancholy, but on the other, it promoted the emergence of an imperialist environmental critique which would motivate the later establishment of colonial botanical gardens, potential Edens in which nature could be re-made. However, the subversive potential of the “green” critique voiced through the myth of endangered paradise was defused by the extent to which growing environmental sensibilities enabled imperialism to function more efficiently by appropriating botanical knowledge and indigenous conservation methods, thus continuing to serve the purposes of European capital.

Text by: Sharae Deckard. Paradise Discourse, Imperialism, and Globalization: Exploiting Eden. 2010.

[ohforficsake]

The Margay (COMPLETE)

Series Summary: Santiago recruits Frankie to contract for a covert government agency that pairs them with danger in more ways than one. Two frayed things toe the line between the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. And maybe, just maybe, they make it out alive. A series of one-shot snippets taking place during and around missions. * - Denotes smut.

Pairing: Frankie Morales x Sniper!OFC Audrey 'Moose' Goddard. POC OFC. No age gap.

Rating: Explicit 18+ / Minors DNI

Chapter 1 : There was Bogotá That One Time * Chapter 2 : Not So Much 'Squeezing' as 'Crushing' Chapter 3 : The Laughter of Damned Things * Chapter 4: His Other Nickname * Chapter 5: 'That Your Husband?' * Chapter 6: If You're Both Lying to Me, I Swear * Chapter 7: Apologize to Housekeeping * Chapter 8: Benadryl * Chapter 9: Memorize it. Destroy it. Chapter 10: Read the Last Page Chapter 11: What Happens in the After * *NEW 7/7*

Extras

Art Commissions from the lovely @kenobiwanx : An Embrace and Frankie and Aud in Jamaica Chapter 8 Moodboard Chapter 9 Moodboard Chapter 11 Moodboard

Margay Universe One-Shots

Down, Boy * - Frankie Morales x OFC Audrey Goddard The boys end up at a dive bar on Frankie’s birthday. Snipers are good at pool. Frankie’s not gonna be able to wait until they make it home. Can be read as a standalone.

Margay-Adjacent One Shots - Written about Frankie x Audrey but flipped to reader perspective. Can be read as stand-alones.

Dominica * He’s like this sometimes. When his demons curl their talon-tipped fingers into the back of his skull. That’s when he replaces them with yours. Barbados * You've been carrying on with whatever this is for months, pushing and pulling, until one night Frankie wants control.

Author Masterlist

Thank you so much for reading.

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 Palestinians say their farewells at a funeral for civilian families murdered in cold blood by the Zionist occupation army in the Al-Bureij Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip on Friday. 📸 Photos taken following Israeli occupation bombing on Friday across various sectors of the Gaza Strip. ]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES RECOGNIZE PALESTINIAN STATE, OCCUPATION FINDS NEW WAYS TO PUNISH PALESTINIANS ON DAY 210 OF GENOCIDE

On the 210th day of "Israel's" ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 3 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 26 Palestinians, mostly women and children, while another 51 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

It should be noted that as a result of the constant Israeli bombardment of Gaza's healthcare system, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, local paramedic and civil defense crews are unable to reach countless hundreds, even thousands of victims who remain trapped under the rubble, or who's bodies remain strewn across the streets of Gaza.

This leaves the official death toll vastly undercounted as Gaza's healthcare officials are unable to accurately tally those killed and maimed in this genocide, which must be kept in mind when considering the scale of the mass murder.

In the latest news, a statement issued on Friday by the Palestinian Prisoners' Affairs Commission, along with the Palestinian Prisoners Society, announced the deaths of two Palestinian prisoners from the Gaza Strip in Israeli prisons.

One of the two prisoners included Dr. Adnan Ahmad al-Bursh (50yo), who was the Chief of the orthopedic department at Al-Shifa medical complex in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, while the second prisoner who died was Ismail Abdul Bari Khader (33yo).

Dr. Al-Bursh was kidnapped and detained by the Israeli occupation army back last December while visiting with a group of doctors at the Al-Awda Hospital, located in the Jabalia Refugee Camp, in the north of the Gaza Strip.

The doctor had been previously wounded in an Israeli bombardment at the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya about 5 months ago, and died while being held at the Ofer Prison in the occupied West Bank on April 19th.

The second prisoner, Bari Khader, died under "mysterious circumstances" following his detainment by Zionist forces. His body was transferred along with the bodies of dozens of detainees from Gaza and released through the Karm Abu Salem crossing in Gaza's southeastern tip.

According to the statement from the Prisoner's Commission, both Al-Bursh and Khader died as a result of torture and neglect at the hands of the Israeli occupation, going so far as to declare Al-Bursh's death a "deliberate assassination" as part of the occupation's targeting of Gaza's doctor's and healthcare system more broadly.

At the same time, the Palestinian National Campaign to Retrieve the Bodies of the Martyrs said the Israeli occupation continues to withhold the bodies of some 500 Palestinians who've died in Zionist jails, including at least 58 detainees since the beginning of 2024 alone.

“Withholding the bodies in the cemeteries and the occupation’s refrigerators constitutes an affront to the human dignity of a person, during his life and after his death, and a collective punishment,” the Campaign said in a statement.

In other news, the Caribbean Island nation of Trinidad and Tobago announced today the recognition of a Palestinian state, officially joining the island nations of Jamaica and Barbados, who previously recognized the State of Palestine.

The decision was made by Trinidad and Tobago's government following a cabinet meeting on Thursday, and came based on the recommendation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The government said it has decided that such recognition would help to achieve a lasting peace in the region and strengthen the international consensus on Palestinian independence and sovereignty.

In additional news, Turkiye has suspended all trade operations with the Israeli occupation, unless and until the occupation allows the free flow of aid into the Gaza Strip.

The announcement was made by Turkiye's Trade Ministry late on Thursday, with the Ministry stating that in the second phase of restrictive measures, it has suspended all trade with Israeli entity due to its ""aggression against Palestine in violation of international law and human rights."

In the first phase, the Trade Ministry restricted the trade of 54 product catagories for export to the Israeli occupation on April 9th.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation's slaughter in Gaza continued for yet another day, with Israeli bombing and shelling targeting all sectors of the Gaza Strip, killing and maiming dozens of Palestinians.

On Thursday, a Palestinian citizen working as a truck driver to distribute humanitarian aid, by the name of Ahmed Yassin, was fired upon by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) with live bullets near the Al-Kuwaiti roundabout, in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.

Yassin was shot and killed by IOF soldiers during an attack on the roundabout area, while several others were wounded in the assault, all of whom were transported to Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.

In another attack, occupation air forces bombed a civilian residence in the Hassan al-Banna area of Gaza City, wounding at least six civilians.

On Thursday evening, intense airstrikes targeted a gathering of civilians in the Al-Bureij Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of 5 Palestinians, including a child, while a number of wounded were also reported, with casualties taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah.

In a simultaneous strike, Zionist warplanes bombarded civilians on Al-Nafaq Street in Gaza City, slaughtering three more Palestinians and wounding many others. The casualties were transported to Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in the city.

In another atrocity, occupation fighter jets bombed the Al-Salam neighborhood, east of Rafah City, in Gaza's south, murdering two Palestinian civilians.

The Zionist entity's war crimes continued when IOF warplanes bombarded a residential home belonging to the Shaheen family, in the Al-Zahur neighborhood of Rafah, resulting in the martyredom of six family members, including a mother and her five children, and wounding several others.

Yet another airstrike by IOF aircraft hit a residential home belonging to the Sheikh Al-Eid family, in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, west of Rafah City, resulting in at least 10 casualties, while 9 more civilians were wounded in an occupation bombing on the Al-Bureij Refugee Camp.

The massacres continued when occupation warplanes bombed near the Rafah crossing, killing two civilians, while Israeli jets repeatedly bombarded the Al-Salam neighborhood, east of Rafah.

In another murder, an Israeli occupation drone opened gunfire on a civilian in the Al-Salam neighborhood, killing a young Palestinian man named Imad Sabah.

The slaughter went on with a bombing that targeted the Mufti's land, north of the Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, wounding several people, while occupation fighter jets destroyed three residential buildings in the vicinity of the power plant in central Gaza.

As a result of "Israel's" ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the death toll among the local population has risen further still, now exceeding 34'622, including over 14'690 children and 9'680 women, while another 77'867 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

May 3rd, 2024.

#source1

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#videosource

#photosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[the-uncharted-cookbook]

Avery's Grand Punch

Barbadan rum, red wine, lime juice, and Earl Grey syrup

I had thought Nathan Drake was out of the game for good, but I should have known better.

I had just been getting back into the swing of things after my recovery when Nate stopped by the bar for the first time in years with yet another impossible story. I had a death-defying tale of my own for him, but it didn't exactly involve finding another legendary city lost to history. This time, Nathan Drake had uncovered Libertalia, a pirate utopia nestled off the coast of Madagascar, a place that people have been searching for since Captain Charles Johnson published A General History of the Pyrates in 1724. He pulled a gold coin from his pocket and told me a tale of pirates and puzzles, the return of lost family and old rivals, and of the fine line between passion and obsession.

Libertalia was founded by Henry Avery, Thomas Tew, and ten other pirate captains as a way to achieve true freedom for themselves and their crews, far away from the governments that would have them hanged for piracy. Their resources and spoils were pooled together and an idyllic colony was built. But greed led the founders to betray their community and hoard all of the wealth for themselves. Libertalia was broken. As the founders began to turn on each other, Avery and Tew hatched a plan to end the conflict permanently. They brought all of the founders of Libertalia together under the guise of peace talks, knowing that only they would walk out alive. With one final toast, ten of history's greatest pirates unknowingly drank their demise and perished in an instant, all at the same table.

Avery's Grand Punch is a red wine rum punch inspired by the romanticism of piracy and the promises of Libertalia. Pirates would typically drink whatever they could get their hands on but wine and rum were some of the most prevalent drinks in the Caribbean, where most of Libertalia's pirate captains roamed before turning their sails to Madagascar. Historically, much like today, rum was often cut with lime juice, sugar, and spices to improve the taste. Red wine was chosen to round out this punch as a representation of the opulence of Libertalia's founders. Avery's Grand Punch is a potent drink fit for a pirate captain, just be sure to drink it in good company.

AVERY'S GRAND PUNCH

Ingredients: 1.5 oz moderately aged Barbadan rum (Plantation Barbados 5) 0.5 oz light-bodied red wine 0.5 oz lime juice 0.25 oz Earl Grey syrup Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with pebble ice or crushed ice. Shake and strain into a wine glass. Garnish with an orange peel to help prevent scurvy.

Avery's Grand Punch calls for a moderately aged Barbadan rum. These rums are typically aged between 4-10 years and often have a golden hue. I used Plantation Barbados 5 for this recipe, but Real McCoy 5 Year, Mount Gay Eclipse, or other moderately aged Barbadan rums are all effective substitutes. I chose a light-bodied red wine because because their higher acidity plays well with the lime juice and their lower tannins and alcohol content help compliment the rum rather than overpower it.

Depending on your personal taste, you may wish to increase or decrease the amount of lime juice and Earl Grey syrup to adjust the sour and sweet flavors.

The recipe for Earl Grey syrup can be found here.

[scotianostra]

On 20th September, 1967, the QE2 launched from John Brown’s yard in Clydebank.

By the end of the 1950s, discussion over the replacement of the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth was taking place. The decision to replace the ‘Queens’ was deemed to be of national importance and as such a special committee, known as the Chandos Committee was created to advise the Government and to determine whether such a project was economically viable. Originally Cunard had wanted to build two new liners with the help of a Government subsidy, however the committee’s report proposed that the Government loan Cunard £18 million towards the construction of one vessel. The project became known as ‘Q3’ and six British shipyards were asked to tender – this prestigious project was a huge opportunity for home based shipbuilders to construct a transatlantic liner.

The new ship, code-named was built by John Brown & Company Ltd, Clydebank (later Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Ltd) and scheduled for May 1968. On 20th September 1967 the keel was launched by Queen Elizabeth II and the ship was named Queen Elizabeth 2. She was the last Atlantic Ocean Liner of it’s kind to be built in the UK.

QE2’s maiden transatlantic crossing set sail on 2 May 1969. She was well received by the American public, and became a profitable ship in her early years of service. During her first season, Cunard were able to repay £2.5 million of the Government loan. Her dual purpose design had allowed QE2 to thrive where her transatlantic counterparts could not.

In January 1971 while cruising in the Caribbean, QE2 received a distress call from the French liner Antilles. Antilles had run aground off the coast of Mustique in the Grenadines and caught fire. Being a fast ship in close proximity to the Antilles, QE2 went to her assistance.

However, by the time the QE2 arrived the passengers had been taken ashore. Antilles passengers and crew were brought aboard QE2 and taken to Barbados. As a testament to the quality of service offered aboard QE2, some of the Antille’s passengers booked subsequent cruises on the Cunarder.

In May 1972, while at sea during a transatlantic crossing, Captain William Law received notification that there was a bomb aboard QE2. Cunard took this threat very seriously and alerted the British Government who sent a bomb disposal unit out to the ship. Bomb disposal experts parachuted into the sea close to the ship and were brought aboard by QE2’s tenders. After a full sweep of the ship, the all clear was given as it turned out to be a hoax.

Later the FBI arrested the culprit for making similar threats against Pan American Airways. The bomb disposal teams were awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Brave Conduct.

As QE2’s cruising popularity increased and in response to the ongoing decline in shipping traffic on the North Atlantic, Cunard reduced the number of transatlantic crossings that QE2 took. The company maintained a strong summer presence on the Atlantic, however shifted the focus for the ship towards cruising. This saw QE2 undertake her first world cruise, an event that was well received – QE2 undertook a further 25 world cruises during her career.

Queen Elizabeth 2 was retired from active Cunard service in November 2008. She had been acquired by the private equity arm of Dubai World, which planned to begin conversion of the vessel to a 500-room floating hotel moored at the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai.

Following a multi-million-dollar investment programme, the 13-deck ship has been restored to her former glory and today serves as a world-class entertainment, tourism, hotel and dining destination in Dubai.

[adventuressclubamericas]

Adventuresses We Love - Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz You could say that Adventuress Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz was destined to go to sea. She was working as an engineer in the Gdansk shipyard when the Polish government announced a competition to find a female sailor to sail around the world. The trip was part of the government’s efforts to mark International Women’s Year (1975.) An experienced sailor, Chojnowska-Liskiewicz won the chance and started preparing.

She set out from the Canary Islands in March 1976 in her 32ft sloop, the Mazurek. The boat had been specially designed and built for this trip by her husband and his crew in Gdansk. Crossing the Atlantic, she arrived at her first stop – Barbados. Engine trouble meant she would rely primarily on her sails to maker her way south through the Caribbean to Panama. She’d spend the next five weeks in Panama fixing the engine, then slipped through the Panama Canal into the Pacific Ocean.

Chojnowska-Liskiewicz’s next stops were Tahiti, Fiji, and Sydney, where she was briefly reunited with her husband. Leaving him behind, she sailed up the coast, but had to put in at Portland Road, Queensland, because of kidney stones that forced a hospital visit. Once released, she made her way back to port only to find the Mazurek gone! The sloop’s anchor chain had broken and set her adrift. Luckily, the yacht was recovered before any further damage.

Chojnowska-Liskiewicz and the Mazurek made their way to Darwin where they prepared for the long voyage across the Indian Ocean. She reached the Mauritius and South Africa, then turned north. Her autohelm failed as she rounded the Cape of Good Hope, so she decided to steer manually the rest of the way, limiting herself to sleeping just two hours per day. Finally, in April 1978, Chojnowska-Liskiewicz sailed back into Las Palmas Gran Canaria, becoming the first woman to sail around the world solo.

Adventuress Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz died June 13, 2021. She was 84.

[i-wear-the-cheese]

Meanwhile, in the UK...

A Tory MP stands to make £3m from the sale of a slave plantation his family established in Barbados which he inherited.

I say this as a Brit and as a believer in reparations: he needs to give that land back for free. Because that is the MINIMUM he should be doing. His family held slaves for centuries. His wealth is built on the deaths of 30,000 enclaved people thousands of miles from his own country. The man owes his entire lifestyle to wealth gained during slavery.

He's not my MP but anyone who lives in Dorset GIVE HIM HELL!! You can contact him and make it clear you won't vote for a man (because otherwise you were certainly going to vote Tory *cough*) who continues to hold land gained under slavery and colonialism and expects to be richer for it.

[datlazyrin]

Time is an illusion and for one such as Barbados, the Anemo Archon, time was nothing but a construct to him. He had lived for many centuries and faced countless wars. He had lost those precious to him, such as the innocent little bard boy he had considered a friend and other countless souls during the Archon War. After Decarabian's defeat and the liberation of Mondstadt's people, Barbados moved the city and the people began to govern themselves without their Archon's control. With the value of freedom as what he stood for, Barbados abandoned his archon form and took the form of the bard, Venti, a young boy with the appearance of his lost friend. With his new form, he could watch his people secretly and protect them should they ever need him.

 However, there was one person that Venti never forgot and who could never leave his mind. A blonde traveler with gold eyes and strange flowers in her hair. She claimed to be from another land and the strangest thing was... she resonated with him. Upon touching his statue, the traveler was blessed with his element and they resonated. He learned that her name was Lumine, and she shone just like starlight.

 How long has it been since he last saw her? After she had saved one of his fellow companions, Lumine was off to the nation of stone, Liyue. With her good deeds, Lumine was blessed with the title of an honorary knight but Venti had his own personal title he had bestowed upon her: the anemo archon's beloved.

  He smirked to himself while sipping from a glass of his favorite wine. Since when had he fallen in love with her? Was it when she saved Mondstadt? When they first resonated? Venti wasn't sure but with his love for her, the wind was soothing and the people of Mondstadt enjoyed that their Archon was in a pleasant mood.

 Memories of their time together began to flood through the bard's mind. The treasured moments he spent with her and when they had celebrated one of the most important festivals together: Windblume. His favorite flower was the cecilia and Lumine had chose to offer those to him, a sweet gesture on her part, during the festival as she was selected to be the Windblume Star.

 He closed his eyes and reimagined the festival once again before him. It was a time of merriment, freedom and love. Venti offered to show Lumine one of his nation's biggest festivals and being the archon himself, shed light on Mondstadt's cultural traditions. He especially enjoyed this time for that was when he could drink all the limited edition wines the taverns had in stock... but he couldn't remember having as much fun at Windblume before she had arrived; To him, it felt that her arrival had changed everything within the Anemo Archon.

 Gentle breezes now filled the air, signaling his contentment but it also hid his longing to see her once more. Lumine was very much a free spirit which was one of the things he loved about her. He loved that she had accepted him as both Barbados and Venti the bard. He could confide in her and she could with him about all her deepest worries, her insecurities and be emotionally vulnerable with him. He was always there for her just as she was for him. 

Ah, now he knows. It was first sight; Venti had fallen in love with Lumine at first sight.

 His heart fluttered when he was around her but he had no idea if his feelings were mutual and he had no plans to ask anytime soon. As the anemo archon and the god of freedom, Venti valued freedom and even though he wished for an answer about where Lumine's feelings lied with him, he respected her freedom and didn't want to make her uncomfortable. 

 After finishing his wine glass, Venti jumped off the barstool and left the tavern. Once he was outside, the streets were empty as it was still night time. Venti walked along the streets once more, memories of Windblume and Lumine's time in the City of Freedom playing before his eyes. As he walked, reminiscing all the good times, his chest ached to see the blonde traveler once more.

  "Oh Lumine... my sweet princess... I miss you," Venti lamented. He exhaled as he began his walk to Windrise, the place where he was most commonly found at... and the last place he said his goodbye to Lumine when she started her journey. 

  When he reached Windrise, he floated up to the tree and sat in it's branches. He took out his lyre and slowly strummed the strings, a melancholic melody mirroring the sorrow in his heart. A gentle wind blew through the night, carrying his melody throughout the land. 

 No matter where you go, the wind shall follow... for the wind will never forget the girl it fell in love with. 

oneshot masterlist || library

[nakeddeparture]

Barbados. The Red Sea Government boss allegedly sent his soldiers to take a gun away from a male spectator in the crowd, and other lingering moments of Crop Over.

https://youtu.be/8mQCrUHCrzY

Shots fired. Four down. One in a hospital bed blogging, cussing and getting vex vex vex. Naked!!

[kemetic-dreams]

  The Igbo in the Atlantic slave trade

Bussa, Barbadian slave revolt leader of Igbo descent

Edward Blyden, Americo-Liberian educator, writer and politician of Igbo descent

Paul Robeson, American actor and writer whose father was of Igbo descent

Aimé Césaire, Martiniquais poet and politician who claimed Igbo descent) argues that many of the slaves taken from the Bight of Biafra across the Middle Passage would have been Igbo. These slaves were usually sold to Europeans by the Aro Confederacy, who kidnapped or bought slaves from Igbo villages in the hinterland. Igbo slaves may have not been victims of slave-raiding wars or expeditions but perhaps debtors or Igbo people who committed within their communities alleged crimes. With the goal for freedom, enslaved Igbo people were known to European planters as being rebellious and having a high rate of suicide to escape slavery. There is evidence that traders sought Igbo women. Igbo women were paired with Coromantee (Akan) men to subdue the men because of the belief that the women were bound to their first-born sons’ birthplace.

It is alleged that European slave traders were fairly well informed about various African ethnicities, leading to slavers targeting certain ethnic groups which plantation owners preferred. Particular desired ethnic groups consequently became fairly concentrated in certain parts of the Americas. The Igbo were dispersed to colonies such as Jamaica, Cuba, Saint-Domingue, Barbados, Colonial America, Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, among others.

Rihanna is also Igbo

Colonial Nigeria

The establishment of British colonial rule in present-day Nigeria and increased encounters between the Igbo and other ethnicities near the Niger River led to a deepening sense of a distinct Igbo ethnic identity. The Igbo proved decisive and enthusiastic in their embrace of Christianity and Western-style education. Because of the incompatibility of the Igbo decentralized style of government and the centralized system including the appointment of warrant chiefs required for British system of indirect rule, the period colonial rule was marked with numerous conflicts and tension. During the colonial era, the diversity within each of Nigeria's major ethnic groups slowly decreased, and distinctions between the Igbo and other large ethnic groups, such as the Hausa and the Yoruba, became sharper.

The establishment of British colonial rule transformed Igbo society, as portrayed in Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart. Colonial rule brought about changes in culture, such as the introduction of warrant chiefs as Eze (indigenous rulers) where there were no such monarchies. Christian missionaries introduced aspects of European ideology into Igbo society and culture, sometimes shunning parts of the culture. The rumours that the Igbo women were being assessed for taxation sparked off the 1929 Igbo Women's War in Aba (also known as the 1929 Aba Riots), a massive revolt of women never encountered before in Igbo history.

Aspects of Igbo culture such as construction of houses, education and religion changed following colonialism. The tradition of building houses out of mud walls and thatched roofs ended as the people shifted to materials such as concrete blocks for houses and metal roofs. Roads for vehicles were built. Buildings such as hospitals and schools were erected in many parts of Igboland. Along with these changes, electricity and running water were installed in the early 20th century. With electricity, new technology such as radios and televisions were adopted, and have become commonplace in most Igbo households.

A series of black and white, silent films about the Igbo people made by George Basden in the 1920s and 1930s are held in the British Empire and Commonwealth Collection at Bristol Archives