A national lottery is not a novel idea.
A member of parliament who always gives the appearance of taking his role seriously is Jeffrey Bostic the former Defence Force Colonel and representative for the City. During one of his interventions in the Estimates Debate 2014-15 he reflected on the need for Barbados leadership to be motivated by the protracted economic crisis to think ‘outside the box’.
Those who listened to the Estimates Debate this week there was the feeling of same old same old. There was no feeling of anticipation in response to government programs to be rolled out. Many of the contributions reminded BU of what was observed on the campaign trail. It must be evident to the independents that bipartisanship in the House of Assembly at this time will always be elusive in our style of government.
The challenge for the government is one of spending wisely and finding creative ways to add new revenue streams. We can’t continue to maintain our conspicuous consumption lifestyle and stop finding ways to pay for it. It should have been obvious to the government after a couple years into the economic downturn that Barbados would have to take firm decisions to support our lifestyle. Austerity policies will always attract a hue and cry but it is a no-brainer to hurt a few to protect the many, it is one of the laws of nature.
The recent Article IV IMF report mentions the government of the day asked to delay the process until after the last general election. In other words winning a general election was placed above national interest. Barbadians were also reminded by a former DLP strategist that the campaign thrust was to attack BLP personalities and not the economy. It is a sad commentary Barbadians who are reputed to have an enviable education system were swayed by a platform message which targeted personalities and not more substantive issues. No wonder we have sane individuals who prefer to be governed under a benevolent dictatorship.
What can government do to raise revenue without squeezing the good guys some more? Although there has been no concerted effort by government to impose an aggressive sin tax strategy, there has been NO attempt to tap in on Barbadians love affair with gambling. Why has the government continue to give the private sector free rein to profit from gambling? The taxes gambling companies pay can never offset the ready market which exist in Barbados to guarantee profits.
During Minister David Estwick’s contribution to the Estimates Debate he made the point that as a country we need to determine the level of support we want to give to healthcare, BU adds education and transport. He suggested a 1% levy on incomes. BU says NO, no more taxes. What we recommend instead is for the government to establish a NATIONAL LOTTERY and the monies raised be allocated to support free healthcare as a good start. If in the guava season our consumption habits drive the government and others to profligate at the expense of a hard working middleclass, let us make decisions which will redirect gambling revenue to the government treasury and not a few millionaires.
Like prostitution gambling will not go away. The time has come to marshal our resources to the benefit of the many – plundering the NIS Scheme is not the answer.
David:
We happen to know that Barbados right now is being inundated with a myriad of Ponzi schemes. And all types of society people are involved in pushing these gambles where only a few people will benefit from the hard earned money of the gullible. After all this is a Christian society. That in itself requires more than a modicum of gullibility. You would not believe the names of the people who are involved. The last one we heard of was “Wake Up” or something so. More frightening is that it was one of these schemes that caused an economic collapse in, we seem to remember, Panama or the DR. Fundamentally, this irrational underground mal-economy is a harbinger of things to come and represents a basic lack of confidence in what you like to call the formal economy. This recklessness will soon come to an end. For it must. The saddest thing is that the social class Blacks who are now to be bilked by this confidence trick are tacitly admitting that everything they liked to fouled us about regarding their sophistication (pseudo) was and is a fcuking lie. Nuff poor people with thousands under their mattresses gine cry too! Dispute formal resistance, for many years, all these thought leaders and petite bourgeois people with their miseducation now have to offer the country is gambling. What a sad state!
@Pacha
It boggles the mind why we allow a few rich people to prey on the gullible and ignorant in society. What is the role of government if not to protect the vulnerable and gullible from themselves.
@ David
Casino capitalism has long come, to Barbados!
David you copying the Canadians?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/partners/advolg1012/olg-funds-healthcare-hospitals-and-community-revitalization/article5661420/
@Hants
It is not a novel idea just that Barbados has not tried it yet.
“What is the role of government if not to protect the vulnerable and gullible from themselves” … Where is this written ..? Seriously. If by Government you are referring to the political administrators, well that has never proven to be the case. Political administrations are basically business entities that attract conniving exploitative opportunists. However if by Government you are referring to the Public Sector administration, well basically they comprise mainly (with a few exceptions) of bureaucrats that live to draw salaries and travel at the public’s expense.
Frankly there is no genuine “protection of the public” agenda … irrespective of the many agencies that have been set up with this as the excuse. A “capitalist democracy” feeds on its citizens; it does not “protect” them. In fact it sells its citizens to the highest bidder as a captive market … for utility provision for example, and rest assured that along with the selling of the National Oil Terminal company, the NPC and ports of entry will be auctioned off in quick order. Political Parties, my ass…
BTW, Barbados had a National Lottery and apparently some money got stolen. For this reason there was never a second attempt. I do recall though that the Olympio lottery was to have been nationalized five years after it was started. This was to give the original investors time to recoup their investment. This never happened of course, OSA put and end to that by allowing the two established lotteries to combine, after having forgiven the Turf Club a $20 Mil debt to the Treasury. Political Parties, my ass …
“OSA put and end to that by allowing the two established lotteries to combine, after having forgiven the Turf Club a $20 Mil debt to the Treasury. ”
THE BELOW INFORMATION INDICATES THAT YOUR STATEMENT IS FALSE.
Government to write off BTC $19 million debt
11/29/2008
THE Barbados Turf Club (BTC) no longer have to repay a debt of $19 million owed to the Government of Barbados.
Newly elected President of the BTC, Sir David Seale, told Barbados Turf Club stakeholders Thursday evening at an Open Forum meeting held in the Incitatus Members Lounge, Garrison Savannah, that the Government had forwarded them a letter confirming that the $19 million debt owed by the club for many years will finally be written off.
Sir David took the opportunity to thank the government for taking this decision, as it now opens the way for the Barbados Turf Club to go forward in a positive way.
He said in addition to writing off this old outstanding debt, the government had also given them some other helpful concessions, such as what is given to Agriculture.
THE DEBT WAS FORGIVEN IN THE SAME BUDGET THAT MR DAVID THOMPSON UNLEASHED SOME OF THE MOST DRACONIAN TAX MEASURES EVER IMPOSED ON BARBADIANS- WATER RATES INCREASED BY 60%; LIQUOR LICENSE FROM $300.TO $1000.; CAR REGISTRATION FROM $265 TO $400. WITH NO REFUND IF VEHICLE NOT OPERATIONAL. BABF YOU NEED TO GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT.
I’m not adverse to ideas that emanate from outside. Where the idea is robust and can be implemented – fine. However a National Lottery for Barbados? No Sir!
Lotteries the world over are bad. Firstly, it negates the responsibilities of Governments to practise good governance. Secondly, it allows private companies to amass huge profits on the backs of the poor and the not so poor. Thirdly it is the poor who suffer as they will lose a greater proportion of their incomes. Fourthly, it stymies the mind-set of the individual to ameliorate their life’s through sheer hard work and from developing an entrepreneurial spirit.
The UK for many years has a system in place which allows individuals to invest up to a maximum of £50,000 in a scheme called premium bonds. Each month they have a prize draw with a maximum prize of one million pounds; and a minimum prize of £25. The beauty of this scheme is that you can withdraw your savings at your leisure. You may never win a single penny/dime, however unlike a lottery your money will never disappear.
By the way premium bond holders do not receive interest on their savings. The reason for this been that it will undermine the banking system.
A national lottery is a great idea, pay as well as play at your own risk as I often say. A new source of revenue for the small island of Barbados perhaps? But let’s not forget though that the Devil is always in the detail. It looks like we’re going to need a lot more psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists, to provide the necessary counseling for the addiction that is associated with this game.
@ Pachamama
You said and I quote “all these thought leaders and petite bourgeois people with their miseducation now have to offer the country is gambling”
This is the meat of the matter that we have men and women of such singular, unremarkable stock and intellectual stature that all they can come up with at this 11th hour is “how to implement a national ponzi”
Even if these impotent men and women were to say something like (1) over the last six years they have, with the help of the IDB created a website, am enhanced BU website that allowed Bajans, particularly those who have been sent home (retrenched workers) to submit briefs of initiatives for consideration by competent evaluations (2) the site would be subdivided into themes so that a submission on a health solution would be ultimately allocated to a review team with the requisite qualifications in that subject. (3) like the $11 million that tourism flittered away on that promotion recently, a budget of $2 M would be allocated to this ideas bank and the best of the submissions would be paid $1,000 each (4) if my maths is good that would allow for 2,000 best of breed ideas to be collected and rewarded ACROSS THE ENTIRE ISLAND!!! (5) as opposed to the waste foop ideas of a single inconsequential competition to harvest ideas at the outdated Enterprise Growth Fund and the National Council for Science and Technology one would have created a constant reaping portal for national subscription. (6) when the good ideas win you publish the names of the winners on your ideas lotto site with an even briefer summary of the proposed idea to ensure that our ever vigilant competitors don’t Reid the ideas (7) the specific entity that has evaluated the first stage of the submission invites the proposer in for ongoing dialogue and development of the concept with requisite HR and technical assistance being secured from the various international funding agencies that are currently complaining that there is nothing useful that the GOB is working on (8) as hard as it will be for you clowns, keep the process of submissions of briefs and the awards of winnings transparent and clean of your normal tiefing practices and let all the Bajans participate in this National Ideas Lotto and get the positive recognition that the mega six winners and quick pick winners get pun a week for the games of chance that are doing nothing to advance our country
The facts of this matter is that wunna are devoid of any ideas, barren like mules. Not everybody is going to be an Einstein but, in realizing your shortcomings you need to solicit the ideas of men and woman who have more talent in their big toe than you will ever amass in your entire lives.
Government is to enable its citizenry not compete with it and seek to become businessmen in the process.
Recognize that when chosen to lead what the purpose and remit was for and your election to parliament does not make you an adept Donald Trump
Do the job you were hired to do or go to phuck home
@Exclaimer
All BU has posited is that a few are currently raking in the millions from the lotteries gambling which already exist. The government should be controllimg and not a few millionaires.
I made this very point via e-mail to a moderator on brasstacks a while ago only to be told about the rejection one could expect to come from the direction of the church. I have felt for quite some time now that the first step towards rebuilding our fledgling tourism industry is the establishment of casino gambling, a number one attraction anywhere that tourists frequent.To take the next step and establish a lottery to my mind is even better. The pitfalls to which the naysayers always harp about are already here and have been for quite some time now.
balance .. my apologies. Thompson did indeed forgive the debt, but it was OSA that encouraged the lotteries to merge. The ownership of Olympio was to have passed to an NGO, the BOA. Maybe OSA thought it best to keep the lotteries in place as business entities so as tax them.
To the above …”Government is to enable its citizenry not compete with it and seek to become businessmen in the process..” where is this written ..? What you are saying is that Government is to encourage its citizens to exploit each other for profit. That is diametrically opposed to the notion that “Government is to protect the venerable and gullible from themselves ..” Who among is neither vulnerable nor gullible ..?
@ exclaimer…points one, two and three, none more glaringly than #1 Is already upon us so where are you going with your argument?
As Sargeant reminded us Barbados has been punching above its weight class mainly because of friendly external conditions and negligiable competition from other tourist destinations in the region. IF we want to support rampant conspicious consumption we have to do what we have to in order to survive. There is deminishing revenue from the economic model in place. This is the reality.
@ Hamilton Hill | March 23, 2014 at 7:40 AM |
How about adding the decriminalization of the use of marijuana to the list?
If you agree to that you would be on par with the miller on the score sheet for the much needed social’ structural adjustment that ought to occur to replace the national moral hypocrisy imposed by the smug minority of financial conmen (including the religious mafia) that pervades the land.
Why should the boys on the block be “criminalized” for smoking and trading in marijuana while millionaires are legally allowed to fleece the populace via legalized gambling and to legally deaden their senses of the masses through the licensed sale of alcohol?
As was called for many months ago it’s time a national Health Lottery be set up to help fund the QEH and other ‘free’ primary health care services offered to the public.
Why would the MOF choose to tax credit union assets rather than the assets of the current owners of the so-called Sport lottery….?
Who exactly owns this lottery?
How are the proceeds used?
Why would government need to forgive $20M Turf Club debt when a sport lottery exists?
Who oversees these things?
@Bush Tea
You know the answer, the deep pockets, the shadows who control things.
BTW why are we selling to Kyffin Simpson if word on the street is to be believed.
Now, let the PDC imagine that there were more and more persons in Barbados, who simply wanted to have money for their own personal purposes, but who wanted such money without taking active roles in the political economy and services industry sectors of the country.
And let us say that they were also these different business partnerships functioning at different levels in the process of the production and distribution of goods and services in this country at a certain time, and let us say too that there was no passing on of goods and providing of services by these persons of these partnerships to those other persons who wanted money for personal purposes, and furthermore let us say then too that the business partnerships got no money from the persons who wanted money for their own personal purposes, so they were no remunerations accorded to the same partnerships at that time.
Now, let us say that days later there was greater and greater production and distribution of goods and services by the business partnerships mentioned above in the context of what they had set about to do and what they had actually done with these goods and services ( ie to get/got money) at a given time, and these things notwithstanding, how they were not given any money by potential customers ( including all of the same business partners ) to have or get the use of them, principally because the potential consumers (not the idlers who wanted money) – although they had money – saw no purpose in giving money to the business partners (every business partner therefore had no money to give the others too).
Now, let us state too that eventually there would be no more production and distribution of goods and services by the business partners, and hence no remunerations for them in their respective realms at the given time concerned.
But, let us say though that in spite of there having been less and less production and distribution of goods and services by the said business partnerships in the context of their intentions to get out of business, they were now being given more and more money by their customers (including all of the same business partners) to have or get the use of such goods and services at such a time, principally because these customers saw much purpose in continuing to give some monies to these business partners (although the latter had fewer and fewer purposes for money, given that there were making fewer and fewer goods and services available) ( and each business partnership was giving each other a little more money).
Now, let us say too that – in addition to those idlers having no purposes for money – eventually there would be no production and distribution of goods and services by the business partnerships, as that they – the latter – would have no purposes for them, and there would be no remunerations following for them in their respective realms at the given time concerned.
Well, the major reasons for the PDC proffering those suppositions is to show many people seeing this information on here (BU) that THEORY OF DEMAND FOR AND SUPPLY OF GOODS AND SERVICES is absolute rubbish, and that the greater the number of money lotteries and money gambling games there are in Barbados that the greater the amount of recycling of money by persons that will lead to absolute redundancy of use of money and therefore to no remunerations being generated.
If there is an amount of money ( $500) in a given road, and every person who uses that road passes over it, it is not serving any purpose what so ever. If there is an amount of money ($ 1 million) in a set of gambling dens or in financial institutions, and nobody in the dens or the financial institutions uses it whilst it is in those dens or institutions, it is not serving the purpose to which money is intended whatsoever.
Therefore nobody used it for income, expenditure purposes, which signified no production and distribution of goods and services in that context.
It is this production and distribution of goods and services that associates with the quality of life of so many persons in Barbados.
For without the producers and distributors and customers of non-money commodities and services in Barbados intending to ultimately use such commodities and services and too without their actually getting the use of such non-money commodities and services to ultimately get money (remunerations), and too without their intending to use money to ultimately get non-money commodities and services and too without their actually getting the use of money to ultimately get non-money commodities and services (social psychological satisfaction advantages), there will be relative declines in production and distribution of goods and services provided by the relative persons, thus affecting the quality of life for the relevant people in Barbados at a given time.
PDC
@David,
I understand what you have written. Perhaps the government should be raising more taxes from the gambling industry. However, I believe that regardless of the scale of the revenue raised it would never be quite enough irrespective of the government in control. Sadly it would be wasted.
Pieceuhderockyeahright stated that the government where an unremarkable stock, singular, and lacking in intellectual stature. Pachamama believes that our thought leaders and the petite bourgeois were simply mis-educated.
You stated that “We can’t continue to maintain our conspicuous consumption lifestyle and stop finding ways to pay for it. It should have been obvious to the government after a couple years into the economic downturn that Barbados would have to take firm decisions to support our lifestyle……”.
David we are reaping what we sow. Tiny Barbados has been sold and has bought into the political system referred to as “neo-liberalism”. Should we blame those “so called leaders” who have steered Barbados to the position that we now find ourselves? No! Sadly, we the people get what we deserve.
Piece
Sorry to deflect from the top before deliberation but why do you feel the need to discourse with such voluminous verbiage? When it is a known fact that concise writing conveys a more effective message. I just feel that your superfluous, pedontic and oratorical flourish
Poisons the perspicuity the blog has to offer because my attention is fixed else way whenever you writes. In others words, your colossal contribution kills the collegiate spirit on the blog in my estimation.
@Dompey
One more and your are out.
QEH Trust should set up a lottery rather than raise fees by 75%. Is there any truth to the rumor that the lotteries rake in over $100M yearly while only paying out just over $30M?
We have to sell to Kyffin because he has helped pay the salaries of public workers in a debt swap.
@ Hamilton Hill,
Everybody likes to win money – me too! Playing the lottery on a random basis such as once a year or once a month will not do damage to the normal person. However both of us know that it is often the poor and the least educated who are addicted to the lottery.
Would it not be better for our society if we as individuals became entrepreneurs in order to supplement our incomes and our lifestyles rather than looking at giving away our money to these private lottery companies where we have almost zero chance of winning.
Premium Bonds are a safe and prudent form of “gambling”. I have enclosed a link.
http://uk.ask.com/wiki/Premium_Bond?lang=en
David
It is predestined David. I’ve had this weird cacophony in the in the dark domain of my mind that my days are numbered here on this blog sir. But just remember this before you pull the switch David: partiality of opinion leads to self – righteousness brother.
The Barbados Turf Club owing any government millions in taxes.
What rubbish?
We should have been the owners of some large private entity in Barbados, and saw any government of Barbados come telling us we owe it millions in taxes.
Surely, we would use up much money and other things to help get the rid of that government and to help install one that does not TAX.
For, the MONEY OF BARBADOS that the government seeks does not belong to it, but belong to ALL Barbadians to be used fairly and properly in the relevant commercial or financial processes.
Barbadians have already given up electronic numbers, or alternatively access to foreign exchange to get the prescribed foreign entities to make and send here this Barbados money.
Moreover, there is no money cost ever to any person or business or any other entity – including the government of Barbados, any where in the country, USING money.
Hence, the real actual cost of use of money that is experienced by any person or other relevant entity is a contrived imposed aggregate cost by many Barbadians and other entities – including government and financial institutions – to the remunerations of all the relevant entities – except the financial institutions and the government generally.
PDC
Yeah………word on the ground in Bim is that Simpson will pick up the whole kit and kaboodle, BNOC, Gas, Transport Board, let’s wait and see, as usual the politicians are keeping secrets from the electorate who pay their salaries.
@Well Well
Get it right, it is Barbados National Terminal Company (BNTC) and not BNOC.
http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/newsitem.asp?more=3Dlocal&NewsID=35425
Pacha utters the cliché “we are a Christian society”. Apart from having a lot of churches and a lot of church attendance especially at funerals, I wish someone would spell out what makes us specifically “Christian”. Dompey uses the word “self-righteous”. Has that got something to do with it? Or the lottery of heaven or hell?
We we close our eyes and pray our sovereignty as well the legacy entrusted to us by our ancestors for future generation are stolen thru our sheepishness.
Our concerns are beers at 4 for ten and change a cellphone every time another model is rolled out while the women are caught in expensive remy hair and nail extensions. Most Bajans are docile gullible naive spectators to life behaving like crab in barrels when one of their kind break ranks of the Sheeple.
Thanks David, saw the name but was thinking of something completely different.
Don Knoxx…….nicely put, have to add that the many excess millions (after the 30 million is paid out) earned annually through the lottery scam off the backs of gullible bajans go directly to supporting the local minorities and their family, friends, etc, they are close knit and close ranks, it is more than glaring that most of them are not in the system working but yet lead far from poor lifestyles while driving expensive vehicles, they are known to be lazy but continue to act like they are masters of the majority.
Domey
I fah one likes you bad bad bad … Alright so you got a beef, but you know how to slap words together .. HA HA HA HA ..!
Exclaimer
“No! Sadly, we the people get what we deserve.”
… What the fcuk are you talking about. I am a member of “the people” and I sure as hell do not believe that I deserve any of this BLP/DLP, Central Bank, EGFL, Fund Access, Commercial Bank, Productivity Council, Public-Private sector partnership, BOLT, FTC Board shite that presently passes for development infrastructure.
Dompey
See…you now have three fans…BAF, Well Well and me. Keep up the good work….err
BAF
You know any poets?
Yes we know there is collateral damage to gambling addicts but it hasn’t stopped the Canadians. eh!!!
“A little-known fact about the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation: It’s the number 1 source of non-tax revenue for the province of Ontario. And the almost $2 billion in revenue the OLG generates each year exceeds contributions from other big crown corporations such as the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and Ontario Power Generation.
When Sault Ste. Marie consolidated its two aging hospitals into one modern, new facility, it decided to put $13 million in casino revenue toward the building of the Sault Area Hospital.
And in Hamilton, the approximately $4.6 million in annual revenue from OLG Slots at Flamboro Downs is rolled into general city revenues.”
@Hants
What those who don”t agree fail to grasp is whether a national lottery or private we already have them with just a few benefiting.
When the Gov’t finally establishes a Lottery run by an NGO or a board with links to Gov’t the question from this vantage point would be “what took you so long”? They can’t be blind to the popularity of gambling in one form or another to certain sections of the populace. They must have been cognisant of the success that “Bingo” enjoyed on Rediffusion or how the Haloutes parlayed (pardon the pun) Federal Racing Service on Nelson St. to a gastronomic empire fuelled by Bajans love of chicken.
“Sin taxes” on products e.g. tobacco, alcohol or activities e.g. gambling has long been the preferred route of Gov’ts in the more developed countries when they are devoid of ideas on how to increase revenue or to mollify certain sections of the community who may object to the activities. In Holland they have found a way to tax the oldest profession, so “if you can’t beat em join em” there are always a lineup of people willing to be exploited.
@ Miller… I have no problem with the decriminalization of marijuana and have said so before. Vodka and black label whiskey are my choices and if they were deemed illegal ,believe me I would be a law breaker since I hold fast to the rights of consenting adults. From the comfort and privacy of my humble abode I thoroughly enjoy a social sip and that has made me no lesser or greater a person than any other, and to my mind is no more sinful than the religious zealot that hides behind the robes of salvation all the while molesting our little boys and/or wreaking the lives of the unsuspecting females all in the name of CHURCH..The haven of hypocrisy.
@ Exclaimer….all that I am telling you is that you are seeking to protect us from what is already upon us. In other words de horse dun bolt long time. When the slot machines first surfaced we heard those same concerns then they died. I suspect that if this did indeed come through, the same will obtain.
We have to try something. Right now the hurt is spreading faster than a plague does. Few have….some want…..many need.
For Afra Raymond fans:
A lottery would work very well but only if the purchase of tickets was made in US$. It is US$ that we are short of and that are in decline. If people take saving they have in Barbados dollars to buy lottery tickets the assumption is the government will end up with more Barbados dollars in their treasury. The government will spend these dollars and the things they spend them on, be it wages or materials. will lead to FX leaks.
Whether you ask Barbados residents to take a little of their savings or a lot and give it to the government who eventually spend it, the effect is the same, just more or less of it. As a extreme example to show what happens when savings are used to pay for things that create FX leaks here is an example. If every person on the island decided to withdraw all their savings to go and buy a new car, the eventual effect would be that when the supplier of the cars needed to be paid in US$ there would not be enough US$ in the CBB to cover. We have this problem of importing everything and selling it on the island with a currency that can not be traded into the currency that we have to eventually use to pay for the items we imported.
Comparing to lotteries in countries that have free trading not restricted currency exchange is like comparing apples and oranges. There are significant differences between the two.
@SITH
You are missing the point, a National Lottery assumes that existing privately owned will be nationalised. There is thefefore only a different beneficial owner which becomes local. A few of the existing gambling operations are non Barbadian which translates to management fees.
Choose any example you like but the OLG model is the one that gives back the most to Government.
” It’s the number 1 source of non-tax revenue for the province of Ontario and generates almost $2 billion in revenue each year.
Another example of government using “Sin” profits.
“$1.7 billion Dividend the LCBO transferred to the Government of Ontario for 2012-13 (excluding taxes).
For the record
MOUNT GAY ECLIPSE RUM
Barbados | Mount Gay Distilleries Ltd.
LCBO 64444 | 750 mL | $ 31.95 CANADIAN or about $57 Barbados.
We can cut the b e and face the fact that Barbados is already a big de facto gambling den.
I stopped for a beer at a little rum shop in Black rock and they were 3 Slot machines.I did my duty as a visiting BajanCanadian and donated $50bds to the machine.lol
Nuff said.
Hants…..the only difference is the government in Barbados only just started taxing lottery winnings after so many years AND in Canada you are warned not to bank on winning the lottery, know your limits and stick within it….lol
What about history continually repeating itself where the government of the day might start the lottery but then sell it to private entities, lose lose situation again.
@David
At the moment anything that gives the Government more money to spend that manifests in a reduction of our FX reserves is a bad thing. If lottery winnings could only be used to reduce deficits and the Government were increasing FX reserves it would be a good thing. We all need to spend less money, not more. That is one significant way to get out of the FX crisis we are in.
The benefit from private ownership of lotteries is political campaign donations.
Lotteries should be Government owned. The profits can be used to build hospitals or in the general revenues like they do in Ontario.
David
Is there a wrong with foreign own companies operating in Barbados? Adam Smith said that: it makes better sense to buy a commodity cheaper abroad rather than producing it at an expense cost at home.
David, outsourcing is a new feature of the global economy in its modern context. We have to be globalistic in our approach to business because where would India and China (the two poorest countries in the world some thirty years) be today if they thought as some do in Barbados today? We have to be open – minded with respect to business, this xenophobic approach to business must stop if we’re hoping to achieve any meaningful progress in Barbados.
@SITH
Agree in principle but the Barbados economy is currently driven by domestic activity and to boot government led; we don’t have a vibrant private sector. We have to transition and until we do so redirecting revenue from a few millionaires to the consolidated fund is good to stablize. By doing so at least government save on forex savings read management fees to foreign companies. The opportunity cost of earning forex otherwise must not be understated.
@ Baffy
The role of government “is to protect the rights of its citizens as well as their sovereignty from enemy aggression, poverty, hard economic times, injustice, etc.”
Government is to facilitate an effective public service, public health, safety via police, fire service etc.
It is not to be competitors against the citizens, nor should it seek to set up serfdoms and run businesses that oppose those being run by small businesses.
Imagine this BAFFY if say Fund Access or EGFL were truly entities with the interest of the people at heart and not the interests of the respective CEOs and their merry band of friends?
Do you feel that they would not be protecting “the vulnerable” if they were doing their jobs?
If these fellows were really doing their jobs (as their long winded mandates go to some length to state) do you believe that “we” would have to come here and post under nom de plumes for fear of retribution from these wolves who live off the “fat of the land” and get a pay check every 26th like my pension, while pretending to be so called “servants of the state”?
If they were really doing their jobs they would be so popular that people like you and me who commented on their ineffective operations would be ascribed the same madman status as the McHales of this island and run off this website.
The economic engine of Barbados after 20 odd years of puttering has died in the middle of Broad Street (aided and abetted by the current HoA incompetents), no pun intended by the Broad Street remark, in clear sight of all Bajans and what is required to jumpstart it is a lot more than a lottery.
I lived in a time of the old crankshaft with the piece of angled iron that you would insert through the front of the car and take great care in spinning, lest it break your wrist and/or shin bones when jump-starting the engine. For those of you who have no idea what i mean see http://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/bittersweet/wi79c.htm
Our economic status is much like a stalled automatic car which CANNOT BE jump started with a crank but requires that the vehicle be in motion, which can only be achieved if (i) enough people are pushing it (the Bajans who work) (ii) it is being dragged along by another vehicle while in “drive” at about 15 – 20 mph BEFORE you turn on the ignition (likened to making investment into serious workable niche enterprises in various sectors of our economy).
Sorry for the error, posted without editing. Meant say: is there anything wrong with foreign own companies operating in Barbados?
NAFTA: The North American Free Trade Agreement is a good example of the global income in motion.
Example: a car is shipped from Japan to Mexico 10% assembled. Mexico in term assembled 40% of the car and then shipped it to America where the final 50% is assembled.
Piece
I find it hard to believe that someone that claims to be as old as you is able to represent himself so clearly ….
Hants
” The lotteries should be government owned”
You’re talking about a government that can’t even pay its own bills. So how will it amassed the capital necessary the embark on such a venture? And what would be the moral outcry from the citizenry given the economic vicissitudes confronting the island today? I remembered when Foxwoods Resort and Casino, (the largest casino in the Northeast of United States) was being talk about, the state as well as private cicitizens threw their hands into the proposed ventured at the time. And today it is one of the most successful casino in the united States to date, providing the state with millions in revenue annually.
@ David,
Slightly off-message!
I fear for the plight of my Afro-Bajan brothers and sisters who reside in Bim. What is the point of Barbados Underground if it does not reach out to the uneducated, uninformed, and apathetic masses? Those who contribute to this site are learned in part, deep thinkers, and enjoy sparring on your site. Why reach out and target those groups who have already been converted.
Target those Afro-Bajan sheep that need to be awakened from their slumber. Go to print! An A4 size flyer would be a start. Target a group who could be persuaded to at least read and assimilate the information that may be fed to them. Work on tweaking your flyer so that it becomes relevant. Than grow your publication. Present an alternative politic to the established two political parties. Turn-up the political heat!
The “genocide” of the Afro-Bajan within Barbados will be complete by the end of this century where they will certainly become the economic, social and political lepers of the next century. Is there anybody out there?
Exclaimer………I agree 1000%, it would be a public service especially for those who are appearing more educated but attack because they simply do not know, lack of knowledge….AND it would be a public service to those who do not have the know all to assimilate the information….brilliant idea
Exclaimer
That is the exact point I’ve tried to convey here without much avail. How could you accused the Barbadian- electorate of being gullible, ignorant and ill – informed, when you were in a position to change the equation?
Exclaimer
I told David several weeks ago that he should try to reach out to the younger Barbadians. You think he told my advice? Hell no!
@dompey,
How else can you explain the Barbadian electorate? They are no different to the illiterate voters in some developing countries who can only vote using their fingerprints. I’m hurting real bad! Look at what our ancestors had to endure over 400 years? If they had known that we would be in the position that we are in now, I believe that they would have all committed suicide. We as a people have let down our ancestors.
@ Well Well,
I have already mentioned this to David but he does not see a future in the printed media industry. I believe that this route is the most direct form of communicating with the masses.
On a less serious note I’m going off to a bar to watch Madrid v Barcelona. Keep debating.
” afro-bajan sheep…..assimilate the information that may be fed to them”…is that brainwashing?
@ Robert Ross,
You’re playing Devil’s Advocate. I am sure you fully understand where I’m coming from.
@ Exclaimer
While the ide has its merits tell me who will Bell the Cat?
A ream of paper costs $x, ink for the flier cost $y, distribution costs $z dollars
Then most importantly, which article is to be printed?
Or is this just a flier saying that BU exists?
Will there be a connection between the BU blogmaster David who has so successfully hiden himself for the public eye and the ever present Brown Shirts or rather blue shirts of the DLP, embodied by the Commissioner of Police, The DPP Leacock who jes waiting to lock he up for sedition and the Slit eyed Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite that cant wait to get the names of all of us pseudonym users who get up heah and cuss and blind them in verbal vitriol.
Exclaimer you are an inteligent man dont be led on by those who have not clearly thought out how easy it is to follow the paper trail to a website that has kept us hidden from these brass bowls for nuff years.
If David was not a seasoned warrior, all uh we heah would be up in glendairy tekking a good bulling from de Dead Bolt Specialist.
At my ole age, I still like to drink a little soup pun a Sunday and to watch de submissions by Sanka Price, the little pervert when i want to read the nation’s version of Hustler or de Nation Newspaper.
We safe heah in cyberspace, I got to ask Dompey whu he do to get he IP address change so dat IslandGirl un de rest uh we ent know who he is, but i ent too sure dat he may give me nuh advice
Dompey help out a fellow Bajan nuh? .
BAFFY…..err….err……err…….
As someone who is very old too and who has been known to express himself clearly……again…..
DYKAP’s?………
Beulah speckledface….aka Wotan the Jacob Ram
@Exclaimer
Thanks for tbe suggestion, please note BU blogs automatically update to other social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc. The different demographics therefore have the opportunity to cherrypick blogs of interest to them. Like Piece addressed BU is willing to collaborate with any of you who have the resources to distribute the BU message via the tradition channel.
Exclaimer
Yes, I think I do and yes in a way I am…..mind, I just wonder whether the sheep really want ‘our’ solicitude….any more than they want what we say are our ‘traditional’ values…..or, frankly, ‘our’ anything else. And, at the end of the day, who are we to give our ‘our’ anyway?
Now if you’d said…’let’s print broadsheets to promote Bajan poets’ I’d have been very excited and ‘Baffy’ might even have answered my question to him.
@ Robert Ross,
I guess you are correct. What do think it will take to wake up the masses?
Perhaps we should ban carnival! As I said the football is about to commence. Good night all
Exclaimer…..truth be said you really have got something better to do unlike me anyway. Enjoy.
PS on Crop Over…there should be at least three and one in Nelson Street for out-and-out nudists like H Austin.
BTW wunna would really be surprised the amount of the average bajan peeples dat does come heah and read.
Yesiree while dem does doan post heah causing people frighten, dat dem IP address gine get recorded like at de BLP site pun Roebuck street and dat dis gine lead Fumble and Ronald “de Chilren are is better educrated today dan dem is ever been” Jones, to dem houses late pun a night and brek some heads.
Plussing when you gets socratic entries written by de master of elocution like Anunnaki, Hants, BT, SITH, youself, Baffy, Ross, Sargeant, Island Girl, Well Well, and a mobaton uh uders dat de ole man cyan rightfully remember now, two hours before de nex insulin injection, posting deep thoughts it does mek a few uh dem wonder effing dem should put in dem 2 cents and den get baptise in fyah fuh writing pup and jobby.
Let me tell you sumting, all de politicians does cum heah to read whu pun BU and so much so dat dem got a fellow dat does blog about de bloggers heah, i cyan remember de name uh he site but i went dey a day and he does remark pun we remarks dennnnnn!!
Cyberspace echolalia, electronic echoes befitting of “do androids dream of electronic sheep?”
Yesiree we does come heah to write spontaneous BS like me and den dere is a nex category of well educated fellow dat does be absolutely brilliant and should be hired by the DLP and BLP cattle in the HoA to write them speeches.
As a matter of fact I gine bet you dat dis coming week a few uh dem fellows gine espouse some uh we ideas like if it is dem own, mark my words!!
@David
you and the Blog do a hell of a fine job.
A certain future coalitional government of Barbados and of which the PDC shall be part will help create a post-PUBLIC Debt society for Barbados.
PDC
@ David [BU]
I endorse Sith’s sentiment.
You have kept true to the “wrong that needs resistance” in the face of all the unmentionable odds
To you a toast to a true Bajan who loves this country Barbados
Thanks for the feedback, as you know you are never able to please everybody but we are satisfied a few goals we set back in 2007 have been achieved.
‘Why would government need to forgive $20M Turf Club debt when a sport lottery exists?”
Criticism of the debt forgiveness would have touched a raw nerve in some perhaps because wealthy individuals of mostly Caucasian mix are associated with the operations of the Turf club but the forgiveness was in my view much ado about nothing because like so many other debts on our books too numerous to mention the debt would always be doubtful for collection and should long have been written off to give the books of account a more accurate and realistic picture of Government Finances.
The more relevant concern is why would the deep pockets who wine and dine all and sundry in their boxes not feel compelled to come up with a plan to liquidate the debt of their making.
Piece
Oh lordie! Wulloss! Its nuff booty kissing finger licking good stuff. Unu betta dunt fall fuh im swet talk.
Isn’t there a long established casino in the Sandy Lane area, with a rotating floor , which baulks entry of snooping officials, if they do dare to seek entry , as the door lines up with a blank wall,while the casino is in operation?
Piece……..i gotta admit you got a point about Adriel, DPPand all the others who would like to keep the sheeple as sheeple….lol
Time for what lottery ! barbdos have plenty. Time for the tax cheats to pay their fair share.These pipe dreams always attract those most vulnerable but does nothing to address the theft from tax cheats who walks around scotch free and unaccountable.
Here is a link which shows how a national lottery can be used to help people:
http://thepmcf.ca/Pages/Lotteries/FactSheet.aspx
Read about the Florida Lottery:
http://www.flalottery.com/openGovernment.do
See what they do with the money:
@David March 23, 2014 at 8:37 AM @Dompey “One more and your are out”
Thanks David.
And while you are at it please ban Dompey from using the following words:
deliberation
discourse
voluminous
verbiage
superfluous
pedontic
oratorical
perspicuity
colossal
David I haven’t read what everybody else has written,
But lotteries are just another way of dragging money out of poor people’s pockets and putting that money into the pockets of rich people and the government.
I say no to a national lottery.
I say no to all lotteries.
I say no because rich people already have enough money. They DO NOT DESERVE deserve any more.
I say no because the government already collects enough taxes (and wastes our tax money too) the Barbados government does NOT DESERVE any more of poor Barbadian’s money.
Tell both the proposer of this foolish, greedy thought, the government, and those rich people who want to feast on poor (and barely middling class people) people that I say
BE OFF.
We know what you are up to. We know that you are just out to rob us.
Dear David:
Please ban Dompey from using the word:
cacophony
Dompey says….
We shall overcome.
Policy Banks Numbers Game
http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/gang/harlem_gangs/3.html
Piece
Yes, we understand the role of government in the lives of its citizenry today. But my question to you is this: why was government instituted in first place? Because if you think about it fundamentally, role of government is not a state of being but a process of growth. The role of government continues to evolve as the citizenry demands more rights from the government. A little over three years agree woman, children and those without property enjoyed limited rights under the system of democracy, women couldn’t vote because Aristotle under his concept of Democracy deemed them unfitted for the vote; he also felt that the property class should exclusively be given the right to vote etc. Some years in the back 1980’s, I visited the reference section of library in down town Barbados. And to my horror I discovered by researching the vote process in Barbados, that many years ago the black majority in Barbados hadn’t any voting privileges because one had to be a property owner in those days to exercised the vote and only the white minority did at the time.
The role of government in the lives of the citizenry continues to evolve, as the citizenry demands more rights and privileges from government. And a definition of rights on paper doesn’t necessarily transfers those rights in the empirical sense. Because true democracy can only be realized when there is an equal distribution of laws, conditions and opportunities available to every citizen. And we know this to be true on paper but not in reality. The rights and privileges that Piece points to above are enjoyed by a limited numbers of people in our democracy today. And this is especially true in places like North America, Europe and certain parts of the Caribbean, where women, children and the downtrodden masses are treated as second class citizens.
A national Lotteryalso help those who gamble in Barbados who are poor to contribute to their upkeep and still win
@ Dompey
you said and i quote ” I visited the reference section of library in down town Barbados. And to my horror I discovered by researching the vote process in Barbados, that many years ago the black majority in Barbados hadn’t any voting privileges ……”
I think you need to research the Jim Crow laws of the vaunted USofA and there you will see enshrined in this shining example of a system of governance that one proposes that Barbados aspire to how the right to vote was denied both males and females, not so long ago in the 20th century.
Once you have established how the paladin of all things great and sterling in governance operated and operates maybe then this can provide an azimuth for these submissions
In an earlier submission i spent some time on suggesting how, instead of a lottery which i feel that this and the other lethargic government will make sure and tief from and badly apply it proceeds, we as a country need to work on “Ideas Lotteries” to jumpstart our economy.
Behold
http://youthandeldersja.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/cuba-may-have-found-cure-for-cancer/
This is what the face of innovation needs to be for our cuntry instead of the same old same “o” that is being regurgitated by our inept politicians, the visionless Permanent Secretaries who tread carefully to ensure their gratuity when they reach retirement, aided and abetted by the parasites, and intellectually bereft CEOs like Timothy Simmonds at EGFL and the other dimwits across the micro-enterprise development spectrum
This is what i believe that we should be producing through the active interventions at our National Council for Science and Technology and our University of the West Indies as an output of our “research” that our vaunted professors are up there posturing every year.
Waste foops, men and women befitting of the sin of Onan, he who went into his brother’s widow as was the established custom of the time, and, in his effort to preserve his birthright, spilled his seed on the ground rather than impregnate his sister in law and preserve that bloodline.
Why has our vaunted educational system not pushed out more innovative solutions at the national level PODRYR?
@ David [BU]
Balls.
The gene of “dare to be different” is something that our educational system, our socialization, our church, our community has systematically killed every step along the way.
We are dutifully trained, across all the stratas of our society, like Pavlov’s dog NOT TO BUCK the establishment.
The “He who dares wins” motto of the SAS is not something that is encouraged in our society
In fact what is more avidly pursued is the policy of “who de hell he tink he/she is” wid dem highfaluting ideas?
“I gine show he/she who is de boss”
And then the emasculation and eradication of those who think out of the box is covertly and overtly practiced, until like the Bald Eagle, innovation becomes hunted to extinction
What is now the norm is the very practice, across our 11×16 island, to kill innovation and those who are “creative” find that to advertise that creativity and ability makes them a target by others less inclined or “differently talented” some even downright cretins, as a nationally sanctioned team of killers hunt them down and destroy them.
THis is how serious it has become
Piece…………many of us have been saying that for years, creative individuals in Barbados are an endangered species just because from the top to the bottom of the society would much prefer things remain as they are and take great offense if anything different is introduced. Case in point, the young man who used to be on BU regarding his many inventions and governments collusion in destroying this young man.
Employees be warned, you are not exempt from going to prison because you were a job that the boss told you to do….lol
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/jury-finds-madoff-guilty-counts-article-1.1732198
sorry, accidentally hit post
Oh dear, I see Bjorn Bjerkhamn is now a Central Bank Board Director.
Oh shite!!! indeed