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I was a man before politics, and I will be a man a after politics. True dat.Words attributed to a prominent member of the political class. This man has been asked not to rock the boat until after the qualification date.Remember that the great Owen Arthur facilitated the last batch that would have missed out. The tentacles of protection offer coverage and protection to every member of the political class. Nothing happens until pension is secured.
@ Dompey. ..it has to be one of two things. Either you suffer from shell shock or you fall out the coconut tree as a lil boy growing up in Barbados. You speak so glowingly of the services provided here in New York, why don’t you avail yourself of same?
The system will remain as rotten as it is when you have political partisans who will parade their leaning over what is right based on a traditional value system. Estwick has shown himself over time as a political person who will do anything to promote self over country. So many examples can be drawn where a person of integrity would have resigned. On the flip side the same diehards would want to hold MAM and OSA to a different level of accountability.This is the age of social media ans credibility is something you can lose in a heartbeat, the same for supporters.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Why even worry with political parties … Seek change that avoids the need for political parties, understanding that the only goal is populate the seats in Cabinet. That is the only real representation that is needed
@Baffy
To take the conversation where you want to go we have to prosecute the existing system with the objective to awake the sheeple. Wide public opinion must be mobilized a la Hong Kong.
Wide public opinion … and I agree.. But which should be the vehicle of choice ..? There are a couple of ideas that are being bounced off appropriate experts. Can’t say too much more.
BTW, Hong Kong had no say in determining their leadership when they were under British rule for ninety nine years … and nothing was ever broadcast about demonstrations in the streets. What makes their present predicament any different, and why the hell should they want the same mess (one man one vote only) that we have to put up with now ..?
The issue of Hong Kong is not about if they had a say in British rule, it is the unique exposure to two different systems of rule which has created tension. Are they not fighting a battle of a clash of two systems?
Any body who believe that this cunt has credibility would got to be a cunt just like him. He, along with his Democratic Labour Party, are doing the same shite that the other wicked brutes from the BLP party did i.e. Get as much as you can get before the shit hit the fan; do a Duguid or a bulling Lynch and high tail it out to pastures green on the yonder side.
The amount of money that these crooked thieves embezzle from the treasury in their deals mounts in the millions towards billions. And if ignorant Barbadians were not so ignorant and afraid of the system they would march against corruption and misrepresentation. But Barbadians will not do one shite until there is no longer a bottom in the barrel.
It is my firm belief that out of chaos emerges order and when order avails much, new rules and policies can be implemented with persons appointed who are now accountable to the people, who act on the behalf of the people and not a party.
Sometimes to bring about change one must at times apply an act of force. That force must come in what ever form is necessary. If not we will continue to listen shitety rhetoric and promises.
balance | October 7, 2014 at 5:21 AM |
“Arta you are really a storehouse of knowledge but does the response of the electorate over the pat six years suggest you that the electorate is better educated with party paramountcy before country still very prevalent in our voting patterns.”
You are correct…….. perhaps my response was a hasty generalization.
As the system goes, after all the criticisms and highlighting wrong doings of this administration, when election campaign time approaches, the DLP will use the Errol Barrow sympathy card by telling us about independence and free education.
Then they will mention about the BLP for big businesses, yet they were able to solicit millions of dollars in campaign financing, that could only come from the same rich people.
And mention rallying phrases like “wrap yourself in the flag” or “team Barbados”; tell the youngsters they love them by holding a few dub fetes and give away a few Samsung Galaxy phones, tablets, laptops and pay some bills.
During campaigning time, Grantley Adams is readily accepted by the DLP as is Errol Barrow by the BLP, because they each gave away plenty of those guys to solicit our votes.
China is very much product oriented and export driven. If Hong Kong moved to one man one vote only, in a very short period of time their Parliamentarians would be selling off assets and courting American brand retail chains to entice a culture of rampant consumerism, as political parties turn to big importers and retail banks for funding
@Baffy
That my well be so but before you can drill down to get to the benefit of Hong Kong aligning with China versus a Western approach based on consumption, ‘stuff’ has to happen.
ac | October 7, 2014 at 5:28 AM |
“Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei made a number of inventions and discoveries that remain important to astronomy and science in general today.”
“Known mononymously as Galileo”, he once said, “I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him…….”
You have continued to prove Galileo was wrong.
David | October 7, 2014 at 6:52 AM |
“The system will remain as rotten as it is when you have political partisans who will parade their leaning over what is right based on a traditional value system. Estwick has shown himself over time as a political person who will do anything to promote self over country. So many examples can be drawn where a person of integrity would have resigned.”
I refer BU to the front page of Thursday, May 31, 2012 edition of the Daily Nation, headline – “I’ll Quit: Estwick threatens to walk if he isn’t taken seriously…”:
Minister of Agriculture Dr. David Estwick has harshly criticised Government for failing to invest more heavily to transform and reposition the sector. And Estwick has threatened to resign if he does not get support in his mission.
“It is either that my administration going tek me seriously or I gine resign; simple as that,” a fired up Estwick declared to a hushed audience at the Savannah Hotel yesterday.
Let’s face it, Estwick will never be comfortable in the Cabinet unless he holds the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs portfolio.
BAFBFP;
I agree totally with your 7,07 am post.
I think political parties should be banned. Outlaw them. Don’t fund them.
Most of our problems, IMHO, lies in the excesses of Political parties and their members ensuring at all cost to the public that they prevail and win the next elections and use the status and resources of the Government for self centred purposes and not for the common good. End the parties and ensure that they do not rise again and I think that we would be able to right many of the wrongs in this Island.
But how are we going to get there from here! There may be a window of opportunity in the coming chaos wrought predominantly by the DLP and its purblind leader and greedy members but fuelled by years of inaction and lack of foresight by all of the Governments since Independence.
Let us revisit the issue of the level of confidence currently permeating the Barbados landscape. We can implement all the policies in the world, if we can’t get people to have the confidence to jump into the trenches [together[ to share resources to confront the challenges, we will fail. There is too much acrimony being publicly demonstrated by key actors, the missing factor is confidence.
The most amazing aspect of this whole mess is that so many of wunna BU brainiacs continue to miss the REAL point…….which is that this whole shiite is coming to a chaotic climax….and not just Barbados either….
These “leaders” that wunna looking to for some kind of guidance are even more scared than wunna…..those jokers are shiting themselves constantly…. LOL – if any of them have traveled to Africa (or Texas) recently they may be even more shit-scared …with the Ebola-like symptoms.
SURELY it must be obvious that a higher level of competence is needed at the leadership level to extract us from these “problems”… …..and, as the problems worsen, which they will, things will become even more hopeless…..
Like um or lump um….only BBE level intervention can deal with our growing hopelessness…..but wunna feel free to continue grabbing at straws…
@ ac | October 7, 2014 at 5:28 AM |
“now everybody knows that the economy is sluggish and in need of some heavy duty oiling, Now supposedly their might be some real dead weight that needs to be thrown over board instead of letting the whole dam ship slip in the ocean. the captain must must make a decision on the best way forward, true or lie, you decide,IF the captain makes a decision the crew have to go along on jump ship Dr estwick is not the captain. leave the man alone and start repairing the damage to wunna ship that still needs a captain. .”
The only deadweight that needs to be converted to jetsam and flotsam is the entire cabinet that is fast sinking the once proud ship of state .
What are you really trying to tell us here, ac?
Are you saying that privatization of the remaining State-owned assets is the only option available to the sinking ship SS (Stuart & Sinckler) Barbados?
Please make it known if you have now converted to being a Privatization proponent and stop with your apostasy informed with hypocrisy and lies.
@ David | October 7, 2014 at 8:27 AM |
Very incisive comment. A massive lack of confidence in the current administration. That’s the biggest problem facing Barbados today.
Even the IMF officials have telegraphed their feelings of a lack of confidence in the leadership of the country by demanding ‘privatization or else’.
Should we look forward to the PM explaining why he has climbed down from his anti-privatization stance he boldly made known last year in Canada?
“There will be no privatization as long as he is leader” was the mantra.
There must then be some kind of resignation. Would it be him or the MoF?
BTW, what has happened to Sir Frank Alleyne, the black cat in the dark room has his erstwhile loquacious tongue?
Sorry Bush Tea;
But if there is to be a BBE intervention it has to come through the ingenuity and actions of men … We are stuck with ourselves, sorry tah tell yah .. No second coming, at least not in my grand children’s life time, and dey ain’ even conceive’ yet
Miller the PM and Min of Finance can and will claim that it was the failing of the “Private Sector” that forced their hand in a turning on key public policy objectives.
If there is to be a lack of confidence it has to be in a system and not in a Party or its Leader.
The reality in Barbados that the IMF is leading the conversation everywhere should be an admission that we are struggling. As a country we need to make sure we get as involved as our democracy accommodates to influence decisions to be made shortly that will have long term implication for the country.
@Baffy
Again we keep making the mistake of acknowledging a DMZ between private and public sector. A successful country in a post globalizatio-world must behave as one sector.
“As a country we need to make sure we get as involved as our democracy accommodates ” … which is not very much, when you think about it. Talk Shows, Blogs and Social Media, Letters to the Editors, Calypso, Mounting a Platform, Marching … all akin to fogging mosquitoes …
@Baffy
It is a process, you maybe thinking there is a quick fix.
… Qualification required David … “A successful country in a post globalization-world must behave as one sector” … that does NOT seek to exploit its citizens ONLY
David “It is a process” … and so it should be. But the avenues mentioned have NEVER resulted in much
@Baffy
Social media is a new animal inserted in the Barbados landscape, give it time to take form.
In any system which encourages competition there will be an element of exploitation.
are-we-there-yet
You are supporting BAF in that shyte he is talking? What political parties what! It is PEOPLE–politicians, public sector, private sector, voluntary sector, third sector, the talking sector (Bushtea, BAF etc) and all other sectors– that is the pronlem.
@ Bushie
We have been saying this for the longest time. Only a total collaspe will bring the inventiveness for real solutions, if there are any. Our judgement is that we, as a specie, have reached self-imposed limits and can go no further because we cannot be prepared to do the reversals in ‘development’ that would cause another type of real human development. All the environments, all the tipping points are being reached and surpassed. It’s just a matter of time. And the politicians should stop their dishonesty and tell the people in clear terms that they are of No use at all, have no answers for us. But they would prefer to die with their boots on!
Only the threat of death could get any real change in mentalities. We have called previously for the erection of a guillotine in Bridgetown’s centre, as a medium of truth, a truth serum! But we are to be ignorned at great peril to what some like to call modern civilization. LOL
So it is unfair to blame them anymore.
LOL @ Baffy
Ha Ha Ha ….no wonder you ranting and raving at Caswell like another highly rated BU member……next thing you will be going to ALL CAPS…Ha Ha Ha
Boss man….you looking for grand children…?!?
Wuh you may be in a worse state of delusion than even first thought by Bushie… Man Baffy….don’t even plan on pension.
LOL…and you waiting on MAN to solve these problems…? You know what Einstein said..?
The massive problems that we have created cannot be solved with the same level of brass bowlery that created them in the first place……or something like that…
What exactly do you expect men to do differently than we have done since the beginning of time?……in FAR more simple worlds?
wake up Baffy….
@ Pacha
As Bushie said, you are way ahead of your time.
Common sense tells us that the ONLY way out of this mess is down……
LOL…you had a close look at Obama recently…..poor fella!
Well he only have a few more months to suffer.
@ Enuff (9:36 am)
Good point.
Baffy just being ANTI- Political Party….
LOL……and ANTI-Caswell
……and ANTI-Dennis J
Ha Ha Ha he is still Bushie’s boy though.
@ Bushie
If people would pay some attention to the economic indicators, make adjustments for ‘wilfull error’ and compare them to any period before the major callamities it would be clear that we are in a worse position than anytime previously. This is just economy. All other system are facing catatrophic failure!
For example, lets look at the DOW. It started today hovering around 17,000. It is hard to convince people that this is a fiction of the higest magnitude and that based on real economic activity it should be no more than 30% of its value – less than 5,000. But the system is even more rigged now than in 2008. And all the indicators are in a worse relative position than then. Real unemployment is around 23% and not the artificial 7 or 8 the US government sends out. Underemployment is even worse. The only jobs around are the McDonald’s type – 7 dollars an hour.
The US government itself is so dunce that they do not even know how to cheat properly. For example, they tell us that last quarter we had about 4% GDP growth. But when you look at the all the inicators that would normally support such we see the reverse. Whether it is comsumer spending, the
level of inventories, labour participation and so on.
We have said before that the DOW is primarily based on the activity high frequency traders are engaged in. Not the premise on which it was started. But this big lie remains the basis on which people can say the system is still viable. It is NOT. It is like COW gambling with Kiffin, if one of them losses 30MM, the stakes were high, but this activity has no effect on the rest of us, on the real economy per se.
The only advice one could render to the people of Barbados is to assume everything an official says is a lie. And work backwards. Absent the inclination to take the first piece of advice – the guillotine! We continue to be astonished at the level of ignorance in high places. For example, that some Gulf satrapy would invest 5BB dollars in Barbados. We assume that the idiots in the Gulf know, like we do, how 5BB could be transformed to 50BB overnight. These are the lessons the economic establishment in the Caribbean is yet to learn. Instead of playing this modern game of crooks and robbers these popinjays hold up the old times norns as sacred. The real game has long moved on.
Case in point, why would a GOB take over 100MM from Butch Stewart, the proceeds from the sale of property and use it to pay wages and salaries and other debts. When, as capital, that money could have been employed in the not so new economic game delivering near equal amounts monthly. We Brassbowls in charge. Well education idiots!
David | October 7, 2014 at 9:21 AM |
“Social media is a new animal inserted in the Barbados landscape, give it time to take form.”
Your criticisms of the traditional media are valid and accepted. The media in the Caribbean continue with a story only as long as it is sensational to the public. Unlike the traditional media, David, through BU, continue to present topics of interest and has given ordinary citizens a medium to facilitate discussion and the exchanging of comments and ideas.
The working paper entitled “Model Democracy or Groundless Complacency?: An Exploration of Democracy and Governance in Barbados around the Issues of the 2008 General Elections- Working Paper # 1, August 1, 2008.”, by Sr. Tennyson Joseph and Cynthia Barrow-Giles, both lecturers in political science at UWI, Cave Hill, makes interesting reading. The research paper suggests, among other things, that the weakness of the media indicates Barbados maturity is overstated.
Interestingly, the researchers identified a noted absence of integrity legislation, but also suggested that Barbadians held the perception that Barbados was an advanced democracy, “which in itself was manifested in a reduced vigilance insofar as their alertness towards possible erosions of democratic practice and behaviour is concerned.”
They also indentified a presence of a “culture of fear” of victimization, notably among public sector employees but also prevalent among the wider populace and extending to media practitioners. They alluded to “a reluctance of engaging in whistle blowing, to demand and advocate for greater institutionalization of democratic institutions and to speak openly on political issues.”
Additionally, the researchers felt the absence of integrity intergrity legislation,
“combined with the absence of conflict of interest rules for parliamentarians and more specifically cabinet ministers…….. suggested a significant gap in the democratic institutional framework of the country.”
And the Bush Man say that nothing don’t happen at UWI.
Bush Tea;
So I is you boy … I is a atheist … card carrying member from the time I was twelve … How dah goin’ wuk …?
What is wrong with being anti-political party .. the f’cks that are almost solely responsible for the underdevelopment of most of the citizens in this neck of the woods …?
What is so wrong with being anti-Dennis Johnson, a farce with a voice and access to the airways that makes him more dangerous than the very politician that he in reality protects ..?
But I am not anti-Caswell, he jus’ blin’ side me and that expose a trait dat I din’ even know he had … de jackass …!
Because Baffy you have to see the bigger picture. Use the airwaves to make YOUR points and COUNTER points. You are meddling in the small inconsequential.
@ David
What you talking about. Do you really believe there is any value in what passes for debate here. This narrative and counter narrative. Can’t you see this is merely sophisticated propaganda at work. Maybe self-indoctrination!
@Pacha
Some will not join you to throw out the baby with the bath water.
@Artax
The working paper is not available online.
If that kind of foolishness was useful, how come we are where we are today. You mean in all this radio talk not one person or a set of person had any vision at all?
@ BAF
The only problem we see with atheists is that they like christians follow a religion. And we are against all religions. Notwithstanding, the Great Bush Man could otherwise be a valuable ally. Surely, we don’t have to hold the same views on every subject to form a coalition against injustice, for example.
Hi donkeys ..chickens and political yardfowls maintaing and sustaining an economy supersedes malice and political blood letting..get it
@ David
“The reality in Barbados that the IMF is leading the conversation everywhere should be an admission that we are struggling. As a country we need to make sure we get as involved as our democracy accommodates to influence decisions to be made shortly that will have long term implication for the country”………………………
I completely agree with you, David but how can we? You started BU to facilitate discussion and what do we get………………..as soon as you criticize any policy, you are attacked……not the ideas but the person.
We cannot therefore influence decisions made because the powers that be do not want any suggestions because they know it all and “now is we time, we gine do things we way, keep wunnah ideas to wunnah self”.
Sad, isn’t it?
@ Artax
Bushie never said that nothing happens at Cave Hill
…what was said was more like “Nothing SENSIBLE happens there…” 🙂
@ Bushie
If you had said nothing happens at cave hill, you would have been right. But since you don’t want to make that argument we will! Those who are willing to make the opposite argument should start by telling us what happens there. How come none of the social problems in the Caribbean can find solutions eminating from there? We could go on and on……….
David, October 7, 2014 at 9:21 AM:
“In any system which encourages competition there will be an element of exploitation.”
Possibly true.
Undeniably true: any system that discourages competition will be a basket case. See: North Korea, every republic of the USSR in the 1970s, Nicaragua in the 1980s.
It’s striking that those who most want to ban competition are usually those least equipped to compete.
There is an article by Tennyson Joseph, “State of denial”, in today’s Nation that cogently captures the essence of where Barbados is today and offers an immanent prediction of our future. I think he is spot on in his analysis.
It is a must read for anyone who really wants to understand our reactions to the gross mismanagement, disdainful dismissal of the need for the governing to meaningfully communicate with the governed, and the clear expressions of greed in our society especially the reactions, or lack thereof, of those who quietly and subserviently suffer the daily effects of such mismanagement and greed.
Just one quote from his article
” …. what is being suggested here is the need for an examination of the extent to which the more conservative aspects of the Barbadian collective consciousness may be responsible for Barbados’ inability to ride the crisis”.
He lists a few questions about the Barbadian way that needs to be answered and perhaps David could take up the baton on these. The one which I would highlight is this Has the traditional political conservatism contributed to the prolongation of the crisis .
To many on this blog those will be fighting words but can anyone think of anywhere else in the Caribbean where David Estwick, or Freundel Stuart or the Minister of Labour or the Minister of Finance would have been given a free pass by the general public in the face of their numerous mistakes?
Every Caribbean Territory is doing better than Barbados in every indicator of progress towards surmounting the current crisis.
The acting Minister of Finance is today the Prime Minister, go figure. Sinckler gone this morning on an urgent trip to Washington USA boh.
Pachamama | October 7, 2014 at 12:39 PM |
“@ Bushie: If you had said nothing happens at cave hill, you would have been right. But since you don’t want to make that argument we will! Those who are willing to make the opposite argument should start by telling us what happens there. How come none of the social problems in the Caribbean can find solutions eminating from there? We could go on and on……….”
I do not want to divert this discussion, but I am forced make a few comments on your statement.
Academics at universities all over the world are mandated to write research papers, articles or publish books, etc. In the Caribbean, UWI social scientist have written numerous research papers outlining social problems in the region and possible solutions to rectify or eliminate them from occurring again in the future. As UWI is partially funded by some Caribbean governments, these publications are made available to the public, governments, and to students for research purposes.
Politicians’ interests lay mainly in their self preservation and the ability to remain in government as long as they can. They create an environment of mendicancy amongst the electorate, so that people will seek their assistance in terms of housing, welfare grants, unsustainable jobs, or handouts in an effort to show they are helping them. Seeking to eliminate social problems in the Caribbean is tantamount to the USA selling guns to ISIS, since the electorate won’t really have anything to go to them for.
Another issue is the media’s refusal to publish these articles for perusal and discussion as a public service. But in the interest of profits, they will weigh the difference between how many people buying their newspapers are interested in academic information or in “Cou Cou and Flying Fish” and “Pudding and Souse” or Richard Hoad and Eric Lewis writing shiite.
are-we-there-yet, October 7, 2014 at 1:15 PM, quotes someone else in The Nation:
“The extent to which the more conservative aspects of the Barbadian collective consciousness may be responsible for Barbados’ inability to ride the crisis.
“He lists a few questions about the Barbadian way that needs [sic] to be answered .”
I have a couple of questions. First, what are “the more conservative aspects of the Barbadian collective consciousness”?
Second, what the fuck is a “collective consiousness”? Don’t think I’ve ever met one.
Jack Bowman you jackass … Have you ever been to North Korea ..?
Pachamama | October 7, 2014 at 12:39 PM |
Let me give you an example of our mentality [including yours, Pachamama] as it relates to confidence we have in our academics. A report entitled “Committee on Governance of West Indies Cricket” was presented in October 2007, prepared by former Jamaica Prime Minister P.J Patterson, Dr. Ian McDonald and Sir Alister McIntyre.
The following is an excerpt from the preface of the report [paragraph 1]:
“Because of our shared addiction to the game and incontrovertible belief that cricket is an inseparable ingredient of the Caribbean socio-political fabric, we could not dare to refuse the invitation of the Board to examine the structure and offer recommendations as to the possible future of West Indies Cricket.”
This October 2014, 7 years after that report was published without any recommendations being considered. On the other hand, the WICB’s new director of cricket, Englishman Richard Pybus conducted a 3 month study in the region between November 2013 and January 2014, to produce a 33 page report entitled “West Indies Cricket System Review and Plan”, which was presented to WICB in March 2014. The board has seen it fit to immediately approve and accept 38 of his 39 proposals [with one being deferred] as outlined in the report.
This is what Tony Cozier stated in his article on ESPN Cricinfo, dated April 27, 2014:
“It is a wonder West Indies cricket has survived for more than 100 years as an entity. The internal spats that have confronted Caricom, the Caribbean trade and economic grouping, throughout its comparative infancy, typify the potential pitfalls. Pybus’ is not the first such report commissioned by the WICB. That, prepared by a group, headed by the former Jamaica Prime Minister PJ Patterson, presented an equally significant tome in 2007. ITS MAIN POINTS WERE NOT ACTED ON, PROMPTING PATTERSON TO COMPLAIN THAT HE HAD SPENT A COUPLE OF YEARS WASTING HIS TIME.”
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.