• Small islands, beacons for the rest of the world
• Barbados hosting World Environment Day - UN
• Barbados Attorney General says mandatory death penalty to end

• Transcendental Meditation exhibition draws great interest at Expo in Barbados
• Barbados: Conference sparks interest in Global Country of World Peace programmes

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Small islands, beacons for the rest of the world
7 June 2014 - Many small island nations are embracing renewable energy and trying to green their economies. Although the least responsible for carbon emissions, small countries like Barbados are on the front lines of climate impacts. For Barbados, World Environment Day with its theme 'Raise Your Voice Not the Sea Level' was not just a ceremonial action but part of a commitment to become 'the most advanced green economy in the Latin American and Caribbean region,' said Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart. Barbados is going beyond renewable energy and has put policies into place intended to 'green' its entire economy. It has already completed a three-year study called the Green Economy Scoping Study to determine what needs to be done. 'Barbados is one of the world leaders in greening their economies,' said Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). (more)

Barbados hosting World Environment Day - UN
5 June 2014 - Barbados, a small Caribbean island at the cutting edge of the fight against climate change, will be hosting this year's World Environment Day, leading United Nations-wide efforts to draw attention to the plight of the world's small islands potentially in peril of being lost to sea-level rise. 'On World Environment Day, millions of individuals, community groups and businesses from around the world take part in local projects -from clean up campaigns to art exhibits to tree-planting drives,' Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day, marked every year on 05 June. (more)

Barbados Attorney General says mandatory death penalty to end
26 March 2014 - The Caribbean island of Barbados plans to abolish its mandatory death penalty for murder convictions -- a penalty that the government has bypassed for three decades. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have long criticized the Caribbean island's mandatory death penalty as too harsh and in breach of international law. (more)

Barbados is a global hotspot for renewable energy
6 December 2012 - Out of the Caribbean islands Barbados has one of the most advanced feed in schemes and a population that is inclined to using renewable energy sources. It further has the financial base that in principal could finance the change to a cleaner energy future. The great thing is that with the change towards a cleaner economy literally everyone in the country wins -- which is a very unusual situation. The householders and businesses who install clean power plants enjoy the benefits of good returns on investment and the opportunity to do something good for the environment. (more)

New Trinidad-Barbados solar energy joint-venture launched
29 October 2012 - Solaris Energy Ltd has opened the Caribbean's newest and renewable energy manufacturing facility. The new 8,000 square-foot factory is in St Phillip, Barbados. Citing the need to get solar water heaters into the homes of income groups that generally do not have them now, Senator Darcy Boyce, Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister of Barbados, officially opened the factory and spoke about encouraging research and development, marketing, and financing of renewable energy and energy efficiency systems made in the region. (more)

Solar powered government buildings coming for Barbados
2 July 2012 - Barbados will shortly be replacing almost all its public street lights with energy efficient lamps, retrofitting at least 12 government buildings with solar power systems, and deploying energy efficiency and conservation technologies throughout the public sector. On a pilot basis, the programme will establish a government fleet of electric vehicles with charging dock stations and its own solar power system. (more)

Barbados ranked as least corrupt country in the region
2 December 2011 - Transparency International's 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) on Thursday ranked Barbados as the least corrupt country in the Caribbean region. A report released by the Trinidad and Tobago Transparency Institute (TTTI) said Barbados and Dominica maintained their rankings well ahead of Trinidad and Tobago at 16 and 44 respectively out of 178 countries. The country ranked first in 2011 with the highest score is New Zealand with a score of 9.5. (more)

Barbados promotes historic ties to South Carolina, USA
6 September 2011 - The Barbados consulate in Coral Gables, Florida, held a four-day event called 'Barbados Comes (Back) to Charleston' over the weekend to promote the West Indies nation's historical ties to Charleston, South Carolina. The project helps African American families in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida find their Barbadian, or Bajan, roots through a searchable document database, freedmen's bureau records, and genealogy web sites. (more)

Barbados: Spotlight on folk medicine
1 May 2005 - Noni juice, Jamaican Dogwood are just a couple of the many colourful items in medicine cabinets all over the Caribbean. Although you don't see them prescribed by conventional allopathic physicians, alternative medicine is steadily gaining mainstream acceptance. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Transcendental Meditation exhibition draws great interest at Expo in Barbados
8 November 2009 - An exhibition booth featuring the Transcendental Meditation Programme drew great interest at a major Expo in Barbados. Afterwards many people attended introductory talks about the technique, and many also learned Transcendental Meditation. (more)

Barbados: Conference sparks interest in Global Country of World Peace programmes
10 September 2008 - The National Leader of the Global Country of World Peace in Barbados convened a very successful conference recently which was attended by leading dignitaries. Participants expressed enthusiastic support for establishing coherence-creating programmes offered by the Global Country of World Peace. (more)