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Artaxerxes | October 7, 2014 at 1:38 PM |
YOU ARE 100% CORRECT
RE 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.
THIS IS OF COURSE A RHETORICAL QUESTION
EVEN ON BU ARTICLES OF SUBSTANCE ARE FEEBLY DISCUSSED, IF DISCUSSED AT ALL.
BUT WHAT DO YOU EXPECT IN A VIRTUAL RUM SHOP, WHERE ANYTHING GOES
Artaxerxes
We have written post-doctoral papers, lectured to post graduate students and conducted seminars for senior executives internationally. So nobody can tell us anything about academia. Would we really need a research paper to tell us about the absence of intrigrity legislation? In the absence of the UWI every child would know all governments should have been accountable. In the presence of the university we should be pushing the bounds of knowledge and creating new governing systems, not just rearranging the chairs on the Titanic! Point zero.
We are sorry, we were under the distinct impression that the reason a university should exist would be to improve the circumstances of the people at large, not create a useless class of credentialed slaves for ignorant people like COW to employ. They should be solving employment permaently not depending on the unschooled for a living. Point zero!
You are saying nothing. The work of the university should be measurable in real terms not by the production of a set of idiots who are barely literate and expect sombody to respect then for the regurgitation of the ideas of others. Where is a single discovery in the hard sciences? Where are the industries brought about or transformed by the creation of new knowledge? Where is even the idea being articulated that the university should be self supporting and develop its own resouces to free it from perpetual dependency or tranfering cost to government or the student body? These are just a few more questions which we will add to the first one unanswered by you. Point zero!
BAFBFP, October 7, 2014 at 2:00 PM:
“Jack Bowman you jackass … Have you ever been to North Korea..?”
Yes.
No Georgie .. not “WHERE ANYTHING GOES”, but where anything enlightening is discouraged
Artax … You mean a White man’s word is worth more than that of two former PM’s … ha ha ha … Maybe they are many among us who think very little of PM’s anyway …
BAFBFP | October 7, 2014 at 2:19 PM |
No Georgie .. not “WHERE ANYTHING GOES”, but where anything enlightening is discouraged
I AM SORRY BAFFY
BUT THE TRUTH, HOWEVER, IS THAT YOU ARE 100% CORRECT—anything enlightening is discouraged………………OR THERE IS AN INABILITY TO DECIPHER SAME, OR A DELIBERATE DECISION TO DISREGARD ENLIGHTENMENT
Pachamama | October 7, 2014 at 2:10 PM |
You win…… I concede to your superior intellect. However, I will not be intimidated by those of you, who because you reside overseas, think that gives you some level of cocky superiority over those of us who live in the Caribbean.
But I will leave you with this…. there are research universities and non-research universities mainly for academics. First things first, you determine the category under which UWI falls.
The type of research you are alluding to is very expensive to undertake and such universities receive funding from businesses, alumni, governments, grants, and they also solicit contributions from philanthropist and other donors. That type of scenario does not exist in the Caribbean, since the UWI is financed mainly by government contributions [many of whom owe the UWI millions of dollars], and the various fees paid by students.
You must appreciate that there is a difference and you cannot compare UWI to universities such as University of the West of England, Arizona State University, or the University of the West of Scotland.
But once again, as I am not as intelligent as you are, I bow to your wisdom.
Again, you are 100% correct Artaxerxes
To add to what you said above, to “teach” at some of these “resarch Universities” YOU HAVE TO BRING FUNDING WITH YOU. FURTHERMORE, LOTS OF THE RESeARCH IS BARE BULLSHIT!
In some Med schools I am told that thee “TEACHERS” dont teach anything but just go in classrooms and talk about their research. The students have to learn the Basic Sciences on their own- and do only because they are the cream of the crop
But Pachy knows all thee things are true too
Who is this Pachamama though–another show off with nuff talk?
Artaxerxes, October 7, 2014 at 2:46 PM:
“But I will leave you with this…. there are research universities and non-research universities mainly for academics. First things first, you determine the category under which UWI falls.”
No need to leave anything to anybody. There are many objective global rankings of universities.
For example:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013-14/world-ranking
I stopped looking for UWI after 300. Perhaps I missed it.
If I didn’t, then if you’re not in the first 300 universities worldwide, your university is probably a bit shite.
Just saying.
GEORGIE PORGIE | October 7, 2014 at 3:02 PM |
I know there is a difference in universities. However, if you want to be critical of UWI, be more analytical rather than generalizing to substantiate your criticisms.
Artaxerxes
We are right here, there, everywhere. Everywhere our business takes us. When the 21 year old White boys from Wall Street telling Bajans what to do, with authority, we don’t hear that refrain. When the local White people telling wunna as it is, never that refrain.
The head of the UWI said he wanted it to be a reseach university. But regardless of whether it is or not the people it has produced have failed us, failed this region. The production of a larger pettite bourgois political-managerial class of beggars cannot be the remit of any university.
I never taught at UWI (taught elsewhere) but I have several friends and colleagues who taught there at postgrad level on secondment from their own universities.
My enduring memory from all of them is their baffled amazement. Their amazement that they couldn’t actually teach the course, because they were having to show 25 year-olds how to construct basic sentences … things that their other students in other universities had grasped by the age of fifteen.
re My enduring memory from all of them is their baffled amazement. Their amazement that they couldn’t actually teach the course, because they were having to show 25 year-olds how to construct basic sentences … things that their other students in other universities had grasped by the age of fifteen.
AMAZING! I GET THE SAME THING FROM MY US STUDENTS
Artaxerxes | October 7, 2014 at 3:21 PM |
GEORGIE PORGIE | October 7, 2014 at 3:02 PM |
pLEASE KINDLY NOTE THAT I AM NOT CRITICAL OF UWI
UWI HAS DONE WELL IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF ITS FUNDING AND ITS POLITICS
Jack Bowman | October 7, 2014 at 3:20 PM |
I stopped looking for UWI after 300. Perhaps I missed it.
,,…………………………………………………………………………………….
That explains a lot. Some years ago I needed some UK papers countersigned ,and one of the stated professions qualified to do so, was a Qualified Engineer. The application form was returned as ,this body with members all over the globe, did not recognised the UWI qualification.
GEORGIE PORGIE, October 7, 2014 at 3:49 PM:
“AMAZING! I GET THE SAME THING FROM MY US STUDENTS”
REALLY? MAYBE THEY SHOULD WRITE WITH CAPS LOCK ON.
GEORGIE PORGIE | October 7, 2014 at 3:52 PM |
Artaxerxes | October 7, 2014 at 3:21 PM |
GEORGIE PORGIE | October 7, 2014 at 3:02 PM |
pLEASE KINDLY NOTE THAT I AM NOT CRITICAL OF UWI
UWI HAS DONE WELL IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF ITS FUNDING AND ITS POLITICS
………………………………………………………………….
My comments were NOT DIRECTED AT YOU, when I said “you” it was a generalization. I agreed with your comments.
THE BARBADOS LABOUR PARTY (BLP) is calling for the resignation of Education Minister Ronald Jones.
Artaxerxes …
Are you related to Darius …?
@ BAFBFP
What related to what Darius what?
Can’t you see that Artax is related to David (BU)?
Same optimistic outlook…
same sharp mind…
Same massive database of information….
Same vintage…
….and same hopeless blindness to the reality of our peril.
@ Boy Blue
Why do you seek to be malicious? No one in the UK would have asked for a “Qualified” Engineer. They would have asked for a Chartered engineer. Furthermore, UWI’s Engineering programmes are accredited by bodies including IMechE:
Hants, October 7, 2014 at 4:48 PM:
“THE BARBADOS LABOUR PARTY (BLP) is calling for the resignation of Education Minister Ronald Jones.”
World faints, has anxiety attack, recovers. People on the streets of Paris, Tokyo, Pyonyang and Havana all asking: “what de worl goan wid no Ronnie”?
Jack Bowman | October 7, 2014 at 3:36 PM |
“I never taught at UWI (taught elsewhere) but I have several friends and colleagues who taught there at postgrad level on secondment from their own universities. My enduring memory from all of them is their baffled amazement. Their amazement that they couldn’t actually teach the course, because they were having to show 25 year-olds how to construct basic sentences … things that their other students in other universities had grasped by the age of fifteen…”
I do not believe that your friends had “to show 25 year-olds how to construct basic sentences”. That is a lie, and you know it.
With the exception of those students who gained a grade 1 or A in CXC or CAPE English Language, every student entering UWI have to sit an English Language exam so as test their competency and before they can undertake FOUN 1008 Rhetoric II: Writing for Special Purposes or FOUN 1001 English for Academic Purposes.
Also, your said statement…. “because they were having to show 25 year-olds how to construct basic sentences … things that their other students in other universities had grasped by the age of fifteen…”, is not only an indictment on the university, but on Barbados’ entire education system as well.
Please bear in mind that CXC English Language and use of English are taught in secondary schools to students AGED 12 TO 18 YEARS OF AGE, and not at UWI. So, essentially, you and your “friends” are trying to convince us that:
1) English Language teachers in Barbados and the Caribbean [who teach our 15 years olds] are not as qualified as those teachers from other jurisdictions to teach the subject, since constructing basic sentences are things “other students in other universities had grasped by the age of fifteen”, and not our 15 year olds.
2) The Caribbean Examination Council CXC and CAPE English Language examinations and qualifications are inadequate;
3) Those persons entrusted to correct these examination papers are fraudulently giving candidates grades they do not deserve;
4) Students are graduating from BCC with unaccredited qualifications;
As such, and under these circumstances, it is my humble opinion that you sir, are a liar.
Dr. the Hon. David C. Estwick, M.P.
Minister of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries, and
Water Resource Management
…………………………………………………………………
https://www.flickr.com/photos/83717797@N04/13593691764/
When history is written David Estwick will be known as the man who has closed down Andrews Sugar Factory in St Joseph while allowing the rundown and ramshackled rat and millipede infested, frog invaded,bush covered Castle Grant Reservoir in the same St Joseph to remain in operation. And added to that the authorities have allowed a plant nursery to set up right next to the reservoir. This plant nursery ,by its very nature uses a high volume of various chemicals, which over time ,has probably already permeated the porous concrete walls of the very aged reservoir storage tanks. Any undesirable , with mischief on his mind can have easy access to this important facility. Up to yesterday there was an announcement on Radio, informing customers who are fed from this particular reservoir, of an outage
BAFBFP | October 7, 2014 at 4:48 PM |
“Artaxerxes …Are you related to Darius …?”
I’m not the Persian King Artaxerxes who was mentioned in chapter 4 of the Book of Ezra along with Darius.
Lol
@ Artax
Ignore Bowman!!
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2014/01/29/Surprising-Reason-College-Grads-Can-t-Get-Job
.AC DID NOT GO TO THE UWI BUT TO THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS WHERE EVERY STUDENT IS 100% CORRECT
@Enuff
There is nothing malicious or lying about this. What you should have said is that that you found it unusual. But I can assure you that it did happened.
@ Colonel Buggy | October 7, 2014 at 5:26 PM |
That photo says it all and paints a perfect picture of the calibre of the current administration. It reminds one of an old outhouse (aka shit house) overgrown with bush and used by vagrants.
Can you imagine the state of that property which is a perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes and the government having the unmitigated gall to threaten private landowners for unkempt properties?
What’s the sense of having a sugar industry when the expected crop can’t even produce 20,000 tonnes of sugar. What is the financial sanity in that? That level of production can’t even cover 50% of the industry’s fixed costs far less breakeven to justify its existence.
QUESTION TO ALL YOU BLP YARDFOWLS,,WHAT DID THE BLP DO IN FOURTEEN YEARS OF POWER AND GLORY TO REVIVE THE DYING SUGAR INDUSTRY.
TO ALL THE DLP YARDFOWLS, WHAT WAS THE RESULT OF THE GENERAL ELECTIONS IN 2008 and 2013?
Artaxerxes, October 7, 2014 at 5:20 PM:
1 and 2 are correct.
I have no idea about 3 or 4.I just have to deal with them. My experience: put a random group of university-educated Swedes and Bajans in a room and as them to write a page in English.
It’s fascinating to see the results.
@ ac | October 7, 2014 at 6:14 PM |
They designed a very expensive plan of revival for the industry which the DLP took over, fudged and fiddled and called it their own manifesto proposal for the sugar cane industry for a 21st Century Barbados.
When is the revitalization of the industry going to start again? December 2013 or is going to be for December 2014 in the upcoming IMF designed budget?
Is the financing still coming from the Japanese or is it now coming from Estwick’s mafia friends in the UAE?
Miller
Do you think the restructuring of the sugar industry project is need or is just a waste of money and effort?
Anyone know what is like to try and finance a major capital infrastructure project when the country is receiving downgrade after downgrade then hit with triple downgrade?
“every student entering UWI have [sic] to sit an English Language exam”
Why?
Can anyone tell us who is the acting PM in Barbados tonight
So do you really need one … ?
What I find distressing is that in a supposedly enlightened society such as Barbados,the US Embassy,the Canadian High Commission,the British High Commisssion and the United Nations Regional Office can sit idly by and allow a democratically elected Government to refuse to grant a license for at least one Barbados privately owned and operated television station.If you fence sitters can take a moment out of your busy schedules of pitching back rum and ginger or rum and coke and foster a political climate where the people are exposed to another visual view point other than the same old,same old lame, lying ,semi- literate parade of clowns and cowards that is the current administration,then you would have done your duty to ensure Barbadians stay at home and wrestle these political monsters to the ground,rather than emigrate to your respective shores.
watchman | October 7, 2014 at 7:17 PM |
Can anyone tell us who is the acting PM in Barbados tonight
Does it really matter?
@ Postage Paid | October 7, 2014 at 6:50 PM |
I cannot see a vibrant agricultural industry without the sugar cane playing an important role. The country’s topography lends itself readily to that plant as it acts as a barrier against rapid soil erosion given the large-scale removal of other natural vegetation as a result of the past farming practices geared towards sugar cane growing on the plantation model or system.
If Barbados is to maintain its rum industry then it should look towards the continuing local production of molasses. There is no guarantee the imported molasses would be always an option or forex available to pay for it.
Sugar cane production at a viable level could also satisfy the local demand for sugar for both domestic and industrial consumption/use.
I think the major constraint to the revival of a viable sugar cane industry -integrated with the other aspects or sectors of agriculture including the by-products supporting alternative energy generation- is that of finance or funding.
Very few external financing houses would be prepared to put their clients’ monies in what is generally perceived as old or sunset industries or commercial ventures with very ‘short’ profitability lives. Investing in the sugar cane industry could be seen in the same light as getting oil companies to invest in the very risky offshore drilling enterprises in the deep waters off Barbados where the hydrocarbons are believed not to be of the best quality or in the range of the Nigerian sweet crude.
For the local sugar cane industry to be resuscitated and restructured to become viable it would have to attract very ‘soft’ loan or some form of geo-politically-based grant funding from sources like the cash-flow positive Chinese or some other filthy rich Arab state. This hardly likely when the Jamaican, Guyanese and Cuban industries are competing for such funding.
look these are some of the problems confronting the revival of the sugar industry, The sugar industry in Barbados started to decline when the cost of sugar production on the island escalated and the price of sugar on the international market plummeted. operational costs outpaced world market prices .the need for up to date and functioning sugar plants will cost barbados more than it can profit from the sale and production of sugar ,as a by product in manufacturing maybe the best way forward and cost less
Over the years there have been other problems causing a decline in the sugar cane industry such as with the start of mechanisation, competition from larger scale producers, and reduction in preferential trading agreements with Britain and Europe. Now on a scale of 1 -10 how much weigh would one put into product that has lost its wheels
Alright people,we don’t need a PM like the jackass, we have.
why are we not going after him Now, and removed the ugly son of a /?? why wait for the next 3 years ?
The issue here so we do not get sidetracked is that David Estwick promised (supported by many graphs and power point presentations on the campaign trail) he was the Messiah coming to save the sugar industry. Lots of money was to be borrowed from the Japanese etc.
@ ac | October 7, 2014 at 9:10 PM |
What you are indicating is that the sugar industry in Barbados is terminally ill financially with a severe case of economic Ebola.
So if that is the case why would a rational thinking DLP administration persist with their deceiving plans and propaganda of its resuscitation and long-term survival?
Why not stop with the bi-annual lies (at Estimates and Budget presentations) and call a sugar cane blade cane-peeling?
With the facts and knowledge of the state and future of the local sugar industry as outlined by you above why would a well-informed and proactive DLP try to sell such big lies in their 2013 manifesto?
“THE NEW DLP ADMINISTRATION WILL:
(1) Implement the Cane Industry Restructuring Project (CIRP) to bring the sugar cane industry to at least a commercial break-even
Position.
(2) Initiate an agreement with private owners of sugar cane lands to facilitate consolidation of farms and effect better management, the use of more technology and the increase in sugar cane yields.”
You guys are so deceitful and lying that you would even arrange for the Queen to lie on your behalf:
“With respect to sugar cane, my Government will implement the Cane Industry Restructuring Project to bring the sugar cane industry to at least a commercial break-even position.”
look miller,which ever road they choose is to rebuild and refurbish the sugar industry is up to them. btw did the govt say they had intentions of abandoning their policy ,so why then you and your tongue of contamination proceed to attached my comments to what the govt said as a way of proving that the govt lied,have you been struck by the Ebola virus u sound mad as sh,..t, ,
@ ac | October 7, 2014 at 9:59 PM |
You want to hear more lies that are real big lies, then listen to a ‘madder’ man infected with the Ebola curse of deadly lies in August last year in his budget presentation telling you like it was:
“Major Agriculture Reform:
In the area of agriculture our principal focus in the next eighteen months, Sir, will be the initiation of the major restructuring of the local sugar cane industry. As is well known, this industry has been on a steady and sure decline for many years now, having suffered not only from a dismantling of the preferential arrangements with Europe but also because of serious internal challenges relating to financing and excess cost over the ability to earn.
And in the face of a failure by the authorities to do a serious restructuring of the industry it has now come to a juncture at which an ignominious collapse was awaiting. This administration has however designed, and successfully sought financing to advance, a major restructuring of the industry over the next three years, starting next year, in what is the Barbados Cane Industry Project.
Funding for this exercise (which will see the re-engineering of an existing sugar factory so as to allow it to engage multiple applications, including the production of bio-mass for the co-generation of electricity) has been agreed with the Japanese Bank of International Corporation and Japanese commercial banks for up to US270 million dollars.
Negotiations with all stakeholders including the workers’ representatives have already begun and the Ministry of Agriculture will be making a fuller pronouncement of the details of the project in the coming weeks.
It is expected that this project will begin implementation in the first quarter of next year and run for three full years.”
Now that is one big pipe dream of a lie that even the BWA cannot lay as its main supply to its spanking new HQ.
@David
I understand issue, but the Government Ministers are a bunch of no words to describe them, so what need to be done is to take the head (PM)of the body(MINISTERS),as the saying goes,when the head bad the whole body bad, is the head doing what needed to be done to keep the body working right ? NO, then the discussion should be about the head(PM) a body(Ministers) part, like an eye, a foot, hand can leave the body and it still work bad, why are the lights in front of the car are call HEAD-LIGHTS ? and not BODY-LIGHTS?
If Dr. Estwick is losing credibility then the BCA Board of Directors have already lost credibility. The Miller fiasco must rank as one the most embarrassing developments on a national scale. How can a convicted criminal be hired for such a prestigious position that comes with a six figure salary and a car. From Big Bird to Howard and Roxanne Forte should be fired for bringing not only Barbados’ national past time into disrepute but sullying the respected name of Barbados around the world. What were they thinking? The BCA is known for its clique of social climbers. Many of its Board of Directors are not the sharpest tools in the shed but get their positions thru favoritism, nepotism and downright incompetency. So if Estwick should go so too should the BCA Board, What a collection of clowns.
watchman | October 7, 2014 at 7:17 PM |
Can anyone tell us who is the acting PM in Barbados tonight
………………………………………………………………………
Check with lotto people. Perhaps their machine is used to determine who will be acting PM. Then again not, they used balls , somethings that would unfairly represent the ruling party.
And as far as I can recall, Estwick was still persuing this fuel cane crap that was a complete failure for those plantations which were persuaded to plant many acres of this ‘woodlike” cane,and had to bulldozed them a few years later, loosing a two or more crop seasons of a valuable yield of sugar canes.
Our big problem in agriculture is that politicians ,not now, but for ages never listened to farmers. And this was driven home to me in my very early years, when I had two very close relatives, one was a very successful farmer, the other a politician. The farmer one night intervened in a conversations , to put a group of agricultural clueless politicians right,.and was told ,”shut up old man, you don’t know what you are talking about.” Nothing has changed.
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