Adrian Hinds // February 16, 2009 at 1:24 pm

So J it was devine intervetion? ha ha ha ha. But J wuh is you fixation on things long and hard on a man? and wuh would you seemly wish for such to be on WIV?
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ha ha halol ha ha ha

Dear Chris:

Some of us don’t have cars, nor raincoats nor umbrellas.

I don’t know what they do in the place where you were born but no I’ve never stood in heavy rain for an hour for anything or anybody, and I don’t intend to start.

Actually when I was small I was told that Bajans are made of salt.

I have never dared to test the hypothesis.

If I was at the meeting would you have let a strange Bajan (and some people think that I am very, very strange) sit in your car with you?

Here is an intersting piece of news for you.
http://www.independent.co.uk/

Fast-food nation: KFC bucks trend with 9,000 new jobs

Britain’s employment map transformed as recession-hit consumers trade down

By Michael Savage, Political correpondent

The fast-food outlet KFC it is to create up to 9,000 jobs, providing further evidence that British consumers are opting for cheaper ways of dining out during the recession.

The chain of fried chicken stores, which currently employs about 20,000 people in its 760 British stores, said it was making an investment of up to £150m in an expansion drive that will see it open between 200 and 300 restaurants in the next three to five years.

It is the latest high-street fast-food chain to defy the economic downturn with expansion plans after seeing sales in 2009 show a 14 per cent rise on last year. A new drive-through store which opened last month broke the company’s record for sales in an opening week, taking £100,000.

Other fast-food stores, takeaway chains and budget supermarkets have been expanding their slice of their respective markets as shoppers tighten their purse strings. Last month, the sandwich chain Subway announced plans to open 600 stores in the UK and Ireland, creating 7,000 jobs.

The pizza delivery service Domino’s recently announced that its sales for last year had increased by 10 per cent as more Britons chose to buy take-away food rather than dine out to cut their outgoings. McDonald’s saw European sales increase by 7.6 per cent during the last quarter of 2008, in the midst of the credit crunch. The budget supermarket Lidl also revealed it was expanding its operations in Britain earlier this month. It is opening 50 stores and creating 2,000 jobs after experiencing its most successful Christmas ever, with takings at the “no frills” store increasing by more than 11 per cent last month.

KFC will open most of the stores in north England and south Wales, while some of the investment drive will go towards refurbishing its current outlets. Some of the new stores will be franchises, with each store employing between 25 and 40 people.

“There aren’t many companies who can be so positive in this market so we are delighted to be able to announce this significant investment,” said Martin Shuker, the firm’s UK chief executive. “Our growth strategy demonstrates the strong demand from our customers; consumers clearly still want great quality food but at reasonable prices and that is exactly what we provide.”

The announcement has also led to fears that more skilled jobs are being replaced by unskilled, part-time positions. Many of the new jobs will be for workers earning the minimum wage of £5.73 an hour. It came soon after the car maker BMW revealed that it was axing 850 jobs at its Mini construction plant in Cowley, Oxfordshire. It is predicted that about 6,750 of the new jobs at KFC will be among bottom level “team members”, such as chefs and cashiers.

The TUC’s general secretary, Brendan Barber, said the Government should guard against the development of a trend towards the replacement of skilled jobs with unskilled and low-paid positions. “It’s encouraging that profitable companies are using their wealth to create new jobs, rather than hoarding it amongst shareholders,” he said. “Skilled jobs should lie at the heart of the economic recovery and it’s vital that the Government creates incentives for companies to bring more high-skilled work into the UK.”

Mr Shuker said there would be some skilled jobs included in the KFC expansion. About 900 manager and assistant manager positions will also be created.

“What we do is encourage as many people as we can to come and work at KFC and develop their career,” he said.

@J: “Some of us don’t have cars, nor raincoats nor umbrellas.

And yet we live in a country which often experiences rain…

To share, I, personally, do not own a car. I do, however, own an umbrella.

It would seem reasonable that one who lives in a country which often encounters rain might invest the BDS $20 to do the same…

@J: “Actually when I was small I was told that Bajans are made of salt. I have never dared to test the hypothesis.

Empirically, that’s pretty stupid. Wouldn’t you agree?

If Bajans really believe that they will melt in the rain, then what hope have we against those who also live in regions with frequent rain, but somehow manage to continue doing business?

@J: “I don’t know what they do in the place where you were born…

I was born, raised, and trained in British Columbia, Canada.

There, we call rain “liquid sunshine”.

And there, we always got on with our jobs, no matter the H2O present, beating the s**t out of those not prepared to do the same…

@BU Family…

I now find myself here. In Barbados. Trying to (and taking some personal risk to) fight your corner…

But, to tell you the truth, I sometimes find myself frustrated fighting for those who won’t even risk getting wet….

Chris i wish you luck. Over the years of blogging, I was often times challenge with the now common refrain “why you don’t return home and stop the complaining from afar?” to which i just laugh. Our island is awashed with persons who have been conditioned to be dependent on one person or the other, usually politicians, and i have seen people die fighting on behalf of this lot, to no avail. I will not be so foolish. This fight requires force in numbers, and until i see people rising up for themselves, I gine stand right here and complain as usual. It is said that the Lord help those who endevour to help themselves. I aint gine try to out do God!

Agree with you Adrian that Mr. St. Hill needs to write with clarity. As confused as you about his article.

We must see the councils for what they are. We should work with which ever Government is in office and certainly if our Government ask us to serve we should serve.

They take our taxes which is supposed to benefit us and therefore, “B” or “D” we must be vigilant.

This is nothing more than another Government programme. It just should not enter the arena of democratic ideology; that is not the proposal, the proposal is about change. Its basic principle is engaging the people more. It cannot be seen as anything more.

Our biggest problem is the inclusion of the political parties on the Councils as Ex Officio members. That is a problem. All I can say is that I hope that maturity will prevail but right now, it is the biggest threat to the success of the Councils and if it is no threat, well then, good!

As citizens it is our duty to be vigilant. If the system of constituency councils proves to be too political and can’t be corrected, then our suggestion is to leave them alone… but before it gets there, the Council should meet with the Parties separately and not at Council meetings.

Leonard St.Hill has written a beautiful piece of prose as usual. It is indeed written in English with correct spelling and punctuation, I must add. It communicates exactly what he wants to say, and very clearly to me. I see no mystery at all with respect to what has been said . But then……….

David,

The partisanship is not in the CCs alone as you identified. As I said, the greatest danger to the success of the CCs is the presence of political party representatives on the CCs and this is a deliberate move by Government.

I heard Dugid complaining about things happening in the constituency that the opposion MPs don’t know about. All I can tell him is welcome to opposition politics… but if ordinary citizens are going to the Government Departments to get assistance, you mean that the Civil servants must call up the MPs and notify them? Would that be professional?

That is exactly what happened with UDC and RDC under the BLP watch, you didn’t get that help unless the politicians said so. It was the politicians who prioritised the assistance rather than priority going to the most needy.

Now, Given the nature of the beast, there is no way that two opposing parties will spare any effort to get their programmes bankrolled through the Council unless the budget is allocated into categories and even then, they will want the most out of each allocated head.

Having a Chairman appointed by the Minister is also a measure of further Gov’t control. A Chairman will be able to overrule an entire committee under these kinds of circumstances. Of course the members of the CCs can complain to the Minister, even go public, if they can get together; so this is a check.

By the same token, you may find a fair chair, or one who is brave enough to ensure that the people are heard and that they get what they want in a fair share of the resources. It makes the Councils unbalanced and dependent on who is chair.

The most important thing is what practices will prevail. Right now it is heavily stacked on Government’s side and to them it would make for sensible politics. Hence one can see that Gov’t has not succumbed to a raw democratic process in the operation of the CCs either, most likely out of the fear that they may fall into the hands of the opposition forces.

How will you get over that when the ruling party has to be always on the lookout for encroachments by the opposing party to make themselves look good or even embarrass the ruling party? Just the nature of politics.

This comes back to the point of the empowerment of Civil Society Organisations and to understand that Civil Society has to be able to use its freedoms as a check on the partisan politics, despite any provisions in the legislation. This calls for eternal vigilance and brave souls. The question is, are we the people ready and willing to balance the forces at work, or will we just get what we can and come away thankful? The most extreme scenario is that we end up with 30 wars going on all across Barbados.

Georgie Porrgie // February 24, 2009 at 8:14 pm

Leonard St.Hill has written a beautiful piece of prose as usual. It is indeed written in English with correct spelling and punctuation, I must add. It communicates exactly what he wants to say, and very clearly to me. I see no mystery at all with respect to what has been said . But then……….
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Would you care to enlighened us on what he meant? I know, I think i do,… but would have preferred for him to be man enought to say it clearly.