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“Can someone explain how a country that is reliant on tourism and foreign direct investment is expected to grow in a global recession? Ms. Mottley tell us how you would manage the economy differently. BU remembers joining with you and Professor Avinash Persaud (an advisor) to pressure the government 1 year ago to rollout a significant stimulus package. Would that approach not have added to the debt burden given the protracted nature of the global recession?
If Mottley’s message to Barbadians stood any chance of resonating her constant reference to comparative analysis in the periods pre and post global financial meltdown smacks of being disingenuous. All* developing countries (and developed) are experiencing economic hardship at this time. Some may holdup the economies of Singapore, Mauritius, Hong Kong and others as beacons of success in the current environment but we all know the fundamentals of those economies were on firm footing before the meltdown.
Sadly Mottley and her crew continue to support an economic model which is built on selling land to realise foreign direct investment to fill the gap in government revenue and expenditure.”
DAVID
(blog owner)
prodigal son
“Did you hear Mia say in her press conference today”
There you go again, somebody told you something and you know why?
Everyone know how gullible you are.
As long as the story sounds ridiculous, lets tell it to “prodigal son” he will believe it. He is old and foolish!
Carson…….everyone is saying that your PM Stuart should know when to stop telling lies and insulting people’s intelligence, there is a limit to everything you know, looks like that no confidence motion has the potential to be successful.
CBC Morning Barbados had ten minutes of news and Maxine and company wasted 8 of those minutes and the two other minutes were sniping of Mia’s Press briefing and two other stories from the region. Kudos to the best TV news station in Barbados.
When hardheaded businessmen and women sit down to discuss investment in Barbados with the likes of certain ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries who are the guardians of our heritage,with all the specialist advice these business folk have at their command they must recognise the idyuts and uninformed people they are dealing with and take Barbados for a ride as a given.You cannot listen to Brasstacks and think that that is the beginning and end of all that makes the world tick.Where are the Billie Millers,Louis Tulls,Maurice Kings,Henry Fordes and such distinguished trail blazers.
Btw you see the joke that is Constituency Councils in Ch Ch West Central’s
non action of a case currently before the public.And there is egg all over the face of Stephen Lashley and its not for flying first class with his wife,but for neglecting a glaring example of children in dire and urgent need of help of all kinds.Lashley must be ashamed and should be fired for this deplorable act.But what does he do?True to form he blames the public sector for inaction!!
–or you can make
Ministers of people from the BLP
Mr. Caller on Brasstacks
who is calling out Kellman, Suckoo, Jones et al from their ministries.
if we were serious about saving Barbados
the BLP and DLP should be working together
on the economy.
Frank Alleyne is responsible for the economic ills
in Barbados.
——————————————–
Yaaaaaaaaagga- Pon Top
West Indies played a brand of cricket
when they were on top
they stop playing that brand
The brand they play now
keeps them dominated.
batsmen get out making the same errors
bowlers bowl too short.
Frank Alleyne’s economic advice to DLP runs Barbados in trouble
FRANK;S brand is wrong for Barbados
The DLP should get rid of FRANK ALLEYNE from round the place. Their approach will change
when they get rid of FRANK ALLEYNE
————————
Is Marsha Hinds- Layne the wife of Corey Layne
————————————
Yaaaaaaaaaaaagga –
Lashley knew full well these kids were suffering and traumatized for some time but now he is pretending it’s someone else’s fault since it has become exposed, shame on you viper politicians.
David……..there are different visas or programs available for people who want to do business in Canada. It depends on the level you think that you would be eligible for, even if you have very little money, there are programs that are flexible in accommodating business people, you just have to prove you can support yourself until you are accepted.
JUST ASKING & prodigal son
“If you have no critics you’ll likely have no success.”
MALCOLM X
CCC
You could use this blog space to really tell us the truth instead of the nonsense you spew here.
Since you know what is going on in the DLP and is feasting on the fatted calf,
we the people would like to know:
# Where the 300 million dollars in foreign reserves gone
# What is the true status of the economy and don’t tell no more lies
# Are there thousands of letters piled up on PS’s desks waiting to be delivered
# Are temporary teachers going to be reassigned this year
# Are the workers who have been laid off going to be re-appointed
# Are you willing to give up your pay from the constituency council as a sacrifice?
I know you wont answer. You are deep in the bosom of an inept incompetent government who does not know its behind from its face.
Can you imagine that with government cutting funds to the UWI and making student pay, cutting from the QEH, slashing the reverse tax credit b $650, imposing a consolidated tax on the top earners, an unconscionable municipal tax on land owners, sending home workers left right and centre……………….would you believe that I saw Cranston Browne today in a new brand Honda CRV? ML689 or some number close, I forgot to take the picture and post it on BU. I was so hopping mad!
And we know Hondas are not cheap!
@Prodigal Son
The van would like have been sold duty free to government.
Governor of the Central Bank has called for all Barbadians to play their part to improve confidence in the society. Now we have the Barack matter which one can suggest stokes the believe that government is dippsydoddling on this matter.
@ David, duty free or not look at the perception having a brand new “expensive” Honda SUV gives to John Public & the hundreds of Govt employees facing an uncertain future.
Speaking of Govt vehicles has anyone noticed the large number of SUV & off road vehicles carrying Govt plates? i.e. the Cabinet office has a Toyota Truck for a messenger to deliver documents to the GG & other Govt depts, in the PM’s office is a Mitsubishi IO – the same one pictured last week in the newspaper parked illegally outside RBC in Hastings. What justification is ther to use SUVs to deliver mail??? By comparison the two largest Corporations in Barbados – GEL & Sagicor use a Nissan March & a Suzuki APV for their bearer to perform the same duty.
There is no doubt in my mind that this is worst Govt Barbados has ever had they lack the testicular fortitude to make the tough decisions and have allowed the situation to deteriorate to where it is today.
David,
I don’t normally get into such things but I mentioned the vehicle in light of the furore raised earlier this year when OSA changed his vehicle which he paid for out of his own funds.
Here is a Central Bank Governor asking us to play our part yet government departments and its agencies are buying the more expensive vehicles.
Here is a Minister of Finance telling us to hold hands and pull together: yet he and the other ministers living it up, flying about the place. I saw one of them the other night at the airport with so many bags, no wonder the cost of living here don’t bother them. Even the master swindler was vacationing with the blunderer in chief! Think these people easy!
But all hell is going to break loose here soon! Keep watch! This is only the tip of the iceberg!
@ Tudor | September 5, 2013 at 8:49 PM |
Couldn’t agree with you more! Another pellucid example of the hypocrisy of this DLP administration preaching one thing and doing the complete opposite.
Where is this administration demonstrating in hard practical terms its commitment to a green economy and saving foreign exchange?
If these vehicles were of the hybrid fuel type we would not be so critical. So much for the “economical viable and environmentally” sound pledge.
you have the highest standard of living because of white countries.
i do not see any in government.why is this?
David;
WUHLOSS, WE UP A CREEK WIDOUT A PADDLE
This is a general post on my concern that there is only one series of actions that might stop Barbados from plummeting quickly to the status of a failed state. I think it is the Politicos who have to be patriotic and put Barbados first, even more so than John and Jenny Citizen.
I was on vacation for the last week so I haven’t been following the posts as closely as I normally do so I might have missed some events, ideas, etc. on BU. However it seems to me that;
1) Every time the PM speaks on the modalities of the implementation of his Governments policy of drastically reducing the 2013/14 and 2014/15 public sector personal emoluments bill, he puts his foot more firmly in his mouth and reveals a disrespect for the intelligence of his countrymen along with a severe mental shallowness and a propensity for putting the DLP first and the country last in all major decisions relating to the economy, starting with overextending the choice of an election date, continuing on to acceding to DT’s every wish and going on to the current comedy of errors on the puerile implementation of the 2013 budget.
2) He has clearly shown that he and CS cannot effectively lead Barbados out of this morass. Indeed, they can only lead us deeper and more quickly UNDER that morass.
3) If FS and CS continue we will go further along the wrong side of the point of no return.
4) Confidence in this Government has hit an all time low.
It is time for patriotic MP’s on both side of the political divide to call a spade a spade, carefully and diplomatically jettison FS and move forward with a non partisan agenda that could spare us a little of the pain and hasten a hopefully eventual rebounding of our economy.
I suggest that the only way out must include the following steps.
Members of the BLP must recognize that the least painful way of implementing the cuts is by using the Sandiford method of across the board cuts for every public servant.
The BLP MPs can assist in implementing this by supporting legislation to temporarily return to a situation where, for the good of the overall economy, every public servant will voluntarily give up x percent of his salary or wages starting from November 2013 for 2 years. The bean counters at the Central Bank could identify the most reasonable percentage to be used. Of course this would not be palatable to the BLP but they could negotiate with the DLP members to themselves take some similarly unpalatable actions as a party political swap to also allow people to realize that they both are willing to give up on some of their sacred cows for the ultimate benefit of the country. The DLP offerings that might be negotiated could include:
Ending the Constituency Councils;
Stopping the funding for the DT Football series
Removing all funding for the free School bus fares.
Defunding all identifiable political consultants paid out of the Government purse and allowing the parties to fund them themselves.
Drastically reduce funding for the Summer camps.
The reinstitution of an across the board pay reduction would be a much fairer method of extracting financial support for reducing the deficit from all public servants, especially if both Government and Opposition MP’s, adjunct staff and senior public servants who benefitted from a relatively recent salary review agree to increase their deduction by the percentage increase they received at that time.
The MP’s must be recalled now to implement such legislation by the middle of November this year. Most will say that this can’t be done but I think It can be done if the Legislative schedule is modified to give this matter total and utter priority and if the majority of the house (Bs and Ds) recognize that they have no other workable choice to save the Island FX peg since it is clear that the current budget measures WILL NOT work to achieve their given objectives, especially since the current DLP Leadership is too timorous to implement them and are casting about for ways to roll them all back and that the funding agencies realize this and will exact their full pound of flesh when they come a visiting later.
@checkit-out
At this point it is not so much about policy decisions but more about our leaders communicating and acting out their roles to inspire confidence in a people who are beginning to doubt themselves.
David; That might be so if the current policy decisions had any chance of working. But the policy decisions related to implementation of the Budget measures are nothing if not disastrous and will clearly not be a success leading us further into what looks like a bottomless pit that is absolutely foreign to the Bajan experience. The attempt at communication by the PM has been disastrous and has led to a further diminution of confidence ergo hastening the arrival of the lenders of last resort who will surely be very rough on us if they arrive with the current leaders intact.
Only Unthinkable solutions will work at this juncture. I’ve suggested one such that might work. What needs to be discussed is how something like this can be implemented in the short time frame available. A time frame shortened by the timidity and party and personal priority settings by the current administration.
David; Wunnah don’ realize dat everything practically finished and there is no hope with this lot.
What policy decisions what? The people, through their parliamentary reps, have to change the trajectory of the current decisions along with the leadership and some of the implementers.
‘The BLP MPs can assist in implementing this by supporting legislation to temporarily return to a situation where, for the good of the overall economy, every public servant will voluntarily give up x percent of his salary or wages starting from November 2013 for 2 years.’
you seem to ignore the fact that public servants have not had an increase in the last four years which to all intents and purposes is a self-imposed salary cut and there has been no demonstrations for increases as in Trinidad and st lucia and Guyana. shouldn’t the public servants be complimented rather than pilloried for taking this noble stand in the interest of the country.
Ask for an increase or expect an increase when the government is broke. The conversation in Barbados is definitely taking on a Greek tenor. The ignorance!
Balance; Yuh beginning to sound slightly unbalanced, yuh.
The situation here is that the Government is sending home temporary and acting employees despite all the puerile attempts by the PM to deny it. It is almost certain that this policy will not bring in enough to close the fiscal gap. It is much more likely that an across the board cut of the salaries of all public servants will close the gap or at least get us closer to closing the gap.
We are staring a bajan calamity directly in the face. What sacrifices what?
This is now!
This admittedly harebrained suggestion, if implemented can bring us closer to closure of the gap. Is it better to attempt something like tihis or throw up our hands in the air as the Government seems to be doing rather than trying something that might work even though it would be unpalatable to many of the politicians?
Both the DLP and BLP need to make sacrifices of shibboleths close to their collective hearts to give us some chance of survival. The alternative is chaos and a state that will take decades to return to its former glory, if it ever does return.
Another one of my favourite bloggers who seems to have temporarily joined the brass bowls.
@ Checkit-out
Brother, why don’t you go long back on holiday nuh? You come back refreshed and renewed with your common sense logic and practical suggestions …… What are you trying to do? Embarrass the national leadership.
Yours is an OBVIOUS practical approach. Shiite man, you even provided them the political spin to make it work….but of course you know that where brass bowls are bliss it is folly to be wise…?
One definition of a brass bowl is that it needs to wait on ceramic (white) bowls from the IMF to come and tell it that one plus one equals two…
Bushie would agree with you that Stuart and Sinckler are embarrassingly inept…. But also challenge you to name their replacements with a straight face….
You are right ….we dead!
@BT and checkit-out
It will not happen as long as we have money bags to borrow from.
@ David | September 9, 2013 at 8:35 AM |
David,
Do you have anything on this $100 million policy loan the government is trying to borrow from the IADB? Is this in addition to the US$33 million applied for last year?
One of them major conditions of accessing any funding from the IADB is the establishment of the Central Revenue Authority which should have been up and running since April 2013.
It would be interesting to see if this administration can implement such major restructuring exercise without laying off at least 25% of the existing workforce spread across 4 large revenue collecting entities.
The way things are looking there seems to be less chances of borrowing on the open market to shore up the foreign reserves and the country might just have to swallow its pride, bite the bullet and go to the bankers of last resort.
The DLP needs to
come down from
ihigh horse
work with Opposition
afterall
two heads/better than one
national/consensus/government
march fuh dat Bdos
@ checkit-out | September 9, 2013 at 8:02 AM |
You are reading the checkers (draughts) board correct. FS and CS would soon be swapped or huffed, one way or the other. They cannot be in the vanguard for change to save Bim from further financial ruin.
It’s time Dr. Estwick and Donville Inniss step up to the plate and take charge of that faltering administration leading the country down a garden path of no return of being a failed economy leading to a dislocated society.
One thing international lenders (and investors) dislike is a lack of confidence brought about primarily by demonstrated incompetence by the leadership and political administration of a country, especially one bereft of commercially attractive natural resources that can be used as alternative security or collateral against managerial incompetence and political instability.
t’s time Dr. Estwick and Donville Inniss step up to the plate and take charge of that faltering administration leading the country down a garden path of no return of being a failed economy leading to a dislocated society.
—————————————–
will make no difference
Get rid of Frank Alleyne
and his brand of economics
he and his ‘people’
thinking + theories flawed
@ Yagga Rowe | September 9, 2013 at 9:25 AM |
“Get rid of Frank Alleyne”
That my friend might just be right around the corner.
There could soon be a political game changer in the making as the black mouth 5 & 10 kickback merchant is incapacitated but this time it could be for a longer stretch.
Maybe his absence could give the PM the opportunity to lead by example and cut the size of his Cabinet even if by one.
Let Lowe’s ministerial responsibilities be absorbed by other ministries.
We wish him speedy recovery.
We need to take a look at the increases to members of parliament made in 2009 which is a 4.5% increase when the overall civil service didn’t receive one single penny
Check the dollars we are wasting on our representatives
http://www.barbadosparliament-laws.com/en/ShowPdf/8.pdf
http://www.barbadosparliament-laws.com/en/showdoc/cs/13A
Don’t you feel that these thousands of dollars should be returned to offset the over $400 million that is locking off we the tax payers neck.
This amount can be added to checkit-out | September 8, 2013 at 9:10 PM | list of wastage.
My wish is for this DLP government to just disappear and carry along David Ellis,the ‘I know-it-all-moderator’,the former senator called the economist,one guy called Mr P,one guy called Arthur,the female with a St Philip accent who thinks the DLP is hunky-dory and the ultra biased Peter Wickham.All ya tek a hike nuh man!
Checkit-out i like your suggestions however I do not believe that given the two parties stance at the moment we have much hope of what might be WISE…..
Tennyson Joseph – The Real Pretender.
Tennyson Joseph – A BLP yardfowl like George Belle who would not admit his true political leanings but postures in a paper every week writing sh**te while earning an exhorbitant salary at Cave Hill.
His columns like Branford, Mascoll, Sanka Price , Harry Russell and Pat Hoyos all follow a very predictable line but they follow the Nation newspaper’s mandate for columnists – first and foremost – attack the DLP.
This is not a coincidence ladies and gentlemen. The Nation newspaper is being used as the PR agency for the opposition BLP. journalistic prostitution revealed.
checkitout- I never said the public service should ask for an increase. All I was seeking to do is to draw attention to the noble and patriotic stance taken by public officers which is worthy of commendation in not pressuring their union to seek or agitate for an increase despite the draconian tax measures imposed upon the country and which would have as a consequence impacted upon their standard of living and pensioners as well.
salary increases were introduced by Mr Barrow to help offset the negative impact of tax increases on the purchasing power of the public servants on the one hand and to stimulate economic activity on the other but like free education, this policy would not have been sustainable ad infinitum because obviously changing times would have demanded that different courses of action be pursued and undertaken in keeping with the ever changing world environment.
Why doesn’t the union agitate against padding of the public service which ultimately makes it bad for ALL?
Tell me Why
Just need to be clear. Are you saying that the PM of Barbados now takes home over $250,000 a year and his Ministers and Parliament Secretaries top $200,000 dollars a year, all inclusive of a first class flight vacation to any destination in the world with the spouse, annually? When Ministers travel overseas “on business”, is this deducted from their traveling allowance?
“Why doesn’t the union agitate against padding of the public service which ultimately makes it bad for ALL”
What union worth its salt would want to accommodate such a pigeon brained idea when the primary role of the union is to REPRESENT the interests of workers. It is the duty of a confident government not to pad the workface to detriment of the country which it was elected to govern in the interests of all. In short, the roles and interests of the Union and Government are clearly different, one in the narrow interests and one in the wider interests and common ground/consensus in a particular given circumstance is temporarily achieved purportedly to the satisfaction of both interests through the use of the industrial tool of negotiation.
@balance
Your response exposes the problem we will always have. It also explains why the Social Partnership is a farce. You guys are jokes.
BAFBFP. I could be wrong, but I am of the believe that Governmental travel might not be deducted. Remember travel within Barbados and vacation travel with family and friends are countered into your travel allowance.
Why would government remove all information regarding Constituency Councils from its website? What’s the secret with the money allocated and the salaries being paid. Why we have not seen and financial reports of the said councils noting that these councils were operating and wasting our taxes since 2009
Were we not promised transparency with launch of the CCs?
Tell me Why | September 10, 2013 at 12:16 PM |
“Why we have not seen any financial reports…….”
David Weren’t we not promised “no layoffs in the public sector” Same old, same old and nuh action
TMW
The PM has clarified the matted. The promise was obviously not extended to temps.
David, you let the PM fool you too. The budget was on the 13th, of last month and it took nearly one month for clarification. It is the amount of resentments that awoke him. Isn’t he not responsible for the civil service? Surprisingly, Chris ain’t saying nothing about that nor the tax relating to land tax.
Gabriel | September 9, 2013 at 12:15 PM |
My wish is for this DLP government to just disappear and carry along David Ellis,the ‘I know-it-all-moderator’,the former senator called the economist,one guy called Mr P,one guy called Arthur,the female with a St Philip accent who thinks the DLP is hunky-dory and the ultra biased Peter Wickham.All ya tek a hike nuh man!
————
I LIKE THIS COMMENT
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Yaaaaaaaaagga – likes it !!!!
Sandy started the Privitization thrust in the 1990s
An Office of Privitization was set up
————————
Sandy wanted 3 Community Colleges around Barbados
and no sixth form schools
The three colleges would have taken the pressure off UWI
Now Jones bringing more 6th form schools -ignorance !!
Balance; re. your 6:10 am comment
I accept the point you were seeking to make that the long suffering Public servants demonstrated praiseworthy patriotism in their decision not to agitate for increased salaries in the face of a plummeting economy. Your recognition of that fact suggests that you not only recognize the level of patriotism by the public servants but also suggests that you take my implicit point that our MP’s had no similar level of patriotism as demonstrated in their seeking and voting themselves significant increases in salaries and perks during the same period. Surely we deserve better of our MPs and I think they can demonstrate that I am wrong by giving back those increases, even if you might think that I am operating firmly in Dreamland.
But that point is totally tangential to the main point I was making which seems to have missed you. That point was that Sandiford found a formula to solve a situation similar to the one the Government and the people of Barbados now find ourselves in. That formula worked and deserves to be tried again rather than putting all our efforts into the current deficit reducing measures which appear to be doomed to failure and thereby have the potential to be extremely damaging to our collective future.
I suggested that based on the inept way in which the implementation of the 2013 budgetary measures are being handled that we will fall far below the targets given for those measures. I also suggested that because of the times more serious and seemingly more intractable situation now that we should try the Sandiford formula again and legislate another X percent across the board reduction in salaries and wages for public workers and pensioners (like myself) who are paid from the public purse.
Its all for the benefit of the Nation and I don’t think that thinking Public servants would cavil too much over this if it meant giving up say 10% of their wages / salaries for 2 years if it would save the jobs of lets say 5000 of their temporary colleagues in the first instance and even their own jobs down the road and thereby ensure to the extent possible that the Country would rise again from the ashes produced by an unpatriotic, incompetent, self seeking parliament made up of DLP and BLP members with similar mindsets.
That the suggestion is unlikely to fly is somewhat immaterial. It is made to show that there is an alternative that could work. When it is not taken up and the country continues on its downward trajectory to the level of some of our neighbours at least we might be able to identify what might have been.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.