est. 2007

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The Malta Model

“Malta’s economic growth exceeded the euro area average for several years and was led by robust domestic demand and export expansion. The global financial and economic crisis did not spare Malta, but it was one of the least affected countries in the EU.” For years Singapore has been held up has the model economy which…

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Malta

“Malta’s economic growth exceeded the euro area average for several years and was led by robust domestic demand and export expansion. The global financial and economic crisis did not spare Malta, but it was one of the least affected countries in the EU.”

For years Singapore has been held up has the model economy which Barbados would do well to follow. On BU however some commentators led by Brudah-Bim believe Malta represents a model which is more realistic.

Read a 2-page summary of An overview of Malta’s economy.

  1. David Avatar
    David

    Richer countries always try to protect their own, when Barbados does it we hear the crap about jingoism, xenophobic and the like.

    http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/76d1d4d0-63d0-11e1-8762-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1nuqb3qu2

    What do we want Barbados?

    What kind of society do we want to build out for future generations?

  2. ac Avatar
    ac

    compared to malta ithink it is malta that is of focus here i might be wrong. Anyhow what does barbados have in manufacturing in comparisonto Malta. that little island does not alone depend on tourism . it does indeed have a growing manufacturing industry something that barbados is surely lacking.

  3. David Avatar
    David

    Hence the point of using it as a model.

  4. Brudah-Bim Avatar
    Brudah-Bim

    @ AC
    We could start by employing innovative ways to characterize Barbados’ infantile Renewable Energy industry. There must be emphasis on developing the domestic market; and yes THE GOVERNMENT MUST ACT IN BARBADOS’ INTERESTS.
    _____________________________________________________
    “Richer countries always try to protect their own, when Barbados does it we hear the crap about jingoism, xenophobic and the like.”

    Even Malta is guilty of Protectionism. For God Sakes, they even OWN THEIR OWN AIRLINES AND BANKS! EVEN their tourist companies are DOMESTICALLY OWNED!

    WTF IS UP WITH THAT?? And the government isn’t criticizing the E.U. for allowing Malta to do so. Why is it such a problem when BAJANS start to act in their interests??

    Its because the colonial powers are still in charge of the show. Barbados never gained independence, The very fact that we are a commonwealth proves that point. Until Bajans notice this fact, they will forever be blinded by the fixations and lies provided by the west.

    They will always settle for being sold out…
    Which is a trend that will seal our certain demise as a nation (or lack thereof rather).

  5. ac Avatar
    ac

    @brudda Bim

    I feel your pain. However the visionaries that should have point us in that direction sold us out . with lots of promises telling us it was easier for others to do for us than for us to do for our selves.we want the good life but only if it is on “EASY STREET” Previous governments have sold the land to the highest bidder and instead of bajans being the landlords foreign interest has taken a foothold and they not going to let go .

  6. Brudah-Bim Avatar
    Brudah-Bim

    @AC
    Which is why we need to apply pressure on the government from a grassroots movement/campaign in order to force the government to act in the favour of the domestic Bajan Market economy.

    Please sign my petition to help make a difference: http://www.ipetitions.com/my/petitions/397427/signatures

  7. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    Might it not just be that we simply do not have the vision, the clarity of thought, the insight as a people – that most of us are sleeping, dozing copiers – which has nothing at all to do with THEM? For myself I am sick to death of the idea of the ‘lies of the west’..’the colonisers in charge’. For me, it’s a cop out, an excuse, a rather sordid rant. Sorry, AC, I feel no-ones “pain”. I see rather feeble excuses of the ‘It wasn’t me. It was the serpent’ kind. Which is not to say, I don’t agree with the thrust of what is being said. In politics, where are the men of vision so that you can say ‘Yes, this Party stands for that and that for this’? In religion, where are the leaders dedicated to social justice, men (and women) who address the nation’s issues forthrightly, without fear of getting their finger nails dirty, who, at the most elementary level, actually answer letters – an endemic problem as we know?. In the law, why oh why, do we have to copy legislation from the UK, from Canada, from Australia? Haven’t we actually got the intellectual nonce to forge a distinctly ‘Caribbean Jurisprudence’? Why is there corruption? Was that the colonial mindset and is that an enforced copying of and by the colonisers? To hark back to all that in itself demonstrates we’ve never left it. What IS the Bajan mentality? Are we just hard-nosed pricks who think too much of ourselves busily being experts on everything, who have never ridden ourselves of the slave mentality in making ourselves colonial masters towards each other? No one makes us act like that but our sleeping selves.
    Or – to tackle this in a different way – what are the most voluminous blogs? Answer: ones where we can spit at and chew each other relentlessly, carping and carping and carping – and with very little compassion towards each other, little intellectual integrity and vision. It’s why we’re known as a nation of talkers not doers.
    To repeat. I have no problem at all with the idea of using Malta as an analogy, nor with articulated solutions to our perceived ills. My problem is with what are taken as the causes of our self-inflicted curses on this tiny dot of coral.

  8. David Avatar
    David

    The thing about a strong manufacturing sector is that its success depends on a domestic appetite.

    In Barbados our taste in things foreign is well established.

    For any strategy to flourish which promotes a relevant manufacturing base there must be a push to turn the behaviour of Barbadians to appreciate local products.

  9. ac Avatar
    ac

    Years ago Barbadians did have the vision. we were thrifty and resourceful. we planted our food we had our little dollar meetings which were our own banking industry. we took little and made plenty. if governments had seized on the entrepreneurial spirit we would be owners and protectors of all things financial but no we look to the outside foreign interest and believe what they told us that we were incapable . Hence what our forefathers taught us ” Mother got father got but blessed is that man that have his own” fell on deaf ears. Now how do we turn the clock back with a new generation not being taught self determination as a basis law for survival . Our forefathers knew that and master the art well. However that rule was never handed down from generation to generation but the rule of quick fixes fixes and empty promises we have latched on to.

  10. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    @ David…yes but…

    To be Rosemary, whom I regard as an expert on this, for a moment…if you go to my favourite supermarket to find local humous – yes, it’s there but is more costly than imported stuff I know and trust. If you look for nice jam or jelly – well, jam/jelly are there, but you see no fruit. If you look for local honey (which is there if you go to source) there’s nothing on the shelves
    Yoghurt? You only find the little tubs – we haven’t caught up – and really it is so inferior to recent additions to the shelves like Rachel’s which is packed with fruit – and which is a very small company from a small town in west Wales. We used to make nice umbrellas – what happened? We have a pretty good clothing industry but, apart from a small selection in CSh there’s not much other than sunshirts in hotel tourist complexes. T shirts – yes, there are excellent companies but they tend to deal with bulk orders for organisations – and the artwork is not naturally imaginative. Well, I’m sure others can cite different examples.
    AC – I’m sure you’re right and I’m glad that B-B has made us think about this. NOW HOW DO WE BEGIN?

  11. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    @ David on the taste for things foreign

    As a paradigm…….why do so many Bajan fellas look outside – yeah right – for their women?

  12. David Avatar
    David

    @Ross

    Point taken, where do we begin indeed!

  13. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    And another paradigm….
    Think of all the nasty things I’ve read here about Rihanna. I’ve never heard it suggested that as a lark her vocal chords are screwed up. which might just be right – but her ‘style’, which is grand cru, seems to offend so many. It goes back to what I said above about carping, carping, carping – all that shoddy judgmentalism. Where did we get that from? And when Whitney died – all most people could think of was the scourge of drug abuse – as distinct from a natural sadness at the loss of a beautiful life.
    Is there life beyond funerals?

  14. ac Avatar
    ac

    To begin would need a total reversal of our mind set and government truly believing in the power of its populace it is without a doubt that the window of self determination when it was closed left us vulnerable and exposed to those whose only intrest was self. a more determined goverance who understands that people are resouceful and are our greatest assest would be the onlyoneto motivatethe peopleonself determination.It happenbefore surely it can happen againand yes people would welcome suchchange

  15. Brudah-Bim Avatar
    Brudah-Bim

    We can start by initiating a “Buy Bajan ” campaign from the ground up. We need our vendors, our manufacturers, community organizations, schools, and churches ALL on board. The government cannot risk supporting a Buy Bajan campaign for Colombia sued Barbados for “unfair business practices”. We need to start looking within ourselves and REALIZE our potential. THis needs to be a communal push, FOR PROSPERITY STARTS FROM THE HOME!

    Bajans must REMEMBER that we have a strong culture of entrepreneurship, we just need to NOTICE the SMALL PEOPLE WHO ARE TRYING TO CREATE INDUSTRY.

    HOW? Instead of buying a snack meal from the Deli, go to a vendor who is selling LOCAL FOOD/Cuisine. Instead of buying produce and fish from the supermarket, try to see if you can take a trip to the market-place where vendors are selling their FRESH produce items.

    Instead of buying trendy clothes from foreign outlets, INVEST IN YOUR OWN BY GIVING BUSINESS TO THE CLOTHES VENDOR. They would be willing to alter the clothes to your preference even! Instead of Buying clothes from abroad, We need to buy from our LOCAL producers. This is what needs to happen. And we do so by ENGAGING THE BAJAN COMMUNITY, by telling people and stressing to them that OUR MONEY GOES BACK INTO THE POCKETS OF BAJANS WHEN YOU BUY BAJAN; AND NOT IN THE WALLETS OF THE FOREIGNERS WHO ONLY HAND OUT SLUMP CHANGE AND MEASLY WORKING CONDITIONS AS A FORM OF COMPENSATION.

    We need to Stress this to our YOUTHS ESPECIALLY, for THEY are the LEADING demographic when it comes to “consumerism for foreigners”. Their tastes must be readjusted and must realize that in order to have a taste for FOREIGN GOODS, YOU NEED THE SPENDING POWER TO AFFORD IT!

    And the only way to establish our country’s spending power is for Bajans to invest in the Bajan economy That is how MALTA, America, the UK, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, are all prosperous.

    We need to change the discourse in our national pride as well. Too many Bajans are aspiring to go abroad to make “fortunes” for themselves and few return home. This country has been Experiencing a Brain-Drain for the past 30 years, and the government has done nothing to curb this trend.

    It is not all hopeless people. We need to remind ourselves that IT STARTS WITH US, SO WE CAN FORGE A FUTURE FOR US!

  16. Brudah-Bim Avatar
    Brudah-Bim

    @ EVERYONE
    “Instead of buying a snack meal from the Deli, go to a vendor who is selling LOCAL FOOD/Cuisine.”

    *Correction: I meant instead of buying foods from foreign owned branches (IE KFC), buy from your local food dispensaries.

  17. David Avatar
    David

    @Bim

    The continuing harsh economic condition may be the catalyst to force the behavioural change needed. So far the continued patronage at LIME, Digicel, KFC, Chefette and Olympus Cinema suggest consumers have some wiggle room in discretionary income.

  18. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Brudah-Bim | March 2, 2012 at 5:08 PM |
    “This country has been Experiencing a Brain-Drain for the past 30 years, and the government has done nothing to curb this trend.”

    This statement is not entirely true (to speak euphemistically).
    There are many highly qualified Bajans who are unemployed, underemployed, or working in positions where their skills and training are not appropriate.
    Most of the large businesses are foreign-own and hence are prepared to overlook the local skilled persons and “import” their own brand of management and technocrat.
    If you see some of the notices for work permit applications you would scream your head off at this nonsense and the weak sycophantic animal we have for a government. People get very frustrated and look elsewhere for meaningful employment opportunities albeit of lesser standing than those given to expatriates in their homeland. Bribery of political officials and bureaucrats along with threats of “pulling up sticks and leaving” unless they get their way of brining people who don’t give a damn about Bim and its development but just making super profits, earning large salaries and bonuses and taking advantage of the tropical sweet life and high living.

    With reference to Bim adopting the Malta model for its future development I would express some reservation to its practicality. The model is fine as it stands. So is the Singapore model, but without its overly regimentation and strictures in nearly every aspect of life. Even if we were to attempt to adopt the Malta version we would immediately come up against an almost insurmountable stumbling block or hurdle.

    You see, Brudah-Bim, this country called Bim was once a well organized, orderly clean, well managed country with an enviable civil service and bureaucrat class and whose citizens were reasonably educated, skilled and disciplined and well sought after as reliable and productive workers all over the Western world. The words of our National Anthem, Motto and Pledge meant something and really reflected the spirit of the people and the times.

    Now Brudah-Bim, this is no longer the case in our once fair land.
    INDISCIPLINE is our motto and day-to–day modus operandi and vivendi. Just look around us from the PSV sector to the schools, Public Sector and Parliament.
    For a development model like Malta to be of any relevance, an ethos of discipline and respect for the law must be the sine qua non- a total precondition and prerequisite for application and success.

    Good luck in you optimism and hard work in your desire and aim to see Bim survive and succed and not become another undisciplined, backwater corrupt place once known as the Gem of the Caribbean and a country “punching above its weight”.
    You have my total backing and support. Again good luck!

  19. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    1 Will someone better qualified than me outline existing structures designed to meet the objectives we are all agreed upon.

    2. As with what I’ve just written on the Health Care post – will someone, better qualified than me, please outline a 10 point plan (excluding changes of attitude) in simple terms (no frills, no explanations) designed to realize the objectives we are all agreed upon. Please note: I don’t mean things like “support local industry” – which is too vague to be meaningful.

  20. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    OK…here’s one from me. Given we’ve talked about the creation of a third political party (here and on BFP) to cock a snook at ‘them’

    1. Create a new political party..the ‘Barbados First’ party – dedicated to the things we talk about here (exposure and eradication of corruption, a re-learned efficiency, an integrated health care reform etc etc) and the objectives we seek to realise for Barbados as a nation.

    PLEASE…someone come up with No. 2

  21. David Avatar
    David

    @robert ross

    As important is the mobilization of NGOs in Barbados to become relentless in their pursuits which for the many are noble.

  22. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    @ David

    Is that no. 2?…if so what are they and how do we mobilize?

  23. David Avatar
    David

    @robert ross

    NGOs are integral to a working civil society. We rely too much on government. We need to sensitize all that from the Scouts and Guide to 4Hers, Church and neighborhood watches need to step up.

  24. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    @ David

    Yes…but (respectfully) you’re just talking. Of course from the grass roots but make a firm proposal…we put it in a package…it’s creative…meaningful….we take it to MP’s…we talk about it in the newpapers…we write letters…we go on television….we create ‘Bajan chic’. God…where are the poets…..?

  25. David Avatar
    David

    @robert ross

    This is a collective, we are generating ideas, many of us don’t have all the answers but it is a beginning.

    We have to keep pushing, gathering ideas etc.

    One understands the impatience but people advocacy is not in our DNA and it will take a steady process to make headway.

    If you look back over the last 5-years one would have to admit there is a slow awaking.

  26. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    Brudah-Bim

    You’ve gone off the radar…
    You said above we have to notice the little people, the creative people…right…how do we set about getting them noticed? Is there an NGO charged with superintending that? (It’s why I asked about existig structures). Are they doing their job if there is? If not, how do we set about making them do their job? Not by jawing and jawing and jawing on here that’s for sure.

  27. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    David…..gathering ideas is fine (just seen what you wrote..thanks…you’re alive) and of course I realise that certain things take time BUT…we just had two posts (health care and this) and there is not one meaningful practical proposal from anyone. . And yes…of course it’s the DNA….any proposal will do…Random made a proposal re breast cancer…it’s a start…but then I suppose everyone’s at church…yeah right!

  28. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ robert ross | March 4, 2012 at 9:07 AM |

    Hate to be a spoil sport or take a bit of wind out of your sail. But are we not jumping the gun and getting ahead of ourselves?
    Let’s deal with a matter that has been in the pipeline for sometime now and has attracted massive attention on this blog and in the wider public forum. The matter in question was subject to the rigorous public debate, brainstorming, NGO inputs, meeting with ministerial officials etc, etc.

    I am referring to the project that called for the Restoration of the Old Empire Theatre/ Cinema Building. It has met all the criteria you are suggesting.

    Let us find out the state of play here before overloading the plate of political and bureaucratic with challenges they might not have the capacity to take on board.

  29. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    @ Miller

    I’m not sure I’ve suggested any criteria. My point, howevere, was this. Everyone who has blogged on this issue has signalled agreement about goals – which at root are about recognising and supporting the creative talents we have – and this despite differences about causes. Very well: the issue then becomes what we would do to remedy what we see happening or not happening. By that I don’t mean changes in attitude – which as David has said takes time. People like me can slip in different perspectives on things – which is what I try to do – but at the end of it the issues remain however much we talk and talk. So what I am trying to do is to get us to come up with possible solutions which have some practical value. Thus Pilly in his role has identified problems which need addressing in the Justice system and has suggested solutions to the man who matters (well, I suppose). Here what I invited people to do is to make similar proposals which don’t necessarily need to be terribly articulate or thought through carefully. At least that way we show that we’ve thought about it all and can be creative about it – and not just stuck in a mindset which is wholly negative and carping and judgmental – which IS the standard mindset we find here (and in the other place). So it’s not really a question about “overloading” anything or “jumping the gun”. It’s about US being creative. And that is as ‘grass roots’ as maybe we can get – and more than we presently have.

  30. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    sorry I should have said…David’s term “collective” is fine. Indeed, no-one understands the concept (here) better than ‘he’ and his heirs and assigns. I’m sure it summarises one dimension of what we have now and is meaningful in itself. It’s simply that I want the collective to be a collective ‘doer’, to step out imaginatively, and thereby demonstrate its true value – well, if that’s possible.

  31. David Avatar
    David

    @robert ross

    Do not deny the power of conversation, discussion, ideas contending etc.

    It is all part of the enlightenment which is a precursor for things to come.

  32. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ robert ross | March 4, 2012 at 1:01 PM |
    “So what I am trying to do is to get us to come up with possible solutions which have some practical value…”

    And this is what the likes of Rosemary Parkinson & Brudah-bim have been doing with respect to GM foods and local agriculture which is at the heart of our own survival given what is happening to the price of food world wide.
    But Brudah-Bim could back me up on this one.

    Just out of curiosity, did you follow the thread about the restoration of the Empire building? “BEAT Foundation Submits Proposal To Government To Restore The Empire Theatre”
    There you could find a gold mine or oasis of ideas, proposals to fill an auditorium. Perhaps if you were to see things from a more panoramic perspective you would be able to decipher the underlying message of my contribution @millertheanunnaki | March 4, 2012 at 10:16 AM | @ robert ross | March 4, 2012 at 9:07 AM | That is:
    “What we want is: ACTION NOT THE LONG TALK & PROMISES!

  33. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    @ David…I agree with you, of course….DV

  34. Brudah-Bim Avatar
    Brudah-Bim

    @ Robert Ross
    “And this is what the likes of Rosemary Parkinson & Brudah-bim have been doing with respect to GM foods and local agriculture which is at the heart of our own survival given what is happening to the price of food world wide.
    But Brudah-Bim could back me up on this one.”

    This is True. I can thus I have made moves to create awareness by starting a petition. Refer to it here at this link: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/protocal4bim/

    You know what Robert Ross, I see that you have much to say about how we are going about this, however like Brother Miller I couldn’t help but notice that I don’t see you taking any ACTION on your part whatsoever in order to help build awareness. Building a petition is one way of doing it, It is a matter of being able to get it out there that is the issue.

    This is one just one example of a “practical” strategy.

  35. Brudah-Bim Avatar
    Brudah-Bim

    Doing something SO SIMPLE SUCH AS SIGNING YOUR NAME to a petition is ALSO an example of a PRACTICAL STRATEGY.

    So don’t harp on those who “Talk and Talk” and don’t even take notice of the fact that they ACT just as much as they talk. I’d like to see what YOU have up your sleeves. Do you have any more examples of being “Practical”?

    Aside from the fact that I had suggested other ways of forming awareness (ie. through the church, schools, community boards, Local Businesses, etc).

    I am very much so interested to hear as to what other more PRACTICAL routes can be taken ASIDE from those already mentioned…

  36. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    @ BB

    Oh dear. Sad.

    But OK…HOW through the Church, schools, community boards, local businesses?

    I was specifically NOT talking about mere ‘awareness’.

    I haven’t signed your petition. I was going to and clicked on it. But then it occurred to me that I know nothing about it’s sponsor. See from what I read,
    for all I know you may be the leader of the ‘Raving Loony Party” or that wonderful fringe party we know as the People’s Empowerment Party which sounds great but appears to be racist – as you do. Even ‘common ground’ does not satisfy you, you see. Besides I saw how you and Miller carved up Ras…and that was enough.

  37. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    No: I’m wrong. I am about ‘awareness’ – in this sense. In suggesting that we all think about practical proposals – whether they are good, bad, articulated or whatever – I’m trying to get people to stop TALKING and criticizing and being judgmental, in other words to get out of the black/white, blp/dlp, good/bad mindset.. So, yes, BB, you have your petition. Great. That’s it in REAL: terms, I agree. But it doesn’t have to be in ‘real’ terms in that sense. It can be an IDEA for doing something…which itself is an idea and a step beyond the standard fare.

    So @ BB – it isn’t about what you’re DOING or what I’m doing (which, like religious observance might just be about our inflated egos) – it’s what we’re ALL doing through the medium, and maybe the only medium – here – we have. If you had read carefully what I wrote above, I think you would have understood this. But as to what I’m doing beyond the present medium, well – let those who have ears……

  38. Brudah-Bim Avatar
    Brudah-Bim

    @ Robert Ross
    “for all I know you may be the leader of the ‘Raving Loony Party” or that wonderful fringe party we know as the People’s Empowerment Party which sounds great but appears to be racist – as you do. Even ‘common ground’ does not satisfy you, you see. Besides I saw how you and Miller carved up Ras…and that was enough.”

    Mind you that I dislike everything that Ras Jahaziel has argued for. And FYI, I am not for the PEP. And if you were so curious about my Identity, you can simply click on the link that contains my name. I did some research on the PEP while I was at it, and have come to the determination that they are NOT racist. However arguing this would compromise me in your eyes seeing as how you would attribute it to me being the direct product of the PEP, huh?

    Nonetheless, let us continue….
    By going to churches and appealing to a congregation by telling them of the dynamics that currently exist within our government and economy with SOLID PROOF as testament to such fact would SIGNIFICANTLY help to fuel some movement.

    Make the congregation AWARE of what is happening, and tell them of the paradigms that exist. I’m sure that the congregation would LOVE to find out how the 5% that own MOST of Barbados’ economy are either foreigners and Whites. None of the significant players (companies) in our economy are owned by NATIVE BLACK BAJANS.

    However, if that pointing out such facts is what YOU would consider to be racist, the Barbados DOES INDEED DESERVE TO BE SOLD OFF TO THE FOREIGNERS AND HER CHILDREN BE USED AS THE CHATTEL AND STAFF THAT CATERS TO THEM.

    What I want is for there to be a BAJAN Barbados. Just as how the FRENCH want a FRENCH-FRANCE; or the DUTCH for a DUTCH-HOLLAND (NETHERLANDS); or the BRITS for a BRITISH-BRITAIN!

    WHY MUST WE BAJANS BE DENIED THAT RIGHT??! AFTER ALL OF WHICH I ANCESTORS HAVE GONE THROUGH! ALL THE TOILING AND BONDAGE FOR WHAT? FOR IT TO BE GIVEN AND SOLD OFF TO A BUNCH OF FOREIGNERS WITH FLAGRANT MONEY??!! (are you serious??!!!!)

    Tell me where exactly my Petition is flawed.

    Me calling for Bajans to STAND UP FOR THEIR RIGHTS TO SAFEGUARD their future is not ‘RACIST’ nor ‘EXTREMIST’. It is in fact NATIONALIST. And if YOU ROBERT ROSS have any sense of REAL national PRIDE, then you too would be calling for the government to enact laws IN FAVOUR of BAJAN OWNED companies.

    Just as how the Maltese government has established a GOVERNMENT SPONSORED FEDERATION OF AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES. Here is the website: http://www.agricoop.com/

    Now compare that to the Bajan Government’s response to farmers, an integral part to OUR SOCIETY: http://www.nationnews.com/index.php/articles/view/its-your-call/

    And You mean to tell me you see ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH THESE TRENDS AT ALL???!!!

    IF that is the case Brother Robert Ross (AND I PRAY IT ISN’T SO), then you really need to reconsider using the term “Bajan/Barbadian” when you attempt to apply it to yourself.

  39. Brudah-Bim Avatar
    Brudah-Bim

    @ David (B.U.) and EVERYONE

    I pray that I didn’t appear to be an extremist for beeing so vehement in my beliefs. It is not my intention to come off as some Angry fascist. However I just find it absolutely disheartening and downright disrespectful for so many Bajans to not see the OBSCENELY HIGH degrees of fallacies that exist within our Goernment and economy. BAJANS HAVE ALLOWED THIS TO GO ON FOR DECADES EVER SINCE OUR SO-CALLED “INDEPENDENCE” AND YET WE STILL HAVEN’T EVEN BOTHERED TO LIFT A NOSE AND WONDERED WHY WE HAVEN’T BECOME INDUSTRIALIZED!

    It is because Barbadians CHOOSE to sell them themselves short by SELLING OFF THEIR OWN SMALL STAKES OF LAND TO FOREIGNERS. It shocks me that CULTIVATING the ROCK has never been a part of our National discourse (AS IT SHOULD). I’m starting to weep a solemn tear for my dearest Bim. It sickens me so to see so many of my Brother and sisters trade in their NATIONALISM for measly pay and emasculation.

    Scratch that-IT DEEPLY FRUSTRATES ME THAT BAJANS WOULD RATHER CHOOSE PERPETUAL EMASCULATION AS OPPOSED TO THEIR NATIONAL CULTIVATION. That in itself goes BEYOND sickening.

  40. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Brudah-Bim | March 6, 2012 at 3:06 AM |

    Please brudah, do get sick, don’t cry for Bim just yet. Keep making your clarion calls especially in regard of revitalizing the local agricultural industry and specifically food production. The days are just around the corner when the CLICO debacle would pale into comparison to what Bajans would be faced with if a war breaks out in the Middle East between Israel and Iran.

    The Israeli PM has thrown down the gauntlet and started to rattle the sword of war against Iran. His recent speech to the Jewish Lobby- one of the strongest if not the strongest interest groups in the USA- with tremendous influence on American foreign policy and in the President’s “war cabinet”.
    If Israel bombs Iran either later this year or early 2013 preferably after the November presidential elections all hell would break loose as far as skyrocketing oil prices (looking at US$200.00 per/bbl), international commercial air travel, and stock market instabilities are concerned. No viable tourism, no FDI or reliable trade would be the immediate economic challenges facing Bim.
    But we must eat to survive. It would be to a timely reminder by the likes of Rosemary and yourself to keep the pressure on the local agricultural authorities to take these warnings of international conflict as highly probable. They would be well advised to stock up on seeds (non-Monsanto, of course) and other soon to be scarce vital agricultural inputs that need to be imported.

    This is the pessimistic side of the Israel/Iran scenario. The optimistic side is that the Israeli PM is just playing to the gallery of a “black suit and tie” fund raising affair and is only doing what politicians do when abroad: jump on the overseas constituency paling and crow like a rooster but with the realities of the native hens on the ground back home firmly in his sight.

    Bim, we have been warned, one way or the other! But as the calypsonian Chalkie warned us here in Bim-“all we got is sea water and sand”. If those tourists don’t come to GAIA, Mr. FS or OSA, “crapaud gine smoke we pipe”!

  41. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    @ BB

    I thought I’d made it abundantly clear that in terms of objectives I AM FULLY SUPPORTIVE of what you’ve said – not because I think we should be as insular as you wish but because we have so much talent here that I think it sad it’s relatively unappreciated.

    I don’t want to be circular – but the question then is how and through what means. Who, eg, is going to speak to the churches – and with what mandate to do so? But I hope I’ve made myself sufficiently clear on this.

    BUT when you start talking about the economy being controlled by ‘WHITES” – I’m sorry – to me you’re racist and if that’s your agenda, for me you lost the plot. But maybe that phrase was just a slip of the pen.

  42. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    @ BB

    On the ‘Ras’ issue: like you, I accept nothing very much in what Ras wrote. BUT that is his ‘take’ on things from, I suppose, a rastafarian perspective. I have heard much the same from other ‘brothers’ on the homosexuality issue and I simply don’t buy it.
    However, in one of the blogs above you used this much over-used word ‘respect’. And with your knuckle dusting and Miller’s ‘effortless superiority” I found it sad that you failed to show Ras any respect at all. You worked like a pair of pit-bulls. It actually made me wonder whether you always worked as a tag team. None of us are right all the time are we – not you, not me, not Miller, not Ras. But as David might say – well, I suppose – we have to work with what we’ve got as rather ordinary human beings – and in the process try to build an orchestra.

  43. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ robert ross | March 6, 2012 at 9:19 AM |

    Ras demonstrates from his writings a profound hatred for that minority of people with non-heterosexual leanings. Sometimes, it comes across, as rather unhealthy and congenitally psychopathic. This approach/attitude could, misleadingly so, cause a layman to reach a “psychological analysis” that there is something hiding in the closet that is just raging to come out. This disdain for members of a small group in a modern society and who have been around from the days Cain killed his brother and married his sister leaves one to wonder if similar hatred would be extended to left-handed people who statistically share the same percentage of any society as homosexuals- closeted or not. By the way, left handed people were once persecuted similar to “gays” because of their unorthodox way of handling things (“sinister” has its origin in old French derived from the Latin for “left”). This deep intolerance projects a mindset bothered by a kind of, pardon the expression, “sexual racism” in the making.

    Don’t you think Ras’s thinking is in a way stuck in the past?
    Maybe he sees the final solution to the homosexual and other groups deviating from the strict interpretation of archaic Judean religious pronouncements on human sexual behaviour in the same way the Nazis saw the Jewish problem.

    Ras, leave the people alone! Lock them up or execute them if they commit any crimes against children or non-consenting adults; just as you would want such treatment meted out to other so-called deviant heterosexuals.

    Get the message! Now you can come out into the light. No one would care, really. You have one life and do whatever pleases you as long as it does not violate other people’s rights or hurt vulnerable people.

  44. Weston Avatar
    Weston

    Back to the original point, would we really want to look at Malta as a model for Barbados? Malta is a member of the EU so any other EU national has the right to work there or buy property without any kind of licence. The country adopted the Euro so has no exchange control; capital can flow in and out without any restrictions. Who would want to open up our economy like that?

  45. Brudah-Bim Avatar
    Brudah-Bim

    @ Weston, I completely here what you’re saying. I say that we should look at Malta from a Macro-Economic standpoint as a model. However, we must be mindful that we must adopt certain aspects of the Maltese economy that would be relevant to us.

    However you raise a good point and I too concur that Barbados should not adopt any of the fiscal principles as seen as Malta. However, in terms of GDP output and productivity, Malta should be used as a model of what Barbados should ascent to as a first level step to a “Long-term” plan for the economic prosperity and security of the nation. That means that unlike Malta, Barbados should focus on creating her land as an ASSET that is highly lucrative in value for the Bajan people; as opposed to the current model the government has adopted in which they have turned the rock into a COMMODITY sold off to foreigners. This is by NO MEANS OKAY. A shift in such principles would ensure the economic prosperity of the nation hence would make Bim a key market within the Caribbean region.

    I have already explained how the government should do so in my petition.

  46. Brudah-Bim Avatar
    Brudah-Bim

    @ Robert Ross

    “when you start talking about the economy being controlled by ‘WHITES” – I’m sorry – to me you’re racist and if that’s your agenda, for me you lost the plot. But maybe that phrase was just a slip of the pen.”

    I find it convenient that you forgot that I stressed “FOREIGNERS” as well…

    But No, I meant every single word. White Bajans have just as much a stake in Bim as the Blacks, however like us Blacks they do not have much (so they too count in my book). Much of our wealth rests in the Hands of WHITE FOREIGNERS who are from Britain as well as other European and North American nations. Lets not forget the recent influx of INDIANS or “Indo-Guyanese” and “Indo-Trinidadians” moving into Bim and saturating our markets as well.

    All these FOREIGN ELEMENTS are setting up shop in Bim and PROFITEERING OFF of the BAJAN’S DOLLAR andyou mean to tell me that you don’t see a need for us to SAFEGUARD OUR NATION’S ECONOMIC FUTURE?? I’m sorry, but I cannot accept such a fate. If I seem racist then I most sincerely apologize, however MY NATIONALISTIC PRIDE won’t allow me to bend over to the whims of foreigners with Fiat currencies.

  47. robert ross Avatar
    robert ross

    @ BB

    the phrase you used was “EITHER foreigners AND whites” – I did suggest this might be a slip of the pen. But, no, I don’t share your brand of nationalism, as you call it….and not least for the reason, as I’ve said somewhere before, that when a child utters its first cry it is not “I am Bajan”.That does not make me disloyal or ‘unbajan’. Neverthless, as I keep saying, I don’t disagree with you in the main sense of what you’re saying shorn of the …well, whatever it is exactly.

    @ Miller

    I signalled agreement with you I think in my response to Balance in the Mugabe post……and, in broad terms, don’t disagree with what you’ve written now. But the sad thing is that so many here think like Ras too including many of the young….schooled as they are on the idea that if you have sex before marriage you go straight to hell.. What hope then for the ‘gay’ person?

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