Submitted by M.R.Thompson
The Barbadian Economy and Finances are suffering from a self inflicted malady and urgently in need of a CURE. The prescription is a foul concoction and unpalatable which will no doubt result in severe blame the other guy, political suicide, I told you so, reduced quality of life and other as undiagnosed complaints.
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Immediately Devalue Barbados dollar to a ratio of 3:1 of the US$. Re-evaluate after 5 years.
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Immediately Reduce the level of civil service employment to 10% of the population, ie: 29,000. This level (29,000) includes direct civil servants, All agency employees, All board employees, All Central Bank employees, All Police Employees, All Teachers, All Defence Force, Transport Board, etc., everyone that is directly or indirectly paid from the public purse.
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Immediately implement programs to streamline the collection of taxes aimed at efficiencies and recoveries.
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Sell off or disband all non performing (money losers) entities not related to Health Care, BWA and NIS Pensions. Sell Off all government held property that cannot be substantiated for retention, provided a reasonable rate of return can be obtained, ie NO FIRE SALES.
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NIS to have an immediate financial audit to determine what is the state of the portfolio. NIS held government debt be reduced immediately to no more than 25% of the portfolio. NIS be allowed to hold off shore assets in the portfolio. NIS employee levels to be evaluated.
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Central Bank Governor be immediately FIRED and function filled with a non Caribbean Capable Financial Currency Board.
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An extreme policy adjustment be made to see that ALL Barbadian Laws are fully enforced and complied with.
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Integrity Legislation be immediately implemented with severe penalties for non compliance.
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An agricultural/import policy be implemented with the goal to becoming self sufficient in food production within 5 years.
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IMF be invited in to oversee All Government Operations.
It’s a BITTER PILL but the alternative MAYBE the DEATH of a NATION.
125 responses to “Barbados – The Prescription”
People are quick to say sell off non performing entities without first examining why those entities fail to make money. In many instances, these organizations fail to make money because they are used as sources of employment for the unemployable with political connections. DON’T SELL OFF – RESTRUCTURE! Otherwise these entities would become sources of considerable returns on investment for the eventual buyer. That might be the aim of the selling off, with kickbacks going to the sellers.
@Caswell
My sentiments exact but here is the penultimate question: Is the current government or even the much beloved opposition whom the people believe hold the roped-keys for pulling Barbados out of the recessionary slump and opening doors for new successes, have what it takes to restructure without biases, benefits and backyard deals?
Bu comments:
The approach by the St. Lucia PM is interesting for many reasons.
Will respond fully later but these are only good points for discussion.
The article does not address what is the major action that is required to make it at all possible to implement any of the others. That is; the current PM must remove himself from the post and authority of his current position. He is the major stumbling block to progress on all these fronts. Then the removal of the GoCB and the reassignment of the MoF.
It appears now that, outside of insurrection, this can only reasonably happen if there is either an election or the current members of parliament come together and elect a new leader from the total membership and consequently a Cabinet from amongst themselves. Of course a quick snap election is the only rational action that can take the above action list to a realm outside a pipe dream.
The suggested actions can then follow with well thought out, implementable, time frames for actions.
Without the political actions above none of the list of items above can be implemented in an adequate time frame.
But the authors suggested actions seem fairly sensible even though the relative immediacies aren’t.
The day that Barbados sells off its assets and allows IMF to run the country (as another “free market” outlet for US goods) is the day we instantly will be destroyed economically. View “Life or Debt” as case study of how IMF and World Bank took down Jamaica. These are treasonous recommendations. It is true that Barbados must take drastic measures, but they should not include a take over of the government by bankers.
As for growing our own food, just lift import duties from Trinidad and Latin America. Everything grows in Trinidad and it is cheap and 45 minutes away by plane. Sorry, but Bajans don’t want to grow food on a coral stone rock.
“Immediately Devalue Barbados dollar to a ratio of 3:1 of the US$. Re-evaluate after 5 years.”
The timing for the effectiveness of such a reasonable 3:1 adjustment in the ratio is long past. It should have been taken on board since early last year. You are now more looking at a 4 or 5 to 1 ratio under an IMF initiated and supervised adjustment programme.
I suspect SITH would share such a view.
There is also an immediate need to increase forex levels to a much higher “safety” level . This must not be done through unnecessary borrowings (Guv Worrell style of madly borrowing money for borrowing sake) but by way of earnings or by savings in areas that do not impact too negatively on the productive sectors. For example, what about an immediate cessation on the importation of motor vehicles in excess of 1,600 cc’s for private use?
If Barbados fails to earn sufficient forex over the coming 6 months to meet its day-to-day living expenses like the importation of oil and food don’t be surprised if additional family silver is put on the auction block in the form of the Air & Sea ports.
You will then see what real “PARRO” economics is all about, right Bushie?
Why is it that some of the brightest minds in the country, finds it impossible to manage one of the small economies in the world? This is mindbloggling to the uneducated political mind!
Bunch of FkUking Monkies ,jigging about on a branch.
You know nothing..
Just Monkey chatter and maliciousness.
GET FKUKING real.
You had YEARS to do something about this shit.But you just Chatter and jump up and down on the branch.
Now the branch is breaking and you are shitting yourselves and your shit is landing on all of us Bajuns at reality/ground level.
Talk about SLAM the door after the Horse is Gone!
Fkuking MORONS.
Barbados in for BLOODSHED and Mayhem.BIG TIME
I hope you chattering Malicious FKucking idiots are the first to get shoot ..
Peoples backs breaking anyway and YOU,you FKUCKING moron propose to make Law to be applied STRONGER.
AT YOUR PERIL.
You have a filthy incumbent Government, corrupt and stinking with greed..Supporting a corrupt Judicary ,a TOTALLY CORRUPT DPP, and whole host of corrupt Yard fowl as long as the HONEY is sweet and plentiful.
They do NOT GIVE ONE FKUK about Barbados only GREED.
The Barbados we knew years back is gone,we now have a pit of greed and filthy corruption.Run by Prostitutes.
What you need is what you are soon to get;..
IT AINT GOOD or what you are asking for .ITS IS NATURAL JUSTICE.
What goes around comes around.!!
You are soon to get a good dose of your own SHITE..Trouble is as always us normal people get take down with you.
Start by looking where the stink is COMING from to find what rotting..
Politicians #1
Manipulation of the law#2
Bendable laws,bendable Judges. Bendable verdicts.
Averything these stinking corrupt piles of SHITE touch is made unclean, bendable, twisted.
Look at the Fuckinging STINK DPP Chalres Leacock .Twists and pollutes all he get near.
Can allow murderers to escape the law(what law?) chop up young women and never be found guilty of murder.
Him saying “they provoked” cos she done refuse sex.
Well when you allow shite like this to pervade our Society, DONT think by selling we “Family silver” you solve shite.
WAKE THE FKUCK UP””
GET THE SHITE FROM STUCK ON YOU SHOE.
Get RID if the Rotting stinking shite that has poisoned our country to the point of destruction.
@ Caswell Franklyn
I agree that we should exercise caution when selling state agencies. However, while both the BLP and DLP use these agencies for giving supporters jobs;the matter does not stop there. There are many poor people who cannot afford the services offered if they were privatised. As for devaluing the Barbados dollar, we must remember that Barbados has no exceptionally developed industry to create foreign exchange.Trinidad has oil and their currency was devalued many moons ago. The suggestions given above are nothing new . However, we must be honest and realise that the civil service became an army of occupation because at one stage , it was running everything so we all left school with a few certificates and the jobs were waiting on us. We should have been addressing these matters since the early seventies when the entire world was changing. Truth is that we all enjoyed the ride and now we are playing catch up.
The notion of a devaluation of the Barbados dollar is very fatuous.
A dollar cannot be devalued or revalued, or appreciated or depreciated.
We used to believe rubbish too.
We no longer possess such beliefs that have no basis in logic or human conduct.
The People’s Democratic Congress has evolved fourteen very fundamental principles so far concerning Money and its uses in Barbados.
The fourteenth principle is very germane to a greater understanding by any one of the fact that there is NEVER a devaluation of any dollar.
The fourteenth principle reads that there are no relationships that exists between the Barbados Dollar, the US Dollar or any other currencies of this world.
Thus, there are really no EXCHANGE RATES that exist between the Barbados Dollar, the US Dollar or any other currencies.
NO currencies are being exchanged one for the other or any others.
These particular patterns involving the use of local and foreign currency (money) are mainly done so, formatted, according to logically numerically pre/set pieces and combinations in the use of money.
As a matter of fact, the use of these ratios of operating two different currencies at the same time is as a logical consequence of the use by persons and groups of them of particular number operations in particular ways only shaded by the appearance of different currencies.
So, what many individuals in Barbados and elsewhere fundamentally mistake for Exchange Rates are the mere contrived artificial ratios that exist in terms of how the relevant people here in Barbados, mainly, do operate – in a rather standardized manner – such monies/currencies, one against the relevant other(s), say, how many Barbados dollars a person gives to another, and how many of the other currencies does the latter give to the former, under the same contractual arrangements to do so – in the local international money/monetary systems.
So, no where in any of these described money currency numerical operations is any particular currency being devalued or revalued, depreciated or appreciated!!
What vicious political ideologies, philosophies and psychologies about a particular dollar being devalued revalued depreciated or appreciated!!
Anyhow, though, such a change in the ratio from one (1) US Dollar against two (2) Barbados Dollars to ? is bound to happen under either the intellectually and politically bankrupt and discredited DLP or BLP.
PDC
@ Caswell(partially)
With greatest respect.This is reality time.
Your addition starts at the wrong point.
Your conclusions are therefore faulty.
The beginning is where to start.not where you choose.
Sorry restructuring is impossible.There is NO STRUCTURE.
Barbados HAD a structure years gone by.It slowly corrupted and rotted to what we have now and what you are part of and witnessing is the final collapse of what is left .
We have; to use a “Monty Pythonism”; a NON country a NON structure.
I think that you should take a deep breath and ADMIT TO YOUR SELF ,that NO amount of TINKERING with this rotten pile ,can renovate or improve it.
IT IS ROTTEN to the core and in a final collapse.
All the “ifs and Buts” are not relevent.
Barbados is now a self running type of polluted Anarchy,
No real Government,No real law, No real anything.Just a mass of corrupt staggering entities,non of which function properly or withour massive corruption.
Where you want to pick??
QEH?
The Government?
The police?
The Customs?
LETS NOT talk about what is loosely called the JUSTICE SYSTEM.!!
PLEASE tell me I am wrong?
But if you live in the same place as I do and are a realist,I do not expect you can.
Idealism is of absolutely NO use in this matter.
There is absolutely NOTHING that can be done that will avert what is to take place.
WHY?
Timeframe. Timeframe. Timeframe.
The fact that you and I love where we live is really of little importance .apart from to ourselves and the future.
Dont talk about “self sufficiency” in food.
Barbadians do not grow food sensibly they GAMBLE on food.
Plant when they feel they will make a killing.
If you shut imports food will rocket in costs.
Take whatever item you like.
How is it Barbados Traders import potatoes from the other side of the World and pay Extortionate Docks fees ,Massive duties and freights of THOUSANDS of US$ per container sea freight, massive charges at Bico and STILL be able to be cheaper on a selling cost than LOCAL sweet potatoes?
ONIONS
Local 60$ a bag cost;
imported without duty; Landed in Barbados average 20$ perbag(and not going rotten in 4 days)
RICE.
Thanks to the “old boys network CARICON!!”
Barbados pays 50% more for rice than World cost.
Check.I did
Name anything else? the state of play is the same.
Barbados is a self propelled Polluted ANARCHY.
Its runs its self with an army of tinkerers and corrupt “hangers on”#
But for now you have to be a “good boy” and take your nasty medicine as your illness is going to be long and painful.
Dompey
That is because they are not the brightest minds: that is their own propaganda and they, like you, are starting to believe it.
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Dr. Love
An excellent post!
Doctor LOVE says it all.
AMEN….and amen.
…and Caswell …you could really hush.
You are just like Jonah who was commissioned and prepared to go to the aid of a nation and chose to run away instead….
Take care you don’t butt up on a whale….
Even if we could agree on those things specified in the article, who the hell would do them….? Read Dr Love again…and again…
THAT IS WHY BUP IS VITAL.
Bushie
Jonah survived the encounter with the whale.
>
The big picture that has to be understood and dealt with is that when we have a deficit in the Barbados budget, it has a trickle out effect on our FX reserves. A large part of the defecit is for wages and debt payment. Wages are spent mostly on imports and external debt payments both that reduces FX reserves. There is no question that at a pegged rate of 2 to 1 we have outpriced our compeitors. The tourists that came here are now going to other places. Over the last several years the US$ has increased significatnly in value pulling our dollar along with it.. It is not a question of devaluation but a question of correct valuation. What is the correct valuation that will allow us to compete in our major FX market? 2 to 1 is not working..
That’s right…… no change…….. amidst the cut backs, layoffs and people not being given their severance payments…….. we can still find money to but a new Nissan X-Trail of the Director of the Urban Development Commission.
Priorities, priorities, priorities!!!!!
@SITH
Dr. Clyde Mascoll does not agree. He ‘thesisizes’ that a significant number of consumer spend is soaked up by the domestic economy and is responsible for driving economic activity.
@ Caswell
That is as tho you are equating “qualiity of life” with ” Being Alive”
Surviving?? Under what conditions?
“Dr. Clyde Mascoll does not agree. He ‘thesisizes’ that a significant number of consumer spend is soaked up by the domestic economy and is responsible for driving economic activity.”
That position is only relevant when a country like Barbados is ‘earning’ sufficient forex to defend the parity of the dollar.
Barbados is inexorably slipping in the opposite direction.
Gotta agree with Caswell, William and Dr. Love……but the problems are immediate and desperation, if it has not set in yet with the DLP crowd, is just around the corner……
Caswell said:
“Otherwise these entities would become sources of considerable returns on investment for the eventual buyer. ”
what will happen to the transport board whose liabilities through personal injury claims are now in the millions with it’s insurance carrier’s track record of refusing to pay claimants for the obvious reasons, they want all those millions for themselves, when will that entity become sell-able, viable again, it’s a known cash cow, if all that corruption and thievery had not reduced it to the level it’s current not enjoying. Commonsense states that if the injured parties with valid claims are paid out immediately, the liabilities to the Transport Board would be reduced 100%, returning that entity to it’s days of being a major revenue earner for the government to use for the good of the country (not to steal)……..so what will the politicians do, seeing that they have helped reduce the entity to nothing with help from it’s insurance carrier?
Miller …….what say you on that issue of the transport board, it should never be sold, particularly in it’s current condition of liability, someone would get it for a song, not that anyone is going around purchasing liabilities, no one is that stupid
@ Caswell
How long will you continue to undervalue yourself? The greatest leader detailed in the bible – a man described as one “after God’s own heart” started out as a lowly farmer…
…admittedly he had some interactions with wolves, bears etc as a farmer, but WHAT HE HAD OF UNMATCHABLE VALUE, was a commitment to right. …to transparency, …to justice.
Don’t you see that this is why you have NEVER been able to keep a job with these wolves and crooks running things in Barbados? You are TOO COMMITTED to justice and openness to be accepted in either political party ….
THIS IS WHAT BUSHIE LIKES MOST ABOUT YOU…
….and King David did have that major weakness – caused by a liking for the lotta goat milk didn’t he….?
….man check with David and Baffy and start the damn BUP…..
@Miller
Do you understand the import of your last comment? Isn’t Mascoll the head upon which BLP economic policy is and will be ‘architected’?
[…] is a foul concoction and unpalatable which will no doubt result in severe blame the other … Continue reading →<img alt="" border="0" […]
The Bushman, your thoughts are also very welcome on the issue of the Transport Board, we are talking about an entity that generates money minute by minute and on a daily basis, 24/7 – 365, why was it neglected for so long?
I would have to ask the politicians from both DLP/BLP if corruption is that important to them that they would allow such an asset to degrade to that level.
Brilliant post by Dr. Love. He sums it up. As for govt policy, a word about expats who live in Barbados and account for a large amount of foreign exchange… I’ve lived here 20 years and my money all came in one direction: from outside earnings INTO Barbados economy. After 19 yrs Barbados gives me my ID card, finally decides I’m fit enough to live here permanently. But there’s a catch. New rules dictate that foreign-born immigrants get an ID card coded to indicate that they can receive NO HEALTH CARE BENEFITS in Barbados. Sagicor’s policy is to drop customers when they turn 70, thus there is no way to live in Barbados and have affordable health care once one reaches 70. Talk about a policy to drive all the expats out of this country, WITH THEIR MONEY! So after 20 yrs, I’m looking for another place to call home that provides affordable health care. I don’t know what stupid people come up with these SHORT-SIGHTED policies.
@ Well Well
Are you aware of the current level of management of the Transport Board?
Do you think that ANY kind of private enterprise would employ a similar quality of management to run this entity?
Caswell is right….
Practically EVERY state entity is a potential GOLD MINE for this country….if we operated a meritocracy where competent,capable and PRODUCTIVE people were put in place.
But if, as a country, we are willing to allow morons of the Denis Lowe and Dennis Kellman ilk ….to just send their lackeys, women, retarded family and other donkey lickers (like ac) to fill positions at their whim and fancy ….WHAT THE HELL DO WE EXPECT BUT LOSSES AND FAILURE …and foreign ownership?
….and then to have the boss jackass talking about some “political class” too boot… Steupsss
Caswell is right….but he is doing shiite too …..cause he is a vital key to changing everything for the better….even if REALLY late….
As we have said previously on here a certain future winning coalitional regime of Barbados and of which the PDC is part shall ABOLISH ALL so-called Exchange Rate parities with the Barbados Dollar.
Instead there shall be the use by importers/exporters of this country of the particular currencies, or of the particular foreign denominated credits/debits involved, and amounts that are specified in the particular import/export transactions.
So, that if an importer from Barbados has to give 100 in US foreign credits to a US exporter in the US via the relevant financial systems and has to get from the US exporter a box of apples, that is the amount in US foreign credits that would be “sent” there to the US exporter by the relevant financial systems, and that they would be able to get in US foreign credits themselves or US currency in the US.
So too if an exporter from Barbados has to get 100 in US foreign credits from a US importer in the US via the relevant financial systems and has to ship a box of 12 of 750 mls of bottles of Bajan rum to the US importer, that is the amount in US foreign credits that would be sent here to the local exporter by the relevant financial systems, and that the newly established National Currency Board – or any of its agents – would get on the behalf of the exporter from Barbados but on his own behalf too would give him the nominal income – represented by Barbados dollars – in the equivalent to what a local retailer of an identical box of bottles of Bajan rum would get in nominal income from a person when that same person receives at whatever time such an identical box of 12 of 750 mls of bottles of Bajan rum from the retailer under the existing contractual arrangements.
So, that if the particular local retailer gets 190 BDS income from the particular person and the particular person receives an identical box of 12 of 750 mls bottles of Bajan rum from the local retailer under the terms of the particular contract, then the local exporter would get that amount in income too from the particular US importer of the identical box of the identical bottles of rum, via the National Currency Board, which itself would be deemed by the certain future winning coalitional regime of Barbados as acting as the agent of the US importer.
So, right away any serious thinker in Barbados can – in the prevailing horrific alternatives to what we just detailed above – visualize the amount of damage that is being wrought on the finances of various people and sectors of this country by these so-called, really non-existent Exchange Rate parities that exist alongside the Barbados Dollar.
PDC
No number of pronouncements short of a radical re-ordering of the wider society will help Barbados. For example, the suggestion for a statistical revaluation of the dollar will merely be the first step on a slippery slope. Meaning that neither the short, medium nor long term consequences can be properly measured. So this is no answer. It is the opposite!
The discussion is still taking place within a context that ignores the planned destruction of small island states by forces without. Regardless of the mouthings of officials the process of transferring public assets to private hands must continue apace. As a central project. There shall be increased pressures on the NIS, the transport board shall be privatized, all health services will more and more cease to be free, public education will grow in inferiority and start to cost parents, water will be less and less available and will cost much, much more than oil. Real unemployment could be as high as 40%. And all the collateral damage these will cause.
……………..UNLESS THERE IS A MASS AND SUSTAINED UPRISING AIMED AT REPLACING THE GOVERNING SYSTEM!
@DAVID “Dr. Clyde Mascoll does not agree” Well my wages are spent mostly on gasoline, electricity, cars, car parts, tires, batteries, appliances, tele[phopnes, plumbing fixtures, TV’s,, medicine, toilteries, electricity, propane, furniture, and food. Each of these items have a large FX component that leaves the country when I spend. What are the local items that the good Doctor says we can buy that dont create FX leakage?
@SITH
His response will probably go something like:
the gas attendants earn a wage who pump your gas
the car parts outlets, service bays, tyre repair shops, Auto Shops and related retailers employ people and pay taxes
you get the idea…
@ Sith
Mascoll is an idiot……always was!
….but quite a nice chap otherwise.
The Bushman:
“Are you aware of the current level of management of the Transport Board?
Do you think that ANY kind of private enterprise would employ a similar quality of management to run this entity?”
When i heard that they at one time had Patrick Gollop, as some kinda management type at the Transport Board, Patrick freaking Gollop, i knew that the entity was treated as a bad joke, when you look at the managers there, males/females who are all obese and can barely walk, cause they are overfed, greedy and only interested in themselves, not the best interest of the board at all, only what they can get out of it.
Then, personally knowing of management of CGI’s close affiliation with most of the politicians in the BLP, hence they have the insurance contract for at least a decade now, and then the DLP politicians close connection to CGI, i knew that entity did not stand a chance before it would reach the point it’s at now……….how could these politicians be so careless with entities that generate cash for the taxpayers, then the same SOB’s want to fool the electorate about how patriotic they are and how much they love Barbados, my ass.
Well…….when all else fails the jackass politicians may eventually figure out that they should be asking their foreign lenders for debt forgiveness, but they should be made to sign a contract that debt forgiveness comes hand in hand with integrity legislation, no more corruption, no more stealing, no more selling out to their business friends and partners and if they are caught taking bribes, 20 years hard labor in a US prison on all counts……SOB’s
@Bush Tea
Understand Dr. Mascoll’s thesis trapped research around this subject. How do you explain that his thesis escaped the rigour of peer review given you last comment?
BTW we should all congratulate Dr. George Brathwaite.
sorry, forgot to post the link…lol
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/09/french-public-debt-audit-illegitimate-working-class-internationalim
LOL@ David
Peer review?
…you mean the other UWI PhD economists around the place….?
LOL…..Shirt!
hahahahahaha
Muh belly!!!!
@SITH
The picture is not that BIG.
Barbados is a “flyshit” on the World map.
But lets look at realities and what cannot be changed immediately.
Realities.:
Barbados is past “sell by date” (what have we now we didnt have 20 years back?)
Overpriced.:
This will not be changed by devaluation.(think about it)
We import EVERYTHING,so a devaluation means WE pay more.(You now telling me Bajuns will pay more and sell CHEAPER)
If we devalue 4-1 we then have to DOUBLE our tourist take to be where we were US$ wise. Prorata that for whatever devaluation you choose.
So if we need double to be where we were on tourist take US$wise but in B$ and then pay double for what we import US$ wise.
TO ME that means we have to Quadruple what we take US$wise to be where we were. in reality MONEYWISE.
YOU REALLY SEE THAT as a Reality?
What it says to me is there is a REAL BIG PROBLEM and a VAST drop in wages and living standards here in Bim. (Haiti??Why I think of Haiti?)
Total Shit Corrupt ,incompetent Government(also goes under “what cannot be changed immediately heading)
Useless Government agencies,headed by Incompetents(worse they are OUT OF TOUCH Incompetents). Customs ,Immigration ,Tourism.
An Import tariff system,archaic and cumbersome designed for “rip off” times.
ONE PORT. therefore,charges then are nothing less than Usery.
Roads fit for Donkey carts,but inhabited by 32 tonne trucks and Maniac Mini buses.
Rag bag countryside,dumping very prevalent.
NO Government Sponsored Public awareness that Tourism pays the Rent in all ways .
Virtually everything concerned with Tourism..
Where else you want to to point to.
What cant be changed immediately?
All of the above>
PLUS an Ideology that Barbados is a Sovereign state and as such is above Natural justice.
Where laws are for breaking and twisting and that getting rich is justified by any means.
A Country that has reached the end of its current road..
There will be a devaluation and it will be one that is by World Opinion.
The correct devaluation will depend on Barbados and how its Persona is viewed by the World.
Thats the TRUE picture.
@David
Then the fellow pumping gas or selling car parts spends his wages on imported goods that causes a further fx drain. Unless we get FX coming in and if we continue to have a currency that has no world market to trade in we are pretty much screwed. The present thinking is going to run us out of FX.
@ Well Well | June 11, 2014 at 9:34 AM |
“Miller …….what say you on that issue of the transport board, it should never be sold, particularly in it’s current condition of liability, someone would get it for a song, not that anyone is going around purchasing liabilities, no one is that stupid..”
Agree no private sector entity would buy out the Transport Board in its current financial health.
What is most likely to happen is that the Central Government would have to retain the liabilities and outsource the management and operations of that vital public transport agency.
A management company under the aegis of a cadre of private sector players could be formed and the rolling stock and infrastructure transferred at very low cost to the new entity.
One thing for sure is that the Transport Board cannot continue in its present form with its quality of service delivery. It is either going collapse under its own weight of managerial incompetence, hemorrhaged financial burden and direct political interference or the country can be proactive (or under an enforced IMF programme) and restructure that entity using the model proposed above.
Don’t be surprised if the standard bus fare moves to $5.00 per ride in the very near future.
Miller:
“A management company under the aegis of a cadre of private sector players could be formed and the rolling stock and infrastructure transferred at very low cost to the new entity.”
It’s really frightening, but i suspect for years that has been the true intent of Peter Harris and CGI, obviously in their immediate greed, the politicians could not see this far into the future and the taxpayers will pay the ultimate price….thanks to the politicians of the DLP/BLP.
The ink has not even dried on Harris’ conveyance for the purchase of Bayview Hospital, but look, do you think they, being business people cause i quite understand business, will have any sympathy for the taxpayers or the Transport Board’s unenviable position.
http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/medical-bills-up/
@M.R. Thompson “6… function filled with a non Caribbean Capable Financial Currency Board.
Exactly what do you mean by this. Explain in plain language that anybody can understand.
7.An extreme policy adjustment be made to see that ALL Barbadian Laws are fully enforced and complied with.
Exactly what do you mean by this? And how does Barbados or any country manage ensure to compliance with all laws. And when some people do not comply, what then? How extreme do you plan to be…cracking heads?
8.Integrity Legislation be immediately implemented with severe penalties for non compliance.
Who is going to implement this legislation?
9.An agricultural/import policy be implemented with the goal to becoming self sufficient in food production within 5 years.
Do we need more policies, or do we need more people willing and able to farm, and able tomake a living from farming?
10.IMF be invited in to oversee All Government Operations.
I don’t think that the IMF has the man/woman power to do this. I very much doubt that they are willing to do it either. And we would have to pay those folks IMF type salaries, and provide them with IMF type housing and benefits. Do we have the money to do so?
The is no way the private sector would get their hands on the cash cow that is Transport Board and NOT raise bus fare to at least $5.00, presuming that the dollar is not devalued by then, if that happens, it would be anyone’s guess the price of bus fare.
@looking elsewhere “After 19 yrs Barbados gives me my ID card, finally decides I’m fit enough to live here permanently. But there’s a catch. New rules dictate that foreign-born immigrants get an ID card coded to indicate that they can receive NO HEALTH CARE BENEFITS in Barbados.”
Maybe you are not aware that while you were paying about 2% of your income to the Barbados tax officials, those of us who live here all the time pay upwards of 20%. Yes that is right 20% every year for 40 or more years.
Some of us have kin who have lived in the UK, and worked hard in the UK, and paid taxes in the UK for more than 40 years. If those family members return to Barbados permanently their UK National Health Service (NHS) benefits are removed from them. So whether they wish to remain in the UK or not, they must stay. The NHS benefits are not portable. It does not matter how hard the person has worked, how long they have worked, and how much taxes they have paid.
Life is tough. Barbados promised you lower taxes. You were not promised a rose garden, nor a lifetime’s worth of health benefits.
If you wish such benefits, and we would all love such benefits you (and I) will have to PAY MORE TAXES.
How much more are you willing to pay?
@ Well Well | June 11, 2014 at 9:34 AM
I was informed that the Transport Board retired a few buses from its stock during the past few weeks. They were driven to mangrove for their final resting place. Included is a Mercedes Benz Caio Vitoria – BM100, which is in good working order, needing only a part enabling it to reverse.
Another mistake the Transport Board made was to license all the new buses at the same time, instead gradually phasing out the older stock, while introducing the newer models. This situation has a negative impact on the availability of buses at licensing time.
Why?……… As we know, the buses must undergo inspection to determine road worthiness, before they can be licensed and insured.
Currently, many of the buses are off the road undergoing structural and mechanical repairs in preparation for inspection.
@lookin elsewhere | June 11, 2014 at 9:53 AM |
“Talk about a policy to drive all the expats out of this country, WITH THEIR MONEY! So after 20 yrs, I’m looking for another place to call home”
So what makes you think that you will receive Central Bank approval to take you money with you? I hear there is a shortage of Forex.
Currently $1 canadian = $1.84 bds. Cheffette all chicken roti cost $5.50 Canadian.
So after a 5 to 1 devaluation the roti will still cost $5.50 Canadian but $60 Barbados.
Please correct me if I am wrong.
Art…….it’s sad and painful, all the likes of Harris had to do was wait patiently and allow the TB’s liabilities to climb into the millions, knowing full well the bad management the board has had for years, coupled with politicians of the DLP/BLP consumed with their love of self, greed, corruption and caring nothing about the board, the taxpayer’s and the welfare of people on the island…….everything has now reached a climax.
The laid back attitude bajans have to their own state-owned interests, blind belief in lying, thieving, corrupt politicians and the hands-off attitude they take to everything believing that the minorities or foreign people could do better , will now cut their asses.
Due……..if he registered the money with the Central Bank upon arrival, they have to let him take it out, if not, dog eat his dinner.