Grenville Phillips II, leader of Solutions Barbados
Sometime during the Christmas season, I normally find myself watching a movie of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’. The story describes the reactions the selfish Ebenezer Scrooge to visits by ghosts of Christmas’ past, present and future on Christmas Eve. However, his redemption only happens after he sees the impact of his selfish actions on others in his likely future.
This Christmas, each of us need to see whether our planned actions will harm or benefit our fellow citizens. For the first time since our independence, we can accurately predict the type of Christmas that most of our fellow Barbadians will have next year if we do not change. That is a future with the IMF dictating our economy. So let us get to know our planned new masters.
Before the World Wars of the last century, if a country could not repay its debts, the lender could invade the country and plunder its wealth in order to recover the debt and the cost of the invasion. After World War 2, the principal lending nations decided to establish a bank of last resort from which indebted nations could borrow in order to repay international creditors.
As a condition of the IMF’s loan, indebted nations first had to agree to inflict severe austerity measures upon the population. One reason is to punish citizens for electing politicians who would take out unaffordable loans in their names.
A former Prime Minister asked the now famous question “How did we get back here?” We got back here because the last punishment was not memorable enough. The most memorable IMF austerity measures are reserved for those countries who have run out of all good options, like us. Guyana is another country that had run out of all good options, and their experience with the IMF is instructive.
Within one year of being surrendered to the IMF, Guyana had fallen from being one of the richest Caribbean countries to one of the poorest. Guyana’s politicians became overseers who oversaw: a 70% devaluation of the dollar, doubling of income tax rates, a lack of supplies and maintenance parts, reduced social services, mass emigration of professionals, and 75% of the population in poverty.
Our Christmas next year may be similar because our dollar will likely devalue. The obvious result is that everyone with a mortgage who is not earning foreign currency will likely lose their homes, our infrastructure will not be properly maintained, and the cost of imported products will be unaffordable for most.
Like Scrooge, we can ask “Are these the shadows of the things that will be, or are they shadows of things that may be?” We can also learn from Scrooge’s insight that if you do not change your behaviour, then your future is predictable. However, you can change an undesirable future by changing your behaviour now.
If you thought that your only option was to vote for severe austerity for your fellow Barbadians, then be assured that you can vote for Solutions instead. Austerity can be avoided by: reducing taxes, depoliticising the public services, rooting out corruption, and properly managing public services.
All Barbadians can finally experience: a fair economy where everyone can participate based on merit and not whom they know; good quality public services delivered in a timely manner; and significantly more income left after paying their normal monthly expenses. If you truly want to give all Barbadians that bright future next Christmas, then vote to give them Solutions, and not austerity.
Finally Grenville Phillips has accused this current Democratic Labour Party government of:
OVERTAXING THE CITIZENS OF BARBADOS
FILLING THE PUBLIC SERVICE WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF THE PARTY
PERMITTING CORRUPTION TO TAKE ROOT IN THIS DLP ADMINISTRATION
MISMANAGING THE ECONOMY OF BARBADOS
We need to redeem our country. Not because of the bogey man a.k.a as the IMF,but because we need to organise our affairs better. The syndrome of helplessness is debilitating. We need to do it for ourselves. We need to elect a government that knows what is required and how to achieve an improvement in the quality of life.
everyone will lose their homes?????? if the dollar is devalued would not the mortgage be devalued or are barbados mortgages in us currency???? it would seem to me that if you owed 100000 dollars on a house and the currency is devalued and you had access to foreign currency you would reap a windfall the banks would take a haircut. The regular home owner would just pay his mortgage as usual. Mortgages are a fixed contract for your term when you renegotiate the rate that may be an issue or decide to buy a house. The price of bread etc will rise if you are saying that could cause you to miss payments and lose house I can agree.
Solutions Barbados
On Friday December 22, 2017 I went into the Bridge Street location of Thani’s Shoe Shop to purchase a pair of shoes. I noticed they were several people standing in the store that I thought were sales clerks, but subsequently realized that at least five (5) of these individuals were Jamaican and Guyanese nationals asking people if they “wanted duty free.”
I was approached by a Jamaican guy who told me that, for a fee, he could purchase the shoes at the duty free price.
And although people were taking up the offer…………..I refused.
This practice goes on in all the Thani Shoe Shops, Shoe Locker and stores owned by the Thani family.
Since this illegal practice has been perpetrated under both BLP & DLP administrations, what does a Solution Barbados administration plan to stop this nonsense?
@Artax
This is practiced pretty much by all of the duty free shops in Barbados including Cave Shepherd.
“mass emigration of professionals”. At least we get rid off the local elite consisting of lawyers, pastors, consultants and quacks. What a good start for a purge.
“David December 25, 2017 at 2:25 PM # @Artax This is practiced pretty much by all of the duty free shops in Barbados including Cave Shepherd.”
… then Barbadians complain about the 10% NSRL. If the businessmen and their consumers join with foreign nationals to shortchange the Government, how should Government pay the bills? Barbadians are their worst enemies and the Government’s main mistake is not enforcing the laws of the country.
This is another shite article. Was Guyana the last country to go to the IMF? No! Therefore why reference Guyana’s experience with the IMF rather than more recent cases? I still remain confused by Phillips’ strict adherence to the IMF 40% debt ceiling, but distrust of their loan agreements. #notonerhseat
Lawson: Most mortgages are normally fixed for a short period of 1 to 3 years. Once this period expires, lending rates will tend to exceed the rate of inflation so that US and Trinidadian bankers canmake a reasonable return.
Artax: We plan to allow duty free purchases using only any hard currency.
nextparty true …. if you have a fixed mortgage will will have some time to figure out what you are going to do I always take a 5 year fixed so i can feel comfortable for that term knowing the payments wont change.
Why the Guyana experience with the IMF?
Why not the Barbados two successful experiences with the IMF?
Another politician trying to pull the wool over the eyes of bajans just to get into power.
It seems as though Solutions Barbados is NOT PREPARED to DO anything about illegal immigrants in Barbados that are flouting our laws, engaging in prostitution, illegal squatting, vending and the duty free scam.
@ art
If they are buying items duty free then they cannot be illegal immigrants. you need a passport and departing ticket to buy things duty free.
and bajan returning nationals does the same thing too.
@John
Try to understand the problem, it is not that they donât have documents or good status, it is that they use said status to earn illegal income by âfacilitatingâ sales to locals.
@ David
Have you ever wondered exactly which IDIOT came up with the legal option to walk into a store and get 60% discount on items by showing a passport and ticket?
In sane countries, such items are then delivered when said purchaser is in the departure lounge, about to leave the country.
It is only OBVIOUS that this will otherwise attract abuse.
It is therefore the jackass who created the opportunity – even more so than the citizen / visitor who seeks to take advantage of the loophole.
Steupsss…
The damn visiting people must be shocked to find out that such brass bowl idiots can actually have a country of their own….
@Bush Tea
The same ‘idiots’ who have refused to enact alien landholding legislation?
Seems as if there is confusion between fixed and adjustable rate mortgages (FRM and ARM).
Fixed rates are usually fixed for an extended period of time. ARM usually have a short fixed period and then spiral out of control.
Grenville is correct that in Barbados the fixed rate mortgage is one to three years although of late with the low interest rates the banks have maxed at one year. Check the websites of the banks, there is no mystery.
I know you guys know these things, but it seems as if someone is peddling ARM under the name of fixed mortgage.
Fixed mortgages have always been around. Don’t let guys sell you ARMs and called them FRMs.
It would have been better for the bank to say “because of the uncertainty of the market we can no longer offer fixed rate mortgages. We will fix the rate for three years, reasses and then offer you a mortgage at prevailing rates. It’s an arm.
Wondering how they figure out reverse mortgages in that climate.
Last comment
Judge Judy: Don’t pee on my leg and tell me its raining.
If it walks like aduck, acts like a duck, quack like a duck, it’s a frigging ……
“In sane countries, such items are then delivered when said purchaser is in the departure lounge, about to leave the country.”
+++++++++++
Yes, Bushie…………. It happens in “sane countries.”
I cannot go into any store in St. Vincent, St. Lucia, St. Eustatius, Grenada, Saba, Antigua etc, purchase an item duty free, then take the item with me, unless I purchase while entering or leaving the airport.
Otherwise, I have to complete the relevant duty free form and collect the item at the airport on the day of my departure.
These non-nationals are in the stores every day, standing around similarly to sales clerks. The sales clerk would tell you the local and duty free prices, then the non-national approaches you to ask whether or not you want the item bought duty free.
Surely any store with an “inordinate” amount of duty free sales should arouse suspicion.
This is something Customs’ Enforcement Division needs to look into.
++++++++++++++++++++++
David December 26, 2017 at 12:41 PM #
“Try to understand the problem, it is not that they don’t have documents or good status, it is that they use said status to earn illegal income by facilitating sales to locals.”
@ David
John is just trying to be difficult……………as usual…..
However, since we are “discussing” duty free taxes, perhaps he may use this as an opportunity to mention something about Trump’s new tax cuts.
Technically, they are correct. The rate is ‘fixed’ but just one year. I bought my home on a 15-year FRM. I would never sign-up for an ARM where they have a nice sweet period of ‘low rates’ and a few years down the road I could possible be looking at a much higher rate.
When buying a house, you don’t think of one-year or two-year loans. You don’t pay for a good or even for a bad house overnight or in two-years.
Here is a description of an ARM (there are different types of ARMs), but this is what we are talking about…
“Let’s start with the traditional two-step: It’s simply an ARM with two interest rates: First, there’s a start rate that typically lasts for three, five, seven or 10 years. Second, after the start period, the loan becomes a one-year ARM where the rate adjusts annually.”
It’s raining, baby.
@ david
I am well aware.
Matter for the police etc not SB (though).
@John
If you read Artax and Bushie correctly the issue is twofold- enforcement to your point but there is a gap in policy/legislation being exploited,
@ art.
Wrong john and I was not trying to be difficult. I see you change from illegal alien to non nationals .
Last, last comment on this.
Little pockets of nastiness, deceptively packaged and well marketed.
Is it Animal Farm? Is it Alice in Wonderland? Where are the honest bankers?
There’s one way to find out if a man is honest – ask him. If he says, ‘Yes,’ you know he is a crook. 🙂 Groucho Marx
@ david & art.
SB gave a solution for the duty free problem as Art had first asked.
Duty free allowed only in hard FX.
This john is not a support of SB but agrees on this point.
To those who wish to unmask the Anonymice, keep this in mind.
Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth. 🙂 Oscar Wilde
David December 26, 2017 at 12:55 PM #
@Bush Tea
The same ‘idiots’ who have refused to enact alien landholding legislation?
@ david
It is good to see that someone else in Barbados seem to think along the same lines on this land ownership issue.
I do not know how far you would be willing to go on this but because of the land size of Barbados I would also extend the practice even for locals.
I am sure that you have read my views on this before.
@BF/PP
I believe that many share this view.
In fact there was a post about this and some comments were equating land sale in Barbados and the US.
See BU on 2016/11/20 another-large-piece-of-barbados-bacassa-st-peterfor-sale
@ David
I missed that one. If possible, I would appreciate if you can redirect me to that post.
Thanks you.
Thank you Gazer.
@ Artax
These non-nationals are in the stores every day, standing around similarly to sales clerks. The sales clerk would tell you the local and duty free prices, then the non-national approaches you to ask whether or not you want the item bought duty free
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Perhaps this is a Ministry of Tourism initiative to increase tourism numbers.
Bushie can imagine how it is marketed….
Come to Barbados, bring a friend
Not only will you make back all your travel expenses
But you can turn a great profit ..as Bajans PAY you money
to help rob their OWN country of legitimate taxes…
Shiite… bring TWO friends
There are plenty stores and plenty dishonest locals to go around..
All Sealy wants is tourism NUMBERS….
Never mind the cops – they want stuff duty free too..
After multiple raids …opps, that should be ‘visits’,
the head brass bowl will actually invite you to Illaro Court for free dinner…
Talk ’bout brass bowlery….
@ nextparty246 December 25, 2017 at 11:43 PM #
“Artax: We plan to allow duty free purchases using only any hard currency.”
And how do you intend to ‘police’ such an arrangement?
By using the current people in the BRA and Customs & Excise? Don’t you think that the C&E people are ‘fully seized’ about that well-known scam which has been in operation for years?
These ‘corrupted’ incompetent people can’t even collect road taxes on the 30,000 ‘registered’ motor vehicles which should not be on the road and you expect them to put a stop to that scam actively promoted by the same merchants in order to boost sales?
BTW, your ‘proposal’ is not novel. Even the lying MoF proposed such a duty-free zone in order to boost the country’s forex earnings. That proposal was announced two budgets ago and which should have been implemented two Christmases ago.
@Miller
You refer to two budgets ago but didn’t Sinckler promised mnay more budgets ago that a Creative Centre would have been built in Deacons?
RE @Artax December 26, 2017 at 9:49 AM #
“It seems as though Solutions Barbados is NOT PREPARED to DO anything about illegal immigrants in Barbados that are flouting our laws, engaging in prostitution, illegal squatting, vending and the duty free scam”.
Dear Sir, RE@ Artax.. Thanks for your contribution and I share your concern for the better future of Barbados. Now I know it is silly season but exactly what statements has Mr Phillips or any of his party members made to make you draw such a broad statement on all those multiple issues..?? You can find the answers and what Solutions Barbados is “prepared to do” (Contrarary to your loose suggestions) @ http://www.solutionsbarbados.com; to some of the issues and the one that Mr Phillips already blogged an answer to prior to your comment answering the particular one on duty free loopholes. i.e Duty free purchases being accessed only by payments with forex. Yet you repose a question that Mr Phillips just prior lines answered. Have you read the BLP manifesto? Have you found policy statements in there that satisfy you that they will do anything drastically different to the DLP and in the past when the BLP were in power to resolve your listed issues? The fact is that the DLP and BLP leadership are busy infighting and bankrupt of inspirational and trans-formative ideas. By offering no objective rational basis for your statements, you are basically suggesting out loud that you are a political blogger operative! And the Barbados public is seeing many online characters on stage during this season. On prostitution in its main front end form of “Human Trafficking”; A solution is what is known as the “Swedish Model” so named because they pioneered a successful model for reducing HT and the Swedish govt policies successfully reduced human trafficking in their cities by 70%. They 1. go after/ prosecute Human traffickers & pimps for criminal offenses and 2. educate public, retrain social workers, prosecutors & police to treat what you called prostitutes as human trafficking victims/these are grossly exploited young girls. This basic model would treat the current young sex slaves women from Brazil, Guyana, Jamaica, Columbia as human trafficked victims and for Govt agencies to be trained how to handle and go after the traffickers/any colluding agents, pimps and facilitators of this evil exploitation of young women. I have spoken with Mr Phillips and other SB party candidates who are supportive of this model. The current administration certainly isnt. P.S Disclaimer; I am Solutions Barbados for the city http://www.fallonbest.com You can find all the policies http://www.solutionsbarbados.com
I do not know why people here are angry about the duty free regime. The discussion seems to be a big distraction for me.
Didn´t Big Sinck promise in 2016 all these wonderful duty free zones where you can use up your foreign currency to buy imported items? Wasn´t the plan to stimulate inflow of F/X?
All the taxes collected locally on imported goods are useless as long as they are paid in local Mickey Mouse dollars. A high inflow of F/X would be the opportunity to erase most duties on imported goods and to revalue the BBD internally.
@ David December 26, 2017 at 6:33 PM
The very same stinking liar did claim that his imaginary Performing Arts Centre would have been built with free money (grant funding) from the Chinese.
Yes, we shall never forget when his boss the PM met with a Chinese vice-president and secured grant funding to construct such a much needed project to boost the budding local cultural industry.
Now who in tarnation would slip up on an opportunity to get such a free piece of cultural infrastructure besides the ‘UN-voting mortgaged’ gymnasium?
But there might have been no kickbacks involved unlike the fallen-through Empire ‘Theatre’ Building deal with Maloney and Co on stage.
Seven years later and yet not a brick has been raised like the Hyatt erection or the Exmouth high-rise housing projection looking down on Pile Bay.
Fallon Best December 26, 2017 at 8:21 PM #
Dear Sir, RE@ Artax.. Thanks for your contribution and I share your concern for the better future of Barbados. Now I know it is silly season but exactly what statements has Mr Phillips or any of his party members made to make you draw such a broad statement on all those multiple issues..??”
@ Fallon Best
Approximately 6 weeks ago I asked Grenville Phillips II, through this forum, what are Solutions Barbados’ plans to address the problem of illegal non-nationals squatting on the old dump site at “Penny Hole,” St. Philip and SECURING land at that location for their relatives and friends.
I also asked what are Solutions Barbados’ plans to address the problem of non-nationals (illegal or otherwise) blatantly exploiting our laws and entering this country to engage in prostitution, illegal vending, squatting and the duty free scam.
“Grenville Phillips II or any member of Solutions Barbados” did NOT RESPOND to my queries.
Therefore, since “Mr Phillips or any of his party’s members” have NOT made any STATEMENTS to ADDRESS the issues……. or referred me to the party’s web-site……..it is upon this basis that I justifiably concluded Phillips or any member of Solutions Barbados are NOT prepared to address these issues.
Unfortunately, it is only after “nudging,” you decided to answer on behalf of Phillips II and SB.
Perhaps you should RETHINK your “silly season” statement……
And in several sane countries the items are collected at point of purchase and the form dropped in at the airport on departure. The collection of duty free items at GAIA would be a logistical nightmare and a deterrent to legitimate DF shoppers.
Wait, isn´t there a duty free shop for the military in the Garrison as well?
And what about the possibility that the black elite and their white donors have secretly openened such a shop as well in one of their gated communities for themselves?
Fallon Best December 26, 2017 at 8:21 PM #
“By offering no objective rational basis for your statements, you are basically suggesting out loud that you are a political blogger operative! And the Barbados public is seeing many online characters on stage during this season.”
Fallon Best
You could have come to this forum, explain SB’s position on the issues I raised, without the arrogance, insulting and labeling. But you prefer to “arrogantly spew” shiite insults about “political blogger operatives” and “silly season.”
It is this type of ARROGANT ATTITUDE, first exhibited by Grenville Phillips II, and now you…….. that sickens me with Solutions Barbados.
Grenville Phillips II often comes to this forum with a lot of simplistic shiite, trying to pass it off as policy initiatives, and when questioned, he resorts to “temper tantrums,” while vowing not to engage those he perceives as being too harsh on him and labeling them, similar as you have decided to sarcastically label me, as (BLP) “political blogger operatives.”
And you expect to gain RESPECT and solicit votes from the electorate by exhibiting these attitudes?
Politicians and political aspirants, who offer themselves for service, seem to believe they have the RIGHT to rub their political shiite down the electorate’s throat. When asked “hard questions,” they resort to labeling people as political operatives.
I guess you are suggesting that, by going around begging people for votes and criticizing your political opponents, YOU’RE NOT BEING POLITICAL.
However, you are correct……….. “the Barbados public is seeing many online characters on stage during this season,” as you have clearly demonstrated by your contribution to BU. And during the “silly season,” many characters will emerge trying to pass themselves off as caring politicians.
What a poor comment by Enuff @ 12.49 am
Why not sell guns in Swan Street then, …to avoid inconvenience to legitimate gun owners?
Steupssss
If wunna were unable to ADMINISTER a sensible duty free system, then wunna should have left the job to more COMPETENT politicians.
There was also the option for the person to pay full price up front, and then claim the duty refund on departure …or even on their return home.
Any system where two DIFFERENT prices are applied to the same item MUST be properly administered – or it WILL be abused.
Incompetent idiots should NOT be messing with complex national issues…. else we will end up bankrupt…
OH WAIT!!!
We ARE bankrupt….
Again Grenville is right
the BLP did shiite..
…and the incompetent DLP has it leaking all over the streets…
Clearly Solutions Barbados’ plans for prostitution have not been carefully thought out.
How would the “Swedish Model” solve the problem of women “voluntarily” travelling from Guyana and Jamaica to Barbados, (Antigua & St. Lucia has similar problems) to use the mandatory six months given to CARICIOM national to engage in prostitution in clubs and on the streets………..return to their homelands for a few weeks or months and return for another six months to “work?”
This is a known fact………. and SB’s candidate for the City should be aware of this activity. But I guess he is too busy on Facebook boasting about his business acumen and qualifications.
What statistics does SB have to substantiate your suggestion that these prostitutes are victims of “human trafficking” or “are grossly exploited young girls?”
What is the level of human trafficking in Barbados that would merit the introduction of policies adopted by international countries?
You guys need to spend some time in the “ghetto” among the people.
@Artax
Your reply does not excuse the duopoly does it?
“The cousin of Rihanna has been shot dead mere hours after they spent Christmas Day together in Barbados.”
Condolences to the family.
@ Fallon Best December 26, 2017 at 8:21 PM #
“This basic model would treat the current young sex slaves women from Brazil, Guyana, Jamaica, Columbia as human trafficked victims and for Govt agencies to be trained how to handle and go after the traffickers/any colluding agents, pimps and facilitators of this evil exploitation of young women. I have spoken with Mr Phillips and other SB party candidates who are supportive of this model. The current administration certainly isnt.”
It seems as if we will have to send you back to school to learn some remedial lessons in Politricking.
What you have written is just another set of waxing lyrics from the Moral Songbook of Grenville as his band of religious nutters aka the Bajan latter-day temperance movement of morality.
Isn’t this the same hypocritical position you guys have taken regarding the control of porn over the internet?
Who the hell do you think you are to try to control the way people live their moral lives?
Do you really believe that the “sex slaves” imported into Barbados are just commoditized victims in an underground trade which is clearly ably facilitated by the authorities of all ‘stripes’?
Don’t you feel that people in high places are in receipt of ‘look-the-other-way’ and ‘hush money’ to finance their highflying lifestyle which certainly cannot be justifiably supported on their paltry public sector salaries?
Are you aware of the massive sums of money spent in this underground business which are not only used to bribe the authorities but to fuel the Bajan economy via the multiplier effect at both official and underground levels?
So you are going to rehabilitate the so-called victims ‘working’ in a trade as old as the Egyptian girl who Abraham impregnated at 90 years but still treated as illegal in today’s Barbados?
What about those women who voluntarily want to sell sex because they find it to be easy money to work for instead of slaving in the industrial sweat shops working for peanuts that can’t even feed monkeys in expensive Barbados?
BTW, most of those making up the clientele of ‘johns’ of those ‘illegally working girls’ are married and holding decent respectable jobs and could be found in morally warm church pews each and every Sunday.
Ask any night worker conducting business at the Garrison.
So why not decriminalize prostitution and bring it out to the moral light of regulation and then deal with the rehabilitation of the so-called victims?
Same thing applies to the use of marijuana!
Why not treat both as diseases of the mind like overeating and alcoholism leading to an epidemic of NCDs in Barbados and not as sins to make people like you feel morally superior in stroking your witch-hunting egos?
“Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.”
David
This IS a Solutions Barbados post and I am responding to the shiite Fallon Best wrote in response to my queries.
Hants,
Many of us lost family members during the 2017 season of drug sales and other crimes, organized by the black Barbadian elite and their white donors. Barbados is not safer anymore than Jamaica or Guyana.
The island needs a full-scale PURGE. Nor more candy QCs, Sirs, DPP, Judges and other mockery of the rule of law.
p.s. The said murder is on all American networks. What a good advert for Barbadian tourism industry.
Alleyene was the 31st murder in 2017. We all know the drug soldiers in Black Rock have very influential protectors.
Welcome to the third world, where pastors in church just 2 days ago told us how great everything is!
Bushtea
Do people in sane countries collect the items at point of purchase or not?