The Draft Estimates 2013-14 and related documents are available for public comment.
Hon. Chris Sinckler will move the Second Reading of the Appropriation Bill, 2013 on Monday 25th of March 2013.
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Approved Estimates 2012-2013 (for reference)
The Estimates Debate 2013-2014
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240 responses to “The Estimates Debate 2013-2014”
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Jamaica and Belize had to restructure their debt on instructions from the IMF. Grenada has defaulted on its bond payments. St.Lucia may not be able to pay its civil servants. Half of the teachers in Antigua have not been paid last month.
Barbados is projected to have a billion dollar deficit. Barbados is borrowing $7 million a month to pay public servants. Who needs an asteroid? Are we 4 to 5 months away from catastrophe?
I am truly worried and I feel powerless to do anything about it.
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Ping Pong; My references to asteroids and the cosmic situation I think our world is in today was just to expand the context in which we find ourselves at this time in Barbados and the rest of the region. Of course Zoe and GP and Bush tea have alluded to the same thing in biblical terms already. But it all amounts to the world going through a serious cyclical change at this time.
No one knows the date and time when the catastrophe or armageddon will strike so we either live as if there is no tomorrow, trust in our God to save us, or for those Billionaires who have the cash and have access to continental or subcontinental wilderness areas (There is already an Australian Ark built by global billionaires), build expensive getaway arks. In the past during such times some remnants of mankind living in Europe, South Africa, Australia, etc. took to very deep caves and stayed there for generations during the catastrophes which killed 99% of their surface living brothers and their aftermaths. The beautiful cave drawings of pre-apocalyptic scenes in Lascaux, France and South Africa and Australia and other places is evidence of our ancestors’ forward thinking and preparation and implementation of plans for their then apocalypses.
On such a full sea are we now afloat. Barbados’ caves are not deep enough to save us. They will become mausoleums. Our rich people are not rich enough or have meaningful contacts to build reliable arks (besides Kiffin Simpson who anecdotally has the money and the relevant contacts to use to save some of his family in such circumstances). Most of us will perish. Religion was born in such circumstances.
But, as I said before, no one knows the time of the next apocalypse. It could be today, tomorrow, this june, this october, next year, 10 years from now or100 years from now. So it makes sense to ignore the portents, go to church to save our eternal souls and try to make ourselves comfortable in the time we have left. Politically, in Barbados I think that there is a chance to improve our lot by FS and Mia engaging in a policy of constructive engagement to keep Barbados on a relatively even keel. There are some policies that were put on the table, primarily by the BLP, that can help us going forward. If such policies need 2/3 majority votes, constructive engagement can move us forward. If such policies require some changes in the ordering of the chairs on the titanic’s deck constructive engagement can also do it.
I share your pessimism about the situation around us and what it can portend for Barbados but I think we can do a little better than our neighbours if we work together and make the deep sacrifices that are necessary at this stage. Actually an IMF led solution might not be a totally bad thing in the context of where we now are.
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@ Gingerbread Girl | March 16, 2013 at 1:52 PM |
There is great merit in your counter political analysis. It would be very intriguing to see how the MoF will seek to reduce the estimated large deficit which by now has caught the attention of the rating agencies, the IMF and it related lending agencies.
However, the PM just can’t sit back and let the MoF take the blame and be the fall guy. After all, it his government and his MoF.
But then again the MoF has a ready-made MO of blaming the pre-2008 BLP administration and the international recession for every economic and financial ill under the Bajan sun. Just wait and listen to his presentation on Monday coming. We would like to be impressively surprised if he would focus his speech forward and not to some pre-2008 yesteryear period on which the people have already pronounced verdict and sentencing.
Or maybe the PM is waiting on the IMF to intercede as a pretext to administer the bitter medicine as we saw in 1991/92 under the Sandiford led administration re-elected to power on a smoke screen of lies and deceit minus the voting fraud. But there are two doses of corrective medicine that would require a fresh prescription from the people’ physician called the Voting Box. Privatization & Layoffs cannot be undertaken without a fresh mandate from the people. The people did not return the DLP to power in 2013 to be lied to and be deceived again as in 1991/92. -
yeah miller but to restruct the economy is going to take money. in the areas of technology and renewable energy which in the long run would attract jobs and foreign investment your other alternative is SALE. which does nothing from an ownership perspective. A good economist will tell you sitting on money does no one good expect inflation.
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@ ac | March 17, 2013 at 8:36 AM
What do you mean by foreign investment? You mean what you accused the BLP of doing? Selling off the land to foreigners?
Foreign investment involves the private sector a term that is anathema to you and your likes. Or is it (private sector) now be clothed in white garments and become the darling of the DLP now that you have achieved your electoral goals?As far as restructuring the economy is concerned you guys didn’t know that it requires money to achieve such lofty objectives promised in both manifestoes? Where are the costings or financing sources or are they just airy-fairy promises to idiots like you?
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yeah miller not the kind of investors the “one armed bandit” types that people like you and OSA would give over govt to without batting an eyelash you know them types like Redjet .you familiar with them gluteanous types always looking to govt taxpayers money and giving back little. not even bothering to pay the taxes or employees NIS. you know them highway robbers. No this govt looking for legitimate and honest investors to help restruct the economy as within the renewable ener gyprogram they plan to implement
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The path that will be followed by the Government (and people) of Bim is as predictable as the night follows the day….
….everyone will continue talking shiite and doing as they have always done until the IMF shuts the whole shop with imposed cuts, restrictions, and other austerity measures.We will then blame the IMF for our predicament (because everyone knows that we have a Devine right to live above our means by spending a billion dollars more each year than we earn…)
This is a path well trod by many individuals well known to our banking system, to Bushie and no doubt to other bloggers ….and the result is also well documented….or can easily be – with a talk to those who frequent the garbage bins around the island looking for scraps…
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Interesting to note that like St. Lucia we have accrued for public sector wage increase in The Estimates amounting to 14 million YET we are borrowing to support the monthly wage bill. What madness!
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Bushie; I fear you are right.
But I still have the perhaps misplaced hope that amongst the new parliament there are 16 members, split between the two sides and including the 2 leaders,, who would have the guts to go against their antecedents and try to do the right thing to once again demonstrate a superiority in our brand and save us, albiet helped by the IMF. Otherwise, Jamaica here we come to join you.
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@ ac | March 17, 2013 at 10:15 AM |
So it is now an OSA led BLP government that allowed RedJet to come here to fly the Caribbean skies in direct competition of our very owned LIAT?
It is now a BLP Minister of Int’l Transport who took freebies from Irish business conmen?
Continue blame the BLP for every decision made in the last 5 years.
You can even go so far as to blame them for bringing Cost-U-Less to Bim granting “superior’ concessions without demanding that they operate within the government’s renewable energy policy objectives.Check and see if there are any solar panels on the C-U-L building or even a windmill outside.
So much for you much vaunted RE policy!But the miller leaves you to Prodigal Son. You are just one wimp of an intellectual idiot with a bone the size of an OSA owned jackass jaw stuck in your empty peapod passing for a brain.
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@ Check-it Out
“…I still have the perhaps misplaced hope that amongst the new parliament there are 16 members, split between the two sides and including the 2 leaders,, who would have the guts to go against their antecedents and try to do the right thing….”
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….hope springs eternal….As man Check-it!! … if this were to happen that a majority of our parliamentary leaders PROACTIVELY take the wise and pragmatic steps in reconfiguring our collective lifestyles to live WITHIN our means….
Bushie would PERSONALLY request appropriate BBE support.. 🙂
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There is a tax which the DLP may up its sleeve; a tax on deposits!!!
Let us hope it NEVER gets to this stage.
George Osborne vowed today that those serving in Britain’s military or government in Cyprus will be protected after European finance chiefs ordered an unprecedented raid on personal bank accounts.
Up to 60,000 British savers are to lose thousands of pounds each as expats in Cyprus have their savings decimated in part of a painful bid to bail out the bankrupt island.
The Chancellor said the financial situation in Cyprus was ‘an example of what happens if you don’t show the world that you can pay your way’, adding: ‘We are not part of the bailout.’
accounts.html#ixzz2NpDOYGHn
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iwent to church today and god told me tell wunna merchants of dooom and gloom and naysayers that wunna ungrateful sons and daughters of bitches. cause for over all the years he has been very good to wunna and now becasuse of greed and selfishness wuuna wishing evil upon the land. but don’t fuhget he is the one that put shoes on wuuna feet when the land was dirt poor and even gave wunna free education and not one of wunna want to pay yuh fair share. but sit around waiting fuh the imf gorilla and the PRIVITIZATION werewolves to steal and pillor the land . god also said that curseth is the man or woman who wishes evil upon the land and their descendants for evil shall follow them all the days of their lives. Wunnna ungrateful son of bitchhhssssss
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With the start of the estimates debate upon us, let us hope that the Nation newspaper will turn over a new leaf and give us balanced and fair coverage of the debate.
From 2008 – 2013, Barbadians witnessed an unprecendented attempt by the Nation newspaper to continuously attack and denigrate the DLP and its leader. Never before has Barbados seen one media house and its paid writers so viciously go after a Prime Minister and a government as Pat Hoyos, Peter Symmonds, Sanka Price, Clyde Mascoll, Kaymar Jordan. Ezra Alleyne ,Tennyson Joseph and Harry Russell went after the DLP. It was criticism non stop ,day after day.
While the Nation newspaper would pretend to be fair, it had a strategy of employing columnists who were supportive of the opposition BLP so inevitably, the commentary coming from the Nation was constantly negative of the administration.
Now, a media house does not exist to praise a government but it also should not be the spokesperson for an opposition.
I hope that the standard of journalism in Barbados can be raised and we can trust what is written in the Nation newspaper again and not the “eager” attempts to promote the BLP interest at the expense of truth and fainess. -
The Mottley Sunday Sun Strategy.
The Mottley “politics as usual” strategy is predictable – have a press conference or a staged media event late Friday or early Saturday to make the popular Sunday Sun newspaper.
Keep watching. We know Mottley has a history of using her “connection” at the Nation to try to sway the coverage of stories which caused the consternation of Hartley Henry previously.
Therefore ,you should not be surprised that as soon as you open the Sunday Nation of March 17, 2013 ,on PAGE 3 is a staged photo of the BLP Mps around a table “looking busy” about the estimates and Mottley supposedly posing questions. The Nation newspaper obviously will play a key role in this Sunday Sun strategy.It actually started last week with Gercine Carter doing an interview on Santia Bradshaw – two pages of sweet easy coverage on the BLP’s weakest victorious candidate electorally. Coincidence- yeah right,the Sunday Sun strategy continues.
The Nation newspaper – will they be balanced or as they did previously spend the next 5 years trying to change the government and tell Bajans who they should vote for.
Report the facts fairly and let the public and voters decide. -
Tomorrow in the Parliament of Barbados the much anticipated debate on the 2013 – 2014 Estimates begins. The government MP’s are ready , Mia Mottley’s opposition BLP is struggling to have her economic guru Owen Arthur on board.
Actually Owen Arthur is at this time on Carnival Valor which is at this time docked in Puerto Rico. Just received a text message indicating that he was lifted aboard ship blind drunk.
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@Fractured
So how is it he is front row at the BLP’s church service today? You people really take winning government as a joke. Let me stay in the bleachers and watch. -
After the throne speech was read,Sanka Price was as usual in his BLP column asking how the government could afford tax credits,etc and reduce the fiscal deficit.
When Mascoll and Arthur were promising everything to everybody, Mr. Price conveniently sidestepped the issue of how it woud be paid for. Instead, he said that we needed to stop the austerity.
It seems that Sanka Price like his fellow BLP columnist on Thursday Clyde Mascoll will change his tune depending on which political party is making the proposal.
The Nation newspaper needs to change the mix of columnists which it presents to the public. Right now, it is all BLP operatives masquerading as “independent ” columnists. Time for change at the Nation newspaper. -
@NationBLPnewspaper
And despite all the manipulation by the Nation who won? Now please try to contribute something of value to the blog, we have five years to go. The world continues to be grip in an economic slow down never seen before and we are still in election mode? Democratize the media space if your party feels so strong about it.
Here is that picture of the BLP MPs at a thanksgiving Church Service today:
http://bajan.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/blpchurchservice.png
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Hi David
Thanks for the photos from the BLP 2012 Thanksgiving Service. -
@David
Perhaps the tax is a “Non Residents Tax”, don’t know if it is applied in Bim but it is in Canada on interest earned on deposits, dividends on shares etc. on all accounts with non resident addresses. That is why my address on the little piece of funds down there is local.Now I only have to worry about devaluation
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@Sargeant
What is happening in Cyprus is a one off levy not to be confused with withholding tax which most depositors pay when interest exceed a certain threshold.
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@ Fractured BLP | March 17, 2013 at 6:24 PM |
“Hi David: Thanks for the photos from the BLP 2012 Thanksgiving Service”.And you don’t have the common decency to apologize for such stark blatant lies told about the man’s whereabouts since last week.
But what do we expect from a broken lie machine stuck in a pre-2008 era?
Your party is in power so come to grips with it. Blaming OSA and the BLP are falling on death ears; even ac’s who has resorted to asking her mock god to curse the ungrateful stinking bitches that attack her administration. Sign of a person losing it up there! -
@ David | March 17, 2013 at 7:00 PM |
Why do you think the cash for gold business is so lucrative?
All those in the know are moving away from large cash holdings and paper-based investments in the coming meltdown.
Those Bajans holding large cash deposits in the region of hundred of thousands would soon be in for a rude awakening.
It’s better to be borrower than a saver. The savers are easy targets and will soon be penalised for their thriftiness.
Expect the withholding tax or bank deposit interests to rise to 20 or 25% very soon as a tax grabbing measure using the guise of getting Bajans to invest or to spend some of the $9 billion in banks and credit unions to stimulate the economy. -
yeah and look at OSA looking so disinterested as if he asking himself” what de “F”am i doing here”everybody except himwith open pages following along with the service.except OSA wid he mind still on losing. Fuh real he could have done the decent thing and absent himself from the service instead of making a mockery.
i don’t expect anything much of worthwhile from he in the debates cause all the interest accumulated on the fourteen years of expenditure and borrowing is his to own. -
Miller
Precisely my point , did you apologise for saying the DEMs would be a one term government ?Yuh BLP iguana ! Always changing your colours !!
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@ Fractured BLP | March 17, 2013 at 8:08 PM |
For the sake of the country I was hoping you would have been kicked out of office but money makes the mare fly.
But David can confirm that with the DLP stance against privatization and manpower downsizing in the public sector I had a change of heart and wished for your guys to be returned to power to wallow in your own shit as it hits the fan for another 2 years.
So I apologise for initially wanting the Dems to lose. Now let the fun and games begin from tomorrow. Or is it going to be the pre-2008 blame game all over again?
Meanwhile the iguana colour is yellow until things turn brown and then red. -
Surely any government in office in charge of a 8 billion service based economy should be very wary of what challenges confront it. It is not a time for supporters to be boastful or arrogant. The election is behind us let us show some commonsense and put country first.
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@ ac | March 17, 2013 at 8:02 PM |
” don’t expect anything much of worthwhile from he in the debates cause all the interest accumulated on the fourteen years of expenditure and borrowing is his to own.”Did you have a read of the Auditor General’s comments regarding the management of the government’s finances for the last 5 years?
What do you have to say, ac?
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Two articles of interest:
http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/we-need-right-figures/ – Auditor general confirms that nothing has really changed in how government has managed its finances.
http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/revenue-dip-.-.-.-but-govt-spending-to-jump-to-3.87-billion/ – Are we tracking plan based on the MTFS?
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yeah i read it the AG report compared to the past fourteen years it get an A back then the AG couldn’t tell head or tails wher all the money for projects to be built had gone not in the thousands but millions of dollars .
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@ ac | March 17, 2013 at 8:43 PM |
What are you saying ac? That the DLP is a more sophisticated and efficient thief than the BLP?
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@Miller
It does not reflect well that given the scenario you have described the BLP could not pull it off on the 21 Feb.
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@ David | March 17, 2013 at 8:55 PM |
The timing of victory suited to the miller’s or even “Amused’s” liking was not right. Such a victory would have spelled the political imprisonment of MAM.
Time is indeed longer than a gallows rope. -
ac = a c**t. I am convinced
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It’s not over yet. MAM is just the donkey engine, there to do the hard work of opposition politics. MAM will be leader of the Oppostion gor 3 years more, that’s it.
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@ Well Well | March 18, 2013 at 7:01 AM
Interesting area to debate.
But isn’t the government also the people? What would be the damages and who would pay it?
Why not let the politicians representing the political party making the promises and forming the governing administration be held liable jointly and severally?BAFBFP has been arguing this point for years both on BU and on the call-in programmes about the legal status of these “anonymous” entities calling themselves political parties that have no legal status whatsoever.
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@ Gingerbread Girl | March 18, 2013 at 6:04 AM |
The miller is putting it to you that as long as MAM is politically able and active the BLP cannot win back the government except under her leadership.
Look around you and ask yourself who else in the BLP command that sort of national appeal to take the party into another election with a much better chance of winning.
Kerrie Symmonds? Possible, but questions of loyalty and other baggage might weigh him down as it did and continues to dog others as you seem to be intimating.
Santia or Dwight could be considered and groomed as a deputy but would need time to cement their constituency dominance and control before making a move at the national leadership level. Santia more so than Dwight has that challenge of constituency control on her hands. -
Miller:
You know that we do not agree on one thing Mia as any leader of any sort. Just like kerry she was a member of the DLP from her youth. Billie Miller took her out and she ran in 1991 for the BLP. What is the national appeal that she shall legalize dope? Do you know she supported Phillip Greaves on a DLP platform as a young democrat? With all those young turks smelling their own pee and inclined towards the heights of leadership she shall as be replaced as leader of the opposition. -
As long as OSA stays in the shadows MAM would only be seen as “a figure head ” and OSA as leader .MAM is standing on “shifting Sand”
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Ac are you one of the DEMS fully bent on returning Ma Money Maloney to be President of the NUPW too?
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If Mia Mottley and the BLP feels that public servants need to be sent home to put Barbados’ finances in order they should say so.
I find Mottley’s arguments disingenuous- in one breath, she is arguing against austerity and any more painful measures but in the other breath she is arguing for a cut in the fiscal deficit.I listened intently to her last budget reply. At the beginning of the speech she talked about the need to significantly cut expenditure but by the end of the speech,she proposed no specifics but instead a laundry list of spending and creations of additional funds.
There will be no consensus in this parliament as the BLP has clearly decided to continue the 2013 campaign in which they tried to give Bajans the impression that all we had to do was to have more consumer spending and any economic problems would disappear.
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The BLP has not shown what areas of government’s proposed expenditure for 2013 – 2014 can be significantly cut without sending home thousands of workers.
If the BLP can agree with the government that there should be no public sector layoffs, then the issue of worker productivity in the public sector must immediately arise and this is where the unions and other stakeholders must shine the light of public scrutiny.
Productivity and efficient usage of public resources from the Minister to the messenger and general worker – all must be accountable.Each person drawing a public sector wage must be able to justify his salary. Productivity and efficiency is the only way to go. -
@ ! | March 18, 2013 at 9:07 AM |
Why don’t you STFU? You are talking arrant nonsense as if the DLP is in opposition and MAM is PM.
We want to hear from the ruling administration how it intends to reduce the fiscal deficit and stimulate the economy to reduce unemployment.
MAM and the BLP can talk until the cows come home. They are not the decision-makers the people have re-elected to manage the financial affairs of this country.
We are not listening to the Opposition we are listening to the DLP administration.Now go away and talk sense. Submit a few proposals to help us get out of this quagmire. You are the government now and no longer on the campaign trail. You beg for a return, you bought your way back now get on with the people’s business.
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@Miller – You are therefore saying that we have an irresponsible opposition who should not be taken seriously, that Mottley is a fraud. Am I getting you right.
The government has said that they will be no public sector layoffs.
Mottley responds by saying that we have to take major decisions but refuses to suggest one.The election is over and it is time for solutions.
If 14 members of a 30 member parliament say that Government must CUT SPENDING, they have an OBLIGATION to tell the people of Barbados where the hell those spending cuts will come.
This is not a two member opposition,miller – stop making excuses for Mottley.The government has made its proposal, the opposition should show Bajans where we can get the millions of dollars in expenditure cuts to reduce the fiscal deficit.
That is a fair assumption unless all we can expect from the BLP over the next few years is business as usual – criticise,criticise,criticise.Here is the bottom line Miller-
The Government has staked a position regarding public sector employment. What is the opposition’s official position? -
@ ! | March 18, 2013 at 9:41 AM |
“The election is over and it is time for solutions.”And those solutions must come from the administration the people “re-elected’ to implement as per its manifesto.
So the bottom line is get on with the job before you are fired prematurely as in 1994.
The Opposition is doing its job of opposing. Why should they be forced to agree with the ruling party unless it is politically beneficial to do so like a no-confidence vote in the PM?
This is what the DLP did from 1994 to 2007; oppose, not so? -
@Miller
“The Opposition is doing its job of opposing”
Confession is good for the soul. There you have it folks from the BLP insider – Do not look for any constructive credible suggestions from the BLP for the next few years- maybe they have none. -
@ ! | March 18, 2013 at 10:22 AM |
That’s right, none whatsoever. Isn’t that what you have been saying all along about the BLP? That the party and its leaders are devoid of any ideas or solutions to the country’s problems other than privatization and layoffs of public sector workers?
Why expect a silk purse from a sow’s ear?
Maybe you can ask the old lady in the Transport Board bus ad about proffering some ideas to save your sorry asses.
Now get on with your no privatization & no layoffs agenda. Good luck, “!”! -
@lemuel……………….” “Manoey ! Maloney ! couldn,t careless !
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