Submitted by Caswell Frankyn
On May 30, 2017 the Minister of Finance, Christopher Sinckler, increased the rate of the National Social Responsibility Levy (NSRL) from 2% to 10%. After a public outcry, the Minister relented and exempted the items in the VAT free Basket of Goods from the payment of the NSRL as well.
That move was welcomed by many persons, some of whom did not even know what was contained in the Basket of Goods. I must confess that I am one of the persons who was not familiar with the items in the basket.
I downloaded a copy and started to peruse it. One of the items jumped out at me. I could not believe my eyes. Government actually exempted, from the payment of VAT and now NSRL, the edible offal of ASSES.
I had my doubts but now I am absolutely convinced that this Government does not care.
THEY WANT US TO EAT ASS.
Read the VAT fee list of Basket of Goods.
It makes one wonder who is responsible for creating the list and if it was ever reviewed by an intelligent person. I never knew that the offal of asses was being sold in Barbados.
Chuckle….a good spot by Caswell,I doubt any Bimmer spotted that.
Whose asses…surely not the slaves of parliament’s.
They are definitely going to get their ASSES kicked out of parliament now. .
Good catch Caswell…
I asked 5 people what that could mean and everyone is stumped..
Since Caswell raised it have done a little research on offal meat also known as variety meat. Is there a demand in Barbados for it? The BU query does not negate the substantive question why has it found its way on the basket of VAT free items.
LOL.. Excellent, Caswell. Absolutely excellent. You have missed your calling bro.
You would have made a mint as an adverting executive with your ability to craft the ‘Wow’ jingle and catchy phrase.
You just got an entire blog interested in one of the most fundamental aspects of government tax policy: the freaking basket of goods. LOLL
Never in my life spent half a minute thinking about that (well since studying back many years) and just read the entire list searching for some ass…oh dear that sounds wrong!
But seriously it is at the end of a very, very extensive list…so you did superbly. LOL. Amazing!
Incidentally can you or anyone who knows these explain the line that says “Not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter” from that section of the list dealing I suppose with ‘patotes’.
Now that seems like the rear-end of an Ass to me!
7.01 Potatoes, fresh or chilled
7019000000 Other potatoes, fresh or chilled
4063000000 Processed cheese, not grated or powdered
4061000000 Fresh (unripened or uncured) cheese, including whey cheese, and curd
4029910000 Condensed milk
4029100000 Not containing added sugar or other sweetening matter
4012000000 Of a fat content, by weight, exceeding 1% but not exceeding 6%
4011000000 Of a fat content, by weight, not exceeding 1%
BTW, we Bajans love our ‘offal’ whether pudding and souse, trotters, pig ears etc….so it better be exempted!
I would hate to see the day come, that our ingredients for pudding and souse is imported.
David, just saw your post. But bro what is ‘offal’ beyond the fancy English word other than the ‘throw-away’ parts of the animal. Those parts which our ancestors had to make as tasty as possible in their stews and other vitals.
Is that not what we have in our Saturday delicacies or is that not trotters, livers and gizzards and the like!!!
@Dee Word
From the ass?
I well remember when Government revised the list, they removed T-bone steaks but they think so little of us that they graciously allowed us to buy our ass VAT free.
Caswell poor working class people should not be able to afford T-bone steak. The government is cash poor and would have considered tax forgone on the steak compared to the ass’s offal.
lol..
David, that’s why Caswell post is so (I hesitate to say this)…so sweet. It is really marketing gold….this brother is really excellent.
No WHERE does the list EXPLICITLY say that the ‘offal’ was from THE ‘ass’ .
It speaks of AN ‘ass’ which coming as it does before the word ‘mule’ can be read as ‘donkey’!
The line reads: “Edible offal of bovine animals, swine, sheep, goats, horses, asses, mules or hinnies,fresh, chilled or frozen”.
That is the magic of advertising and drawing in a crowd. LOLL. And Mr Franklyn just showed how skilled at the craft he is!
Incidentally, of course I had absolutely no idea what are ‘hinnies'[Google says: it’s the offspring of a female donkey and a male horse….thought that was a mule] ….
Now if Caswell had said that they wanted us to eat the offal of ‘hermaphrodites’ or cross-breads we may have been too offended. LOLL
This is one of the most hilarious and yet ‘serious’ posts on this blog I have read!
And it does show that Caswell is a very, very crafty fellow!
Dribbler
Thanks for the compliment.
Sent from my iPad
apparently in their own infinite wisdom, they got asses, as a whole new animal.
“Edible offal of bovine animals, swine, sheep, goats, horses, ASSES, MULES or HINNIES, fresh, chilled or frozen…”
This is the first time I ever “heard” we could eat the offal of asses, mules or hinnies (the offspring of a female donkey and a male horse).
But, on the other hand, de pedantic Dribbler is correct……… our Saturday delicacies include offal in the form of liver & gizzards from Granny’s in Oistins; black pudding stuffed in pig intestines; boiled pig liver and cou cou; cow tripe in “cow souse;” and men believe they can receive extra stamina from cow heel soup.
However, according to OEC “Edible Offal Of Sheep, Goats, Horses, Asses, Mules Or Hinnies, Frozen, Fresh Or Chilled is the 3761st most traded product and the 3594th most complex product according to the Product Complexity Index (PCI).”
Canada’s Standard Classification of Goods (SCG) 2000 lists the “Meat of horses, asses, mules or hinnies, fresh, chilled or frozen” under code 020500.
In England the commodity code for importing the meats is 0205002000 and they are subject to VAT zero rate.
Artax
I am not sure what point you are trying to make. I don’t care if the Canadians and English eat ass. If I choose to eat ass, I will do so in private and I don’t want it sponsored by Government.
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“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” (let them eat pudding) – attributed to Queen Marie Antoinette of France in 1791 when she was told that the peasants had no bread.
yeah…i think the word was cake….and she got beheaded by the french for being a smart ass…
asses as a meal sounds too much like the 2 legged slaves in parliament, nauseating and unpalatable.
with the Canadians and English, ya never know whose asses they are eating, ask Lawson….
i would pass. on that.
Caswell Franklyn July 23, 2017 at 7:08 PM #
“I am not sure what point you are trying to make.”
The point I’m trying to make is that “Edible offal of bovine animals, swine, sheep, goats, horses, asses, mules or hinnies, fresh, chilled or frozen” is not anything new or something deliberately introduced by government for our consumption. They are general food items listed for import and export in many countries.
The choice is ours to make whether we want to eat asses or not.
However, I’m not sure why you would contemplate eating ass in private.
Then again, I would not want anyone to see me engaging in that activity, either.
Any bet you would probably be smiling from “ear to ear” if fresh (and not frozen) Oryctolagus Cuniculus or cats were on the lists.
Artax
I am not an exhibitionist and prefer to eat in private.
Sent from my iPad
Chris would have to be more than an ass more like a goat. Am I the only person who noticed the amount of items on the list that can be produced locally.
Probably a copy and paste basket of goods from somewhere else. They know very well that we don’t knowingly eat horse, donkey, mule or hinny, and in spite of hard times we won’t yet be persuaded to eat these things.
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey (jack) and a female horse (mare). Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids (first-generation hybrids) between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny, which is the offspring of a female donkey and a male horse. Wikipedia
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Donkey-meat-will-not-harm-your-health–/1056-3838166-13246raz/index.html
We should be sick of this nonsense about a ‘basket of goods’
This is rasssssssssssssssoulery at a time when all types of locally produced nutritional food could be made available to the people using new agricultural methods, community based production units.
As apposed to some ‘basket’ based on imports, high foreign exchange content, etc.
If we could never get this right, what could we, before the end of time?
At a time when it is clear that nothing taught in schools will be of any value 30 years from now, even today.
A time when humans are on the brink of altering evolutionary biology
Is Barbados going to be eternally defeated by the simply problem of producing more, and more varied, foods to satisfy this small population>
According to the 2010 population census, page 11 http://www.barstats.gov.bb/files/documents/PHC_2010_Census_Volume_1.pdf
Barbados has 70,321 menstruating women and girls aged between 15 and 49, plus tens of thousands more who are younger than 15 and older than 49 who also menstruate every month, and yet our male policy makers do not see it fit to add sanitary napkins and tampons to the list of vat free goods. But we have communion wafers and frozen donkey on the list, as though communion wafers and frozen donkey are necessities but tampons and sanitary napkins are not. So yes let the women and girls pay 17 1/2% VAT on these luxuries.
Do any of these policy making men live in homes with women and girls? I believe that the Minister of Finance lives in a house with 3 menstruating women and girls.
Maybe all the Bajan the women and girls should have a no tampon and no sanitary month and teach the men which bloody God they are serving.
Also the policy makers make believe that they want more Bajans to be born, but infant formula and diapers are not on the vat free list either.
The policy makers, both civil servants and politicians, may be living in a la-la land where communion wafers are a necessity of life but formula, tampons and sanitary napkins are luxuries.
At the time more than 20 years ago when the original basket was created it contained infant formula (milk based only) I had an infant, now a young adult who is lactose intolerant–just like 40% of us Bajans who are of West African descent—at the time I had a friend who was fairly senior in the Ministry of Finance. I called him to question why all infant formulas, including soy formulas were not on the list. Soy based formulas were added to the list.
However I am tired now.
And we wonder why the women are not bearing children.
No sensible woman wishes to reproduce with an idiot.
Let us go ahead and import ready-made Bajans–maybe Bajans with a made in China sticker on their asses.
My trouble with the current government is that policy making does not appear to be guided by hard objective data.
Just recently it appears that BRA is enforcing a 1960’s rule which that says that parents can’t claim tax deductions for more than 2 children.
And yet we say that we want more Bajan children, but instead of changing the 1960’s rule which made sense when the birth rate was 4 per woman, we are seeking to use the 1960’s rule to punish those Bajans who choose to have more that 2 children, by denying them the tax deduction for child 3 or 4 or more.
And we want more children?
Buncha jokers who refuse to be guided by hard data, and see their role only as enforcers of foolish rules, no matter how foolish those rules.
Look I tired. I gone.
Dont forget ya pay no vat on asses, whatever those are..lol
Actually, all it is, is a line from the Customs Tariff, a universal document, repeated verbatim.
Peltdownman
Do you understand the concept of a basket of goods as operated in Barbados? It is a list of food items that had the taxes removed, by Government to make them cheaper so that the least fortunate can afford them.
Government has chosen to remove the taxes on ass meat so that the poor people of this country can afford it.
Because ass meat is in the Customs Tariff is no reason to put it in the basket of goods to make it cheaper for the poor. T-bone steak is also in the tariff and it no longer appears in the basket as it did before.
Why take out beef steaks and leave in ass meat?
Sent from my iPad
It is obvious that we are eating ass meat and do not know it.Sausages.luncheon meat,corned beef,hamburgers,minced meat and such like mixed meats and ends off the bone meats most likely have some ass meat included.Yuck!
Gabriel July 24, 2017 at 8:43 AM #
Interesting comment with more than a grain of truth in it which would suggest that our standards bureau is letting us down.
Caswell;
All Bagans eat ASS, YOU’VE ALL BEEN LAPPING UP ALL THAT SHIT PUT FORTH BY YOUR POLITICIANS for years, ha, ha.
ASS MEAT.
““After the tests, it was proven that donkey meat is as safe as beef or mutton .”
@Hants
Taste in meats is acquired. Crocodile Dundee eats alligator and snake.
Vincent Haynes July 23, 2017 at 5:59 PM #
I would hate to see the day come, that our ingredients for pudding and souse is imported.
hahahah. Barbados does import frozen pigs feet and ears from the US. When I am in Barbados I buy my supplies from the pork place in Carrington Village. I could not believe my eyes when the truck dropped off several boxes of frozen pigs trotters, all strapped with metal and the words USA. I told the butcher I do not want any imported feet, I wanted local fresh feet and he went into the cooler and brought out fresh ones. He told me the demand for feet outweighs the supply.
You should see the ladies at Hill Supermarket grabbing up more imported frozen feet and ears for their pudding and souse.
I make pudding and souse and I can always tell when souse was made with frozen ingredients. It does not have any flavour whatsoever. I go fresh all the time or I do not make.
I always passed the John Bull Bar on Tudor St next to Mr Lewis’s shop where on Saturdays a lady had a huge buck pot with fried liver on sale.The aroma was overwhelming however I was warned never to buy nor eat that delicacy,tempting though it was to do so.Until recently I enjoyed fried liver especially when mixed grill is on the menu for tea.She who must be obeyed drew to my attention that the liver is the organ which filters all the body’s intake of harmful substances in food similar to what we have seen on CBC TV showing a man wearing a mask and spraying what appears to be insecticide on cabbages.Its downright manslaughter.Beware!
no wonder the ladies on the island are 4 times the size they should be and everyone is crying about NCDs…
eating garbage and not walking, swimming or exercising sufficiently….with dozens of pounds of ass to carry around.
Ronald Jones is totally pissed off. He was ranting and foaming at the mouth about the rabble taking to the streets in an attempt to overthrow the government and was clearly hoping to be able to crack a few heads and shoot a few people. But the worst that happened was someone who raised their voice slightly to be heard over the music to say ‘excuse me’ when trying to get past a marcher who had bent down to tie his loose shoelace.
Get the popcorn out and settle down to laugh heartily at the twisted bullshit that will be broadcast on DLPTV tonight.
This was a peaceful expression of the frustration of the people. Barbados and Barbadians should be proud that this is how we go about demonstrating our democracy.
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/98995/ftc-told-cut-budget
An arresting headline, Caswell. Seriously though, where is this stuff available for sale to consumers, and how do we determine whether it is of acceptable quality in compliance with the Consumer Guarantees Act?
Last,as pointed out earlier by Gabriel, I think, has anyone ever wondered what substances are contained in hot dogs, Spam and corned beef? We might have already eaten more ass than we think. In public too!
Jeff
I have no idea where that meat is available but that is not my point. Placing it in the basket of goods means that Government has determined that it is one of the items suitable for consumption and worse yet, they have sought to make it cheaper and readily available for the poor.
By the way, if you want to find out where ass is sold, you might be able to find out from Bushie, who was last seen around the Garrison.
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@ Jeff
…..We might have already eaten more ass than we think. In public too!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To qualify…
Those of us who eat such shiite….
Not stinking Bushie….
I am with you on this one, Sir!
To Jeff and Bushie, both of you gentleman are wise in age and know that hotdogs, spam etc are only as good as the company which makes them.
I certainly recall eons ago this type of debate was initiated when a local manufacturer was pressing it’s case against imported sausages and there was much hullabaloo about the ends of meat (no one claimed ass back then) and other left overs that made a hotdog.
Years later of course we have all read and seen the stories of how some of these products are made with the case of the ‘beef pink slime’ being one of the most egregious…so one should always question and carefully monitor our food intake…period.
@Caswell, at 9:39 as much as I appreciate the importance of your original post which I called humorous and yet serious, I wonder if it should not simply be called seriously humorous!
You have roused us to take notice by your quite crafty headline but for all practical purposes can you beat this ass to death anymore …. afterall, it was but ONE iitem of a long list and withing an even more extensive set of products and choices.
Just saying bro, but if you went to one of those Las Vegas dude ranches and you were presented with such an extensive basket of goods from which to choose and down at the end of the list on display you selected the loveliest ‘ass’ thereby foregoing succulent watermelons and deletable pears should you blame the ranch owner for offering that choice or embrace some self blame that you wanted THAT “ass’. LOLL
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/08/03/20-of-sausages-tested-across-canada-had-unlabelled-meat-study-shows.html
“Seven of 27 beef sausages contained pork. One of 38 pork sausages contained horse meat. Of 20 chicken sausages, four also contained turkey and one also had beef…“The good news is that typically beef sausages predominantly contain beef, but some of them also contain pork, so for our kosher and halal consumers, that is a bit disconcerting,” Hanner said.
The undeclared meats found weren’t trace levels, Hanner noted.
“The levels we’re seeing aren’t because the blades on a grinder aren’t perfectly clean,” he said, adding that many of the undeclared ingredients found in the sausages were recorded in the range of 1 per cent to 5 per cent.
More than 1 per cent of undeclared ingredients indicates a breakdown in food processing or INTENTIONAL FOOD FRAUD, Hanner explained….The 20 per cent mislabelling rate is low compared to Europe, where studies have found 70 per cent of samples contained ingredients that were not declared…The CFIA investigated all 20 cases of mislabelled sausages and in the case of the chicken labelled as turkey, it was able to find issues with a manufacturer’s “traceability program” — incoming meat and production records were not properly maintained” Toronto Star
Perhaps we are already eating ass, as our Canadian friends are eating horse.
Simple
Eating ass is Government policy in Barbados while the examples you cited are instances of fraud. This is one example where Barbados leads the world.
Sent from my iPad
Wonder if they putting ass meat in
“1 in 5 sausages tested across Canada contained different meat than labelled,”
1 in 5 sausages tested across Canada contained different meat than labelled, study finds
@ Caswell
By the way, if you want to find out where ass is sold, you might be able to find out from Bushie, who was last seen around the Garrison.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Just saw this bit of self-incriminating evidence from you…
It clearly was NOT Bushie that you saw…
but what were YOU doing at the Garrison surveying asses?
Wait Boss… you into Polling now too….?
Bushie
I am not following down that road. I don’t know how to poll, don’t inspect or in anyway handle any poles.
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Horse meat is legal in France; in the UK it is not; we have just jailed a meat trader for passing off horse meat as beef. Just as big a problem is imported beef stuffed with hormones and chicken injected with antibiotics. What about eggs and salmonella?
Do we have environmental health officers?
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/sausage-science-1.4234568
The horse meat is probably from discarded old race horses or horses too sick to be useful.
The list in the basket of goods is actually made up of extracts from the customs tariff. The one quoted by Caswell comes under tariff heading 02.06, so in order to include heart and liver from sheep and cattle, the whole tariff code has to be quoted. Don’t tell me that a man a with Caswell’s knowledge didn’t know this.
Peltdownman
You know what you just wrote is utter rubbish. When formulating the Basket of Goods, there was absolutely no need to quote all the items under any particular tariff head. You simply pick out the items that you want in the basket. For example, they could have said edible offal of bovine animals, sheep, goats and pigs and not include anything else.
You might not know that I worked in the Price Control Division in the 1980s and we had a negative list. Pen knives were allowed to be imported but ratchet knives that were also pen knives were banned and remains banned to this day. You do not quote all of the items under a particular head or else all types of pen knives would be banned.
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