est. 2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

National Meeting Hand

Submitted by Tee White

If it’s now going to be ‘national meeting hand’, then obviously the first principle would have to be that it’s voluntary. I have never heard of a meeting hand where you have to be in it even if you don’t want to. If individual public sector workers choose to accept the government bonds on that basis, then that’s their choice. If however, any individual is forced to be part of the ‘national meeting hand’, whether by the union leadership or government, then it’s not a meeting hand at all.

The government is persisting with this idea, claiming that its aim is to “carry as many Barbadians as possible”. But there’s a simpler and much fairer way to “carry as many Barbadians as possible”. That is that those who have benefited the most over the last 6 decades from turning the island from a sugar cane plantation into a one legged tourism economy must put their hands in their pockets and put some money on the table now that the wheels have come off the donkey cart that they, and the politicians they paid for, built to serve their own interests and which has now got the entire country in a predicament. They’ve become multi-millionaires and billionaires by changing agricultural land into residential land and selling it to developers, by signing lucrative contracts with the government to manage government owned hotels, by linking up with foreign tour operators and in a million other ways. They have full their belly for the last 60 years and now the bill has arrived, they want to pass it to the workers to pay. No way!

A special Covid 19 tax on those with deep pockets should provide the government with all the funds it needs. Remember if you tax a billionaire at 99% of their wealth, they would still be a multi-millionaire at the end of it. They still wouldn’t have to worry about where their next meal is coming from, how to pay their rent or  water or electricity bill.  That’s the way to “carry as many Barbadians as possible”.

https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/05/26/govt-signals-shift-from-forced-to-cooperative-savings/?unapproved=673434&moderation-hash=7f0f8d4337e5dcb6d1bf4a53d7a8055c#comment-673434

401 responses to “National Meeting Hand”

  1. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    As I told you Double K, are problems are mostly in our minds!

  2. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    The VAT written off for ’96-’00 simply was too unwieldy and costly to collect. The costs outweighed the benefits. It is important to note that the penalties and interest was not written off however.

    @Donna
    Yes many of our problems are indeed solely in our minds.

    You all ought to make up yours. On one occasion you lambaste government for pursuing some policy or other that you see as detrimental to the country but simply a case of prioritizing political over national interest. And out of the other side of your mouth you want government to pursue a course that will harm the country, will not accrue any SIGNIFICANT savings just so that you can feel better, i.e. achieve a narrow political objective of throwing the electorate some red meat. You all are really too confounding. Make up your mind before you comment nuh!

  3. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    VAT not collected by Govt is not theirs to give away. if retained by the retailer and used in the course of business, that is theft. as simple as that.

  4. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Khaleel Kothdiwala May 28, 2020 10:42 AM
    “Again the country does not need vote-grabbing solutions like that, Donna. We need legitimate solution which will have real and SIGNIFICANT impact on our present problems. Discussing the Cabinet is simply a sideshow among a plethora of other, actually significant matters.”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    And what can you proffer as ‘legitimate solutions’ to the present problems which could have ‘Real and Significant’ impact other than agreeing to continue to carry a big burden of costs at the Cabinet and consultancy levels?

    In field of Cost & Management Accounting, this is what would be considered ‘Discretionary Cost(s).

    The government already has a surfeit of well-qualified economists on its payroll and who have been educated at the taxpayers ‘costly’ expense.

    Why not extract this ROI on behalf of the shareholders of ‘Corporate Barbados Inc. aka the taxpayers?

    Can this be the same party which made a massive hue and cry – even with marches of the Duke of York variety- about the size of the Cabinet and its slew of unproductive parasitic advisors and consultants under the previous political administration?

    Where are your solutions now, Koochie Koo the kiddy?

    Why are you hiding them in your red portmanteau?

    At least Freundel Stuart had a ready source of solutions residing in his illustrious Cabinet and found no need for additional advice from any group of twenty eminent persons. And quite rightly so!

    We can guess you have never heard of that commonsense saying that “too many cooks spoil the broth”.

    The country does NOT need, and certainly cannot afford, another round of talk-shops and hangers-on looking for free meals and big brand drinks, but only emitting hot air and regurgitating impracticalities contained in previous reports scattered all over the various ministries and their agencies in the public sector.

    In its hour of great challenges facing it at its socio-economic crossroads, it needs people of ideas, action and hard work aka ‘doers’; not bullshi**ters of the pseudo-intellectual breed.

  5. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @ Millie

    “unproductive parasitic advisors and consultants under the previous political administration”

    You answered your own question rendering any comparison between a successful administration and one that crashed and burned in failure nonsensical. In attempting to make the comparison you expose your position in the DtM Brigade.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    “In its hour of great challenges facing it at its socio-economic crossroads, it needs people of ideas, action and hard work aka ‘doers’; not bullshi**ters of the pseudo-intellectual breed.”

    I fully agree. Hence why I roll my eyes at the naysayers, whiners and complainers which constitute a portion of the BU Commentariat. Persons without ideas to proffer but simply the same old soup warmed over and over “Mottley is Bad, Death to Mottley”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    @Eagle

    Government has not given it away. They have written it off. You join Millsy in not understanding glaringly basic distinction in terms.
    Theft is a crime in law not something that one can shoot one’s mouth off about without having any basis for the bold assertion. The non-payment of VAT ought to be looked at in the present time. Harping on about recouping arrears which cannot be recouped makes no sense. And it is as simple as that.

  6. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    You does come here playing you got a lot of big brain. But yuh know you is really uh DLP yardfowl idiot that does try to be funny and does talk nuff shyte.

    On one hand you ask How can you give away the same thing twice {quote}, which is shyte. Your footwork TRIP YOU UP THERE, because I talk bout two different things that would basically give the same result, and then on the next hand you ask Of the two give-aways which was the worse one? {Quote}

    Mek up yuh mind what it is.

    What sense it gine make to leave debt on the books for 23 years knowing that you either can’t or yuh refusing to collect it, when yuh can write it off and done which would make more sense?

    And you coming here talking bout weak argument and nice footwork, when you come with two left foots and a weaker argument? Look guh long and pick yuh fights wid Lorenzo.

  7. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    We may need to remind some that VAT is COLLECTED AT POINT OF SALE…there is no cost to the government to send in some tax collectors with GUNS to make sure the THIEVES who Mia wrote off that BILLION dollar VAT THEFT for…… PAID IN THE MONEY THEY COLLECTED over 20 years ago… ..why did BOTH governments REFUSE to collect the money..

    it’s the PEOPLE’S MONEY…..it did not belong to Mia nor the THIEVES so why was it NEVER collected by BOTH GOVERNEMENTS over decades..

  8. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    @Donna
    Yes many of our problems are indeed solely in our minds.

    You all ought to make up yours. On one occasion you lambaste government for pursuing some policy or other that you see as detrimental to the country but simply a case of prioritizing political over national interest. And out of the other side of your mouth you want government to pursue a course that will harm the country, will not accrue any SIGNIFICANT savings just so that you can feel better, i.e. achieve a narrow political objective of throwing the electorate some red meat. You all are really too confounding. Make up your mind before you comment nuh!

    You have lost me there, son. How will what I proposed harm the country?

  9. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    And it is not a political objective but a motivating objective. One that will activate the populace to change their ways. The only way “Do as I say and not as I do” is motivating is when you hold a whip at your side.

    And we need a change desperately.

    How the hell you expect the population to return to mauby drinking when those who beseech them make the speech with a glass of champagne in their hand?

  10. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    …there is no cost to the government to send in some tax collectors with GUNS to make sure the THIEVES who Mia wrote off that BILLION dollar VAT THEFT for {Quote}

    Spot on!!

    This is one time that I got to agree with Crazy & Unstable, Hogging the Blog, because she right. It ain’t gine cost the government nothing. IT GINE COST THE TAXPAYERS.

    First thing is, the taxpayers got to pay for the process of hiring the tax collectors and their salaries. The next thing taxpayers got to pay for is the guns. And yuh know, yuh can’t put a gun and some bullets in a man hand just so, without training he to use it. Taxpayers got to pay for training the tax collectors how to use them.

    Now, yuh can’t give the tax collectors guns and some bullets and tell them go to such and such a body place or to so in so store, pint the gun at he and tell he hand over the VAT he owe. Yuh got to teach them certain protocols of the law of enforcement that authorise them to collect the VAT using guns and how to go about things if the people ain’t hand over no money.

    If you don’t do that, yuh might butt up pun some people as tax collectors like Piece the Poppet or he grandson, or the Commander, or somebody that Crazy & Unstable or even a Ronald Jones——— that feel because them got a gun and does work for the government, them got the authority to crack some heads and shoot som,e people just so. Hear the shout, the government get sue and more taxpayers money gine get pay out to settle law suits. So we as taxpayers gots to pay for that training too.

    Who you think gine pay for the vehicles that the tax collectors got to use to go and collect the VAT? ho you think got to pay for the gas, insurance, maintenance and repairs for them vehicles? Not the same tax payers. Even if yuh let them catch the bus, the taxpayers still have to foot that bill.

    Everything got a price.

  11. Disgusting Lies and Propaganda TV Avatar
    Disgusting Lies and Propaganda TV

    “I wonder if some of the commentators on BU could supply me with some of the psychedelics which they seem to regularly use so that I too could go to the delusional place where some seem to reside.”

    @Khaleel Dah is very much fancy language fuh “you want some uh de dope some of dese people pun hey hitting!!!!!!….I don’t think you want any of that dope or any dope whatever. It obviously causing extreme brain damage!!!!!…i wish some of them hey take it to such an excess that it takes them to the Great Beyond or simply to Hell!!!!

    @Donna Most RATIONAL people that get the “privilege” of voting ain’t gine look on a ballot paper and chose a candidate based on if they were part or will be part of a big cabinet….they going to ask if that candidate could be part of a gov’t that can work for them or were part of a govt that was working for them. They leave the “finer details” to the govt they elected.
    Making a cabinet big MAY have the secondary effect of pacifying dissent in govt, but i can tell yuh when the forces strong and ready enough they WILL start an uprising. What happening to most modern day politicians though, is that they too frighten to be the scapegoat and lose their MP or minister pay, so they keep quiet. That is why Sinkya and the rest of the Eleven chose not to fight for the peasants that voted for them and ride off into the sunset, they got of dem horse and tell themselves; nah, them. “enemy” guns too big i want to be alive and rich.

  12. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Oh dear, Robert! I was just about to fall for your argument, especially since you yanked my chain with that word :”rational” and I don’t like for people to think I am not rational at all at all.

    But then unfortunately I remembered – wuh dat was one of Ms. Mottley big big issues wid de DLP guvment! Eyes bulging, fists pumping, arms flailing (I get dat from Hal Austin), “SEVENTEEN MINISTERS! NOW TELL ME – WHAT IS A SMALL COUNTRY LIKE BARBADOS DOING WITH SEVENTEEN MINISTERS?????”

    So I say to you and my new son, Double K – exactly when did a large cabinet size become a non issue and why did you not tell your favourite leader that the savings would be insignificant and that rational voters don’t care about those things when going into the voting booth????

    Perhaps Ms. Mottley should make up HER mind before she comments.

  13. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Oh dear I mention a man from England name and now my comment is in moderation.

    So….. here it is with just the initials.

    Oh dear, Robert! I was just about to fall for your argument, especially since you yanked my chain with that word :”rational” and I don’t like for people to think I am not rational at all at all.

    But then unfortunately I remembered – wuh dat was one of Ms. Mottley big big issues wid de DLP guvment! Eyes bulging, fists pumping, arms flailing (I get dat from H. A.), “SEVENTEEN MINISTERS! NOW TELL ME – WHAT IS A SMALL COUNTRY LIKE BARBADOS DOING WITH SEVENTEEN MINISTERS?????”

    So I say to you and my new son, Double K – exactly when did a large cabinet size become a non issue and why did you not tell your favourite leader that the savings would be insignificant and that rational voters don’t care about those things when going into the voting booth????

    Perhaps Ms. Mottley should make up HER mind before she comments.

    PS. You should see a doctor with that red eye. I hear the mucus could stick your eyes totally shut .

  14. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Khaleel Kothdiwala May 28, 2020 12:08 PM

    Stop with your asides and political red herrings and deal with the kernel of the matter.

    To repeat:
    What and where are your solutions, Koochie Koo the kiddy?

    Why are you hiding them in your red portmanteau for an empty brain box?

    Can the all-blue and yellow BU DtM brigade then conclude that your are nothing but a red-breasted parrot repeating whatever the overcrowded Mot(t)ley choir of consultants are singing?

    Or should we pity you for lacking the capacity for any original thought independent of your political masters at HQ and outside your pay-grade?

    You have the potential to do well at university. Please don’t sell your intellectual soul to the political red devil like Dr. Faustus.

    Otherwise, you will be for ever tainted and damaged with the red paint of intellectual prostitution equivalent to what you accuse the red Bishop of having done to his political donkey.

    A note of advice from your loving Master,
    Mephistopheles

  15. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    Wuhlosssss wunna does mek me laugh bad.

    Imagine dat Donna pun de people blog comparing DLP ministers to dis administration. Wuhloss!

    Donna like she don’t remember dat 17 Dems can’t do de work o half a parliamentary secretary in dis administration. DLP TV and Robert look how dese people does fuhget doah.

    You really thought that that clip would “catspraddle” the government Donna??? Life is a funny thing and politics is the funniest. In 1999 the BLP Administration kept a campaign promise to pass legislation to make it illegal to cut salaries. Now that same law might need amending as government looks at a pay deduction (good term DLP TV). But at the present time it is absolutely necessary.

    You know the DLP partisan Greene said an interesting thing yesterday about how the Dems cut salaries and that was awful and the Bees want to do the same thing and persons will support it. Look, no one ever denies you have to take tough choices in government but it is how you take them and how you take people into your confidence. Mottley hasn’t told anyone to like it or lump it or that temporary means temporary. She takes people “into her confidence” as hackneyed as that expression is.

    And that Donna is why you can never seek to compare them to the aberration that went before.

  16. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    @Millie

    I grow weary of engaging with you as it makes little sense of expending my time to so do.

    But what I will say is that I think the pay deduction idea is necessary and will do what is necessary for government at this time as I outlined previously. On other blogs I have spoken to more transformational aspects of the economy going forward and the next episode of the show I do for CBC will address it. I have outlined why I think pay deduction is a sensible idea and i don’t recall one of my reasons being that my “red political masters told me so”.

    Thanks for the advice but as I am at pains to point out it is mostly applicable for persons who harbour political ambitions, which is not a category into which I fall at this time.

  17. Observing Avatar
    Observing

    “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

    Just observing

  18. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Khaleel Kothdiwala May 28, 2020 5:34 PM

    But Baby Koochi Koo, you are nothing more than a political spring chicken.
    Why are you tiring so fast?

    You ought to take a leaf out of the workbook of the ‘laborious’ Sisyphus.

    What do you mean by “pay deduction idea”?

    Are you recommending increases in NIS contributions and PAYE deductions?

  19. TheOgazerts Avatar
    TheOgazerts

    Dude, you all think that calling names and writing nuff “stuff” is a response. You did not even make contact with your original statement.

    “So you don’t think that when DEM din collect the VAT arrears, it is the same thing as giving taxpayers’ money to retailer for services not rendered too?”

    You are discussing tow things there. Hope that helps.

  20. TheOgazerts Avatar
    TheOgazerts

    You are equating not collecting with giving away. The point is that something was still on the books and then it was given away, You cannot equate the two.

  21. Lorenzo Avatar
    Lorenzo

    Robert you got me cracking up , when you dtated you might end up with guns in the hands of Piece the poppet or he grandson or the commander or Waru the unstsble or Ronald Jones who may want to crack some heads oh ma shirt you are hilarious love it. Khaleel why arr e you wazting time with Miller and Donna the former talks about red herring when he is chief for throwing red herrings aboit refd bags and a lot of shite talk into any topic while poor pea brsin Donna because she claim she vote for Ms Mottley wants her to become David Copperfield and magically turn around the affairs of Barbados in 2 years whst her Dems took 10 years to mash up.My advise to her and the naysayers on here everyday vote for the mock party or the political nightwatchman who up to now cannot even name any candidates it will make you all feel better not sucessful though.

  22. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    Lorenzo

    I would love to see what the naysayers and whiners will say now about the brilliant BOSS program. However I am confident that the DtM brigade will absolutely be able to manufacture something to make themselves feel better. But don’t forget Lorenzo that people in Barbados are listening to the PM and her competent team and no one is listening to these folks. Btw after Dr Greenidge’s fantastic presentation I wondah if they will still say he ought to be fired after his work on this brilliant program. As I say Lorenzo I am confident they will fabricate something.

  23. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Sonny Boy,

    You spoke about being predictable. Well back at ya baby!

    You are quite right!~ The ineptitude of the DLP cabinet was incomparable. I doubt this lot could do as terrible a job.

    But that is a separate issue altogether. Ms. Mottley said that there is SIMPLY NO NEED FOR SEVENTEEN MINISTERS IN A SMALL ISLAND LIKE THIS. Nothing to do with effectiveness. Just NO NEED! PERIOD!

    But then we hear that “Many hands make light work.” So now we need twenty-six.

    Now…. let’s see if I can anticipate your next response.

  24. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    Don’t worry darling. You won’t have to bother anticipating my response because there will be none. After this evening’s press conference you cannot see what this “oppressively bloated” government has been able to do, darling I can’t help ya.

  25. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    on the face of it, a v good sell to the public. caught between a rock and a hard place by the downturn from COVID altho the Govt had warned pre COVID that harsh measures were coming, MAM pulled out one of the hat to present this to the public workers. got to hand it to MAM, she is a performer. Rhianna has nothing on her

    public / civil servants knew they were going to take a hit- it was just a matter of what kind. the govt could not cut salaries that needed a legislative change and firing civil servants was a hard sell.

    i am so convinced that the bonds will work and will be redeemed on maturity date that i hope the ministers, gurus, czars, advisers, consultants and other hangers on covert about 30% of their salary to bonds. that would give the civil servants a lot of confidence in the efficacy of the bond proposal and who knows, it may spur production.

    also i hope the banks will accept them should people want to pay bills or service mortgage and other debt

  26. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Khaleel Kothdiwala May 28, 2020 7:19 PM

    Ok KKK, Donna’s little sonny boy with the curly hair, now that the IMF-seconded consultant -sent to keep an eye on you untrustworthy lot by way of BERT- has done such a brilliant job of bamboozling Bajans like you, can there be any further justification for holding on to the other pedestrian consultants in economic and monetary affairs?

    The $64 million question still remains:
    How are you going to get the vast majority of public sector workers- many of them merely surviving in highly expensive Bim from pay check to payday loans- to buy into your voluntary bond substitution programme?

    If the vast majority of hand-to-mouth public workers, even those working for more than 3,000 p/m in Mickey Mouse money, refuse to take any part of their emoluments in your triple J (JJJ) bonds how are you going to enforce this ‘de facto’ compulsory monthly saving scheme?

    Why doesn’t the government just do like PM Sandie and do what is nationalistically required after the relevant amendment(s) to the Constitution?

    These times are far more crisis driven than in 1991.

  27. Khaleel Kothdiwala Avatar
    Khaleel Kothdiwala

    Lorenzo

    You have to give the loony DtM brigade credit. They are unwavering in the dedication to the task. They can always find a way to disparage even if they have to fabricate it. Luckily most Barbadians sit at home praying for their Government to succeed because they understand that when government does right the country benefits, as seen in this BOSS program, a worthy complement to the successful BERT. I always thank God that people like some of these BU commentators can only be found on BU so small are they in number. The government scored a win today and by extension the country will score a win because that’s ultimately what’s important. I’m so sorry guys but the country isn’t going to collapse just yet. You can keep hoping though.

  28. David Avatar
    David

    https://barbadosunderground.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/national-bonds.pdf

  29. David Avatar
    David

    https://www.facebook.com/SupportMiaMottley/videos/175110780591340/

  30. BAJE Avatar
    BAJE

    Lorenzo

    You have to give the loony DtM brigade credit. They are unwavering in the dedication to the task. They can always find a way to disparage even if they have to fabricate it. Luckily most Barbadians sit at home praying for their Government to succeed because they understand that when government does right the country benefits, as seen in this BOSS program, a worthy complement to the successful BERT. I always thank God that people like some of these BU commentators can only be found on BU so small are they in number. The government scored a win today and by extension the country will score a win because that’s ultimately what’s important. I’m so sorry guys but the country isn’t going to collapse just yet. You can keep hoping though.

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    THIS @Koolaid Kidd (KK) DOESN’T WORK AND ON HERE TELLING PEOPLE SHITE BECAUSE THE LITTLE FOOL SUPPORTS HIS PARTY BLP AT ALL COST.

    NOT EVEN AT VOTING AGE AND MATURE ADULTS WITH IT SEEMS TO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS CONTINUE TO ARGUE WITH A CHILD WHO CANNOT EVEN PAY THE ELECTRICITY BILL IN HIS PARENTS HOUSE.

    BU BLOG HAS BECOME A MAD HOUSE.

    I WISH THE COUNTRY I WAS IN WOULD COME UP WITH SOME BULLSHIT LIKE THIS AND TELL ME THAT BECAUSE I EARN US$8000 MONTHLY (BD$16,000) I MUST RECEIVE 30% IN SOME BULLSHIT BONDS WHEN ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS THIS BLP (BLASTED LYING PARTY) GOVERNMENT DID IN 2018 WAS TO NOT HONOR FULLY PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT BONDS.

    BAJANS CAN’T REALLY BE THIS FOOLISH TO ACCEPT RAW SHIT AND THINK IT IS RAW GOLD.

  31. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    I think that i will buy some of the bonds, after all I’ved saved considerably by reducing my transportation cost to zero since mid-March. My eating out cost to zero as well. Didn’t buy a new Easter outfit for church since I’ve been going to zoom church in my nightie, haven’t spent any money in the rum shop nor on the lotteries. I was planning to take an overseas holiday in June, but that is put off for the time being. That’s about $1,500 I haven’t spent

    Will my $1,500 make the government rich and or successful? No.

    Is there a guarantee that I will get a good return on my investment? No.

    But the $1,500 is money that I would likely have frittered away anyhow. If I get my money back. Cool.

    If I don’t get my money back, well that money is not my food, shelter and utilities money. It was my “mad” money anyhow.

    Clearly I did not spent enough time in the economics, accounting, actuarial sciences classes.

    But what the heck…

    I expect that there are a number of people who will reason just like me.

  32. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    I don’t think that it is raw shit.

    I don’t take it is gold either.

  33. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    @ Donna

    If the “Robert” you referring is me, I don’t know wuh the hell you talking bout. Wuh argument um is that you was gine fall for and when I use the word “rational” to yank your chain? Yuh got me there.

    ????????????????????????????????????????????/

    Here comes the big brain Commander from the pick-a-noise crew. Look, skipper, I said what I had to say, it is MY OPINION and I ent got to make contact with nothing. If you feel I wrong, that’s your problem.

    They got so much other things here to discuss and instead you focus on them, you coming with the same shyte argument again. But wait, I forget you job here is to pick noises with people you think are BLP supporters, tell people HAGD and drop low down remarks.

  34. Bajan in NY Avatar
    Bajan in NY

    @BAJE aka Major League Asshole who professed to have 3 degrees before amending the professed number to 2 aka Big Letter Man May 28, 2020 10:37 PM
    I WISH THE COUNTRY I WAS IN WOULD COME UP WITH SOME BULLSHIT LIKE THIS AND TELL ME THAT BECAUSE I EARN US$8000 MONTHLY (BD$16,000) I MUST RECEIVE 30% IN SOME BULLSHIT BONDS WHEN ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS THIS BLP (BLASTED LYING PARTY) GOVERNMENT DID IN 2018 WAS TO NOT HONOR FULLY PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT BONDS.

    It is optional so no one is forced to opt in. 17% in bonds it the suggested figure for those at the top of the wage scale. What did you major in? I rule out English since your comprehension skills are almost nonexistent. The country you are residing in is treating your former Armed Forces buddies, who become infested with COVID-19, like shit and allowing them die in large numbers in VA hospitals, so that is what you should concern yourself with and left the folks in Bim to worry about the BOSS program.

  35. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    When a black government in Barbados finally starts talking about giving up the land they love to give away and sell to the local and foreign minority crooks and parasites……to the PEOPLE instead aka MAJORITY POPULATION who FUND THE COUNTRY so they can commence creating and BUILDING GENERATIONAL WEALTH for their FUTURE GENERATIONS…let me know.

    until then, everything is just a temporary stop gap bandaid while they wait to RESTART the DEPENDENCY ON TOURISM….to pay low salaries and continue their decades old slave society…to nowhere for the people.

    in the last 50 YEARS…i have NEVER ONCE heard any black PM talk about the majority population building generational wealth to secure their own futures, all these blights have ever talked on and on and on and on about is dependency for the people….never anything to SECURE THEIRS AND THEIR FAMILY’S FUTURES and economic STABILITY….

    am so NOT impressed

  36. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Hurrah! Barbados is saved! Thank God because I have to live here and so does my sixteen year old son.

    I am indeed aggrieved that a mere child like you should suggest that because I am asking legitimate questions of this administration I would love for this government to fail. Where is your evidence for that?

    That would indeed be loony!

    It would be especially loony when there is no better option with which to replace them.

    We voted out the DLP because they failed. We did not vote in the BLP because we wish them to fail. And contrary to what that cockadoodler keeps crowing, I do not expect Ms. Mottley to fix what ails us in two years. That too would be loony.

    All I am doing is holding Ms. Mottley to her word bearing in mind that a little leeway must be given for unforeseen circumstances.

    I did not hear this “win” of which you speak but though I fear your gloating is premature I would be sincerely delighted to be wrong.

    And that, my boy, is because unlike you lot I am neither Bee nor Dee. I was a citizen who voted Dee because I believed them to be better. And now I am a citizen who voted Bee because I HOPED they would be better.

    If you cannot see that after what I have said here then I cannot help YOU!

    PS. I am also a woman who has fought men all the way to be seen as equal and unlike many nasty persons, I still see Ms. Mottley as a woman. There is nothing I would love better than to rub it all over smug male faces that a woman has fixed the mess the men have made.

    indeed, I could die happy that my lifelong argument has been won!

    And now I am going to give BAJE a heart attack by taking his advice. Nothing more from me.

  37. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Don’t mind Koochie Koo…when that OPPRESSIVE SLAVE SOCIETY…that this sell out government is bending themselves in half to keep INTACT to reduce their own people to perpetual DEPENDENCE……is finally DISMANTLED …then they can call that the real BOSS move…

  38. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    “…..BECAUSE I EARN US$8000 MONTHLY (BD$16,000)”

    This is all the highly successful and well-off 2/3 degrees earns? Didn’t he receive a stimulus cheque?🤔🤣

    “…GOVERNMENT DID IN 2018 WAS TO NOT HONOR FULLY PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT BONDS.”

    The savings bonds were NOT part of the debt restructure and the bonds now on offer are also similarly protected.

  39. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    “How are you going to get the vast majority of public sector workers- many of them merely surviving in highly expensive Bim from pay check to payday loans- to buy into your voluntary bond substitution programme?”

    “Why doesn’t the government just do like PM Sandie and do what is nationalistically required after the relevant amendment(s) to the Constitution?”

    So in one breath the verbose one describes many public servants as barely surviving and therefore unwilling/unable to buy in to the bonds offer. Yet in another, promoting a mandatory salary cut. I guess them only barely surviving through the preferred lens.

  40. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    quote] Those who earn $36 000 or less would be exempted, but could opt in. Public sector workers earning between $36 000 and $50 000 a year would receive 93 per cent in cash and 7 per cent in bonds. Those earning between $50 000 and $100 000 annually would receive 88 per cent in cash and 12 per cent in bonds and if you earn in excess of $100 000 per annum, the split would be 83 per cent in cash and 17 per cent in bonds.

    Since BOSS is optional, a worker can determine before he or she is paid that they need cash and the bonds would be converted so the full salary appears on the bank.[quote

    the above is a quote from the Nation Newspaper

    so if a majority of civil servants can opt out, and it appears they can, if they do, how will this help Govt to reduce the wage bill?

    or is there more to – “Since BOSS is optional, a worker can determine before he or she is paid that they need cash and the bonds would be converted so the full salary appears on the bank”- than readily meets the eye

  41. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff May 29, 2020 6:16 AM

    Is this the same “BOSS” financial guru who- under the previous financially hamstrung administration- advised against the investment in those junk” bonds peddled by Sinckler & Worrell?

    Weren’t you verbose then in your partisan anti-government advice?

    How else are you going to reduce your payroll costs? Send home more workers as was done previously under both administrations?

    Do you think any ‘optional’ payroll reduction proposal is going to succeed when the very private sector on which the public sector depends for its tax revenues has been forced to cut back and layoff workers?

    Do you really feel the public sector operates in its own revenue generating cocoon?
    Where is the money coming from to pay the public sector workers (including the extensive army of consultants and advisors) pre or post the BOSS deductions?

    It is now crunch time for Bajans.

    The same way the country defaulted on its bonds obligations in a pre-Covid collapsing economy so too must the public sector be brought under heavy measures and help the country live within its income generating and earning means to avoid a similar default.

  42. Observing Avatar
    Observing

    Bonds must now replace workers’ disposable income to “save the country.”

    From the same people that pilloried and bludgeoned Sandi for the 8% cut that “saved the country”

    Fluff and fireworks by any other names are still fluff and fireworks.

    Politics truly is blood sport.

    Just observing

  43. Critical Analyzer Avatar
    Critical Analyzer

    We are only kicking the can down the road yet again.

    All this fancy plan does is borrow money against projected future earnings to make up for the current/projected earnings shortfall in government revenues to cover public worker’s salaries for the next six months to a year while they are on their knees praying the tourists come back in their numbers this flu and winter season.

    Our destiny is not currently in our own hands. We are still out there in the ocean trying to tread water hoping a boat passes by to save us instead of picking a sensible direction and start swimming to reach land.

    Where are the medium and long term goals. They should also have been presenting those goals that people can start to think about upcoming opportunities or do they want to keep them secret for themselves and their friends to get rich off of or do they have none and are praying tourism return to pre-COVID earning levels.

    As I said in another comment on another post, economists only know one trick. Guess which step they are at in the cycle

    “All economists are one trick magicians performing variations of the same magic trick over and over to get more money from thin air.

    Here is how the economic magic trick works
    1) Borrow large sums of money for any number of large projects. True project viability does not matter.
    2) Move that money around the system like managers in a ponzi scheme trying to maintain that illusion of success by doing fancy projects and creative accounting.
    3) Enrich themselves and their supporters by siphoning off some of the money out of the system before it collapses.
    4) Come up with more inventive schemes to tap additional sources of financing to keep building the house of cards bigger and bigger.
    5) Start the whole cycle again.

    I challenge any economics student or expert to say otherwise.”
    https://barbadosunderground.net/2020/04/30/central-bank-economic-review-double-digit-decline-expected/comment-page-2/#comment-1342587

  44. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Don’t mind all the OLD TALK…

    …has the government told the civil servants they are desperately trying to mamaguy and bullshit that despite ALL THE BILLIONS they are now borrowing left and right and getting grants (free money) from different countries too….that UWI CANNOT pay their staff this month because the same bullshit artist government REFUSES to give UWI the money owed to them…

    and ALL of these people have debts to pay and families to FEED…

  45. Dullard Avatar
    Dullard

    Is this thing optional or not?

    Well said CA.

    No foundational, deep rooted change. Just chaotic cash grabs.
    The whole charade is a farce. The bankrupt govt is now desperately trying to get its hands on whatever cash it can to pay its bloated horde of ministers / consultants/ advisors.

    They are also trying to go after credit union deposits. This cash grab will make little difference except to reduce spending and further empoverish people. When this doesn’t work (and it won’t) whose cash will The President go after next?

  46. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @David

    thanks for posting that power point-

    “Some persons may need up to all of their salary in cash now to meet current needs:

    1.Workers can seamlessly convert partor all of their bond into cash each month.At the start of the process, each worker will indicate to the Ministry of Public Service (MoPS), what portion of their bond, if any, they would wish converted into cash each pay period. MoPS will send those instructions to the Central Bank who would then each month sell that portion of the worker’s bond to a willing buyer and deposit the cash into the worker’s account ”

    it seems to me that there is no option. at least not at point of sale. workers have to buy the bonds then indicate how much they want converted to cash. i wonder who or what is considered a willing buyer.

    appears to be a major flaw in the plan and a needless complication. probably inserted hurriedly to say it is optional which is an illusion. i would just mandate they buy the bonds and the earliest they can sell them would be the early redemption date

  47. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    WURA,

    I know when to accept defeat. The child is too far gone. I have had greater success with my son and many others. Even when he is on his video calls I speak and his young friends think I’m a hoot. This week they all wished me happy birthday before my senior moment mind even remembered what day it was.

    You can’t win ’em all.

  48. David Avatar
    David

    @Greene

    The worker decides if to opt in.

  49. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @David,

    i stand to be corrected by where does it indicate that the worker can decide to opt in

  50. David Avatar
    David

    @Greene

    Dr. Kevin Greenidge is presently on national radio diving into the detail. A document/form will be distributed to public workers before the start of the program/monthly to indicate their appetite for % allocation of bond from salary.

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