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Review of Barbados’ Economic Performance January to June 2013

Text – Review of Barbados’ Economic Performance for the first six months of 2013

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Text – Review of Barbados’ Economic Performance for the first six months of 2013

209 responses to “Review of Barbados’ Economic Performance January to June 2013”

  1. Observing(...) Avatar
    Observing(…)

    @Carson
    we have to shave off 66 million in 9 months from personal emoluments. Any suggestions?

  2. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    millertheanunnaki | July 9, 2013 at 10:47 PM

    As usual you jump in to continue with the misinformation.

    Your highly regarded, by the BLP people, “Austin” is the one who seeks to compare Barbados with St. Lucia.

    I was simply pointing out the fact that he was wrong as he always is.

    And by mentioning countries such as Bermuda, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, you are demonstrating to all that you don’t know what you are talking about.

    Mauritius read this:

    “For many years Mauritius has been the darling of both World Bank types and the likes of the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, who for quite different reasons see it as a model that other small developing countries ought to be copying.

    But Africa’s “miracle economy”, which has undergone a transformation from dependence on sugar exports to export of services such as tourism, financial services and information technology in one generation, is starting to look very vulnerable. In Port Louis, there is now a strong scent of Spain in the air.

    For those who ever get off the beach in Mauritius and look at what is behind the great economic success story, it is more complicated than the Mauritian political and academic elite would have the world believe. The generosity that the international community has foisted on Mauritius makes it unique among African countries. In part as a result of the pessimistic assessment of another Nobel laureate, James Meade, who, at independence, thought Mauritius would be a hopeless basket case, the European Union gave the country a huge sugar quota, which allowed Mauritius to export sugar at two to three times the world price.

    This was offered to several other countries, including Fiji, Jamaica and Guyana, but no one got as big a quota as the 500 000 tonnes offered to Mauritius under the Lomé Convention of 1975. This created huge profits for the country’s largely white sugar barons, or Grand Blanc as they are known in Mauritius. This was equivalent to 5% to 6% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) every year.

    Unlike in other countries, such as Jamaica and Fiji, in Mauritius the benefits were accumulated by a few large farmers who then, because of the change in commercial laws ushered in during the 1980s, started investing in tourism and garment factories.

    Not benefiting Africa
    For years, successive EU ambassadors bleated that the reason they wanted to get rid of the Lomé Convention, and the Cotonou Agreement that followed it, was that they did not benefit Africa at all and should be replaced by the now infamous economic partnership agreements, which are free-trade agreements. In fact, Mauritius is proof that transformation occurred in only one African country — precisely where Europe was most generous and where the local elite was not corrupt and did not squander it and permitted viable business to thrive.

    Mauritius also benefited from the United States’s Agricultural Growth and Opportunity Act and was able to export garments duty free. This was helped in the 1990s by Hong Kong Chinese who fled the then British territory, which was being reabsorbed into China, and were readily granted Mauritian residence. This increased the number of the local elite and created a very international and cosmopolitan business character. The shift in the 1990s with the development of export processing zones saw Mauritius move from an agricultural to an industrial exporter in a decade.

    But what is less known is the crucial role India is now playing in the transformation of Mauritius from an industrial to a service exporter. About 42% of India’s foreign direct investment in 2010 came from Mauritius, which is surprising for such a small country. However, this is not all as it appears. Almost all of it is a direct result of a double taxation agreement between India and Mauritius, which exempts Mauritian firms from Indian capital gains tax.

    But the cost of this exemption, provided to Mauritius a long time ago when foreign investment in the Mumbai Stock Exchange was practically impossible, is estimated to be worth at least $600-million a year. Others suggest India loses more. The Indian treasury wants out but the Mauritians are fighting tooth and nail to keep the agreement intact, although they are likely to lose the concession soon — and they know it.”

    Go back to sleep you really need your rest.

  3. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    observer

    For starters stop paying the opposition Barbados Labour Party.

  4. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Pachamama | July 9, 2013 at 10:35 PM |

    You are asking ac to perform another impossible act.
    She is incapable of thinking straight and now you want her to bend over backward to look into the face of another idiot her alter ego of a bald pooch cat called dc (???).
    Leave that to the Bushman to do that for her since he likes playing in the brambles like a true satyr on the loose on Bush Hill; (he is still my hero, though).

    Look ac, it is much more easy for you, given your intellectual pay grade, to continue to blame OSA & the BLP for the economic decline in the last 6 months and its resulting doom and gloom spreading across Barbados than to try to lock horns with the likes of Pachamama. This is not a mythical David and Goliath match but more like an irritating fly around a stallion’s backside that needs to be shooed away with one swash of his tail.

  5. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha
    You are on the right track but the required change calls for a massive change in attitudes, a change in the social culture i.e. a change in how we think. The problem we have now is that there is the expectation we can implement policies to lead us back to the halcyon period of the 90s and early 00s. It will take rubble for us to see the phoenix.
    @Bush Tea
    What you suggest will not happen because Barbados is a distributive/ retail economy. To do as you suggest will see massive employment contraction and by extension same must occur in the public sector because it is the taxes from private sector which pays the army of occupation. Remember the public sector facilitates the private sector.The economy has stalled as BU predicted it would.
    Even although all the indicators are pointing south we have public sector union talking about wage increases. This comes back to the need to rework attitudes. If the government had a big mandate it could force change but with a narrow majority the political expediency game continues.

  6. Observing(...) Avatar
    Observing(…)

    @Carson
    OK. that leaves 64 million… I’m listening. lol

  7. David Avatar
    David

    And in order to pursue the strategy required there is something called confidence which needs to come back. The private sector has no confidence at the moment in the government’s policies.

  8. David Avatar
    David

    @Observer

    You sound like an intelligent person and one who moves around. It is generally known that Barbados has loss many offshore businesses to Bermuda, Cayman, Panama for one reason or the other. Many of these businesses generated forex to service their operating accounts etc. Also we forgo taxes.

  9. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Carson C. Cadogan | July 9, 2013 at 11:15 PM |

    And should whom Barbados compare her vain self with? Bermuda, as you like to refer to ever so often?
    Barbados was once viewed as “singular” island, unique in ever respect. Now we have the idiot Carson contaminating her reputation and encouraging his Destructive Lying Party to put us back into economic and financial serfdom as in 1991/92 when the coming “D” word is announced. DLP will then have a different connotation: The Devalued Lying Party.
    How about that, Carson the carrion boy? If only you could deport me as you would wish to do with Adrian Loveridge!

    The mere fact that you are recommending sleep to the miller is stark confirmation that you can’t sleep either. Why not spend your somnambulant time pondering on what Observing(…) has raised @ | July 9, 2013 at 10:53 PM | .

    To repeat:@Carson
    “we have to shave off 66 million in 9 months from personal emoluments. Any suggestions?”

    BTW Carson, it is not Observer that is raising the query since he will never deal in such specifics. Time for your bed. Your empty brain is getting overloaded.

  10. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    Miller

    Something else too. No wonder you and Seethru are always referring to Mauritius.

    “Realising just how vulnerable Mauritius is, the government has diversified its economy to take in a host of other sectors. The fastest growing is probably the most risky — the sale and development of real estate for largely foreign buyers, as anyone travelling on Air Mauritius knows from the advertising on board. Former sugar estates and farms are being converted into shopping malls and gated communities at a frenetic pace. It seems fairly obvious to everyone in Mauritius that this is not sustainable and that the country will either run out of good land or prices will collapse. The latter now seems more likely.”

    Note the bit there,”…………the sale and development of real estate for largely foreign buyers”. Mauritius is only 788 Sq. Miles which is a bit bigger than Barbados but already alarm bells are going off with respect to the selling off of Mauritius to foreigners just as was done here in Barbados by the Barbados Labour Party.

    “

  11. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    How is it that no one points out how many offshore businesses Bermuda and the Cayman Islands have lost?

    I refused to believe that you all don’t know about that!

  12. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Carson C. Cadogan | July 9, 2013 at 11:46 PM |

    We thought you were asleep, dog?
    Why not tell us about the many offshore businesses lost by Bermuda and Cayman? Is it the 8 % increase in new registrants for Barbados announced by the Governor?

    Why don’t you let sleeping dogs lie? OSA is politically dead why continue to kick the drunken man?
    Now look who is condemning FDI in the form of real estate?
    Isn’t this the same path being promoted by the same DLP aka Devalued Lying Party?

  13. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    Miller

    I am so glad that you raised the issue of Mauritius.

    It does not suit your purposes at all. I have a lot more to write on your Beloved Mauritius.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    Even if we have a fantastic crop over, and all the signs say not, 3rd quarter will be negative also because we have not seen any decisions to change the current trend. In the mean time our ministers continue to jet set around the world with no evidence of payback.

  15. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Carson C. Cadogan | July 10, 2013 at 12:04 AM |

    Forget about your red herring Mauritius for the time being. Let us concentrate on more “pressing” home grown matters like the $400 million cut in public expenditure.
    Observing(…) asked you to help out with the $66 m off personal emoluments that must be achieved in less than 9 months. You have only identified $2 M by getting rid of the Opposition in Parliament.

    Why not start real small and work your way up?
    Why not get rid of that teacher man at the Combermere School who broke his contract of employment and the Public Service Act by appearing as the driver in that DLP sponsored Transport Board anti-privatization Ad?

    You see thattold lady she is going to be the DLP’s nemesis one day coming soon either dead or alive. We shall soon see who will be paying on the buses with a significantly reduced pension income and a devalued dollar to boot.

  16. David Avatar
    David

    Let us look forward to some tough questions from the press today.

  17. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David
    We refer to your 12:24 post. You are right. Nothing that these politicians are talking about will work. Luckily for us we are not trapped in a mystical island where the mindscape is no bigger than the landscape. They might well come a time where useless eaters who never tire of talking sh’te all the time will have to be cut off, for the remainder of us to survive. These idiots don’t know that so-called democracy came from a place that was no bigger than Barbados. Why is it so impossible for us to be at the vanguard of a new dispensation? They limited intellect petrifies them and acts as a disincentive from venturing into deeper intellectual water. This kind of idiot is popular on the Cave Hill campus too, amongst the ‘intellectual class’ as well.

    We have had three (3) major historical moments of governance. There was serfdom, capitalism and communism. Formal capitalism only dated back to 1776 (circa). Less than 250 years. Why must our point of departure be the assumption that it will always be here. In any event all countries that want to survive should have a wide range of strategic plans to be implemented when the time comes. To do this we have to think futuristically and stop depending on others. For example, we can now expect to have more frequent hurricanes/storms. The engineers tell us that more than 90% of Bajans houses cannot withstand a cat 5 or higher hurricane. What are we doing about this. I’m tired.

  18. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    To do this we have to think futuristically and stop depending on others. For example, we can now expect to have more frequent hurricanes/storms. The engineers tell us that more than 90% of Bajans houses cannot withstand a cat 5 or higher hurricane. What are we doing about this. I’m tired.

    The engineers do not have to comment on the robustness of the housing stock, ordinary layman observation based on the impact Tomas had on Barbados should suffice. We have a problem not necessarily of thinking out of the box BUT executing/implementing decisions to address the problems. Always points back to leadership.

  19. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ David

    Part of the radical revolution we seek is the destruction of the leadership ethos.They have proved that they are unworthy for the positions they hold. Let’s wipe them out.

  20. old onion bags Avatar
    old onion bags

    Austin | July 9, 2013 at 8:58 PM |

    @AC

    You killing me… When the BLP suggested we do as you state “reduce tax rates” in order to “put money back in people’s pockets” BACK in February …. DLP supports like you said it was a bad idea … Now you blog on BU in support of the approach.
    ******************************

    I am so sorry my computer was down when you came in here with
    double tongue slime…….I guess now this is what is comin August’s Budget as we all know you as’the forerunner’ …..Well if i so….still thanks for seeing the LIGHT finally after 3 years now…but late and maybe TOO LATE….

    I distinctly remember your attacks on the 4 parachutes of VAT simulation ….retarding the imaginary aircraft” Economy” from lifting off, and you ac spewing ur slime……cuddear…now you all seems to have come full circle…..man wunna is real moojans indeed…..just like plans to rebuy Almond..when all ya could have used the some of the money now sunk in Four seasons to revamp the hotel as was being put forward at the time……Poo upon Poo….Shite has really hit the fan…..!!!!

  21. Piece Uh De Rock, Yeah Right!! Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock, Yeah Right!!

    @ Pachamama,

    No sir, them thar is words of sedition and treason, you meant to say “let us… vote them out completely and “wipe the election slate clean of their names”.

    We is not seditionists.

    BTW when we have completely obliterated their name, who do we plan to replace them with?

    Just asking

  22. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ David
    Bush Tea
    What you suggest will not happen because Barbados is a distributive/ retail economy”
    ***************
    What distributive/ retail economy what?
    What Bushie said will not happen because Barbados is overly contaminated with amazingly dense and lazy brass bowls who have grown so accustomed to bending over to others to make a living that they think this is the only way to survive.

    Bushie’s suggestion will work perfectly in any society of self-respecting, intelligent and competent citizens. Such citizens will use their creativity to make products that they need, and that others in this world would want to buy.
    They would find a way to add value to the tons of scrap metal that we have imported as vehicles in a small, flat island – by reconditioning, redesigning to be green and Eco friendly, and to utilize solar and other natural forms of energy.

    To be honest with you David. If as you suggest Bajans are unable to do these things, and can only, like prostitutes, sell their natural assets to the highest bidder and buy all their needs from others, THEN OUR ASSES DESERVE TO BE FRIED IN THE COMING SHAKE- UP.

    ….and David, stop bragging that BU predicted our present predicament. ANY IDIOT (with the possible exception of ac 🙂 ) could have predicted such an end for an economy based on borrowing, and on selling asse(t)s.
    Bushie recalls back in the BLP days of billion dollar projects that when the Bushman outlined the inevitable end to be expected, you and MME and others sought to bring Bushie in line….. (The records are still there?…)

    We have reached one of those junctures in history where there will be survival of the fittest…. If Bajans insist on being brass bowls then we will know what to expect…

  23. Adrian Loveridge Avatar
    Adrian Loveridge

    I am just curious why people expect an improvement in tourism where even after 14 consecutive months of long stay visitor decline our policymakers dismally fail to enact solutions.

    No Tourism Master Plan
    No BTA restructuring
    No current national marketing initiative
    Over 40,000 lost airline seats

    Clearly the status quo is NOT working.

    You have to remember that only last year, predictions were being made that we would see an increase in arrivals driven by projects like Port Ferdinand, Four Seasons and Merricks.

  24. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ piece of the rock
    Bussa was a seditionist, according to your reckoning. So are the founders of the American Empire. Of course, we are talking about all peaceful means necessary. We have said previously that the weapons of non-violence are the best weapons for revolution ever. We hold that view, still. The American constitution however, gives citizens the right through force of arms to remove government not operating in the public’s interests. Most of the world see American ‘democracy’ as the halcyon, no?

  25. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ piece of the rock

    The election of the BLP would just serve as entertainment for a few weeks and put the people on a political merry go round. There is no measurable difference between the BLP and DLP. We say both should be illegal organizations.

  26. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    The issue has always been in the how and NOT that we have to transform the social and economic landscape of Barbados. And BU never brags about anything, we are all in this together.

  27. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ Bushie
    Of all the people on this blog, we maintain our abiding respect for you critical interventions.

  28. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    ADRIAN

    You don’t want to try your luck in……am….Mauritius?

    After all that is where all the moneyed British and Chinese in Hong Kong ran to just before your Britain turn Hong Kong back over to its rightful owner, China.

    And I am sure that you know that plenty Apartheid South Africans also moved there setting up their gated communities.

  29. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Adrian Loveridge | July 10, 2013 at 7:11 AM |
    “You have to remember that only last year, predictions were being made that we would see an increase in arrivals driven by projects like Port Ferdinand, Four Seasons and Merricks.”

    Expect the usual suspects from the George St. vipers’ den of racist venom to come for your “white red” blood.

    Despite all the warnings, despite all the actual outcomes those DLP apologists still want to come on the blog and sing the praises of this administration’s management of the tourism industry and how well Barbados is doing vis-à-vis destinations like poor little St. Lucia.

    Don’t you think that if this country’s PM was a real effective leader he would at least give another minister a shot at the MoT to see if fresh vision and action can inspire confidence and bring some life back into the industry?

    This move would not be a matter of changing horses in mid-stream but one of giving the growingly fat but tired and lacking in vision lead horse a much needed rest. Five going six years are a bit too long in the seat with no results to show.

    This not time for optics and a matter of who would look more presentable to ‘white’ people because of his social background and keen propensity to mimic them. You would know that white people don’t give two hoots about that sort of thing when dealing in business.
    Integrity and competence are what count and only tolerate ‘bullshitters’ in the role of the ugly stupid politician to have a good laugh at.

    Why not send a minister with a more ‘effective’ track record or even buy in one through the Senate?
    Time for a change!

  30. GreenMonkey Avatar
    GreenMonkey

    Economies and Political Systems Worldwide Are Being Destroyed By Corruption

    We’ve extensively documented that institutional corruption in the United States has led to a collapse in trust … which is hurting the economy.

    And that the same thing is happening worldwide:

    Voter Turnout Plunges Throughout the Western World … Largely Due to Political Corruption

    Leading Indicators of Revolt in the Middle East and Northern Africa: Corruption, Unemployment and Percentage of Household Money Spent on Food

    Corruption Threatens to Bring Down China and Russia

    Is the Chinese Economy Sputtering for the Same Reasons as the American Economy … Corruption?

    Failing to Prosecute Financial Fraud (i.e. corruption) – On Either Side of the Atlantic – Is Extending Our Economic Crisis

    European and American Governments Encourage Bank Manipulation and Fraud to Cover Up Insolvency (corruption)

    The Meaning of the British Riots (yup, you guessed it … corruption)

    Stunning Crimes of the Big Banks (whole lot of corruption)

    And that corruption has skyrocketed recently.

    Embedded links to above items in the original at:
    http://investmentwatchblog.com/economies-and-political-systems-worldwide-are-being-destroyed-by-corruption/

  31. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Carson C. Cadogan | July 10, 2013 at 7:54 AM |

    Adrian you see what i told you! Right on cue!
    Nothing to do with what you wrote or the gravamen of the report on the performance of tourism but pure unadulterated racist attacks!

    @ Carson: Just carry on smartly. Soon it will not be Adrian or the miller you will be forced to cuss. Why not start early and start cussing the credit rating agencies and the IMF for forcing Bim to devalue the dollar “invented” by the DLP?

  32. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ David
    We see that above you are calling for the injection of ideas or their discussion. These development plans are built on lies. To us it is like continuing to give a dead man medication in the hope some good could be done (smile). All of these inflationary/deflationary prescriptions have been tried elsewhere and have been dismal failures. In places with vastly more resources than Barbados. We have to go foundational. Until we can ignore the instinct to tinker the dead will remain dead regardless of how much medication we administer. This government is to be indicted for its malicious mis-direction of the people – and all that flows therefrom.

  33. Observer Avatar
    Observer

    look at your own expenditure observing. you buy a local banks beer and there is significant foreign content.

  34. ac Avatar
    ac

    Onions hold your horses ..i laid out my reasons as to why OSA plan was not feasible at that time and i still believe that giving the state of the economy back then and the drag on foreign reserves especially tourism being hardest hit. retaining foreign reserves should have taken precedant and the measures the govt implemented had work for a while . now it is a new day and a different ball game. anyhow if it makes u feel better to say OSA was right go ahead cause that proves nothing…………….

  35. Observing(...) Avatar
    Observing(…)

    @obsever
    It usually takes more than a one beer to convince me of anything. Anything else to sip on?

  36. ac Avatar
    ac

    ac still waitingbto hear what that rabble rouser pachaman have as an alternative to the political system and what plans u has in mind to make change m. i dare you to state them and stop holding back the truth .the first step to good goverance is truthfulness .go ahead state your plans for overhaul acompained by revolutionary change u can ask David for help and guidance.

  37. David Avatar
    David

    @ac

    This situation now is grave and bold and imaginative decisions are required. BU agrees we need to protect the dollar BUT suppressing domestic economic activity in an economy which is retail/distribution oriented will not help our private sector. The sad thing is that both parties have not been able to show that their thinking is aligned with current reality. This includes members of the yardfowl brigade.

  38. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    ” BU agrees we need to protect the dollar BUT suppressing domestic economic activity in an economy which is retail/distribution oriented will not help our private sector.”
    **********

    …so is it not then intuitive to remove barriers to local business activity (reduce/remove VAT) and at the same time BUILD SERIOUS BARRIERS to the import of luxury/non-essentials? ……while encouraging such local business activity as restoration, beautification, food production and energy efficiency….?

    …that is what Bushie has proposed.

    …what great set of balls is needed for such an obvious move? …..the foolish trade agreements that the long procession of ministerial idiots went and signed over the last two decades…? Ha Ha …those are all nothing but jokes now….

  39. ac Avatar
    ac

    David if u read my previous comments u would noted that i clearly stated that a short term initiative would be to cut taxes across the board but leave vat in place .

  40. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    We have built a global society in the main where individual and institutional values/culture is anchored to consumption behaviour. Where do you think we will get the ‘will’ to take a different path given the disparate positions which prevail six years after the global meltdown.

  41. DLP (formerly CBC) TV Avatar
    DLP (formerly CBC) TV

    Well, in the vein of the sci fi series Star Trek, RED ALERT, RED ALERT ECONOMIC COLLAPSE IMMINENT, THE BARBADOS ECONOMY WILL BE DESTROYED IN 1 YEAR!!!!!!. The ship SS BARBADOS under the control of the DLP heading full steam into an economic black hole. What really needs to happen NOW is an economic equivalent to a HARD-TO-PORT but the problem is the crew don’t know what is a port or starboard and the captain like he don’t know how to control a ship.
    I already dismissed the GOCB as a joker because for the past year he sounding like a coolieman trying hard to sell he cheap things when he know they ain’t no good. Only the figures matter, they speak for themselves and they saying LOUD and CLEAR that the DLP must stop TALKING and start DOING as of NOW or the IMF will come and do the talking and DOING for them!!!!
    I now seeing that they got a BGDS draft circulating but any observant economist will notice that the first thing wrong with this document is the title. You can’t possibly start talking about growth without stabilization and addressing the current economic slide occurring right now FIRST. But then again i realize any talk involving stabilizing the Bdos economy is not gonna sound pretty so it may not fit into this economic manifesto which is what this BGDS REALLY is.
    Let us assess the Barbados economic picture as it is. We had 5 yrs of a DLP gov’t with two PMs and two MOFs telling us the global economic climate is the real cause of Bdos’ problems. However by their actions (and now non action) have not tried to compensate but really have amplified the effects of the global recession on poor Barbados to strangle the air out of the economy. So it seems to me the real solution would be to remove THIS Gov’t, but on the last opportunity to do so only 5 months ago ( Feb 2013) we choose to vote them back in.
    Brothers and sisters if there is anything called shite street, that is what Barbados on right now!!!! We vote back in a gov’t that clearly cause this crisis and had a history of creating economic crisis. This is a tragedy in itself!!!!!!!

  42. islandgal246 Avatar
    islandgal246

    Didn’t the Governor of the central bank earlier this year or late last year, assured us that Barbados is immune to what is happening outside of Barbados? Didn’t he say that they have put things in place? Stupse anyone who believes what this puppet is saying is absolutely naive.

  43. Roverp Avatar
    Roverp

    Adrian we had restructuring at BTA over the period as many overseas staff and some local were sent packing.

  44. Adrian Loveridge Avatar
    Adrian Loveridge

    Roverp,
    with the greatest respect, I am not talking about window dressing. I am talking about changing the fundamental way we market Barbados. To spend almost $100 million a year, with little or no improvement in arrival numbers for five consecutive years, just cannot continue.
    I agree, the private sector has to do more, but give them the tools to do it (and I don’t mean grants) with a greater influence on how that $100 million is spent.
    Sending a few people home who clearly were not qualified for the job in the first place is NOT the answer.

  45. GreenMonkey Avatar
    GreenMonkey

    David wrote:
    “@Bush Tea

    We have built a global society in the main where individual and institutional values/culture is anchored to consumption behaviour. Where do you think we will get the ‘will’ to take a different path given the disparate positions which prevail six years after the global meltdown.”

    David, Your concerns are echoed elsewhere on the web and in a wider context that just our 166 sq mile rock in the ocean.

    Noam Chomsky, Who Owns The Earth?

    Introduced by Paul Craig Roberts (Economist, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration and a former Associate Editor at the Wall Street Journal)

    In my latest book, The Failure Of Laissez Faire Capitalism And Economic Dissolution of The West: Towards A New Economics For A Full World (Clarity Press, 2013), I emphasize that nature’s capital, not man-made capital, is the limiting factor for life on earth. I learned from ecological economist Herman Daly and others who were able to escape dogma and to think independently that the measure used by economists to measure economic success–the growth of GDP–does not include the most important costs.

    What this means is that economics as presently understood is defective and is leading humanity to its destruction.

    snip

    In his commencement address at the American University of Beirut on June 14, 2013, Chomsky makes the point that our planet is our common possession. It does not belong to Monsanto, or to the military/security complex, or to Wall Street, or to the oil, mining, and timber industries. It belongs to life. If we don’t defend it, short-term profit greed will destroy it. Unbridled capitalism means the destruction of the Earth.

    The amount of profits that can be made depends on how much of the cost can be imposed on nature. Therefore, in the world economy where unchecked greed operates, humans with their short-term thinking impose huge costs on nature in order to provide profits for executive bonuses, shareholders, and Wall Street.

    Chomsky’s statement is true that “the Earth now desperately needs defense from impending environmental catastrophe.”

    The question is: are there sufficient rational and literate persons to save Earth? And if such astute people do exist, do they have the power to save Earth from capitalist greed and Washington’s desire for hegemony?

    The question humanity faces is: In the race to destroy the earth, will Washington’s drive for world hegemony result in World War III before capitalist greed pollutes the planet to death?

    http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2013/07/10/who-owns-the-earth-noam-chomsky/

  46. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    “…..Where do you think we will get the ‘will’ to take a different path….”
    ***********
    Honestly David….!?

    Bushie DOES NOT think that we have the will or common sense to take a different path. ….what do you not get about brass bowls? 🙂

    Listening to the ongoing litany of shiite talk about “DLP do this” and “BLP would have done this”…. is proof enough of Bushie’s bajan brass bowl theory….

    All the bushman has done is to point out HOW SIMPLE it would be for intelligent people to respond,even now, to this serious challenge that we face.
    …..however – one understands your difficulty of expecting common sense from brass bowls…..given our history of, and current yard-fowl propensities….

  47. David Avatar
    David

    Bottomline, the anxiety being exhibited now is the kind of tension and focus the country should have had for the last four or five years. Politics will kill us.

  48. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ Greenie

    Well Greenie we are not alone. Arguably the greatest mind of the last century agrees with us. This is a subject we discussed with him personally several years ago. More Greenie, more Greenie!

  49. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ Greenie
    Then again we think it would take the big brain of a vegan to speak truth.

  50. iabingy Avatar
    iabingy

    yes why make use of the sun? that would be stupid and shell and Simpson motors. wouldent have his trips to non black countries regularly.yes lets import oil and gas. it is a good thing.solar power,wind power,ocean wave power,
    forget that lets buy from the stinking Arabs and such filth.
    excellent choice.stupid barbados at its height of ignorance.

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