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George C. Brathwaite
George C. Brathwaite

At the 2007 Annual Delegate’s Conference of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), the then Leader of the Opposition, David Thompson, began his featured speech by invoking a few disclaimers. It was revealed that there were groups within civil society actively speaking out against several perceived ills. Freedom of expression prevailed in Barbados under the political sacrosanct of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) that was being led by the economically acclaimed and intellectually gifted Owen Arthur, in spite of mounting and troublesome criticisms against the government.

David Thompson, in his address, said then that the situation in Barbados had reached a stage wherein there were pronounced “signs of frustration and despair.” Thompson goaded the public into thinking that it was inconceivable why the BLP had become “so indifferent and disconnected from the people it was elected to serve.” Thompson’s utterances were glazed in flowery language and buttered with a mischief to exploit weaknesses which appeared in the seemingly invincible Arthur-led team. The DLP, through its leader, promised to “imbue new hope and optimism” into Barbadians because Barbados was on a “slippery slope of division,” and it had become infested by “stagnation and malfeasance in public administration.” One wonders how necessary was this charade at the end of 2007 when now compared with those things have been evidenced this year at the end of 2013?

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328 responses to “Lessons to Guide Another Dichotomous DLP Cabinet: Save Barbados Now!”

  1. PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926 TO 2013 , MASSIVE FRAUD ,LAND TAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS OF BARBADOS, BLPand DLP=Massive Fruad Avatar
    PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926 TO 2013 , MASSIVE FRAUD ,LAND TAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS OF BARBADOS, BLPand DLP=Massive Fruad


  2. @George
    I feel your pain as to what Barbados is going to look like like when this incompetent lot is finished with our beloved island. However, this was the kind of government Bajans wanted so there should be no complains now. Job security, great optimism and hope as well as and no privatization formed part of the menu that was served in the bid for election and re-election..

    The worse is yet to come when the IMF comes back sometime is 2014. I am sure Ms Lagarde and her team is waiting for arrogant Stinkliar and ugly Delisle Worrell to show them the “ball that shoot Nelson”. By that time Barbados/Barbadians will up a creek without a paddle.


  3. LOL Stew peas yuh mekking me laff bout de ugly Govenor. Millertheannuki described him as Mr Magoo an apt description!

    Lagarde will show him where to put his tail!


  4. And Bajans not going to do one thing about it.


  5. The Barbados currency has been pegged to the United States dollar at the rate of 2:1 for the last 40 years. Barbados has managed to retain this peg through some very rough periods weathering foreign currency crises in 1991 and after September 11, 2001. The country has developed a reputation throughout the region as being one of the strongest adherents to the policy of a fixed exchange rate.
    But there is a point beyond which adherence to economic policies can become irrational, even doctrinaire. Last Friday, exactly 12 days before Christmas, the Minister of Finance in Barbados, along with his Cabinet colleagues, took the decision to send home 3,000 of the countryโ€™s public- sector employees by the end of March next year.
    As a result of this decision, the lives of those 3,000 workers, their immediate families and their dependents (such as their ageing parents) will never be the same, as they stare financial uncertainty and potential vagrancy in the face.
    The Barbados Cabinet decided to consign at least 15,000 of their fellowmen to misery because the country has on many occasions refused to even consider the possibility of a devaluation or depreciation of its currency.
    As one banker said to me on Tuesday, for a Barbadian devaluing their dollar would be like burning their flag.
    source Guardian
    http://www.guardian.co.tt/


  6. @Rastaman
    When Bussa and the others staged the 1816 revolt starting at Bayleys plantation in St. Phillip, it came as shock to the planters. Contemporary Barbadians could surprise us.


  7. Why don’t you hire a dozen of them to work on your plantation Islandgal? Why you always criticizing Barbados for doing EXACTLY what you personally would do?
    – You want freedom of movement – but ya don’t want Bushie to come for the Sunday lunch.
    – You does beat family with 2X4’s but ya don’t want corporal punishment in school
    – you does cuss all ya neighbors and ban then from your yard – but vex cause Barbados send home ILLEGAL immigrants….
    – now you vex cause the MOF want to fire 3000 people who mostly don’t do one shiite…?
    ๐Ÿ™‚
    How many people you employ to do nothing on the Northern Range?
    …ALL slackers should be sent home….

    BTW – a blessed new year to you sweetness…. And remember….. Bushie may be unable to handle the young virgins that Baffy offering, but old hens like you and ac are cannon fodder to Bushie… LOL Har Ha


  8. Bushie you drinking mountain dew? I tell yuh dat ah vex bout de retrenchment? Looka kiss muh rusty rake you ole goat!


  9. @Islandgal246
    Barbados have had a history of a decent standard of living and a very well managed economy for the longest while much to the envy of others places in the region. However, I think at this stage, after 47 years of independence we are in deep trouble. This is due mainly to the ‘Dr. Magoo’ and the accomplices in the Cabinet of Barbados since 2008.


  10. The party hacks are at it again. No amount of re-engineering by David can remove an archaic political acili from the Bajan mind. George Brathwaite’s absolute loyalty to the BLP is unquestioned. And while history lessons may burnish his credentials with the party loyalists in Roebuck Street, he can hardly pretend that his first love, the BLP, has clean hands in the matters on which he speaks, the present state of the political economy.

    His politically tainted diatribe locates Barbados, not as a dynamic political culture, but along a linear construct or continuum where when his boys are in power the opposition is irrelevant and the reverse has to be true for gravity to work in the stupidity of his unnatural world. It is this political backwardness that leaves Brathwaite with no real recommendations or conclusions to this piece that do not include the next phase of the political pantomime for which pseudo-elites like himself dedicate their lives.

    Brathwaite cares not about any set of issues that transcend the operations of the BLP. And yes, there is more than enough reason to indict the DLP for some of the worst political malpractice known to Christendom. However, Brathwaite is less than honest in lionizing OSA and other party leaders with emotionalism while ignoring the economic crimes committed against Barbados by Arthur and other BLP stalwarts mentioned by him.

    In short, Brathwaite while, like his master (mistress), pretends to dress up rank partisanship in a patina of being helpful to Barbados. The real and plain truth is that Brathwaite and his boys just want to be back in office again, as soon as possible and by any means necessary. But Barbadians should be careful of an emerging culture where governments are removed in circumstances which are inconsistent with our history. This thirst for powah may some day reach a point when some will be calling for the military (the BDF) to influence events or for the intervention of foreigners to settle political issues, like is happening elsewhere. We may not be too far from that place.

    Our recommendation would be that both the BLP and DLP be considered proscribed organizations. Together these parties have done more damage to Barbados than extreme sea level rising could. Brathwaite and his ilk represent clear and present dangers to the country and it may become necessary at some point to have them removed from the body politic.


  11. Bushie what yuh doing sniffing round here for? Go back and continue sniffing and kissing GP’s backside.


  12. All of the claims made by the late David Thompson were made by the then opposition during the last DLP rule. Those same claims were made prior to 1986, during the Rule of the late Bree St.John. Year after year we read with disdain the shocking reports of the Auditor General, fall for the empty promises of the party in opposition, allow ourselves to be titillated by impassioned rhetoric spewed from the lips of those who impatiently yearn for the chance to feather their own nests, and the game of political prostitution continues. Just last week England meeted out a stiff jail term to a seasoned politician. Please remind me when last one of these Gods met with a similar fate. Bajans are a selfish bunch. Once I getting mine, none de ress doan matter. This government will change and persons like CCC and AC will be replaced by sycophants of the other persuasion, and the beat goes on. Until Barbadians decide to get rid of those two parties and everyone, and I do mean everyone actively involved therein, we will go nowhere.


  13. …and leave your musty rake? ๐Ÿ™‚


  14. reading on how barbados stop now and reading this makes alot of sense.
    but do you all have the sense to read and understand it.
    i understand what the man is saying can you?
    http://barbadostripadvisor.wordpress.com/2013/12/26/no-thought-of-infastructure-here-you-go-free/


  15. Ok


  16. An impressive paper on why we are where we are today and the dangerous,treacherous days ahead for the Barbadian citizen.In a nutshell we are being misled by a quartet of dishonest servants of the people.One does not need to look too far to know that this result of incompetence was on the cards:-
    Stuart is an unmarried man,therefore he has no record of domestic achievement.If you are afraid to manage a family,how can you manage an economy! QED
    Worrell is a silly man who has shown a propensity for playing with toy cars.Even when he was recently on government business trying to raise much needed finance to shore up the foreign exchange reserves,he found time to shop for more toy cars.If Magoo is his first aka name Nero is his last.
    QED
    Sinckler is alleged to have got 26 marks in his maths paper at CXC.The proof of the pudding is in the eating.In the last budget he proved to all that he does not know there is a difference between 0.7 and .07.QED.
    Boyce D.notoriously called the Quisling by one who knew him well and so protected him and trusted that he OSA almost had a heart attack when the very said Boyce was named a minister by the dead king,who had said he would neither lie,cheat or steal,but we have since learned better.Boyce is a quisling,a traitor to the OSA team and now to team Barbados.A quisling is a quisling and by any other name is just as treacherous and not to be trusted.QED
    Are we surprised that the various lending overseers keep downgrading the Barbados economy.This is a poor raky team led by poor a poor raky quartet.OSA forecast it but bajans were not listening.Stuart talked of politicians buying votes in the last election.So did the AG Brathwaite.No action has been taken to test these conclusions.Sinckler,in the last budget claims his life was threatened.No arrest since that wild statement in Parliament in August..And the porn man is talking about everyman must put his hand on the plow!No way jose.Stew in your own miasma man.


  17. forest gump say ‘stupid is as stupid do’.


  18. HH, what you say mek a lot o sense. We bajans know what we got , what we put up with time and time again by both parties.

    I think it is time, whenever the next election comes around to give the other/third party a chance to see what they can do. We would not know how good or bad (their strenghts or weaknessess) unless we give them a try. If we see that they aint about to keep their word and do what the majority of the citizens expect from them, then kick them to the curb the next time election comes around.

    We need to show these politicians by our votes that we have put up and shut up long enough and the games they played are over and would be no longer accepted. If they cant do the job they were elected to do to hell they pitch.


  19. Stupse.


  20. And nothing changes. NOTHING!!!!
    Today is Dec 26th. 2013
    Last elections was February 2013
    Next elections will be sometime between Late May to mid June 2018.
    5 YEARS PLUS 90 DAYS

    Rastaman got it right “And Bajans not going to do one thing about it.”

  21. PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926 TO 2013 , MASSIVE FRAUD ,LAND TAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS OF BARBADOS, BLPand DLP=Massive Fruad Avatar
    PLANTATION DEEDS FROM 1926 TO 2013 , MASSIVE FRAUD ,LAND TAX BILLS AND NO DEEDS OF BARBADOS, BLPand DLP=Massive Fruad

    PM David had his own dreams for Barbados , Now he dead these fools have dreams of money and self , Crooks for Life
    At first they wanted 225Million now they want 150 million , look how off the math is , DID some one tell them cut the greed ?


  22. What was PM David’s dream $3.333m? stupse


  23. According to Ricky Singh, David Estwick is going to be appointed the Minister of Finance in early 2014. Was he an effective, innovative and successful Minister of Health or of Economic Affairs or of Agriculture and Water Resources?


  24. @Pacha

    Should it matter the political bent of the author OR whether there is coherence in the submission by an intelligent reader?


  25. The author makes it matter every time by the trajectory of his every word. Those words are merely calibrated to force the country into one option. That option is the continuation of a political merry go-around tinged with an element of immorality if not nearly unconstitutional plots to get another turn at the public trough. These political pigs are incapable of anything else. So the political leanings must matter. For in every instance a hammer is presented as the only tool and in those circumstances every problem become a nail for partisans. A nail in the coffin of Bajans. We say get the rid of the partisans and their useless tool.


  26. @Pacha

    A nail in the coffin of Bajans. We say get the rid of the partisans and their useless tool.

    Interesting the above. Have you ever considered that by bringing all views to the table for review and discussion by a public searching for alternatives, especially those from the sides defined as partisan by you, that it serves a purpose?


  27. Shuffling the cabinet reminds me of the old joke. .when the captain of the ship says we have some good news and some bad news, what do you want to hear first…the good news the sailors cried.. Okay we have been at sea 5years plus and we are going to have a change of underwear …hooray the men yelled….whats the bad news…the captain pointed and said you change with you and you change with you


  28. @ David
    Your is a logical fallacy, though well-intentioned. We all know the game that is being played here, we have been here before, we have seen this script. You know that none of this ‘debating’ is really aimed at any other ‘alternative’ but a BLP government. When you have a man who feels contented to list a string of failures of the one side while leaving moles in his own eye should tell us right away about the banality of the partisans.


  29. The system we have and how our society is shaped relegates serving in public office to a below the line profession/vocation and this is the point. There is the position of the ideologue but then we have to carefully examine the several constructs which have led us to this place.


  30. It sickens every time a black Barbadian refers to another black man as being “ugly” and other derogatory terms especially when the man being referred to is probably the most respected economist in the entire region . I am sure the white people laughing at we . STEW PEAS , you should be ashamed of yourself .


  31. @ Stew peas
    There is every reason why inferiorised , uneducated morons like you should be kept away from the seat of power.


  32. The following article is interesting to relevant although it might not appear so to the non discerning:

    Who should lead Caricom? Friday, December 27, 2013

    IN any group of countries which seek to act collectively, whether in a loose alliance or in a formal integration process, one or two states have to play the role of leader. The leader is not necessarily the country that is elected to chair the meetings of the group. For example, it does not matter which country is in the chair of the European Union, it is France and Germany that run things. Similarly, regardless of how many countries are in the Mercosur, Brazil and Argentina are in charge of decision-making. In Caricom, decisions have always been dominated by Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. What has been established in Caricom is a two-tiered institutional apparatus for decision-making involving a formal rotation of heads of government every six months as chair, and then there is the real leader of Caricom by virtue of status and influence. The formal tier provides the faรงade and spirit of democracy without real power. The influence is exercised by force of personality, eg Owen Arthur, by his intellect and forceful advocacy; or by statesmanship, eg P J Patterson by his consummate diplomatic skills and superior political acumen. The leadership role in Caricom has usually fallen to Jamaica because it is the largest country and it has demonstrated a penchant for fearless diplomacy. Leadership also devolved to Jamaica because Trinidad has preferred to allow the region to prevail on Jamaica, playing second fiddle because money eventually comes into the reckoning. This role was played with quiet self-assurance by one of the most dedicated regionalists, Patrick Manning. He helped St Vincent and Guyana, beyond what they could ever repay, without a trace of hubris. The key to the success of Jamaica and Trinidad in wielding influence without arousing animosity among the smaller countries was that neither country ever assumed the right to, nor sought the role. If Jamaica or Trinidad played the leadership role it was only after they were asked or forcefully called upon to do so. The leaders of both countries are well aware of the jealousies because they are seen as “big” islands and because Jamaica is bolder and Trinidad is richer. The problem for Caricom at this time is that nobody wants to be leader. Jamaica has neither the interest nor the personnel, and The Bahamas has no willingness to get involved. The OECS have the intellect in Ralph Gonsalves, but his international politics is too chameleon. Dr Denzil Douglas has a lot of experience but is fighting for political survival, as is the president of Guyana. Kenny Anthony is a regionalist who knows that all politics is local, while Barbados is in deep economic crisis. That leaves Trinidad, which does not have the personnel but has a strong and growing economy. This is the time for the region to press Trinidad into service because it can afford the time and is certainly showing that it has the ambition. The problem is that both the Government and the private sector in Trinidad assume that wealth alone bestows on them the mantle and role of leadership of Caricom and have been making statements of readiness. This is a colossal mistake, because Jamaica and Trinidad are special cases and have to wait to be asked by the other member states to take leadership. Such a request and acceptance is all the more important at this time when Trinidad has the wealth but there is no statesmanship of Patterson, no intellect of Arthur, and no lender of first resort of Manning. If Trinidad is to play the leadership role, it cannot assume the position, it has to be asked


  33. George Brathwaite wrote “And if, as has been suggested by
    Mascoll, Mottley, Arthur, and other BLP
    spokespersons, that the national economy at the end of 2012 was smaller than at the end of 2007, heaven help Barbados should the DLP continue to mismanage the national economy beyond 2013-2014.Save Barbados now”

    A 10 page political statement just to say the BLP should be returned to power immediately to “Save Barbados now”.

    Here’s the “now” solution for you and your beloved BLP George.
    Find a “Mascoll” in the current cabinet and get him to cross over and force new elections.

  34. George C. Brathwaite Avatar
    George C. Brathwaite

    @ Pachamama
    “Brathwaite and his ilk represent clear and present dangers to the country and it may become necessary at some point to have them removed from the body politic.”

    That statement sounds as threatening as Jones’ pronouncement about cracking heads and shooting people. Surely you are in favour of the government, private sector, unions, and others arriving at a clear determination on those things which are in Barbados’ national interest? Without trying to ‘lionize’ Arthur, would you not prefer that Barbados at least reaches the economic growth and levels of employment that it achieved during the BLP years as compared to at least the last 3 years? Would it not have been by far better that if the DLP prior to 2008 cried corruption, malfeasance, and other sordid affairs, that after 6 years persons ought to have been prosecuted? In that absence, and with the DLP (similar to the statement above) attempting to silence criticisms and different perspectives, do you not feel that transparency and accountability are being trampled and hence avoiding the participatory democracy that Erskine Sandiford called for and David Thompson promised?
    Now if I put facts to support my arguments, and I draw from lessons given by a previous DLP administration, do these actions by me equate to an agenda “merely calibrated to force the country into one option?” Perhaps you are right, maybe I am asking persons to examine the evidence of this administration and concede that Barbados has suffered over the past few years from a number of things, including but not limited to:
    1. Lack of timely decision-making with regards to political decisions which guide the economic management of the country;
    2. Misrepresentations and inaccuracies related to the economy’s health;
    3. Too many conflicts and uncertainty regarding whose interests the political class, private sector (capitalist) elites, and unions suggest that they represent in the national interest when at all times it appears that workers across the board have been sacrificing in vain and without resolution in sight;
    4. There is no unambiguous, comprehensive plan for helping Barbados to return on a path wherein sustained economic growth seems feasible.
    I can go on and on, but that would hardly assist you into realising that while I am a ‘loyal’ member of the BLP, I have been quite fair and given both political parties praise and criticism. Why? I am first and foremost a Barbadian and it is my preferred country in which to live. Yes, I have free choice and I will exercise such a human right. I am not going to sing the praises of the DLP when it has been acting as incompetently as the Stuart-led brigade when history tells me that Barbados has done much better in the past. I remain true to myself and country, and this is precisely why I want to know what is the national interest? Is it having the IMF in this country dishing out austere measures which are then announced by a DLP Cabinet minister one day and then circumscribed the next day by the prime minister because of possible political suicide?


  35. When are we going to understand that the politicians are us and we are them….change can only occur if we desire it or have it thrust upon us…..changing parties,creating parties will not make one iota of difference.

  36. George C. Brathwaite Avatar
    George C. Brathwaite

    @ David
    Interesting points in the article despite some errors. Certainly one cannot and must not discount the traditional role of leadership displayed by Barbados in CARICOM.
    @ Hants
    Interesting that you choose that excerpt. It really does not say to the reader to re-elect the BLP, or to elect those persons highlighted since it is widely expected that not all will seek the vote. What it does encourage people to do is to read the facts, understand that the DLP under Stuart and Sinkler’s leadership have been averse to anything emerging from those named persons, and that Barbadians are by far worse off. Hence, Barbadians should save Barbados now. I can recommend or encourage persons to fill the vaccum left by the DLP, but to my mind it is still the peoples’ choices which matter most.


  37. We have no reservation about our insistence that you and all other partisans, on all sides, should exit the body politic, by any means necessary, as the national interests of Barbados demands. Will confront you later on any other substantive points.


  38. @Vincent

    We have leaders and we have followers.


  39. Barbados Beware! You are now confronted with the reemergence of the likes of Henderson Bovell and George Brathwaite.Opportunists Extraordinaire. Whether the players are male or female cricket is cricket.De game doan change. BAJANS BEWARE!


  40. Barthwaite, you are being ‘disingenuous’ by linking what you called better performance by Barbados in the past while at the same time ignoring the economic crimes of Arthur el al, the markedly different current global environment and the tectonic changes that will make the world of tomorrow nothing like the past or the present. You are indeed violating the academic standards you pretend to uphold. But you have no interests in these matters and care less whether your BLP can in fact repeat what you called their good governance of the past. Bajans are to put you in office in a misguided hope that things would be better, that is a lie. And you know that well, for once you get into office the regular arguments will re-emerge. The treasury will be bare, the world economy would only then be in trouble and Bajans will be no better off in real terms, as happened many times in the past. A spontaneous combustion of the Bajan people should wipe this political culture away. Aren’t you tired of being party of an immoral organization that runs this same old trick on innocent people, time after time, for 75 years? More importantly, aren’t you ashamed of being party to a political culture where both major parties trick the people time after time, without remorse? Have a conscious man.

  41. George C. Brathwaite Avatar
    George C. Brathwaite

    @ HH
    I cannot speak for anyone else inclusive of Henderson Bovell, but I have been writing articles and submitting to this blog from time to time. I have also used other channels such as radio to express my perspectives. Would you seriously call that a ‘re-emergence’? Opportunists Extraordinaire? Do you know something which I do not? Please enlighten me because I am lost.


  42. @Pacha

    Where there is agreement is that our governance system must change. Where we can agree is BOTH parties are guilty of the same ‘sins’. We cannot measure success based on economic indicators which occurred in an economic boom cycle. The 14 years when the BLP rode the cycle was known for the global conspicuous consumption which occurred. There is the reality that in Arthur’s final term even he admitted to the dark clouds which began to hover over the economy of Barbados. What disruptive force must occur to shock rank and file Bajans that the answer lies in alternatives?

  43. George C. Brathwaite Avatar
    George C. Brathwaite

    It is almost a labour of love to see that several writers, with a strong leaning to the DLP based on their opinions and perspectives, appear to advance ad hominem arguments, label people, twist statements, or otherwise attempt to silence persons from reflecting on their perceptions of the way things are in Barbados.
    That too is good because in the end once I use the facts, people perhaps may be more likely to make informed decisions. I guess this is one reason that David and many on BU constantly call for a true and meaningful piece of integrity legislation thus calling on the politicos of all colours to be transparent and accountable in public service. Keep at it David.

  44. George C. Brathwaite Avatar
    George C. Brathwaite

    @ David

    While I may accept the view above, I will contend that the ‘boom cycle’ was not necessarily one of more money, but one of pragmatic and good economic management. Of course there were errors and shortcomings, but Arthur made the riding rather than excuses or settle into complacency. Hence, decisive leadership was a profound factor in Barbados’ sustained economic success during those years for which you allude.


  45. @George

    There is consensus even among BLPites that structural lines in the economy predated the entry of the DLPites in 2008. When would have been a good time to address said flaw lines you think?


  46. Yes, David you are right. But Brathwaite and his clique care not about this. They just want to line up to ride our backs again. Although it is obvious to even some idiots that the world has changed and that the old ways cannot and will not work again. Brathwaite will still insisting that his snake oil of yesterday will cure the ill of today. For ‘successes’ of the past cannot give guarantees for the future, in any event.


  47. I repeat it is about timing. Secondly, can you restructure in a vacuum?

  48. George C. Brathwaite Avatar
    George C. Brathwaite

    @ David
    You are absolutely correct that the “structural lines in the economy predated the DLPites in 2008.” Indeed, one may well argue that such structural lines were fundamentally part of the colonial system and carried on throughout the post-independent economy. There is nothing new in that regard, and it is one of the areas that both political parties have grappled with under successive governments. Saying that, it must be balanced against the episodes of the early 1990s when the very combination of Sandiford/Thompson made some attempts in light of the pressing problems that forced both public and private sectors workers out of jobs.
    Around the middle 1990s, with the emergence of the WTO, the influence of multilateral institutions such as the OECD,with new macroeconomic rules forcing governments to restructure, downsize, decentralise, and privatise under an umbrella of ‘good governance’ made things more difficult for small developing countries.
    By the end of 2001 after 9/11 there were significant game changing rules in the international environment in which small states like Barbados had to become much more productive and competitive in spite of their lesser capacities. The rules of national development became critically altered. Indeed, I often hear or read persons treating to Barbados as if the country has at its disposal the same quality and especially quantity of resources, technical knowledge, and trained practitioners as existing in much of the developed world. Sometimes overlooked are the peculiarities that would account for Barbados and other post-colonial states having overly large civil service employees.
    I can go on and on, but that would be an exercise in tautology. More important is that we recognise as a people and country that barbados more than most others have to constantly balance the ideal with the pragmatic. I do not believe bumping up the numbers of workers in the public service in the last months before a general election would have helped a situation in which by the MoF’s admission, the government was already borrowing millions on a monthly basis to pay salaries. This was an untenable situation exacerbated by untimely decision-making. Now, we have the radical razor to cut over 3, 000 workers by the end of march and therein lies the mischief.
    Even with the rumours, the DLP failed to be forthright or bring foresight to the proceedings. Indeed, what we may both agree on is that we have to be innovative and seek alternatives for hauling Barbados to a position of recovery followed by immediate growth. Entrepreneurship, self-employment, local investments, and a highly active private sector will all be part of the solution but there is no one remedy.
    I have done my best to answer you without misleading or avoiding. I think the introduction of VAT and the lowering of corporation taxes for example by Arthur after 1997 were pivotal in that restructuring. More has to be done, but there must be a balance recognising the human capital which Barbados possesses but which can also be absolutely misplaced and misused with a bloated public service.


  49. Brathwaite, you could not mean this writer. For it was us who spoke of the ‘Coming Calamity of the DLP’ soon after the last election. At that time we took a farsighted view and called on Stuart to from a national unity government. Not because we have any love for the DLP or the BLP, for that matter, but we saw many years ago the uselessness of any Westminster type political duopoly, especially for developing countries.


  50. So that my claims can be viewed with some semblance of clarity let me offer the following. This administration will be changed, and might I add not a minute too soon, that’s when the likes of Senator Reginald Hunte and if I may add another lets use Derick Allyene.These guys will fade into oblivion, their reemergence coming at the first hint of a crack in the armour Of the party of the day. It is against this backdrop I view the contributions of George C Brathwaite and Henderson Bovell.Different players, same game. CRICKET IS CRICKET.

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