@Charles S. Cadogan
what kind of backward johnny are you? did u ever had any kind of secondary education? were u taught how to write a story? what is the topic? what is your opening thesis? i read this junk in all its supposedly eloquence and i am yet to understand what business u are talking about, what was sold out sir? and please, no one cares if u return to Barbados or not, if u are going to do that type unintellectual incompetence, stop writing. I was taught at school, that when writing you take the position that the reader does not know what u are talking about. u have assumed that people know the source of your discontent, i do not and and as it stands, it reads like junk to me

Mr. Cadogan has now written another stupid article. I started to respond to past ones and then decided that my time was not worth it. He is obviously a racist and has his country, the good old USA at heart… not Barbados . He has obviously been away too long and has lost touch with Barbados but has his own ideas based on missed guided information. His other articles are even dumber!

The sale of many large local companies especially major utility companies should be of major concern to all right thinking persons. People must understand everyone is entitled to his or her opinion and the disagreeable comments are tasteless! Finally, he who feeds you and controls your utilities determines your propensity to save for a rainy day! Directors must always act in the best interest of the shareholders. However,I need to ask some questions they are neither white or black.

Do we need to sell our shares in the Barbados Light & Power?

Will the cash injection from the sale be more that what will be remitted yearly?

Are Barbadian companies undervalued?

What about a share split?

Is the most creative measures being used by government to create foreign currency inflows?

Can the government not float a Diaspora Bond?

Does it makes sense to sell shares now at the $25 and payout share gains in high electricity charges in the short term?

How many former BS&T companies have either closed or downsized since change in ownership?

Are persons in Barbados suffering from the Instant Gratification Syndrome?

I am convinced that this writer has lost his marbles!

If we accept that Charles was not specific in articulating a problem statement, can we move on if we all accept that many Barbadians are concerned about our willingness to sell out our prized assets over the years? In other words, there is still an argument to be made at a general level.

@ David
Are you being influenced by the contributor’s incoherence? LOL
“There’s still an argumentbto be made..” Are you kidding me?

all you disagreeable as.. holes one day you gonna wake up out of your slumber and realise it is too late. Mr . Cadogan has reason for concern . However some of you are too dumb to understand. Instead post some ridiculous response and attack Mr. Cadogan .

@Independant
If the shoe fits wear it. Not to mention your scarcastic response and rude diatribe to Mr Cadogan. Mr. Cadogan made certain points which have been discuss her on BU many times by other contributors . Hell yes Barbados is being sold and it should be a major concern to all Barbadians! Wake up out of your slumber.

Is it still a “prized asset” if it’s making losses?

People invest money in equities and bonds, in order to obtain a resonable return on their investment. i.e capital gains . For some reason we believe that you should purchase shares and hold on to them indefinitely. Making a reasonable return on your investment has nothing to do with nationalism. In some instances, it is good to hold on the shares if they pay a reasonable dividen. We need to understand the fundamentals of investing.

ac, using Light & Power Holdings as an example, are you concerned about the Government and its agencies, such as the NIS, selling shares held in LPH or are you concerned about the average Barbadian investor or LPH employee selling shares held in LPH?

By “little people”, are you referring to only Barbadians that are considered poor or are you referring to the average Barbadian with collectively hundreds of millions of dollars deposited on bank accounts at less than 3% interest, which wealthy people borrow to invest? If the latter, may I suggest that:
(a) Barbadians take a percentage of their savings from the bank and invest in the stock market;
(b) Barbadians lobby government for laws that would force companies in critical and strategic industries, such as land development in Barbados, to become public companies listed on the stock exchange;
(c) Barbadians support the public companies, in which they invest and in which their pension funds are likely invested; and
(d) Barbadians lobby Government for incentives for public companies for the role those companies play in facilitating investment opportunities for the average Barbadian.

The writer is CORRECT.

Skin colour should not matter…unfortunately it does. If you are black, try LIVING and WORKING in a country where you are the minority – such as the UK or USA and then talk rubbish about race doesn’t matter.

Barbadians are selling out everything and they cannot even see it. Whoever owns the LAND and the BUSINESS controls the country. Yes, that is what I wrote. CONTROLS THE COUNTRY.

Barbadians are going around with blinkers on. I love Barbados but sometimes I really have to shake my head in despair at what I see and read.

You sell land to any Tom, Dick or Harry without a word and yet complain when BARBADIANS who have lived abroad return to their own country to settle down and buy property. At least their property will more likely as not be passed onto their relatives when they die. At least they will be spending their money locally.

When you sell to outsiders that property will NEVER return to Barbadian hands. If the property is left empty most of the year, then how does that help the economy? When people come along and buy up great swathes of property, do you even question where their money comes from? Whether the money was obtained legitimately? Who may be behind the scenes?

There are parts of Britain – for example Cornwall, where rich Britains like to buy second homes. The local people are priced out of the market. Some villages are nearly ‘dead’ because these homes are left empty most of the time. Local businesses fail because there is no one around to buy their goods/services most of the year. Yet Barbados, which is a small island, carries on as if there is an endless supply of land. There isn’t. In many countries foreigners/non-residents cannot just walk in and buy property as they please.

We, in Britain privatised our utility companies years ago. Shall I tell you what is happening now? Well those same utilities that were bought by foreign companies put their prices up sky high in Britain and keep the prices low in their own country. If they decide to lay off staff, then they lay off people in Britain in greater numbers than in their own country. That is the kind of thing that happens when you sell out your business.

Sometimes people that live/have lived abroad see things much more clearly than you realise. Just that you won’t take any advice as you seem to think we’re all ‘mad’. Well we’re not, we see things all too clearly.

I am very new here and honestly know very less about Barbados, but i believe that that doesn’t disqualifying me from adding my view here.
I am an African and i have experience to something similar to what you guys are talking about here. I had been born in an island which was 100% owned by Africans but now nearly 98% of the land is in the hands of whites-Europeans while we Africans who are reasonably few but ten times more than the whites, we scattered all over the world and become worthless, useless and laughable by those who run the show on our ex-homeland.
Yes the guy who wrote the open comment should be sure on his writing but Africans in general needs to double check their actions on nearly everything. I beg you people here not teas me on the way i present my view as i am not that smart.

The mindset for most Bajans is to get a job and work for the government. The fact is that the government has taken on a new face . Those who control the wealth of the country and it is those people to whom the government has an allegiance. Foreign investment o.k. but how much they should be allow to own. Their in lies the problem!

On the subject of Barbados being sold, here is an earlier piece titled Barbados Sold! which was submitted by Kammie Holder in November.

Hopi bro, let them run to their banks. We need to learn the lesson that all this investment and banking is a sham that has shown up in the West for what it really is; a false accounting, drug money laundering facade, based on fractional reserve and bogus interest rates.
They are all more or less ponzi schemes, just that some are more brazen than others.
As for free markets and energy; they cannot go hand in hand. Essential services need to be protected from speculation, that is why health care, education, police and military are provided for from the public purse. The provision of energy needs to be controlled by the people and not by profit.

Peace

maat……..Many of us including the GOB needs to be educated about this ‘CONTRIVANCE’ we call money…….they’re constantly selling off the children’s birthright i.e. REAL ESTATE for paper. Today, aren’t we all having to dig deeper in our pockets to pay for a loaf of bread, while those with our REAL WEALTH continues to see its value increase? What happens when its totally devalued? Its a mere tool of control!

@BAFBFP……..ya demon! I’m glad you mention the big ‘S’ word because, like you say, the lying international media will never target the main offenders i.e the true blood suckers. They are constantly spewing forth too many non-sensical reasons as to why the price of fuel is rising, and then the lilliputians continue with the same verbiage blaming Iran and Chavez et al. The ‘S’ word is the main reason for the skyrocketing fuel prices and none other than the IMF and the WORLD BANK benefits…the true global blood suckers and then they blame it on the cold weather and consumer demand.

And look how the consumers are being raped at both ends. On the one hand this phantom called ‘Global Warming’ is being blamed for Carbon increase in the environment, hence the imposition of a phoney carbon tax, while on the other hand the Cold weather is being blamed for the increase in fuel prices and in steps that ‘S’ animal. Talk about FRAUDSTERS of the highest order. According to the SCIENTISTS the whole world should be hot right now.

First Hants we have to teach our children to stop competing against each other. This feting, fancy dress up, materialism and fast food lifestyle is a show off syndrome that I believe starts in education.
My eldest just started secondary school and it is amazing to see that they are still putting the childrens position in class on their reports. They were doing it from primary school and we asked them to stop. Our children do not need to compare themselves with one another. This is causing brain damage on a serious level to our youth.
In my daughters 1st term at primary sch, they placed her as 1st in her class, her mark was only 60%. First with 60% leads to a life of ego in the belief that you are the best when you are really mediocre. Isn’t that what we are facing in a great deal of our society?
We must stop placing the position of children in their education as it is giving both the parents and the children a complex; either superiority or inferiority. They believe they are better than those to which they are academically compared, when the comparison may be that of best of a poor bunch, or the youths grow up accepting they are inferior even if they try their best.
To deal with these complexes some youth will try to buy social status; be visible at every fete, buy the latest gear, drive the hardest car, out do my neighbour to ‘re inforce my superiority or overcome my feeling of inferiority”.
When many of us have a house and a car we feel we have the world, we hardly ever go on to develop business’ legacy and true inheritance’s.

PEACE

I would guess less than double digit percentages for foreign ownership, however we could also ask what is the percentage increase over the past 20 years? How has the increase in land values, partly due to wealthier peoples willingness to pay more, affected the average locals ability to get involved in real estate?
My opinion is that we cannot blame people from overseas for wanting to come here and for being willing and able to pay a high rate for land and homes, employ locals for property maintenance etc. My point is that we need to look at ourselves and our willingness to sell out; nobody twists our arms, we need to check on our short term greed and our sometimes lacking in long term vision.

Peace