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Warning to Caricom Leaders – Downside to Citizen By Investment (CBI) Sale

Several Caribbean islands have gone the route of CBI to shore up government revenues. However, as the video alludes, there is a downside to selling ones birthright for pieces of silver. Whether the report is true or NOT there is the negative publicity which does untold harm. The Barbados passport occupies a rung high on the global passport power ranking. A word to the wise should be enough.

Source: Al Jazeera investigation (YouTube)

 

Read the following report left to right.

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96 responses to “Warning to Caricom Leaders – Downside to Citizen By Investment (CBI) Sale”

  1. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    Follow pattern kills Cadogan. Why is it that we never learn to think for our selves ? Catching at straws in desperation.

  2. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    @Vincent Codrington December 1, 2019 12:40 PM

    Very well said.

  3. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Because they never want to do right by their people, the millions they get illicitly from selling out their people is to build them and their crook friends mansions, buy big rides and million dollar condos in the big apple and other metropolis…they will never learn, always trying to be something they are not, always robbing and disenfranchising their own people..

  4. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Repeating myself:

    I am wondering if our 1M future citizens is really a sophisticated CBI where we end up with 1,000 monied citizens.

    My greatest fear is that we end up with mafia (Russian). religious extremists, and/or some ‘narco’ people from the Americas.
    I could have said “bad guys” but I wanted to put some fear in you.

    These local politicians believe they control the police and have power, but they need to reallse that these bad guys may have no fear or respect for the local police. it is not the timid citizens they are going against. They should also consider that their families are on the island and most likely the bad guys families are back in their homeland.

    I am fearful that may “sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. ”

    Done with this CBI madness.

  5. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Full blown madness!

  6. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Why would a RICH person need to become a Citizen by Investment ?

    The likely answer is that they are evading or running away from something.

    Barbados has had its share of expatriate rich property purchasers. How many became citizens ?

  7. David Avatar
    David

    @Hants

    Not all searching out a ‘good’ passport are evading or running away from something. Some legit business people living in watchlist countries use their money to avoid the hassle of doing business and travel.

  8. John Avatar
    John

    My greatest fear is that we end up with mafia (Russian). religious extremists, and/or some ‘narco’ people from the Americas.

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

    Suppose I tell you that I was told by a former politician who was invited to a hotel room in Cyprus in the early 1990’s ( or was it late 1980’s, can’t remember) when other fellow former politicians were meeting with “white men from Russia” regarding a certain deal requiring change of use permissions!!

    He told me his assistance was being solicited but he told them to go screw themselves!!

    Well, not quite like that but he told me he just asked them a question about the permissions which would have let them know he wasn’t interested!!

  9. John Avatar
    John

    Hants
    December 1, 2019 2:44 PM

    Why would a RICH person need to become a Citizen by Investment ?
    The likely answer is that they are evading or running away from something.
    Barbados has had its share of expatriate rich property purchasers. How many became citizens ?

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

    Did Donville’s dentist buddy become one?

    I know he petitioned the court here to be allowed to vote in the elections.

  10. John Avatar
    John

    So if a person becomes a citizen of a CARICOM State, can that person vote in Barbados elections?

  11. Ewart Archer Avatar
    Ewart Archer

    I am a firm proponent of CBI programs for penniless English-speaking Caribbean islands — like Barbados.

    Most Western countries — the US, Canada, the UK among them — have similar programs of their own.

    The legislation — and the administrative controls — that should be in place to safeguard against corruption are well known. The fact that these controls are not in place in Dominica, St. Lucia or Grenada is not an indictment of CBI programs. It is an indictment of the political elites and voters in Dominica, St. Lucia and Grenada.

    News stories about the corrupt financing of election campaigns in Dominica and Grenada have circulated for many years. Yet the voters in those islands continue to elect the politicians involved to their highest offices. Why doesn’t the blog master condemn “the people” and the political culture they have created — instead of putting the blame on the CBI programs.

  12. John Avatar
    John

    I know he petitioned the court here to be allowed to vote in the elections.

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

    Might be wrong on that just recall his name associated with the CCJ decision and seeing a photo of him at the “Halls of Justice” in a news article.

  13. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ John

    How about that invasion of Irishmen who came to Barbados in the 2000’s? Do you think they were all upright Catholic men? Not a single one was a Russian.
    Only recently we had some Irish builders working on our neighbour’s home and the subject came up. With the mention of every surname we all collapsed in laughter. Have a look around Barbados at the abandoned hotel projects then cross-reference the names with the UK’s Serious Fraud Office..
    The funny side is that somehow our central bankers think we have something to learn from the Irish management of their economy.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    @John

    Commonwealth citizens can vote IF they have resided in Barbados for 3 years.

    https://www.caribbeanlifenews.com/stories/2018/4/2018-04-20-ga-barbados-caricom-nationals-vote-cl.html

  15. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Quake John

    You are too sensible for this blog. If someone obtains a passport through his/her cheque book, does that person enjoy full CARICOM rights?
    For a culture dominated by lawyers it is a mess. Farcical.

  16. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Hants December 1, 2019 2:44 PM
    “Why would a RICH person need to become a Citizen by Investment ?
    The likely answer is that they are evading or running away from something.
    Barbados has had its share of expatriate rich property purchasers. How many became citizens ?”
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Bingo!

    You have hit the scam of a jackpot in one.

    Since the so-called first world countries have their own CBI programmes, why can’t these shoppers for passports of convenience go straight to the well-managed main store and arrange their purchases?

    Which rich honest taxpaying law abiding globetrotting above-board business person wouldn’t want to be in possession of an American, Canadian, UK passport any day before that of an Antiguan, Grenadian, Kittitian or Dominican or even a Bajan Caricom passport?

    Don’t Caricom citizens still have to apply for visas to visit many countries of the globe including the Grand ole USA the place of the birth of the American dream?

  17. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    Would an Iraqi or Iranian feel comfortable applying for that Visa classification given the prevailing foreign policy position of the West?

  18. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    @Hal 4:01
    Many initiatives are announce without providing full information. It is doubtful if all of the implications are considered.

    @Miller
    Many of these citizens by investment want to get to the USA. Appearing with a Caribbean passport increases the chance of being admitted to the US

    Two links\

    https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/2071903/passports-sale-why-rich-chinese-are-new-super-immigrants

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-islands-caribbean-investment-citizens/are-the-caribbeans-wealthy-new-citizens-a-lifeline-or-a-liability-i

  19. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Theo

    It is a culture of an inability of thinking things through. Policy is not our strong point. The first thing is to take politicians out of policy-making. They are egotistical incompetents.

  20. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Games people play…

    Entrepreneur Zhi Hua Chen went to costly lengths to deceive immigration authorities that he continuously lived in Canada, paying C$300,000 for passports for his family from St Kitts and Nevis, a month before their Canadian PR cards expired in 2009.

    Chen, whose later application for PR card renewal was facilitated by Sunny Wang, entered Canada four times as visitor “David Chen” using his Caribbean passport without admitting he was permanent resident Zhi Hua Chen – a “deliberate strategy by which he would avoid detection of his absences in Canada”, ruled IRB panellist Craig Costantino.

    Chen claimed he wanted a St Kitts passport for visa-free travel in Europe, but instead used it to travel to China.

    The main purpose, Constantino ruled, “was to allow [the Chens] to travel back to Canada for a month every summer as the appellant’s daughter testified was their usual custom … creating the illusion that they had resided in Canada continuously”.

    Costantino acknowledged Chen had substantial investment ties to Canada, part-owning an abalone restaurant in Richmond, BC, and buying real estate which he “flipped” – but added “I do not have confidence that the appellant has fully disclosed his assets.”
    Costantino upheld the five-year exclusion of Chen last September 13. His wife and two children relinquished PR status.

  21. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ David December 1, 2019 4:12 PM

    And wouldn’t the same “Iraqi or Iranian born person holding a Caricom passport have to go through the same channels of scrutiny when applying for a visa (temporary or permanent) to visit the USA as any black-skin full-blooded West Indian Rasta, drug pusher or petrol station worker?

    Wouldn’t terrorist alarm bells go off when the place of birth is highlighted to be one of potential danger to American citizens?

    Why do you think people from certain well-known parts of Barbados are denied visa to the USA if not on the basis of the applying the principle by ‘collective’ guilt by association.

    Even UK citizens (especially black) have to go through a ‘background’ checking process when visiting the USA. Why not “West Indians with olive skin originating in the ME?

  22. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    True.

    Do not trivialize the fact Caribbean passports permit visa free entry to many countries.

    http://stkitts-citizenship.com/visa-free-travel/

  23. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    David December 1, 2019 4:57 PM

    But not to those top destinations like the grand ole USA without serious scrutiny.

    There are other behind-the-scenes factors driving the CBI sale. Not just easy-travel’ to big Western cities which can be bought in their own country of birth or residence at the ‘right’ price; if only through the legitimate ownership of expensive properties in the same country of desired destination.

  24. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    I had to search hard for this story as I read it years ago, It shows how some of these new citizens really feel about our countries

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmontlake/2013/07/03/beauty-offshore-a-caribbean-passport-for-a-chinese-restaurateur/#18f1acfb6a2a

    Two quotes from It:

    Last November she resigned from a political sinecure after it was revealed that she held a St. Kitts passport. Now the 55-year-old restaurateur has a right of abode on an island that holds no attraction for her. “It’s too far and too hot,” she complains.

    Now she’s a citizen of an island nation that she has visited only once and didn’t find to her taste. “I never want to go back,” she says.

  25. John Avatar
    John

    David
    December 1, 2019 3:46 PM

    @John
    Commonwealth citizens can vote IF they have resided in Barbados for 3 years.
    https://www.caribbeanlifenews.com/stories/2018/4/2018-04-20-ga-barbados-caricom-nationals-vote-cl.html
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Donville’s dentist buddy complete with Barbados ID card.

    https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.barbadostoday.bb/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/pages-67-harold-morley.jpg&imgrefurl=https://barbadostoday.bb/2015/01/01/bim-too-slow-on-tech/&tbnid=hEBY9RPHBEnKOM&vet=1&docid=rx8iiNfS0SqKbM&w=270&h=391&q=harold+morley+barbados&hl=en-GB&source=sh/x/im#h=391&imgdii=00jr52yAu83u4M:&vet=1&w=270

  26. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    Slavery Chapter 2 !

  27. sidboyce Avatar
    sidboyce

    @Hal,
    “The funny side is that somehow our central bankers think we have something to learn from the Irish management of their economy.”
    Am I correct that you infer that Barbados can never hope to be as successful as Ireland, seeing that Ireland’s economy is based on a highly educated and skilled population which has allowed top tech companies to establish there and thrive for more than 40 yeas?

  28. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    Small 2×4 states, with no potential to attract FDI, have no choice but to resort to all sort of financial gimmicks to shore up revenue. When it’s not flag of convenience for aircrafts and ships, it’s tax avoidance schemes, expat investment programme for residency, citizenship for sale etc, etc. On the other hand, we are quick to criticised those few who are lucky to atrract a few chinese investments or loans from china. China then becomes the bogey man . It’s a catch 22.

  29. John Avatar
    John

    Donville and his dentist buddy with the Barbados ID in Malta.

    https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/55029948

    … and it looks as an independence gift to us, (check date of article below!!) a suspect in the death of the journalist in Malta will be examined.

    The journalist was involved in the linking Maltese businesses to the Panama Papers.

    The business man is the head of a gambling and property empire.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/30/maltese-businessman-charged-with-complicity-to-journalist

  30. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    John…….that corrupt businessman got charged with her murder on Saturday, it will take down the dirty government. Apparently quite a few of Barbados’ corrupt got a Malta connection through the same ICIJ exposure, it’s worth watching them closely,, small rats playing in big leagues.

  31. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    And Donville cannot even remove his Secretary designation on Morleys Malta company, that marriage is there to stay…..lol….it’s all drawing closer and closer and closer…watch the rats scamper, but they hardly have anywhere to run on a 14 x 21 island surrounded by water.

  32. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ SidBoyce

    Where do I begin. The Irish messed up their economy in the 2000s, resulting in the collapse of their banking system. Nothing there to teach Barbados. Careless lending allowed their property market to implode, which led to a large number of negative equity properties, and to many Irish adventurers and so-called magnates borrowing to buy commercial and residential properties in the Caribbean, including Barbados. We are now paying the rice for this.
    About the well-educated economy? Ireland is benefiting from a number of global corporations wanted to have a foothold in the EU, pay very little or no corporation tax and have the advantage of cultural synergy.
    Top techs firms are not in Ireland because of skills and education (the educational system is first class, but not exceptional), they are there because they pay little or o taxes. Look at Amazon if you want to see how these companies game the Irish system.
    Put simply, of course Barbados can and should learn from the other 195 nations, but the final choice as to policy7 making must be what is best for us. However, Ireland has nothing special to teach Barbados.

  33. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    All these side issues to distract from the social and economic realities at home
    The Hyatt issue has now become scandalous
    Bloody Saturday would remained sealed in the minds of barbadians as a day of remembrance
    Govt is getting ready to sell the LESC centre to a foreign entity
    The social and economic environment is on skid row
    And not a word of concern
    Distractions!distractions is the word they play

  34. Ewart Archer Avatar
    Ewart Archer

    Discussions on this blog about public administration in Barbados and other CARICOM states should not ignore the underlying causes of dysfunction in the public sector.

    During the colonial period, the region was governed by British civil servants, who established and maintained high standards of honesty, integrity and decency in their professional activities.

    But after World War II, as the Brits were forced to abandon most of their Empire, and political power passed to locally elected politicians, everything began to change.

    Consider the case of Eric Gairy in Grenada. Gairy grew up in abject poverty, but formed a trade union to represent agricultural labourers, and used the votes of his union members to win the first general election in Grenada that was conducted under a universal adult suffrage.

    But within one year of being elected Chief Minister of Grenada, Gairy was suspended from office for misappropriating state funds to purchase expensive furnishings for his official residence.

    Gairy was subsequently re-elected for several terms in office by Grenadian voters, who never saw a crooked politician they didn’t like. He (allegedly) learned to to be smarter about hiding his corrupt behaviour in office, but the point to be made is that his political party replaced the British tradition of public integrity with something entirely less admirable.

    What happened in Grenada has happened in every single CARICOM state. With few exceptions, Caribbean leaders are individuals who were raised in humble circumstances, and have used state power first to enrich themselves, and secondly to obtain the resources needed to finance their political parties and election campaigns. Voters are fully complicit in this corruption, because they ask politicians to buy them clothes, home furnishings and other “gifts”.

    In other words, like their leaders, most ordinary West Indians are greedy, corrupt and dishonest people of lower class backgrounds, and we have no one but ourselves to blame for the corruption and dishonesty some people on this blog like to complain about.

  35. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    @Miller December 1, 2019 4:07 PM “Which rich honest taxpaying law abiding globetrotting above-board business person wouldn’t want to be in possession of an American…”

    Well it might be the little matter of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) those fellas expect you to declare ALL of your WORLDWIDE earnings, and if you don’ t pay the taxes due they will send an armed accountant (who actually has been trained to shoot) ’round to your home or business to collect…ooo, any Caribbean island is an easier, safer option.

  36. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    @David December 1, 2019 4:12 PM “Would an Iraqi or Iranian feel comfortable applying for that Visa classification.”

    Aren’t U.S. visas not granted on the basis of PLACE IF BIRTH, rather than on the basis of current passport? And none of us can legally change our place of birth can we? So holding a diplomatic passport from island X will not increase the “diplomat’s” chances of getting an “A” diplomatic visa will it?

    So won’t the fake diplomat not have wasted his money?

    And U.S. Embassies conduct in person interviews don’t they? So rich person from country “Y” can fake a perfect Bajan accent can he?

    Really???

  37. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    I mean we have al heard of the Middle Eastern born “Caribbean diplomat” who turned up in a first world country, who when question by Immigration officials said he was there t”to see the Prime Minister” He did not see the Prime Minister. He did not see anywhere beyond the airport. His expensive “diplomatic” passport did not get him anywhere.

    Because his place of birth is still unchangably one of those naughty Middle Eastern countries.

  38. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    I am beginning t wonder now, since I can change my gender, how come I can’t change my place of birth? Can any of the bright BU boys answer me this?

    After all my mummy dead, my daddy dead, the midwife dead, the registrar at District “X” long dead, I don’t remember my own birth. So since ALL of the witnesses to my birth are either dead or have amnesia about the event, how come I can’t just recreate my place of birth? After all there is not a single person on earth who can truthfully say “it int so.”

    I think that I should be able to say that I was born in Afghanistan, Zimbabwe or any other place in between, and that any of those countries should be compelled to issue me a document facilitating this.

    In the 21st century, down with this business of tying a person to a single place of birth.

    That has to be some kind of obscene discrimination.

  39. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    @TheOGazerts December 1, 2019 5:30 PM “Now she’s a citizen of an island nation that she has visited only once and didn’t find to her taste. “I never want to go back,” she says.”

    It is too far, too hot she complained. But “far” and “hot” are all relative. I think that Bejing is too far, and I think that Trinidad is too hot, but hundreds of millions of people disagree with my assessments.

    And for St. Kitts this woman’s distaste is immaterial, there are billions more Chinese where she same from..and there are billions more dollars to me milked via citizens by investment programs. People are ALWAYS willing to pay for what they do not have. It is who we are as human beings.

    Leh she galong do.

  40. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    @Miller December 1, 2019 4:50 PM “Why do you think people from certain well-known parts of Barbados are denied visa to the USA if not on the basis of the applying the principle by ‘collective’ guilt by association.”

    I doubt that this is true.

    I feel that Miller made up this fake news.

  41. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    @Miller December 1, 2019 4:50 PM “Even UK citizens (especially black) have to go through a ‘background’ checking process when visiting the USA. Why not “West Indians with olive skin originating in the ME?”

    I am looking here at what the British government tells its subjects:
    https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/usa/entry-requirements

    “You’ll need to get a visa or an Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) visa waiver to enter or transit the USA as a visitor. The ESTA allows approved applicants to travel to the USA for up to 90 days for the purpose of tourism, certain types of business visits, and transit to another country. You will generally qualify if you hold a valid ‘British Citizen’ passport with this internationally recognised symbol on the front cover, and you:

    haven’t been arrested for certain crimes, even if a criminal conviction didn’t result
aren’t a dual national of Iran, Iraq, Sudan or Syria
haven’t travelled to Libya, Iran, Iraq, North Korea (DPRK), Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen since March 2011
can show that you have enough funds available on arrival to support yourself during your stay, even if you’re staying with family and friends
  42. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    @Hal Austin December 1, 2019 4:34 PM “It is a culture of an inability of thinking things through. Policy is not our strong point. ”

    Who is this “our?”

    Does this “our” include Hal Austin too?

  43. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    @Ewart
    Our ideas overlap in several places. However, I would have ended with just “We have no one but ourselves to blame for the corruption and dishonesty some people on this blog like to complain about.”

    These politicians once elected only have themselves to obey. All of these islands traveling on the same trajectory (downwards), unless they manage to find men and women with high ideals and who are willing to put the interests of their country ahead of their other interests.

    We see the same ideas/schemes occurring in different islands.
    We have competition between islands for business and businesses relocating to where they can get a better deal.
    And always, some investors indicating their willingness to move to a next island unless their demands are met.
    Politicians who seem intent on getting as much money as possible whilst in office

    It is difficult to see how with these forces at work, how any of these islands can stop the downward spiral.

  44. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    @Ewart Archer December 2, 2019 6:51 AM “During the colonial period, the region was governed by British civil servants, who established and maintained high standards of honesty, integrity and decency in their professional activities.”

    So Barbados’ “colonial period” began in 1627 and all that.

    From 1627 to 1834, that is for 207 years Barbados was a British colony, and the British “civil?” servants ensured that as much labour as possible was extracted from the black people who were forced to come to Barbados. Explain if you can exactly which part of that was of high standard,honest, and of integrity and decency?

    1834 to 1838 was a period of “apprentiship” How can an experienced labourer be forced into a fake “apprentiship” after decades of on the job experience? Was this not a means of forcing labour our of a people who had already had labour forced our of them and their ancestors for the previous 207 years? Explain if you can exactly which part of that was of high standard, honest, and of integrity and decency?

    1838 to 1937. In 1937 the people of Barbados had to rise up in revolt against bad treatment, hunger, poverty, hardship and low wages, wages which had remained stagnant for 100 years. Do people typically rise up against good government??? During this period people, mainly infants and toddlers died. 220 out of every 1,000 children born, died before their fifth birthday. My own brother (still living, so this is not ancient “dem say” history) almost died. Our uncle had his infant coffin all ready. Explain if you can exactly which part of that was of high standard, honest, and of integrity and decency?

    Barbados was NEVER a place where high standards, honesty, integrity and decency was applied to the majority of people. The people of Barbados survived (some just barely) in spite of British colonialism, and not because of it.

  45. SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife Avatar
    SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife

    Colonial “civil” servants NEVER governed in the interest of the colonised. They ALWAYS governed in the best interest of their beloved home country. After all they all took an oath swearing to uphold the best interest of the British crown.

  46. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    The koolaid in another form has been extended to BU and i cant help to watch how the gullible easily indulge
    Very amusing
    Mia i must hand it to u send out policy measures and just watch the reaction here
    A new set of monkeys drinking koolaid and participating willingly in a monkey survey
    Very entertaining
    Meanwhile the issues at home that daily affect the people are sweep under the rug

  47. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Simple Simon

    Are you the genuine Simple Simon or are you another surrogate? What does the colonial civil servants have to do with the current ,economic , political and social issues in Barbados 2019. Have you too joined the Pity Party. Please get a hold of your self You are out of orbit..

  48. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ Vincent

    You have a stomach for trivia. This revisionist nonsense, people writing about events they neither experienced or studied, can get very boring.
    I find it rather strange that over 50 years after constitutional independence we are still talking about the evil the Brits did to us. At some point we must wake up and accept that we are where we are because we cannot help ourselves.

  49. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ SirSimple SimonPresidentForLife December 2, 2019 8:31 AM
    “Colonial “civil” servants NEVER governed in the interest of the colonised. They ALWAYS governed in the best interest of their beloved home country. After all they all took an oath swearing to uphold the best interest of the British crown.”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    And in whose interest(s) are the modern-day UWI educated civil servants governing?
    If the Auditor General’s reports are anything to go by, clearly not in the interest of the taxpayers cum average citizen named Johnny Blogs!

    The Barbados Civil Service was much better manned and managed 50 years ago than it is today.

    How come public workers with 7th standard education modeled off the British-system could have solved problems facing the then society but which continue to elude and bedevil modern civil servants many of them with ‘Master(s)’ behind their names instead of inside of their heads?
    Just look at the state of your streets and buildings and tell us if the public sector managers of today are better than those who were in charge of workers with only a donkey cart, hoe and shovel or a broom and paintbrush?

  50. Ewart Archer Avatar
    Ewart Archer

    Sir Simple Simon

    Under the British, Barbados was part of a global empire created by military conquest.

    The empire was governed in the interests of the United Kingdom, not in the interests of Barbados.

    The British civil servants who administered the empire, including those who ran Barbados, were following orders and instructions from the British government in London. These public servants did not invent slavery, did not make most public policy decisions, and did not create the poverty and squalor that most black Barbadians lived with.

    When I speak about their integrity and decency, I am describing the ethical standards they adhered to. They did not steal public funds for personal use or private projects.

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