Submitted by Anthony Davis
Chairman of Cable & Wireless Sir Richard Lapthorne
“It may not have the blessing of regional regulators and even consumers at this stage, but shareholders of Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC), the parent of LIME, today voted overwhelmingly in favour of the merger with Columbus International Inc., operator of the consumer brand, Flow” – Barbados Today
Once again the former colonial masters – in the form of the CWC shareholders – are seeking to put their former slaves – in the form of the regulators of the various Caribbean countries – back in shackles. How else is one to interpret the words of CWC’s Chairman Sir Richard Lapthorne when he sees it as a foregone conclusion that, if the shareholders in Britain – which it takes an 8.5 hour flight to get to – have voted for this juggernaut, the regulators here must only ask how high when the shareholders say to jump.
I find it an affront to the dignity and intelligence of the people of the Caribbean that he could come to such a conclusion without any of the regulators having made a decision. In Britain there are still persons who think that Barbados is part of Jamaica, and I have a big problem with that.
LIME is already showing its true face by insisting that, in order to get LIME TV, one must buy a LIME mobile phone. What can we expect when it becomes such a behemoth?
The situation in the Caribbean is not “consistent with global industry trends” as CWC will have us believe, because, for example, when one looks at the European and British telecoms markets there are already several industry players and therefore more competition whereas here it will not have any, and we do not need a monopoly here again.
I think that the private sector, the Minister of Business, Minister of Labour, the Minister of Finance, and the FTC especially should take a long hard look at this proposed merger. This is maybe a case where CARICOM can play a part, instead of sitting on the sidelines.
I note with dismay that the regulators in the Caribbean seem to be throwing their hands up in despair when it comes to this merger. They must comply with our rules and regulations like any other company. How many people will be sent cap-in-hand to the Welfare Department?
Not one word has been said about those who will be sent home – after Christmas perhaps – by LIME after it becomes a monopoly. Government – which is having a cash flow problem – must demand a figure from LIME!
People: “Beware of gift-bearing Greeks!”
There is nothing government nor regulators can do about this ‘merger’. Its a done business deal and its all within the confines of the law. The most government can do is try to attract a competitors who have the inclination to invest the time, money and infrastructure.
its all ears , they will want to know what we talking about , now the DLP and BLP can use C&W to do their dirty work ,
But lets see , we will tell you if asked no need to wire tap and waste more tax payers money ,
We have free-smart of information , Right here at the C.U.P
The Fair Trading Commission has the authority to prevent the merger in Barbados if its identifies it would be unfair competition.
On 9 December 2014 at 01:38, Barbados Underground wrote:
>
People move from lime because of bad service,now back in the hands of lime god help us,
Barbadians were told that deregulation of the telecommunications market in Barbados (and elsewhere) was a condition for healthy competition to which the consumer would be the beneficiary. Are we to now accept that a return to a monopoly by LIME of data in the market is healthy? Now the company can practice bundling based on its competitive advantage?
@Hants
You have to follow C&W’s demerger in recent years to grasp the new structure and impact:
Does the FTC have the cajones to block this deal in Barbados?
UK shareholders control LIME
Canadian shareholders control the commercial banks.
Trinidadian shareholders control major businesses.
UK investors own Sandy Lane.
Jamaican about to control a big part of the Hotel Industry.
Did Barbados gain independence or reconfigured dependence?
I find it an affront to the dignity and intelligence of the people of the Caribbean……
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What dignity and intelligence is that Mr. Davis?
…selling off the hard-earned assets (like Bartel and BL&P,) purchased with the blood and sweat of our grandparents to white people, and now being surprised that we are being treated like brass bowls …is intelligent?
…and what ‘dignity’ does poor, dispossessed, mendicant, beggars expect? Dignity is something that is associated with people who work hard to OWN AND CONTROL the basics that are CRITICAL to their survival….
Look boss….if we have sold off our national assets to strangers so that we can get forex to buy their shiite trinkets then the least we can do is to go quietly back into slavery….
Imagine our ancestors fought and bled for four centuries to escape the clutches of slavery – only for a bunch of black political jackasses to lead us right back where we started…..selling our inheritance of freedom for a pot of porridge….and actually EXPECTING that the descendants of our former slave masters will behave differently to THEIR fore-parents….
Brass bowl female rabbits……
Canadian shareholders control BL&P/Emera.
Barbados outa control.
Barbados is a consumer driven profit centre for foreign companies.
@ Hants
Barbados is a consumer driven profit centre for foreign companies.
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Exactly as the 18th century plantations were.
Crooks operating on a much higher level, Barbados government might even have share like LIAT , So they may control more news and info ,
Spies spying on crime members , the Public is the focus, Wire tapping WATER-GATE,
Barbados government must be removed, for sake of Country and Man
Posted on December 8, 2014 by David | “…LIME is already showing its true face by insisting that, in order to get LIME TV, one must buy a LIME mobile phone. What can we expect when it becomes such a behemoth?…”
Is it “to get LIME TV…” or “to get free LIME TV…”? We already had the internet, mobile and land line – they added the TV at no charge.
Isn’t Digicel sufficient competition?
So if Barbados blocks the merger what happens? How can Flow and LIME be separate companies only in Barbados.
Just think it through, Flow/LIME is one entity in the rest of the world EXCEPT Bim? Will they be forced to pull out of the Barbados market? Who will be left to run the phones and internet?
bookworm asked “Will they be forced to pull out of the Barbados market?”:
No. They will find a way to stay in Barbados and add to their profits. It is not just locals but tourists bring their cell phones and money is made from “roaming charges”
.
@Hants
Yes, I see that, but how on earth can they operate as 2 companies in Bim and as one in the rest of the world? They will merge and either be allowed to stay or they will pull out. Barbados can not stop the merger.
If they pull out of Barbados, I’d rejoice.Like if Bajans are under-educated to run our own companies but are jolly well educated enough to run other people’s own.
Received via email:
Suckabubby
Better still a Maugbe act…..PELT THEM OUT…leaving all assets and infrastructure…..they are nothing but cannibalist capitalist who don’t give a rats ass above us or our regulatory bodies…why should we about them…..
@bookworm
If the FTC blocks the merger C&W would be forced to sell in Barbados.
old onion bags | December 9, 2014 at 2:16 PM |
Yes … PELT THEM OUT .. with a good ole Bajan gawblummah.
@SuckaBubby
We love to go with the flow.
David | December 9, 2014 at 2:27 PM |
Barbados is almost 50 years old as a sovereign nation.Sometime we have to grow up and exercise that sovereignty.This whole notion we are a powerless rock sitting in the sea with an open economy must stop.We have power and we must exercise at the national level , if we , consumers are to be obliged to exercise ours at the personal level in lieu of a vibrant , proactive consumer body.
Upward and onward we shall go,
Inspired, exulting, free,
And greater will our nation grow
In strength and unity
NOT
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen.
David | December 9, 2014 at 3:06 PM |
That is true but as the old people always say,too far east is west and if we dont wise up soon enough we will find ourselves somewhere we didn’t expect and definitely where we dont want to be.
Isn’t Digicel sufficient competition
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What the hell is the difference? English vs Irish?
shiite man… this was like back when ownership of our plantations was the subject of European family feuds….
What a slave mentality.
BARTEL was the correct response….
Just as white owned “Flow” found it in their interest to join with C&W to screw us, we can bet that eventually the cousins from the UK will put their collective interests WAY above ours….
There is no SELF-RESPECT in mendicancy and dependency. Independence only means ONE thing …and that is NOT begging at the door of strangers….
Bush Tea
VODAFONE is an internationally owned conglomerate do not be suprised if the melanin rich ones are the majority shareholders…….chuckle…….
BBE,BBE,when will you realise that a new world order is already here,looks like you have to change your whitey bashing refrain……chuckle
@ Vincent
You and Onions were in school together…right?
….same shiite talk… 🙂
Are the majority stakeholders of Barbados not melanin rich? ..what is your point? a brass bowl is a brass bowl – no matter the melanin…
…and since when did stating FACTS become bashing bozie…?
wunna fellows are so ingrained into subservience that it is painful to contemplate…
Now if you said that Bushie was wont to bash Brass Bowl Bajan Blacks…. THEN YOU MAY GET A GUILTY PLEA…
SuckaBubby | December 9, 2014 at 2:08 PM |
If they pull out of Barbados, I’d rejoice.Like if Bajans are under-educated to run our own companies but are jolly well educated enough to run other people’s own.
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Yesterday I passed through St Thomas and marveled at the pristine condition that meets the eye at Content Plantation, Highland Plantation, Strong Hope Plantation and many others. Now you come into the neighbouring villages, which I will not call by name, and is met with garbage piled high, grass up to the windows and all kinds of eyesore.
Guess who are responsible for keeping those great house yards and fences in immaculate condition?
The same goes for the air-conditioned plantations in Bridgetown and Warrens.
Bush Tea | December 9, 2014 at 3:30 PM |
Isn’t Digicel sufficient competition
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What the hell is the difference? English vs Irish?
shiite man… this was like back when ownership of our plantations was the subject of European family feuds….
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English Vs Irish. Man they fight like hell against each other , in Belfast, LondonDerry and through out Ireland, and even on the UK Mainland , but when they come to the Caribbean, they call a truce. Their , enemies, or mugs, which way you look at it, are the locals. They join forces and become members of the same clubs and organisations, especially the Local Sugar and Sweeetness Club.
David | December 9, 2014 at 2:27 PM |@bookworm If the FTC blocks the merger C&W would be forced to sell in Barbados.
It the FTC does not…, would Digicel be forced to sell in Barbados?
@
*Your NIS is invested in LIME*
*It means Digicel will struggle to gain marketshare and grow.*
On 10 December 2014 at 09:42, Barbados Underground wrote:
>
Barbados does not even have a National Bank…remember? That was sold to the Trinis.Would not be surprised if CBC is sold to some Trini or Jamaican group.
Hey, thats not a bad idea!
Is it my unreasonable expectation, my impatience or is Scotiabank’s service the slowest banking service on Broad Street?
I am tired of the crap spilled out here. All you black Bajan with money still don’t buy one share in these businesses when possible. We complain about foreigners buying this and that here but when given the chance to pool our resources to own something of substance we do not do it. Then we turn around and keep the foreign owned businesses afloat with our money. We need to stop complaining, waiting on Gov’t, B or D, and start investing in ourselves.
@Cool Runnings
Of course you have included government who have without hesitation dumped shares in BL&P, Republic Bank and about to giveaway the oil subsidiary?
For there to be any serious response, or standing up to LIME, as is being alluded to and suggested by a few here, inclusive of the Robert Mugabe intimation, we, as citizens led by the current DLP government (and previously by the BLP a la Ronald Toppin styling) would need to have the balls to toss LIME out of Bulbados.
WE AS A PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE BALLS
Even in its simplest format, civil disobedience in and among Bajans, for ANYTHING, has not happened, en masse or otherwise, since 1937.
We as a people have never felt so moved by an incident to come out and express ourselves about it.
Campus Trendz and the death of six of our young women due to the “single door policy” for 90% of businesses in Bridgetown does not bring out the Gonads of the Chief Town and Cvntry Planner nor the Chief Fire Officer.
Barring the families of those who dies in these accidents waiting to happen again and again, we Bajans dont give a flying shyte.
Frank King while he was at the Fair Trading Commission showed that he was the last of a dying breed of men with balls but he resigned when he realised that the entrenched graft and commensurate rape of the black man does not come from the 5% hunkie population in Bulbados but from black on black crime.
So join the merry band wagon who will jump on fellows like Bush Tea for calling us Brass Bowls because, as long as someone points us to where the faults lie, we are quick to wash dem out wid cussing and ad hominems
C&W FLOW Merger: All Eyes on the Regulator?
Can some please let us all Know Who are the REGULATORS?
cool runnings | December 11, 2014 at 6:09 AM |
Most Bajan dont have extra money to invest and those who have money need to keep it hidden for the paychecks they have dont reflect the way they live. So all funds must be kept out the public eyes,
Housing and Land , Rentals of houses not their own kept of the Books , Tax free money by land tax and statutory Deed making crooks, Deeds is no History that were made up out of the blue and held from the Archives and land Registry,
We need Bajan PRIDE and Industry without-which we are NOT a Nation!
Canada loans Vodafone $850 million to help strengthen BlackBerry
http://crackberry.com/canada-loans-vodafone-850-million-help-strengthen-blackberry
Why does the FTC need so much time to rule on the C&W Flow deal.
cool runnings December 11, 2014 at 6:09 AM #
I am tired of the crap spilled out here. All you black Bajan with money still don’t buy one share in these businesses when possible. We complain about foreigners buying this and that here but when given the chance to pool our resources to own something of substance we do not do it. Then we turn around and keep the foreign owned businesses afloat with our money. We need to stop complaining, waiting on Gov’t, B or D, and start investing in ourselves.
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Mister, Bajans had lots of money tied up in Clico, Trade Confirmers, BCCI , a little bit in Redjet,and much in the Barbados treasury, and look what has happened? Once bitten twice shy, is now the Bajan mantra.
Interesting article
Tell the facts, C&W
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/letters_to_editor/60920/tell
Bajans should be getting cheap blackberrys
http://www.bell.ca/Mobility/BlackBerry
Can we expect a whole lot of new Internet based businesses ?
Barbadians unable to have access to robust fixed Internet service can expect to have this remedied before yearend 2015, regardless of whether they live in small outlying communities such as Greenidges in St Lucy or Lynches, St Philip.
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/60737/broadband#sthash.oiwnxwFq.dpuf
Sugar added to the Lime juice.
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/61127/bus-terminal-upgrade
Piece: you cawmere man still le de callin. Murdah?
When did I ever call anyone “white thrash”? Even if it be recorded, it just a lotta long talk skippa…. shiite