PM Tells Jamaicans and Guyanese Stop Turning Market Street Into Shack City

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Prime Minister Gaston Browne has sent a firm message to Jamaican and Guyanese who set up stalls on Market Street, the main gateway to St. John’s.

“It’s about our own national pride. You know they say cleanliness if godliness,” he stated.

The prime minister said while he welcomes Caricom nationals, he won’t tolerate some of their practices.

“And IĀ  know some of them accustomed to knocking up shacks all around in Jamaica and in Guyana, colleagues when you all come here respect the culture of our country,” he sad on his radio show this weekend.

“You don’t have the right to go on market street and knock up a few pallets and clotting the streets and literally making the city look like a ramshackle city,” he warned.

He said some Antiguans are also guilty of the same practice but on beaches.

“I mean we have to maintain some level of pride, even our own Antiguans. They take-up all kinds of galvanize and old board and knock up things on beaches and so on.

Even if the beaches are public it doesn’t give you the right to go put up a little galvanize shack on there,” he said.

The prime minister said that going forward government and the authorities will take a tough stand on the issue.

He said those who cooperate will be accommodated elsewhere with possible financial assistance.

“And the government will be very bullish going forward on those issues. So when DCA would have intervened to ask you all to remove you all old shacks and you have to move them cause if you don’t move them voluntarily they will be forcibly removed.”

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80 COMMENTS

  1. Let’s see if Mr. Browne really gets aggressive and work to improve the look and function of the city. It’s one thing to cha, it’s another to act

    • I think if a new Antigua political party ran on a platform of fully withdrawing from CARICOM, that party would actually win the next election. Honestly, I really do like PM Browne but I think he is too much of a believer in CARICOM. The truth is that CARICOM immigration rules and law have forced Antigua to accept people from Jamaica, Haiti, and Guyana – and unfortunately many (not all) of these people have degraded the high-class and sophisticated nation Antigua was once known for a decade or two ago.

      Our beaches now have weird ‘entrepreneurs’ running around selling weird things, some beaches seem like they are controlled by gang syndicates, some of the cars and music playing in Antigua sounds like gangster music, and no doubt the illegal drug trade and crime sprees in Antigua have increased.

      So, I think it is time for a new political party to be formed in Antigua that focuses on the goal of withdrawing from these organizations like CARICOM, these awful organizations that force awful immigration policies onto a once high-class country known as Antigua. Let’s be truly free and independent!

    • The top dog only bark but na bite. These people are his electorate for him to regain the government in the next election.

  2. I support the Prime Minister and welcome his call to “clean up” Market Street in particular and other areas as well. People just seem to want to erect these structures anywhere and everywhere without authorization. Clearly, there are lots of entrepreneurs who have set up shop along the roadside without the necessary authorization and it has made regular movements for pedestrians and vehicular traffic very difficult. St. John’s Development Corporation really need to look at covering the entire gutter on Tanner Street and erect modern attractive stalls which can be utilized by those entrepreneurs. Would also be a way for the Corporation to get some extra funds into its coffers.

  3. I really do not like CARICOM immigration rules. Antigua used to be a nice high-class place, but now itā€™s turning into a dirty place that looks like Jamaica and Haiti.

    Whatā€™s the point of being a Antigua citizen if everybody in CARICOM can just move here? CARICOM is really the worst thing that ever happened to Antigua.

    I have yet to see a single benefit of Antigua being a member of CARICOM.

    • Well said ,noting against Foreigners cause I’ve been to other countries nd islands before nd while I can’t behavior in manner I choose to simple of rules relative keep up there own countries standard, why can’t we, but some of them just not living right …..some just making a mess in St. Johns ….I can’t got to any country nd do as such ……nobody is perfect but at least we can try ……

      • Yo you cannot spell, too many grammatical errors to proudly post your point….no hard feelings

          • History would show that people have to survive and without job being created people have to find means of surviving. Prime Minister we often blamed the Caribbean national but how much of us can truly go to the middle east & enjoy life.. Guyanese and jamaica always get fight down while there is no mechanism In place to help elevate them. Not forget that mechanism are in place for the white and middle easterner..

    • Amen the WORST thing for real they need to have them run a background check before theyā€™re allow into our country. Thieves, killers and rapists. Them they get our passport go to USA Canada and England and commit crimes with our passport in hand. It also the people from Dominican Republic having Antigua looking like the entire black is a GHETTO. Break down the DAM place

      • Well alot of guyanese an jamaicans are here an how many rspe case have u heard in antigua???
        How many killings ve you heard most of those shacks that they put up on matmrket street are women not men so hush ur filthy mouth i know qbout jamaicans crime rae but they aint bring dat shit to antigua u think everybody is the same kmft do you know how many fucking snyiguan lives in oicho Rios jamaica??? A fuckin lot a dem
        Yuall actin like ur so perfect kmft so they wanna make a living an they put up those shacks to do it an once the primister stop them i know they will take dem down yuall acting like antigua is a high standard country no disrespectā˜ļø
        Most of yuall aint even love work at all yu wanna stay on the street an do mothin wat about the drunkards thst surrounds the craft marketšŸ¤”is the government gonna remove those ppl too all those drunk ppl that lime there it does not look good i hope he tskes into considerration cuz it nuh look good wat about kennedys in town do u notice the smell is he gonna fixed that too cuz they smell bad all the time an need working on i hope he fixed that too

    • Wow! I’m a Jamaican that lived in Antigua for almost 30 years and your comment referring to Jamaica and Haiti as dirty is unfortunate. It sent me down memory lane, to when I first arrived in Antigua.

      I have been everywhere in Antigua, from Shanty Town to English Harbor. I lived in Point and Villa even Bolans for a bit. I’ve been through Booby Alley, I’ve seen the best and the worst, dirty and clean, shacks and mansions, pit toilets and modern ones.
      I can tell you that if you were to travel to any Caribbean Island it would be no different. Do some research and revisit your comment.

      • Agree with you live here for almost 20 add years please and i see it also mess i is nit only the non nationals them other countries that hidt Antiguans should go look how the live and report same way world wide. Ok.

      • Gaston Browne is rude,and reckless with his choice of words,I would never go to Antiqua, neither for love nor money,u few Jamaican in Antiqua
        a you cause people to class Jamaica,and Jamaican as dirty.

        • “Few jamaicans”…think again. They’re A LOT more than a few Jamaicans here…hence the generalization. Your not wanting to visit is neother here nor there…one less jamaican here is too little. I wish others will adapt your viewpoint.

    • While I agree with the prime minister I totally disagree with you referring to Jamaica to Haiti as dirty places, a country with such ememce beauty and development cannot be defined by a few garrisons. If this was so Antigua would be judged by places like alley. Like the PM said it’s a matter of cultural differences, we should all learn to respect each other rather than carrying on the William Lynch syndrome of who is better than who. Bunch of house slaves and uncle Tom.

    • You very out order not all places in Jamaica is dirty. The no good Jamaica m that come here and make ALP fool them good for them. Is them he taking because ppl take PM and ALP freshness. Now ALP he use them to get power he doesn’t want Just laughing after them He damn right.

        • So wenk de yardeez dem fleeing dem “way much beautiful” kunchee? Tings ruff and tuff in Jamaica. Poverty and hunger running rampant. Just ask Bruce Goodwin.

    • First and foremost if you have ever been to Jamaica you would realize there are places that are extremely clean and some dirty, just like every caribbean island. That part of your comment is ignorant. Antigua has always had sales on the side it has just gotten worse.

  4. No one is to blame for this but the government itself. Successive government over the year have failed to take action against the lawlessness of vendors whether in town or at our beaches or any other road side. Anyone feel they can just knock up something at the road side and guess what. Some even get hooked up by APUA electricity. Pure madness. And it is all about votes. Lawlessness continues in our traffic laws, when police fail to enforce the laws. People park wherever they want. People stop wherever they want. Cellphone law passed and yet everyone still on the phone while driving. When it comes to parking in spot designated for the handicap even though the Disability Association has a big protest actin nothing is happening. People still park with impunity in the spots reserved for the disabled and no police enforcement of this. And I can bet you the recently passed litter laws will not be enforced by the police either. When it comes to certain laws Antigua is lawless because of the refusal of the police to enforce the laws. And then when a government want to do something about it, they will look like the big bad wolf.

    • Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock! St. John’s: “no phenomena can be apprehended adequately without locating it first. A phenom must be studied and analyzed in relationship to psychological time and space. It must always be located. This is the only way to investigate the complex interrelationships of science and art,
      design and execution, creation and maintenance, generation and tradition, and other areas bypassed by theory.” – Asante!
      “The Street grid which still forms the heart of the city – between North and South Streets and between the Harbour and East Street (Independence Ave since 1981) was laid out in 1702.” In 1735 the Military Barracks (Now Her Majesty’s Royal Gaol) at the East of the City was completed! The rest further North to Dickenson Bay Street followed the Development on Rat Island (1740 -1741) as a major Fort and Barracks for the Military!
      The Streets running East to West were laid out and made wide to accommodate commerce to and from the Port and the Plantations! Just as It was then so is It Today!
      The Statehood/Independence period saw the dredging of the Harbour to accommodate larger cargo ships and and the “Huge Floating Majestic Hotels!” During this period as noted by Professor Gregson Davis in “Antigua Black,” St. John’s grew to accommodate the emptying village Black populations abandoning agriculture for the Hospitality and Tourism Industries! Jamaicans and Guyanese made the voyage to escape the disasters of the IMF and economic disasters! St. John’s and its environs now house some 62 plus percent of the population!
      “Come, then, comrades; it would be as well to decide at once to change our ways. We must shake off the heavy darkness in which we were plunged, and leave it behind. The new day which is already at hand must find us firm, prudent and resolute. … Let us waste no time in sterile litanies and nauseating mimicry.” Fanon!
      St. John’s City Centre needs a New Grand Master Plan! This constant tinkering around the Port and Harbour Coastline must have a grander vision! Given GoAB’s drumbeat to be an economic powerhouse in the Green and Blue economy, This mere voice in the wilderness has been touting that St John’s City Centre should be developed as a “walking livable City!”
      St. John’s and its environs should be made a Municipality given that its population far exceeds the 20,000 needed for such and enterprise! SJDC and The Port Authourity are not enough to provide the Vision and Governance for a Sustainable City!
      Is GoAB willing to engage in Devolution!
      “The human condition, plans for mankind and collaboration between men in those tasks which increase the sum total of humanity are new problems, which demand true inventions” if People of African descent living on Antigua and Barbuda are to build solid Institutions and a Caribbean Civilization!

  5. Why now? ………..
    .is this because of GP coming.
    This is long overdue. The started at the market area and gradually moving up Market Street cause no the place to look so untidy. Across there by the late Dr Locker’s office up the South Street pedestrian and vehicular traffic have to travel in slow pace because of vendors on both sides and it’s getting worst and worst. I hope it stop as of last year.
    Vendors on the road by law must pay $10.00 daily, I wonder how many of them pay.
    It is just dam disgusting and if Antigua/Barbuda say anything, them cuss arewe. Them bring them dam nasty culture here.
    Dam Disgusting now.

  6. Mr. PM Gaston Browne, the same DCA to blame!!!! They even allow the Syrians to build inside the gutter that connects into the sea, that is why little rain water backs up on market street so when they gonna remove the side vendors, let them break down and remove all tbosetatires built inside the main and only gutter that transports water from the top of Mount St. John Medical Center coming right down and other gutters that connect to it… Why you think Cammie Clothing Store moved many years ago?

  7. It’s long over due… Some of these non nationals have a primitive & nasty way of living back home in their country…. We as Antiguans do not want that culture here… Antiguans are clean & proud people who have a very high standard of living.

    • Antiguans are clean and proud people!?! Think again. I believe a generation or 2 ago. Not this generation and I am not saying it’s every one of this generation and I am not bashing, just stating reality. I carry my even šŸ¬ candy paper with me till I get home or until I meet a bin. On average 70% of Antiguans litter all over Antigua. They are not even aware. They just do it like it comes naturally. It pains me. And I am from Dominica. Before you all go on a tirade again thinking I am Jamaican. I live here and I love here and I keep it clean like we do for the most part back home. Parents need to train their children at home not to litter. That’s where it starts

  8. I am British and have been a frequent visitor to Antigua for 30 years (once or twice every year). Antiguans are very proud people who respect the beauty of their island. The beauty has decreased over the years which is a shame. If it is CARICOM immigration thats is responsible it should be looked into. Allow them in if they contribute to society positively and respect the local custom and cleanliness. The island can not be allowed to decline like other carribean countries that have less respect for the beauty of their land, beaches and towns. I could claim Guyanese dual nationality from my mother but wouldnt whilst they show this disrespect for antigua! Good luck Gaston with this initiative!

    • Antigua and Barbuda is high standard of living for everyone who had migrated here and make it there home. The PM has a problem when you migrated you brought your nasty culture and habits with you. I never remember hearing all these filthy reggae music playing on the streets in St. John’s, Antigua. The entire city of St. John’s need a told revamp. Pressure wash or steam clean the streets and sidewalks and remove all the ghetto looking shacks constructed along the streets for vending.

  9. So whats the difference with what the world boss said and what Bruce Goodwin said?

    I see things as they are always.

    Remember there are more foreigners and less Antiguans.

    There dominance is now visible.

    The world boss did not put anything in place to protect our soveringty. He played the politics well embrace and love them at the right psychological moment.

    Mid term he spanks them by the time election period rolls around it’s time to embrace and share Goodies

    • Bruce BLAMED the “paupers in Jamaica and Guyana” for not voting for the UPP. The PM is not blaming them for costing his party ad election.

      Also, Bruce Goodwin’s tone of voice was impassioned and derogatory. So in this case it boils down more to HOW it was said.

      • @Hypocrisy
        I prefer the man who speaks his mind firmly.
        Rather than the man who will insult me with a smile. So you suffer peacefully. (MalcolmX)

    • Spoken like a saw loser in politics by those who don’t know how to employ the techniques and work to win an election or followers there of. Have you done a study on the amount of people who are from Antigua and living elsewhere?

  10. I hope the PM kept his words and clean up the entire city of St. John’s especially lower market street. The place is filthy and smelly. CARICOM is the worse thing that ever happen to Antigua and Barbuda. It has open the door for more ghetto style, criminals, and rapist from other Caribbean islands to flood the streets of Antigua and Barbuda with their nasty cultures. Are these the skills and behavior we are importing as a free movement of people? Growing up, I always heard that Grace Farm and Points were ghetto but now the city of St. John’s out run them.

    • And have you done a survey of the percentage of criminals from Antigua in proportion to vthe foreigners at the prison? Plus the court cases? You all seems to forget that Antigua major industry is tourism and Antigua has no other products to export.

  11. Donā€™t send your children to Jamaica for an education because itā€™s dirty and shitty. You people are very disrespectful. Every country has its issues and while I support the fact of putting up proper vending situations in place and have it looking right I donā€™t support how you put down other countries. Am sure Antiguans and Barbudans live in other peopleā€™s countries too and no one knows what they are doing and no one cussing Antigua and describing it like this

    • Life ruff and tuff in Jamrock dats y dem yardie lub fee go a farrin. Tings was better with PJ Patterson. Porsha mash up de place. Dodus is not there now to give way money to help poor people. Kingston bruk wear

    • if 20 antiguans live in Jamaica or Guyana it’s plenty we don’t profit nothing from them besides to go away and study in their country

    • Me an sorry for the Jamaicans and Guyanese…that is the ABLP government for are you. We have our 4th UWI Campus now thank God. The PM is cleaning up his country and he has the right to say what he wants and don’t wants on the streets in the city. Antiguans to need to stop adopt other people culture by erected ghetto shacks on the beaches for vending. The PM is cleaning up and shipping out to. The Big pigs have brought their filth in this country to ruining it like they did theirs…sucking on the little pigs.

    • I agree with what your saying Shanoy. It sickens me how antiguans talk and I don’t care who come at me I’m and antiguan but i don’t tolerate the disrespect to foreigners and I am referring to some of these crazy comments. I agree the streets can be clean but don’t go discriminating another man country especially of you’ve never been there to know what it’s like.

  12. Reading is fundamental . Where in that article did the Prime Minister refer to Jamaica , Guyana and other countries mentioned as dirty? I thought he was speaking in terms of what he didnā€™t want for his country oppose to what he has seen in other countries.

  13. All Antigua has to do is pass better laws that will protect this country, and then enforce them drastically to the point of the law. If anyone refuse to obey the rules, find them and if they can’t pay jail them and then throw them out of the country.

  14. It about time they take action. I was wondering. It the government did not see, what was going on in market Street. Hurry up and do WA you hafu do buddy Ć  high time.

  15. I have to agree in reference to the situation in St.Johns. I remember the old days when my grandmother got up early on Saturdays to sell at the market. I would go by and observe her and the other ladies with their goods laying on bags on the concrete.
    The government decided to clean up the place by building the current market, then they built another facility to sell fish.
    However, it seems as though we took one step forward and two steps backwards. This is evident by the vendors that are selling on one or both sides of the street. Just as one passes the first streetlight heading towards the bus station, the traffic congestion starts. FYI, they need to install additional traffic lights in order to facilitate proper traffic flow. In the meantime, the vendors on the side of the road impede the flow of traffic. Their customers cause a major safety hazard by going in and out of traffic.
    Yes, it truly is a sight for sore eyes. The shacks must go. The place needs to be cleaned up. When going shopping, I can’t help but smell the unpleasant smells along my route.
    Establishing a municipal code section that deals specifically with these types of issues should be considered.
    Once a violator has been identified, they should be issued a citation, that has a fine. If the same individual is identified subsequently at another time or location, they are issued another citation with an increased fine. If an individual is identified a third time, a citation with a mandatory court appearance. Etc…..

  16. Nitjing last forever but the word of God. These are the last days. 1timothy 1:5. Have you seen whst mention there happening mire than before

  17. Did the PM really need to call anyone out? We all agree St. John’s is an eyesore. So enforce the laws that are on the books, or pass new ones to get the job done. This seems like just pandering to me. Trying to secure the votes of Antiguans with chat, while not doing anything to upset his CARICOM ex-pat voter base. As someone else said less chat more action.

  18. So your telling me that only Guyanese, Jamaicans and Haitians have shacks on market Street? First off, as an leader for this island (yes it’s an island not an country) you should lead by example. There was no need to pick on a particular set of immigrants, especially when your own people are guilty of the same action.
    Secondly I have read the comments and saw numerous posts of immigrants bringing they ways of living and culture and change Antigua’s, With they “hood like” music etc. You can’t influence or change anything or anyone’s way of thinking and living with your own unless they are unsure of themselves.
    And if you stop and think for a moment-putting aside your bias and pride for a second- you will see that for the last decade or more this place I call home have loss a great majority of it’s culture. Not because of immigrants bringing they cultures and showcasing it but because we as an family have failed to pass down and instil into our children what we have been taught, from the generation before us and before them.

  19. Tan gee, i wanna shake your hands, what are they talking about, its carnival time and alot of people, especially antiguans send down barrells of clothes/items to make a quick cash. Frankly, what makes market street run down is the deplorable buildings that need some renovations and painting.

    It is very unfair to make such references, when these very people are tax payers, voter and contribute in some way or the other to your beloved Antigua, either via supermarkets, transportation, house rents, paying utility bills ect. Sometimes, it is wise the think twice before you speak because when words come out, it can be misinterpreted, cause damage and you spend time trying to justify your statements. Jamaica is ranked higher than antigua in the tourism industry, inspite of the shacks. Also, Guyana has huge malls which cannot be seen anywhere in Antigua.

    Clearly, people are talking out of hear say and not actual facts. Every island or country has urban and rural areas, Antigua is no execption. People wake up and smell the coffee, no country can stand alone, so Antigua needed caricom, do some research and reading for better delivery next time. Knowledge is power
    PS: check the prison to see what percentage of those inmates (male/females) are non national and further more, check the crimes they were arrested for in Antigua and then in most cases of serious crimes, they are deported after serving their sentences. Therefore, the suggested increased crime
    rate is not entirely motivated by foreigners. Just saying!!!

    • what “increased crime rate” are you referring to? Think you have Wadadli mixed up with Barbados and St. Lucia. As of the end of June, Barbados has recorded 30 murders (17 of which involved guns). Antigua and Barbuda still has one of the lowest (if not the lowest) in the sub-region. So GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!!!

      Jamaica is ranked higher with a weak currency. Big malls is Guyana but the GTs leaving their country in droves. Wonder why. IF “everything nice” and dandy in Joomearka and Gooyanah wenk dem nar stare deer?

  20. This is so funny. I was born in Antigua but didnā€™t grow up here. I remember returning and being horrified at how dirty, filthy and smelly St. Johnā€™s was. I had seen no other capital like it. Antiguans not Guyanese and Jamaicans still indiscriminately relieve themselves and p** and p*** everywhere. I have lived in at least 5 other Caribbean countries and have never seen this in any of them. If anything the immigrants embraced a ā€œnastyā€ culture that seem to have become embedded in the fabric of our society, which may not have been there in the 1940ā€™s but certainly ā€œbecameā€ and which in fact does not exist in major capital areas of other Caribbean countries! In fact St. Johnā€™s around the Caribbean became synonymous with filth. Tourists still talk about it and thatā€™s not the immigrantsā€™ fault. I think this was a unfortunate statement by the PM who even though harsh at times is usually on point.

    • As much as I love Antigua , I was shocked at the rubbish everywhere when I first went. This is the locals. Not tourists or immigrants. Sort it out people.

  21. Point could have been made without singling out Guyanese and Jamaicans. Adress your concerns to vendors period. This does send out a spirit of intolerance and think about how one feels if you are one of these Caribbean nationals. This i say as an Antiguan living in Jamaica. This i think can only fuel zenophobic sentiments which if we all would be honest has existed in Antigua for years.

  22. Some of the people on here sound so ignorant. Blaming the Caricom community for the government’s shortcomings. If proper rules were implemented and enforced in the first place this would not be an issue today! And people from Caricom countries would not be to blame. Dispite the so-called “ramshackling of the city”. Antigua has benefited well from these same people from Caricom countries in one way or another. Also Singling out Guyanese and Jamaicans is just distasteful and unnecessary. Your point Mr. PM of keeping Antigua and Barbuda shack free could have went over without insulting any nationality. I just can’t believe these people! Honestly!

  23. My father was Antiguan and I am half English.

    He never took us there, but I returned his ashes. I immediately fell in love with your country and it’s people. I even have dual nationality now. Such wonderful, kind and respectful people. A place of intelligence and a nation full of pride. Quite rightly.

    There is only one thing I cannot stand though. That is the rubbish everywhere. In the countryside, next to peoples houses. Bottles and cans and litter. It is such a shame. Such a beautiful place. It is not just these shacks. I wish there was a countrywide task. One day a year when everybody goes around together and clears it all up. A community action.

    I have been to 8 Caribbean Islands and Antigua is truly the jewel of the ocean. I just want it to be better still.

  24. Iā€™ve been living in Antigua for 20 odd years graduated pre K and high school and I witness your own Antiguan have been doing this because foreigners didnā€™t get the opportunity to do it back in the day so itā€™s been going on forever so if thatā€™s how you feel why didnā€™t you tell the Jamaicans and Guyanese this before they vote for you? Oh I know y because you think that they wouldnā€™t vote for you. You making it sound like itā€™s all them, You HIPOCRIT

  25. I am in full agreement with P.M Browne.1. They don’t contribute to the economy of Antigua and Barbuda;e.g..ss.Mbs.Education levy.nor pays st.johns development and pay inland revenue for a business licence. But they are making a profit.2. Aleast they can keep the sounding area clean,by havibg a personal gabbage bin and cleaning at the end of day of applying their trade to prevent the rodents and pest .3 There should not be any knock up shelter to appy their trade, use a tent instead. 4. It is not fair for them to block other business places who actually pay taxes..For those who sells food should have a food handling certificate visible and should follow food safety rules. .6. There should enough space on the side walk to people to walk and space on the road for vehicle to be driven on.

    But Mr P.M like wise let’s discuss the raping of our health care system but the same individual’s who don’t contribute to the said economy

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