est. 2007

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Poor Leadership by the Managerial Class Eroding Gains

Submitted by the Mahogany Coconut Group The Mahogany Coconut Group has long suggested that the entire English speaking Caribbean, is in a state of very poor governance and unless new leaders emerge the prognosis for any real and sustainable development is extremely poor. There are those who believe that all of our problems are the…

Submitted by the Mahogany Coconut Group

CARICOM HEADSThe Mahogany Coconut Group has long suggested that the entire English speaking Caribbean, is in a state of very poor governance and unless new leaders emerge the prognosis for any real and sustainable development is extremely poor.

There are those who believe that all of our problems are the result of poor economic management. We do not subscribe to that view because our limited resources have not restricted us from achieving a relatively high standard of living for our citizens.Sometimes, it is difficult to accept that a region can be so rich in its culture, emerging identity and civilization and yet so poor in present day leadership and self confidence.

Very few regions of our collective size and limited resources can boast of the high number of noble laureates and other distinguished citizens. Indeed we have produced world class athletes at the level of Usain Bolt and sportsmen of the superb calibre of Sir Garry Sobers. We have given the world Bob Marley and remain a zone of peace surrounded by a world of conflict. Religious tolerance is the norm and our citizens are allowed to live and love as they please without any belligerent state intervention.

Governments are changed with little social discord and after elections, the losers lick their wounds for the next five years and we move on. The question then is: Why with all these positives, are we still daily sinking into a region of despair?

We have rested on our laurels and have convinced ourselves that the world has to accommodate us. We have refused to undergo change in areas such as education and government accountability. In too many cases we have allowed crime to reach high levels and are not true guardians of our beautiful but fragile environment.

Therefore the gains made are now being slowing eroded and the political managerial class that emerged has been essentially visionless and uninspiring. We suggest that the major crisis facing the region is poor leadership and inept management of both human and natural resources.

33 responses to “Poor Leadership by the Managerial Class Eroding Gains”

  1. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Mahogny, how may Nobel Laureates are there in the English-speaking Caribbean?

  2. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Regardless as to how we may preach some minds will never be abused of the notion that the masses need someone or a some people to lead, as a general principle.

    We have never been persuaded that the Caribbean people or people anywhere else need the leadership, of a dying political and managerial class, classes………….asses.

    We contend that people everywhere can lead themselves. That there is no need for the location of ‘leadership’ outside self, a collective self.

    This point has long been where we have departed from failed systems like communism, socialism and capitalism. They have had this fundamental organizing principle in common. They are all wrong, have been wrong and will always be dead wrong.

    We will not quit arguing that the collective intelligence, imagination of any population is vastly greater than any one man, any set of elites.

    This notion of leadership only serves to concentrate power into fewer and fewer hands. And why would a sensible people anywhere want to give their power to elites anymore? If fact, a radical reversal of this anachronistic phenomenon is urgently warranted.

    When we have any sets of elites leading us, we are led by the nose. We can, for instance, be made to accept BULLING as a normal practice. Is this not what Obama has tried to impose on the world under this notion of leadership.

    People everywhere can lead themselves. They are not in need of any leadership as described above.

    As persons who have lectured, organised seminars, on these subjects, and written as well, this argument represents that of the political and managerial classes seeking new relevance after centuries of failures.

    Let them continue to fail. Let they system fall to the ground. For only in total destruction will transformation arrive.

  3. chad99999 Avatar
    chad99999

    Good question. Two of the three Nobelists left the Caribbean as teenagers (that is, at the very first opportunity they had), were educated in British universities and lived nearly all of their lives outside of the Caribbean. It is a bit of a stretch for the Caribbean to claim the credit for their accomplishments.
    As for all the fuss about “governance”, it is the result of the usual agenda-setting by the US/UK/US. West Indians are incapable of an original thought and merely reflect conversations started elsewhere.

  4. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    How do we move from the esoteric to the pragmatic?

  5. David Avatar
    David

    @chadd9999

    Isn’t governance a generic reference to ordering how we live our lives or do you prefer anarchy.

  6. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @David

    There is no esoteric.

    We present exhibit one – the cooperative movement as the flattest, potentially most democratic, structure ………………..right in front your eyes.

  7. chad99999 Avatar
    chad99999

    @David
    As I have pointed out many times before, the Caribbean does not need “good governance” to succeed. It’s nice to have it, but it isn’t necessary.
    China, South Korea, India and many other places have inept, corrupt, and not very transparent governments. They are all thriving, thank you very much.

  8. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    The point of the original article is that per million of the West Indian population we have provided the highest amount of Nobel prize winners, cricket run scorers , university graduates, world class entertainers etc. than some more developed Countries; and we should build on these records. Stop beating up on ourselves and continue to soar. We do not need any new systems these will evolve as we go forward with confidence in our abilities to cope.

  9. Calling a spade Avatar
    Calling a spade

    Chatrani of the Hotel Association is of the leadership managerial class he claims the big hotels aren’t making money despite the rise in tourists. The question Chatrani is why don’t you off load your high end BMW and Mercedes if your revenues are dropping. A switch to a Suzuki or a bicycle makes your claim believable.

    The lifestyles of the managerial class are conspicuously over the top the posh vehicles they own , their real estate in and out of the island bear witness. We shouldn’t begrudge their material wealth but if you moan you aren’t making money your lifestyle should say so.

    Obviously hotel workers don’t earn much they get by with transport on the lawless ZR’s even as out of control youths with guns roam the streets firing shots in broad daylight. Wheel and come again Chatrani.

  10. FearPlay Avatar
    FearPlay

    Poor leadership? At least one Caribbean Prime Minister is willing to speak up.
    Extract taken from Naked Departure where full text can be read:
    CARIBBEAN/ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA (Naked Departure) — SANDALS — The New Plantation. Prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, is addressing the issue of tax concessions to Sandals. According to Browne, a 2009 arrangement between Sandals and the previous United Progressive Party (UPP) administration violates the laws of Antigua and Barbuda and deprives the treasury in excess of $15 million, a practice that is unjust to the people of Antigua and Barbuda.

  11. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ Bernard Codrington

    In an enlightened age we are surprised there are those who would seek to present to trinkets of ‘development’ to mislead popular consciousness.

    Was Obama not a peace prize winner? He will turn out to be the most vicious war hawk of all times, with a smile on his face.

    We currently remember two Caribbean Noble Prize winner. Arthur Lewis won for destroying Ghana’s economy and transferring their wealth to Europe.

    The other Saint Lucian, Derek Walcott, writer, won and yes, before he won he refused to become a US citizen as he was being force so to do, by the Americans. That is the nature of these symbols of exploitation.

    Even the money which funds the prize was made selling armament during WW1. What peace! What models for us to reach for?

    You talk about musicians, per capita, we don’t know that any of these statistics can be confirmed but we know that a preponderance of prize recipients are Jews. Even so, how many schools teach music as a fundamental method for knowledge development?

    And how can so many Jews be recipients, in the main?

    What protections can we offer musicians?

    And we can on go but enough said.

  12. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    My point is very simple: Any region that moved from slavery to self government in such a short historical period says something positive about the majority of its people who came directly out of slavery and vicious colonial rule. Need I remind them that the majority of the exslaves were Black and they not only survived slavery but went from being considered chattel to Prime Ministers in a very short historical period. There are some who will scorn my presenting the regions nobel laureates as examples . However they are the same ones who have argued quite passionately about the importance of being “judged by your peers” in order to receive a Doctorate ! In one breath they condemn the same system that they use as yardsticks when convenient.
    Those who will praise the same American writers and quote them as gods have not taken time to comprehend their own Lioyd Best. The hypocrisy is painful but the ignorance is bordering on supreme comedy.
    While they argue quite correctly that the Nobel Prize is financed by ill- gotten gains, they forget that the English universities they praise and attended were built from the ill gotten gains of slavery. As Comrade Bishop once said: ” I think a collective madness has invaded the comrades.”

  13. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Well we were not party to those who would conspire to put a red man in government in Grenada. Those acts are still illegal we feel. But that is the nature of Caribbean red men.

    The positive things about African peoples did not begin and do not end with slavery. That is the only frame William Skinner knows, wants to know. As though Caribbean peoples are a race, a set of nations disconnected from the Mother.

    This is the same William Skinner who consistently expresses a deep loathing for anything African but seeks to elevate ‘Caribbeanness’ as some special development. It is not and will never be.

    The same argumentation has been used to promote bulling. The one is just as fake as the other!

    African peoples claim these lands ten of thousands of years before White people and their systems ever existed. William Skinner must come to know this. Until he does he will continue to be what Barrow called ‘an unfinished product’.

    What level of ignorance, arrogance could, on the one hand suggest that a White man’s educational systems, and the Caribbean schooling system is that too, is good for a Lloyd Best but bad for everybody else?

    Everybody who would say to William Skinner yuh talking fuckeries must be critique based on attendance to British or American schools. And that level of discourse is in a stasis, has been in stasis. It has not matured in 30 years. You cannot be any reader. And if you read you must not understand one shite, internal, external.

    William Skinner will always lack the intellectual muscle to properly engage he has developed disagreement with in the language of his masters and on substantive issues. As a bits and pieces man he too would be worthy of a Nobel Prize. Anything more is impossible.

    And yes we were schooled in British and American systems but educated by a universal consciousness. That consciousness considers Lloyd Best as a giant, but what this William Skinner knows not is that there are ten of thousands of people we consider even greater than Best. Most of them do not even speak any of the Germanic languages.

    This ignorance about name dropping to impress the uninitiated does not phase us. These are externalities to impress the rabble.

    He should seek them out and jettison his perennial fixation on Best. Best is long dead and circumstances are quite different today. Best’s training would not permit him to understand how modern financial markets influence real economy.

    We admit he is important to history but that is is. We seek not to emulate any particular person regardless to how great that person was or is. We assume that there is NOBODY greater than self. William Skinner should learn that!

    This nonsense about personality cultism is central to the thinking of William Skinner. Everything he writes deals with personalities. Not systems, not models not concepts but a small mindedness which needs a personality to justify itself.

    And until he learns that he will be that boy who believe some body else is ‘brighter’ than he is.

  14. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Well we were not party to those who would conspire to put a red man in government in Grenada. Those acts are still illegal we feel. But that is the nature of Caribbean red men.

    The positive things about African peoples did not begin and do not end with slavery. That is the only frame William Skinner knows, wants to know. As though Caribbean peoples are a race, a set of nations disconnected from the Mother.

    This is the same William Skinner who consistently expresses a deep loathing for anything African but seeks to elevate ‘Caribbeanness’ as some special development. It is not and will never be.

    The same argumentation has been used to promote bulling. The one is just as fake as the other!

    African peoples claim these lands ten of thousands of years before White people and their systems ever existed. William Skinner must come to know this. Until he does he will continue to be what Barrow called ‘an unfinished product’.

    What level of ignorance, arrogance could, on the one hand suggest that a White man’s educational systems, and the Caribbean schooling system is that too, is good for a Lloyd Best but bad for everybody else?

    Everybody who would say to William Skinner yuh talking fu*keries must be critique based on attendance to British or American schools. And that level of discourse is in a stasis, has been in stasis. It has not matured in 30 years. You cannot be any reader. And if you read you must not understand one shite, internal, external.

    William Skinner will always lack the intellectual muscle to properly engage he has developed disagreement with in the language of his masters and on substantive issues. As a bits and pieces man he too would be worthy of a Nobel Prize. Anything more is impossible.

    And yes we were schooled in British and American systems but educated by a universal consciousness. That consciousness considers Lloyd Best as a giant, but what this William Skinner knows not is that there are ten of thousands of people we consider even greater than Best. Most of them do not even speak any of the Germanic languages.

    This ignorance about name dropping to impress the uninitiated does not phase us. These are externalities to impress the rabble.

    He should seek them out and jettison his perennial fixation on Best. Best is long dead and circumstances are quite different today. Best’s training would not permit him to understand how modern financial markets influence real economy.

    We admit he is important to history but that is is. We seek not to emulate any particular person regardless to how great that person was or is. We assume that there is NOBODY greater than self. William Skinner should learn that!

    This nonsense about personality cultism is central to the thinking of William Skinner. Everything he writes deals with personalities. Not systems, not models not concepts but a small mindedness which needs a personality to justify itself.

    And until he learns that he will be that boy who believe some body else is ‘brighter’ than he is.

  15. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    The first thing that William Skinner knows is his name. To those who hide behind other things they prefer the themselves, William Skinner says show me who you are. Personal questions and weak attacks on his intellect or academic standing is a source of great comic relief too him. Come oiut jin thee open and let us have a real debate. In the mean time if they cannot show uotheyt should shut up.

  16. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    We know you. There can be no real debate between us. You do not qualify. Have you written even one scholarly article in any journal anywhere in the world.

    The answer must be ‘No”.

    You do not qualify for a debate with us.

    It is ignorance to even talk about such.

    You are confirming your ignorant, William Skinner cannot be your name. This is what we say to you would-be leaders of the Caribbean.

    To say William Skinner is you name is an admission to being the slave you are.

    We guess you’ll be telling us about your Irish or Scottish family, as before

  17. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    Today marks the 5 th Anniversary of Barbados being awarded the UNESCO World Heritage site status for its Bridgetown and the Garrison Heritage site.
    Hear the Minister of Culture et al, Stephen Lashley, in todays Nation doing what we have become accustomed to from our politicians ,a lot of twisted lies.
    He used such terms as”

    ……have the great honour.
    …. able to greet the nation as we celebrate the 5th anniversary of this inscription
    …… its not often a Minister gets to watch an initiation mushroom into something that has the potential to changing the perception of how Barbadians view themselves and their heritage.
    ……. over the last 5 years my Ministry and the Barbados World Heritage Committee have made enormous strides in sensitising the public about the outstanding universal value of Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison.
    ……In the area of Heritage Barbados is punching above its weight,and this is testimony of the hard work of the BWHC ,the Ministry of Culture and Youth,

    AT THIS POINT I CEASED READING .
    http://i.imgur.com/fOhizLu.jpg?1

  18. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    The Garrison Heritage Site. ( a few days ago)
    http://i.imgur.com/6EFkbJI.jpg?1

  19. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Pachamama,

    Kindly direct us to any of the scholarly articles “we” have written. I have never claimed to be scholarly or a scholar. Now in the interest of transparency, direct me to the numerous articles “we” have written. Enlighten us. Cut the arrogance and prove your scholarship. I am certain that your numerous followers on the EU blog would like to be exposed further to your mighty intellect and academic standing. I am certain that while I may not be your intellectual/academic equal; many in the BU family will be able to have a great debate with you while us lesser mortals watch on and learn. I look forward to the offerings of “we” (Pachamama) with great anticipation. Until you produce or direct us to such, I will just have to conclude that they simply do not exist. Come on Pachamama,,,,prove yourself right ! The same European model you malign with great gusto remains your only yard stick for measuring scholarship. The same status quo you so eloquently rubbish is your only place of refuge. Time to show up my man….time to fight on a level playing field. be the mighty warrior you claim to be. Time to show up !!!

  20. Peltdownman Avatar
    Peltdownman

    Pachamama, I hope that none of your “scholarly” articles are anything like the rubbish you write in BU. Go back to the mirror. You know you love it there!

  21. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @ William Skinner

    You are in no position to make any demands of us. We will not do your work for you.

    You know who we are, look for yourself, and ye shall find.

    Should there be no standards people like you will be able to impose yourselves into conversations when you have no right to be.

    Talking the same kinds of ignorance all the time.

  22. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Pachamama,

    I rest my case. I will continue to search academic journals and university libraries and when I come across articles by “we” (Pachamama), I will share them with the BU family.
    LOL.

  23. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    @William Skinner

    It is not necessary to wait that long.

    You may proceed right now for the exposure you seek.

    We are not afraid you and your kind. Go right ahead.

    But before all this, It maybe a good idea to remove anything written by ‘we’ – Pachamama, from the place ‘we’ know well.

  24. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Pachamama,

    Come on Pach you know that this is just a debate played out here in BU family circles. You know full well that “we” are not in the business of “removing” anything writtenby you , us, they , them , he , she it or “we”. All I want “we” to do is produce the scholary articles that “we” (Pachamama) claim William Skinner lacks the acdemic/intellectual prowess to produce. Like William Skinner said; “I rest my case. I will continue to search academic journals and university libraries and when I come across articles by “we” (Pachamama), I will share them with the BU family.
    LOL.”

  25. David Avatar
    David

    Pacha retreats to his alter person on BU. His academic articles are quite good 😀

  26. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David,
    Share one….just one. Thanks.

  27. David Avatar
    David

    @William

    Have to respect Pacha’s desire to operate his alter ego on BU 🙂

  28. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Poor leadership in the Caribbean because most of the leaders are consumed with bribetaking, corruption and reducing their hard fought for freedom to yardboys and girls for those who they should consider beneath them….so foolish, so useless when they meet their end.

    http://ow.ly/JGsm301zZZt

  29. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    So now they can stop saying John Ashe had a heart attack, his weights fell on him and finished him off….says the medical examiner, end if story.

  30. Retribution-things that make me go hum! Avatar
    Retribution-things that make me go hum!

    You cannot have good Governance without the intervention of God. The corruption has no ends. The promiscuous behaviour of the managerial class will continue for there is no sovereign respect for God.

  31. Pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    Pieceuhderockyeahright

    Lest Friday pass and there is no new poster we have saved the late edition for you late posters

    Inspiration for this came from Frustrated Business Man

    http://imgur.com/KbZ5JX9

  32. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Lol…love that one.

  33. balance Avatar
    balance

    “As Comrade Bishop once said: ” I think a collective madness has invaded the comrades.””

    Was je referring to ComradeCoard and general Austin and his other comrades all

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