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Prime Minister Mottley Talks Digital @BITT Conference

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Today’s speech by Prime Minister Mia Mottley at the Bitt Conference is one that we would never have heard under the former government. The disruptive explosion of Fintechs across the globe is well documented – the race to transform Barbados from an analogue to digital space finds Barbados playing catchup.

Many will criticize the prime minister for daring to assume risk by integrating emerging technology into the way we do business in Barbados. The blogmaster commends her leadership to digitally transform Barbados. The reality is that we have to or continue to slide to the bottom of the pile on the indices which log competitiveness.  It is noteworthy that in the sub region the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) has rolled out a blockchain pilot with Bitt Inc.

 

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424 responses to “Prime Minister Mottley Talks Digital @BITT Conference”

  1. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    ya think Mia would want to ELIMINATE that process of thievery, corruption AND bribery by those administering and obtaining contracts ..practiced .against the very people who elected her….and which now has the island BROKE…because it was a CONTRIBUTING FACTOR.

  2. MAM_fah_friends_and_family_-_Who_fah_we_in_23 Avatar
    MAM_fah_friends_and_family_-_Who_fah_we_in_23

    MAM fah friends and family – Who fah we in 23

  3. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    again…when that scam of getting billion dollar contracts through corrupt government ministers and lawyers…works no more…the minorities will ALL relocate and go into the real world and look for real jobs….when they are no longer ALLOWED to FEED OFF OF the majority population…as they have been for the past 52 years.

  4. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ David September 20, 2018 12:47 AM

    Come on David (BU), don’t be too fast to buy into that kool-aid (aka BS)!
    How can a digital payment system be a major lifesaver to the dwindling foreign reserves?

    The major lifesaver can ‘only’ be that of creating the capacity to earn forex at a faster rate than it is being spent on imported goods and services to keep the Bajan dollar-based conspicuous consumption hog alive.

    Money in which ever form- metal, paper or electronic bits or bytes -is a medium of exchange.

    What is Barbados producing to make it sufficiently attractive to people with foreign money to buy in enough quality and quantity to shift the forex compass in a positive Barbados-bound direction?

    We can follow the argument that a digital currency does have some positive application to the market involving the exchange of locally produced and traded goods and services.

    The cultivation, processing, distribution and consumption of locally grown marijuana-based products and related services make this type of economic activity the perfect guinea pig for the implementation and application of this e-medium of exchange.
    This would facilitate the removal of the stigma currently associated with this underground (‘black economy) channel of trade and bring it into the mainstream (official or ‘white’) economy from which the government can extract, legally and morally, a piece of the cake as a contribution to the social services financing kitty.

    However, the nexus between the ‘proposed’ condition of paying for imported goods and services with e-money and the current situation reflecting a blatant failure to sell (export) a concomitant amount in order to earn the same-e-money will continue to boggle the mind of Mr. Average Commonsense.

  5. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    @ WARU

    You said and I quote “…Again, if that was Mia’s or any of her family’s money stolen, she would call the police to have the thieves arrested…

    …and she would be suing left and right to recover same, so it is telling that she has yet to hold an accounting ot bring all the thieves and their co-conspirators in the minority community to justice for stealing from the people…”

    This is the very simple point being made!!

    Do something woman!

    Show bajans that you are not just talking shy$e every single day!

    Look let me make this simple for wunna sheeple to understand.

    De ole man blogs here under the Anonymice Name of Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    I have prosecuted several matters here and some I have been very aggressive about.

    True that I have a grandson who tries to protect de ole man from prying eyes (even though he does not have acute vision) but here is the thing.

    Suppose de ole man’s true identity was known heheheheheheh not suspected but known to the police with IP and pixel trackers and ssh tunneling and all dat stuff de grandson and de *** tell me about and show me heheheheheheh

    Wunna tink dat i would be blogging heah pun BU? Dem fellers would be out in numbers to get Tyrone Griffith to arrest me and de DPP would be prosecuting me longggg time.

    De Grandson going start a stoopid cartoon series called same ole same ole and start running that soon to show how we have changed from one party of incompetents to another besieged by dolts and dufuses.

    Wunna think that Mia got it easy?

    Each day she wakes to a living nightmare “Cannon to right of her, cannon to left of her, cannon in front of her, volley’d and thunder’d; into the valley of death she rides alone (with 5 MPs who have sense next to her)

  6. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    It is obvious what PM Mottley is doing, she is building a bridge to what the OECS is doing to possibly harmonize the two markets as far as settlement of monetary transactions is concerned between the two. It would be a feather in her CSME cap. The secondary -and as important a benefit – is that it serves as an activity to force change.

    Expect other initiatives to support the thrust to force the behavioural change you correctly pointed must occur.

  7. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    @ Brother in Arms Bush Tea

    You Bush tea want banning!! Fuh Trufe!!

    You said and i quote

    “…Bushie has no issue with Adams and Abeds pursuing their OWN scheme, BUT why would the BARBADOS government choose to partner with minority looking individuals to push a financial scheme that will be used principally by ordinary black Bajans who ALREADY use the Credit Unions?…”

    Because their is no kickback involved with the Credit Unions maybe? what do you think? You think that with all those members on the Credit Union’s Executive at say City of Bridgetown (with its entrenched DLP supporters) that it going remain a secret what the Cahirman’s cut is?

    Then you continue

    “…If Bushie wanted to execute a ‘Pilot Scheme’, it would seem to make MUCH more sense to do so with partners that already had extensive relationships with the target markets…”

    Why?

    Why would you look for a captive customer base of 80,000 people and 10,000 small businesses as opposed to redesigning the wheel?

    Why would you look at enfranchising bajans who elected you as opposed to enfranchising a non resident Bajan who you had to import to Barbados and give he a senatorship bribe and he give you a backdoor to de people’s money dat Leigh Trotman de auditor General CANNOT EVER FIND OUT THE THEFTS?

    You want banning in trufe!!

    Honourable Blogmaster !!!! where you is???

  8. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    We can sympathize with Mia and what confronts her….but there is an old saying in the US..be careful for what ya ask, cause ya just might get it…

    ….Mia finally got what she asked for…..but….it does not mean that we have to buy into all the crap her ministers, senators etc are all attempting to offload on the people who ELECTED them….or the gimmicks they used during the election campaign and are now walking back or tweaking so that the continuation of corruption becomes unnoticeable to the blind…not when we are quite capable of thinking for ourselves…

    And that crap about having the police arrest people who refuse to conform to their criminal practice of being permanent and perpetual victims of crimes against themselves perpetrated by government ministers and lawyers….are violations of universal human rights under the 1948 UN Declaration on Human Rights and should be brought to the attention of the UN and Amnesty International..

  9. David Avatar
    David

    Is Barbados not a majory Black Government? We have it within our grasp to be our own agent for change.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    You are prepared to state that the credit union possesses the technical and financial resources to pilot such a project? Sadly the credit union is a taker of technology solutions in the market.

  11. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    You is a next feller i going ask to get banned Sage Annunaki!

    Imagine you saying these vociferous curse words and blasphemy in complete antipodal stance to the garbage that Jeremy Stephen has written!!

    “…The major lifesaver can ‘only’ be that of creating the capacity to earn forex at a faster rate than it is being spent on imported goods and services to keep the Bajan dollar-based conspicuous consumption hog alive…”

    Den you laid waste to the pretending economist’s theory (whose claim to fame is being one of the exorbitant staffers hired by Dr. Basil Springer to spend the $1 million gift from the Lat David Thompson.) by saying and i quote

    “…However, the nexus between the ‘proposed’ condition of paying for imported goods and services with e-money and the current situation reflecting a blatant failure to sell (export) a concomitant amount in order to earn the same-e-money will continue to boggle the mind of Mr. Average Commonsense…”

    The problem with these people who are at the BLP table imbibing this coolaid IS THAT THEY ARE FUNCTIONAL IDIOTS.

    They possess the human characteristic of being able to “supinate the thumb and index finger” but, after that they are troglodytes

    [[Ohhhh and Honourable Blogmaster, whenever you see the ole man “attack a feller” here pun BU like i have and will continue to attack Jeremy Stephen as a brimler, remember this well

    I KNOWS DE EFFERS WELL and such is not ad hominen. IF the occasion arises for me to show the electronic trail of their “idiocy or indiscretions” a feller can do that in another forum ok?”)

  12. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Y’all talk the talk, but when it’s time to walk y’all fall asleep. #pretenders#notwoke#antiMIA/BLP

  13. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    christ Enuff yardfowl…you can’t even recognize when we are actually doing Mia a HUGE favor..

    #youshouldbefireduselessyardfowl

  14. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    Husband #2…that is what we have been saying all along…

    That comment was not for Enuff yardfowl….OR Lawson…so down boys.

  15. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    @ The Honourable Blogmaster

    What does this mean?

    “…It is obvious what PM Mottley is doing, she is building a bridge to what the OECS is doing to possibly harmonize the two markets as far as settlement of monetary transactions is concerned between the two…”

    What is very much obvious is that BU is slowly becoming the gateway of the BLP administration.

    What is further becoming obvious is that the coolaid messages that Mia wants delivered to the Bajan LESS THAN SHEEPLE is being deliver here through you.

    From whence comes this leap? about what Mia is doing?

    Where are you getting this inside knowledge from? for indeed this has to be insider knowledge when you say “…to possibly harmonize the two markets as far as settlement of monetary transactions is concerned…”

    That is not speculation on your part!!

    But not withstanding your inner circle status with the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Red Council how does that knowledgeable response answer the statement that the Sage Annunaki made earlier at 8.59 a.m and which i now repeat for a third? time?

    “…However, the nexus between the ‘proposed’ condition of paying for imported goods and services with e-money and the current situation reflecting a blatant failure to sell (export) a concomitant amount in order to earn the same-e-money will continue to boggle the mind of Mr. Average Commonsense…”

    What is going to be sold?

    oooops is it the Re Re component that your acute vision has garnered?

    So how are you fellows going to explain ***** heheheheheh by rebranding it?

    Steupseeee

  16. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    Listen class? Does any one use Apple Pay ?

    From what i read and from what i gleaned from PLT, it is similair to MMoney that being digitised currency.

    I want to know from the more knowledgeable

    If i have a business can i accept Apple Pay payments in Barbados as it relates to our laws etc
    (will i need a usa bank account for ApplePAy to work etc)

  17. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    LEADERSHIP

    “But saying this “nonsense must stop”, the Prime Minister called for an end to “this unfortunate debate and discussion and tension between those who want to hold on to a status quo and those who want to move forward”.

    “The nonsense must stop. The conflict that has permeated our environment with respect to who will speak to who and who will not speak to who and who will not do what with whom,” she said, suggesting that the only ones to suffer would be the population.”

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2018/09/19/e-currency-pilot-coming/

    The current PM and the next PM ?

    @ Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right you and de grandson are free to use any “hints “that I drop pun BU.

  18. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    @ The Honourable Blogmaster

    You said and I quote “…You are prepared to state that the credit union possesses the technical and financial resources to pilot such a project?

    Sadly the credit union is a taker of technology solutions in the market…”

    Let me disavow you of this poorly reasoned concept that you have by stating this for you and the credit union and Bitt and all the Barbados Banks

    All of these idiotic schemes that you and Jeremy Stephen claim are cutting edge and will change the landscape of Barbados are old effing hat.

    Any bajan can get a Paypal account that processes all currencies anywhere in the world AS LONG AS ONE HAS A US ADDRESS AND US BANK ACCOUNT!

    Let me make this even more simple for you to understand than that sentence.

    https://developer.paypal.com/docs/classic/lifecycle/info-security-guidelines/#security-best-practices-for-paypal-integrations

    Wunna is now putting time in things at 2018 that the feller at EGFL Timothy Simmons decried and said were impossible in 2002 yet he remains at the helm of that entity from 1998.

    What this means for the sheeple among us, of whom I am one, it that a smart programmer can, once authorized by Paypal, can piggyback on Paypal’s AI supported algorithms and provide services to the ENTIRE BAJAN AND WEST INDIAN POPULATION FOR E-TRANSACTIONS in Forex currencies!

    Wunna need to go to the shite talkers and give them this coolaid.

    What Barbados needs and what none of you are dealing with is FOREX Generation ideas OD WHICH WUNNA HAS NONE barring heheheheheheheh.

    133 days remain until January 31st 2019 then…

  19. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    @ the Honourable Blogmaster

    Your assistance please with an item about archaic technologies

  20. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    “What is going to be sold?”

    let’s hope it’s NOT the people…through a reverse Atlantic Slave Trade modern day style, with the middle eastern element already involved and pulling strings to get changes through legislation and all..

    ..some governments tend to not know when they are in over their heads.

  21. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    A commenter or two asked about the risk of the pilot being a drain on foreign exchange. This comment from Jeremy Stephens should assist in educating the ignorant on the potential of an electronic settlement clearing arrangement in the region.(Quote)

    Further evidence of deference if there was need for it. The chairman still cannot negotiate between differences of opinion. He must amplify the bias he favours. Isn’t there a misunderstanding between physical payments in the Greenback and electronic payments? Is there a case for a wider debate?
    An electronic payment system would bypass the central bank and retail banks in cross-border deals and will be customer to provider. In developed econo0mies most foreign currency deals are contracted business to business; government major foreign currency deals will be in dollar-denominated loans. That is a problem with our negotiators.
    Two ways round this are, as I have said, a Caricom-wide pooled foreign currency reserve fund; or properly managed derivatives. An alternative is currency ETFs – both institutional and retail.

  22. David Avatar
    David

    This is an incoherent comment and does not address the objective of the pilot with Bitt or which ever partner. PayPal does not satisfy local settlement given the need to be efficient with forex.

  23. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    Piece..here is a new one for you, we have been monitoring it for quite a few months..

    Care and caution must be taken, especially when criminals are PIGGYBACKING on OTHER PEOPLE’S inventions to use the vulnerable and unaware as their guinea pigs to get wealthy through their get rich quick schemes and scams…

    ….even worse when they manage to manipulate stupid governments into changing legislation to fit their criminal agendas.

    China is at least letting their people what to expect in the future, but in the repulsive little secret society that is Barbados, who will know when the criminals are copying and piggybacking off other people’s inventions and manipulating backward governments into experimenting on the people while changing legislation to suit their narrative …who will know.

    “Leave no dark corner
    China is building a digital dictatorship to exert control over its 1.4 billion citizens. For some, “social credit” will bring privileges — for others, punishment.

    What may sound like a dystopian vision of the future is already happening in China. And it’s making and breaking lives.

    The Communist Party calls it “social credit” and says it will be fully operational by 2020.

    Within years, an official Party outline claims, it will “allow the trustworthy to roam freely under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step

    In one pilot program already in place, each citizen has been assigned a score out of 800. In other programs it’s 900.

    Those, like Dandan, with top “citizen scores” get VIP treatment at hotels and airports, cheap loans and a fast track to the best universities and jobs.

    “It will allow the trustworthy to roam freely under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step.”

    Those at the bottom can be locked out of society and banned from travel, or barred from getting credit or government jobs.

    The system will be enforced by the latest in high-tech surveillance systems as China pushes to become the world leader in artificial intelligence.

    Surveillance cameras will be equipped with facial recognition, body scanning and geo-tracking to cast a constant gaze over every citizen.”.

    Smartphone apps will also be used to collect data and monitor online behaviour on a day-to-day basis.

    Then, big data from more traditional sources like government records, including educational and medical, state security assessments and financial records, will be fed into individual scores.

    Trial social credit systems are now in various stages of development in at least a dozen cities across China.

    Several companies are working with the state to nationalise the system, co-ordinate and configure the technology, and finalise the algorithms that will determine the national citizen score.

    It’s probably the largest social engineering project ever attempted, a way to control and coerce more than a billion people.

    If successful, it will be the world’s first digital dictatorship.”

  24. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    Again..for those not getting the full picture..

    “Smartphone apps will also be used to collect data and monitor online behaviour on a day-to-day basis.

    Then, big data from more traditional sources like government records, including educational and medical, state security assessments and financial records, will be fed into individual scores.”

  25. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    Would love to hear PLTs take on this one…social credit and digital dictatorship.

  26. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Bushman
    you provide weekly commentary on brass bowlery and yet, because certain FI’s fit your co-operative community construct, you seem to think their management is void of BB’s? They didn’t “create” mMoney, nor did they go out and find some programmers who could. The GoB doesn’t own mMoney.

  27. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ WARU
    Is this not an obvious end-game for any scheme where government is associated with collecting such personal financial data on citizens?
    Can you imaging what it would have been like if Stinkliar had access to such information on people like Bushie ….and Mia?
    Can you imagine what it will be like when Mia has full access to Piece’s spending habits (who does he pay for those IP protection services??/)

    David’s support for such initiatives belies his ten years of BU experience in Barbados….

  28. Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right Avatar
    Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right

    Hold on I got to go Honourable Blogmaster

    But here is what i am saying

    (a) A Paypal holder with a US Account can be paid in US currency
    (b) A Paypal Holder with a BDOS ACCOUNT can be paid in Barbados Currency and pay and receive converted US payments on a Barbados account tied to a PAYPAL CARD

    If i have a debit card WITH MY CREDIT UNION and I pay for a service to any merchant do i incur a charge for my payment?

    What therefore incentivizes me to use BITT?

    Would i not be replacing a known service provided with an unknown service provided who is offering the same service?

    Explain this to me else i will continue to make incoherent statements WHICH I PERFORCE MUST CEASE RIGHT NOW

    You broke one of your cardinal rules with “Peter” recently and as such exposed one of your bloggers which while many suspected who he was by his inimitable style there are many with that surname.

    You do not slip like this Honourable Blogmaster.

    It is an unaccustomed thing but…GIVEN YOUR ALLEGIANCE TO ***, it is noted

  29. David Avatar
    David

    How are the fees settled? Is the original payment discounted? Willing to learn.

  30. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    Just like NO I was just about to post that no one in Bitt Inc invented bitcoins or digital currencies, but yet they are still piggybacking on the invention of others…so buyer beware..especially given that…

    “Smartphone apps will also be used to collect data and monitor online behaviour on a day-to-day basis.

    Then, big data from more traditional sources like government records, including educational and medical, state security assessments and financial records, will be fed into individual scores.”.

    Are the BIGGEST WEAPONS in the Chinese arsenal on their road to social credit and digital dictatorship..I would watch very closely the PIGGYBACKERS of other people’s inventions..

  31. David Avatar
    David

    The blogmaster is about exploring different approaches. The credit union last time we checked could not get the last MoF to approve deposit insurance.

  32. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Alien
    Thanks for the links.
    One has to guess the NIS holds enough, they will be the singular reason one gets/doesn’t get 75% approval.

  33. NO PLAN MAM Avatar
    NO PLAN MAM

    @ Piece Uh De Rock Yeah Right September 20, 2018 9:42 AM
    @ What is very much obvious is that BU is slowly becoming the gateway of the BLP administration.

    NO PLAN MAM not me in 23

  34. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    Bushman..I am giving our Blogmaster a small pass only because it is clear he still has to catch up on what’s really going on out there, he is still willing to give humanity a chance ….unaware that the two legged beasts with not a gram of humanity anywhere in their empty souls …outnumber humans…in this era.

    Let’s hope he puts up multiple defenses from being targeted..as a reflex.

    As someone told me very recently…DO NOT lower my very high levels of suspicion at any time…advice I am very willing to pass on to those who care about themselves..and those around them..

    Am sure most have noted that one of our fellow bloggers was recently very effectively set up….criminals and beasts do not have humanity, not a trace.

  35. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ NorthernObserver
    Bushie is only partial to the Credit Unions because they – BETTER THAN ANYTHING ELSE -represents the masses of the country.
    THEIR mandate is to serve the COLLECTIVE COMMUNITY interest of their members – ordinary, people who all have EQUAL rights to be heard, and to influence organisational policies.

    You done know that Bushie likes DAT!!!

    The Credit Unions are run by brass bowls – just like everything else in Bim… BUT the ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEMS in place (including the Supervisory Committee – and the general members ABSOLUTE right to over rule ANYTHING)…. makes it a SPECIAL organisation….
    …no wonder they succeed.

    mMoney is nothing special.
    Things like PayPal are common place.
    Everybody uses Debit Cards.
    There is not much difference between a smart card and a smart phone as the vehicle of such transactions…

    QUESTION IS…. WHAT IS this business of the GOVERNMENT -at the highest level- coming out to support a PARTICULAR player in this money game?

    Politically, Bushie COULD understand if that ‘player’ represented in excess of 100,000 citizens, and if the objective was related to the manifesto promise of ENFRANCHISEMENT….

    Can you suggest the BETTER explanation…?

  36. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    Two ways round this are, as I have said, a Caricom-wide pooled foreign currency reserve fund; or properly managed derivatives. An alternative is currency ETFs – both institutional and retail. (Quote)

    Isn’t this a case of putting the ‘financial cart before the trading horse’?

    How would the level of contribution and drawdown by each participant to this ‘common’ fund be determined?

    How can there be a “Caricom-wide pooled foreign currency reserve fund” (or even the functioning of any currency ETF”) when there is no common Caricom currency or central bank or a fully-functioning CCJ?

    In which currency would the fund be denominated? The Greenback or T&T $?

    Why not call for the abolition of the use of the US$ in the settlement of all intra-Caricom trading transactions and its replacement with that of some regionally accepted e-currency; possibly dubbed the “e-Cc” (electronic Caricom currency?

    Isn’t this another call for the resuscitation of the CMCF?

  37. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Is this another Mottley wicked quick fixes to take money out of the people’s pocket books
    BittScam

  38. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    “Politically, Bushie COULD understand if that ‘player’ represented in excess of 100,000 citizens, and if the objective was related to the manifesto promise of ENFRANCHISEMENT….”

    Exactly…what Mia is endorsing through an elected government..is NOT enfranchising the majority black population….she is endorsing the taking away of money out of the pockets of the very people who elected her….for EVERY little financial transaction…

    Her job is to be enfranchising, endorsing and uplifting the majority population who elected her..

    She is already getting lost…the lines are blurring and it’s not even 6 months yet…since her government was elected.

  39. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    This is an incoherent comment and does not address the objective of the pilot with Bitt or which ever partner. PayPal does not satisfy local settlement given the need to be efficient with forex.(Quote)

    What is this financial illiteracy?

  40. David Avatar
    David

    @Bush Tea

    You are comparing what is proposed as the pilot read digital currency that can be carried on your mobile phone for example to PayPal etc?

  41. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ David September 20, 2018 11:18 AM

    Would it be a reasonable point to argue that the widespread acceptance and use of e-money or crypto-currencies would eventually witness the death of the local Central Bank (CBB)?

    What’s the need for such a Neanderthal institution in this brave new world of electronic trading and settlement?

    Would taxpayers be called upon soon to carry the financial burden of keeping this administrative parasite alive as its modern-day relevance pales into insignificance like many of the already burdensome SOE’s?

  42. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    “Can you suggest the BETTER explanation…?”
    unsure better, but possibly more accurate, is the new administration is looking for a ‘good news story’ to grasp at, and has connected persons bellowing in their ear. Any port in a storm. The term “pilot” avoids full blown endorsement.
    Big Sinck proposed ‘debt reprofiling’, but avoided it, apparently because they (D’s) had concerns about the ‘political capital’ it would cost them. The B’s obviously have similar concerns, and with no choice other than delay a few months, have decided to get the major debt decisions ‘out of the way’. Burn political capital when one has it to burn.
    In all the transparency discussion, we seem to have avoided the need to have the island’s debt summarized in a concise format in every CB quarterly report. When the SOE’s fail to issue annual reports, we are grasping at straws to ‘guess’ the true debt load. In all the Ministers, one could have seen a Minister of Debt, for that is the key point person, when a wide spectrum of public bodies can take on debt.
    Haven’t heard any of the gurus, offering analysis of the restructuring on the NIS.

  43. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    “The term “pilot” avoids full blown endorsement.”

    ya can. never be half way pregnant, especially when ya voluntarily changed ya status from infertile to fertile…when ya pregnant, ya full blown pregnant.

    .what the Chinese already put into motion re social credit AND digital dictatorship is A PILOT….

    “In one pilot program already in place, each citizen has been assigned a score out of 800. In other programs it’s 900.”.

    and as PLT confirmed the mMoney scheme is already in place in Barbados…pilot or no.

    “Haven’t heard any of the gurus, offering analysis of the restructuring on the NIS.”

    First I believe that Cow Williams and his co-conspirators in the DLP government should be held accountable and RETURN all the hundreds of MILLIONS dollars missing from the NIS Pension Fund..then we can start a conversation about restructuring the NIS to first and foremost…ban all thieves and lock them the hell up when they manage through corrupt governments and lawyers to slither in and steal old people’s pension..

  44. David Avatar
    David

            Are we hearing similar commentary from OECS citizens where a similar pilot was launched? If no why not?

    If there is demystification of the debt figure why the silence from the BES, Social Partnership, Media, Trade Unions and the BPSA to name a few.

  45. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    Probably not in our lifetime. What you may see is a Caricom Central Bank or sharing of monetary duties.

  46. nineofnine Avatar
    nineofnine

    Bushie…

    ..”QUESTION IS…. WHAT IS this business of the GOVERNMENT -at the highest level- coming out to support a PARTICULAR player in this money game?”….

    If a Government is up shite street financially and there’s an option to reverse the situation using a Cryptocurrency system that is proven a leader, stable, in terms of fiat backed and has shown that investing can result in high returns and societal benefits, should one engage?

    If one decides to engage, which available Crypto would that be?

    The leading Crypto is Bitcoin. there is no Bittcoin.

    Bitcoin is not licensed easily to any Exchange or platform, fortunately Bitt has been allowed to trade Bitcoin on its platform, which as you know is managed by a “son of the soil”. Don’t you think that home drums should beat first?
    Who knows what the future holds, maybe Barbados will the 3rd Silicone Valley.

    Barbados has no choice but to explore all options available. They need to change gear as far as using the strength of the Diaspora to generate foreign exchange by using Central Bank to the maximum, offering them great returns and privileges for their investment in helping this forex dilemma.

  47. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    If Govt is going with a trial THE NIS should be allowed to invest in BIIT as a shareholder? if the pilot is deemed ok or successful

    I can just imagine the transaction fees on BDS million that GOB does in transactions yearly?

  48. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @WW&C
    you mission Mia, should you decide to accept it, is a full review of the NIS .As always, should you or any of your Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape/disc will self-destruct in ten seconds. Good luck, Mia.

    It has been 12 years since the NIS has issued an annual report. ALL of their loan activity needs analysis. To date, I haven’t heard of any Board changes? Mr Carrington seems to have a new role, is he still the Managing Director (CEO)?

    You like to piss on COW, and maybe you are correct. It was also rumoured the GoB owed at least one of his companies money, possibly a NIS loan was to offset monies owing elsewhere? the only thing I am confident of, is unravelling the NIS will produce a mass of pottage. Thus far, this administration has been reluctant to pursue these matters. Given the NIS stature and involvement in a wide cross section of financial matters, it should be on the #1 list.

  49. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    “demystification”….why because there is a total? The significant individual components remain a bit of a guessing game?
    One half of Barbados remains in shell shock, one quarter responds by various forms of blame which echo “it can’t be so”, and the remaining 25% are proud to gloat “I told ya so”.

  50. David Avatar
    David

    There is a significant % occupied at this time with a feeling of resignation.

    When the confidence of a people compromised it will call for work!

    >

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