@Chris

Why not write in clear text?

Why did you advise a negative on going live 11.11.11?

What have been the blockers to achieving the goal?

I’m sure members of the BU Family will correct me if I have made any glaring omissions from the summary below of Dr. Ronnie Yearwood’s Open Letter.

I’m sure members of the BU Family will be able to make explicit to me at which point Dr. Yearwood makes specific, concrete, practical proposals regarding how he would effect the “change” to which he refers so monotonously.

Here’s the summary …

I was born poor in a poor place, so we all worked hard in an effort to be less poor. My father was absent. My mother worked hard. The same applies to a lot of Bajans.

Barbados was built on hard work and a determination to succeed.

The economic situation is a bit grim at the moment.

Barbados claims to have a 100 percent literacy rate but that’s a lie because some schoolchildren are illiterate. Some youths are jobless and have few prospects.

Barbados claims to be top-notch at tourism but that’s also a lie because standards are slipping.

Barbados claims that public-sector reforms are working but that’s a lie because the government is inefficient.

The social situation is a bit grim. We’re having a hard time deciding what to do about things and we’ve got no vision of the future. But even though things are grim at the moment, there is a future. We’re all a bit fed up about things now, but stuff will get better if we believe it can.

If you’re looking for redeemers, you won’t find them in (i) Bajan politicians; (ii) the United States; (iii) the United Kingdom; (iv) the European Union; (v) China; or (vi) money.

The redeemers are: (i) “everyone working together”; and (ii) help from other countries in the Caribbean. Now’s the time for that.

Barbados has been independent for forty-five years. We knew it would be hard. We’ve done okay so far, but now it’s all a bit rubbish. So now it’s time to change.

I made a speech earlier this year. I asked what kind of society Barbados wanted. I was criticized for that. I’m asking again because Barbados belongs to Bajans. People have political views and are fed up, so I’m talking.

All kinds of people have ideas. Those ideas have to be understood. We’ll get change when enough of us make more demands on ourselves (and on our country and on , er, “our history”). We used systems left by the British. They’re outdated.

I think we’re brave but we don’t change even though we talk about change. We’re all a bit fed up about Barbados at the moment. We’ve done okay but things could be better.

Now I’d like to ask a lot of questions, and whine a little bit, without providing any answers [here, insert all the questions to which I provide zero answers].

Leaders should talk to us directly and clearly. Plus, we need unity. We have to work hard and change our culture and our way of thinking. If not, we’re doomed. These days, complacency is a no-no. We were only okay in the first place because of hard work.

Could Barbados be doing better? I think so. You probably think the same.

I imagine a Barbados (i) that doesn’t depend on foreign aid; (ii) in which people work hard; (iii) that has food security; (iv) in which the government is, er, “supportive and open”, whatever that means; (v) where the government provides an, er, “framework for enterprise”, whatever that means; (vi) where kids behave in schools and the streets are safe; (vii) where, er “a unified country” (whatever that means) is, er, “charting its way in this troubled world”; (viii) where people work hard and everything is open and fair, and the weather is always fine; (ix) where we have clean and efficient transport and energy systems; (x) where the health service is first class, the environment is excellent, and nobody throws Coke bottles out of the windows of ZR vans; (xi) where we all look after each other because times are strange.

At the risk of being so boring that this text is bordering on the pointless, let me tell you some more things that I imagine.

I imagine a Barbados in which (i) leaders tell us the truth about how messed up Barbados is; (ii) leaders tell us that we have to slash spending, cut wages and raise taxes; (iii) all Bajans are involved in discussions about slashing spending, cutting wages and raising taxes, as well as in discussions about reforming Bajan education and healthcare. This is the Barbados I imagine. You can, too. We can all imagine.

But we can only imagine if we change absolutely everything about Bajan society. We’re scared of change, so we don’t try anything new. When did that happen? We have to change our outlook completely [here, insert mandatory quotation from national anthem].

How do we change? Well, we do things in a different way. That’s how. Following me?

Perhaps Bajans don’t want to change. Who does? Nothing to fear. We’re going to change anyway. That’s how stuff happens. We can let stuff happen or we can make stuff happen. But we’ve got to believe that we all agree on change.

It’s time to wake up and look in the mirror. Some people think we won’t. That’s not right. We’ll make change work. Really, we will, even if it’s hard to change. We can do one thing or we can do another: change or not change.

Allow me to leave you with the most hallowed and hollow and lazy and tiresomely reiterated rhetorical device in the history of independent Barbados: a quotation from the national anthem.

Thank you.

@All… “Ask a simple question…

The answer results in a vacuum.

Hmmmmm….

@BU.David: “@Chris: “The link is at the bottom of the blog, read hyperlink.

Could you please be a little more explicit BU.David?

Please tell us what you mean when you say “The link is at the bottom of the blog, read hyperlink”.

Sometimes it is easy to make fun, perhaps forgetting the same devil lives right in their own backyard. We are reputedly 3-4 years away, maybe less, from 120% debt levels. Get ready Barbados, it is going to happen to us too, same as it will for the USA.

See, Barbados; prepare your houses for what lies ahead. You can’t eat your TV, and you can’t drink the car’s oil.

I hope that your the conference can effect some newfound productivity, enough to delay/prevent a terrible austerity where people have so much less. Delay it somehow, in such a way that we can grow out of this mess.

Be very, very , very afraid.

Do not, if you are Bajan, glorify in a Bajan demise. We’ve all got to get to some form of productive economic work, which is where Mr Yearwood and a few others will always be found. Make this place work, make it special.

Come, Barbados, come to some place of being special; and bring this island with you. Come soon, before it’s too late.

The real shite is that there is a plan by the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation will have a discussion of a paper that is to be presented by this buffoon as part of their expensive two day symposium … The Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation, the free WiFi people … … … Somet’ng w’ong …!

With a USD $4 billion economy, 280, 000 people, 166sq miles, and a population that seems inimical to the idea of foreigners owning anything and participating meaningfully in the ‘real’ politics someone please tell me where/how this ‘new’ Barbados will emerge?
We want to build a ‘new’ economy while we cant even pay to educate or finance the players…SMFH.

The way things are going for “educated” Barbados it seems Terrence Blackett’s worst case scenario is being played out right before our very eyes. How else can one explain the infertile poo droppings from academic pigeons that are littering the local intellectual square?

@Clone

Both Chairman Marshall and Minister Sinckler have made it there business to mention Boos by name. It goes without saying that if Boos responded in the way he did the ball is in the court of government to prove him wrong.

BAFBFP | November 14, 2011 at 6:50 PM | The real shite is that there is a plan by the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation will have a discussion of a paper that is to be presented by this buffoon as part of their expensive two day symposium … The Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation, the free WiFi people … … … Somet’ng w’ong …!

A most real and sensible comment Sir, this nonsense like Mia’s style is a lot of rambling writing with NOTHING that you can put a finger on and say yes this is what we can do in real terms, much like the style of Boos himself a lot of mumble , jumble but nothing that anyone can put a finger on and say lets cost this and make this happen.

Some believe that this is purely a source of political funding extracted fromwell meaning and well intentioned business places with no political motivation whatsoever bar one.

Let’s look at it this way; Boos had a contract for Cricket World cup under the BLP and it failed miserably.
He is accused by DLP people as being a consultant for the project and he said that it was a job which did not fetch the full market price.
He would therefore have a grouse with the DLP
What was the salary and what would have been the full market salary for such a position?
Let Boos come clean on this one and not just say it was all poppycock.

Clone come clean on what Legacy Barbados and the $ 324,000.00 for a football camp that never happened and that the board sought paperwork and documentation that were never prepared or presented to the board, or you want more or for him to come clean on the $ 100,000.00 to a foreigner Mann and a monthly contracted payment figure to the same person Mann for what the board has never learnt what the mission was about, or the giveaway salary of a small $ 30,000.00 per month to a consultant from his former company or the fiasco of the $ 47,000.00 and no reporting at Invest Barbados

no enuff, barbados is the only country that wants to build a society without n economy; what a load bof spin and rubbish perpertated by partisan political professionals like justin who should know better.you realize now why appropriate change would never come ..

David
I am not attacking Boos. I am just responding to your request for the Minister of Finance to respond to Boos about the poppycock statement.
Is it that we must take everything said by these Big up professionals as true but pull down our Ministers because they are politicians? Or is it because the Minister did not go to HC, QC or Cawmere?

Was Stanford not doing a good job? How about Madoff?

I like BABBFP real Bad … I like wah he saying …

@ Clone | November 15, 2011 at 8:33 AM |
I wish to support on your assessment of the credentials, integrity and intentions of the boo boo parasite.
Stay clear of this corporate vampire. Don’t ever take his advice and invite him to sit on any adhoc advisory committee unless it is for free and you wish to be subject to a lot of incoherent hot air. What you see publish is not of his intellectual creativity just a front for a much sharper but private mind.

But please come off the “which school you attend” chip on the shoulder lark. Once a person gets to university the field becomes level and there is where brilliance and competence have the chance to shine.