We apologize to Walter Blackman for picking up his submission several days late – David
Walter Blackman
His silver hairs will purchase us a good opinion, and buy men’s voices to commend our deeds.
William Shakespeare: Julius Caesar
I make reference to a Nation News article dated November 4, 2013, entitled “Numbers don’t lie” and written by Sanka Price. In that article, Mr. Erskine Griffith is highlighted as a top‐level civil servant who served as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance under six Ministers of Finance and five Prime Ministers, dating back from his appointment to the post under Tom Adams to Owen Arthur, under whom he retired as the Director of Finance and Head of the Civil Service in 2000.
It is commentary like this from a very informed person is what is lacking in this country.
Not the shite that comes out of the mouth of the BLP professors of gloom aka ryan straugh,mascoll,owen,mia and the same erskine griffith.
Imagine the destruction permanent secretaries like him can do to a government they don’t support politically like the DLP or any other party.
And there are more like him currently secreted away in the public service.Caswell Franklyn was bold enough and honest enough to say so.Their intent is to serve their Master who elevated then to the position – Owen Arthur.
People like Erskine Griffith and Layne former PS who have demonstrated how far our civil service has fallen in terms of integrity and ethics.
The massive damage done by Owen Arthur to the integrity of our institutions, namely the Judiciary and our civil service will hopefully be told one day.
Incompetents judges like Kentish,Jackie Cornelius, David Simmons wife,sonia what’s her name and others, as well as moving a politician in the person of an attorney general straight into the position of Chief Justice,a thing never seen and heard of in our country nor in our region and even worse corrupting the public service with known operatives who frustrate this DLP government every move and when not sucessful there, leak all sorts of information true and untrue to a very compliant media partner in crime – The Nation Newspaper.
Shame,shame,shame!
Nice bt precise article Walter. I have always admired your incitefl reasoning.
Yes Erskine Griffith was owen arthur chief advisor and he advised him who to promote and not to promote. Look how people came from no where and jumped to the head of the line, all because of political expediency, no wonder the pblic ooficers are so demoralised and dont give a hoop about production.
To understand the present, reference mst be made to the past.
I don’t expect the learned actuary Walter Blackman, himself a staunch apologist for the DLP, to share his views on whether the matter of the small amount of THREE MILLION, THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS (BDS$3,300,000.00) ALLEDGED to have represented inter alia, legal fees for work done (according to invoices submitted by a certain lawyer) but declared by a court-appointed forensic audit to be nothing more than a common fraud, committed to allow monies of poor, suffering insurance policy holders & old-age pensioners, to be extracted to pay to a privileged buffoon and God knows who else!!!!
NO LEGAL WORK DONE! MERELY A RUSE TO SATISFY GREED!! And the answer is not blowing in the wind. It is encased in a concrete/marble chamber in an historic churchyard in the east of the island!
Tell us about that and all the rest, Mr. Actuary Blackman! You and your DLP cronies have for years made false accusations of rampant infelicities by the BLP Government, so as to deceptively influence the voters of Barbados. Up to this day, not a shred of evidence produced and some people in jail as was threatened.
Blackman et al, just stfu! Bim got a serious problem and all uh wunnah coming wid scientific and actuarial shite. BIM HAS A FREAKIN PROBLEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeh, Mr. Actuary Blackman (according to Grinding Stone), eff you suh ‘good’ wid experiences in dee States, why you doan leff our we and go and help yuh adopted country dat worse off instead uh writing shit? You living here? You feeling dee pinch? Of course not! You it gaw a damn clue bout ‘nuh money’ case you enjoying triple figure salary in US$. Just go away! steupse.
Of course Walter Blackman would have expected to read the vitriol which has started to be tossed by the politivos but we know he is made of the sterner stuff.
This is our big problem, we locate everything in a political context. Is this where our vaunted education has led us? Is Walter telling lies about the picture which the AG Reports have exposed? Why does it take so long to mobilize loan disbursements from the IADB and World Bank? Is he telling lies about a public service which remains in a moribund grip? So what do we mean when we refer to improving business facilitation? We need to wake up.
The article does indeed have much merit but to be fair to Mr Erskine Griffith, he did indicate that he was only citing facts which he replicated from various reports. However, if we do indeed want to be philosophical , the slide would have started when a country with little resources and with no means of production embarked on an unsustainable economic policy in the sixties which aligned upward mobility with educational achievement at the expense of agriculture and productivity.
To further exacerbate the unsustainable model, credit was expanded which made luxuries (cars, fridges, radios) then in the domain of the few readily available to all providing us with inflated remuneration levels to partially cover our debt burdens and inculcating a false and fictitious standard of living to which we have grown accustomed and allowing us to boast of punching above our weight ignoring the reality that one day the chickens will come home to roost.
I well remember and not patting myself on the back telling a colleague working with me at the then port department in the seventies who was quarrelling that his salary revision was insufficient to meet the demands of the cost of living that one day there might be no increase at all because from a logical point of view something had to give.
And I am not attempting to critique the economic policy of then, because it did serve a useful purpose of enabling many to enjoy a better side of life and did exude hope and expectation to the marginalised.
Yes, pronouncements from persons of Mr Erskine Griffith’s ilk as well as Mr Blackman’s would always be seen as politically motivated. It is easy to paint them with the political brush because of their association some more intimate than some with the political directorate. Lest we forget, you can trace this ‘massive damage’ to use the words of the previous commentator to the institutions of good governance back to the introduction of the 1971 constitutional amendments by Mr Barrow which totally emasculated the independence of the Public Service Commissions and placed appointments to critical posts in the establishment firmly in the hands of the political directorate and to compound the issue destroyed the Local Government System to remove Mr Ernest Mottley’s stranglehold on the system and replaced it with Statutory Corporations which have proven because of its political nature to be a damocles sword on the back of good governance ever since. So, political involvement at the highest levels did not begin with Mr Griffith. Reflect on the names of such illustrious sons of the soil in more ways than one like Major Sam Headley, Mr ‘Nobby’ Estwick, Mr Pedro Welch, Ms Sonja Welch. Mr Lionel Nurse, Mr L.V Harcourt Lewis to name just a few- Can they be accused of undermining BLP administrations because of their political persuasion?
And to continue: what about the escalating subsidies given to the Transport Board which continues to be operated like a going out of business rum shop? By extension the mal culture associated with PSVs? We have an endemic issue to confront, let us deal with it!
Walter boy
They doing multiple postings under different names to make it appear that it’s a lot of persons criticising you,but don’t fret the truth is biting them in that dark place that don’t see light.lol.
Actually, Walter Blackman’s article appears at first to be essentially a reasonable one but one sparsely littered with DLP talking points that could fool both DLP and BLP oriented posters into thinking that it is a pro DLP polemic written by someone who is considered to be a DLP apologist.
The truth is that only Balance and Newblood have engaged on the actual thrust of the article, i.e. that it is an initially gradual but recently escalating exponential slide in the mores, morals and productivity of the Public Service, fed by politicians on both sides starting with the Barrow administration but continuing to the present, which is probably at the root of much of our present troubles.
Of course the Blackman analysis is flawed, because he essentially omits the current administration (2008-2013) from serious or in-depth consideration in his analysis and appears to be lopsidedly putting all the blame on previous administrations.
I would give 3 stars only to the Walter Blackman post. It needs to delve more deeply into root causes over the past 3.5 decades to be worthy of serious consideration.
Decline is now a reality. Complaining about it will do nothing. We find ourselves in the situation we are in because the world has changed and we have not. Computers and the internet have changed the way consumers shop and how news is spread. We need a fresh start to fit into the new world model. There is going to be belt tightening but the way we have been operating cannot be sustained. Leadership is badly needed.
If the author acknowledged that the rot has set in a long time ago what is the purpose of pointing to the current administration. It we agree that there is a fundamental shift that is required to change this is all that matter, the rest is fluff. There is only so much that can be addressed in this medium. Politics and inclination to be defensive will be the death of us yet.
David; The point is that the decline has gone into top gear over the last 5 or so years and Blackman is being disingenuous, to say the least, in appearing to give that administration a pass.
There has to be a fundamental shift to correct the situation but it does not extend to just damming the past administrations with faint blame and excluding the current one from scrutiny with weasel phrases. Griffith, by limiting his analysis to economic data which cannot lie (and which were really not challenged by Blackman) only looked at part of the problem. Blackman, himself, only looked at another part. The solution must lie in using a wholistic approach to diagnose all aspects of the problem and determine the strategies that must be used to get the Public service and the politicians to work again for the benefit of the country and not for themselves.
Correction of the situation must take into account everything that all the administrations since the 80’s have done to damage the public service. Including this current one.
And David; The politicians on both sides have shown that they are incapable of solving our problems.
One way that we might have been ahead of the game at this time is if the two sides had each acknowledged that the overall problem was not of the other side’s exclusive making, and had got together to do the things that were necessary to move us forward, including, doing like Grenada, and taking personal cuts in their salaries and or perks.
In addition, they could have taken an approach out of Erskine Sandiford’s book. But, they would have none of this. And most of us on this blog agreed that they could not be expected to put the country first because fighting for retention of their pensions was the first priority.
A pox on both their houses!
@Are you there yet
Isn’t Walter framing his argument based on Erskine Griffith’s public statement? We can debate how this government has managed in the last six years but it does not change the fact that our problems started a long time ago.
Number lie all the time. We can make them say anything we want them to, when we want them. This writer is said to have been exposed to statistical methods and actuarial science, is this all there is to be offered? We have known Walter fairly well and have no real animus towards him. However, he had to stop reminding us of people like another short man, Cox, can’t remember his first name. But so-called credentialed people who walk around pretending they are so ‘bright’
We read this article and at best Walter is making a small point. With all the problems we have in Barbados, the Caribbean and the world we wondered whether these so-called ‘bright’ people like Walter can’t bring more that a mute point to bear on the affairs of mankind. Then again, our so-called bright people may not be too bright at all.
@ David | November 20, 2013 at 12:56 PM |
You are quite right, David. The economic problems facing the country are just the stark manifestations of serious underlying ore structural diseases that have their geneses long before this administration came to power.
The administration under Sir Lloyd Sandiford was forced by fiscal and monetary circumstances to carry out major corrective surgery (primarily designed an outside specialist ) but failed to complete the job and had to settle for a “patched-up” outcome just enough to keep the patient alive and walking while living in a make-believe world created under the Owen Arthur administration.
The economic patient is again in need of serious invasive surgery. But the problem this time around is that the local make believe quack seems to be too hesitatingly indecisive as to the correct surgical procedures to perform and is always at cross-purposes and being overruled by his boss.
In the past the PM and MoF were wearing the same cap and surgical gown.
In the current scenario both the PM and the MOF are class act clowns contradicting each other. More like a Mutt & Jeff or Laurel & Hardy or Bud & Lou comical sideshow.
This situation has created a most uncertain atmosphere in the operating room with the supporting staff losing confidence in the whole exercise and turning it into a Marx Brothers special.
Maybe a serious outside consultant would do the necessary procedures using the latest but uncaring fiscal and monetary technologies.
All speculative. The fact remains that the DLP fukk up de place. Wunna just love to adopt this flawed balanced approach even when the truth jooking wunna in wunna eye. Trying to be balanced is NOT balance.
Imagine this actuary praising Estwick and Freundel for drawing attention to the NIS funds, yet since 2008 they have spent, spending and will continue to spend more (meaning borrow) from NIS. So what Walter accusing Erskine of doing, he doing likewise. Pimrp! By the way when did Bdos’ Financial Services sector collapsed? Jepter Ince was a professional in New York too and he can’t differentiate between fiscal and physical or as I am sure he thinks it is spelt–fisical.
@David,
I agree with Walter. But the salient point he makes, that apologists for the previous administration choose to ignore, is that the Auditor General ‘s reports were presented every year. Relevant government departments that were criticized by these reports were not called to account at any time, but were allowed to continue and compound their bad practises. The heads of those departments instead of being called to make the necessary changes and correction were let off scott free. The same Erskine Griffith, as Minister of Agriculture, instead of taking the necessary strong corrective action; for example, against plantation owners; government or individual private owner, to protect the agriculture sector, increase productivity, etc, allowed money grabbing owners to apply for and obtain permission to change land use from agricultural to residential. The result was that official government policy became to sell the land for its highest economic value. We thus had housing developments on good agricultural lands, where one house was allowed to be built on two or more acres of land. In these developments the restriction was for the single house with no agricultural development.Thus the demise of the productive use of agricultural land. Lands were deliberately taken out of sugar cane production; even though the price of sugar production was subsidised, and the accompanying loss of much of these lands to food crop production. Whatever ways apologists for the last administration, or defenders of it, try to escape from their responsibility, the reports are there for the record and the numbers are available for perusal. The trends can be followed and it can be seen clearly where the rot set in; and it does not go back to Barrow’s time. Barbados’s growth began under Barrow’s administration.
David; Re. your 12.56 pm post.
Walter Blackman is an actuary, a serious numbers man. He is responding to an article that posits that numbers don’t lie, people do. His article should be expected to show where Erkine Griffith was wrong in his use of numbers by using superior numbers to make his case. Or agree with him.
But he eschewed the use of numbers altogether, in subliminally agreeing with Griffith..
Does that sound like how a professional actuary would be expected to deal with such a situation, or of one who doesn’t have the numbers to refute the Griffith points and so hides in a forest of words, not numbers?
@ Alvin Cummins | November 20, 2013 at 2:49 PM |
You are being sickeningly disingenuous. All you have said cannot be gainsaid when viewed retrospectively with a sense of déjà vu of the Duffus Commission and the other allegations and rumours of corruption and graft under previous administrations.
However, you fail to go on and say that the same state of affairs as prevailed then also prevails today and in some cases exacerbated like the abuse of the NIS funds to finance current expenditure and the government’s profligate spending over the last 3-4 years to remain electorally popular.
Why don’t you check the Auditor General’s reports for the last 5 years and see if the phrase “the more things change the more they remain the same” does not hold true in every sense?
Why not check what has taken place at the NHC for the last 5 years and what is the status of the people’s major watchdog called the PAC which has now been turned into a toothless ‘bark-less’ Chihuahua of a sleeping dog.
PS: Alvin, if you do have the gumption to respond please don’t take us back to the past but use your time machine to point us to the future.
Alvin;
Yuh dead wrong!
I know for a fact that Both political administrations, starting with Barrow’s, cut up and sell Agricultural land, in concert with monied landholders, that resulted in significant depletion of our land resources. The Minister’s of Finance had the last say in this and could overrule contrary advice from line ministries
That policy was not an Arthurian invention although Arthur might have sought to bring some transparency to it by enunciating a coherent (even if misguided) policy re. letting land find its highest value and spearheading the zoning of all lands according to transparent criteria.
It served the political ends of both administrations, when in opposition, to make a big hue and cry about the others selling off agricultural land.
They both did it. Not a fellah attempted to change the policy when they won the Government.
@ are-we-there-yet? | November 20, 2013 at 3:22 PM |
“His article should be expected to show where Erkine Griffith was wrong in his use of numbers by using superior numbers to make his case. Or agree with him.”
I wanted to eschew this thread because this article is not about “Numbers” lying or Statistics portraying the truth but more about a clash of personalities and attempts to open up old workplace wounds that never really healed.
Walter needs to deal with the numbers that that inform us today and seek to explain the ramifications of the excessive use of NIS funds to finance the central government’s current expenditure commitments and the future impact on retirees of his generation. This concern has also been highlighted by the Fortress Fund official and BARP which have pointed out the “numerical fact” of an aging population and a growing “grey” vote.
Can he also shed some ‘futuristic light’ (given his actuarial background) on the implications of the national debt moving from around $5 billion in 2008 to almost $10 billion or so today?
Can a government- in a sustained depressed economy- reliably service a very large debt (in relation to declining GDP) that is growing exponentially while at the same time providing secure employment for public sector workers and welfare security for those not involved in productive and remunerative lifestyles.
@Miller and Are We …?
First of all Miller I keep telling all of you that allegations and rumours are not fact. The Duffus commission, LIKE the commission of enquiry on the St. Joseph Hospital, showed that there was no truth in the allegations and rumour. Second of all whwn you and your cohorts assumed offict after the Sandiford administration demitted office, you ruled for 14 years after. You sould have know, or should have known, what was wrong and you had enough time to remedy it. You were in charge, but it did not suit your purposes to correct what was wrong. third of all where is the “profligate spending” you talk about? On one hand you talk of the use of N.I.S. funds for current expenditure. Isn’t the use of N.I.S. funds; which are borrowed from the Government, by the government, subject to terms and conditions, the same as any investments? Thus the funds are not being given away they are being invested, which is what should be done with such funds in any case. This prevents the use of foreign exchange for such expenditure. Fourth, The past , or at least references to the past are obviously painful to all of you but the truth is the truth and is there for impartial observers to see. Finally, the Opposition Leader is the chairman of he PAC and it is up to her to ensure that it functions well It’s nobody’s fault if she goes about it the wrong way. If it is toothless and barkless then it is your fault. Do things the right way rather than trying to be sensational.
AreWe there…, I am glad you acknowledge that the Arthurian approach to land use was misguided. The inability to control the land owners and allowing them to do as they liked without any control, was under the aegis of the townplanner, with the Prime minister being the ultimate authority. He could have put a stop to it any time he wanted. But it suited his purpose. go back to his speech at the opening of Port St. Charles. And the zoning of all land was not transparent. The MoF with the ability to overrule other ministers was the Prime Minister himself. That does not apply now.
@Miller,
Which Fortress fund official?
@ Alvin Cummins | November 20, 2013 at 3:53 PM |
Do you now see what we see about you being the embodiment of Sinckler’s boyhood bald pooch pet cat called Poochie? A plain ugly cu*t indeed!
How on Earth can you describe advances to statutory corporations like the Transport Board to cover wages, salaries and other operational costs like fuel as investments by the NIS? How could a financially moribund business ever be able to repay loans in a sustainable way?
Are you mad? No, we are, to expect you to think otherwise!
We will not even ask you how effective the PAC was during the period 1995 to 2007.
@Miller
Don’t you recall the occasion when Walter called into a Brasstacks show and challenge NIS investment policy just over a year ago? Jepter almost caught a heart attack. We don’t want to listen to people like Walter who has shown that his bread does not need to be buttered here. Now we have Mr. Delmas from Fortress saying the same thing.
The Dems are seeking to destroy B’dos
Everything touched turns to dust
Blighted ? yes somebody said it
And we must agree with it
DLP should stop and check itself
before it wrecks itself
wrecks B’dos
The Duffus commission, LIKE the commission of enquiry on the St. Joseph Hospital, showed that there was no truth in the allegations and rumour.
You surely have never seen either the Duffus Commission report or the St Joseph Hospital report. The Duffus Commission report dealt mainly with profound mismanagement of Government resources whereas the mysterious St Joseph Hospital report which was left to fester due to fraternal obligations highlighted instances of misuse of government funds. Icons in Barbados are treated differently.
“The inability to control the land owners and allowing them to do as they liked without any control, was under the aegis of the townplanner, with the Prime minister being the ultimate authority. He could have put a stop to it any time he wanted”
Two wrongs do not make a right but unwanton land use began with gay abandon in the cutting up of Ruby and Sandford and Mapps plantations presently populated by high level DLP operatives but that has always been the nature of the game so I would not even mention and Mr Dacosta Edwards. so refrain from going down that road as Mr Taitt once admonished young Ms Mottley in the House of Assembly when she was or so she thought enthusiastically highlighting the kola syrup issue.
@are-you-there-yet
Had a reread of Walter’s position and BU maintains that he is attacking the premise that the economy was put on a sustainable path in the Arthur years as espoused by Griffith in the article. His writing must be interpreted in context.
Now back to my good friend Blackie. It would be inconceivable to simply ignore the empirical data highlighting the reasons contributing to our present predicament and simply spread the blame back to 53 years ago and onward but failing to take into account the below mentioned information.
Public Finances of the Grantley Adams administration from 1955 to 1962. Note that in every year, current revenue exceeded current expenditure.
Public Finances of the Grantley Adams administration from 1955 to 1962. Note that in every year, current revenue exceeded current expenditure.
Public Finances of the Errol Barrow Administration. Note that there was a deficit on current account in only two of the fourteen years and for relatively small amounts.
Public Finances of the Errol Barrow Administration. Note that there was a deficit on current account in only two of the fourteen years and for relatively small amounts.
Public Finances of the Adams/St John administration. Note that current revenue exceeded current expenditure in each year except 1977/78 and then for a nominal amount
Public Finances of the Adams/St John administration. Note that current revenue exceeded current expenditure in each year except 1977/78 and then for a nominal amount
Public Finances of the Barrow/Sandiford administration. Note that current expenditure exceeded current revenue in two years only and for relatively small amounts
Public Finances of the Barrow/Sandiford administration. Note that current expenditure exceeded current revenue in two years only and for relatively small amounts
Public Finances of the Arthur adminintratioin. Note that current revenue exceeded current expenditure in each of its fourteen years.
Public Finances of the Arthur administration. Note that current revenue exceeded current expenditure in each of its fourteen years.
Then along comes the Thompson/Stuart administration and this is what happens
Then along comes the Thompson/Stuart administration and this is what happens
2008/2009. The government spends $256 million more than it receives in revenue.
2009/2010. The government spends $557 million more than it receives in revenue.
2010/2011. The government spends $647 million more than it receives in revenue.
2011/2012. The government spends $284 million more than it receives in revenue.
2012/2013. The government spends $260 million more than it receives in revenue.
In addition, the Administration, its advisers and apologists have consistently preached and with some measure of success that all of our present economic difficulties are as a result of a worldwide recession over which they have no control and there is nothing better anyone else can do. To put Wally who is also one of our brightest sons logic in further perspective would suggest that the requirement for an administration to return to the electorate every five years to give an account of their stewardship and plans to make all things bright and beautiful is a mere exercise in futility if we are to believe that the performance of an administration bad or good during its term of office counts for nothing.
Prior to 1961, there was no Government debt and there is an obvious reason for that phenomenon. Government lived within its means so to speak and generally speaking most of the population who were below poverty level in terms of materiality anyhow and this slow pace of material development was undoubtedly a significant factor in the sweeping of the BLP from office in 1961.Access to material luxuries and high profile jobs was the domain of the whites, a lesser extent persons of brown or fair skinned complexion or blacks with pedigree. (What was bandied about in this regard was that black men with means had a penchant for marrying poor red women as the story goes to lighten their darkness whereas the red women were encouraged to stifle their pride and marry these black negrocrats to lift them out of their poverty.) but back to lack of access to material things; I well remember my Grandmother waiting on the meeting turn to buy lumber from Mannings before accumulating sufficient material call Leon the carpenter to build the shed-roof. The floor was dirt in those days. The average person could not borrow or “trust” to enable them to acquire other than what their meagre salaries could afford which meant that upward mobility was well nigh unattainable until the availability of credit opportunities to all due to the enlightened policies post 1961 which were hailed as a new beginning and the advent of emigration opportunities as well. Am I to believe that the dismal performance of the administration can be blamed on the perceived misgivings of all administrations since 1961 except the current one. To quote Jeanette Layne-Clarke- pure balderdash- What has the present administration have to show for spending more in each of the last five financial years commencing 2008-2009 than it received.? Blackie think on these things before trying to defend the indefensible.
I repeat, the argument about selling agricultural land is shallow and displays a lack of understanding of the role land as a resource within a small open economy. Dig up the golf courses, villas, hotels, other ancillary uses and plant sugar cane and “food”. See how far we gine get.
David
The economy did not flounder under Arthur, it did under the Dems. Do we know where Arthur and his party were going with the economy? Go research some of the policies, plans and programmes that were on the table. The Dems foolish…they abandoned all the policies to implement free bus fares and constituency councils. The DLP messed up the ABC highway, housing, UWI, the national strategy and the list goes on. Imagine a lot of what we are all now discussing is contained in a document debated in parliament since 2007.
Yes David;
He is attacking that premise as you said but tangentially only. He is doing so in a way that suggests (reading between the lines) that the economy was left tottering on the brink of chaos in 2008 and that nothing anyone could do would be likely to produce better outturns over the last 5 years. The figures, along with the management and policy missteps since 2008, which should be evident to an actuary of Walter Blackman’s stature, suggest otherwise.
e.g. as you indicated earlier, Blackman in addition to flagging the issue of the misuse of NIS funds in this blog, called Brasstacks and brassed up Jepter Ince for that administration’s egregious misuse of the NIS funds.
However, by neglecting to mention the NIS issue as it continued under this administration in this piece, suggests that he considers the current handling of the NIS funds by this administration is OK.
He is an actuary. The NIS funds and its management would appear to be an issue that was tailor made for him to expound on beyond the mere mention of the NIS situation in 2008. That glancing mention appears to have the characteristics of a well sculpted red herring.
Balance; I will post no further on this issue. You have said it all in your post above. Excellent.
@Are-we -there-yet?
Wasn’t the debt comparative in the pre-post 2007 period addressed in the Ryan Straughn blog read brig below balance sheet items to book?
Are not in agreement that in the economic boom we were burning cheap debt which bandaid or masked the structual flaws in the economy which the protracted global recession has exposed?
We need to accept the reality that the economic bubble had to burst, it was unsustainable, we have been living above our means for too long.
simply put the DLP was handed a basket with ten eggs, 9 were rotten and one was good, however the BLP aplolgist tells us they were all eggs but leaves out the most important piece of the puzzle .. that nine were rotten go figure
S&P cuts Barbados sovereign rating to ‘BB-‘
Wed Nov 20, 2013 5:21pm EST
Nov 20 (Reuters) – Standard and Poor’s Ratings Services on Wednesday cut the long-term rating of Barbados to BB-minus from BB-plus citing mounting external pressures due a persistent current account deficit and a high fiscal deficit.
The outlook is negative.
S&P affirmed the country’s single-B short-term rating.
and balance i remember too when the were no street lights, govt spend nothing on infrastructure taxes were low, there were buses with side entrance from one end to the other, school houses in the country were non existent safety was secondary /there no such people as lifeguards . today what we have has come with a cost.a low deficit s which can only be accomplished by giving up the gains wich as move us forward with substantial cost and high risk to a society, we look at north america and want and wish for the things they have, but that economy is driven by debt and people who requires and expect a high standard of living some of which govt must provide, yes balance the cost for progress is not cheap, ,or we can go back to those good old days when gran ma waited for meeting turn to fix the holes in the roof and govt laid back and feed us nothing not even crumbs.
David; Re your 8.37 post
I am no economist or statistician so I would hope one of those experts would clarify your point about bringing below balance sheet items to book. You may have a point but I’m not up to researching it now. perhaps Balance could enlighten us about it.
Re. your second paragraph, I always have some difficulty in accepting the argument that Barbados, or the US or England or Jamaica or the majority of countries should have looked in their crystal balls and restructured their economies before the Global Fiscal crisis hit. In Barbados’ case measures were indeed put in place, afaik, to make the necessary changes in energy, etc. if and when things got bad as they have done.
Re. your last paragraph, Hindsight is 20-20 vision.
and balance i remember too when they were no street lights, govt spend nothing on infrastructure taxes were low, there were buses with side entrance from one end to the other, school houses in the country were non existent safety was secondary /there were no such people as lifeguards . today what we have has come with a cost….a low deficit can only be accomplished by giving up the gains which has move us forward/ with substantial cost and high risk to a society,….we look at north america and want and wish for the things they have, but that economy is driven by debt and people who requires and expect a high standard of living some of which govt must provide, yes balance the cost for progress is not cheap, ,or we can go back to those good old days when gran ma waited for meeting turn to fix the holes in the roof and govt laid back and feed us nothing not even crumbs.
David re. your 8.45 pm post. Looks like another signpost along the way.
There was also a news item tonight that a Tourism Official had disclosed that visitor arrivals, which had been projected at -20% for the winter season had now been estimated to be likely to be -4%. i.e. a positive projected growth of 16% as compared with this year. There was also some other positive news on visitor outturns in September and October. Looks like the graph may be going in the right direction in that regard.
But in any case, We need to fasten our seat belts. Looks like a rough ride from here on in.
and balance what would you prefer a high deficit or an economy with a low deficit high crime and a society spiraling out of control and below the poverty line. a fact which must be taken into account as we debate ALL THE COST of managing a society and bringing the deficit down.
AC and some others; Seems to me that your argument suggests that It would have been better for Barbados to have adopted policies which ensured that the populace remained in pre 1950 conditions. I.e. we should have not embarked on the services sector. We should have emphasized Agriculture to the detriment of Tourism, etc.
Development planning is not as simplistic as you think.
yes we are going to have to ride the rough seas and high tides of this economic storm. not going to be easy some tough changes going to be made ,but should not be at a cost that brings a deficit down and destroy the social fabric of a society, the question therefore lies in balance and how do we cross the threshold between a stable economy and the lowering of the deficit there are no quick answers or quick fixes in measuring and counting the cost on both sides
@ David | November 20, 2013 at 8:45 PM |
“S&P cuts Barbados sovereign rating to ‘BB-‘”
Is this a further downgrade of Barbados’s credit rating?
This is not very comforting news for the citizens on the eve of an IMF “consultation”.
Bitter medicine is about to be administered especially i the foreign reserves fall below Bds $800 million as is expected by end December.
We can expect the DLP administration to go into ‘victim’ mode blaming the BLP for undermining the country and creating an atmosphere of no confidence among foreign investors and lenders.
It would do this administration a world of good and take the advice given by Prof. Howard. The sooner the better; January 2014 sounds like the right time. June 2014 will be too late to stave off a devaluation.
@ ac | November 20, 2013 at 9:38 PM |
“how do we cross the threshold between a stable economy and the lowering of the deficit there are no quick answers or quick fixes in measuring and counting the cost on both sides”
Yes, there are quick answers. Continue to blame the BLP as is played out every day by the DLP in and out of Parliament.
Do you remember the 9 bad eggs left in the basket by the BLP?
Well, the news is that the last of the ten is now addled while the DLP has been on the nest.
We shall soon hear you and CCC singing the praises of the IMF and its timely intervention with the same gusto you have been singing at the arrival of the rescue ship SS Sandals to save your tourism souls.
where did i suggest that sir .on the contra my argument suggest the complete opposite, simply put i am saying that much of our progress is indebted to a high deficit that without out it we still be in the 1950’s era when there was little or no progress sby govt and that would not be a good thing as a matter of fact or position would even worse, , in as much as we hate the position we have found ourselves in financially . there is still light at the end of the candle, for in as much as we would rather not be here , the reality is that if given a choice to the good ole days Balance spoke of, many would prefer NOW even under these harshest conditions to yesteryear. Mind you i too would like to see a small deficit but i am willing to count the cost to the social and well being of a country, But then again proper planning and good governance through out the years might have made it a little more palatable ,we are where we are and the key to full emergence is all pulling together and making it work. my hands are folded.
@Miller and Balance, enuff too.
First of all enuff, at least we would be able to reduce our food import bill and gain more foreign exchange from sale of sugar. The former producers of sugar had only one vision for the sale of sugar. Sell all in bulk to the “Mother country. required no thought, no marketing skills, noseeking for markets for ancillary products etc, etc. Between 1994 and 1998 the opposition consisted of 2 members. Between 1998 and 2002 the opposition (DLP) had 7 members. compare that with 2008 when the Opposition (BLP) had 10 members and now when they have 13.
Next, it did not matter whether the funds from NIS were borrowed by the government and channelled to the Transport Board, for whatever uses they put the money to, It has to be a loan. The terms and conditions have to be guaranteed by some entity. One has to wait and see the fulfilment of the terms and conditions. When your party used NIS funds what were the terms and conditions, and what were they used for? I am surprised that in those “good times” when people “had mponey in their pockets” that the NIS funds had to “borrowed”.
By the way all ransport authorities in the Western world receive subsidies from the respective governments who also assist in the covering of their expenses by periodic increases in bus and subway fares. Check toronto transport costs and the measures put in place to assist in covering these costs. Right now bus fares are over 3 dollars per trip, Seniors and students pay 1.90 and monthly passing they stick to their schedules even though the busses run empty.s are over a hundred dollars a month for unlimited rides. In my area we also have 24 hr service, and even at three o’clock in the morning the run according to the schedule.
Further …”the mysterious St Joseph Hospital report which was left to fester due to fraternal obligations highlighted instances of misuse of government funds.” Bull!!!The report was finished long before the 2008 election. You had nothing to go on from the report so YOU never disclosed the contents of the report, either in the 2008 election or in the 2013 election campaign.
To continue:
The BLP demits office in January 2007. The economy is already on a downslope. The incoming administration inherits the following:
Debt to Al Barracck..Due to be paidas ordered by the arbitrator in the final decision two years before the DLP assumed office
Debt of over 700 constructed by a company that did not have a signed contract with a cost over run of almost 250 million dollars.
A world wide recession with a drop in foreign exchange earnings, accompanied by a drop in tourism earnings.
a decrease in sugar production, an increase in food imports, a reduction in lands planted in food crops.
Burgeoning fuel costs, and the severe illness and death of the prime minister.
You think; :in fact I know that you know, that these things ent easy to handle, and will take time to make right, But they wll be made right.
By the Way Miller, How come you are talking about IMF in December when earlier in the year you were predicting doom and gloom, with a devaluation by June or July.
Balance go back and do your research. In 1961 only a very few black people worked in any bank in Barbados. Black people only began to progress in terms of such employment etc, after 1966; after everyone had the opportunity to go to secondary school. You are very young, I am very old so I know what is was like in 1961. Have you ever heard of Mirasmus? Well Mirasmus was rampant in Barbados at that time. Have you ever heard of “white mout”, when the cdorners of the mouth are white because of the lack of calcium in the diet? Well that was common in those days. Did you ever know of having to buy “hard coals” to cook on? Check that out too. You ever hear of having to cook with “cow patties”? That used to happen in those days. You would prefer those days to these? Learn more..
@Miller,
“…to save your tourism souls” ? Unless you do not consider yourself a Bajan any longer it is OUR tourism souls. We are all in the same boat. You might as well put your oars in the water and pull in the same direction.
look balance them numbers does not impress or tells a true picture, and the cause and reason behind govt spending, what you have put up there would only appeal and impress the economist like mascoll and the blp yardfowls who like to spout statics without facts, , . the question which i would asked you ,does it seem sensible that a govt would deliberately or intentionally overspend in times of high crisis ,then if the answer is yes your stupidy and political yardfowlism holds no bounds , really what is your point in showing numbers without the rationale or reason for such spending,the fact is that govt overspending is in part due to the cost of the high debt left behind by the BLP and which had to be serviced by either loans or other means because of loss revenue, numbers don;t mean a thing unless accompanied by facts to form the true picture, you have being reading the mascoll handbook of economics too long called “Short on FACTS Long on rhetoric”
@Miller,
Have to do some editing of the previous contribution I typed…” Check toronto transport costs and the measures put in place to assist in covering these costs. Right now bus fares are over 3 dollars per trip, Seniors and students pay 1.90 and monthly passing they stick to their schedules even though the busses run empty.s are over a hundred dollars a month for unlimited rides. In my area we also have 24 hr service, and even at three o’clock in the morning the run according to the schedule.”
It should read”…Check Toronto Transit transportation costs and the measures put in place to cover these costs. Right now bus fares are over three dollars per trip. Seniors and students pay $1.90 and monthly passes are over a hundred and twenty dollars. In my area we also have a 24 hour service and even at three in the morning the buses stick to the schedule, even if they are running empty.” Bus transportation is a “service” to the public.
@ Alvin Cummins | November 20, 2013 at 10:31 PM |
After all the bull crap you wrote you are certainly too exhausted and bereft of the vitriol to attack Standard & Poor’s for downgrading Barbados.
We expect you to go on a tirade and blame the downgrade to events prior to 2008.The DLP is responsible for nothing going south in Barbados today. From the demise of the sugar industry to the failing tourism to financial meltdown while increasing the national debt by 100% is all the fault of the incompetent corrupt BLP and the poor miller.
2miller,
Why should I attack Standare & Poors for downgrading Barbados. It is not the end of the road, and you should note that the rating for the short term is still the dame..that was not downgraded. I seem to remember that the mighty U.S. got downgraded last year by the Same Standard &Poor sand were sued by the same U.S. government. POOR Mjller my ass.Miller knows the facts very well.
And Balance, and Are we there…Prior to 1966 Barbados was a colony of Britain who managed its affairs. Even if we wanted to buy one of Bushies favourite utensils, a Brass Bowl, we had to purchase it through the Crown Agents, who sourced the cheapest source for it.Now, according to Bushie, we have them in abundance. See what happens with the passage of time?
@ Alvin Cummins | November 20, 2013 at 11:18 PM |
If your short-term rating is the real McCoy so how come no one wants to buy Bajan bonds on the international markets? Do you really understand what is the short-term rating vis-à-vis long term investments?
If S&P has it wrong in relation to Bim why not advise your beleaguered administration to sue their blasted ass and ‘blacklist’ the rating agencies?
miller you are a genius in all subjects tell us how Standard’s and Poor’s works do they rate Barbados every two months? The question is asked because we never hear of them rating countries with this regularity. Don’t the S&P give gob’s financial policies, the budget for instance a chance to work. Its as if S&B are ruthless bounty hunters and their prey is Bdos.
Why doesn’t UWEE fire Straughan and Belle wouldn’t their dismissals help with the deficit.
@Alvin
Curious why the DLP has not released the St. Joseph Hospital report. As far as BU is aware a Ministerial Statement was issued.
@Alvin
What is our definition of ‘progress’ anyway? Is it our capacity to borrow to support consumption? Especially consumer items purchased overseas?
What should be our (Barbados) definition of ‘progress’?
@Alvin
“At least we would be able to reduce our food import bill.”
And almost everything else too!
@David
Yes the bubble bust and when it was being said that the air would be released shortly, certain political leaders laughed and that is why we are where we are today. Wrong attitude and philosophy from the outset, hence bad policies, programmes and plans–failed MTFS, failed RMTFS, failed or unimplemented Budget proposals etc etc
You had nothing to go on from the report so YOU never disclosed the contents of the report, either in the 2008 election or in the 2013 election campaign.
Mr Cummins. You write as if you are endowed with thought albeit your political hat tend to cloud your judgment at times so I know you know better. Has the St Joseph report ever been published and if not why not? because it is better to the impression of much ado about nothing to circulate rather than having the character of an icon held up to scrutiny. Had those who initiated exercised due diligence in apprising themselves of the revelations would have led; the enquiry would never have been initiated in the first place.
“look balance them numbers does not impress or tells a true picture, and the cause and reason behind govt spending,”
Ac I hate to say it but sometimes your rantings and ravings can be likened to the efforts of a fast bowler like Tino Best who runs in with his head down and delivers the ball anywhere. Ask anybody to comment about Tino’s behaviour and they will say ‘He, man he head in good’.
nice answer balance but your numbers does add up to a hill of beans or give the reasons behind govt spending until you can give such reasons all you have done is spouted or rehearsed a bunch of numbers with no accountabilty, …
Walter:
You said “…….get your hands on the various totally disregarded Auditor‐General’s reports from 1982 to 2008. As you pore over the material, see if
you detect a pattern of increasing levels
of infelicity, malfeasance, greed, graft, and corruption.”
……………………………………………………………………………………….
Walter. One simple question. Why de hell you wait until 2013 on the eve of another down-grade to deal with issues way back in 1982 – 2008. Surprisingly, the only issue you are dealing with is the NIS. Could one division of Government cause our financial position to deteriorate to the extent that we are now relabelled BB-? Walter, can you state if NIS funds were used in any Private/Overseas funding like Four Seasons? Was these loans repaid? What about funds since 2008 that are being used like a ATM?
Let’s put our heads together and forge forward instead of the blaming game. Other countries went to the bottom of the bucket but did not play dead, instead these other countries patch the hole at the bottom and stop the financial haemorrhaging which our present MoF and his advisors, consultants, operatives fail to accomplish or don’t have a clue in accomplishing.
Excellent article sir. Simply excellent.
I wonder how many people’s heads this article just simply went stratospheric in relation to. While it was well written and presented, I fear that the pubescent minds that dwell aimlessly and gleefully in the embrace of the counsel of the voluntarily ignorant and blissfully stupid, didn’t get a data bytes worth of value from it.
However, it touches with the precision of a neurosurgeon, the core of the matter at hand.
Id like to just add one thing here. Its a question that has been nagging me for sometime now.
The question is, What is all the silence regarding these vast oil and gas deposits supposedly in existence off the coast of Barbados? Why isn’t this being explored as an alternative to generating foreign exchange in place of Tourism?
Are we(all as a country) awaiting the “right” opportunity to sell our birthright to Trinidad or some foreign Caucasian entity again like we’ve done in the past, all in the name of retaining the status quo?
Someone has suggested that 1937 was a good year and pivotal turning point for our society. I’m inclined to agree wholeheartedly.
The objectives of my article were:
1. To make readers aware that that the predicament in which Barbados now finds itself did not occur overnight, so a focus on events after 2007 alone would rob us of the opportunity to trace the roots of institutional decay and self-defeating practices within the civil service.
2. The rot has continued unabated since 2007 to the present day, so no one can claim that the David Thompson and Freundel Stuart administrations are guiltless. Similarly, no one can argue that they are totally culpable.
If we use 1976 as the base year, and spread accountability and responsibility for our current problems among our nation’s prime ministers since then, we can ascribe blame in the following proportions:
Owen Arthur 35%
Tom Adams 24%
Erskine Sandiford 19%
David Thompson 8%
Freundel Stuart 8%
Errol Barrow 3%
Bree St. John 3%
Note that since 1976, members of the BLP have been in charge of the government of Barbados 62% of the time.
Finally, an analysis of the comments on my article revealed the following:
Focused on the article’s content & related issues 38%
Blamed the DLP 22%
Defended the DLP 16%
Irrelevant to the article’s subject matter 13%
Ad hominem (personal) outbursts 6%
Accused me of defending the DLP 5%
As a group, we managed to achieve this 38% level of “relevant” focus through a process of periodic nudging and reminding from David about the context and content of the article. David is worthy of our thanks and appreciation.
Walter
Thanks for your insight and the subjective attempt to exonerate the incompetent current administration.It won’t work.
Btw ,are you still missing exams claiming that you had the wrong time,giving yourself some extra preparation?
@Gabriel
Is that ad hominem necessary? Why can’t we just focus on the analysis which Walter provided and comment accordingly?
Alvin- let me share with you an excerpt from the Nation newspaper of 11th May 1994,attributed to respected medical practitioner Oscar Jordan and I quote- ” Speaking at BAMP’s annual general meeting at the weekend, Jordan recalled that a year ago, the BAMP council offered to meet with the St Joseph Hospital administration in order to set up systematic discussions on methods effecting better utilisation of the facility. But it has heard nothing, he reported.
He said few members of BAMP had been psychologically prepared for expenditure of nearly $30 million of public funding” on what is tantamount to a private institution being used by a small number of private practitioners”
He declared: “I am of the opinion tat the use of public funds in this way is morally bankrupt. The massive sums of public funds already spent can never be realised as gross under-utilisation of the hospital continues to be the norm.”
Jordan then contrasted developments at the St Joseph Hospital with the “impeding” of programmes at QEH.
@ Gabriel
Your comment serves to reflect two deadly twin characteristics that Barbadians possess in abundance – envy and malice towards each other.
Here is a brief account of my exams history:
I sat the screening test and common entrance exams at Wesley Hall Primary school (at age 10) and passed both on my first attempt. I had no control over the dates.
At Combermere, annual promotional exams in each subject were set with a fixed date. I never missed an exam.
At UWI – Cave Hill, and the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, I never read, used or heard about any policy which would allow a student who claimed that he or she “missed” their exam date, to proceed to take the exam on another date. You missed your exam, you failed. Full stop.
All exams set by the Society of Actuaries must be taken on the date earmarked. If you missed the exam, you failed. Full stop.
I sincerely hope that this response permanently destroys your nasty, slimy and pathetic attempt to cast aspersions on my academic achievements.
Walter
I stung you obviously.You and Sinckler can hold hands…cut of the same cloth.
@Gabriel
Can you refute anything that Walter put in his last comment? Why is it you guys go after personalities and not the substantive issues? No wonder the morass.
David
I have no truck with Walter’s scholarship.He always had a penchant for above average performance and results and I am not surprised at his success.Nothing personal but he is showing a weakness in his commentary and which I found subjective.He might cast his mind back to a paper at Cave Hill.
@Gabriel
Don’t agree, his analysis was always easy to follow. We have structural issues which can be tracked back for decades. He has clearly fingered the current administration for where we find ourselves but his central point is the Arthur years was about riding an economic boom without dealing with the system issues. It is why you party faithfuls want to crucify him 🙂
@Balance.
The comment attributed to Dr. Jordan is very strange. When was the St. Joseph hospital purchased (from the vatican) by the DLP government? When were refurbishment and rebuilding begun? When were they completed? Was BAMP functioning during this period? Why did BAMP choose to comment in 1994? Were’nt the plans at that time, based on the objectives of the program, to run the hospital as a government hospital, with some private input? At the time it was purchased wasn’t part of the intention to put great emphasis on Health tourism, n objective that is NOW being discussed here and in other countries? Wouldn’t this reinforce the fact that the DLP was far ahead of its time with regaard to that institution?
David
Lay out the facts.Don’t glibly write,glossing over what you think your message should be.The data presented assumes whoever reads it has access to the AG’s reports.Detail that data for a comparative analysis.Use examples to bolster your argument.The problem with figures oriented training is the inexpressiveness of the presenter.The mighty EWB described the CS as an army of occupation.He could’nt get things done so he changed the system of Local Government to be rid of the Mottley influence in the city.He could’nt get things done so he changed the constitution to make diredt appointments in the Public Service.I have a difficulty with blaming by the crappy present MoF and PM on the 14 years of Government of OSA.It’s a stupid vapid argument.It’s clear to all in Barbados and in Trinidad and in Jamaica and in St Vincent and in St Lucia and in Wall Street that Barbados is suffering from elective politics or as Burnham aptly put it from the ‘vagaries of the ballot box’.All the insipid spin by Walter cannot undo the fact that when the history of this period is written,this current administration will be seen as the most destructive in post independence Barbados.Walter don’t live here.We can’t pay him and he won’t want to make the sacrifice to return to live in this one eyed town anyway.
@Gabriel
Perhaps you are not giving due consideration to the fact that we are positioned high on the HDI and as a consequence the harsh economic conditions will impact us differently to the lesser developed countries. We have an enormous social services bill.
Walter Blackman; re. your 4.59 post
You said “If we use 1976 as the base year, and spread accountability and responsibility for our current problems among our nation’s prime ministers since then, we can ascribe blame in the following proportions:
Owen Arthur 35%
Tom Adams 24%
Erskine Sandiford 19%
David Thompson 8%
Freundel Stuart 8%
Errol Barrow 3%
Bree St. John 3%”
How did you arrive at those proportions? What data was used to ascribe blame for any of the PM’s
You also said
“Finally, an analysis of the comments on my article revealed the following:
Focused on the article’s content & related issues 38%
Blamed the DLP 22%
Defended the DLP 16%
Irrelevant to the article’s subject matter 13%
Ad hominem (personal) outbursts 6%
Accused me of defending the DLP 5%
As a group, we managed to achieve this 38% level of “relevant” focus through a process of periodic nudging and reminding from David about the context and content of the article. David is worthy of our thanks and appreciation”.
Grateful if you would also explain how you arrived at these figures.
@ Walter Blackman | November 21, 2013 at 8:32 PM |
Since you and Gabriel seem to be of the same academic generation and made from the same basic intellectual cloth why not call a truce and direct the debate to a more scholarly level?
Why not discuss the devaluation options the IMF have put on the table for East Caribbean economies (and certainly Barbados) to choose from?
“Don’t agree, his analysis was always easy to follow. We have structural issues which can be tracked back for decades. He has clearly fingered the current administration for where we find ourselves but his central point is the Arthur years was about riding an economic boom without dealing with the system issues. It is why you party faithfuls want to crucify him :-‘)
I did indicate that there was merit Mr Blackman’s article but I do agree with those that much of the logic was speculative. The notion that Mr Arthur rode on an economic boom for 14 years is a myth since even if we are to believe that the draconian policies to correct Mr Sandiford’s mismanagement of the economy were in place on Mr Arthur’s assumption of office, it would have take time for the measures to bare fruit provided they were properly managed and Mr Arthur must be given credit for that. Just putting measures in place could not realistically have been all that was needed to bring us out of the hole the then Sandiford Administration placed us. I recall distinctly during his short time at the helm Mr Sandiford boasting that the economy batting better than Gary sobers. Mr Blackman’s philosophical but speculative discourse need to take these facts into account. We are where we are at present because of an administration and its advisors unable to manage an import based economy dependent for its survival on a vibrant at all times domestic phenomenon. Money must like a meeting-turn circulate /change hand at all times to fuel the economy, the heat on which must be skilfully kept at certain levels otherwise the food would burn. Except for a few instances since 1961 our economic management has been generally praised internationally and the envy of our brothers and sisters in the diaspora . So i am not buying that crap of spreading blame to exculpate those who through their immediate policies have now made us the laughing stock of those who normally cling to us for guidance. Obviously there would always be arguments some with reason, that things could have been done differently in some areas of our development but as the current administration have now perhaps recognized in hindsight that political savvy is one thing but managing a two by three economy like Barbados’s is another certain Again I say, no amount of diatribe can defend the indefensible and that too is one of our problems when the DLP is in charge, their intellectuals seem to support everything nonsense or otherwise the politicians do for sake of party.
ALVIN- I JUST QUOTED FROM A NATION NEWSPAPER. AND DIRECTED THEM TO YOU BECAUSE YOU WERE ON THE ST JOSEPH HOSPITAL ISSUE. ADDRESS YOUR COMMENTS TO DR JORDAN IF HE IS STILL ALIVE.
@balance
Hogwash
Arthur benefited from a reduced public sector wage bill post Sandiford which gave him wriggle room to do what he wanted.
Arthur build out a services economy period with no focus on niche sectors like manufacturing and agriculture. The BWA, Transport Board and many other government and quasi government agencies contiued their wastage and public sector reform was a farce. The histoprical records are their to show the climbing debt burden under Arthur and we were warned by the internation financial institituions, in case you have forgotten Barbados suffered about 3 downgrades under Arthur.
Note BU did not mentioned the need for institutional strengthening in Insurance and Credit Unions which probably resulted in the CLICo mess.
David
Wow!
Your post above @ 6:30 a.m. goes to the heart of the matter and sets out the argument succintly.Well done!
You know why I like bloggers like Piece Under the Rock he/she holds nothing back and is an equal opportunity criticiser of both parties.The BLP men and women on this blog like Miller,Gabriel Prodigal person,enuff (I leave out old onions since he seems to have gone through some metamorphosis)and others who cannot help but be nasty and personal and spread lies on individuals who can’t represent themselves and you David allow them to do this willingly,although in this case you spoke up for against Gabriel but not in the harsh way you deal with AC and Carson Cadogan.A clear case of who the dog like – he licks.
Here Gabriel is so stung by Blackman’s presentation that the only thing he can do is raise some fictitious claim about setting back an exam date trying to insuiate some dishonest move by Blackman.Plus we have no record of anything Gabriel is saying.Typical BLP poison.
So what does that have to do with the price of tea?Steupes
BLP supporters like to spread lies on people and send out nasty rumours and we have all the posts about Michelle Arthur,Joanne haigh,Irene Sandiford,Donville Inniss and his wife etc as clear eveidence of this.
Soon no one of merit outside of the BLP yardfowls and the odd DLP apologist along with the ‘noun,verb and the horrible BTA and minister sealy sentence man’ tourism writer adrian loveridge will be posting on this site.
I think there should be no more than 2 posts from each political party every week since this site is in danger of being taken over by yardfowls.
@ Common sense is not common | November 22, 2013 at 8:50 AM |
Who is more politically partisan in contributions other than you outmatched only by ac and CCC? Any time you criticize this DLP administration for the crap it is doing and the awfully stupid and inappropriate utterances from the members of cabinet you are automatically deemed pro-BLP, anti-government unpatriotic in need of your head being cracked and shot at. Even David the blog master is deemed anti-DLP.
Instead of all the ad hominems, personal attacks and name-calling you have engaged in as confirmed in your post above why not come up with alternatives to save the country from the clutches of the IMF?
Let us hear you make some suggestions that would help save the economy from further deterioration since the current administration seems at a loss as to what must be done. Or do you think this administration is doing a fantastic job and the economy is stable and firing on all cylinders? And don’t tell us jack shit about giving them time because nothing is being implemented and the credit rating agencies and IMF have become too impatient and about to take away the cheque book.
Such a request for you to contribute something of commonsense instead of name calling and attacking should shut you up while you try to get your head around the intellectual cul-de-sac you are in thinking outside the partisan box coloured “yellow”.
David
What I find equally absent from the posturing is the fact that the House Public Accounts Committee when led by Leader of the Opposition David Thompson failed to perform its duty in bringing any infelicities real or imagined to the attention of the public.Why was he afraid to perform his duties?OSA literally begged him to activate and convene,to no avail.When DT came with his lame excuses of failure to get a quorum,OSA changed the architecture of the committee to give DT a platform to literally find the dirt and throw it at the Government benches.He failed to do so.My point is if OSA was so poor a PM and Thompson so brilliant a LOO,why suggest OSA was behaving like a run away train driver when in actuality,the brakeman just stood by and did nothing.On the other hand we saw MAM robustly using the PAC to dig and was stopped in her tracks by this pack of jokers for an administration.The taxpayers deserve better in the here and now.Don’t tell me about 20 years ago.
@Gabriel
Who is making the point that Thompson was brilliant. The simple point which party supporters need to embrace is that our rot did not begin in 2008. Arguing how the DLP added to the mess in the six years is moot. We need to accept the economy is in a hole and we need to generate constructive debate.
To those who advocate we censor, that is backward. Yes we will have to deal with the people we disagree and those who abuse the privilege of a forum like BU, we will deal with those situations using our best judgement.
I agree with “are-we-there-yet?” regarding Walter’s questionable percentage data pertaining to who created economic hardship. To come to a realistic conclusion, Walter will have to deal with successful performances where the populace are gainfully employed, money in they pockets, food on the table, businesses thriving, construction wukking, employment down and the most important taxes rolling in with sustainable forex.
David, you talking under your breath since after the Sandiford cuts which started to stablilize our economy, it was Owen who captained the ship and maintained and even keel in managing “OUR ECONOMY”. Remember I said, “Managing our economy’ and not SOCIETY. Even if wastage was problem, the populace still had money to play with.
However, today we are faced with a NEGATIVE outlook, Everything getting bleaker and bleaker and not a word from our captain who told us that he will be micro managing his managers. So Walter, wheel and come again with a truer percentage data based on Result Performance and not perception. I await your corrected data.
@ are-we-there-yet?
Prime Ministers and their years in office (1976 – 2013):
Owen Arthur 13
Tom Adams 9
Erskine Sandiford 7
David Thompson 3
Freundel Stuart 3
Errol Barrow 1
Bernard St. John 1
Total 37
At the time, I analyzed 63 comments and here were the results:
Focused on the content & related issues 24
Blamed the DLP 14
Defended the DLP 10
Irrelevant to the subject matter under discussion 8
Ad hominem outbursts 4
Accused me of defending the DLP 3
Total 63
Hope this helps.
Walter, you solve my question. How on earth you can work out percentage data based on years at the control. You might have a driver with over 10 years and cannot drive properly making bad judgements with 10 accidents and another driver with one year driving making fantastic judgement without an accident. Tell BU family who is the better driver. Probably you will say St.John as a scientific twist. When yuh too educated yuh try to fool people with unreasonable statistical data
“Arthur benefited from a reduced public sector wage bill post Sandiford which gave him wriggle room to do what he wanted”
Who says not/ no one can dispute that fact- but the point is that whatever advantage Mr Arthur inherited still had to be properly managed otherwise the time referred to as one of plenty could not have developed between 19988- 2008.
and David isn’t the current administration benefitting from a surrepptitious wage cut of monumental proportions as well given the fact that public sector workers have not had increases since 2008. do the maths and see how the administration has benefitted with tacit support from the unions.
“Prime Ministers and their years in office (1976 – 2013):”
I Mr Blackman wants to be credible he has to include the 1961-76 period not data to suit his agenda.
It seem OUR post is missing , We will keep better tack of them from now on.
Walter Blackman | November 22, 2013 at 11:49 AM | @ based on your numbers, how does those number relate to land fraud and the use of land with out payment or owners permission,?
We Already know that Owen and MIA came in first and the DLP was to clean up under DT, but he was killed , maybe to stop him? Now this PM joint the massive fraud of land and cash ?Now we all have to pay?
Newer Comments →
Common sense is not common | November 20, 2013 at 4:07 AM |
It is commentary like this from a very informed person is what is lacking in this country.
This was not the first comment. lets hope BU is not acting like Tony Best
We all wait with baited breath to see what our Minister of Labour will do in this BWA/BWU posturing.If we are to believe that the Minister is the proverbial red rag standing up to the proverbial bull,the outcome should be an automatic kick up to Bay Street.If the BWU decides to pull out its “troops”(the Gen Secty words)it will be more problems for this Cabinet.The timing by the BWU is significant.Stuart jucking ‘e finga in de air and last night I see Trottie on DLPTV jucking he wun tuh!
We are all engage in an argument of semantics. The story of the ants preparing for hard times is a good reminder. The legacy and measure of a good performance is what does one do to prepare for hard times, in this case sustainability.
Walter Blackman is just a shite talker talking pretty shit and feeling good doing it
Some people have an ability to talk and articulate well.and like Gabby can take nonsense and make it sound good but little substance abounds. When I see Walter Blackman do something, I will be convinced. Where is the creativity ?
Such people get other people to believe that because of their ability to talk, that the world owes them something or everything for that matter .
Walter Blackman ? Pure shite talk . His days on the call in show demonstrated that, no wonder they fired his ass
Racoon know where chicken coop is, .Dolphin know how to swim in formation. Birds know how to fly high , swerve low and Walter Blackman know how to talk shite.
In the beginning was the
Walter Blackman@ Words lie , People Lie Numbers dont lie, ,Now put the Names of the Person to the bad numbers, Now where did the numbers go and go.,? Numbers dont run away, some one ran off with the numbers.
So now you where did the money go? Who was over paid ? What bank accounts , and offshore accounts, where did all the VAT go?
Tell Us master of the Numbers, Numbers never stop coming and going ,
PM DAVID knew who the crooks are and so do we , Tell Us.
who took over the Plantation Deeds and use free land to build up very fast on fraud , It too S&P and Moodys to catch these good crooks, DLP numbers do lie and the Mooys and S&P may not lie to get more money out the crooks at a higher rate and more down grades on it way ,
Yes in DEED, all must hit ROCK Bottom for most to wake up, The CAVE IN at Brittins Hill was a clue, people died no blame no where , ASk MIA for a deed and Mark Cumming < did he approve the building on that site.
Walter Blackman dont run stand and fight for right and justice like a Man
@Clint Eastwood
your obvious attempt to obfuscate tells of a desperation which is becoming more apparent by the day.
@ David
You and many continue to mention the lack of restructuring on the part of Arthur during his 14 years as if RESTRUCTURING is a straightforward undertaking. You posit that Arthur focused on services and not niche agriculture or manufacturing, which is true on the surface but once you engage in a more granular analysis and place the Barbadian economy within the context of the GLOBAL one I think we need to ask ourselves if he had a choice. For example what niche manufacturing and or agriculture product(s) were or are now available? Krugman and other new trade theorists are adamant that most countries involved in world trade are actually similar and trade in similar goods, but have developed specialisations because of the persistent coagulation of small and large accidental advantages over time, and industrial location. I would say in Barbados we have rum, tourism and specific services. Take those three and see if specialisation have been or could be further developed based on historical events and or location. What about sea island cotton and black belly sheep?
@enuff
You forgot to mention cotton and the solar industry was not given enough support where Barbados could have been the centre of a regional industry. There is a start.
@ balance | November 22, 2013 at 1:17 PM |
“Prime Ministers and their years in office (1976 – 2013):”
“I(f) Mr Blackman wants to be credible he has to include the 1961-76 period not data to suit his agenda.”
I differ slightly with you about the time period for comparative analysis.
If we accept the period 1961-66 as part of the time horizon then we need to include the period 1951 to 1960 when Barbados had fully elected representative government under the enfranchisement of the masses through universal adult suffrage.
Why not start with the year after independence when Barbados became an ‘adult’ State fully in control (legally speaking) of its affairs both locally and internationally; thereby able to boast to be “a friend of all and satellite of none” as its foreign policy motto.
The period 1967 to 2013 ought to be the time horizon under discussion.
Do you agree then we should set aside Walter’s start period which fits in with his own work experience in the public service?
Walter Blackman;
Thanks for your reply indicating how you arrived at the numbers for apportioning blame to the various PM’s since 1976. But, you must see that there is something missing in the derivation of those numbers.
The PM’s in Barbados (except for the current one and the one before him, in an experiment which has failed abysmally) worked tirelessly to ensure that Barbados did not move away from the general precepts of good management of the economy and thereby pulling the society along with it. Each PM maintained the status quo in the majority of areas under his control. Incentivising the Private and Public sectors; Modernising the country’s infrastructure; providing for social upliftment; Maintaining relations with our regional and international partners; etc. etc.
David Thompson led the charge to delink the society from the economy and thereby put in train what has been happening in the economy since then. FS followed but added his own touch of mute detachment and allowing Ministers to do what they wanted without any ostensible control except where he sought to undo many of the policies of his Minister of Finance, even though such policies bore the imprimatur of Cabinet.
I said the above to try to indicate that one cannot reasonably ascribe a blanket blame percentage to a PM merely by a calculation of a simple proportion of the years in that office over the total years between 1976 and now. There should be some rational weighting which segregates the policies of a PM which are blame worthy from those which are progressive and forward looking.
If you had identified the new policies of each PM which led directly to the problems we are now having and showed how those policies and the implementation thereof can be correlated with our current decline I would be totally on your side but instead, you use flawed data to come to what appears to be a desired conclusion.
Your analyses are not believable if you only based them on years in office.
Perhaps, for balance, you should do another piece that looks at the policies and tangible outcomes of the OSA years as compared with those of the last 6 years.
No, I did mention sea island cotton. Solar? What gave or gives us an advantage?
@Enuff
It is a mature industry in Barbados and we should be able to leverage against the knowledgebase post Oliver Headley.
David that’s the problem, it is neither the most mature or research-oriented solar industry in the world. To be a global leader in an industry, you need more than one Professor Headleys and that’s why I keep talking about agglomeration through integration. What handicapped the solar industry was COST; the sustained high costs of oil (accidental??) and “energy security” are driving the AE agenda as opposed to the environmental debate of the past. Between 1994 and 2008, oil prices were motly <$40 per barrel.
It didn’t have to be the most mature and with support to the UWI and other agencies we could have come up with a product fit for market.
David / Enuff
Seems like David is saying that the PMs’ of the relevant times did not give sufficient support to restructuring of agriculture re. Sea island Cotton and to the Solar industries that I suppose would now be called Renewable energy technologies.
I wonder why most commentators cannot see that the development of new forward thinking industries is a partnership involving not only Government but the Private sector as well. Both are important.
For both Sea Island Cotton and Solar water heating the Government of the day did their part. Thus, for Cotton, Government provided land and equipment to get the projects rolling. It is the private sector that did not follow through. You might also recall CARSICOT which had much to do with the apparent demise of cotton in Barbados. For Solar water heating, that industry, which appears to be still viable today, became so only because of initial tangible incentives offered to and taken up by James Husbands who built up a regional industry from scratch and by Tom Adams going out on a limb to utilize avant garde technologies on new Government buildings. The Governments could not have been reasonably expected to do more .
But the battlefield in solar has moved from mere solar water heaters to Photovoltaics and other means of harvesting renewable energy. The main players in the relatively new Renewable energy technologies are the companies like Williams Industries, etc. It seems that this is how it should be; let Government offer incentives for usage, source project monies for development of the technologies here and let the money-people invest their money in implementing the technologies, taking the risks and harvesting the profits. Where the private sector is unwilling to play its part there will be no progress.
Never mentioned renewables, we should have leveraged our early entry into solar across the region.
If the private sector did not take the bait then one may reasonably conclude that the government did not do a good enough job enabling the environment and or finding partners/ strategic relationships.
David; re. your 8.40 pm post
WOW! A classic example of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t do”.
I vaguely remember seeing what looked like an excellent proposal sometime in the 1990’s by Oliver Headley for setting up a PV production facility in Barbados. I don’t think it was sent to Government. It went nowhere.
Your analysis above would suggest that its failure to achieve implementation was because Government did not do a good enough job enabling the environment and/or finding partners / strategic relationships.
Perhaps the overarching reason for its failure to get financing was that the time was not ripe for such a project. Today it might have a chance for success. Hey, perhaps UWI could get it from the files, dust it off, update it and get Government to get China to fund it.
@ David
You continue to miss my point…man I dun!!! Regionally….you can’t sell unless there is demand. Look at the 2m+ market in the then wealthy Trinidad where oil was subsidised making electricity (hence electrical water heaters) cheap. How lucrative would the other markets have been given the cost?
As for cotton there was CARSICOT and under OSA Exclusive Cottons of the Caribbean. Are we saying the problem is simply a lack of political will as is being trumpeted here? What are the other dynamics at play? We are now talking about a sugar cane industry, and the issue of volume is to be alleviated by paying farmers ‘more’. Again we seem oblivious to the dynamics of global trade; because it worked in Brazil does not mean it will in Barbados…land mass alone dictates otherwise. Can Williams compete with the big global photovoltaic players or only dominate the local market?
@are-we-there-yet?
It is not about factories BUT patents.
Good points enuff but BU’s position is that Barbados and Barbadians tend to contain our ability to innovate using market constraints as the excuse. We have to be fearless and be willing to leverage our touted human capital to be disruptive in the marketplace to ensure our survival on a sustainably basis.
Enuff, re your 9.19 pm post.
Please expand and educate me as I don’t recall dealing with either factories or patents in my posts on this topic. Where do patents apply in the Williams PV operations? Are they going beyond retrofitting their buildings for solar? Re. the Oliver Headley project proposal, perhaps patents for the process might have been a stumbling block.
If it was Cotton you were referring to, the Barbados Government was or is essentially controlling the Sea Island Cotton patent through WISICA and was doing its best to modernize the Industry on a regional perspective so even from that standpoint David’s thesis of inadequate government support is somewhat flawed.
Are we there
I was just trying to say Headley patenting his works would have been more important than a PV factory in the scheme of things. Not attacking you…lol.
are we there your post at 7.00 pm says it all.
Dear readers and commentators all.
Is there ANY project or activity that we ALL as a country can identify, plan and execute to the betterment of the society at large?
It doesn’t have to be something major or breath-taking like we Barbadians like to undertake and then happily fail at, just something that can show value island-wide, is no too elaborate and whose success will validate in the minds of the population the value and importance of team-work?
Is there anything?
It’s O.K on some level to go back and forth here slinging mud at those with whom we disagree or believe to be ignorant and idiotic, but its time to save Barbados from the decay which it has been enjoying since the established class system has now proven itself to be a resounding failure.
Can we find any little thing that we can all work at and succeed at and then move on to the next thing?
Lets look.
Mr. Walter Blackman
Let us be real here. This is nothing but a failed attempt of appeasing the current administration’s entropy all due to lack of leadership….Gimme a break man we all know monies in the NIS cannot just lay idle….why is people of your ilk that told us so, not true? Monies must be prudently invested to make an adequate ROI and replenish the funds as it goes on….
You speak of a slide….But of course they would have been a slide…again the odder actuary S.Alleyne had so informed us…. that due to something to do with increasing life span of the bajan elderly and incremental inflows by new entrances, more intense and prudent attention would be needed in managing the NIS fund. As we all know this was lapsed by this revenue hungry administration.
When the MOF can tell the Chairman of the NIS to approve such or else what do you expect? We all recall the Brass tack moderatorNIS directors plight only too well….Point is there was inveigle bad management by this administration, in there desperate attempts of meeting ends….
You all need to stop pointing fingers now and get on with the job at hand…..Is this what we can future expect from a Govt just given a mandate to rule for another 4 years?…Well heaven help us..
Look do the damm job and stop the cry-babying…or GIVE IT UP ! The odder side more than willing to show you how it should be done.
Complaining, complaining complaining…. it is getting tiresome now and gets us all no where…..
Enuff
Thanks for your response. The point about our inventors patenting their work is a valid one but sometimes that work is not patentable for various reasons.
Take for example the late Colin Hudson and his vast array of implements for agriculture, best exemplified by the sugar cane harvester. Most of his implements were slight modifications of existing ones that might or might not have had existing patents. In many cases Colin sold just one implement to far off places and that was the only revenue he got for his “invention” as the buyers modified it once they got their hands on it.
The late Professor Oliver Headley was a genius, constrained to some extent by the system he operated in. Perhaps his son who used to post here could let us know how many patents he had and for what processes or systems. But I would hazard a guess that the numbers do not match with the breadth of vision of the man and his contributions. He worked with UWI in Trinidad and in Barbados and It is possible that that intellectual property rights clauses of his contract with the UWI might have militated against his patenting some of his designs. I don’t know but perhaps someone can put me right on that score.
Nearer to the present, I understand that Jeff Chandler, of UWI, does have some patents on orchid varieties that he developed. So there might have been some progress made at UWI on the matter of patents over the past 10 years or so.
But you are right, patents, more so than factories, is the way to go.
@Gabriel, Miller, enuff ec,
A visit to the Skeete’s Bay fish processing facility will show evidence of Professor Headley’s vision, and the failure of the government of the time to understand the significance of his contributions. Profesor Headley pioneered the building of a Solar Ice making plant to provide ice for the fishing boats who used the faacility. I distinctly remember the disdain which he had to undergo, from the government of the day, and many naysayers in the country who laughed at his efforts. The facility was allowed to deteriorate; the solar batteries and inverters became subject to the elements (salt air) and no effort was made to provide the necessary assistance either by government or private sector to push his efforts forward. Government could have helped by providing funding to supply other fish landing sites with the technology, and/or providing funds to the University to help the development go forward. Private sector could have helped in the research and development (things like develppment of sealed containeers for inverters, batteries etc.) and personnel to help in the innovation and development. Farmers have used as an excuse for not producing enough onions is the absence of a drying facility. The University Professor Headley) developed a Solar Drying facility. Has Private industry taken up the potential of this facility and advanced it? No!! Did Private Industry support the government in the CARSICOT issue, when there was an attempt by outside forces the interfere with the obtaining of a patent on the Sea Island Cotten Brand? For reasons unknown the whole issue was part of a political campaign aimed at the government rather than seeing the benefits for the island as a whole.
This is our problem as a country. Individuals politicise everything.