DON’T AGONIZE! ORGANIZE! (Part 3)
Submitted by DAVID COMISSIONG, President, Clement Payne Movement
Ronald Jones, minister of education
(A Revamped Education System)
The only sensible way forward for Barbados economically is for us […]– the citizens of Barbados – to assume the primary responsibility for establishing and running productive enterprises in our country,
and basing such enterprises squarely on the educational and human development that we have attained as a national population.
In other words, we need to jettison the backward and self-defeating idea that we must wait for so-called “foreign investors” to come to our rescue, or that we should opt for a model of “so-called” development that is based on increasing the number of Barbadians employed in unskilled, low technology, dead-end, manufacturing, tourism or other service jobs!
But if we are to successfully embark upon such an economic mission, we must first provide our nation with a revamped “Education System” that is designed to reproduce, preserve and root us in our distinctive Bajan/Caribbean national culture, and to foster a national propensity for self-confidence, initiative, high academic and technical achievement, social solidarity, cooperative work, independent thought, and self-reliance.
It is against this background, therefore, that I would like to propose the following reforms to our system of education:-
HIGHEST INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS
We must set out to achieve the highest international standards in every single Barbadian school!
Thus, we must scrap the currently existing practice of dumping all of the low academic achievers in five or six Secondary Schools at the bottom of the proverbial ladder, while at the same time placing all of the high academic achievers in the three or four Secondary School at the top of the ladder.
This educational structure is failing far too many of our students, and has led to a situation in which some 60 per cent of our children graduate from Secondary School without a single academic certificate to their name, and without having acquired any marketable technical or artistic skills.
My advice to our Government is that they should sit down with our educators and their professional organizations and work out a more just, sensible and educationally constructive system!
Furthermore, we must design a new educational system in which weaker students who need greater pedagogical assistance get it, in the form of smaller classes, more individual attention, and access to remedial education teachers and programmes.
EDUCATION FOR DOING AND SELF-RELIANCE
I am also proposing that we consciously set out to dismantle the false distinction between so-called “mental labour” (academic education) and “manual labour” (technical or vocational education) by exposing all students in our Secondary Schools to some basic instruction in such technical skills as carpentry, agronomy, electrical wiring, mechanics, plumbing, and masonry. Indeed, we should aim to create a Barbadian population that possesses enough “technical literacy” to permit our families to be able to construct and maintain their own homes (if they so desire), and to engage in family or communal food production.
In addition, we should construct and graft on to our national system of education a new “Apprenticeship-based” component of the system! In other words, let us create a national programme that gives our Secondary School students – at the age of, say, 15 years – the option of transitioning into an Apprenticeship scheme or programme.
NATIONAL IDENTITY FORMATION
The education that we impart to our young people should also be designed to “root” them in a profound understanding of and appreciation for their Bajan / Caribbean / Pan-African heritage and culture.
Thus, we must ensure that during the years of primary, secondary and tertiary education our youth are being systematically introduced to their own Barbadian / Caribbean / Pan-African history, music, poetry, literature, folklore, geography, dramatic plays, films, nation language, dance, visual arts, craft, and systems of philosophy and spirituality.
Indeed, we need to take to heart the notion that a people possessed of a distinctive and unique national culture have within their grasp an “inner wealth” that has the potential to imbue them with the invaluable characteristics of self-confidence, self-respect, and self-reliance: and we must therefore spare no effort to explore, preserve and transmit all important elements of our national culture!
VALUES EDUCATION
Our education system also needs to be so redesigned that it becomes equipped to consciously and systematically respond to the cultural and ethical dissipation and nihilism that we see all around us in Barbados today. And it must do so by providing our youth with Manhood / Womanhood training and preparation, and with education in “Civics” and in the practise of participatory citizenship. This reform will require the entire educational establishment to come together in order to brainstorm a new and practical methodology for seamlessly inserting such instruction into the existing system.
Our aim must be to create a cohort of young adult citizens steeped in the ethos of a democratic, participatory political culture, and committed to such universal and / or national values as social equality, cooperative work and enterprise, national sovereignty, and respect for the civil and human rights of all members of the society.
EDUCATION AS AN INDUSTRY
And lastly, we must set out to establish “Education” as a foreign exchange earning industry in its own right, and a new addition to the productive engines of our economy!
The current Democratic Labour Party (DLP) government is extremely backward and unenlightened in their approach to Education. Not only have they committed an unforgivable sin by dismantling our system of “free” tertiary education at the University of the West Indies, thereby causing the number of Barbadian students at UWI to decline by some 3,200! But they also seem not to have grasped the idea that “Education” is a sphere in which Barbados enjoys a comparative advantage, and could be developed into a new foreign exchange earning industry!
Barbados – after all – already has an historical tradition of providing educational services for Caribbean and extra-regional students at such institutions as Codrington College, the Lodge School, Codrington High School and Erdiston Teachers Training College.
Furthermore, we currently possess a gem of a University campus in the form of our Cave Hill Campus and its associated Errol Barrow Centre For Creative Imagination, located in close proximity to the high-end tourism attractions of the West Coast.
In addition, Barbados possesses a reputation for order, stability and personal safety that would add to its attractiveness as a regional and international centre for education services!
Surely, with the application of just a little imagination we should be able to conceive of the possibility of establishing a foreign exchange earning education industry built around not only the afore-mentioned educational institutions, but also the Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity (BIMAP), the Barbados Community College, and such iconic Barbadian secondary schools as Harrison College, Combermere, Queens College and the Ursuline Convent, as well as a number of totally new, specially designed institutions.
EDUCATION TO THE RESCUE
My vision for the future development of Barbados is not only centred around the idea of establishing an education industry with a foreign exchange earning capacity, but also around the notion that there are at least nineteen other developmental initiatives that we can embark upon once we have as our foundation a revamped education system capable of producing a conscious, patriotic, culturally rooted, highly educated and trained population.
We will next turn our attention to these proposed developmental initiatives in the concluding parts of this extended essay.
(To be continued)
Barbados Underground 
Anytime you have to wait for white people to land in your country to have an Economy you are in she-it, Air port and sea port ,,now in those same ports guns and drugs all over the island,
DBLP Ministers are all crooks liars and scumbags , all need to go,
US and Canada Embassy now giving travel warnings,
Naked Departure gives the true crimes and on going money laundering at Cahill as We call it KILL -Hill ,
The People are waking up to the crimes of the leaders , here comes China, Canals, building Islands , Getting in to bombings in Syria, and now they want to over Bid to get on the ground in Barbados for KILL HILL, Here comes the American to invade as they set Barbados up for a fall ,dont for get CUBA , Granada,
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All due respects to the blog master David (BU) …. but some ‘Davids’ does talk REAL pretty …until you get closer and the smell hit yuh …… bare shiite talk…
David Estwick
David Thompson
David Ellis
David Come-and-sing-a-song…
This pretty essay sounds good for a feature speech with white people from the IMF / CDB/ EIB etc….. You know…. the kinda fellows who DONE KNOW that um is only talk – will be over in 15 minutes; and is merely a front for another loan or grant…
First thing Mr D….. TOO LATE….”Education” solves problems for the NEXT generation…. we can’t last that long at our current rate of decline.
Second thing Mr D…. since the damn current TEACHERS are brass bowls, how do you see them making golden urns of their students? …magic? alchemy?
Third ….well the ‘Values’ paragraph is obviously a joke ..a filler used to give some body to the piece…. Ent it??!!
Boss…
First thing we need is to SERIOUSLY clean house, lockup NUFF crooks, seek NATIONAL repentance for our brass bowlery…. and have a MAJOR review of our national values…
Anything else is farting in the wind…
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What a Banana Republic !, that is if we have any bananas. Our glorious leaders attended a regional conference,recently and spoke glowingly about Food Security, and “turning idle lands, into idle hands.”, and gah blummie , one vegetable farmer in Barbados has gone out of production ,and there is a severe shortage of common old garden lettuce in Barbados.
As the man said, Barbados is in duck’s guts, if the macaroni boat from Trinidad ever sinks on its way to Bridgetown.
@Bushie ,Speaking of King Grass .The sugar harvest is scheduled to start in another 3 months time . Never in the history of the sugar industry in Barbados, have I seen grass, at this time, or anytime for that matter, overwhelmingly towering between and over a field of sugar canes. Unless of course, like the River Tamarind we have also started to cultivate King Grass.
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@Colonel Buggy November 9, 2015 at 10:31 PM #
This Govt. has succeeded where none others have as they have not only destroyed the sugar industry but also the future of agriculture in this country…….the merchants have finally won the battle.
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@Davic (Commissiong);
Sorry David. Your essay and proposals don’t cut it. We live in a real and complex WORLD!!. The emphasis here has to be world, and we cannot divorce ourselves from it. Our present system has lasted us, sustained us, and benefited us for over three hundred years. We have progressed to the stage where you feel we should dismantle it. For what purpose? What is it about the system that prevents those who do not progress from progressing? Don’t say POVERTY, because many of our brightest, and world renowned scholars and achievers have come from poverty stricken backgrounds. Don’t say it is government’s decision to make university students to pay PART of the costs of their university education because that only started last year. If a large number of young people leave school without certificates it is because they are; as Bushie would say bare brass bowls, without polish.
More later; answers to Vincent Haynes and colonel buggy, to come..
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As one other commenter said.This piece has only merit on establishing revolutionary principles based on a revolutionary ideology with revolutionary action.Assets by wrong-doing have to be seized,accounts frozen,people imprisoned.We all know who they are.
“In other words, we need to jettison the backward and self-defeating idea that we must wait for so-called “foreign investors” to come to our rescue, or that we should opt for a model of “so-called” development that is based on increasing the number of Barbadians employed in unskilled, low technology, dead-end, manufacturing, tourism or other service jobs!”
That is my favourite part and I do agree.I am disgusted that I am seeing all sorts of strangers in the very bowels of communities working from Flow vans.
When greedy wake hot does cool.
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But Suckabubby
Ernie Griffith the Chief Immigration Officer will be quick to call she family at the Royal Barbados Police Force to set de Police or she Officer pun a Guyanese or a Jamaican or anyone with whom she has a beef BUT you never see a white person being escorted through the airport by an immigration officer with their passport and ticket in she staff hand.
My book, soon to be published, “Massa day ent Done Cause Me Head Niggah in Charge”
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Sorry to bother you all with another link.
“Imagination is what you need to survive in this world.”
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2014/12/seizing-solar-power-2014127132356131176.html
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Piece
Your statement holds true here in the United States as well because I do recall on my initial ETS from the US Armed Forces, I was employed for a stint as a security guard.
And during my brief employment in this capacity, I had never been called by management to escort a white guy off the property.
In 99.99% of all the cases, I call to the office to escort black males off the property, but at no time had I escort whites males off the property, who were being terminated close to or at the same rate as the black males.
The white males were afforded the opportunity to vacated the property unnoticed or incognito.
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@ Domps
I was not so much focusing on the white/black discrepancy in matters like what you described though you are right regarding that nuance of dismissals being done while walking de nigger to de door.
I was moreso speaking to what Suckabubby observed, all over the island we are seeing an “Invasion of and Recolonization of Barbados” and de slow reclamation of Little Englant by de White Man yet the impotent Immigration Department jes deah under de watchful eyes of Erine
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pieceuhderockyeahright November 10, 2015 at 2:47 PM #
Not only in Government departments do this preferential treatment exists. I worked for a company, and the day a black salesman or other rep came to see me, I was always notified by the security, and had to give permission before entry was permitted. Not so when it came to others of a different shade , I would be aware of their presence when they knock of my office door.
So it goes back to the old “Stick Around and Stand Back,” adage,which is indelibly ingrained in our mind set.
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@DAVID COMISSIONG,
I have not come to the wicket to knock you for six……but!
You have comprehensively failed to understand that your average Bajan is chronically workshy, creatively dull and a victim of a centralised system that has set out to undermine him/her – to such a degree – that when this victim looks at their image in the mirror they see only a self-reflection composed of self-hate, impotency and a visage etched with the lines of defeat.
If you are serious about our society progressing then you must look into the latent power of individuals knitting together a web of separate communities. Within these communities you will find hungry and impassioned individuals full of creativity and intelligence. Individuals who are committed to pooling their resources in order to build a community far removed in spirit from the dead and corrupt hand of their government.
I call these individuals modern day missionaries. Their presence reminds us all that the necessity of forming a government – with a population of 280, 000 – is unnecessary, futile and extremely harmful to our democratic values.
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pieceuhderockyeahright November 10, 2015 at 5:22 PM
“Invasion of and Recolonization of Barbados”
I could not have put it better myself.
Gun-toting youth from the same communities with nothing productive to do.I wonder how they feel about it if they feel anything at all through the billowing clouds of marijuana smoke.This is a travesty.These same youth were paid off for votes to sit idly by and watch strangers come in and reap the sweets.If there was a defining “Gaw-blummah” moment in recent Barbadian history, this would have to be it.
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Suckabubby
“Through the billowing clouds of marijuana smoke”
You obviously can’t blame the youth for bartering they vote for cash rather than settling for the vain and shallow words of some political demagogue.
As a young man who was born and bred in the lower echelon of Barbadian society, I know the offer of cold cash for my vote sure got my attention quicker than the vain and shallow promises of some politician, who was far removed from the thinking youth.
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Suckabubby
“Through the billowing clouds of marijuana smoke”
You obviously can’t blame the youth for bartering they vote away for cash rather than settling for the vain and shallow words of some political demagogue.
As a young man who was born and bred in the lower echelon of Barbadian society, I know the offer of cold cash for my vote sure got my attention quicker than the vain and shallow promises of some politician, who was far removed from the thinking youth.
And one may question the moral compass or the decision making process of the youth, but the youth are driven by emotional impulses rather than reason, so they are obviously expected to make poor decisions because they are not operating with the intellectual maturity and resources of an adult.
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@David Comissiong,
You wrote:”…Barbadian / Caribbean / Pan-African history, music, poetry, literature, folklore, geography, dramatic plays, films, nation language, dance, visual arts, craft, and systems of philosophy and spirituality..”. How many NIFCA performances over the years have you attended? If you did you would see all these things you want produced, not only by school children from Primary to secondary, but adults who write books, produce plays and perform dance, and all the things you want. How else do you think they do this, but by inculcating what they are taught in their schools. I have NO SYMPATHY of youngsters, who , all they have to do is go to school and learn. They can travel to and from school free. They can get school meals (minimum cost) get free school uniform, get books, free. This is at primary school. Even with poor performance at the secondary school entrance exam, poor performers are still guaranteed a place at a secondary school. Again they can attend schho in a government bus, free. School uniforms,free, books on loan, the curriculum the same at all secondary schools-no discrimination.In any system bright children will rise to the top; at secondary school technical skills..are taught. After second they can attend the SJPP and learn the skills in the fields you are advocating; masonry, carpentry, refrigeration Aesthetics,and skills that can see them getting through in life. They can also go on to University, or probably go overseas to further their studies.
However, unless they LEARN the basic skills they will never progress. A mechanic will NEVER progress unless he knows microelectronics and computer technology because EVERY VEHICLE nowadays is equipped with qa computer; attached to the engine. Doubt me go to a garage and find out. Boys and girls MUST BE FORCED BY THEIR PARENTS (both) to understand the importance of education.
Our educational system is not a failure. Too many people have succeeded in all sorts of positions, professions, and spheres of life for it not to have been. What has happened is that too many people want to take the easy way out and blame others, and slavery that died out in the 1800s..
“The fault,dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.” Shakespeare.
@Suck a bubby:
If there is something good out there, and you prefer to sit under the Tamarind tree, smoke ganja, and wait for somebody, who does not owe you a living to come and pick up the diamonds and put them in your hand, that same body will pick them put them in their pocket and leave with the,/ Get up off your brass bowis and make something of yourselves and your country. NOBODY OWES YOU A LIVING. You young people have no ambition, neither do you want to work hard for what you want.
, not what you need.
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@Exclaimer,
How old are you? You have to be young. How long do you think a country of 280,000 people (It is actually less than that) in any case, how long do you think you people would last in this world, in a country without democratic values and institutions? Ask any of your older family about a young Barbadian by the name od Sydney Burnett Alleyne; his motivations, his actions, and the results/ I won’t tell you I leave you to find it out on your own
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Leftwing Pathology
The Left, who call themselves liberals and Progressives, are a curious political breed.
In his book, The Liberal Mind, psychiatrist Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr., M.D., identifies irrationality as the Left’s dominant attribute — an irrationality that is “the product of psychopathology.”
At the least, liberals are rank hypocrites. Instead of the bleeding hearts they claim to be, liberals are stingy toward the poor and needy; they are generous only with other people’s money. Instead of treating all peoples by the content of their character, liberals are racially discriminatory; some are black and brown supremacists. Instead of the feminists they pretend to be, liberals are misogynists – hateful and vicious toward conservative women. Instead of their rhetoric of being for the common man, liberals are elitist snobs who constantly denigrate their political opponents by portraying conservatives as ignorant, dumb rednecks without a college education or the proper Ivy League credentials.
At the root of the Liberal Syndrome is a mental and moral disorder. Liberals are miserable, bitter, malcontent people with a perennial chip on their shoulder. They are arrogant and narcissistic, with a self-serving relativist morality. That is why they resent religions that have a moral code, especially Christianity that believes human beings are a fallen creation who are redeemed only through the self-sacrifice of a loving but moral God. http://www.fellowshipoftheminds.com
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Pathological altruism: How leftist ideology
harms society
Posted by Chris Manby × September 24, 2015 at 10:32
Left-wingers often hark back to a golden age when taxes were high and private enterprise knew its place. In this it is they – not the Tories – that are the real reactionaries, it is the Left that is regressive. There is nothing more sickeningly sanctimonious than a lefty on crusade.
We conservatives deal with the world as it actually exists. Socialists do not concern themselves with such grubby notions. The left are motivated by pathological altruism and idealism. This can lead them to some truly bizarre conclusions. Leftists like to posture as moral and compassionate but many of their ideas are actively harmful.
Anti-capitalism
Nothing has benefited the masses more than global capitalism. Supply and demand fulfil human needs better than anything else. The free market has brought luxuries once enjoyed solely by kings and nobles into the hands of ordinary men and women. Yet anti-capitalists blame it for inequality, poverty and the destruction of the planet. They would blame it for bad weather if they could (oh wait, they do).
Hard left Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell wants to “change” the “unacceptable” nature of capitalism and ultimately “overthrow” it. Historically, rejecting markets has not ended well. Faced with crisis after crisis of their own making, socialist governments either collapse or resort to repression. Communist regimes murdered nearly 100 million of their own citizens in the name of “the people”. They never lacked apologists in the West. Today, many leftists (including the leader of the Opposition) worship the dictatorial police states in Cuba and Venezuela.
The ‘Occupy’ crowd complain that modern capitalism is sustained by bailouts and subsidies. Well, I’ve got news for you. That’s not capitalism and free marketers hate those things too. We need a revolution all right, but socialism is so last century. http://www.con4lib.com
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The contemporary left holds that non-socialist societies are composed largely of dominators and the dominated, oppressors and the oppressed. The alleged cause of this social arrangement is the economic system of free-market capitalism, which is viewed by the left as the root of all manner of social ills and vices — racism, sexism, alienation, homophobia, imperialism. In the calculus of the left, capitalism is an agent of tyranny and exploitation that presses its boot upon the proverbial necks of a wide array of victim groups — blacks and other minorities, women, homosexuals, immigrants, and the poor, to name but a few. That is why according to the left, the United States (historically the standard-bearer of all capitalist economies) can only do wrong.
To eliminate America’s inherent injustices,(B’dos etal) the left seeks to invert the power hierarchy, so that the groups now said to be oppressed become the privileged races and classes (and gender) of the new social order.
The left’s quest to transform the “dominated” into dominators, and vice versa, draws its inspiration from the Communist Manifesto, which asserts that “[t]he history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle.” The struggle identified by the Manifesto was that of the proletarians and their intellectual vanguard, who, armed with the radical utopian vision of socialism, were expected to launch a series of civil wars in their respective countries — battles that would topple the “ruling classes” and the illegitimate societies they had established.
According to Marxist theory, these conflicts would rip each targeted society apart and create a new revolutionary world order from its ruins. In an effort to bring about this utopia, the contemporary left has formed a broad alliance, or united front, composed of radicals representing a host of demographic groups that are allegedly victimized by American capitalism and its related injustices. Each constituent of this alliance — minorities, homosexuals, women, immigrants, the poor — contributes its voice to a chorus that aims to discredit the United States specifically — and Western culture generally — as abusers of the vulnerable. Nor is the left’s list of victim groups limited only to human beings; in the worldview of leftwing environmentalists and animal rights activists, even certain species of shrubs, trees, insects, and rodents qualify as victims of capitalism’s ravages. http://www.discoverthenetworks.org
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Some excellent contributions here.
DC has confused me because one minute we are revamping the School system and mixing the cleverer with the not overly gifted and then DC is talking about Iconic Schools. I can assure everyone that with DC’s plan those Iconic Schools will no longer be as iconic.
The reason that the system works at the top schools is because the clever students have to be challenged and lessons have to move at a faster pace and higher level. Why? Gifted kids get real bored quickly!
The best dramatic example is the American with an exceedingly high IQ who went to an ordinary US High School. He was bored and realised that clever students were despised so he barely bothered to graduate. He eventually married a Uni Prof with an IQ of 168 and she fully accepted that she was the idiot in the home. This chap played football for his school and ended up as a bouncer at a bar, while living in a converted double garage. The system totally failed this guy and the Nation. He should have been identified and sent to a Gifted institution as early as possible.
In Bim we need to raise up the lower half of the schools not push down the better schools. The attitude of the constituents appears horrible. Govt should inculcate a very mature attitude but do the “leaders” have the correct attitude themselves? Start there! Teachers, students, many parents, the Ministry, even Heads all need to recondition their attitudes.
Much can be achieved by using software and electronic devices. The Khan Academy should be utilised to make sure that Math/ Science levels improve dramatically for all youngsters.
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@ Money B
…see why Bushie likes you…?
You are a sensible fellow with only very slight traces of brass…. 🙂
It is OBVIOUS that by mixing bright children and bowls you will end up with all brass…
Many of our REALLY talented citizens are now in the sub-cultures like the ZR – (where they make profits DESPITE the best efforts of the government, police and most other brass bowls…)
…on the blocks (where THEY determine the country’s future in culture, crime, style, music and every other important area…)
…or overseas – where they ran to escape the IDIOCY prevailing bout here…
This came about when idiots like billy Miller, Louis Tull ….and other bowls who failed the 11+ found themselves making national policy – people like Peter Wickham, the jonesing joker, Ralph Boyce etc….
LOL
Even THEY must see how IDIOTIC a policy it has been …. now in hindsight….
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There is nothing wrong with separating the academically gifted away from others who have different gifts. The problem is when those with different gifts are treated as lesser citizens and allowed to flounder. These children need to be given the basics academically and channeled into the areas of their aptitudes. We also need to celebrate their achievements as being just as valuable to society as the academics.
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@Donna
Totally agreed!
Both of my kids were in Gifted Class and they were all advised not to mention or boast about that. Honest praise for those who are alternatively gifted is important. I certainly could never be an artist, carpenter, graphic designer, mechanic and naturally I often require their services.
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Donna November 11, 2015 at 12:24 PM #
“Aptitude” is the keyword here. I’ve been part of an organisation which still trains young men,and women ,to a high degree ,in various technical disciplines, from Metal Smith to Aircraft Technician . This organisation had no interest in any academic qualification an applicant has. First of all he /she was given an Aptitude Test to ascertain if he/she had what it takes to join the organisation. If accepted, he/she was given another Aptitude Test to determine which discipline they could best be fitted in.
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@ Donna
There is nothing wrong with separating the academically gifted away from others who have different gifts.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
LOL
Ha ha ha …wuhloss..!!
The UNDER – statement of the century so far….
Hear this!
It is the height of brass bowlery …to think that you can send your 14-year-old genius son to a school of “don’t-care” teachers, and with modern 14-year-old girls who have ‘different gifts’ (like six-thirty grinding and hard wine bubbling) month after month, and expect that his academic talents will reach their peak….
Not that he will not achieve other climaxes in the process….. and have a REALLY enjoyable and eventful school experience…. 🙂
…Just not what many (apparent including the Ministry of Eddy’kashun) seems to expect….
Yuh CANNOT plant king grass and expect to reap sugar…..No matter what Estwick seems to think….
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Alvin Cummings
“Nothing from notting leave notting, yah gotta have someting, if yah want the youth to make someting of demself”
I know these days the word AMBITION can’t even be found on the lips of the youth today, but there is a good reason for that when one stop and give it some serious thought.
How do you expect the youth to have AMBITION when all they see around them is the private and public sector downsizing jobs left, right and in the center?
Brother Bee, gone are the days when the government used to offer the young people leaving secondary school, who weren’t too academically gifted the opportunity to attend the Skills Training Programs to acquire a skill with the offer of a job after the completion of they respected trade.
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Here we go again………who weren’t academically gifted the opportunity to learn a trade.
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#Col Buggy the perplexing issue with that remark, “…who weren’t academically gifted ..” is that it suggests a lesser life-purpose or self worth from learning that trade. The fact is that in every regard the opposite is true.
One only needs to refer to your example of the untrained, unschooled ‘engineer’ who completed the sugar factory plant to understand that the ability to compartmentalize, visualize and compute technical/physical matters even without the related academic letters is more meaningful than the more sublime ability to digest academic literature in the study of law, philosophy, economics etc.
Its clear that in a our modern world ‘trade’ has a vastly different context than eons ago… today it is finally being correctly accepted as significant and often more important than what is considered pure academic ability.
Regardless of the many lawyers and economists with high academic honour that we produce, it is the self taught coders, PC techs and the army of technically trained folks who are changing the world !
At the end of the day, gifted, smart people will get to the level they desire to reach.
@MoneyB, I am unfamiliar with the example, but as smart as the ‘bouncer’ was, surely as an adult he stopped where HE wanted to; certainly there were no uninformed school officials retarding his progress, anymore!
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@ Bush Tea
You see why I doan think much about David Come Sing a Song?
Besides the fact that ,after commenting, euphemism for dropping a ball of pup, he, unlike other respectful authors, Like Jeff Cumberbatch, Walter Blackman and Caswell Franklyn, never returns NEVER!!
The fact is that Come-Sing-a-Song posts ingrunce 99% of the time, gibber not befitting of a response e.g. “…with a revamped “Education System” that is designed to reproduce, preserve and root us in our distinctive Bajan/Caribbean national culture…”
Reproduce?? reproduce?? Produce a copy of what? preserve what? and root us in what?
If an alien, from Alpha Centauri, were to be reading this article and seriously considering its content, it would think that, given this opening statement, we had something akin to an “enlightened society” with some type of culture, social advancement or technological revolution, in existence, somewhere among these islands, THAT WAS INDEED CAPABLE OF BEING REPRODUCED, WORTHY OF BEING PRESERVED AND OF SUCH QUALITY THAT IT MERITED BEING “ROOTED IN”
As usual Come Sing a Song confuses wave swept beaches with cool breezes with “national culture” as any beach with similar ambience anywhere in the world might lay claim to an equally vacuous remark.
And there is a continuation?
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@Dompey,
They still have skills training. Still offer trades training at SJPP.
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Poor David
still writing Cambridge General Paper level essays after all these years and thinking that someone will take him seriously.
We do not need more “schooling” we need less. Let children enjoy their childhood. Encourage play, curiosity, imagination and friendship. This is done best on the playing fields, in the cadets, the scouts, the 4H, the Guides, the church groups, the choirs, riding bicycles, pushing scooters made using ball bearings from disused cane carts, flying kites, making music (not playing music), fishing, snorkeling, cooking, making clothes and helping your family around the home. We may be astonished how much real, creative and transformative education occurred in the experiences of Bajan childhood of yesteryear.
So many certificates, SBA’s, degrees and not an original thought or skill manifested.
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@Word
The last I heard of him he was writing a book to explain the Interaction of God with the Universe or something similar, this was many years back. When they tested this guy’s IQ using various tests he broke the scale every time and he was rated at least 195. The problem with some geniuses is that they have emotional disadvantages. Many are socially inept, as was my nephew, who did things to sabotage himself without knowing. My own son who is very clever with 3 degrees both Uni and Professional has a little problem with interacting with average people.
Interestingly a black gent in Canada who had quite a heinous criminal record was IQ tested and found to be genius level. The system obviously failed this fella as he should have been identified and assisted. Evidently quite a few criminals are very clever.
Those who are overly endowed in one area usually suffer under endowment elsewhere.
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Piece @3.52pm
Wicked criticism, I enjoyed that.
Bushie, U have been correctly brutal with DC.
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@ MoneyB
As Ping Pong so succinctly explains, it is not about isolating academically talented students and pushing them to the max, …. it is about IDENTIFYING and isolating ALL kinds of talents among the population, and focussing them into their appropriate areas of interests.
…Academics to HC /QC and wherever such freaks go…
…Musicians to some avenue where they are not distracted by monotonic idiots…
…Athletes to various avenues where THEY can (as Obadele explained today) reach their TRUE potential
….etc etc…
…and the wutless ‘good-for-nothing’ bowls can focus on getting to Summervale – in preparation for Dodds, ….without compromising the HUGE majority of variously talented teens during their CRITICAL ‘make-or-break’ years.
The colossal idiocy of bringing ALL these DIFFERENT interests together in a classroom EVERY DAMN DAY, ..with a bunch of boring, unmotivated teachers, …and talking shiite about meaningless CXC certificates… is the VERY HEIGHT of brass bowlery…
…the OBVIOUS winners in this scenario will be the BAD APPLES …who will spoil the WHOLE damn bunch……as we are seeing….
Yuh mean after 60 damn years we CANNOT come up with at least the VISION of seeking to empower a majority of our youth to reach THEIR own personal potential ….instead of going on-and-on with this academic shiite that produces people like Froon and Alvin Cummins?
Steupsss….. Lotta shiite.
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@Bushie
This is exactly why I talk about Benevolent Dictatorship a la Singapore. There are many critical areas in Bim like Education where we have excellent info on what is WRONG and the direction in which we should be headed BUT not one shoite happens! The very definition of Craziness is doing the same shoite repeatedly but anticipating a glorious outcome.
Computers/ software are needed to “replace” boring “teachers”. I know a genius that went to HC with me who nearly did not receive a Bdos Schol because of an idiot Physics teacher.
Many clever HC fellas became pro Musicians because they knew what they loved and refused to be bored excrementless.
The wutless ones should be placed in a para-military highly disciplined, school environment without a shooting range.
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Yes MB, and that remark – “evidently quite a few criminals are very clever” – is the bane of our lives. Unfortunately it is the case that for the Black man that ‘ban’ality’ often leads to criminality.
It is self evident that many a dark-skinned brother outsmarted those who had previously condemned him as being stupid.
Rather than jails and being outlaws to society many of them could have been power brokers of renown and reverence.
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@Moneybrain
Interestingly a black gent in Canada who had quite a heinous criminal record was IQ tested and found to be genius level. The system obviously failed this fella as he should have been identified and assisted
+++++++++++
What does race have to do with it? How do you know the system failed this individual? Many criminals are very smart they just apply their intelligence to other pursuits, when “white collar” criminals commit crimes did the system failed them?
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error
s/b “fail them”
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@Sarge
I know the system failed because he should have been identified for his God given gifts and assisted to become a success not only for himself but for the betterment of the Nation. Maybe he could have found a cure for some type of Cancer or other similar contribution.
Many pun here want examples of their race, this story seemed to me to serve as a good example.
The system fails by not locking white collar criminals up in prison. This occurs because their partners the Politicians would likely end up imprisoned also.
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@Word
Precisely. What a waste for them and society. The Nation looses money paying for a somewhat hopeless chap instead of benefiting from their brainpower. Double negative.
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Moneybrain can cherrypick all the examples he wants, the establishment is what it is.
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Bushie,
I’ve been preaching that for years. Everyone has something to offer this world. EVERYONE! I just hate to see so much of it being lost because we have this antiquated idea about the academics. My son’s primary school teacher and I had battles over the amount of Mathematics and English homework he was given because I believe that children must be allowed adequate time to explore and discover on their own. They must have time for extracurricular activities, family activities and to just do what they want. How else are we to identify their aptitudes which are not tested by our narrow school curriculum. When the academically gifted are being toasted and celebrated at graduations after the 11 plus what is there for those who “also ran” to do besides lick their wounds in shame? This should be so obvious and easy to correct but alas we still have principals who read out the names of those children who passed for the older secondary schools and lump all the rest as “the others who also did well.” We also have skits for entertainment written by teachers where the message is that success is a pass for an older secondary school. Now the first one made me gasp in protest while the other one made me leave my seat in disgust. The sheeple remained smiling and clapping.
The children, according to my son, duly noted the fact that there was apparently no time to call the names of those who were going to the newer secondary schools and were annoyed enough to give the principal a nasty nickname.
But who listens to children, really?
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@David
Fell free to make your point because I am not sure what exactly you are saying here.
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Ping Pong,
Brilliantly stated!
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Bushie,
And David Commissiong was head boy at H.C, if I remember correctly.
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Moneybrain,
Hello!
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@Donna
The children that have performed less well should be raised up in some way, correct you are. However, many have a tendency to “solve” such problems by negatively effecting the top which is not the solution.
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Moneybrain,
You mean the academic top? There are other tops, you know. Unfortunately the 11+ only acknowledges one and graduation focusses on that one. We need to identify children’s aptitudes early and make provision for them BEFORE they receive the message that they are somehow less than the Q.C and H.C bunch. Then we wouldn’t have a problem to correct.
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@MB
You are missing the point, perhaps deliberately so, they have always been “bright” people in prison. To blame some amorphous “system” for not discovering that these people are bright and somehow make them cancer curing specialists is flawed reasoning.
When you arrive at conclusions based on limited information, it is akin to GIGO, you didn’t provide any background about the individual just some trite details about IQ. What do you propose? Give every child an IQ test and somehow channel that child into productive enterprise based on their IQ result? What should society do with those who fall short of these high IQ scores?
Here is an example of “bright” people in Prison, bested Harvard in debate as well as West Point…..
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/oct/07/harvards-prestigious-debate-team-loses-to-new-york-prison-inmates?CMP=fb_gu
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Errate s/B ‘There have always”
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@Donna
I agree we must identify what a childs gift is, all I am saying is dont approach this problem using the typical method which is to destroy the positive in an attempt to “level” the playing field eg all schools should be the same, have an identical population distribution.
Top can apply to any aspect as in TO we have Art Schools, Sports Schools etc. One could apply to a Sports HS and be rejected.
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@Sarge
U seem to appreciate that there is a problem and yet U propose no solution? It is definitely a WASTE to have clever people in prison. It should be obvious that if the majority of these clever people were identified at an early stage, many could have made a major contribution to society. My example regarding curing some type of Cancer was just a purposeful, dramatic example. I regret goin over your head on that. lol
There should be Systems for producing the best from each child. So those with more modest capabilities in IQ terms maybe gifted in some other aspect , what/ where?
This idea that the youth should be left to their own devices is nonsense, that is how we have the Boys on the Block. Gather them up and place them in a Military styled, highly Disciplined school to learn according to their capabilities and certainly to become more Disciplined citizens. Guess what Sarge, there are NO such boys in Singapore!
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@Donna, re the 9:15 AM post. I get your position re children being allowed to seek other options and do extra curricular stuff but I do not get your argument re the extra homework.
In this modern era we have kids who according to the studies spend 3 – 4+ hours on social media. In other generations that time was reading (MIlls & Boon/Hardy Boys), TV or some other ‘less than truly productive’ pursuit…. BUT those kids STILL found time to complete all their homework and enjoy being on a school team, the photo club or even the drama society and debating. The best excelled regardless.
At the stage of 11 – 18 why should competent children NOT be pushed to challenge their outer limits?
With all the pedagogy about education and so much teacher training this should not be an issue. If it’s not possible to segment classes with a ‘gifted & talented’ 1A or 1B and the more technically astute in 1T or 1D then that teacher should organize and challenge her students according to their skills.
If your son is capable then he should be pushed because he CAN do the 1-2 hours of homework per night plus still take his music class, explore some Nat Geo on internet and all the other extras. That’s what smart bright minds DO. They are insatiable for knowledge.
For them school is simply the formal process to validate their abilities.
I speak not in abstract but like many here having lived that stuff with my offspring and that of friends.
The experts tells us how many hours they ‘need’ to sleep and all the other wonderful pedagogy but at the end of the day when kids want to operate on 4 or 5 hours sleep in order to enjoy their pursuits they achieve it quite efficiently; when they want to juggle multiple pursuits, they do.
I see no value whatever in piddling around with youngsters.
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In the good old days, I had good primary school teachers and access to a public library but best of all a mother who taught and encouraged me to read.
That is how I passed the screaming test to get into Kolij.
No TV, No toys so me and my homies used our play time to make our own toys, make fish hooks from common pins and even made sail boats to race, made cricket bats and balls from cloth and twine. I sure most of you over 60 did the same.
Todays parents and educators have to manage children who have all kinds of “distractions”. TV,Cell phones, Internet.
It is still important to focus on making Primary schools better so that better students have a good foundation when they start secondary school.
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This came to my email today, U may want to make a donation?
If you’ve been watching the news, you’ve seen that the media is in full attack mode. They’ve been tracking down and interviewing my childhood friends and even accusing me of fabricating parts of my personal history.
Funny, because this was the same media that time and again declared it off-limits to dig into then-candidate Barack Obama’s background.
The media’s double standard is incredible, but even worse is their viciousness and blatant disregard for the truth.
I’ll be honest — I need your help. Now. I always knew this campaign would be tough, but the media is now going off the rails and we need the resources to fight back, 24/7.
Will you stand with me by making an emergency donation to my campaign right now?
It is for you and your family that I am running, and with your help I will continue — no matter what — to rally men and women from every race, every class and every faith together in a common cause — to return government to the people.
As our movement continues to grow, I know the viciousness of the attacks will grow as well.
It shouldn’t have to be this way, but sadly that’s the reality we face. It’s why people despise politics and Washington, and it’s why people distrust the media.
I hope you will take just a moment to read this email and join me in this fight for our future.
I can’t do this without you. Please make a donation right now.
Thank you, and God Bless you.
Sincerely,
Ben Carson
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Moneybrain
Writes: To rally men and women of every race, class and every faith in a common cause- to return government to the people.
How do we return government to the people, when the moral-desiccation we see visited upon the modern life stretches far beyond the political arena, the church, Temple and Mosque? In other words: in order to rectify the improprieties and irregularities, we now witness in the political affairs today, we must first address the moral-decline which leaks profusely into every aspect of the modern life Money. How does addressing the moral-decline in government accounts for its elsewhere Brains? And are we not products of a given society and all that it stands to represent?
There is a moral- degeneracy in case you done know Brains, which makes itself known and felt in every aspect of the human life, and it has far greater implications than the corrupted elements seeking to undermine the trust and confidence of a willing electorate.
Just examining any aspect of the modern life today from the: gay-marriage, abortion, self- assisted suicide, corporate-greed, transgenderism, juvenile-impertinence, parental abdication and renunciation of rights, and the every encroachment of government upon the civil-rights and civil-liberties of its citizenry, and tell if right has been steadily and increasingly being interpreted by the overseers of the people’s mandate as wrong?
This moral- breakdown which affects the organ of government, the home, school, church, mosque and temple has to be dealt with universally and not unilaterally , in order for its impact to felt in elsewhere in the modern life Brains.
So I must concluded as well as contend that you are tunnel vision focused, if you attributes this moral-desiccation primarily to specific elements within the institution of politics, while ignoring the far greater decline which impact every aspect of the modern life, and is in of itself contributory to the nature of politics today.
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@Dompey
Great LEADERS set the tone in Society.
Recent leadership for the past many years has been corrupt!
So called Leaders dont know how to lead, they are being lead because they are inept.
It is not just in politics.
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De ingrunt word,
That would be fine if the homework was tailored to fit each child’s capacity. What usually happens though is that homework is set to stretch the academically gifted who will finish with plenty of time to enjoy other activities. The child who is less academically gifted will have to spend several hours plodding through becoming more exhausted and frustrated until he or she just writes anything down on the paper so as to appear finished. By the time that happens there is barely time for adequate sleep far less other activities.
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Moneybrain
Someone once said; don’t quite remember who it was now that: “I am more afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion, than an army of lions led by a sheep.”
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@ Donna
Where the hell did you come from….?
How could you be so logical and sensible?
…some shiite is NOT right about you…..!!! 🙂
How can you see these things so CLEARLY?
Do you know that Solomon spent his whole life looking for someone like you…?
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@ David Come-and-Sing-A-Song
Like GP said in an earlier posting of one of these shyte articles “you don’t have to respond to nothing or be goaded to respond by anyone here in the rumshop”
But de old man has two questions
What do you call people who come to your office on Crumpton Street, get you to provide legal services for you, and then don’t pay you?
Are they “astute clients”, gallows bait (depending on the quantum they owe you) potential bailiff material or jes plan tieves?
De reason de ole man axe is because, unlike a lot uh de BU readers heah, de ole man realize dat you, and Beresford, not Albert, Dem ent got a chance uh a snow cone in hell, but you coming heah pun a week and getting free cuntsultancy services from de BU intelligencia, interspersed with antichrist and Cummings drivel, fuh free!!!
You and party, are building the innards of your manifesto through sounding off your puerile (got to be careful using dat word heah) untested, impractical social policy and governance dribble, heah and refining your offering while using feedback from the sheeple.
A few will say that it is a brilliant strategy -feeding on the thoughts of the sheeple to enhance the wellbeing of the same sheeple.
Some will call it banditry akin to those of your non paying clients
But de ole man would see it as it is, ensuing from the emptiness that you, and yours, AND THE REST OF YOUR ILK, suffer from, the paucity of raw innovation and innate capacity that you and yours are besieged with.
Imagine that on that entire team you do not have nary a one with the understanding of what is required to galvanize our Education matrix to greatness.
Don’t worry David you are not alone.
The DLP has “The Chilrun are is reading Well” Ronald We Jonesing and the BLP has “Let’s Make a Deal on the Supply of Syrup” Mottley.
This is too serious a matter for us to forget these infelicities of a few million dollars.
Our country is dying around us and you are here running experiments in socialist inclusion
Long live the Revolution de ole man ent know nuh Spanish udder dan Arnold Schwarzenegger “I’ll be back”, oh dat din spanish was it?
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@MB
Was that an appeal to you or did someone forward that email? If it was a direct appeal I didn’t realize that you were so deep in the Repub tank that even the somnambulistic Dr. C is canvassing for donations. (Just remember it is illegal for non US residents i.e. Citizens or Green card holders to make these kind of contributions yuh may end up in a Gov’t hotel where the only conjugal visits are with your fellow guests).
Dr. C is squealing because the media is vetting him for something he wrote in his “biography” and said they never went after Obama with the same intensity. Has anyone in American politics ever undergone the baptism of fire that Obama faced? Dr. C never heard of Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, Indonesian mahadrasses, terrorist “fist bumps’, etc., has Dr. C ever heard about the response to Obama’s statement re a certain segment of the populace “clinging to guns”? Has Dr.C ever heard of the birth certificate?
Obama never complained about any of the media scrutiny he just soldiered on as he realized it came with the territory, Dr.C. must have been sleepwalking during those years to make that statement, tell Dr.C. to forge his own path and stop mewling about circumstances of his own creation.
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@Sarge
BO surely deserved much more scrutiny Rev WRONG, Billy Airhead, BO’s white grandfather who regularly associated with leftist/ Commies would very correctly brought this on. Some of the media was quite restrained relative to the gravity involved. Agreed that BO could argue that much of this had nothing to do with him directly. Rev W does not come across as a demure type, he was a tad radical. When you assess all the info on BO’s background, his relative youth and experience etc it is almost a miracle that he won. (some still question whether his transgression was actually pretending to be a foreign student for scholarship purposes?)
Anyway I received this as a result of business activity and it did address me by my first name. I will repeat because I appreciate that U can be a lil slllloooowwowwww, I am not a member of any Political Party anywhere, I detest people who BLINDLY attach themselves to any group of Mickey Mouse “leaders” like we encounter pun here those who ALWAYS vote for a given party even though said party has totally different people with totally ridiculous values relative to 20-45 years ago and those current participants are CORRUPT as hell.
Sarge, I am interested in lifting everyone up in the key Nations where I have family and friends–Bim, Canada, USA, UK, Aus, NZ primarily. Democracy is Failing people in these places.
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@Sarge
Send de bro a dime nuh! Dr BC has great initials and certainly a very clever gent.
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Piece yuh reading sweeeett.
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@MB
Those business contacts really working well, they used their algorithms and tagged you as a likely contributor based on your associations and history.
When Dr. C spits in the air he should make sure he has an umbrella, the brother implied that Obama was a psychopath, now Trump is implying that Dr. C is pathological because he wrote about attacking his mother with a hammer and a friend with a knife.
Sweet irony.
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@Sarge
Good, free theatre at least.
You having difficulty with reading comprehension still. Anyone in the investment world was likely to receive this message from DR BC. Commies not so much.
Trump should stop the personal attacks.
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Sargeant November 13, 2015 at 11:05 AM #
WHY DO YOU HATE DR CARSON AND EMBRACE BO?
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Hope they don’t arrest we cricketers next tour.
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@ Georgie Porgie,
Ben Carson is an idiot ( in the Bajan vernacular ). Why would he want to be President of a country that has (of necessity ? ) to hunt down people with drones and kill them.
Why does he want to preside over murder and mayhem in the Middle East.
What drives a brilliant surgeon and devout christian to want to become President ?
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Hants
What drives a brilliant surgeon and devout christian to want to become President ?
The man is retired as a surgeon
the brilliant man should be better than having a moron , what you think?
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY
I WATCHED WARNER BUTCHER NZ LAST NIGHT FOR 244 NO
AUSSIES 416/2
IT WILL BE MURDER WHEN OUR HALF COOKED BOYS GO DOWN THERE NEXT MONTH
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Carson cannot carry the national vote with his positions. Winning the Republican primary is a far way from winning the White House. He makes statements which questions his character, the media tries to validate it and he takes umbrage because it fits his party strategy to attack the media.
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@ Georgie Porgie,
Warner could pass the 400 record.
I here watching Barbados vs Trinidad. Brooks and Chase batting sensibly.
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@Hants
Chase nearly gave it away on that big drive with out keeping the bat snug to the pad and not properly getting to the pitch of the ball. Trust he cools down and make a century, good yute even though he went to Cawmere.
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@GP
I hoping that the Aussies are so tired killing NZ bowling that they will still be suffering serious fatigue( Fibromyalgia or wussa ) when WI A Team arrives. Bdos Colts of 1950-60s was stronger.
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@Hants wrote hunt down people with drones and kill them.
So Jihadi John was a sweet bread den? IS just killed 40+ and wounded 181+++ in Beirut, is that ok? They blew up 215+ innocents over Egypt, that is fine?
Skippa the Russian’s were not focused on IS yet, they were more interested in the Rebels since Assad is their guy. IS has signed the IS EXTERMINATION WARRANT now, they better have Allah on their side, as pissing off Russia,America,Shiites,Iran, Hezbollah, Kurds et al is not clever at all.
RIP IS
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@MB
Bullshit!
Isn’t better to attack weaken ISIS in Syria outside of Russia? Why wait until it tries to establish a caliphate in Russia.
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So David, that is your informed view on Putin’s decision to enter the Syrian mess: that he wants to stop ISIS before they reach his borders ?
I have read and heard many other scenarios like desire to make Russia relevant in Mid East affairs; desire to establish stronger commercial links to Syria and beyond; to reestablish and burnish Russia’s image as a world power; to restate their position and gain bargaining chips to push back on the sanctions over the Ukraine annexation; to continue to bolster Putin’s image as a strongman domestically and too the greater extreme of pushing the US influence out of mid East…
But, despite all previous Muslim ethnic purges in Russia’s area of concern I have heard not one suggestion that Putin fears ISIS in his country or its surroundings.
Clearly Putin would put boots in their faces and bomb ISIS to oblivion if they threaten his country directly.
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@Dee Word
We are so hypocritical and brainwashed when it comes to Russia and the West. We ascribe all kinds of geopolitical considerations to the actions of the West and neglect to do same with those awful cretins the Russians from the dark world.
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I heard that a couple weeks ago, Rick Santorum and Ted Cruz spent some time hunting pheasants in Iowa. When Donald Trump heard that, he was like, “Why wasn’t I invited? I love hunting peasants.”
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@David your 3.39pm point was unclear, please explain.
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Apology to you MB, misread your comment.
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In support of the Blogmaster, I recently saw a BBC article where the Russian Foreign Secretary was quoted as saying that they were supporting the action against IS for precisely the said issue, NO IS in Russia.
Being the forever conspiracist I am led to wonder as to the wisdom of the bomb on the Russian flight and if it was not a plant by **, just asking since I am mindful of two things
One. The fact that Russia flew out 11,000 visitors after the incident WITHOUT ANY REPEAT INCIDENT AND
Two. The significant Investigation team they put on the ground immediately after the plane incident
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State of Emergency across France. Terror attacks in Paris.
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@ Hants November 13, 2015 at 7:00 PM
This latest terrorist attack with 40 dead so far has serious ramifications especially for those French residents of North African ethnic origins. Even the blacks from sub-Sahara are at serious risks from retaliatory measures from right-wing groups in France and across the wider Europe.
The Charlie Hebdo attack and now this I S retaliation for its recent losses in Syria.
North Americans will now be advised to stay away next Spring from Paris and other European cities.
This latest attack would only put a feather in the political cap of Marine Le Pen, the now highly likely next President of France.
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@millertheanunnaki,
This will now result in terror alerts around the world. Nobody seems to have a solution to these ramdom attacks.
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and the more troubling thing is that this is more than likely a clean skin enacted series of attacks.
There was a solution 10 years ago but no one heeded that and we are here
To all intents and purposes this cant be recalled so easily
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@ Hants November 13, 2015 at 7:52 PM
Our immediate concern ought to be the Caribbean where there is a high dependence on tourism involving visitors from Europe and North America.
These islands are very vulnerable and- with a growing presence of Islamic fundamentalism in the region- governments ought to be on their guard and in the larger interest of safety and security must give no special dispensation to any particular group on the grounds of religious or other cultural behaviours.
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Evidently the head of MI6 stated recently that his info was showing extremely high risk levels.
The conspiracy theory regarding the plane could be so, as giving the Russians reason to attack IS basically allows the US to accomplish some of their goals without risking conflicts in the air.
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2 Timothy Chapter 3
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
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@ millertheanunnaki,
I concur.
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@David at 4:24 PM…strong word ‘cretin’. The Russians are ‘gerry mandering’ boundaries and alliances in the same way as the US – as you noted. In THAT sense their behaviour is no more ‘cretinous’ than US.
And re “hypocritical and brainwashed”, the only folks who are in that category are leftists ideologues. Any realist who grew into adulthood or lived through the ‘cold war’ can in NO WAY be conflicted on what Russia does.
All that said one has to admire Putin’s geo-political movementations. He is bold and is wont to shove his muscled forearm & biceps in the West’s face (or otherwise) with seeming impunity.
Journalists have been killed under his watch, critics silenced with esoteric radioactive tinged drugs, musical groups banned and imprisoned and the man just stays in control whether he is PM or President…so NO David there is no hypocrisy about Putin or Russia. It just what it is..a stark realism.
@ Pieces, glad that the Comrade ‘impressed’ (?? or is it ‘depressed’) you with that verbiage. Surely, therefore George Bush also ‘impressed’ you when he said that WMD was the catalyst for his Iraq war.
Oh, you may be on to something re that downed-plane. LOLLLL
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I wonder if all of the attention Ben Carson is attracting nationally, is centered around the fact that he was this internationally acclaimed pediatric neurosurgent?
I am rooting for the brother and hope he does win, but it would sure help if he had held political office; or had had some foreign policy experience, as well as to demonstrate a knowledge of the troubling immigration crisis in America,
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how can any one root for Ben Carson he has lied and plagiarized stories in his best selling books,
The man is an unrepentant liar as he tries to take the black community for fools using political language to sway blacks into believing that he can relate to their life stories with a hidden agenda of postulating life stories bolstered with thug “like” behaviour which is not true,
The guy is another self serving politician making his way on the horizon by practicing half truth and uttering predictable political rhetoric .
He should be banished into forgetfulness and only been seen or heard when matters of health interest needs his input,
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