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Kerri Symmonds Should Have Been Yesterday’s Man

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Ram_BoolaniUnderstandably the focus on BU and the wider public has been on the government and its travails managing the economy, or should we suggest the society. It is only fair however that from time to time we peep into the world of the Mia Mottley (MAM) lead opposition. After all the opposition is the government in waiting and therefore deserves our attention.

The reputation which the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) had for not washing dirty linen in public has been dispelled in recent terms (refer to the ridiculous matter brought before the Court by George Payne and Edmund Hinkson). To compound the matter Barbadians learned this week about the appointment of Kerri Symmonds to Deputy Leader of the BLP. One has to wonder about the wisdom of the appointment on several fronts. Especially when there is no legal reason for MAM to have to appoint a deputy in a situation where she is clearly struggling to exert control.

Symmonds has developed a dotty reputation in his political career so far. Unlike the US media who would have placed Symmonds and the BLP under pressure to explain his resignation from the Senate over a domestic matter which caused him to slash the car seats of his former wife, there was no appetite by the local media. There was no din raised by women’s groups. Symmonds has been allowed to reenter the political arena without undue pressure. It is now a matter record he was able to win the St. James Central Seat from a weak incumbent. Some may suggest this speaks volumes about the political maturity of the Barbadian public.

In the lead up to the last general election DLP surrogates repeatedly asked Symmonds to explain the details about how he consorted with Johnny Tudor (a former B, a former D) to show that his car was of an incorrect age to ensure a buyer obtained a loan to purchase the car. There is the well publicised marital dispute which led to his resignation from the Senate. And what about the document posted above? It is never too late to ask for explanations. The time has come to demand answers to questions from our politicians. The free rides both figuratively and literally are over.

If this appointment were to backfire on MAM she has no one to blame except MAM because she requested the document posted above from then AG Michael Lashley which she used to persuade Symmonds to resign from the Senate.

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129 responses to “Kerri Symmonds Should Have Been Yesterday’s Man”

  1. Amused Avatar
    Amused

    @Well Well. That is the point that Casewill was trying to obfuscate with “suggested” and “guideline” fees of $1,200 to imply that Kerri had indeed not been obeying some non-existent law that mandated him to charge only $1,200 and that in charging $5,000, Kerri was in fact charging for political pressure that he, an opposition senator at the time, was going to exert on that law unto itself, the immigration department. I checked with counsel who handle immigration matters and was advised that the expected fee would be $5,000 and this is due to the time they have to spend dealing with the idiots in the immigration department. Some of them do not charge a flat fee like $5,000, but bill by the hour. So I leave it to you to work out how many hours it takes with the immigration department and bearing in mind that the hourly rate of a silk is now about $1,200 and for a non-silk like Kerri, about $600. By my calculation, this client was wise to go for a one-time payment of $5,000 as an hourly rate would have cost quite a bit more. And by the way, the one time payment option is offered by most counsel in the USA, Canada and the UK. You clearly are in the UK, so you are able to check and verify that.

    Now, I am not for one second suggesting that Kerri did not make a lot of whichever high-ups at the immigration department he is friends with and suggest that he was therefore in a position to expedite matters. But the truth is that his fee was not at all out of order. Also, the payment was made in 2008 and this document is sworn in 2009. So where does this Mr Ram think he is living? In a country with an efficient civil service? Is Mr Ram on something herbal?

    Finally, we are not told if this son of Mr Ram ever got his immigration approved and, if so, when? Does anyone know the answer to that? Because without those questions being answered, it appears to me that Kerri never had a case to answer in the first place and, in the second place, the release (not the publication by BU, but the release) of this letter is likely malicious. And Casewell has, under his own name replete with heavily air-brushed photo (they probably used the chest hair of which Casewell is so proud to do the brushing with) he has spouted forth in a manner that is, well……Casewell knows a lot more about law than I do, so I don’t want to have my feeble views on law made to look stupid by his superior legal brain and my half a brain exposed by his formidable intellect.

    As a MAM supporter, I was joyful when I saw the document. But I was wrong and I admit it, with apologies to Kerri, the SOB. And you have no idea how distressing it is for me to have to admit that in connection with Kerri. But, fair is fair.

  2. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Amused………more questions than answers as it relates to that particular case, i like you was wondering about the timing in release of the document knowing the ruling party had a bigger bombshell to be dropped on it ,not to mention a fresher skeleton in it’s closet with more decaying flesh to stink up the place a la Pickering/Austin/Jolly, etc, etc.

    I had an experience with the immigration department in Bim, trying to get citizenship for one of my grands born in New York, it was no fun, provocation, an hour on hold on the phone, and my grandson was entitled to get his citizenship through their hereditary procedures, it took 7 months because i was determined and handled it myself, so i can just imagine someone not born on the island with no familial connections trying to obtain residence/citizenship and the hell on earth they would be put through…………a friend of mine who taught in Barbados for 30 years, it took her the better part of 20 years, after she retired to receive her citizenship in Bim, it certainly don’t take that long anywhere else, you might get bogged down in paper work and all types of nonsense, but that length of time is unconscionable.

  3. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    Amused

    You keep coming on this blog and telling deliberate lies to make yourself look good. I know many of the lawyers who do immigration work (I meet them at Immigration Review Committee hearings) and it is my understanding that they charge minimum fees. I have even spoken to two (who shall remain nameless) who told me that they charge some of these people less despite the minimum fees because the people needed help and quite frankly they regard the $1,200 as too high.

    You continue to lie for what reason?

  4. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    I hope this works; I am trying to attach the link to the form that that shameless liar Amused says that lawyers charge $5,000 to fill out and forward to the Immigration Department

    http://www.immigration.gov.bb/documents/FormA_ImmigrantStatus.pdf

  5. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Those forms seem pretty straight forward.

  6. Blowing in the wind Avatar
    Blowing in the wind

    Franklyn when was the last review hearing you sat on it had to be prior to 2008, you are a self opinionated ass.

  7. Blowing in the wind Avatar
    Blowing in the wind

    you have no status within this govt and so therefore you would not be selected to any review board, please come clean for once in your life.

  8. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    This Fart in the Wind is really stupid. I never said that I sit on any review committee: I represent people before the Immigration Review Committee not just like a lawyer, just better than. You see some of the lawyers bluff: I go prepared.

  9. Observing(...) Avatar
    Observing(…)

    @Amused
    sorry ta see you’re not so amused. Caswell can do that to ya.

    Just Observing

  10. ac Avatar
    ac

    man amused I agree with your assessment of the document…. At first glance I thought like everyone else . however you did well in separating the forest from the trees… anyhow Caswell is being CaswelL. must be contradictory and controversial.. Nobody else would dare be like him. …..

  11. Tell me more Avatar
    Tell me more

    Now I have sat and listened and read a whole load of hog wash from this fraud Franklyn and company, as to the merit or demerit of the payment collected and not returned to the Mr Boolani for his payment to Kerrie Symmonds to beat the system at Immigration and get him his son’s status with a day to go while Symmonds was still a member of the ruling party up to that time.

    Now we have an abortion lawyer in Franklyn giving people false and very badly flawed information as to the cost that Symmonds should or should not have charged for committing this crime of the theft of this gentleman’s $ 5,000.00.

    Had Franklyn had an ounce of common sense or decency or truth his argument should have been that on the 14 th day of January 2008 that SYMMONDS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN TAKING A CENT FROM A PERSON AS HE WAS AN AGENT OF THE CROWN AND A MINISTER OF THE GOVERNMENT OF BARBADOS IN THE FORMER BLP GOVERMENT.

    And as such could not be in any position to accept any money as if he were acting as an Attorney as a Minister of this country the law does NOT permit or allow for Symmonds to work as attorney while he or she is a Minister of Cabinet.

    I have listened to the backyard lawyer in Franklyn and I have been wondering why he continues to have an over inflated ego and impression of himself legally minded that he is not and this simple case proves his ineptness and his false and unsound utterances on this site the only place that he gets to appear and blow his own horn.

  12. Tell me more Avatar
    Tell me more

    Franklyn you see people on BU do not follow you nilly willy, people on BU can read write and think and are wiser than to let a person who was charged with theft of a car and beats up on his wife in public places such as the NIS, these people are wiser and smarter that the Franklyn’s of this world, they know when they are having wool pulled over their eyes by criminals like this guy.

  13. Tell me more Avatar
    Tell me more

    Was it also not you that sent an article that was published in the Nation under the name of Sir David Seale when you wrote and submitted the article for publication ? You remember Sir David had to have a press release done because you fraudulently proported to be he, someone other than yourself ? Was it not you Franklyn ? What is wrong with you and any truthfulness and honesty left in you for they obviously do not reside with you.

  14. Amused Avatar
    Amused

    @Casewell (aka Lassie). I think you have been rumbled. I think we all know who is being economical with the truth (and it is not me). BTW, how much to you charge to represent people before the immigration authorities?

    @Well Well. | July 29, 2013 at 5:48 PM | Your question about timing is approriate. I have been speculating on that myself and now do so out loud. O$A “translated” DACS from AG to CJ – and MAM into DACS’s AG position in one fell swoop. THEN, O$A lost an election and withdrew from leadership of the BLP. MAM took over leadership of the BLP, but THEN O$A debunked her and took the position back for himself. THEN O$A lost another election and it was clear that the people did not want him running the country. MEANWHILE DACS, having been dismissed as CJ, saw his aspirations trampled into the dust and his “legacy” fully revealed as being the total destruction of the justice system. DACS is therefore looking for a come-back and for that he needs political power – and O$A is a spent force, except for the lobby he has within the BLP of which the leader is Kerri. Now, DACS is a close relative of MAM (through the Talma family – DACS’ mother was a Talma) and MAM is very nepotistic as far as her family is concerned (a serious flaw that she must correct if she hopes to lead the country) and DACS’ political and judicial bread is best buttered by siding with MAM and demonstrating to her how useful he can be. The time has come, therefore, to get rid of any internal party opposition to MAM and DACS make no distinction between fair and foul means, as we all know. Enter this meritless document and can be misrepresented to make it appear as if Kerri has peddled political power to his own financial profit. How to plant it? Simple. Use his poodle Casewell. Problem is that Casewell butts heads with DLP supporters who, much as they would like Kerri to he guilty, count integrity as paramount. And that is the line that my speculation has taken and I stress this is speculation, not proven fact. But it is interesting and must have crossed the minds of all. Also, let’s face it, the BLP chances of winning an election with Kerri as leader re akin to those of a fart in a hurricane.

    @ac. Seriously, I find it always best to be fair. The problem with our respective governments (and judges) is a total lack, not just of integrity legislation, but of integrity itself. In the (God forbid) event that Kerri ever finds himself in a position of real power, let us hope he displays the same sort of integrity that has been accorded him here by yourself, Well Well and others, in that, much as we do NOT admire him and would seriously consider leaving the country if he was running it, we nonetheless did NOT buy into the carefully manufactured defamation that Casewell was trying to foist on us. We acted with integrity.

    @Observing. On the contrary. I always find the tactics of Casewell and his master amusing. Gutter-like and utterly transparent. And the defences that Casewell uses are always so Simmonsian in tone that you know at once whence they come – certainly not from the superior legal brain of Casewell!!!! A man whose legal representation is, in his own estimation only, better than that of any proper lawyer. God help us – soon he will be making application to the courts to be a McKenzie Friend…….and given the degree of idiocy and DACS support by members of the judiciary, he may be allowed to do just that.

  15. David Avatar
    David

    Please note Caswell did not provide BU with the document posted above. Also the Nation newspaper apologised for inserting Sir David Seale’s picture in a Caswell article. It is therefore incorrect to accuse Caswell of any wrong in connection with this matter.

  16. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    David

    Why bother with Amused and his other pseudonyms, the truth if of no consequence to him. He is just a hateful person that occupies his time with jealous tirades of envy against DACS. I know he can read and understand but he reads my comments and misinterpret them to satisfy his fiendish desire to attack people who are better than he is in every respect. Can he point out where I attacked Kerrie Symmonds? I merely attempted to set the record straight from my personal knowledge of immigration procedures.

    You ever realised that this liar, Amused, always has friends who he manufactures from all over the world when he comes on BU to spread his vitriol. But I will leave him in the capable hands of Robert Ross who always debunks his misinformation.

  17. Tell me more Avatar
    Tell me more

    Is it not more than passing strange that the car thief and crook having been exposed as a wayside lawyer having written expensively on what Symmonds should have charged for his services as an attorney while serving as a Minister of Government is now dumb, mute and voiceless when shown the error of his legal argument, Frankly Franklyn you are like an empty tin can useful for nothing more than putting in the garbage dump, and please not in the recycle one either.

  18. Tell me more Avatar
    Tell me more

    Is it not more than passing strange that the car thief and crook having been exposed as a wayside lawyer having written expansively on what Symmonds should have charged for his services as an attorney while serving as a Minister of Government is now dumb, mute and voiceless when shown the error of his legal argument, Frankly Franklyn you are like an empty tin can useful for nothing more than putting in the garbage dump, and please not in the recycle one either.

  19. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Amused………….it’s time that both DACS and MAM go rest their tired old asses and take all their progenies of nepotism, favoritism, patrony and corruption with them, that includes the present administration, we are entering a new era where those games have no place in the scheme of thing and will not contribute to anything other than more blight and exposure, we have entered that place where i hope they have the intellect required to plainly see that if they continue to do the same things repeatedly done by their predecessors they would be more than dumb, even with all their paper certification, to expect different results………..the new era has become the game changer.

  20. Amused Avatar
    Amused

    @Well Well. You might have added that the new era is due in no small part to BU. What could be hidden before now almost instantly sees the light of day. There is no cover now to hide behind. It is all out in the open. For one man to have the extraordinary courage to do that and manage to be true to his own views and opinions, while allowing others free rein to express theirs, is completely beyond belief – and praise. To David the entire country owes a debt it can never even attempt to repay – and he has to remain anonymous so that when the honours dishing out, they pass him by. Personally, I think he ought to be named as one of the heros of the country. He certainly is that already in the minds of most Bajans.

  21. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Amused……….how right you are, David’s actions and subsequent success in highlighting the many facets of the political system on the island is indicative of the new era we have entered………that is a debt that cannot be easily repaid, though some is looking on it in a different light because they don’t have the mental agility to comprehend that it makes the island a better place and in touch with the world while it enters a new phase, they will understand later, they are just slow.

    His honors for doing the right thing (David’s) should have nothing to do with all the titles out of England that seems to be sold to the highest bidders in one way or another on the island, that would be a gross insult to David. I would not have envisioned this many years ago when we were able to identify the frustrations enlightened people felt about the stark inequalities practiced by corrupt politicians from both parties and dishonest lawyers firmly attached to the political system, courts, parliament, etc., it actually came as a pleasant shock when i heard about BU.

    Suffice it to say, though those who are guilty of all the above practices will never agree, too bad, so sad, people feel much better knowing that politicians can no longer easily get away with lying to the taxpayers nor instill a subtle form of dictatorship against the taxpayers by themselves and their monied friends and masters. This will make it even more difficult for them to continue to sell the island at any price.

  22. LOOK Avatar
    LOOK

    @ Well Well

    Your decision was the right one, get off that island. Too many fires burning.

  23. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Look…….those fires on the island were burning since i was a child, the culprits who have been destructive with such wild abandon for the past 40 years plus are only now being afforded their comeuppance in the form of exposure, most of them have already been planted in the earth and never paid for their crimes, i guess this lot will have to feel the full brunt of the fire, hope they know running into a church every sunday like caroline herbert, et al and the many others who know of whom i speak, will not help them escape Karma.

  24. LOOK Avatar
    LOOK

    @ Well Well

    Still burning: Violet Beckles, those Britton Hill deaths, etc. Agree, too many never paid their crimes. Feel sorry for people living on that island. Things will not get better just worse. The S&P and Moody’s will be back and now with good news. The ax chopper will hurt more than just those prison workers.

    It’s a mess down there. It’s just a mess. I would somehow find a way to get out of that hell hole.

  25. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Look………..unfortunately not everyone can leave the island, people may have to endure some massive hard times, then their eyes will become open and they will see clearly, problem is, some have short memories for what is most important and when they see paper money in abundance they tend to easily forget and fall into the same old cycle……….it is a learning process and work in progress.

  26. LOOK Avatar
    LOOK

    @ Well Well

    We don’t live there but know the situation there is bad. Do you think people who do live there know that it is actually that bad?

  27. Well Well. Avatar
    Well Well.

    Look…….no, most of them don’t, neither do they care, they believe in the power of man or lack thereof (politicians) and continue to depend on them thinking that will save them, some would not even consider using their own initiative, they are waiting for things to get better, according to what the politicians are telling them in the package of lies that are readily available, have you not noticed the yardfowls on here, how far removed from reality their brains function, the politicians just wind them up and let them loose, mind you these are politicians who are not nor have they ever been the brightest bulbs are able to successfully manipulate the sheeple, just imagine the mental agility, or lack of, emanating from these same yardfowls and all the garbage they spread around the island.

  28. Right vs Wrong Avatar
    Right vs Wrong

    And there is a Symmonds part two also in writing a lady who he took her passport from and with held the ladies passport for months while supposedly doing an Immigration matter which he never provided her with her requested status and then demanded of her sex for services, once again while he acted as a Minister of the last govt amazing, sickly and sad that someone can stoop so low while using their position of authority to to inflict pain and suffering to those less fortunate in society.

  29. LOOK Avatar
    LOOK

    Must repeat statement posted by by ac 07/27/2013 @ 7:35pm “at a lost for words, members of the BLP allowed this nomination”!!!

    My degree is History and Education not Social Sciences, but experts in the field of social sciences proclaim that a person is a product of his environment. Kerri Symmonds alike the singer Rihanna is a product of his upbring in Barbados. Rihanna we know is chaotic and mentally off-balanced. Rihanna was brutally beaten by boyfriend Chris Brown and according to journalist, Billy Johnson on 11/06/2009 she said “I’m glad it happened to me. . . . I can help young girls. . . . I will say to any young girl, come out of this” but her relationship with Brown since the beating is on and off again. She is a product of her environment, her upbringing in Barbados. Rihanna’s mother [Monica] according to journalist, Billy Johnson was frequently beaten by her father, once breaking her nose. Kerri Symmonds, during the course of his upbringing was likely exposed to domestic violence. He like Rihanna is chaotic and mentally off balanced.

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