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Affordable Care Act |the Healthy Subsidizes the Unhealthy

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Submitted by Bentley

Everyone should read this article. I remember saying, at the start of the health care debate in the US that resulted in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that this should be taken into account. In fact, when I was at CEP (I left CEP in 1993) I proposed to an insurance agent that healthy individuals should be rewarded and that equipment used to maintain and promote healthy lifestyles should be subsidised under health insurance plans.

 

Affordable Care Act is the biggest transfer of health in the history of the…

By John Foley

The healthy should not be forced to subsidize health insurance for the unhealthy.

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86 responses to “Affordable Care Act |the Healthy Subsidizes the Unhealthy”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    In Barbados we have the parallel issue of the rising incidence of NCDs especially diabetes and hypertension and despite the long talk by officials the situation is not improving, what we are witnessing instead is more fast food outlets popping up over the tiny island and a vehicle per household. All contribute to a lazy lifestyle.

  2. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    Don’t forget the Lunch time Lecture series at DLP HQ.

    Today the Min. of Health

    Attend and be edified.

  3. mother sally Avatar
    mother sally

    Wonder if Carson Cadogan knows the meaning of “edified”? There is nothing the Min of Health could say that could “morally improve” any Barbadian.

  4. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ David

    I do not want to be side tracked by the yard-fowl nor do I want to hijack the discussion. But Oistins immediately came to mind re Mother Sally’s reference to John Boyce.

    The environs of the Oistins (Berinda Cox) fish market and the food court speak for itself, thereby indicating Boyce has been abysmal as the parliamentary representative for the area.

    Oistins’ food court is a tourist attraction, and more so on weekends. The skips opposite “Granny’s car park” over flowing with trash, stagnant water on the road leading to “Lexie’s Bar,” the stench emanating from the gutters surrounding “George’s Fish Net” and the male toilets being closed on a regular basis, are examples of the several environmental and health issues affecting the area.

    Perhaps Richard Sealy, John Boyce and Denis Lowe should take a Friday off from their busy schedules and tour the area from around 4:00pm until the 12:00am.

  5. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ David

    You wrote: “what we are witnessing instead is more fast food outlets popping up over the tiny island….”

    Yes, that is true ……… but I hope you also realized that many of those restaurants are Chinese. For example, there are approximately five (5) Chinese restaurants in Roebuck Street.

    Reminds me of Antigua, where there are several Chinese stores, restaurants, supermarkets and mini-marts in St. Johns.

  6. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Artax,
    Part of the deal we do with the Chinese is that the imported workers must remain on the island. They are then given cash by the Chinese government to start small businesses. Restaurants and shops are low level businesses. They did the same in Grenada and in Jamaica and throughout Africa.
    I wrote about this in 2007 when the Chinese funded the new cricket ground in Grenada for the Cricket World Cup. Do you remember the case in Guyana a few years ago when a Chinese shopkeeper, who spoke not a word of English, killed a young boy whose mother sent him to the shop to buy groceries and the verminous shopkeepers, unable to understand the boy, thought he was there to rob them – or so they claim.
    Can you imagine that that kind of idiocy is what this brain dead DLP government has signed up for, which Minister McClean, armed with her so-called MBA, thought was a good deal. Remember, most of these Chinese are young single men, mostly out of prison, there will be trouble down the line.
    The Chinese are wicked. Tell the government to publish the agreements they have with the Chinese; ask the BLP what would they do about the Chinese if they come to power; what does Solutions Barbados think about the Chinese?

  7. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    How disconnected can we be?

    As Bridgetown dithers, In Hamburg anti-capitalist demonstrators are disrupting the G20.

    And as the agents, organs of the system continue to presume business as usual, pre 1970’s

    Those demonstrating in Hamburg see financialization as the prime factor in global affairs.

    Consolidation of wealth into fewer and fewer hands

    More fundamental than political-economy, per se

    Indeed, they know that absent central bank printing of money a collapse cannot be prevented.

    Those injections, largely invested into financial assets, promote the notion of financial health, merely consolidate the relative position of the 0.01 percenters as the 99% continue to earn too little to spur global consumer demand.

    Until the idiots in Bridgetown come to know how to play this game, they are living in the world of yesterday.

  8. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger

    http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/98461/medical-facilities-decay

    Disgusting government neglect.

    St. Joseph’s hospital derelict state is the result of government corruption.

    “Medical facilities in decay
    In response to numerous calls and complaints, The WEEKEND NATION continues its look at abandoned Government buildings that are eyesores and health hazards. This week: Roseville and the St Joseph Hospital in St Peter. THE FORMER ROSEVILLE halfway house is now being described as nothing but an example of Government wastage. Located in Colleton, the building was once used for the rehabilitation of psychiatric patients. Now, it is rusting, overgrown with bush and is the adopted home of people using the still running electricity and water.”

  9. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ Hal Austin

    Although the Chinese “one child” birth control policy has been phased out, thereby allowing couples to have two children, birth control remains a fundamental state policy.

    Couples must still comply with the rules of that policy, such as applying for birth permits for their expected children, and paying fines if they have more than two children.

    Chinese in living Barbados do not have such laws preventing them from having any number of children.

    I mentioned the above because the sight of a pregnant Chinese girl, who operates a business in the area with her husband, passing the location where I was “liming” with some friends, caused some of the guys to comment that her husband “en mekking nuh sport,” because this would be their fourth child, and “nutten so cahn happen in China.” When we later passed their business, we saw the husband standing outside with one child in his arms and the other two inside the doorway.

    What implications would such activities have on Barbados and the Barbadian culture, especially under circumstances where we have an aging population and the low birth rate among Barbadians is progressively increasing?

    If this situation continues, future generations of the “indigenous” Barbadian may perhaps question the ethnicity of the “new Barbadian,” especially against the background that, although the other racial groups may voluntarily acquire Barbadian citizenship, “renunciation” of their culture is not prevalent among.

  10. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger

    I can always manage to find some good in the US, despite their repugnant history, but this is what really, really pisses me off about US policy…….deliberately and maliciously .keeping poverty and helplessness alive in Africa to advance their own self interest.

    African leaders must be strong.

    “Rwanda will proceed with the ban on used clothes despite threats by the United States
    By Kylie Kiunguyu on July 6, 2017 — Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has insisted that Rwanda will proceed with its plan to phase-out importation of second-hand clothes despite threats from the US that the move could lead to a review of his country’s eligibility for duty-free access to the American market.

    President Paul Kagame. Photo: Rwanda Government/Flickr
    13.62k
    Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has insisted that Rwanda will proceed with its plan to phase-out importation of second-hand clothes despite threats from the U.S. that the move could lead to a review of his country’s eligibility for duty-free access to the American market. President Kagame recently made the remarks while addressing a news conference moments after submitting his nomination papers to the National Electoral Commission (NEC).

    Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and South Sudan decided to fully ban imported second-hand clothes and shoes by 2019, arguing it would help member countries boost domestic clothes manufacturing.”

  11. David Avatar
    David

    There seems to be a moral dilemma here, should governments continue to allocate resources to citizens who deliberately engage in unhealthy lifestyles or…

  12. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Artax,

    Spot on. At least one Bajan understands the implications. It will only take one generation. Those children born now in 25 years time will be making enormous demands on the nation. As August Comte said: Demography is destiny. That is why although the Japanese have an ageing society, they would not go down the US model of allowing immigrants in. The Japs have turned to artificial intelligence, with robots doing a lot of domestic work.
    Unless we wake up now Barbados will be doomed. I have seen it in the UK and it is now too late to turn back the hand of time. Remember those people who came to the UK from Uganda, their children and grand children are in many cases (not all) now the terrorists.

  13. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger

    Bajans are responsible for their own health re NCDs…..

    …..they know fast foods are bad for their health, but that is what they insist on eating…when they get sick, let THEM foot the bill.

    They have been educated to the dangers of fast food and unhealthy living for years.

    Their great great grandparents did not have fast foods and were much healthier.

  14. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    David, realistically that can never be a moral dilemma as you know only too well. It is the fundamental role of any democratic government.

    When you frame it in a health care debate as above it appears so ‘cut and dried’ but in fact it is that ‘dilemma’ of daily existence: when careless, vibrant explorers go gallivanting at their own whim and fancy and get lost or fall into a ravine or a well and endless wo/man hours, equipment and other resources are expended for their ‘stupidity’ is it a moral dilemma on whether we should simply disregard them and leave them to expire on their own.

    Of course not!

    So when citizens go gallivanting on their own whims and fancy and get lost in deep ravines and wells of unhealthy stupidity should they be left by the wayside to die or is government required to mount every effort to save them!

    @Hal, the Japanese and too Chinese are quite ‘homogeneous’ societies and have been socialized very differently than the US or UK. Your thesis sounds lovely in the absence of any historical context it is ll-founded when properly nuanced.

    Of course Bim’s leaders must recognize the impact of Chinese immigrants as detailed above but I continue to be totally amazed at the argumentation of we Bajans.

    For years we were heralded across the region (and world) for our deployment as valuable workers and we took that with pride while even then our neighbors spoke with this same malaise towards us ….yet we go to the Chinese and engage their money and tech but yet disparage them so easily…as they basically do no more or less than we did over these many years.

    I repeat, we are small and MUST manage immigration very carefully but we cannot expect to coexist and flourish in the world by adopting such stringent xenophobia.

    Limit the Chinese population by all means but also ensure we get some of their skilled folks who can help teach our youth the language, culture and ethos and also let’s continue to develop study and social group exchanges and such.

    We cannot close our eyes to the type of problems you have highlighted but neither can we be blind to the development of China as the most potent economic engine.

  15. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ David

    I believe it’s more of a financial dilemma than one based on morality. The reality of the situations is there many Barbadians who cannot afford to eat “health foods” and living healthy lifestyles may prove to be a very difficult undertaking.

    If government was serious about encouraging healthy lifestyles, when they increased taxes on “sweet drinks,” for example, there should have been a corresponding reduction in taxes and duties on health foods. And the 400% increase on products as a result of NSRL, will obviously make things worse.

    Foods that do not have high concentrations of fat, sodium and other preservatives are very expensive. Whereas a jar of ordinary peanut butter costs about $10, the health food shops sell the natural peanut and almond butter for as much as $40.

    Then we have situations where there are certain restrictions imposed on people living in some of these so called “new housing developments,” such as Coverley. A tenant could pave a section of his land into concrete drive to accommodate a vehicle, but cannot fork up that same piece of land into “kitchen garden beds.”

    What about retired people whose pension is a significant reduction when compared with their earnings from employment.

    However, the time is coming when Barbadians may be asked to contribute a mandatory national medical insurance scheme or a medical scheme facilitated by their employers.

  16. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    MothersallyJuly 7, 2017 at 8:38 AM

    But you are saying that a gender confused person like Mia Mottley can?

  17. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    De pedantic,

    There is no nuance that has been missed. Since the end of the second world war we have witnessed the greatest movement of people in human history. Societies that were once homogenous have now been transformed unrecognisably.
    That was a conscious decision made by governments – France, Belgium, the UK and others. Some however, have joined the outward bound masses, but have remained internally more or less homogenous (that is not exactly accurate since there are a lot of different ethnic groups in India, Japan and China, for example).
    There is the great Chinese invisible army, those of Chinese ethnicity who live outside China, and not just in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
    There are massive communities of people of Japanese descent in Brazil, Peru, the West Coast of the US and throughout South America. Patagonia has a large Welsh community which still peaks Welsh. The list is endless.
    What you call a nuance is a deliberate policy decision to reject mass immigration. Of all the OECD countries, all facing a demographic time bomb, only Japan has rejected allowing young, working age immigration , not even the Filipinos who mainly work as domestics.
    As we speak, millions are flowing across the Mediterranean in to Europe, from the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia – and even then they discriminate.
    What you call xenophobia is the reality that an island of just over 100000 cares of land, that has been over-populated since the turn of the 20th century, is taking a huge risk with future generations of traditional Barbadians if they allow in any and every one to settle on the basic of cheap loans.
    The descendants of these people are not going to be boys and girls on the block, they will be the doctors, lawyers, accountants, business people, politicians – in other words, the decision makers.
    They will also transform our culture and collective memory beyond recognition. I read somewhere, I cannot remember where, but a reputable travel piece in a national newspaper, that our national dishes are now cou-cou, hot pot and rotis. Really?
    I will end on a personal story: a few years ago I stayed at a small boutique hotel in Dayrell Road, owned by an elderly Guyanese, former London-based retired optician and his Jamaican partner.
    As it was Xmas, at about 3pm he opened his home to hotel guests and Barbados-based Guyanese friends. I am still horrified by the conversation that took place about Barbadians, as if I was not a Barbadian. They obviously made the assumption that since I came from London that I was no longer a Barbadian. It was a lesson. I also know how minority groups, when alone, talk about the English, some of the most generous people.
    We are sleep-walking in to danger, and it has nothing to do with nuanced understanding of how the Japanese treat Nigerians. Just Google Nigerians in Japan, or black people in India.

  18. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    Hal Austin July 7, 2017 at 9:38 AM

    Your statements are pure racism.

    The British and Americans send their people all over the World to contaminate host countries under whatever guise they choose.. I don’t hear you complain.

    But you have a problem with Chinese people.

  19. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    Hal

    The British went to Africa and introduce all kinds of non native diseases to the continent wiping out many thousands and you were silent on the matter. Up to this day it is still going on.

    I don’t see you writing any comments condemning them. Is it because they are White?

  20. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger

    Art….their great grandparents could not afford to eat UNHEALTHY foods, like their slave masters could and though wealthy,these slave masters had very short, sickly life spans.

    So what are we seeing here.

  21. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Carson,
    I have realised you are not one for critical analysis, but read my post and yours and tell me which reads like a racist rant?

  22. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    What Bushie finds really amazing is the fact that wunna bright people here cannot seem to come to grips with the finality of our demise – despite the overwhelming evidence that abound.

    These discussions seem to be constructed on a foundation of the ongoing survival of Barbados as we have it over the past 60 years…. no wonder the REAL REAL brass bowls out there remain clueless, while focusing on buying that new ride or on Carifesta and Kadooment.

    The REALITY is that the Bajan phenomenon of the 70s-90’s has come to an end. We have not capitalised on the excellent opening innings provided by Crawford et al. Tom and Bree did some swiping to add to the scoreboard, but then Sandi got runout, Arthur can talk the game and looked the part, but spent 15 overs poking …..and then we had thieving Thompson and now a ridiculous Froon clown to close the innings.

    The Trickidadians, Chinese, Canadians and others will shorty come to the crease and knock off the paltry shiite score ….and end our misery…. or start it…

    We are headed back to the days of our great grand parents, -where we toiled at the beck and call of others …who will work our black asses off …to enrich themselves….
    But then we will work quite happily for strangers.
    Something that we REFUSE to do for ourselves now…

    We like it that way….
    All brass bowls do.

  23. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    “I am still horrified by the conversation that took place about Barbadians, as if I was not a Barbadian.”

    @ Hal Austin

    Then you would be more than horrified by what Guyanese and Jamaican currently living in Barbados (and many of them illegally), openly say about Barbadians and the pejorative remarks they use to describe us.

    Yet, we find all types of excuses to accommodate them and patronize their businesses. The most used excuse being: “there are Barbadians living all over the world.”….. RUBBISH!!!!

    I don’t care if my comments are described as being xenophobic, but immigrants who want to live in Barbados should respect our islands and obey our laws.

    If you were to take a trip to Cheapside, you will see a number of Guyanese selling produce in front of the Cheapside Market, while Barbadian vendors are forced to pay rent for market space to sell in the Cheapside Market.

    In November last year, the police removed a number of Guyanese vendors who were selling in front of the Fairchild Street bus terminal. When the police left the scene they returned. One told a news reporter Guyanese are allowed to sell wherever they want in Guyana and she would comply with police instructions to move, but will return to the spot when they leave. These illegal vendors remain there to this day.

    The papers reported that a number of Guyanese and Jamaicans are squatting in Rock Hall, St. Philip (confirmed by Guyanese and Jamaicans) and are “holding” plots for they relatives and friends, while Barbadians have to face the mortgage companies, banks and other financial institutions to apply for mortgages.

    Rather than reading the Advocate, Barbados Today or the Nation, READ the on-line Guyanese, Jamaican papers or those of the other Caribbean islands to see what these people have to say about Barbados, especially when their nationals are deported, if a storm is heading to our shores or each time we experience a credit rating downgrade.

    For example, Antigua deported a few Guyanese and rather than comment on that issue, the focus of their topic was on Barbados.

    Can their ATTITUDE towards and CRITICISMS of Barbadians not also be described as XENOPHOBIA? Or is xenophobia applicable ONLY when Barbadians are critical of the actions of those immigrants who want to come to Barbados break our laws and do as they please?

  24. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Artax,

    I am not sure who is the target of your comments.? By the way, I am in full agreement.

  25. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    “Carson C. Cadogan July 7, 2017 at 3:17 PM #: “Hal – The British went to Africa and introduce all kinds of non native diseases to the continent wiping out many thousands and you were silent on the matter. Up to this day it is still going on. I don’t see you writing any comments condemning them. Is it because they are White?”

    @ Carson C. Cadogan

    You are not only a YARD-FOWL, but a HYPOCRITE as well.

    I recall reading an article in the June 30, 2009 edition of the “Stabroek News” entitled “Fifty-three Guyanese deported from Barbados.”

    I also read the following comment in the “comments section:”

    “Carson C. Cadogan • 8 years ago”
    “Barbados does not owe Guyanese a living”.

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Does Barbados owe Chinese a living?

    The Guyanese were not white, yet you CONDEMNED them because you SUPPORTED the DLP’s immigration policy at that time.

    And you are not condemning the Chinese lest you become CRITICAL of the ARRANGEMENT your inept DLP administration made with China relative to the Sam Lord’s Castle redevelopment project.

    YOU ARE A SHAMELESS YARD-FOWL.

  26. David Avatar
    David

    @Dee Word & Artax

    Dee Word suggests it is the role of government and you Artax caution that it is financial. There will obviously have to be a compromise because government does not have limitless resources. So there is the need for the State to intervene when individuals renege on their responsibility. Given the trending of NCDs in Barbados Houston we have a problem.

  27. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ Hal Austin

    I was attempting to explain why I agreed with your comment, while dismissing the “talk” about xenophobia as it relates to my opinion.

  28. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Artax,
    We cannot keep agreeing with each other. People will talk.

  29. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    I am a hypertensive and diabetic…type 2…what I find very interesting is that natural foods i.e. foods with the minimum of handling are more expensive e.g. brown rice,grapes,oranges,et,etc.

    Before we Pelaus became owners of these Caribbean isles the Taino had possesion….they disappeared….we too shall diappear…..but the human race will still be around and a new/different tribe will occupy these isles…..such is life….tribes come and tribes go….especially if they are unable to join together for the greater good.

  30. David Avatar
    David

    Did the MoH just announce that the government is looking at establishing a National Health Fund? How is this expected to work?

  31. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Chuckle….VoB 4.30 news the Min of Health has just received a plan for health insurance which will be passed to cabinet for consideration…….

    This was discussed since around 2004 by the previous govt…..now the present govt is bringing it to cabinet for discussion wuhloss…..elections around the corner.

  32. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Vincent,
    Or tribes defend themselves.

  33. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Boyce emphasised that this proposal would still have to go to Cabinet for consideration.
    National Health Insurance Fund being developed
    Health care costs have become extremely expensive and measures must be put in place to ensure access to health care for all Barbadians, regardless…
    loopnewsbarbados.com
    http://ow.ly/8D7p30ds1kU

  34. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Hal

    ….after getting together.

  35. Tell me Why Avatar
    Tell me Why

    Tell me why ministers and government officials prefer to make crucial statement in-front party supporters. Why can’t policy statements made at a Press Conference where questions can be made and answered. Also, our local television station refuse to show up and certain meetings but every Friday religiously, find a crew to report a Lunch Time gathering of choir boys and girls singing from the same hymn sheet. This must stop and let’s have public dialogue with our people.

  36. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    I want you all to know that they are Bajans living in China. If we send home the Chinese then they will send home the Bajans.

    There is nothing wrong with Chinese living in Barbados they are contributing to Barbados by the way rents, jobs for Bajans, inexpensive goods, etc.

    The racists on this blog should give up.

  37. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    How many Bajans live in China? There are also lots of Africans but at best they are only temporary. I know of one, the brother of a famous Barbadian. I was also invited to China to run a course on financial journalism. It was not for me.

  38. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @Artax July 7, 2017 at 2:51 PM
    “I believe it’s more of a financial dilemma than one based on morality. The reality of the situations is there many Barbadians who cannot afford to eat “health foods” and living healthy lifestyles may prove to be a very difficult undertaking.
    If government was serious about encouraging healthy lifestyles, when they increased taxes on “sweet drinks,” for example, there should have been a corresponding reduction in taxes and duties on health foods. And the 400% increase on products as a result of NSRL, will obviously make things worse…”

    How about going a bit further and impose a ‘FAT TAX’ (F T) on all fast food sales? The ‘F T’ can be imposed as a specified percentage (say 5 %) of all sales made from each fast food outlet and collected via the existing VAT regime with necessary adjustments.

    The same way the smoking of processed tobacco products is treated as a major health hazard and taxed heavily why not the consumption of processed foods in a restaurant or ‘conveniently luxurious’ setting and which have been “scientifically” linked to the astronomical rise NCDs?

    Let the consumers of fast foods from those highly profitable chains of ‘fat’ distributors pay in advance for their future health care cost expected to be provided by the State.

    Wasn’t the initial 2% of NSRL ring-fenced to fund health care cost provided by the State?

    So why is there another proposal to introduce a national health insurance scheme to be funded by another deduction from workers pay and matched by a contribution by employers?

  39. Tell me Why Avatar
    Tell me Why

    I agree with you Artax at 4:12 PM

    We deported endless Guyanese knowing that nuff homes were rented, nuff food buying, nuff liquor selling, nuff partying and shop and store owners were making nuff money and everybody were happy. Chinese scarcely spend money, yet Bajans can’t do without Chinese foods. Visit a Chinese restaurant and you will see the Chinese don’t eat the same food sold to Bajans.
    BTW. Guyanese running back home to a richer Guyana and the same Bajans trying to get a piece of Guyana real estate. Karma in action!!

  40. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Carson C. Cadogan July 7, 2017 at 4:54 PM

    Look, look who is calling the kettle black? No other than the blackened potty fella called Carrion!

    Weren’t the Guyanese our own Caricom kith and kin -with many of the Afro-Guyanese having the ethnic navel string buried in 19th Century Barbados- doing the same thing as the Chinese you are claiming are doing to the Bajan economy before they unceremoniously sent packing with that famous dictum of the stamp of persona non grata:
    ‘Ever so welcome(but) wait for a call’?

    At least the influx of mainly Chinese men would result in the widening of the already incestuous gene pool and thereby dec(r)easing the chances that those ugly gorilla features of yours would dominate the local demographic landscape.

  41. Bajan in NY Avatar
    Bajan in NY

    Just heard a new item about the minister of health considering a national health levy. Wasn’t the original 2% SNRL suppose to be for the QEH and ministry of health? National health levy what? stupse…

  42. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Bushie

    You are not to be termed as a neo-nihilist, like some might

    Those are the hope mongers for whom logic fails

    For yours is a simple truth most dare not contemplate

    It is too dire, much too dire.

    That the people in charge did not see that all around them was about teffing from the many to make the few vastly wealth, internationally

    And appropriately respond, has sealed our fate

    Nothing less than a last ditch radical response, can give any change at all, of avoiding the future so clearly seen by you and evidenced all over the world.

  43. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Hal Austin July 7, 2017 at 5:00 PM
    “How many Bajans live in China? There are also lots of Africans but at best they are only temporary. I know of one, the brother of a famous Barbadian. I was also invited to China to run a course on financial journalism. It was not for me.”

    Why don’t you pose a question of greater intellectual gravamen?

    Why is it that the vast majority black immigrants always end up at the very bottom of the social and economic totem pole whereas the reverse always holds through when other ethnic groups migrate to countries politically controlled by blacks with Barbados being the prime example?

    Why do so many indigenous blacks in Barbados (aka black Bajan brass-bowls) find themselves subserviently working (and sometimes slaving) for immigrant groups such as East Indians and Chinese?

    Is it a spin-off from the Willie Lynch syndrome?

  44. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger

    Food for thought.

    “Tree of Knowledge” by Dion J. Pollard.
    WE HAVE TO BE MADE DUMB TO EXIST IN THIS SITUATION! We have been robbed of our common sense, our intellectual capacity, our culture, creativity and sense of reality. Having been taught to be dumb, Africans will experience a CONSCIOUSNESS, an INTELLECTUAL EXPANSION, a CLARITY OF VISION, a SPIRITUAL HARMONY and an INCREASE IN INTELLIGENCE, when we summon the COURAGE to regain and reclaim our AFRICAN IDENTITY, CONSCIOUSNESS, CULTURE & TIME – Dr. Amos Wilson””

  45. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    I want you all to know that they are Bajans living in China. If we send home the Chinese then they will send home the Bajans.
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    This man Carson seems intend on cementing his place as the ultimate idiot of BU.

    As Miller explains, while there are a few Bajan lackies in China trying their best to keep out of sight while fighting to fit into the bottom layer of that society, what we have in Barbados is a colony of Chinese ex-prisoners and other lower social workers …who have been dispatched here to mix concrete on some basic shiite aid project – then to set up shop and become our business class in the next ten years…

    What we have is a government that is INCAPABLE of visioning a path to empowerment and enfranchisement for black Bajans that is beyond having them cleaning up some other people’s shit….

    A pox on our shiite governments…. and a big one on Carson’s stupid donkey.

    Just look at who have been the representatives of our business and professional groupings over the years. People who come from the bottom echelons of other fractured societies a few decades ago….

    …and we have an idiot representing the DLP making the above argument…??!!

  46. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Benntley “when I was at CEP (I left CEP in 1993)”

    What is CEP?

  47. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Artax July 7, 2017 at 9:18 AM “Reminds me of Antigua, where there are several Chinese stores, restaurants, supermarkets and mini-marts in St. Johns.”

    This is not about economics.

    This is about demographics.

    Because of its former one child policy, and because of the traditional Chinese preference for sons, and because of readily available selective abortion, China now has an estimated 10 million extra men, who have no hope of ever getting a wife or even a piece of p!@#$ if they remain in China. So China has only 2 options. 1. Permit Chinese women to have multiple concurrent husbands (which historically has been the norm in certain parts of China) or 2. export the excess men. China has chosen option 2

    The Chinese men are not here to take your money, they are here to take your daughters.

    A good number of us will find ourselves with Chinese sons in law, especially if black Caribbean men don’t treat their women right, and sadly a lot of black Caribbean men have not treated their women right.

    The Chines men will dish out the nice treatment, and will take your daughters.

    Fellers the competition is on.

  48. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    @Hal Austin July 7, 2017 at 9:38 AM “a Chinese shopkeeper, who spoke not a word of English, killed a young boy whose mother sent him to the shop to buy groceries and the VERMINOUS shopkeepers, unable to understand the boy, thought he was there to rob them – or so they claim.”

    No wonder nobody takes you seriously, you old racist you. What gives you the right to call another human being vermin. Vermin are rats. Vermin are cockroaches etc. Human beings are NOT vermin.

    Do you really think that as a rule a shop keeper wishes to kill his customers? Does it make economic sense for a businessman to kill his customers?

    And why does it matter that the immigrant shop keeper spoke no English? Isn’t it commonplace that immigrants do not speak the language of their new country?

    When 40,000 Bajans migrated to Panama, including some of your foreparents and mine how many of them spoke Spanish on arrival? How many Bajan women spoke French when they went to Montreal to work. Did my grandmother’s sister speak Portugese when she went to Brazil to work early in the 20th century. Did my grandmother’s brother speak Spanish when he went to Colon to work?

    Only an idiot would harshly judge an immigrant because he does not speak the native language.

    It seems as though your time in England has deeply corrupted you with racism against all people not English, the same racism that permitted the English [and the French, and the Spanish, and the Portugese, and the Dutch and the Americans] to practice slavery in the not so distant past.

  49. David Avatar
    David

    It bears repeating although a redundant observation, Sylvan Greenidge and Henderson Bovell demonstrated a higher level of ‘pedigree’ when they performed the role of yardfowl in social media.

  50. Carson C. Cadogan Avatar
    Carson C. Cadogan

    The Hon. John Boyce MP, Min. of Health

    https://www.facebook.com/DLPBB/videos/1494948350567965/

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