Submitted by Heather Cole
On 31 October 1517, Martin Luther posted the ninety-five theses, which he had composed in Latin, on the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany. At the commencement he stated the following:
“Out of love for the truth and from desire to elucidate it, the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and ordinary lecturer therein at Wittenberg, intends to defend the following statements and to dispute on them in that place. Therefore he asks that those who cannot be present and dispute with him orally shall do so in their absence by letter. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.”
His manifesto was the catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. The aim of this manifesto is to be the catalyst for governance and political reformation in Barbados; to protest against political abuses, against mismanagement of the funds from the public purse, against corruption, against inequality, against burdensome taxation and against obstruction to free and fair elections.
Read full text of – The People’s Manifesto of Barbados
the fact being that there is and never will be a perfect system , her alice in wonderland dream like approach of weeding out corruption based on questions being asked to candidates is ridiculous, How many of those question she poised would one find the perfect candidate to answer all truthfully , Then what ? does the new system and its process become obsolete thereby thrown out and a new system takes it place every five years
Right now the system with all its flaws can be revisited when election time comes around with the x being the voice of the people giving resounding no,s to thieves liars and scalliwags who made their way into the system. if an individual refuse to exercise their power of the vote the flaws in the system would continue and society have no one to blame but themselves
@Miller-NAKI,
“Now when will the end come? On Monday 8th February, the start of the Chinese New Year of the Fire Monkey?
The only end time from above will be in the form of a comet or a rogue asteroid ten times bigger than the one due to do a flyby of Earth around March 5th.”
Naki-Monkey, You are such a deceived FOOL! If the light that be in you, IS* DARKNESS, Oh’ how great is that DARKNESS!
AC….you are right, the politicians will lie anyone. So why not make them honest by letting them sign on the dotted line as evidence. Yardfowls love evidence.
*politicians will lie anyway…..anyway.
Note: Wittenberg is a university town in Germany, between Berlin and Dresden. It is not in Austria.
@ Enuff
It is possible to design systems that are ”brass bowl” proof.
What is not possible, is for this to be done – or even conceived, by brass bowls….
@Chad you are correct
@:David please change to Germany.
BushTea
Haha, the cooperative movement?
http://news.yahoo.com/police-2-dead-3-wounded-jamaica-political-rally-152613700.html
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/77605/martelly-steps-successor-haiti
@ Enuff
Haha, the cooperative movement?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Well – Bushie DID mention the challenge that brass bowls would have with the concept….
Heather February 6, 2016 at 2:15 PM #:
@ac: Are you afraid that these questions will cause your candidates to plead a “5th amendment?” An established system does not mean that it does not contain flaws. If your CANDIDATES are MEN AND WOMEN OF INTEGRITY who have the best interest of Barbados at heart they will not only respond to the questions BUT SIGN ON THE DOTTED LINE AS WELL. Why do you think that there is a word call ‘future’? It is for all that has not yet happened. The problem here is that your candidates want to continue to live in the past.”
@ Heather
Heather, you must bear in mind that resistance to your ideas will come from especially those who continue to benefit from the “fatted calf” and would have to maintain “political correctness” in addressing the issues.
Ironically, during the general election campaign the DLP sought to address issues pertaining to the honesty and integrity of their candidates and entire voting system. This was also articulated on pages 46 and 47 of their 2008 election manifesto, as follows:
“At the moment too many Barbadians perceive voting as a waste of time since many PARLIAMENTARIANS HAVE MADE PROMISES DURING THE ELECTION CAMPAIGNS, WHICH THEY HAVE NOT DELIVERED. They have subsequently made themselves INACCESSIBLE AND BECOME UNRESPONSIVE TO THE NEEDS OF THEIR CONSTITUENTS. Very few people outside political cliques want to pursue a career in politics, for a variety of unflattering reasons.”
“There is therefore a need to clean up politics in Barbados. The Democratic Labour Party has SELECTED a TEAM of CLEAN, CARING, COMPETENT AND COMMITTED POLITICIANS WHO HAVE SIGNED ON TO A CODE OF CONDUCT THAT PROMISES GOOD GOVERNANCE.”
Amidst claims of corruption by the DLP throughout that election campaign, the status quo remains the same as a new era of corruption raises its head in projects such as CAHILL and the arrangements made to repair Transport Board buses and SSA garbage trucks by a particular company or party associated lawyers charging a government entity almost $900,000 to give legal opinions on contracts. The BLP now eagerly await their turn.
As you rightly alluded to, the PM and AG appeared agitated on television after the 2013 elections as they spoke about “election irregularities” and promised investigations. Those occurrences should have spurred Stuart into tabling integrity legislation as priority.
However, he did not, and we will not see any investigations since candidates from both parties were guilty.
ac February 6, 2016 at 8:33 PM #
Right now the system with all its flaws can be revisited when election time comes around with the x being the voice of the people giving resounding no,s to thieves liars and scalliwags who made their way into the system. if an individual refuse to exercise their power of the vote the flaws in the system would continue and society have no one to blame but themselves
Unless, of course, the names on the ballot represent different versions of the same corruption, in which case, people vote by not turning up to vote for either.
The point being made here is not that thieves, liars and incompetents exist in the system, it is that thieves, liars and incompetents THRIVE in the system.
In fact, it could be argued that it is now THEIR SYSTEM!
I cannot imagine the pressure of embarrassment the couple honest cabinet members must feel right now; no-one could be oblivious enough to not know what their bed-fellows are doing to this country. If there was any conscience left in any of them there would have already been resignations.
A democracy is not defined by the x every five years. It requires everyday interactions between the citizenry and government.
FUH TRUE ?…..FUH REAL ?……. A BAJAN OWNED COMPANY PERFORMING.
“The DAILY NATION confirmed that fresh from earning a $62 million profit and its “highest earnings per share ever” of 83 cents last year, GEL has received shareholder permission to hike the remuneration of its seven non-executive directors from $276 000 to $418 000 annually.
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/77634/gel-sweets#sthash.rtNBziXL.dpuf
“We will never forget where we come from. We stay true to what we are. I always correct people who say we are a restaurant. We are not. We are a traditional Bajan rum shop that sell modern-day rum shop cuisine.” – See more at: http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/77535/raising-bar#sthash.kIHr6cYj.dpuf
HANTS, you remember a couple years ago when GEL said it was no longer investing in Barbados because of gov’t ineptitude?
They followed through, hence the performance.
http://www.barbadostoday.bb/2014/08/31/goddards-issues-ultimatum/
@ Frustrated B
Boss
ANYTHING that Charles Herbert runs will be successful……
SSS….don’t know if you followed this from the beginning but you can’t have officials, civil servants bullying you around, transfering your child and you did not sign off on it, even if you asked for the transfer, you should have an opportunity to speak to the same officials and find out from them why they think the school they chose for the girl is the best fit and will her grades continue to improve in a changed environment or if it would be more prudent to leave her at Springer and I would want to know why the hell she is being made to pick up garbage of other children who have no sense of cleanliness for their surroundings. ….I know you will not accept any old crap from a teacher, principal, Jones, none of the idiots in Bim that think so highly of themselves.
In addition, we know the problems on the island, they are even being spoke about in international circles….you cannot want change but keep the same nasty dehumanizing practices in place that continue to be passed on from one generation of practitioners to the next, it will never end.
David,,, I believe my screen changed on me….
@David,
Did you read the BarbadosToday Editorial?
http://www.barbadostoday.bb/2016/02/09/on-balancing-freedom-with-responsibility/
@Hants
When Kaymar was editor in chief at the Nation did she not publish flying fish & cou cou. Agree with her the Nation is satisfying an agenda.
David February 10, 2016 at 5:05 PM #
This I believe is about ratings….you may have noticed a full page Add for the last week or so in BT suggesting that the Nation is loosing the position of #1.
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@David
You asked about the distribution of the water supply in St Joseph. This was common knowledge many years ago when the then Water Works Department was decentralised, unlike the BWA today ,where all reservoirs had foremen and employees who knew the system. The following photos are an indication of the BWA’S uncertainty.
http://i.imgur.com/tfnQ8Xd.jpg?1
http://i.imgur.com/jwVLqxF.jpg?1
oops! . Wrong place
Thanks Colonel Buggy, will highlight this in a separate blog.