Licence not easy to get

PRESIDENT of the Barbados Association of Retailers, Vendors and Entrepreneurs (BARVEN) Alister Alexander yesterday challenged Government to deal with the issue of street vending in a developmental way. "This is a national issue that will never go away until the authorities do what is necessary to solve it in a developmental way. "We in BARVEN are not about the chaos; we disrespect chaos; we respect order; but we believe that disorder starts from above. "Given the importance of vending – from a cultural viewpoint – to our people, we are asking that they do not continue to treat vending with this type of disrespect."... His colleague, Richard Scantlebury who is the public relations officer for the organisation, said the problem surrounding the issuing of licences needed to be addressed. He said the acquisition of licences had lapsed for a period of time and pointed out that the process of acquiring a vendor's licence was very cumbersome. Scantlebury spoke of a process where one must go to three or four departments before the licence was issued.... "Will they [Government] be happy with a redeveloped Bridgetown without the presence of vending, and if they are not happy with that, then they need to open up the channels whereby vendors can acquire licences."... Scantlebury proposed that a survey be carried out to determine how many vendors could be accommodated on the streets of BridgetownSource: Nation News

Wait, dem play dem ain't know. The goverment's vision of a perfect Bridgetown is to have the streets paved with gold bricks, immaculate buildings made of shiny glass filled with over prices clothes, shoes and jewellery (well, over priced to bajans who can't get it duty free) and clear of cockroaches, rats, stray dogs and VENDORS. That vendors mall at the top of swan street is bare doo doo... it dark, and rediculous, and most people probably use it as a short cut to get over to the other side of the road. Why dem don't ban the Columbian Emerald girls who does be loitering on Broad Street poking flyers of expensive diamond rings in yuh face. Next thing dem gine want snow cone men to go under a tent on Roebuck street and ban them from pushing their carts within the main city limits or using their horn excessively.. pernurp pernurp pernurp. Vendors sell on the street.. you pass by, you see something, you grab it. They don't have some elaborate marketing scheme where they can get people to come straight to their stall to buy premium apples. They neeeed the passers by... so goverment gotta integrate vending decently on the streets. Goverment fails to address issues appropriately, the vendors improvise which obviously causes chaos, then goverment says SEE... they need to be moved! Who dem should ban are those travelling sales men with dem duffle bags filled with calculators, caller ID phones and battery operated lights that NEVER work... dem and their TODAY ONLY specials and AS IT IS YOU bargains. I would like one of them to sell me a guttaperk so i could flick a rock in their eye.

*After reading this post, 328 persons will go into Cave Shepherds air conditioned facility just to look around at the nice stuff! They will then go to enjoy the hot, humid, crowded atmosphere in the vendors mall to buy fruits and a shirt... yea right..