With concern rising over complaints of rude and arrogant behavior by the personnel at Barbados Grantley Adams International Airport, that nation's tourism officials have cautioned the airport staff to improve their behavior as the tourism industry contributes nationally.
Commenting on an article in the Barbados Midweek Nation newspaper which cited low ratings from some visitors that pass through the airport, the Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism and International Transport, Senator Irene Sandiford-Garner, said the reports were a source of concern to tourism officials who had discussed the matter and determined that it was an area that needed to be tackled at all levels.
Sandiford-Garner appealed to Barbadians to recognize the importance of tourism to their survival. "Barbados must get back to recognizing that tourism affects every single one of us and contributes to the pay check of every last one of us."
The senator said the Barbados Tourism Authority had spent time training frontline industry personnel, but she believed the complaints about attitudes by personnel at Grantley Adams Airport was indicative that more needed to be done.
She said it's incumbent on every single Barbadian to understand that if the government is putting all its resources at the disposal of the tourism industry then people involved at the country's "critical points of entry" should understand and recognize that they should take "an enlightened approach" because every single person that comes into the country contributes to their livelihood.
During the past two years Barbados attracted adverse publicity in the Caribbean arising from adverse treatment allegedly meted out to Caribbean nationals, and some Jamaicans in particular, on arriving at the Grantley Adams International Airport. One of the incidents, allegations by Jamaican Shanique Myrie resulted in a recent hearing at the Caribbean Court of Justice against the Barbadian Government by Myrie.

The Jamaican government spearheaded by Youth and Culture Minister Lisa Hanna has taken action to counter the frequent incidences of missing children, mostly teenage girls.
Last week, Hanna signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to improve Jamaica's Ananda Alert System, a vehicle for alerting the public to and finding missing children. The improvements will involve a multi-sectoral approach.

At the signing it was also announced that the Ananda System will be receiving a budgetary allocation of $9 million as a means to improve its response and recovery mechanism.
The minister said the additional resources ensure that the required staffing and management mechanisms are in place to support the Ananda System, and enhance the recovery efforts whenever a child is reported missing.
The Ananda Alert System is operated by the Office of the Children's Registry (OCR), but Hanna emphasized that parents, guardians, children and the entire society should be proactive in the prevention and reporting of cases of missing children. According to her, "one missing child is one too many."
In recent years there has been a rash, almost daily occurrence, of Ananda reports of missing teens, mostly girls averaging age 14, in Jamaica.
One thousand eight hundred and four (1804) children were reported missing in Jamaica in 2012. Of that amount 1603 were reported as having returned home safely, however as the minister noted the number of children who has returned home safely could be higher as some parents haven't notified the authorities of the children's return.
A former Broward school security officer, a Jamaican, who has offered assistance in the solving the problems of missing children in Jamaica, said he was heartened to see the Jamaican government "taking meaningful steps to curtail this tragedy of missing children."
With the Ananda System, the name and photograph of missing children are published in the Jamaican media as soon as possible after they're reported. With the added resources use will be made of social media, billboards and other multimedia equipment in stores, supermarkets, pharmacies and other locations to enhance the possibility of finding missing children sooner, and decreases the possibility of them coming to harm.

Jamaican Opposition Leader Andrew Holness recently told the Jamaica Observer that the Jamaican Diaspora should be represented in parliament. That mirrors the view of an increasing number of people in the Diaspora, some even wanting the Jamaican Diaspora to vote in general elections.
Holness told editors and senior reporters of the Jamaica Observer the nation should find a way to formally include the voice of the Jamaican Diaspora in parliament as part of the broadening of its democracy and increasing citizen participation.
With controversy still lingering over the removal of some MPs from office because of claims they had dual Jamaican and U.S. citizenship when they were elected, Holness said the section of the Jamaican Constitution that allows only
British Commonwealth citizens the opportunity to seek a seat in parliament should be reconsidered, stating that, after 50 years of independence, Jamaica has a Diaspora almost the size of its local population, and, moreover, the Jamaican Diaspora in the U.S. was growing faster than that in the British Commonwealth.

American Vice-President Joe Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden are scheduled to visit Trinidad and Tobago during the week of May 26 during an official visit to the region including stops in Brazil and Colombia. The White House release said in each country that the vice-president visits he'll meet with "key leaders" to discuss the full range of bilateral and regional issues.
Biden said he is looking forward to his visit to T&T and looking forward to meeting with Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. He said he is also eager to meet with other Caribbean leaders, whom Persad-Bissessar has invited to travel to Port of Spain, to discuss inclusive economic growth, development, energy and security cooperation throughout the Caribbean basin.

St. Kitts and Nevis' Prime Minister, Dr. Denzil Douglas is expected to be among the regional leaders to meet with the vice-president.
The White House release said, "This trip will be an important chance to discuss our collective efforts to promote economic growth and development, access to energy and our ongoing collaboration on citizen security."

Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar said in a statement she welcomes the visit of Biden and his wife to Trinidad and Tobago. The prime minister confirmed that she had invited regional heads to discuss collective efforts to promote economic growth, energy interdependence and development in the region.