Submitted by Mr. Anonymous
Overheard government MPs today shouting from the mountaintop about the 5% salary increase and how it will give “breakfast before the long journey.”
Well, HALLELUJAH!!!!!
I just found out that because of the generous 5% salary increase graciously bestowed on me by my caring government that I will get an increment of $154. (I’m an extremely prosperous and affluent middle class worker at Z5 in the salary scale).
Finally I will be able to pay that minor $45 increase on my water bill without worry.
Clearly this will now let me pay that welcome 1% or ($52.80, Z5) in my Health Service Contribution starting October 1.
And yes! I am eternally thankful for the removal of $450 ($48/mth) in road tax. This means I can now fill my 42 litre tank 6 times a month at ONLY a MERE increase of $76.49 more than I would usually pay. (EY Budget Analysis page 10)
Again I say AMEN! My $154 increase COMFORTABLY takes care of my $45 water + $52.80 health + $76.49 gas increases. By the way, I applaud the conscientious and civic minded retailers for dropping their prices since the NSRL removal. My dollar is definitely stretching now!!!!
I have a colleague at the lower end of the scale who feels as good as me. After all, she’s now going to get $76 – $87 more a month to handle her business. Woo hooo!!!!
Lastly, all repects to Mr. MacDowall and Mrs. Moore. They have certainly served us well.
Why hold out for 15% or 23% with back pay when you can take 5% from April this year and 0% from before then???? Sweet!!!
Even sweeter is the fact that I get to keep my appointed job so I can console my temporary friends who are about to lose theirs with a scalpel rather than an axe. The scalpel will surely ease the pain.
My Prime Minister said it well – “We are not being profligate, but if you want people to embark on a long march then you have to make sure they don’t do it on an empty belly,” (Wigglesworth, R., June 5, 2018)
Brother Bob said it better though – “A belly full but them hungry” (Robert Nesta)
“A regular but anonymous blogger”
https://www.facebook.com/NationBarbados/photos/a.10155342128930989.1073743252.270969375988/10155342128950989/?type=3
Great post – you will have to console yourself that a few extra civil ‘servants’ will keep their jobs in order to shuffle all your hard-earned around!
I think people are slowly waking up to the negative impact of the decisions taken by this government a mere 10 weeks or so of them coming into office.
Under the dems there were hard and unpopular decisions but under ‘watch muh Mottley’ there are NOT only some hard decisions being made but some real iggrunt ones too.
For example that payment of tuition fee for every student.Why didn’t this govt continue the system of those who could not afford applying to the ministry of education for the grants which are available.
Do some sort of means testing.
Also decide the priority areas that you as a government will continue to fund and place your scarce resources there.So that you don’t continue paying the exorbitant fees for medical students or law students when there is a surplus of these skills here and they are not engaged in activities that help to improve the foreign reserves problem or are part of your developmental plan.
What about THE MOST IGGRUNT DECISION TO DEFAULT ON THE DEBT.THE FULL FALL OUT OF THAT HAS NOT YET TAKEN PLACE AND BOY PALPITATIONS ARE COMING DOWN THE ROAD
I will await the next 2 weeks to see the first stage of what the IMF is planning for we..
@T.Inniss
Based on your comment you agree with selling state assets to boost the foreign reserves to pay debt? The blogmaster agrees with you about the rush to make education ‘free’ again. This is more about creating an issue that separates the two parties and delivering on a campaign promise. If it can be maintained history will record that Mottley’s BLP resumed free education, a stab at a DLP’s perennial boast.
@ Madamoiselle Prime Minister
I spent a few hours watching the 9th Sitting of Parliament today and these are de ole man’s notes
How is it that you say that you “cannot and will not continue with the (unconsionable) transfers to support SOEs” but you are hiring all these people on these various commissions? (with some people like Senator Lisa Cummins) serving on 2 boards simultaneously)
BTW, you made the claim and MP Caddle repeated it that 5,000 people answered the 102 question survey. I only answered 96 cause I realised that if I had given you my pieceuhderockyeah right email you might have torn up my survey.
I can attest that it was indeed a 20 minute exercise.
If you did get 5000 responses that means that it was indeed a well supported survey IF THE SURVEY WAS NOT ANSWERED BY PEOPLE PAID BY JONG AND/OR IF THE RESPONSE(S) WERE NOT ADJUSTED, AFTER THE FACT.
But tell me something, would you know that? or is that responsibility handled by Jong, you getting my point?
But I digress (I noticed that the LoO used that remark in the session)
I was wondering about your statement about “a service best done from within or better done by someone outside selling to to the GoB” heheheheheheheh I would ask you a question but me fears that it would expose too much heheheheheh
Then at https://youtu.be/w4EsqEnGhqU?t=3218 you started a spiel about “the precepts of economic enfranchisement” and all that blarney about “the rights of the people (which people?) to participate in the ownership of the things that belong to this country” and went on to say that this principle has been a BLP something or the other for 80 year!
You mean dat this practice of tekking people tings dem, physical and virtual, has been around for 80 years whuloss!.
But what the hell does this mean? “…the rights of the people to participate in the ownership of the things that belong to this country..”? Unfortunately my affliction and condition forces me to listen to what people say and ….
Anyways who is the dufus from St Peter?
How can the Lost Decade that you named get redefined by hime to be from 2010 to 2018? Can that MP count? Even Oblong head had to chastise him for messing up your Lost Decade dubbing. You mean we have another Chris Stinkliar in the making?
I could not in all seriousness sit and listen to that word for word with each one of your 1st elecven team of dummies so I had to fast forward through the list to sample a few others.
I then reviewed the contributions of William Duguid Whuloss ywho coined “the cook shop” WTF is that, and “the nail technicians” and “the tremendous effect of $200 on the economy” that took up his whole presentation steupseeee. He really got in on your coat tails, that man has no presence and spent the whole time swinging his glasses.
Ammmm you got to tell Ralph that when he is inthe HOA it is really bad manners to talk the whole time when Cynthia Forde speaking (while hold his phone in his left hand)
Mia PLEASE !!! Give them a script to read from pleaseeeeeee!
Kirk Humphrey said it best though “when I was a Public Servant”….cause we the discerning public understand that he is NOT A PUBLIC SERVANT NO MORE. A Freudian slip which refers to his current state of Ascension to the Heights
PM Mottley, You going have to speak to the Speaker of the House Arthur about his speech or lack of such. For example one notes that Dwight Sutherland called about 3 names during his presentation without any caution from the Deputy Speaker, not one word one, BUT “many Salary Arthur WAS VERY QUICK TO CHASTISE THE Leader of the Opposition when he asked about your appointment of Charles Jong
Imagine that Kerrie Symmonds (oblong head) had the gumption to get up and talk bout hubris and contempt of the former prime minister when he Kerrie was driving all over Barbados, without a licensed vehicle steupseee you ent wonder what Andrea would have to say bout him.
If only if the knifed tires of the car had a mouth steupseee STFU Kerrie
What does Minister Abrahams mean when he say section “vee a”? You see what i mean bout your 1st Eleven?
That “vee” is Roman numeral for 5 AS YOU DUN KNOW, so, by my take, that should mean that the clause cannot be passed into law since there is no “vee a” but de ole man could be wrong…
Barring your presentation and that of the Leader of the Opposition whom you appointed and the Caddle lady, de rest talked poorly. Give them scripts.
@ the Honourable Blogmaster
Your assistance please with an item thank you
https://i.imgur.com/IRMQ2vT.png
Since she has already make this campaign promise she cannot take it back else she woulh estrange the public OR IS THAT PUBIC further.
What de ole man recommends that she does is that she
(i) Gives anyone who gives 2 years of National Service prior to enrolling to UWI free education
(ii) Anyone who gives 1 year of national service and 1 year post the degree free education (breach will incur 100% fees payable immediately)
(iii) anyone who gives one year of national service but opts out the UWI education at 50%
(iv) Means Based testing to be employed for persons in categories B & C
5000 people who might well help formed policy by survey Mariposa finds that to be a disenfranchisement of those who stood in line to vote
If this survey was to conduct the people’s pulse it therefore bodes well to say that that out of a nation of two hundred and seventy thousand people that the 5000 would have more of a say to govt policies than the majority who voted
The reason for election is for the people voice to be heard by a Democratic force call for good governance
Not a hip shoddy shooting from the hip make belive of people involvement
What next voting by survey only!
This govt is meking mock sport of the guaranteed rights of citizens called the power of the vote a safe and sure form of democracy that does not upsurge or uproot or tamper with the voting process called a Democracy
@ Mariposa
The 5,000 people respondent size is an excellent indicator given the total number of people who voted as opposed to the number of the population who you would agree cant all vote. (age of majority issues)
What she will also claim is that other surveys have been done so that the final number will come in at 15,000 or so.
And truth be told this is just eye candy for the benefit of the IMF to show participatory methodology and that the people are participating in the process
But the fact is that she has already decided as per IMF guidelines WHICH AGENCIE ARE GOING TO GO
@ the Honourale Blogmaster
Your assistance please with an item for Mariposa thank you
of course sell assets to pay debt and when you run out of money and totally screw up nationalize everything
@ T.Inniss August 15, 2018 4:26 AM
“I think people are slowly waking up to the negative impact of the decisions taken by this government a mere 10 weeks or so of them coming into office.
Under the dems there were hard and unpopular decisions but under ‘watch muh Mottley’ there are NOT only some hard decisions being made but some real iggrunt ones too.”
What is about to unfold was on the cards since December 2013. Barbados should have undergone an IMF-funded (and supervised) structural adjustment programme from the financial year 2014-2015.
But as the old folks used to admonish: ‘hard ears you did not listen to the voice of reason and commonsense, with dry mouth you will now taste what hardship really ‘feels’ like.
The Mottley administration (unlike that of the fumbling arrogantly procrastinating King Stuart with Stinkliar the arithmetic idiot savant of a bold-faced supreme liar in charge) has no wriggle room or negotiable instruments to blunt the IMF’s structural adjustment onslaught.
Some of those public sector assets which had some measure of negotiable commercial value attached to them 4 years ago will now have to go for a song with those singing in a foreign money voice the preferred buyer.
You guys better take Dr. Deliar Worrell prognoses of divesting the air and sea ports into very serious consideration for this is exactly what the IMF will be demanding if you do not want your Mickey Mouse dollar slaughtered like a sacred but dying cow on the altar of imported conspicuous consumption.
Bajans have been living, for far too long, way above their forex earning means.
Now it’s time to pay back the loan-sharks of conspicuous consumption but not this time by borrowing other people’s foreign money.
For this time around that biblical injunction will be the only commandment in Bridgetown:
‘By the sweat of their brows Bajans will now eat bread (both local and imported) or starve to economic death’.
If the former govt had done even 10% of what they should have we might be in a slightly better state, but no, the raping of this country and the feeding frenzy of awarding contracts four and five times their worth so that the kickbacks could be greater to the recipients. Check out..if you can as I am not going to put it here, what the deal on the Barrack building would have been to the vendors. And some of you think it was better under dem. Anyone with an iota of ECCONOMICS would know by now we would have had to devalue more than the 2% on c/c payments. Look at the disgrace just one revelation of bribery has got us on the world’s eyes. Take your heads out of the sand…or maybe it was easier for those of you writing nonsense.
Yeap bribery and dont forget the Head of the private sector charged with bringing drugs into the country
All eyes on Herbert too
David/BU
Nope ! I am totally against the divestment of public assets.I was against it when Arthur did it and to my mind it was absolutely not necessary then;and I was against it when Chris proposed selling the Hilton and the oil company.The only saving grace for me was that the oil company was to be kept in local hands.
If Arthur and the last BLP government had been more prudent with our resources during their 15 year term then the drastic measures taken after 2008 would not have been necessary.
Yet even now Mia see how people struggling and she ain’t care about a fella -she is keeping her big,over-sized cabinet,her ambassadors at large,her financial advisors,her KGB chineese spy man,her tsars,her familycommisung secured inside, her party people like pat parris and jessica odle as consultants,the setting up of a number of wasteful commissions and so on.
You keep at it ‘watch Muh Mottley’ – day does run until night catch it.
The DLP government planed to use the proceeds of the sale of BNTCL and the Hilton to pay the loans. If you are against divestment where should Mia have sourced the foreign exchange to pay the loans due in June?
Drastic measures taken after 2008……………….please elaborate because I remember Thompson promptly adding 3000 salaries to governments wage bill, giving 10 million to prop up CLICO and generally behaving as if Barbados was insluated from the effects of the global recession
David
Didn’t this new Central Bank governor say he was calling in the foreign exchange from those holding foreign accounts?
Can you cite the reference to what was said by the Governor?
How much was brought onshore if any at all, was it enough to sustain loan payments, even if enough is it a sustainable strategy to pay loans with the proceeds of pension investments and other similar funds? What about the risk gap resulting from such an approach?
The discussion I am having is not for BLP trolls so scat.
“The only saving grace for me was that the oil company was to be kept in local hands.”
How could that even make sense to you, once the entity is sold to Simpson or whomever…him or his estate or whomever purchase it, willl never sell to a bajan in this lifetime, especially a black one, they will seek out foreign entities to buy…..for 5 times what they purchased it..it will never be locally owned again.
All this time, these decades of disenfranchisement and exploitation….yall still learned nothing.
“If Arthur and the last BLP government had been more prudent with our resources during their 15 year term then the drastic measures taken after 2008 would not have been necessary.”
Where does this idiotic cycle of blame end and we accept the reality get down to serious work?
Why not blame Errol Barrow? I mean if he didn’t ‘lead’ us to ‘independence’ there would be no resources for the B/DLP to mismanage right?
Why not blame Cristopher Columbus? Perhaps if he hadn’t opened the flood gates to European discovery there would be no Barbados as we know it, right?
Why not blame the air? Well if there were no air then there would be no B/DLP people around to mismanage anything, right?
@A. Dullard
If it were so simple. The duopoly is an institution in Barbados with a political class that has a gripe on our way of life. The challenge is for the sober among us is to peck away at the fringe until a forward momentum gains traction? Is that it?
I repeat if Arthur had not squandered the resources and worked towards diversifying the economy we would have been in a better shape today.FACTS.
If you don’t examine your past and see where you went wrong then you are doomed to repeat it.
Are you saying the DLP did not learn from what Arthur did?
What can we do to move forward?
Clearly the DLP was committed to a strategy that didn’t work and was rejected. We are staring at more austerity. We need to move the discussion forward.
The BLP chose to contest the last election and they won.
The BLP had 10 years to prepare to ” hit the ground running “.
The BLP has no realistic opposition to blame so they now have sole responsibility to keep their promises to the electorate.
Mia Amor Mottley said to the electorate : “ Give me the vote and watch muh! ”
You gave her the vote 30-0. Now ST(France)U and watch she!
Ok ignore that last comment.Mek nuff noise but watch she.
@Mr. Anonymous
Be happy that you are still employed. One day historians will call the OSA reign the golden age and the Frundel reign the silver age.
I share the sentiment expressed by A Dullard at 8:52 am. The Government led by PM Mottley has some unpleasant tasks to perform. She can “kick the can down the road” and surely condemn thousands of Barbadians to literal death a la Venezuela or she can maturely put her hand to the unpleasant tasks and hopefully lead us to safety. Nothing is certain in this life but continuing with the DLP and in the fashion of the DLP seems to me to be a death wish.
As a civil servant, I would appreciate a 15% – 20% increase but given that the Gov’t is broke I will settle for 5% and thank the private sector workers who are getting 0% for their generosity.
@Tron
The Freundel age will be known as the age of faeces.
David August 15, 2018 9:00 AM
@A. Dullard
If it were so simple. The duopoly is an institution in Barbados with a political class that has a gripe on our way of life. The challenge is for the sober among us is to peck away at the fringe until a forward momentum gains traction? Is that it?
This duopoly is a conscious reality that we want or choose to persist. The BLP like the DLP came into formal existence at a moment in time. Our current leader became leader at a moment in time. Their time as leader will also expire at a moment in time.
I repeat if you are born into a duopoly like I was then you may think that it was and will always be a duopoly.
I will add there was a song i first heard when i was a much younger the song says “I was a sheep some years ago; I am not a sheep any more”. I am sure some of the blogger here may know the song.
We didn’t get here overnight it took much scheming & deceit etc to achieve this state; ;likewise a journey to a better place will take a long time. However, “a journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step”. But first you must free your mind stop drinking the kool-aid and see our modern leaders for what they usually are. Self centred persons with a plan for them selves first; others afterwards.
History has shown us that strong leaders like A Hilter; dont always have good intentions for all the citizens, but certainly for themselves if allowed to achieve their desires.
@sirFuzzy
Preach it!
I will add this though.
David has wrote on a few occassions that political party will say whatewver it must to to the unconvinced potential electorrarte that they can and will. They usually only worry about reall governing after elected.
If we are honest this is what we accepts as par for the course.
a) Political parties or politicians will lie or promise the unachievable to get your vote
b) if elected they will continue to promise the unachievable or more lies to remains in office
c) the electorate usually want unachievable stuff so only usually entertain such promises for politicians
d) to maintain this environment we need to have underhand deals etc to satisfy all the players on the team
All the above occur in varying combination as the selected/elected govern the nation. We may or may not accept that the apple doesn’t fall to farl away from the tree. In this orchard, its a self fulfilling loop that maybe be interrupted by natural disaster and wars etc. other wise it becomes a more closed system that ends in total destruction for some or the many(innocent by standers).
If we think it gets better by politicians tells us we need to make tough decisions “you need another lover like you need a hole in your head”( as Prince penned and sang)
@ T.Inniss August 15, 2018 9:08 AM
“I repeat if Arthur had not squandered the resources and worked towards diversifying the economy we would have been in a better shape today.FACTS.
If you don’t examine your past and see where you went wrong then you are doomed to repeat it.”
So who “squandered the resources” from 2008 to 2018 resulting in the assessment and collection of the highest tax impositions in Bajan fiscal history?
Who move the national debt from around $7 billion to be in excess of $13 billion to date?
Was it the same Arthur or was it Ms Mottley trying to outscore the same Arthur?
T Inniss at 9:08 AM
What resources did OSA squander?
The Economy of Barbados was diversified under Mr Arthur.
The International Business sector grew.
The tourism product was more diversified.
Barbados enjoyed the highest level in history of Foreign Exchange reserves.
Unemployment was very low.
Is that squandering resources?
@Bernard
This comment is bound to be controversial. As a good economist you must know the economic model even in the boom years of Arthur had structural fault lines. Those fault lines were severely exposed in the recession period.
T Inniss at 9:08 AM
What resources did OSA squander?
The Economy of Barbados was diversified under Mr Arthur.
The International Business sector grew.
The tourism product was more diversified.
Barbados enjoyed the highest level in history of Foreign Exchange reserves.
Unemployment was very low.
Is that squandering resources?
The number speaks for themselves. But everything is contextual. I believe that given the world and how it changed after 2008 and before that 2001 that the tactic that worked for Barbados under OSA would have been lest effective. To what degree less effective will be a guess.
MAM and before her FJS are batters batting on the present wicket no the wicket that was prepared in the past. It is said that many centuries are made in the commentary booth.
“Political parties or politicians will lie or promise the unachievable to get your vote.”
That is why they should never be called honorable, there is nothing honorable about lying consustently to the people pre and post election, they should not be generating any respect that all of them are so consumed with, no one should respect liars.
I believe that is where all the problems in the society begins, calling politicians, ministers and lawyers who are mere liars honorable and respecting them.
@ Well Well & Cut N’ Paste At Your Service August 15, 2018 10:43 AM
“Political parties or politicians will lie or promise the unachievable to get your vote.”
That is why they should never be called honorable, there is nothing honorable about lying consustently to the people pre and post election, they should not be generating any respect that all of them are so consumed with, no one should respect liars.
I believe that is where all the problems in the society begins, calling politicians, ministers and lawyers who are mere liars honorable and respecting them.
Very interesting . so we delude ourselves? and i may add’ “when you fool yourself your are well fooled”.
And good cricketers bat on whatever wicket is prepared. When one is a good cricketer,the wicket is irrelevant. One just bats.
All this long talk is regurgitated warmed up soup
Meanwhile i will sit in the gallery awaiting the new management of the Barbados economy namely the IMF who are A political and have only one interest in mind to collect
Never mind the present govt PR stunts which are supposed to make the bitter taste sweet
Let us get on with the tasks at hand , shall we?
Bernard Codrington August 15, 2018 10:54 AM
And good cricketers bat on whatever wicket is prepared. When one is a good cricketer,the wicket is irrelevant. One just bats.
Maybe i have not palyed as much cricket as you but i have hear many of the recent greats say that the conditions favoured ….. and it was tough with the bal darting about etc.
@ Bernard
What resources did OSA squander?
The Economy of Barbados was diversified under Mr Arthur.
The International Business sector grew.
The tourism product was more diversified.
Barbados enjoyed the highest level in history of Foreign Exchange reserves.
Unemployment was very low.
Is that squandering resources?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ha ha ha
Whaloss!!!
Murda
Bushie belly!!!
Shirt!!!
Bernard..
Lend Bushie $1B nuh…?
The bushman will deposit $500M in FOREX…
Spend $900M in Public Sector Reform, Productivity Councils, GEMS, sundry Statutory Boards, and Cricket World Cup…
…and spend the rest on preparing Barbados for CSME (while owing UWI $200M for ‘eddykating’ clerks for Massa and shiite lawyers..)
Steupsss…sometimes you seek to “go off your rocker…”
I really can’t believe Bernard Codrington post @ 10:34
There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.
A cursory glance from the Auditor General report in the late 1990s and especially in the last term of the BLP clearly outlines the wastage –
ALL of the projects – mainly the construction ones that were done under Owen – never came in on budget.
We had ministers telling us that the expansion of the ABC Highway was going to cost $180. million and each time the figure kept changing until it reached hundreds of millions;
We had over 10 million spent on a hole dug in St Andrew called Greenland – that went against advice by those knowledgeable of the area – yet not one bag of garbage went in there;
We had a building at Newton – a contract given to a Trinidadian muslim man – who was paid all the money (liz Thompson was the minister resp) – and he left the project with not even 40 % of the work completed;
We had a similar thing with the crab hill police station – a contract given to a man who has a business partnership with Mia mottley – and whose expertise was in removing jobby. Again millions lost and the last govt had to find money to finish it – even though JOSE Y JOSE GOT A SUBSTANTIAL SUM.
.
We had the fiasco of the construction of the Kensington oval – again Cost over runs
.
We had the leasing of a large cruise ship for World Cup cricket and it remained empty
.
We had the Golden Showers – NCC showers built by Lix Thompson Husband for the NCC – that end costing a mind blowing sum;
I mean to say you for real.
.
Lord Bush tea
Man I could clap for that !
.
I just finished my post to Codrington and I am now seeing yours.I ain’t even touch on Gems,Hardwood Housing and the rest.
Steupes indeed !
Sirfuzzy…it can never make sense to call those whom you know are lying to you honorable or hold any respect for them…it is just completely illogical…that makes you not only a victim of your own delusions but you are identifying with your abusers…the liars… just as Stockholm Syndrome victims are known to do..
Why would you believe anything a known liar says, so why would you believe anything the liars who rotate in and out of parliament say…and to add insult to your injury…you call them honorable..AND respect them…are yall freaking mad…steupps
It is estimated that it was close to 1 billion dollars lost in the above wastage on these projects.
DAVID/BU
Well said Sir !Factually correct.
@ Ping Pong August 15, 2018 9:38 AM
How true! I heart than some high bureaucrats with DLP-membership are going to plaster their walls at home with sh.. to hold Big Sinck, Inniss and Eastwitch in grateful memory.
@ David BU at 11 :44 AM
And you are right. In the recession phase one would expect a change of strategy to suit the new environment. Adjustments were made during the 15 years of the Arthur Era when necessary. Those were the years in which the fault lines appeared and he dealt with them competently. The results are there for all to see.
Similarly, one would have expected a change in strategy in the period 2008 and 2018. Different issues financial meltdown in our main trading partners economies. Disappearance of a major beam in our tax revenue and foreign exchange platforms . Where were the measures to replace these?
Here we are in the 2018 to 2023 period and we are in danger of entering another wasted period of blaming the last administration. That is not a sensible approach to managing the polity and economy of Barbados. Barbados is like a ship in a turbulent sea. We need brinkmanship not blame allocators and loud music to distract us from the difficult tasks at hand.
@Bernard
We can agree to disagree.
Besides embarking on a strategy of pursuing a service based economy to the neglect of all other sectors what was his strategy?
@ David
Owen is a PARTICULARLY bad example to use -precisely because he had the potential to be so GOOD a leader.
He was decisive enough, intelligent enough and established enough (after the first term) to take us to the top of the heap – in terms of model developing countries.
He got distracted with his own importance and PR, and ended up doing lots of shiite (like CSME), and throwing money around like it grew on trees.
Instead of ACTUALLY solving problems, he created illusions – Public Sector Reform; productivity council, Social Partnership, Joining with Sir Cave Hilary to waste MILLIONS on having a mock graduate in every household…
Worst of all, he paved the way for a bunch of retarded DLP jackasses to displace him by tolerating VECO, 3S and cheques from Trickidadian banks…..
Then the DLP morons decided to outdo him at his game of borrowing and bribing …and the rest is history.
Nobody knows this better than Bernard…..
@Bush Tea
Under Owen we had the rotten mains of the BWA. We had the degree in every home that was unsustainable we know, there was the rise of the SOEs and you can list more to be sure.
He flew too many kites!
Not the hallmark of a good leader. Leaders lead.
We need brinkmanship not blame allocators
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Wrong….
Unless be come to understand where we went wrong, you can DEPEND on brass bowls to create deja vows all over again…
Salvation REQUIRES repentance FIRST, forgiveness SECOND, and then a NEW path.
If you NEVER take step 1 then we are dead….
According to T. Inniss drastic measures were taken, like the PM no longer flying commercial but Private.
Anyway back to the present. I am curious as to how much of an effect the survey results will have on the decisions to be made. Why is a survey needed to decide what to do with the likes of NISE, the Productivity council and Invest Barbados.
Decisions should be based on evidence, past performance and importance to national development. Percy the pig was a failure, government workers are still unmannerly, the Productivity council never focused on the most unproductive group, the Civil service and Invest Barbados has nothing to show for the last 10 years.
No scalpel need, a big ax will do just fine
What happens if the survey results show Bajans see NISE as important, what then, it stays and Kim Tudor keeps her job and creates another stupid character maybe Donville the Donkey
Make a decision, explain the process that led to this decision, provide supporting evidence and move on.
The survey was explained severally times on the blog. An important tactic implementing austerity measures is to find ways to coopt the support of the general public. It must appear to be participatory. Having a mandate in only one variable in the equation.
@ David BU
The economic models for Barbados and the rest of the world are changed when they are irrelevant to the tasks at hand. They are like tools in a carpenter’s tool box. One chooses the model fit for purpose. The world is dynamic.
Bush Tea,
“productivity council”? Was that about assembling paper planes?
Do not worry. The future is bright. I see light at the end of the tunnel. The magic formula called “devaluation” will soon increase productivity. Just watch how they work in Jamaica and Guyana. Barbadians will also start to work from 6 AM to 6 PM and will get acustomed to ride donkeys very soon.
….Kim Tudor keeps her job and creates another stupid character maybe Donville the Donkey
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
That is a bit low RedG…. ouch!!!
There is actually nothing wrong with having a proactive, consultative process as an INTEGRAL part of change management.
In fact, it is text-book-correct…. and clinically sharp.
This way, all the naysayers who would have come along AFTERWARDS with ‘better options’ are now challenged to bring them UP FRONT or to shut up…
…ands if they come with brilliant (and better) ideas up front, then the government simply adopt THOSE ideas…. Win Win…
When the fan is turned on, and the South Coast Stuff starts to fly, not a boy will be able to say jack shit…
The ONLY remaining question now is if Motley has a BigAss (c) fan (like the one at Foundation School)
…. or a powder puff – like she had in the old days….
@ Bush Tea
You wrote: “Nobody knows this better than Bernard”.
And you are so right and from many angles. So I do not intend to disagree. I admire competence . I do not expect perfection from my political and religious leaders.
“Worst of all, he paved the way for a bunch of retarded DLP jackasses to displace him by tolerating VECO, 3S and cheques from Trickidadian banks…..
Then the DLP morons decided to outdo him at his game of borrowing and bribing …and the rest is history.”
Bush Tea
Your 11:05 AM received an overwhelming “round of applause from T. Inniss.
However, since you included characterisations such as “a bunch of retarded DLP jackasses” and “DLP morons” in your 12:30 PM contribution……..
………I don’t anticipate his/her to display a similar eagerness to “cluck”……… sorry, I meant……”clap” any time soon.
LOL @ Bernard
I do not expect perfection from my political and religious leaders.
++++++++++++++++
That is not the root problem B.
You are a peace-maker, and will probably inherit the Earth (whatever the albino-centrics leave of it…)
But Bushie is a ‘whacker wielder’ –
Bushmen are not here to bring peace – but a sword (or whacker when available…)
LOL
“In the context of a global shortage of skilled labour and double- and triple-dip recessions, cutting access to free tertiary academic education in Barbados isn’t necessarily a bad idea. The introduction of free secondary and tertiary education under the Honorable Errol Barrow was meant to create an educated and proficient postcolonial Barbados. The “one graduate per household” policy, later espoused by Sir Hilary Beckles and the Honorable Owen Arthur, is attached to the old hat practice of training professionals and technocrats for the civil service. With the universal understanding that economic growth and social security are not symbiotic processes, and that one must expand exponentially to support the other, it may be time for Beckles’ concept to move on.
Why doesn’t it make sense?
It costs too much, especially when compared to other options *
According to this article, the Barbadian government spent US$271.6 million on higher education between 1999 and 2007, and US$318.15 million from 2008 to 2012. That is a shift in spending from US$24.69 million a year to US$79.54 million a year! While the recession may be a contributing factor to the upshot in cost, that is still an astronomical increase in cost. Spending per tertiary student as a percentage of GDP per capita is 50.39% as of 2010. Part time student enrolment has jumped 141% in 10 years, and the main area of concentration is the Faculty of Social Sciences [1] (admittedly, Cave Hill is heavy on Social Sciences).
In sharp contrast, the budget of the Barbados Community College (BCC) has expanded from US$11 million to US$12 million between 2002 and 2010.”
http://www.ccrtd.org/blog/2013/9/29/subsidized-educationand-then-what-why-the-barbadian-social-contract-no-longer-makes-sense#.WwlmH9Mvy4Q=
time to means test, complete your degree in 3 years or repayment or free uni for certain degrees. we cannot continue like this
BRIDGETOWN, Feb 13 1996 (IPS) – The government here might have decreed it the state’s responsibility to pay for students attending the local campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), but the debate on the issue is far from over.
Many taxpayers here are complaining that they do not see why they must continue to fund education for students, many of whom are failing dismally at their courses.
Disgruntled taxpayers have a champion in educator Dr Leonard Shorey who headed a commission charged with providing recommendations for financing tertiary education.
Shorey believes students should pay the full cost of their own tertiary education.
The 12 member commission however, insisted that students pay 50 percent of the cost and that such payment be firmly linked to the establishment of adequate and well planned support provisions for the students.
But the Owen Arthur administration has ignored both Shorey and the recommendations of the commission he headed. The government recently announced that it would pay the three million U.S. dollars it cost to educate 2,208 Barbadians annually at the UWI’s Cave Hill campus. This continues the tradition of state subsidised tertiary education.
“There will simply be no tuition fees,” said Education Minister Mia Mottley.
“We have determined that in the same way we can bring about fiscal incentives and subsidies for inputs pertaining to the economic sectors, whether duty-free for manufacturing or tourism, the government will treat the question of students’ fees as an economic cost that we are committed to pay,” she added.
“It was in a defining philosophical moment that the Cabinet decided to treat education as an economic sector with the full realisation that on a growth path of knowledge-based and skill- intensive industries, the major input of that sector was human resource development.”
The ruling appears to be a bitter pill for many Barbadians to swallow.
Critics of the decision point to data which show that students are failing their courses at an alarming rate. An investigation is soon to start on the high failure rate.
According to data from university departmental reports covering the years 1991 to 1994, as much as 50 percent of those enrolled in certain courses at the institution’s Natural and Social Sciences faculties are failing these subjects.
“This situation is a very disturbing one,” wrote the Shorey Commission on the issue. “It indicates a considerable waste of resources which the country can ill-afford and to which the campus must necessarily be called upon to give serious attention.”
recommendation of the commission set up by Arthur nixed by MAM
http://www.ipsnews.net/1996/02/barbados-education-to-pay-or-not-to-pay/
“From next year, Barbadians pursuing studies at the campuses of the University of the West Indies will be required to pay tuition fees, while Government continues to foot the economic costs. This was one of the measures in today’s Budget presented by Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler who said this policy would reduce the transfer to UWI by an estimated $42 million a year.
He said: “According to the most recent scale of fees, tuition fees for students in the Faculties of Humanities and Education, Social Sciences and Science & Technology tuition fees are $5 625 for a full time student (half for part-time and economic cost is $28 125. For the Faculty of Law tuition fees are $8,808 and economic cost $44,040, while for the Faculty of Medical Sciences – Clinical tuition fees are $16,618 and economic cost $83,090, and for Medical Sciences – Pre-Clinical tuition fees are $65 000”. Sinckler said Government recognized that access to education at all levels was a key factor in the success of Barbados as a society and an economy.
“The DLP remains committed to, and fully supportive of, the continued growth and development of UWI Cave Hill and increased access to tertiary education for Barbadians,” he said. Sinckler said the expansion at the Cave Hill Campus had resulted in major increases in the Government’s contribution to UWI. “In about 2003/2004 the Cave Hill Campus began a major expansion in terms of the numbers of students and the amenities offered.
In 1999 for example, there were around 3 568 undergraduate students at the Cave Hill and by 2007 this number had increased to around 6 718 and currently stands at around 7 200 students. The expansion has meant major increases in the Government of Barbados’ contribution to UWI. “For example, in 2007, the financial contribution of the Barbados government to UWI Cave Hill was $79.3 million dollars, a $28.3 million over the $51 million required in 1999. However, between 2007 and 2008 the annual contribution required from the Government of Barbados increased from $79.3 million to $120.5 million.
To put things in context, for the entire period 1999 to 2007 combined, the total contribution required from the Government of Barbados to the Cave Hill Campus was $543.2 million, compared to the $636.3 million dollar contribution required for the 2008 to 2012 period. The reality is that the amount required in the last five years was $93 million greater than the previous nine years combined”.
Sinckler said the stark reality was that since around 2006, the total contribution by the Government of Barbados to UWI had exceeded the combined contribution to all nursery schools, primary schools, secondary schools, Barbados Community College and the Samuel Jackman Prescod Polytechnic. “While remaining committed to providing continued access to university education, the Government cannot continue to preside over a situation where the growth and development of the non-university component education system is severely retarded. The country needs to be able to build capacity at all levels”.
http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/51145/bajans-pay-tuition-fees-uwi-2014
There is actually nothing wrong with having a proactive, consultative process as an INTEGRAL part of change management.
In fact, it is text-book-correct…. and clinically sharp
Agreed Bush Tea, but this works best when one knows where one wants to go or one’s intentions are genuine. Can we say that about Mia.
We’ve been given breakfast and told we are going on a long journey. But is it a long journey to the promise land or will we wander around in the wilderness for years.
@ David BU
re BWA broken mains.
I think you need to research when the BWA mains were identified as a source of leakage of revenue and water supply.
You may also need to identify when money was laid aside to fix these leakages
You may want to ask when those funds were vired for other purposes.
Having done this, you will need to correct your assertion.
For 12 years I have been a volunteer at a local credit counselling service. I am no longer ‘sweet and understanding’ because it takes too long to extract the TRUTH, which I already know, because 90% of all cases are the same. The person on the other side of the table has a problem, but until I can get them to accept THEY HAVE a problem, all they want are “solutions” which do not affect them in any meaningful way. Some will tell me “I hear you have a way to make credit card debt go away”, in other words, get them in a better position without any pain. They will blame an employer, an ex, a deal gone bad, a family member, an illness, anything which places responsibility anywhere, but on THEIR decisions.
On this @BC is correct, trying to attach blame doesn’t solve anything. @BT, understanding takes time and a desire. You cannot expect all those with an agenda of making one group out to be worse than any other group, to change? (repent). Yet, BARBADOS needs to make decisions, and we know beforehand they will be politicized.
Govts are in the business of getting elected and reelected. Blaming the other side helps win election and absolving your side from some if not all blame. So it will not stop any time soon.
The civil servants talk about a salary hike and that they need more money when at the same time the island needs a grand purge in the civil service and cutting the cost of labour by at least 30 %. What a disaster.
@ James Greene at1 :49 PM
Those of us who went to the polling stations on 24 May 2018 voted for a party to form the GoB to manage our affairs efficiently and effectively. We already knew who caused what. We are no longer interested in allocating blame we want and expect proper management of the affairs of Barbados. This is not a sports match. There are no losers and no winners. We are not about that.
that is why they should have taken up the DLP offer of a one time payment of 49mil plus other incentives.
instead they agitated to get rid of the DLP and having done so within a week of the new govt accepted an offer of 5%. and convinced their members that this was a better offer than the 23% they were demanding from the DLP.
James,
For your relief: Devaluation will not distinguish between DLP and BLP. DLP-ex-Ministers and present BLP-Ministers alike will get their pay reduced by 50 to 75 %.
The international financial market also does not care about DLP or BLP. They want their money back.
Wuh loss look wuh happening in broke bubadus
The miniters getting their spoils
Great going Prescod
Ministers get pay raises
Can some one explain this vodoo economics for me. 5000 public servants going home and the ministers including all the additions getting pay hikes
What is Wrong with this picture
David why havent u posted all this breaking news about Mia policies the headlines screaming
From default! To ministers pay increases and 5000 public workers lay off.
David stop trying so hard to be a cover up agent for this govt.You can do better
Bernard Codrington August 15, 2018 2:12 PM/”…There are no losers and no winners…”
I disagree where tax defaulters receive waivers and investors in GoB debt receive reduced interest or other reduction in their investment.
To the revenue commissioner – every company in Barbados files a document with corporate affairs called a notice of directors. Cross reference the names of the directors on those documents to directors fees declared as taxable income and investigate the ones that are not congruent and ease off the investors in the process.
The last set of posts to BU see,m to be a rehash of earlier stuff. Just that those on the left seem to be on the right and those that were on the right seem to be on the left.
Orwellian?
Alice in Wonderland?
Piece seem to think it will be 1984
Many of the investors are pensioners that invested in the GoB debt to supplement their monthly pension.
@Guest
“Many of the investors are pensioners that invested in the GoB debt to supplement their monthly pension.”
FOOLS AND THEIR MONEY ARE EASILY SEPARATED.
Wily Coyote August 15, 2018 7:51 PM/”…FOOLS AND THEIR MONEY ARE EASILY SEPARATED.”
Yes, I agree, by crooked political yardfowls.
Saw this post about a woman, her land and some BLPites.
Not one blogger commented.
Reminded me of when the Herbert story first broke; couldn’t even find it on FB.
Had to go to the naked woman.
Scared of their own shadows and will fix a country
@Mariposa August 15, 2018 5:51 PM
5,000? You are joking. We all know that Barbadians are unable to improve productivity.
Uncle IMF won´t be so easily fooled like Credit Suisse in 2013. The old gov sent home 3,000 initially and rehired most before last elections. So expect if the IMF demands to kick out 5,000 and there is no substantial improvement as in 2013-2015, the IMF will demand an even bigger purge with 10,000 and/or devaluation in 2020.
The IMF won´t waive any debts to enable “educated” Barbadians to play gov in their silver E 250 toys. Barbados is not yet amongst the least developed countries. Not yet.
With a 29-1 majority that the last administration did not have the GoB should consider a law to adopt ES’ solution and reduce salaries across the public service by the desired percentage. This way everybody eats, everybody hurts
@ Guest
the GoB should consider a law to adopt ES’ solution and reduce salaries across the public service by the desired percentage.
++++++++++++++++++
This will never happen. Brass bowls do not operate with such common sense.
It is too obvious and too comprehensive a solution.
At least the 5% salary increase will accelerate devaluation and serves a higher purpose at the very end.
Ceterum censeo BBD esse devaluendam.
Every man should hear this from at least one woman in his lifetime
Great record Mr Guest! Thanks for the memory! How about this one…
Mr Anonymous very very well said. This fiasco reminds me of Animal Farm. The hurtful thing is that the majority of bajans are behaving like Boxer and we all know the fate he suffered. I wonder who owns the glue factory
The situation unfolding in Barbados is reminiscent of Greece. We want to live as there is no problem. Some MPs and Senators want increase renumeration. The unionists want pa hikes. We want every brand of cornflakes on the supermarket shelves. We want the latest ride etc etc etc.
There is no need for any adjustment in the public sector nor for any salary cut. Just devalue the Barbados Dollar to 1:10 and gov can easily raise the salaries by 20 % per year.
We will have less SUVs and Mercedes on the road, but more donkeys, slimmer people and less fast-food.
The most amazing aspect of our predicament is the extent to which most people are COMPLETELY ignorant of the basic genesis of the problem.
Wuh if we spent so much time, money, resources and effort on ‘EDUCATION’ over the last two generations; and have now arrived at a point where we need assistance from countries that basically left such ‘education’ to the private sector and to the ability of parents to pay… What does this say about what we are learning….?
Some shiite is FUNDAMENTALLY wrong…..
it does not take a brainiac to work this out….
Yet, we continue spending more and more …doing the same shiite over and over …and expecting that results will be different.
Who knows…?
Perhaps next year we can top one million visitors …and we can have 100 Barbados Scholars…..
Brass Bowls….!!! Them belly full – while we are hungry…
In response to the problem, brass bowls tend to :
..forget their troubles and dance, forget their worries and dance…
But when the cost of living get so high, that the rich and poor they start to cry..
Then the weak must get strong …when the hungry mob becomes an angry mob…
They say… OH what a tribulation
Like it or not…
….eventually we are ALL going to dance to JAH music.
@david 6:!7
Therein lies the problem. As Bush Tea says ad nauseum, our issues are systemic and attitudinal
We want everything the way it was, without sacrifice, without taxes and without austerity.
The BLP deserves their honeymoon but until forex stops leaking, shite stops being pumped into the swamp, government expenses match revenue and we stop borrowing to make our statistics look good we will always be in ducks guts.
re. OSA – that 2 billion forex came from sales of entities, international business and increased land prices
re. DJT – attempted to keep things as they were in a depressed climate that never had a chance of recovering
re. FJS – did nothing really.
So here we are. Promises galore, plenty smoke and mirrors, press conferences grandmudda and then what…..
Same sub cultures, same socioeconomic divide, same irrelevant education, same lacksadaisical public sector attitude, same low productivity, same square pegs in round holes, same political decisions rather than practical ones.
Why? Because we like it so. Because the last bunch were so bad, that this bunch can now do wrong. Because if you applaud one, it means you are pulling down the other.
The rhetoric is laudable, I await the results. NUPW and BWU for another thread.
I’ll reserve comments on
Just observing
We are living in the IG age (not instagram but Instant Gratification).
Bajans kicked out the DLP and they demand instant gratification so:
They got a 5% pay increase
Free UWI tuition restored
NSRL removed
Road tax removed
New fancy ministries
Ministers with Instagram accounts
But instant gratification is fleeting, 5 minutes of joy followed by 55 minutes of misery. The 5 minutes are almost up.
5 minutes of joy followed by 5 YEARS of misery…. is more like it….
Since the senate is not an elected body actually a selected body. Mainly filled with “want to bees ” and “wash outers”.
Why do we need to pay them; it should be a national privilege of unknown magnitude to be selected as a senator. We got 270,00 folks; about 180000 are adult age and can serve in the upper house. We chose a mere 21 for this role. Thus u and eye have a 0.011666667% chance of becoming a senator. The 0.011666667% sound like the rate of interest paid by bank on saving.
They should do their national duty to the country/nation and serve free of cost or perks?
Just asking
Senator Franklyn cares about poor people.
““It is not fair to them. They waited ten years, five revisions… and in all those years you gave them basically half of one per cent, per year at the bottom… In this salary revision, people who need the money least of all [will be] getting a whopping sum; at the level of the permanent secretary he is going to get $616.36 and the Prime Minister is going to get $846.56. They don’t need it. The people at the bottom [are] who really need the money, the fellow that is getting the $96, who has children to send to school, who got a mortgage to pay, who in some instances getting in trouble for not coming to work, not because they don’t want to work, but because he ain’t got enough bus fare,” he said.”
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2197215560292762&id=100000130192859
Dr Marshall
Animal farm
Alice in Wonderland
Groundhog Day
1984
fake news
alternative reality….
If the GoB has about 30,000 workers a 3000 reduction would represent 10% of the public service for a 5% increase before added expenses for water, tax, nis and so on. The unions were not even in the game
mr anonymous my situation is very similar to yours. give me a meal and later charge me double..when will we open our eyes and look past all the fluff