Assignment: The struggle for Barbuda's future
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 11 January 2024
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Campaigners on the tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda are locked in a battle over its development by foreign investors who are building exclusive resorts for wealthy clients. The development of Barbuda into a high-end tourist destination is supported by the government of Antigua and Barbuda, who say it’s essential to create jobs and for the economic future of the island. But others argue that it will fundamentally change the island’s ecology and unique way of life. Caroline Bayley travels to Barbuda for Assignment to speak to both sides in the heated debate over the island’s future.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I was one of many people that were victims who was used by somebody who was |
| 0:05.2 | psychotic. Let's tell this story. World of Secrets, season 2, The |
| 0:10.9 | Disciples. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. |
| 0:17.0 | Thanks for choosing to listen to assignment on the documentary podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:23.0 | I'm Caroline Bailey and I'm on the tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda |
| 0:28.0 | where some residents fear that new multi-million dollar private resorts are threatening their historic island |
| 0:34.4 | community. What is taking place right now is the mating season. The all black |
| 0:41.9 | ones with the huge red pouch inflated, those are males. |
| 0:45.1 | They inflate that huge red pouch that sends the signal out to the girls that the |
| 0:50.2 | boys are back. The male is saying, hey come on bears pick me pick me |
| 0:56.1 | at first glance the tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda seems like an unspoiled |
| 1:01.4 | wonder we've chugged across Codrington Lagoon in a small pink |
| 1:05.8 | boat with our guide Pat Richardson. Dozens of rare frigate birds swirl effortlessly above |
| 1:12.3 | us, their broad wingspans and fork. frigate birds swirl effortlessly above us. |
| 1:13.0 | Their broad wingspans and forktails silhouetted against a cloudless blue sky. |
| 1:19.0 | We have people from all over the world come just about you so they can get to see these birds. |
| 1:25.0 | There are mangroves all around us and the frigate birds are nesting in the trees. |
| 1:31.0 | The males are very distinctive with red balloon pouches that inflate from their |
| 1:38.3 | throats to show the females that they're ready to mate. |
| 1:54.0 | But some Barbudans are worried that the ecology and their way of life of this Paradise Island is under threat. There's nothing we can do about change. |
| 1:56.0 | It's just how we manage the change. |
| 1:58.0 | That is the most important part. that. |
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