Strictly from a tourism perspective, not single one of the eight manifesto stated objectives have been sucessfully implemented. Most of the failure to implement cannot be blamed on the recession.

@Adrian

To add the BLP has been essaying that they will improve business facilitation to make Barbados more competitive. What happens now in the civil service did not start in the last 4 years. How will they do it. They need to tell us. We have allowed our politicians to promise the world and what?

@Adrian

Didn’t Mia ‘promise’ the BLP would establish a 500 million fund?

The question is how.

@ David | October 7, 2012 at 11:16 AM |
“What happens now in the civil service did not start in the last 4 years.”

Your implied critical assessment of the civil service does not square with the glowing review of excellence ascribed to it by the PM. He has nothing but high praise for this hallowed organization.
Or should we take these commendations in the same the PM sang the praises of Leroy Parris?
‘A most estimable gentleman worthy of highest recognition as an outstanding performer that should be emulated and in charge of a well managed and very successful and expanding regional business with an ethos of strong ethics and high moral commitment to regional development.’

@Miller

In the BU household we don’t get caught up in the hyperbole.

Sadly you will all find out the hard way that the world economic situation has changed and Barbados will continue to suffer regardless of who is in power.

The New Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Toronto just opened.
Penthouse selling for $28 million cad.
http://digitaljournal.com/article/334264

I doan have to read an spell fuh wunna.

@miller this blog is not for fist to cuff and drag out wrestle-mania types like me . take yuh challenges on the OSA blog i feel more comfortable over there where i can put you in a “full nelson”and body slam yuh black arssss! Sorry david did not mean to barge in on your intellectual discussion except that one misfit by the name of miller called my name. anyhow i agree with yours and adrien comments. the others can be tossed out windward in the stillness of the night . again i heartily apologise DAVID!

To be fair to political parties there is nothing wrong with using a manifesto to ‘promise’ what it will do if elected. What must be challenged is the need to establish a ‘check’ for John Citizenry to exact accountability. Why shouldn’t the electorate feel comfortable knowing that the UWI, Cave Hill, Fourth Estate and other entities in civil society have the credibility to challenge, clarify and demystify promises made by political parties on the campaign trail? Why should John Citizenry not have recourse in the law to recall ministers and members of parliament who they are perceived to have under-achieved?

Ac easier said than done. ! first of all how many people would vote for a politician if they told the truth. so it is a job left totally up to the Fourth of Estate to give the weeded out fact from fiction the freedom which the press enjoy gives them full liberty and accountability for overseeing the goverance of a country and it is incumbent for them to give the public an full account and overall unbiased perspective of everything that affects the nation but sad but true here in barbados we often find that the press would rather prefer to skin teet and go to bed with the politician than do what is right for the country and the people so then the politician gets away with every lie under the sun but guess who is to blame

@ac

Where is the logic in a politician telling lies to be exposed by the Fourth Estate?

It would be self defeating.

It means the obvious, a coopting of the Fourth Estate by politicians.

@ David
To add the BLP has been essaying that they will improve business facilitation to make Barbados more competitive. What happens now in the civil service did not start in the last 4 years. How will they do it. They need to tell us. We have allowed our politicians to promise the world and what?

It is called a Business Facilitation Unit in the Prime Minister’s office!!!

david @ acWhere is the logic in a politician telling lies to be exposed by the Fourth Estate?

ac david if you follow american politics you would have see the numerous times politicians have been caught lying to be exposed by the press , but then again it is a different world there.

@enuff

What BU is advocating is for both political parties to stop PROMISING their supporters jobs by padding the public service to support its popularity amongst its base.

@enuff

We are guessing at the moment and this is the point, we need to know.

there … no

No Authority without Accountability.We need a leader bold enough to change the neo-westminster system we have adopted in Buhbaydus.A smaller Central Government,a modified system of local government.Privatize the seaport and retain ownership of the airport.Find a partner for the transport system if the present minibus owners will not take up a partnership with Government; Similarly for the BWA,NHC,CBC and all these statutory corporations which are bleeding the treasury with impunity and too much under the influence of politicians.These entities need rigid private sector style input and performance standards.Review our libel laws.Allow individual soap box/Eric Fly style meetings in say Queens Park once a week ,say on Sundays, where no one will be arrested or hauled before the courts for any statement made.Cut out the freeness mentality and assist only those who need assistance.The church can help in identifying needy cases.Concentrate on a premium education at the Primary level and stop the embarrassment of illiterate children and those those who cannot speak standard English.I have no idea what was found to be unacceptable with the way I was taught in the”bad old colonial days”,but I was your average bajan student and although versed in the ‘lingua franca’,knew when and where to use it so that standard English was and continues to be my familiar medium and thanks to some choice teachers,cringe at what passes for English Language on our airwaves.

@gabriel

a bunch of nonsense being thrown out into the airwaves privatization of a nation security to pay bills can be classified as utter nonsense or gibberish, the BLP in its haste to fix what should have been done fourteen years ago is putting the country’s national security at risk one must and should understand the vital and most important role of governance is to maintain and properly secure its people a nations valuable asses ts of which AIR ! TRANSPORT! SEA! are all classified under NATIONAL SECURITY the reason being in times of crisis . Privatization of these sectors is not an option and therfore for all the wrong reason is a panacea for paying the nations debt . fix the problem instead of throwing out the baby with the tub

Interesting to note there is a conversation at this moment whether the Chinese should be allowed to build/own strategic assets/key facilities in the US.

.
David wrote : Interesting to note there is a conversation at this moment whether the Chinese should be allowed to build/own strategic assets/key facilities in the US.

David, the US economy like it circling the toilet bowl too. Two factors helping to mask the situation for now are that the US does have the world’s biggest military, and because the US dollar still functions as the world reserve currency the demand for US dollars is artificially high and hence the value of the dollar remains high (enabling them to keep paying for the world’s biggest military).

Dollar Hegemony in the Empire of the Damned

Many commentators and economists wonder if the US is able to turn its ailing economy around. The reality is that it is bankrupt. However, as long as the dollar remains the world currency, the US can continue to pay its bills by simply printing more money. But once the world no longer accepts the dollar as world reserve currency, the US will no longer be able to continue to pay its way or to fund its wars by relying on what would then be a relatively valueless paper currency.

And the US realises this. Today, more than 60 per cent of all foreign currency reserves in the world are in US dollars, and the US will attempt to prevent countries moving off the dollar by any means possible. It seems compelled to do this simply because its economic infrastructure seems too weak and US corporate cartels will do anything to prevent policies that eat into their profits or serve to curtail political influence. They serve their own interests, not any notional ‘national interest’.

Pail Graig Roberts (sic – should be Paul Craig Roberts), former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury, notes that much of the most productive part of the US economy has been moved offshore in order to increase corporate profits. By doing so, the US has lost critical supply chains, industrial infrastructure, and the knowledge of skilled workers. According to Roberts, the US could bring its corporations back to America by taxing their profits abroad and could also resort to protective tariffs, but such moves would be contrary to the material interests of the ruling oligarchy of private interests, which hold so much sway over US politics.

snip

The US economy appears to be in terminal decline. The only way to prop it up is by lop-sided trade agreements or by waging war to secure additional markets and resources and to ensure the dollar remains the world reserve currency. Humankind is currently facing a number of serious problems. But, arguably, an empire in decline armed to the teeth with both conventional and nuclear weapons and trapped in a cycle of endless war in what must surely be a futile attempt to stave off ruin is the most serious issue of all.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/dollar-hegemony-in-the-empire-of-the-damned/

Miller you need to stop it you are sounding like a stark mad raving lunatic. BTW didn,t the poll give the BLP the advantage so any manifesto suggestions you should give to the RT HON.as no doubt he would like to hear since at this point and time the RT HON only seems to be reading the tea leaves daily

@ Green Monkey | October 8, 2012 at 7:28 AM |

The World is ripe for a war! Will the flash point be in the ME or in the China Seas.

@gabriel …………………..you know if i was dumber than chalk i would believe your comment in reference to the IMO and ICAO fortunatately contrary to popular belief i do read and read enough to kniow that those two organisations provide guidlines and rules and regulations which most countries adhere to it has nothing to do with owernship. now go take a five minute break forair you have been submerged under water for too long

@miller…………..you are beginning to sound like a scratched and outdated 45 rpm. which when it is time was popular and well like unfortunately the time has come just like the record where your popularity has dwindle and you have outlived your usefulness . That is advice however i do have an idea on how to relieve you of your misery and constant harping about ideas

@enuff
3:00 pm
I’ve always wondered about the existence of documents that clearly spell a way forward looong before the current “crisis,” yet they just sit there. If there is one criticism you will hear with respect to the current government is that they almost wholesale tossed all previous developmental plans and programmes out the door after January 2008. Ironically having to pick back up a good few of them and retract their own as time went on.