Minister Donville Inniss is at it again!
Minister Donville Inniss has acquired the reputation as the most strident in the Stuart cabinet, although not in the same vain as Minister Kellman. Speaking on behalf of himself he was quick to say, he pontificated that “I was always of the view that the public service is too big and needs to be reduced”. Many agree with the minister, especially those who proffered a similar view in the lead in to the last general elections less than a year ago. To be fair to the minister he magnanimously ascribed blame to successive governments for swelling the ranks of the familiarly known ‘army of occupation’ through the years.
It is evident that Donville, the Cabinet Crier, is privy to to the best kept secret in Barbados, which is, public servants will have to go home. Of course no sane Barbadian wants to see anyone put on the breadline but there is the inevitability as a result of government’s piss poor financial state.
What is sad about the state of affairs in Barbados is that we are to be blamed. We have allowed political patrimony and mendicancy to become paramount. All for the sake of the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour Party propping up populist ideals. Here we are at this dark place AGAIN because party interest trumped national interest. We are here because ‘educated’ Barbadians decided to toe the party lie or disengage from the system.
But are we surprised? Many who comprised the motley group who now litter the House of Assembly do so to suck hard on the nipples of the treasury. Before being elected to parliament some managed fledgling law and medical practices, sold flour and fried fish, talk sweet to a microphone, work at a hotel when not trying to brew a failed lager. Many if not all of them are clueless about managing a budget of more than $100,000 and worse yet effectively managing people.
It seems like yesterday when we had the likes of Tom Adams, Henry Forde, Richard Cheltenham, Lois Tull, Billie Miller, Bernard St. John, Don Blackman, Brandford Taitt involved in government. Even with their faults the few names mentioned easily exposed the intellectual paucity which now pollutes our highest law making organ.
The big irony is that whether you agreed with Sandiford when he slashed public pay by 8% and sent some home a few, governments who followed had the opportunity to keep the public service lean. Twenty years and billions spent on education later we have come full circle.
I keep looking at the bright side, the same bunch of empty suits both males and females who walk around without heads, calling themselves politicians in Bim, can no longer massage the taxpayers with their lies, only people who would now believe them are their insipid yardfowls, who will have very little left to suck from the taxpayers…..HA!!.
@David
you should also note that
EWB is a legacy which the present BLP does not represent.
So, now authorities have taken it upon themselves, to question the reporting by a newspaper, so much as to refer the matter to the DPP?
Are they joking????????????????????????
Yes, scare off ALL potential investors who will now be seriously wondering where the country is going.
Petty, talk about small minded and PETTY!!!
WUNNA, WUNNA….WUNNA COULD NEVER walk in Barrow nor Adams shows…not even Sandi’s nor Arthur’s!!!!
JOKERS!!!!!!!!
All autocratic regimes start with small actions. A leopard will eventually show his spots.
@ Crusoe | December 12, 2013 at 6:02 PM |
Definitely the classic early signs of a dictatorship in the making with the trappings of the Mugabe lookalikes talking about cracking heads and shooting people as the thin edge in the wedge.
Take political control over the judiciary and the public service including the police and crown prosecution agency.
Undermine the educational system and make it totally dependent on political decision-making and financial hand outs.
Lie to and withhold information about the economy from the people and cover up dirty deals.
Show open discrimination against certain groups seen as against the party like the local hoteliers and certain business enterprises.
Then silence the Press (mass media) that shows opposition.
Next move against the blogs to silence and victimize the owner and certain individuals deemed to be subversive elements and anti-DLP.
Watch and see!
Well Miller, my comforts at this time:
– there is still the CCJ which has shown it is willing to state clearly its thoughts and rationale. My worry is that some moron will now want to cut us off from that institution.
– one thing people need to realize, Barbados IS fully dependent on activities that are directly related to foreign income and a good relationship thereto.
Any action that suppresses/ threatens the thus far compliance with international conventions…will shut the economy down immediately.
THAT is a fact. Unfortunately per recent actions re what some would see as attempting to put political pressure on a company, would already have put potential investors at bay.
One could only imagine the idiocy that would have dreamt up that approach.
I have warned you people on this Blog about this DLP Government .
I was off the Blog for weeks and nobody ask for me. Tells me how much my contributions are not appreciated but the thing is that I have been true about this STINKING DLP Government
@ JUST ASKING | December 12, 2013 at 8:20 PM |
You were certainly missed by some. We thought you were either living up to your promise to leave Bajans to their own devices especially the people of St. John, including the more stupid ones like ac and the negroman or you were experiencing technical challenges with your service as some people in Bim have been facing.
Anyway, welcome back.
What do you think about the mothballing (again) of the St. John Polyclinic and Social Complex aka the David Thompson Mausoleum?
Isn’t this another case of the people of St. John being ridden like jackasses by the DLP? Isn’t this another case of poor financial planning by this inept administration which does not know its elbow from its arse?
@millertheanunnaki | December 12, 2013 at 6:23 PM |
@ Crusoe | December 12, 2013 at 6:02 PM |
Definitely the classic early signs of a dictatorship in the making with the trappings of the Mugabe lookalikes talking about cracking heads and shooting people as the thin edge in the wedge……………
Excellent post, miller, my thoughts exactly! From the time the crack heads and shoot some people was spoken and no repudiation from the top idiot, I knew we were in for rough times.
Just asking, we missed you but I respected your decision to go off the blog. welcome back. The doings of this DLP would drive people insane. Not me though, i intend to have a good Christmas….damn the dems!
I predict, that if this approach by the administration continues, a number of foreign owned companies, that bring revenue to Barbados, will leave.
It may be sooner than you think. And the economy cannot afford any more companies shutting / leaving.
@ GABBY & DAVID
“The only currency and relevance the DLP has to fall back on is EWB.”
“EWB is a legacy which the present DLP does not represent.”
If EWB wasn’t ahead of his time – then why all the fuss?
If BARROW was a CHURCHILL – we would have had a university course in Political Theory to examine his views, ideas, philosophy & ideology!
Were this built on, the party would have had an opportunity to build upon a foundation that was firmly established in subliminal revolutionary ideas!
Sadly, the 2 parties have become 2 sides of the same coins!
RUBBISH!! In my humble opinion, whilst we have these blogs as an outlet that is fine as many issues are highlighted here. However we have become myopic in our view, where we are concentrating on who knows the most, who can pontificate the most, who is a political hack, lackey, yardfowl or just down right foolish.
The point(s) I feel we have missed is that the politicians who have gone on before seemed to have failed in leaving a legacy. I ask today, where are the Samuel Jackman Prescod’s, Grantley Adams’, ‘Errol Barrow’s we should not be in the middle of a storm and fighting to find the best and the brightest who are motivated by a cause and love for country and fellowman. Instead we fighting to say who is a stink liar, who is a thief and the biggest and best of the thieves, who is the biggest and meanest, who really is man but is a woman, who getting rich from ill-gotten gains, who wukking for wukking (amazingly this legacy has fought its way through and maintained its status quo), who is the is dumbest and the worst. Seriously???!!!! Seriously???!!!. Is this what our Nation has come to?
And where the france we go from here? We calling for the “guvmunt” to tell us the truth when we know the truth already, just so we can be proven right. How will that benefit the Nation. In reading these blogs I hardly see any solutions, only the continued, over worked, over wrought threshing out of the problems.
A blind man in a moving AmTrack train can tell you the problem. Proverbs 30:21-23 states
21“Under three things the earth trembles,
under four it cannot bear up:
22 a servant who becomes king,
a godless fool who gets plenty to eat,
23 a contemptible woman who gets married,
and a servant who displaces her mistress.
In my humble opinion therein lies the root of the problems of this country. Tek it how yuh want to tek it, or, analyse that.
ministers etc will be getting a 10% pay cut. what Sincklar neglected to tell people was that in JANUARY 2012, THEY GOT A 17% PAY INCREASE.
Looks like we reach!!
The next question is can the government who took us to the bottom of the cliff get us back up?
Wunna sound pathetic……
…As if this was not OBVIOUS from WAYYYYY back when Arthur raised alarms at his National Consultation….. Steupssss
…poor we!!!
We brek… Well DUHHH!
Big spenders, low producers….
Champagne taste wid mauby pockets…..??
… I N E V I T A B L E.
Warrior
Here is a solution
Minister of Finance
Prime Minister
RESIGN NOW !!!
@Warrior
Why are placing all the weight of a solution on BU? We highlight what has been hidden in the underbelly of Barbados society for decades. We play our part but it will call for collective effort to force change. No one source is the panacea for bounty at the end of the rainbow.
Couldn’t the DLP have proposed to the BLP to remove the constitutional impediment to a wage cut of civil servants? A 10% wage cut of all government employees instead of sending home 10% of persons may be more humane. If the BLP refused to support such a measure then the DLP could say there is no other choice but to send home workers. Do those who will lose their jobs know at this time or will people have to spend Xmas anxiously awaiting the bad news?
Given that the Ministers got a 17% increase in 2012, a 10% reduction now still leaves them with about 5% MORE today than they had before the increase.
@Ping Pong
You should know better!
It is all a game of ring a ring a roses. The BLP will get more wriggle rook to pad the service next time around. We like it so.
The people who are being sent home are real flesh and blood human beings. How are they to make ends meet? Games are for the idle and children.
@ Ping Pong
Skippa, you have been around long enough to know that your suggestion is too OBVIOUS, INTELLIGENT, SIMPLE and PRACTICAL to be adopted by the set of brass bowls parading around as politicians….
Get a grip….!
This way, they can play their little games of “who is one-o-we….and who we can send home”
….while the OTHER set of jackasses gets to cry wolf, ‘unfair’, and set themselves up to be the “lesser of the two jackasses” in time for the next voting season…..
Joke is that we seem to like it this way…..
Don’t waste your time ‘feeling’ for a brass bowl….
…BBs gotta do what BBs gotta do…..
So now the hammer has finally dropped…..3000 families with rent and mortgages and utilities and children to send to school etc… How about cutting 5 ministers as well………. if wonder if these workers were some chanting dems now..dems again…..just wondering
@formerly Middle Class aka Well Known BLP supporter
What is your alternative to make cuts in spending to address the fiscal deficit?
@Bajanfuhlife
See Ping Pong’s suggestion above. Too much commonsense for you?
And so it begins……..
More suggestions: there are many people who are 2 or 3 years from retirement so why not offer them early retirement with the option to work at the same time as receiving a pension? So a 63 year old employee could be offered early retirement on a reduced pension to 65 and be allowed to seek work during that period. After 65 the person would then get full pension.
The reduction in the public service should be done over a 3 year period. People should be prepared for the termination of their employment in the public service through a programme of training and financial counseling.
During this period an aggressive thrust of support for private sector expansion and economic restructuring to encourage local production of goods consumed locally as well export promotion campaigns.
The adjustment to the public service labour roll should take place in the context of a wider economic and social adjustment and not as an end in itself. The Government has to make cuts BUT it should do it a way that does not crush persons’ ability to sustain themselves.
People will need to employ themselves. One area is in the production of food. One constraint is access to land yet it distresses me as I drive through St.John, to see many acres of land (owned by CLICO) lying overgrown with bush. Couldn’t the Gov’t take over the agricultural lands owned by CLICO e.g Todd’s Estates etc and put them under state management to be leased to approved persons for food production. The state could provide technical and marketing expertise and the people their labour.
OK maybe I’m writing nonsense but someone please provide some program which will allow people to lift themselves out of the morass the country is in (or soon going to be in)!
Ping Pong
Do those who will lose their jobs know at this time or will people have to spend Xmas anxiously awaiting the bad news?
++++++++++++++++++++++++
If Bridgetown, Sheraton, Warrens and Trimart are anything to go by I would say that Bajans are not in the least bit anxious!!
I can only think it may be because of the informal economy which has as some of its main components drugs, bribery, theft and corruption.
This will thrive!!
I sincerely hope that the maturity of CBC ,VOB and other media outlets in ensuring fairness of coverage in discussion of economic policy is replicated by the usually biased Pro BLP Nation newspaper.
Unfortunately, it is more likely that we will see all the pro BLP columnists who are employed by The Nation newspaper to unleash the most one sided commentary you will see any where in the media: Albert Branford, Pat Hoyos, Ezra Alleyne, Clyde Mascoll, Harry Russell, Peter Wickham and Tennyson Joseph – all of whom have declared their political hand over the last 6 years.
Proper journalism – NO. BLP One sided Spin – YES.
The cesspool at the Nation BLP newspaper will continue.
@NationNewspaper you are like a patient that went to a doctor that diagnose brain cancer, went to 20 other doctors to get a “second” opinion all saying brain cancer and now going to the 21st doctor hoping that he will say you just got a headache. You saying the Nation and their columnists are biased, so what , the IMF, Moody’s and S&P are biased too.!!!! I mean everybody got their political “biases” but sometimes ya got to call it as it is. This is the problem I got with the DEMS is that they don’t come to the people with the facts. They tell half truths and use misdirection even at this eleventh hour clearly to hide incompetence. What excuse does the DLP really have!! They have been the gov’t for 5yrs!!!! Don’t you have advisors or are they frauds too!! Or is the PM and MoF ignoring their advice!!! People don’t want to hear excuses now or for the next 5yrs!!! People want to hear REAL measures not any useless 5 or 10 point plans or Medium Term Failed Strategies
It is bitterly cold and snowing, yet the people of Ukraine are out in that awful weather, in their number , protesting some unfavourable decisions made by their government. Meanwhile back here in our 80 plus degrees of sweltering heat , it could well be snowing,as we are taking it cool.No sweat. Business as usual.
The DLP lied their way to a win even in the face of the fact that Barbadians were going to change the BLP government anyhow. They defaulted on many of their promises, forensic investigations into the Hardwood project, the ABC highwayamong other things. No-one would believe they could come back in 2013 with more lies and win the government again. Remember the Transport bus ad, they also “promised” not to send home public workers, it was the BLP who would send them home if they won government. People bought that lock, stock and barrel, now who is sending home who. This reminds mew of the old saying “tell she bout she bigfoot before she teel you bout yours. Bajans got themselves to blame , we made up our beds with the DLP, so we got to sleep in the bed with them( or toss them out).
@bajanfuhlife
@formerly Middle Class aka Well Known BLP supporter
What is your alternative to make cuts in spending to address the fiscal deficit?
Your real bold though, I do not support any party but that is the problem with your kind….as soon as you speak out against the current government you automatically support the other party. I do believe that your slip is showing, hid it yuh hear.
My alternative to addressing the fiscal deficit is to have addressed it from early when it was an issue and not a catastrophic problem. It would have made sense to shed workers at a time when the private sector could have absorbed some of them like early in their first term…..but then again I guess they would be in opposition today so……..
@ Colonel Buggy
“….back here in our 80 plus degrees of sweltering heat , it could well be snowing,as we are taking it cool.No sweat. Business as usual.
*************
Colonel…..brass does not sweat…..
And this is the point the longer we waited to reduce public expenditure the deeper the debt spiral became. It is one thing to keep people employed but there had to be a relevant compensating strategy.