Hal Austin
Introduction:
As we recover from the exuberance of the seasonal celebrations, we still have to face the reality of tough decisions as a nation. There is no hiding place, it is as Frank Sinatra said, the end is near and we are facing the final curtain. So far, predictably, neither our political leaders nor policymakers have indicated that the urgency of the situation has struck home. They are behaving as if time waits on the slothful, Barbadian workers and their arrogant and obstinate representatives before moving on. We only have to read the nonsense talked by the general secretary of the National Union of Public Workers (didn’t they get a Bds$6m loan from government? If so, why?)
Of the workers sent home from the drainage department, he is reported as saying: “They would have been given fixed term contracts and in a lot of cases with the people from Drainage, their fixed term contracts would have come to an end on the 31st day of December. “Nobody is looking at the fact that these are persons who would have been on four, sometimes five years, in a temporary situation, who, in my view, should have been appointed to the post that they were in.” What an admission of incompetence, of poor leadership, of betrayal of his own members. When did he realise that these temporary workers were in such contracts? Why, as union leader, did he not resolve this matter, and forcefully?
Of course the workers should not be on such long-term contracts. More than six months in an acting position should be confirmed as a permanent job. We now have a society in which even those in good, secure public sector jobs, with ‘guaranteed’ salaries live in fear of the sack, traumatised by the reality that they are only two or three pay packets away from destitution. A society in which envy, greed, bitterness have replaced dynamism and talent; one in which more energy is expended on being resentful of one’s neighbours’ material possession than in trying to improve one’s own intellectual and career prospects.
Leadership:
We now have a government, a nation, without any real leadership. The prime minister, by far the worst we have had since constitutional independence, and indeed of all out post-wear premiers and prime ministers, remains silent, while Donville Inniss takes the platform. His recent call for a reduction in the size of the state was, apart from other things, an invitation for a national debate. But, in typical Barbadian debating tradition, most commentators preferred to concentrate on Mr Inniss as a personality than of what he actually said. Quite often Mr Inniss shoots from the lip, but his regular intervention in public discussion – ignoring the traditional Cabinet portfolio responsibilities – showed that there is a vacuum at the very top of government and nature abhors a vacuum, and at least he is thinking about his role as an elected representative.
In the absence of much-needed dynamic there is therefore no programme for restructuring the public sector, nor indeed for rebalancing the economy. But the bandits are coming out of the woodwork, with some of the more unscrupulous employers threatening that if they do not get new (and obviously bigger) state contracts they too will have to offload some of their workers. In simple terms, these bandits are prepared to blackmail the government when it is at its weakness. Some of may like to think that consecutive BLP and DLP governments have brought this industrial relations thuggery on themselves, but it is ordinary people who suffer and that is of concern.What is needed in the early part of Q1 is a proper grown-up analysis if the local, regional and global economies and our place in this new picture.
Despite what party-supporting fanatics may think (my wife is an Arsenal supporter I know about fanaticism), the brutal truth is that we need an intelligent, secular analysis out of which policies must be drawn. Instead of rhetoric about a ‘green economy’ a competent and dynamic leader would have introduced the broad outlines for a green economy within 100 days with a broader and more detailed programme for this session of parliament. It does not take a genius to work out our environmental needs: waste recycling, coastal fish stock, energy needs, and so on.
Self-Help:
In the absence of progressive monetary and fiscal policies from the authorities ordinary Barbadians have stayed rooted in the middle of the road as this uncontrollable financial crisis descends on them like an avalanche. There have been no attempts to form social enterprises, no entrepreneurial individuals have seen it necessary to small businesses to replace some of the imported goods and services, consumers are still addicted to buying expensive, imported produce rather than form local farmers’ markets. Those of us who prefer to go shopping in the markets rather than in the supermarkets get the impression that local consumers perceive market shopping – other than for fish – as second rate, inferior, to the supermarkets. Are you suggesting to me that a security firm formed of former police and Defence Force staff cannot be given the contract for the Grantley Adams International Airport instead of G4S, a British companies with a sticky record against black deportees?
Analysis and Conclusion:
We have failed even to develop our only world-class product, rum; concentrating on so-called tourism, which is the addiction of policy-free politicians and senior civil servants. It is an intellectually easy option. Typically, there has been much rhetoric, loads of promises, but in the end nothing has been done. One course of action the ministry of finance should urgently consider is imposing a windfall tax on all foreign-owned banks based in Barbados, with the size of the tax based on annual turnover, rather than declared profits. If these banks are prepared to extract maximum profits from Barbadian savers without making any real contribution to the financing of small and medium enterprises, then government has a moral duty to compel them to pay a one-off levy. This should be followed with the imposition of tough new restrictions on what these institutions could claim as exemptions in future. This tax can then be used to fund a retail balance sheet bank, which would provide the financialisation that is so badly needed.
Of course, our academic economists, who act as advisers and party apparatchiks, still have a resistance to specialising, especially in areas such as housing and tourism, which are central to social and economic development. So, once more, the urgent need for widespread urban development is not even on the agenda – or either party. There is no discussion of inflationary expectations or of inflation targeting, so very little evidence of the assumptions underlying our economic forecasting. So far the DLP government, the BLP opposition and the Social Partnership have failed to come up with positive ideas. The crisis facing the nation is not the result of any global economic problems, but the flaws in our parliamentary democracy which are some of the biggest hindrances, not only to the quality of public debate, but to the overall development of our democracy. Every week members of parliament meet and what passes for debate is the usual ping-pong of personal abuse and yaboo shouting. And, they get away with it because the nation is anaethetised to the poor quality discussions in what should be the nation’s premier debating chamber.
Let me end by quoting David Cameron, the British prime minister, who said in his parliamentary tribute to Nelson Mandela: “Progress is not just handed down as a gift; it is won through struggle of men and women who refuse to accept the world as it is, but dream of what it can be.” For prudent and responsible families, this is a time to batten down the hatches and prepare for rough seas, no matter how much money you have in your safe. There are stormy seas ahead. In the final analysis, ordinary voters must make their feelings felt, they must demand more from their elected officials and public servants. If they do not, then the bell will toll for all of us as a nation.
In the meantime, have a happy and wonderful new year.
@HAl
“In the final analysis, ordinary voters must make their feelings felt, they must demand more from their elected officials and public servants.
How do we achieve this within a system that perpetuates the opposite?
or put another way, how do we (legally and peacefully) enact accountability other than within 5 year cycles?
Just observing
It is interesting to hear that 200+ of the workers being sent home from Drainage, and who were employed leading into the last election, were recruited from the PM’s constituency and Denis low. Mr. Integrity himself!
On 2 January 2014 23:25, Barbados Underground
Man alot of the “Stories” will now start to come out. lol. We all knew what was happening but unemployed people tend to be a bit more vocal.
Observing; re. your question above;
As the breadth of the austerity measures and the job losses and reduced work periods escalates and become undeniable by even CBC and the Advocate, the reporting of these will be so horrendous that Government will not be able to pretend that they are unaware of the social fallout of their policies and a few weak ones will falter.
Bajans may be lazy and mainly comprised of brassbowls but they are not fools and it will eventually hit them that we are in an unprecedented position that they will have to do something about themselves for their individual survival.
It is then that we will see:
* Hopefully peaceful demonstrations outside a number of Government offices.
* Signing of citizen declarations and presentations of them to the GG and PM.
* Strategic mass campaigns on social media.
* Peaceful mass marches in the mode of the1991 “duke of York” marches.
But above all the overlying message to the Government would be that nuff nuff people are hopping mad with their lack of performance and are demanding that they either shape up very quickly or ship out. When the stark realization that they themselves are in jeopardy of losing their pensions hit home some of the Politicians will brek fuh themselves, particularly the youngish ones. Actually it only requires two and a new Government could be formed without members having to lose their pensions.
I would be very surprised if there are not some MP’s thinking along those lines right now. But they have to time it carefully before FS brings the whole pack of cards down on everybody like Sandiford did before him. The BLP has to be careful also that the timing does not propel them into the role of the villains of the piece since DLP propaganda and spin could be devastating as we all know.
While we must try to encourage this late comer to certain realities, he is still not there yet. For he still seems to believe that something short of a radical transformation will be helpful, he is still wrong! And will always be wrong. The writer will yet come to a realization that there will be no fixing this with the popular and known tools.
Just skimming, we seemed to have gleam that a point that was made by the real thinker, William Skinner, about the value to Barbados, initially rejected by this writer, several months ago now becomes a central policy position. Skinner at that time rightly argued that about USD58MM is FOREX earning from rum and its by-products was not a small matter to a Barbados economy and could not be minimized. Skinner further suggested a more aggressive marketing approach involving the intangibles could of been helpful. This writer now sees it fit to heavily borrow from the brain of a William Skinner after a stalwart rejected of his adroit determination. And there are many other examples of borrowing.
This example locates the writer still in the pantheon of those who are still waiting for others to tell them what creativity is to be. He is in the good company of the multitude. For the majority is always wrong. For those to whom his missive is aimed are liked minded. Only the Skinners of this world understand how we should proceed. The copiers and other Old Boys of the British Empire (OBE) will never be helpful, especially in current circumstances because their masters have not a clue.
Pachamama;
Forgive me for being old and relatively conservative with views that don’t match yours re. the sense and utility of a drastic and total removal of all the trappings of the current socio-political systems in Barbados and replacing them with what seems like poorly worked out ones that do not specify many areas that should be of importance as to how Barbados will survive under your brave new system.
I would be most grateful, and I expect that some other oldsters who post here would also be, if you would take some time to convince us how you would go about implementing the transformation that you glowingly describe in your writings and how you expect that the populace of Barbados will be affected and where foreign exchange (if actually necessary in that new society) would be garnered, inter alia.
Of course, as I think I intimated before, I sense that there is a strong possibility that forces external to Earth, might be on the verge of effecting cataclysmic transformations to the whole earth that would trump all my parochial concerns. But for now I would really like to know how you propose first of all to change the current political system here and then to what under the current somewhat uniformitarian GAIA system?
Could you also point me to some writings on the global Pachamama system?
@are-we-there-yet
Perhaps you should take a look at this blog.
http://barbadosfifthestate.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/structural-adjustment-belling-the-foreign-exchange-cat-astrophe/
It is a rather long article but it is divided into five parts. It makes interesting reading. What do you think?
In crisis;
Thanks for the reference. Looks like that blog should be required reading for the BU family. The article explains the inner workings of structural adjustment programmes with easy to understand examples in a Barbadian context. It also, like Pachamama, proposes a definite break with the BLP / DLP musical chairs political system we now have because of several things (not detailed) that are wrong with it. However, unlike Pachamama, it does not appear to be advocating a total removal of the political system itself but just somehow (and this is unexplained) excising the BLP/DLP from it. I think the article is a very good one but that some guidance should have been given as to how we could remove the DLP and BLP. A consummation that I devoutly agree with.
@ Pachamama,
Your comments re Hal’s views about the Barbados rum industry , in a previous article are correct.He dismissed it as small and insignificant in the bigger scheme of things. The problem we have is that after reading all the commentators and those who were apparently “properly” schooled/educated, we cannot find one single Henry Ford( of Model T fame amongst them) That is why the Williams’ brothers own more than 30 or so companies between them in Barbados ; that is why Sir Kyffin Simpson is a billionaire. We were busy getting a graduate in every household , who was guaranteed unemployment. It was not long ago that Sir Hilary was going about the place talking about a Barbados Economic Model. Now that the model has crashed, he should be asked what caused the malfunction.
Education like all other commodities is useless if it cannot create something. Hence we have gone from a society that produced engineers(sugar industry) out of people who only went to primary school while we have engineers who have a diploma from UWI and are jobless and penniless. Hence I am hearing from Hal that Barbadian workers are “slothful”. I think this means lazy as well.
To quote Hal:”They are behaving as if time waits on the slothful, Barbadian workers…………..” Compare what Hal a Black Ivy loving man is saying and what Ralph Johnson a white businessman recently said and a clear picture of unity of thought emerges. As on Animal Farm it is extremely difficult to distinguish the animals from the humans.
The Barbados rum industry is now owned by foreign interest.
On 3 January 2014 02:23, Barbados Underground
Pachamama;
While I can appreciate that the total governance and other systems in Barbados appear to have broken down, I have great difficulty in accepting that the solution must be a drastic change that removes the entire political system as we have known it.
It is much easier for Youngsters who might have an appetite for chaos and crushing some heads and shooting some people to accept the reality of where you seem to be heading than an old man like me who has never held a toy gun or a sharp implement in anger.
I therefore tend to see a solution that places Barbados back on an even recognizable keel after several of the tried and tested generic activities that you have given here are utilized but are focused on initially replacing the current flawed individual politicians of both the BLP and DLP with other newly aware ones that might not necessarily be aligned with either party.
My problem is that any other party without the necessary history of governance and interactions with local regional and international colleagues will run the country further and faster into the ground than the DLP has now done and your “social experiment” will result in a failed state with no hope of moving from that status for decades.
If Barbados was bigger and had a wider slate of resources I think your formulation could work but with our miniscule size and the evanescent status of our foreign reserves and the great mobility of the few monied people who can in a twinkling remove the majority of our reserves and resources and leave the remnant poor bajans in a 21st century type of Haitian situation, the result might not necessarily how you would wish it to be. Be very careful what you wish for.
That is not the Barbados I would wish on my children.
And by the way. I am not new to BU. I have been following and occasionally contributing to BU under another name for over 4 years now.
It is becoming clearer by the day in this country that the time for both DLP and BLP being at the helm of the political governmental affairs of this country has come to an end.
They must as soon as possible be permanently removed by the broad masses and middle classes of people of the country from the parliament of this country.
It is these two intellectually politically bankrupt and discredited political disorganizations that are primarily responsible for the greater suffering and degradation that is about to afflict the broad masses and middle classes of people of this country.
Therefore, it is these two jack o lantern disorganizations that throngs of brave and intelligent people in this country must deliberately turn their anger and frustration against with a view of putting them back into a state of non-existence.
In the past there were times when they would have done so much damage to the affairs of whole sectors of the country, and the country itself, lost the confidence and trust of the great masses and middle classes, and would have been booted out of government; only to return years after to government to come back to do worse, politically materially, etc.
Thus, what is patently clear is that they would have been given very many chances before to make amends by the broad masses and middle classes.
But they have not been making the necessary amends, and they do not intend to change either, other than to get incorrigibly worse, evidently so.
So, now, in these times of darkness and destruction in this country, is the right time to utterly, to once and for all, permanently remove them from political governmental landscape of this country.
There are social and political studies practitioners in this country who, along with many others in this country – the “right” business people, community leaders, social actionists and intellecutals, are capable enough of successfully and skillfully managing this country in any proper coalitional arrangement designed to NOT ONLY help resolve many of the serious and fundamental problems that the stupid evil DLP/BLP governments would have substantially helped to create for the country, BUT ALSO designed to help set the country on the “right” path of unparalleled, sustained human social industrial development.
For starters, that great Barbadian, Mr David Comissiong, MUST be part of such an arrangement.
The DLP and BLP must go!!
PDC
@ Are we there yet
The truth is that a kind of radical transformation is already taking place in the political economy and it also true to say that these changes are not perceived by most, as yet. The sad thing is that these changes are not designed to help average folk, the reverse is true. When you see all over the world public assets are being transfered into private hands, this represents a rise of a neo-feudalism. In Barbados, the use of NIS moneys for certain investments follow this global trend. The concessions recently given to a hotel group is another example. The debt to equity ratios, in the UK, for example, 1000%, is another sign of the hollowing out of the Commons.
As far as the political elites are concerned we don’t necessarily see anything wrong with the personalities, per se, What we try to speak to is the deep culture that produces these people. Few can argue that that culture has not gotten us to this place. Here is where a deeper and radical transformation away from the emerging neo-feudal political-economy model is properly directed. Mind you, we would also support more assertive measure, if needs be, to aid the rise of a more just system.
We are afraid that we are at a place where no political economy model of the past will be helpful. You rightly admitted that there are deeper environmental factors, for example, that must influence our thinking. So there will be no playbook. This is why the masses of the people and their colective intelligence must be brought o the scene.The elites have failed and will continue to fail, whether B or D. The only thing the political class can do for us is trick us again and again. But citizens have a clear opportunity to influence their affairs. And only concerted public action against the system, as a whole, can point us in a direction where power (economic, political) is relocated to its proper position.
When we talk about a cultural transformation we mean across the board. The economic elites in all areas in Barbados and haven been given millions of subsidies, over more than 50 years, still depend on the public purse. What kind of elites can only make money with government action? And continue to be dependent forever. What this means is that ordinary people are subsidizing corporations and the elites that run them. We have an education system that continues to produce functional idiots etc.
Pachamama;
Thanks for a well reasoned and reasonable response to my post above. It was a clear sensible statement of the rationale behind the need for drastic change. I hope you would pen another post on the strategy you see necessary to get us there.
Should have said, debt to GDP ratio (1000%)
@Hal
The point is that the high duties final cost of vehicles taken into consideration Barbados is fully served by traffic congestion? Where is the logic reducing the cost fossil driven vehicles?
Realities
This is a list of measures taken by other countries who have taken the IMF route.
Cut Government (public service budget) by at least 20% with IMF bosses sitting in Ministries to ensure compliance.
‘Haircuts’ ie the seizing of bank deposits in excess of $x (in Barbados probably $80,000- 100,000.) You will get it back when and if the economy turns round.
Layoffs (15% of public workers about 5,000)
Cut social services like free bus fares and grants
Possible reduction in pensions for high earners
Increase VAT and jail non-payers
Tighten tax loop holes Jail non-payers
Restrict foreign exchange per person ($1,000 US per annum)
No hiring of new staff in public service
Charges for certain hospital treatment
@dercris
Seize deposits? You have to be crazy!
I’m so hurt right now to see what is going on in my country. May jah have mercy on us!
Here is the 64k question: how can Barbados withstand 4+ more years of this chaos which seems to be rising towards a crescendo?
David;
Just looked at the video of the FT interview of the PM. Not good! How can we withstand 4+ more years of this man?
Agree that it was a poor interview and does little to inspire confidence in the people who elected him to serve. Confidence has to be facilitated, it does not occur because of words.
On 3 January 2014 01:06, Barbados Underground
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@Observing on
I have a possible theory that might enable us to achieved this end. How about the Barbadian electorate utilizing the American concept of Civil – Protest to achieve this objective? Civil – Disobedience could possibly forced the hands of the ruling party, as it has done in many instances in American History.
How about the Barbadian electorate utilizing the American concept of Civil – Protest to achieve this objective?
………………………………………..
Would that be Central or South American?
“How about the Barbadian electorate utilizing the American concept of Civil – Protest to achieve this objective? Civil – Disobedience could possibly forced the hands of the ruling party,”
Mark Fenty weren’t you just saying in an earlier post that you still support this party and that you aren’t ready to jump ship? So what de rass yuh opening yuh mout fuh? Yuh tink Bajans got de balls to do force de hands of de ruling party? Your Party? LOLLL !
Off topic : It puzzles how Guyana one of the poorest countries in the world gives away so much money to countries who “suffer disasters”. Guyana is giving St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Dominica US$275,000 to assist with recent flooding. Shouldn’t this money be put to use to aid the masses of very poor, very vulnerable and destitute in Guyana? Shouldn’t the money be used to repair Guyana’s dilapidated infrastructure like roads and canals? Against the background of serious poverty and lack of jobs and opportunity Guyana’s population votes with its feet every day and flee Guyana. The same islands Guyana is giving thousands of US$ to do not even want the numerous Guyanese who live in these islands illegally. Not only that Guyana has given hard cash to the Philippines and other places that suffered disasters. While its a noble gesture wouldn’t it be more noble to spend that money to help alleviate the massive human suffering in Guyana. Any of the many self appointed sociologists, political and economic gurus on BU could help me figure out Guyana’s “misplaced generosity?
This is a very selfish way to look at it. Every single country in the Caribbean ,at this time needs a lot of infrastructural work domestically, but this does not stop us from helping some other unfortunate one in need. Perhaps it would have been ok, for Canada or Great Britain, who themselves are suffering due to the world wide recession, to come to the aid of our Caribbean sister countries, and moreso, to our very own, Barbados or Guyana, if unfortunately we becomes victims of a natural disaster.
Mark 12: 41-44
And Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury; and many that were rich cast in much.
And there came a certain poor widow,and she threw in two mites,which make a farthing.
And he called unto him his disciples ,and saith unto them .Verilly I say unto you,That this poor widow hath cast more in,than all they which have cast into the treasury.
For all they did cast in of their abundance, but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.
The DLP tricked themselves
They said that the BLP would send home people so they packed the public service with people just before the election that they did not think they would have won. The idea is that the BLP would have won, would have sent home people and the DLP justified.—BOOM !!!
We all know what happened in the last BUY- ELECTIONS
Maureen Holder tonight pon TV saying that the PM must talk to the Nation, even SHE playing she now seeing what a piss poor leader he is.
They will ALL jump ship Islandgal. Reudon Eversley now Maureen “know all” Holder.
What an admission of incompetence, of poor leadership, of betrayal of his own members. When did he realise that these temporary workers were in such contracts?
DULLENNIS CLARKE SHOULD BE DRAWN AND QUARTERED
I listened to this Dennis Clarke yesterday in awe. These people are incredible. Instead of lashing out at the government with whom he was lying down in bed and has deceived him so badly, he was lashing out at the PS in the Ministry of the Environment calling the PS’s resignation who was just carrying out the directives from the Stinkliar.
I would really like to know why he did not ask for the resignation of the Stinkliar, the PM and the very Dennis Lowe. After all, they took the people on, not the PS.
What a useless lot but they chickens have come home to roost. The unions agreed in secret with the government to a wage freeze and told they membership nothing until it slipped out a few months ago from Dennis Clarke’s mouth!
@Frustrated Businessman
You addressed it in your earlier comment and BU and others have stated it as well, over and over. It is now about inflating confidence in the private sector and ordinary citizens. As long as there is no confidence or the deep pockets by their bearish attitude to investing in Barbados things will continue as it and there will be flight of foreign exchange. Debating that it is happening and why the becomes moot.
@The Fan $275,000.00 is chicken feed for Guyana. Remember Guyana got a debt forgiveness a few years ago. Stop trying to fan cinders and tek yuh fan and fan yuh pooch!
[…]maybe we’re overreacting here? Because if the economic situation were as bad as some have prognosticated, why haven’t we seen Barbadians by the hundred of thousands protesting in Bridgetown as well as entire island? Just a little something to chew on!
Barbadians protesting? that will be the day. The “ringleader’ types of the 1991 march against Sandie, are now all taking a back seat, and appear to be looking in the other direction .
FREUN-DUL (DECEIVER -UNDERMINER -LIAR (DULL} STUART
COULD NOT LEAD A PACK OF RATS TO A GARBAGE DUMP FARLESS LEAD A GOVERNMENT.
BUT HE IS A WICKED MAN THOUGH.. HE PUNISHING THE PRESENT MINISTER OF FINANCE FOR THE EAGER 11 FIASCO.
THE PRESENT MOF BEGGING TO BE FIRED —BEGGING—
HE AND MIA CONCOTED AND TRIED A NO CONFIDENCE MOTION–THAT AINT WORK–FREUN-DULL AINT BUDGING
AND THE COUNTRY SUFFERING .
FREUN-DULL GOT THE MAN LOCK DOWN AND ALL THE MAN TRY TO EXTRICATE HIMSELF, FREUN-DULL AINT EASING . THE PRESENT WOULD LIKE TO GET FIRED.
ON ANOTHER NOTE
DAVID COMMISIONG (ah spell the name right?) HAS AGREED WITH ME THAT WE NEED TO GO BACK TO THE POLLS.
IF WE DO HOWEVER , PENSIONS WILL BE LOST SO THE BEST THING TO DO IS FOR 3/4 PERSONS TO CROSS THE FLOOR.
CHANGE THE GOVERNMENT AND THE INCOMING GOVERNMENT EMBRACES ALL IN NATIONAL UNITY.
NATIONAL UNITY IS SOMETHING THAT WOULD BRING BACK CONFIDENCE
CONFIDENCE
CONFIDENCE
FREUN-DULL DOES NOT INSPIRE CONFIDENCE
THE NEW GOVERNMENT WOULD BE PERFECTLY PLACED TO IMPLEMENT APPROPRIATE MEASURES
FREUN-DULL DOES NOT INSPIRE CONFIDENCE.
……………………………………………………………………………
That’s not exactly true. He has given every single Bajan, Bridgetown characters , John Boyce and Kellman included, that he / she, too, one day could become Prime Minister of Barbados, nothing to it.
An important question is addressed to the self appointed political scientists and economists and a known jackass answers. What next.
@Mark Fenty,
Bajans ain’t feel the full effects of the layoffs yet. It now start.
@Islandgal246
You have me ‘deading’ with de laugh. I like how you fix the Fan. Guyana is the only country in the Caribbean that has grown over the last 2 years or, and is projected to do so in 2014
Fan is a troll attempting to deflect the discussion, you may be familiar with waiting, ruffin, 1000 pounds of blubber and others.
On 3 January 2014 00:37, Barbados Underground
lol
SOMETHING GOTTA HAPPEN
SOMETHING !!
@ David
You asked above, what can be done.This is the question we have been struggling with. But there is no simple answer. But, there are answers. All the easy answers will not work. We think the first step has to be a broad acceptance of what the problems are. This will be difficult to do because all the players have assumed their bunkered mentalities. However, the bigger the problem the more room there is for popular solutions. The real question should be, how do we give our society to jettison old mentalities and recognize that our current situation departs from past problems, when all of our institutions have been compromised. Only only answer we can posit if for the people to hit the streets in droves and convene a popular parliament to to confront the status quo..
Some social commenters are beginning to discuss how does civil society work around government to protect what we have gained to date. This explains how ludicrous the situation has become. Even at this dire strait the partisal political BS continues to play out.
On 3 January 2014 01:22, Barbados Underground
David, there is no way around them. We have to go through them
Agree Pacha, you know what they say, behind every recession is the good that can come out of it. If the economy continues to plummet to debts never experienced at some point the Barbadian who has become use to pride of place among its peers must react.
On 3 January 2014 01:31, Barbados Underground
Of course we don’t mean with they permission. We mean with the bulldozer of public opinion
It was the Mahogany Coconut Group that called for a government of national unity immediately after general elections; it was the MCG that declared the Social Partnership dead ! We are now hearing about Emminent persons and the first two mentioned are a politician , who left Barbados in a very perilous state and a public servant/politician/minister that is an agent of the BLP/DLP.
It is obvious that we are hell bent on diong the same things with the same people and expecting different results.
If we were in a perilous state in 2008,given the conditions, one could argue we have always been in such a state; and undoubtedly in an even more perilous situation. The truth is that the foolish policy prescriptions MCG promotes are pie in the sky ideas that would not improve our “perilous” situation.
@Mark, 8:01
Even this requires some level of leadership, informal or not.
@islandgal
Maureen had me laughing…she hem and haw and then didn’t have a choice but to admit that leadership and reassurance is needed in times like these. well well
@Pacha
Same thing as for Fenty… we would need a tip of the spear to start the movement.
@David
If the emotion at NUPW today is anything to go by that “point” may not be as far off as we would have thought. Things can change in the “Blink” of an eye. lol
We believe that things are going to get so bad so quickly that the movement will start itself. We only truss that it does not degenerate into a BLP/DLP thing, because the entire system has to be confronted. Anything less is self defeating.
The people can be the tip of the spear. We think the age of the solitary ‘leader’ is long over.
@The Fan,
Did you know that Guyana produced 400,000 ounces of gold last year. You know how much foreigh exchange that works out to be, with gold being sold at more than onethousand dollars an ounce.
@Pacha
We have a Constitution. We operate in a democracy governed by that Constitution. There is no provision in the Constitution for a government of National Unity. Changes in the Constitution require a 2/3 ly.majority of the sitting members of the House of Assemby.
Give me your solution.One of the things that has worked to Barbaos’ advantage over the years is its political stability. What will be the effect on external interests (read Standard &Poors, Moody’s, International investors, etc etc.) It is easy to open the bottle but once the furies are out they cannot be put back in. Go read the story of Pandora’s Box. Google it.
@ALvin
It is easy to open the bottle but once the furies are out they cannot be put back in.
The GoB is learning that the hard way right now.
@ Pacha
In the absence of the solitary leader there will need to be a solitary purpose. The unions are all helter skelter on this issue. It seems to be a “brek fuh yuhself” mentality across all sectors…
The people can be the tip but they would need to be unshackled and unhinged
Just observing
@Hal,
We will have a happy new year and WE WILL SURVIVE!!
“(didn’t they get a Bds$6m loan from government? If so, why?)”
My sources inform that the loan was obtained from the Barbados National Bank under gurantee by the Owen Arthur administration.
David: Probably, it might be my computer. But I feel you should like at the time sequence of people commenting. Sometimes you see 8.15 then you see 9.45 then 10.15 and then it goes back to 8.35. Let me know please.
Tell me why;
The posts are now listed in order of the responses to different posts, not necessarily by the time the posts were posted. Thus this post comes after yours because I clicked reply and then typed in my post. It might list as the last post in this topic but be actually posted just under yours.
The problem here is that many posters will miss posts because they are looking for posts to be listed sorted by time while some will be posted sorted by the thread and some by time.
If people who are responding to specific posts click on the reply button next to that post and then type in their post it will then become clearer.
“you should look at the time sequence”. sorry for the error
The time is set to Barbados time, if another time is showing it maybe your browser.
Two can play the game:
http://www.facebook.com/barbadosconcerned
David; That Concerned Citizen’s page looks good. It is the sort of activity I was listing in my post re. strategies to change ordinary Bajan’s involvement in this situation. I wasn’t aware of it. Are there any similar pages that you know of?
David [BU]
Concerned is not complaining
THe page approximates the suggestion but it does not achieve any solution and that is what we are seeking to achieve aren’t we?
A better, fairer Barbados but then again I could be wrong.
Alvin Cummins | 02/01/2014 at 10:05 pm | Reply
@The Fan,
Did you know that Guyana produced 400,000 ounces of gold last year. You know how much foreigh exchange that works out to be, with gold being sold at more than onethousand dollars an ounce.
Alvin the per capita income in Guyana is $8000 in Barbados its $25,000. The revenue earned from the gold Guyana sold is a mere drop in the bucket to what Guyana requires to even get close to the GDP of Barbados or Trinidad.
Guyana is rich in natural resources which from all accounts are badly managed. Its got a dismal record in the monetization of those resources. Guyana is the poorest country in the region bar Haiti.. There are many people there living below poverty level and the state is unable to provide even basic necessities.
Guyanese are among the biggest sufferers of the brain drain on the planet. No one particularly Guyanese wants to live in Guyana because of its depressed standard of living. Why would a state in such dire need of basic necessities and infrastructure send cash to countries better off, even with “disasters”? Wouldn’t those donations be better used assisting their own population which is in dire straits? Its an honest question that cries out for an informed reply. Nobody don’t pay that paling cock island gal no attention.
Sooner or Later –YOU ALL WILL COME AROUND TO MY POSITION OF
BACK TO THE POLLS
OR
3 / 4 MPs –to cross the floor and save BARBADOS
Sooner or Later
You all are bunch of Jokers
Beating round the Bush and not coming to the point
There is none so blind as he who would not see
-Imbeciles !!!
@ William Skinner
For clarity, the Barbados rum industry is hugelk underdeveloped, shamefully so. This is partly to do with its history – dominated by the Roebuck Street boys – and the lack of guidance by government.
Rum and Whisky were invented at roughly the same time. Just look at the contribution whisky makes to the Scottrish economy and what rum contributes to Barbados/Caribbean.
I am quite willing to sit down and talk to people if they want some ideas.
@PUDR
At this stage it’s all about tension.
What has to happen – if we are lucky- is that the tension caused by the current economic state may force Barbadians to leverage the knowledge capital which we have invested over the year. It MUST deliver NOW!
Austin
Do you really think that you have the competences, skills or capabilities to teach Skinner anything about marketing, especially rum, LOL! You could not really know this man, in trute.
Still, like in other matter, you have failed to answer the central indictment as posited by Skinner and this writer.
JUST ASKING -if your organisation had received a $6 million guarantee by government
2)if you had received a duty free car concession from government
3) if you was in the back ground while your crooked partners Walter Maloney ,Cedric Murrell,Dennis Depeiza back raise Sir Roy for the Minister of Labour
4)if you had approach the PS and minister of Health of assistant for one of your children
5)if the organisation the you represents receives Rent from government (Housing ,EPDU ,DISABILITIES UNIT
6)if you had got a job for your children through the political process ,will you not betray the workers who pay you app 7$12000 per month plus benefits
if the answer is no then your name is not Dullennis Clarke
are-we-there-yet? | 02/01/2014 at 11:11 pm | Reply
Pachamama;
“While I can appreciate that the total governance and other systems in Barbados appear to have broken down, I have great difficulty in accepting that the solution must be a drastic change that removes the entire political system as we have known it”
Why are-you-there- having acknowledged that the system has failed or in my words lost its relevance afraid to try something new? Granted it would call for a revolutionary set of ideas, the benefits of which might not accrue in our lifetime but at least future generations would not be subjected to the charade to which we are subjected every five years passing for governance. Governance in Barbados was not always fuelled by the political system but by parliament and we need a system to make parliament and parliamentarians again relevant and not political parties and politicians . Do you believe that it can be right for an incompetent set of managers to remain on the job because their contracts run for five years?
“Nobody don’t pay that paling cock island gal no attention.”
Looka Fanshite……IF YOU want to post something here on BU write a submission to David and stop trying to hijack other people’s submissions. YOU HAVE NO MANNERS! Your posts here have NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with what Hal has posted. Yet you come in here telling my BU family to pay no attention to me? YOU ARE CLEARLY OUT OF PLACE ! YUH SLIMY DAWG ! BUSHIE, Pieceuhderockyeah, Prodigal, Stewpeas, and de rest please come and help yuh girl bury this piece of cat shoite!
…after you push a spanner into the fan and piss all over him….
…. Wuh help you want???
Looka ….pelt the 2 X 4 in he tail and leave Bushie outa wunna bassa bassa do!
Bushie I will file this away for a rainy day! LOLL So yuh won’t help out your ex nuh?
Islandgal,
Ignore these DLP trolls. They are so shame, they do not know what to do so they have to come on BU to try to upset us. Like the way you cuss he/she, I was ‘deading” with laughter!
Balance; I totally agree with pachamama and your destination (ie to build a Barbados from which the current actors have been excised and replaced by a new system of equality, etc). But I can’t see how eg. the chaos of the population themselves setting up a people’s parliament as proposed by Pachamama will get us there.
Who will supply the power necessary? The Regiment? A motley band of smoking yutes? A BLP military arm? The PDC military arm? The Chinese? The Brits? The CIA? or some other external force.
Who will supply the necessary experiential guidance? Pachamama?
Who will strategize the best course for Barbados in that undertaking? The coalition for change?
What will our neighbours and the entire democratic system be doing while we are burning?
What would the rest of the population be doing while the insurrection is going on? running, moving all their resources, fighting, dying?
What are the examples of big well endowed nations that have taken steps similar to what you espouse?
What is the chance of success?
What is the chance of failure and plummeting even further into the ranks of failed states?
I think that the Pachamamian solution is ill conceived and needs further work. However, truth be told, we seem to be headed in that direction and there is a need for normally clear thinkers like you to show how we could realistically reach that new society without Barbados transitioning through mob rule into something that few of us would think is an improvement. . Be careful what you wish for.
I am willing to try something new but something that, to me, has some chance of succeeding and improving the situation without engendering the chaos that will lead to a failed mini-state with no hope of getting back to even a small portion of our former standards. You will say impossible. You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs. But do we really need an omelet.
@Balance
Now are you saying that the members of the Democratic Labor Party has met an Explanatory – Threshold?
@ Balance
Shouldn’t you at least give credit to that fact that the effort to appeal to the IMF for assistance, constitutes some form of efficacy on the part of the Democratic Labor Party? Now, perhapds, we need to deal with the Truths and Truism surrounding the IMF to relieve our irrational fears?
A financial expert told me recently that the best hope BDS has for economic recovery is to adopt the EC dollar so that further devaluation was impossible (through lack of agreement by other EC states). When did our best chance for proper management of our economic affairs come from the removal of economic power from the managers? That is the level of confidence that currently exists internationally, the track record is undeniable.
A most interesting observation. But rather politically improbable and administratively impractical given the established state of the Barbados’s monetary system.
Such a move would automatically eliminate the relevance of the Barbados Central Bank. This in itself might not be a bad thing since that institution has not been functioning effectively in the normative ‘objectively advisory’ role in the management of the monetary and economic affairs of the country and therefore has lost the right to call itself “independent” of narrow partisan political grandstanding resulting in the undermining of the country’s fiscal and monetary integrity.
What is more than likely is that the initial phase of adjustment of the Barbados currency would be to bring it in line or on par with the E.C. dollar. The ultimate correction is to make the Barbados dollar subordinate to that of its main regional supplier of goods and capital investment.
Barbados does not manufacture or produce high-end luxury goods say like France and Italy. Except for some niche areas in the tourism market, the services on offer for export are also competitively overpriced. There is no way that uncompetitive pricing mechanism as a result of its existing currency peg can be sustained in the future unless businesses in Barbados up their game and offer ‘high-end value added’ goods and services for the export market where ‘price’ is not the main determinant in the purchasing decision.
@ Frustrated Businessman
This is a brilliant idea. The Barbados dollar is massively overvalued. The problem is a sentimental idea that we are so important that our dollar must remain pegged to the Greenback.
In reality it is dead weight and should be got rid of. Does Sinckler has the guts to do that?
Again, you are mis-directing the public. The underlying problem has little to do with sentimentality. The real problem is the inherent instability of fiat currencies universally. The over leveraging of this Ponzi scheme. The fractional reserve system. Massive borrowings by central government. And a banking system or intermediation generally that has long been ‘financializing’ the real economy. High frequency trading etc.These have absolutely nothing to do with Bajan sentimentality viz a viz a pegged exchange rate. We when to a place one time that thought us that before we can see the answers we must first understand the problem. Sometimes a better understanding of the problem is the best we do.
The BSTU has fired a warning not to think about laying off temp teachers. As usual Miss Mary seems to be showing more backbone than the NUPW and BWU. Here we go again.
I really don’t know why we are still expecting anything from the present government. THEY ARE AN INCAPABLE LOT. They haven’t a clue! They are prepared to see Barbados cat spraddled than to admit that they cannot manage this country’s affairs. They will not put their country first! NOT ONE OF THEM ! They are so intent on holding unto POWER that they prefer to sink the ship. GET THAT IN WUNNA HEADS! EVERY MAN FUH HESELF!
After a few minutes of considering the effects Hal I too was convinced. A little pain now for no pain later. Consider expanding the arrangement to include free movement of working people, a vehicle ferry service and free movement of vehicles with only a check on insurance and licensing documents from the issuing state. Then it REALLY starts to make sense. I am old enough to remember hawkers from SVG arriving in the careenage by island schooner with baskets on their heads to spend a day in Bridgetown. Imagine vans and trucks moving both ways.
@ Frustrated Businessman
I too remember those days. But our super educated leaders do not want to go back to those days. They want Barbados to be a global financial services centre. Of course, it is nonsense.
You should have a word with the minister of finance. We need a new growth paradigm.
There is only one cabinet member engaging the private sector and it certainly isn’t CS. Despite the enthusiasm and hope that a change of gov’t brought in 2008 for new methods and new opportunities for the private sector they have failed. The best indicator of future behaviour is past behaviour; their time is up.
Presumably that Cabinet Minister is D I. Are you sure the appropriate word is “engaging” or more like ‘manipulating and using’ for his own narrow selfish political ambition of replacing FS as head honcho of the DLP and hopefully in control of the reins of government?
D I’s track record in dealing with the new hospital at Kingsland leaves a lot to be desired and only confirms he is capable of going to any lengths to bullshit and lie for his own narrow interests. However, we must agree with you he is the only one that appears capable of “engaging” meaningfully with the private sector. Do you think he would make a more effective minister of Finance than the current idiot or even ‘outtalk’ David Estwick in the role?
We ought to be most disappointed in Darcy Boyce, given his training and background. Wasn’t he chosen by David Thompson to perform the same role Inniss is chomping at the bit to perform? But as the old people used to say: “edication ain’t commonsense”.
Miller, we don’t need a new minister of finance. They can be hired from anywhere a dime-a-dozen. We need a leader with practical ideas and management skills who can rally the private sector behind them.
@H Austin
A society in which envy, greed, bitterness have replaced dynamism and talent; one in which more energy is expended on being resentful of one’s neighbours’ material possession than in trying to improve one’s own intellectual and career prospects.
/\/\/************
Which society is that? Seems you like to deal in generalities when you wander off the reservation. In this country North of the 49th parallel the average CEO’s salary is 171 times that of the average worker, 1n 1980 it was 40 times. The workers average rage has increased an average of 6% since 1998 while the CEO’s “pay packet” has increased multiple times that average. I am sure these figures are comparable in most of the “developed” countries including the one where you reside.
In a dog eat dog world where there is increasing disparity between the haves and havenots and where the rich get richer and the poor gets the shaft, where CNN is the educator of many who want their lifestyles to mirror those of the “rich and famous” why do you expect “Christian” morality from those who are hanging on by their fingertips?
Different year same …..
@ Sargeant
You are right. Anything goes in a dog eat dog world. The problem is that Barbados is a nation with human beings so we expect a different form of behaviour.
“Anything goes in a dog eat dog world. Barbados is a nation with human beings so we expect a different form of behaviour”
Pssss…….Wake up Hal ! We are part of that dog eat dog world so how do you expect change when this is all we have been taught. And how do you expect us to be treated in the outside world? With kid gloves?
Just purpose work to recolonialize Barbados
@Frustrated Businessman
What was the nature of your business, what cause your frustrations
Chaucer; tourism, sports, entertainment, land development, engineering, distribution. Not that it matters, there is no business in Bim currently being facilitated by cabinet. Any development you’ve seen going on in the past 6 years has been bought and paid for from the civil service opportunists. Even in decision making, nature abhors a vacuum.
Is it me or does it seem strange that a government employee would be still a temporary worker 15 YEARS LATER, seems to me the strategy was to create voters on demand…….sickos..
Why are these PIMP titles out of England so important to BLACK PEOPLE IN BARBADOS….why do they continue to make damn idiots of themselves and consistently insult and tarnish the image of their black foreparents who were the victims of the same beasts who now make believe they are measuring a black person by designating them with a PIMP title and the blacks who continue to measure themselves and each other by this travesty coming out of England……it’s a disgrace after what their foreparents experienced not so very long ago….it’s disgusting..
If we are looking for a model of how thinking outside the box can make a difference take a look at Iceland. The whole country went broke and 5 years later it is doing so much better. I agree with Hal Austin, the pegged dollar is a anchor on our future. How can industry ever plan to expand or establish here when they can only tie their values to a fixed currency. It is now a world of free trade and free markets.
We could clearly become energy in dependant. We are surrounded by moving oceans and winds with ample solar opportunity. All of our cars should be planned to move to electrical such as Nissan Leafs. We should abolish import duties on everything that we cant make with the exception of gasoline and diesel burning cars where we should double the existing duties with the excess being put into a “energy development trust:
Let the dollar float and the new the new opportunities begin.
aaaam how are the electric cars recharged?
@Well Well
England is a Pebble in the grass these day. And I hardly think that the people of Barbados would want the emulate the people of this antiquated empire.
@ Sith
Well argued. The only problem is if you abolish the astronomical import tariffs those firms selling second hand high performance cars at massive mark ups will go out of business.
That is a central part of the scam. If you want a high performance car you must buy it at an extortionate rate.
Mark…..don’t be deluded but you can guarantee that most people in Barbados do not know that England is just as ordinary as everyone else these day, Bajans are still proud to be associated with the ‘kingdom’
@Hal the significant cost of a vehicle in Barbados maybe found in the duty paid and not the markup.
@ David
Everything this man says fails to properly measure the broader effects. He just throws out singular, tried and worn out policies, that in the main do more harm than good. Any significant reduction in excise duties framework across the board, all things remaining equal, will really sink things even faster. This linear, one-dimensional thinking is largely unhelpful and changes nothings.
@pachama
Amen. I have said it numerous times before.
@ David
That is what I said. The high import tariffs (duty) which are passed on to the end users – along with VAT, road tax, insurance and other taxes.
The mark up is costs plus profits.
@ David
That is true about the import cost of cars regarding duty but how about having these cars at no duty whatsoever http://money.cnn.com/2014/01/02/autos/ford-solar-car/.
There would be a massive amount of FX that would be saved by having “zero” energy costs. Iceland is 80% of the way to their energy goal. The government would simply have to get along without the duty from importing vehicles which in turn would force them to be more efficient and reduce spending on non important things. We need some powerful and dynamic thinkers and leaders in the government. Sadly we don’t have any, or at least none of come to the forefront. The Financial Times interview with the PM is very telling. A little scary to think that this is the individual who will be negotiating our future with the IMF
Inthe end bubbados only saving grace might be China. bills have to be paid…an economy built on quick sand and tilted on one side needs to be diversified. IMF solutions on the other hand are bitter and short termed…. only gonna help the captalist more pain and no gain for the economy……..wunna could baulked all wunna want .money is the only solution and china got plenty to spare……..Sooner or later wunna gonncome round to that reality…..in the meantime keep spinning wunna wheels.
“Inthe end bubbados only saving grace might be China. money is the only solution and china got plenty to spare……”
Spoken by a true 2 cents street walker ! Wunna vex with the Trinis BUT you prefer to tek on a Chinese John !
Sith said
The Financial Times interview with the PM is very telling. A little scary to think that this is the individual who will be negotiating our future with the IMF.
Actually a lot scary.
And the same individual, who would have been heading Stuart, Sealy, Sinkler team that negotiated the great giveaway to Butch.
Well america have no qulams working wid china………they understand the process of having to fed the family when the pantry is empty. look at the alternative. DO or DIE……
AC your government ent tired whoring? De cat/dog dun get pong flat it ent got nuh more life. No one wants an ole swibbly whorianna or giggaloo.
Dem want FRESH MEAT !
@Are-we-there-yet
Do a check of their website, don’t have it, yet.
In the Financial Times interview the PM said
“We do not feel threatened by China”
He had better rethink dealing with that loan shark.
“We do not feel threatened by China”
“Leroy Parris is no leper he is my friend”
” I haven’t seen the report”
” There will be no UWI fees”
” There will be no lay offs”
Can this BOLD FACE LIAR be trusted ? NOOOOOO!
Shiite Islandgal, that 2X4 of yours smoking today….. 🙂
The issue is not only about paying bills as some are saying, it is also about behavioral, governance, economy restructure changes and other issues which have to be managed. Getting China to provide funding does not address the fiscal and social indiscipline which we have been unable to manage. Both parties.
You forgot TALENT.
Indeed. David, giving money to a fool only gets him into deeper trouble….
Bet you ain’t know that it was the lotta money from VAT that got the BLP’s donkey in trouble….
The solution is not about money, but to GET the FOOLS out of office and install a SENSIBLE system that identifies and promotes wisdom and competence……
Steupssss
…but where ignorance is bliss Bushie is only a shiite trying to be otherwise 🙂
David; Do you have access to Mary Redman’s statement on behalf of the BSTU re. the possibility of temporary teachers being caught in the net of this first round of layoffs despite promises to the contrary by various Ministers.
I heard some of it on VOB and it was very well crafted and powerful. The first statement on this matter by a Union leader that makes sense and pulls no punches (outside of Dennis Clarke’s heartfelt response to Minister Donville Inniss’ utterings, that is)
I agree. Wish she was the head of NUPW. At least she has some fortitude.
David et al;
Looks like the battle royal with the Union is beginning to take shape. Mary Redman’s statement on Brasstacks today was the opening salvo and the news tonight that Sir Roy and Dennis Clarke were joining forces to defend the workers was another. Government has unwittingly created a Union partnership that can work against a smooth implementation of the layoff and other policies since it appears to have been, as usual, totally inept in handling the situation. Look for it to get worse since they seem unwilling to disclose to the Social Partnership the full reasons for their having totally departed from DLP basic social precepts and sacred cows on and following Black Friday.
The situation has to be much worse than we think.
Dennis Johnson;
Thanks for identifying where I can get Mary Redman’s BSTU statement which I thought was the most beautifully put together statement of its type that I’ve seen over the years. With her leadership qualities and resolve she should be asked to take over BWU when the Duke of York demits office.
You gave us an excellent Brasstacks today. Keep up the good work of educating the populace.
Pachamama and Balance and Bushtea; The Union situation could provide an intro for the changes you talk about unless the Government takes appropriate steps to propitiate the Unions. But is there any hope that they can manage this given that the Government’s PR re. the layoffs and dealing with the unions has been totally and unbelievably out of whack with the situation (as far as the facts available to the general public suggests) and seems to have been designed to antagonize the Union rather than to get them on Board. The situation also suggests that the Cabinet is sorely divided re. strategies for implementing their layoff policy with the PM pulling one way and DI and CS pulling another way. In such a situation I wonder when the Government will collapse and how.
@Islandgal246
I know come back from the streets of Bridgetown to see your SOS. The Fan needs some good stew peas and pigtail to keep his ass quiet.
@are-we-there-yet
Check vob929.com brasstacks is posted there for download Her call was just after 11:30 [if I remember correctly]
@enuff
Concessions on electric cars would have to be complemented with similar home RE system.
Don,t worry the hotter the pain.the more China gonna look Real good..
Wuhloss………Sir Roy and Dennis teaming up to prevent public scetor job loss? Dawg Fight ’bout here. It brutal. I hope Shanique Myrie know that Barbados ‘brekk’. People getting layoff so she cant get no money.
After twenty – six years of being in the Union. I’ve learned not to trust the Union, because of its duplicitous dealing with management. More than often the Union is in bed with management, especially when it comes to drafting Union policy. Remember, the Union is there to make profit and as long as it have gotten you business it is business as unusual.
What “givebacks” can the Union possibly negotiate with government to prevent public sector job loss? The Furlough option doesn’t possibly go far enough, so this leads me to concluded that job retention is going to be an impossibility.
The NUPW seems to be attacking workers rather than defending workers. Dennis Clarke attacked the Permanent Secretary -Drainage
The Permanent Secretary is an employee of Government too
or is it that the PS is Management. I am confused.
Then the NUPW through Dennis Clarke attacked the workers at the Hospital saying that Donville Inniss brought them and something about workers clocking in and going back home. Does he represent some of these workers ? The trouble with people like Dennis Clarke is that they play so many games that they do not know which game to play now so they are fooling around with words and talking baloney . Dennis Clarke’s statements are bewildering . He seems to have lost it. Not sure if he ever had it.
I went to the Bridgetown Port collecting a barrel and heard some of the Customs Officers denouncing Clarke and the NUPW. They were saying something to the effect that the Comptroller mash up Vat and they bring she to totally destroy Customs. They were saying that she does not know what she is doing and should be moved and moved fast before everything collapse and that Dennis Clarke should talk about that and stop attacking the Officers.
The Unions get lambast by George Belle. What is really happening to Barbados ?
PIMP TITLES OUT OF ENGLAND
Sick Sick people holding onto these titles . Craving them and parading on other people. When you have people of this Ilk running a country or influencing those who run the country, yuh know that we have problems.These people have not accepted themselves and crave validation from Europe. What a sorry bunch.
When you hear Sleepy Smith , for example speak and the tone he uses , the words he uses to refer to others in a derogatory manner , you get a good example of how nasty Barbados used to be as far as Discrimination is concerned. I hate to hear Sleepy Smith speaking about people in derogatory terms. Sleepy Smith sounds very snobbish, discriminatory and someone who likes to talk about low-class and upper class and a lot of nonsense. And he loves his title—SIR-
Jason Price | 03/01/2014 at 7:19 pm | Reply @@We know Sleepy Smith Well ,and is at the roots of this massive land fraud , Family to Beatrice Henry and had to call her Aunt, He wrote the Will for her and charged her 4000 for an Estate Will,he was mad for he did not get when she died as he wanted and grudge her and Violet Beckels , His Brother warned his to what he was doing was wrong , The Same man that wanted to be GG and acted like he was not friend to David Simmons EX CJ who is also part of this crime that is part of the CLICO and massive land Fraud going on,
This is Big part of the pain that Barbados is dealing with NOW. Lay off , get off , and go home , Unions dealing with today 2014/
Have a TOP EYE open for those with TITLES OF THE CROWN BOUGHT AND PAID FOR ,WITH NO VAT, TAXES , SHAKE OF HANDS DEALS ,
ALL THE CROOKS with title sold out the people like Sir Allen Standford and a jail bird , title bought as the rest of them are , trust none of them even in the Union ,
1199 Union in New York as the New York Blood Center also crooks , sold out the workers for back deals , I know them well , first hand information,
PIMP TITLES OUT OF ENGLAND@ these same PIMPs now want control of the slavery funds to be paid out to 120,000 persons at about 1.5 billion dont know if that is pounds and bds or ec , it need to be in pounds.
2013 to 2023 is given to be paid as they fly to different CC island counties looking for ways yo get a hold of the funds to put in there own pockets,
More long talk by crooks,,
Just pay who on this list and be done , then take your crown off this island , for no one is to benefit from CRIMES, OF FRAUD AND SLAVERY,
As you can see the crown is not policing their crooks , lawyers, GG, PM , Minister and Senators ,
http://barbadosfreepress.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/happy-new-year-2014-forbes-announces-that-barbados-is-on-its-knees-in-a-financial-meltdown/#comments
ac…..why not North Korea??? guy just had his uncle executed, how? fed to 120 starving dogs…..you may want to try telling your DLP masters to use their damn brains for a change instead of trying to borrow from every country, immersing themselves in more debt to pay present debt, don’t give me any excuse cause i did not put them in this situation…
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jameshenry/2013/12/18/postcard-from-barbados-a-k-a-cyprus-west-part-i-the-cure/
Forbes (12/18/2013) displays photo of Chris Sinckler, says Barbados is on its knees. Surely Alvin Cummings could do something about this “let’s get this island going”. Owen Arthur said to the Nation News in June 2012 “it [the economy] is a mess right now, we will fix it” . Too bad Arthur and the BLP didn’t fix that Al Barack mess; Bajans must now pay. It’s sad that Barbados in such poor condition but certainly should not get back in bed with those BLP CROOKS.
The Barbados people may have accepted FACT that the BLP are crooks, likely will just look over it.The United States accepted FACT that Bill Clinton engaged in infidelity and in the white house but literally looked it. People in Toronto Ontario, Canada accepted FACT that Mayor Rob Ford is a crack cocaine addict and literally looking the other way. Ford is even running for re-election. Might have been encouraged by Washington, D.C. ex-mayor, Marion Berry.
@ look
Mr Barack is just the most humiliating of the people this incompetent government owes money to and refuse to pay. I have it on good authority that COW Williams has not yet been fully paid for work carried out on the ABC highway.
Now this government is offering gilts to retail investors. They would be made to invest their money with this lot. They will default on local investor, something they will not dream of doing with foreign investors.
The government is discredited.
@ Hal
The BLP government was dead wrong to even construct that damn thing, ABC Highway. Property belonged to Violet Beckles NOT government.
@ Look
Even the planning was faulty. A straight line from the airport to the west coast so that tourists could get to their hotels without any real delay, cutting across valuable agricultural land.
But these are small measure in bad policymaking.
http://barpublish.bits.baseview.com/story/359735895211770.php
The DLP may not know what in the hell they are doing. The BLP also did not know what in the hell they were doing.
Hall ,,you love to dance , you can never say who owned the land,Yes we have the deed for the land used for the ABC highway and QUEEN BEATRICE IS THE OWNER TO VIOLET BECKELS ,
Hall , like S&P , Moodys, WB, IMF they know who owns what , so you are also part of the problem when even you can admit to who own what , We know your information and learning cant just stop on the line of land owner ship.
Look ,, Dont even live here and can see more than who live here and write , on this blog, When some one supports the truth and writes about it , Bajans who live on the land like your self will move to the side like a pot hole in the road.
When the truth is told by the crooks , please dont try to change your tone or words , We know where the truth is and all will have to tell the truth , in order to make things RIGHT.
COW dont need to be paid until the owners are paid at today’s rate .Unless in the DVD with COW saying he bought so much land? Where the deeds and who he buy it from?NHC ? UDC ? G. Dennis Clarke QC?
You and other may make your post and doing the same things as the DBLP government and that is KEY to why we still stuck in long talk,
We know who to blame down to the roots,
If COW owned any thing at any point , why did he show up at Violet Beckles Home with offers to take every thing off her hands , ?
He knows Richard L Chelenham on whitepark road is a crook ,
Yes face to face in his office , So we not talking behind no ones back .
Maps of the plantations on his wall looking to carve out another lovely deal supported by the NEW DBLP government
LOOK , Bajans Thank you and others for the support for the truth , Those who talk out the back of their necks , soon will have to turn around,