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Government Complicit in the Liquidation Centre Matter

The Editor Barbados Underground Dear Sir/Madam Recently,the Attorney General, Mr. Dale Marshall made some observations about the “Liquidation Center” which has been compulsory acquired by government. According to Marshall, the Center has been deemed unfit by the Public Health officials due to the high rodent infestation among other things. Marshall also went onto claim that…

The Editor
Barbados Underground

Dear Sir/Madam

Recently,the Attorney General, Mr. Dale Marshall made some observations about the “Liquidation Center” which has been compulsory acquired by government. According to Marshall, the Center has been deemed unfit by the Public Health officials due to the high rodent infestation among other things. Marshall also went onto claim that four illegal connections to the potable water supply of this country were discovered on the premises of the “Liquidation Center.” I have some question that need clarification by Marshall.

1.) Were there inspections of the premises by the Public Health (Environmental) Officers up to the point of closure by government? If the answer is yes,the question remains why was the premises not closed before the seizure by government? One is left to infer that either there was political interference by both sets of government, hindering the Public Health Officers from doing their job, or that the Public Health Officers looked the other way,to avoid witnessing all of the defects which have suddenly appeared.

2). The four illegal connections to the country’s potable water supply seems to be a red-herring deflecting from the high-handed manner in which the closure took place. Marshall wants the populace to believe that with the water being disconnected, the business continued apace without toilet facilities. At some point following disconnection, the authorities must have wondered how it was that the business continued apace without a pause. One is left to conclude that there was some kind of tacit connivance on the part of the authorities.

The government seems to be acting in an totalitarian manner in this affair. In small countries like Barbados one must be on guard against totalitarianism .

 

Sincerely

Robert D. Lucas, PH.D.

314 responses to “Government Complicit in the Liquidation Centre Matter”

  1. Lloyd P Gulston Avatar
    Lloyd P Gulston

    Dear Mr Austin

    Thank you for the historical perspective. There are those who would contend that much has been achieved and much has been gain since adult suffrage. But, what yard stick of measurement has the powers that be and those who support them used to measure the progress of our country?

    When we look at progress in the context of economic development versus human development, there is an out of sync balance that indicates a set back in the forward motion of a country’s people due to the existence of social inequality. As a result of this inequality, the situation that avails much in our beloved Barbados is a reduction in the human development index. Take note that our literacy rate does not reflect, truly, that we are 99.9% in tune with all that we have to do to keep Barbados competitive, appealing, and well maintained.

    Our systems that cater to our development have pushed us so far backwards that we are now in a downward spin. As a result, the effects of that spiral have caused us to see the reality that we are in and that is: a major crisis.

    Why must it always take a crisis to wake us up to the reality that we have been operating backwards and have been doing so for years? Are we so intelligent that we have become foolish, hence the reasons why we are reaping the whirlwind instead of harnessing it towards our good pleasure?

    I have long come to the conclusion that during the so called days of plenty when Barbados was alleged to be doing very well economically, that that there was a systematic neglect of developments to push our people towards a high level of awareness, if not realization, that they must contribute towards Barbados growth by become producers and not simply consumers who are always dependent.

    Even if we read the comments on here, some are adamant that what is, must remain as it always was, and what was should not subjected to change regardless of the predicament or circumstances. How, therefore, are we go forward if we do not want to embrace change towards creating attractions that would bring that much needed FOREX into our shores?

    As to asuterity versus

    Dear SirSimpleSimonPresidentforlife

    There is no society that does not have poor people. They must be catered for and helped based on their needs. However, the poor cannot help in a situation where money is needed to change misfortunes. Barbados certainly is not going to get anywhere depending on the poor. They must play their part by understanding that if they are to be helped than there must give up something in order to get something back. This is why, I said, sacrifice for the greater good has to be made. If poor people are living in areas that are prime for development they should be relocated. As harsh as that may sound, there comes a time when you have to face up to reality. We cannot keep on going on over the same things and expect to improve out situation base on old concepts and drab infrastructure. This is why I agreed with Mr Austin and added that the entire stretch of the harbour road should be demolished for purposes of redevelopment that will benefit Barbados. Barbados needs to kick start a WOW factor, and if it is do so, the government must effect further its compulsory acquisition of other key areas of interest for the nation’s benefit.

  2. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @Mr Gulston

    Barbados is a remarkable place. It has produced someone like you while at the same time producing some of the noisy BU regulars. You raised some interesting points.
    We are obsessed with economic growth as the measure of our progress; it is wrong. I think a better measure should be our sociality, how we interact as a society.
    We have become victims to Enlightenment thought, from which GDP has grown; a better investment, and one that would have benefited society more, would be spending a higher proportion of our GDP in education – not jut in getting paper qualifications, but in being a better people.
    This has led to the one-dimensional view hat economic development means the provision of services, and by that we mean tourism, at on end, and white collar professional services at the other.
    In the process, we have deprived ourselves of the skills we once had while not replacing them with new ones. Take law, the most popular professional training in Barbados, there are not transferable skills outside CARICOM.
    If you are a qualified lawyer in Barbados and go to the US you are forced to take their exams; although this applies to most other professions, the barrier to entry is not the same.
    As I say this I remember the security man at my cousin’s apartment block in Brooklyn; he qualified in Panama as a lawyer before moving to New York; on my visits I would try to have a serious conversation with him. He regularly reminds my cousin of that.
    Barbados used to provide teachers, magistrates, prison officers, etc for countries such as Bermuda, the Bahamas, Antigua, St Lucia, St Kitts, and others. We now cannot even provide our own trainee nurses, a nation that once had a feeder line to the UK’s NHS.
    We once had a dry dock, what has happened to that? We once had the Central and Barbados Foundries? What has happened to those – including the collection of skills they housed?
    Just look at black belly sheep and the mess we are making in trying to capitalise on it. We are hopeless. The future of Barbados lies in hands like yours; not in the grasp of second hand lawyers or crooked and dishonest politicians, but with young people like you who resist the hysteria of the mob.

  3. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Enuff December 9, 2019 1:48 PM

    Would it be nonsense to enquire about any pending sale of the Sam Lord’s cum Wyndham hotel project?

    Since there is a new breed of hotel magnates on the local scene would it be stretching the wallet too much if some local investors of the calibre of Maloney & Friends could dig a bit deeper and find another US $ 75 to 100 million on top of the Hyatt $175 million?

    After all, if money can grow on trees lining the ‘Bay’ street to build a tower of uncertainty, so too it can found to rebuild a Castle of a hotel from sand.

    Let’s be fair by putting you on the (end) node of the decision tree!
    As a project analyst of international repute and advisor in finance of the highest order which hotel project would you recommend to your highbrow ‘foreign’ investor clients?

    A babbling bird in the tree singing sweet-sounding promises on the Carlisle Bay of a crooked ‘towering’ imagination or a partially baked pie in the sky for a pirate’s castle with a panoramic view of the less cluttered ‘semi-virgin’ Atlantic Ocean?

  4. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @MTA
    sale? I read the project would be “resuming” and the land at Sam Lord’s divided to make way for potentially another project. This from MAM’s comments at the BLP’s annual conference. Where she also spoke to the ‘resumption of work at Paradise’.

  5. Lloyd P Gulston Avatar
    Lloyd P Gulston

    Dear Mr Austin

    From your comments, I have taken the liberty to conclude four points base on what I think is your trail of thought. They are as follows:

    a) that our system of governance is not essential when it comes to keeping a good thing going.

    b) its approach to capitalizing on that good thing is subjected at times to too much laissez faire.

    c) it is not seeing enough to know when it is time to effect corrective means.

    d) Economic growth does not automatically reflects growth in human, social, and environmental development, nor is a healthy GDP a good indicator that a country is well and good.

    This is very unfortunate, but the truth is: it is so.

    To zoom on your comment on economic growth, we need economic growth but we also need wealth distribution or reasonable wages to ensure that we are in a position to develop the social aspects of a society towards maintaining well-being.

    To this end, I believe, just like you, that you cannot have economic growth without human development because you will be faced with a cataclysmic set of problems as you proceed along your merry way. I mean what good is a growing economy in a ”sick” society, with ailing infrastructure and poor social services.

    Barbados, unfortunately, is in that rut.

    We have to hope that some of the more unconventional decisions of our current party in power is towards the betterment of Barbados. This is why I supported Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley on her tax free breaks for corporate Barbados.

    Many Barbadians will see this as unfair, because the poor must carry the burden of increase taxes. What we need to understand is that if corporate is burden any further in our reformation efforts to bring Barbados back, the fall out will be massive job lost, and that will only add further to our escalating set of problems.

    Will comment shorty to my cut off sentence of Austerity versus stimulation.

  6. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Me Gulston,

    I believe there are other ways of stimulating the economy apart from tax breaks for the poorly managed hotel sector. Our problem in Barbados is a poverty of ideas.
    On May 25, 2018, I was overwhelmed that the grossly incompetent Stuart government, which tried to squat in office, had been turfed out by the voters.
    But within days it was clear that Mottley had taken the wrong turn – defaulting on our debt. That was economic self-wounding. I still cannot believe that any serious economist would have given her that advice. We are still paying the price. However, it is not too late.
    The problem is the prime minister, who governs more like a president, clearly has no guts for details; she prefers photo opportunities, the big speeches with the gestures (these may go down well in Barbados but I advise her to read Francois Caradec’s Dictionary of Gestures), issuing instructions and leaving her underlings to carry out the work.
    In law, in QC’s billing, there is something called a refresher fee; what it means is that you pay the QC to remind him/herself what the case is about. In the UK until recently it was £3000 a day. I am not sure what it is in Barbados.
    The point is that Mottley should cut out the unnecessary overseas trips and sit at her desk and look after the affairs of state, like a leader and not like a QC; drop the nonsense about punching above her weight and get Barbados back on track.
    Sort out the basics; think things through; stop making impromptu speeches and promises that cannot be fulfilled; take advice from a wider range of people, such as yourself.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    The affairs of state do not have to be managed sitting at a desk on Bay Street. She has the largest Cabinet, what are they suppose to be doing? You are the one always critical of her getting involved in every dog fight. We live in an age where meetings can be held using the technology from anywhere any time. Get use to the modern way of doing business. What Mottley is doing is establishing a Barbados presence in the international space, little islands like Barbados must cultivate relationships outside our borders, it has become very important in a world consumed by globalization.

  8. Lloyd P Gulston Avatar
    Lloyd P Gulston

    Dear Mr Austin

    My commenting on tax breaks was to identify with a decision by this administration that I was in agreement with. Please note that I reference the other decisions as unconventional because I hope that they will produce the desire results base on the justifications given.

    It is not my desire, any longer, to proceed in commentary that bashes any person or party unless the evidence and facts speaks for themselves. With the Democratic Labour Party, we had overwhelming evidence of their incompetence, but a lot of speculation regarding their corruption. I was displease to know that it was not desire of this new administration to follow the trails of unaccounted monies and financial irregularities. That is why, when I reference the current Attorney General as one whom you have to be very skeptical about when he presents facts, I reference him on the basis what you hear is not necessarily what you are going to get.

    In the past, I have stated that one of the biggest problems facing Mia Amor Mottley is her indifference. I made those disparaging remarks on the nationnews blog because there was no evidence coming from her that what she says is often what she intends to do. So like you, I found her ”Punching above its weight again” comments to be a reflection of that indifference and a rush of blood to beat chest and pompersett because of a few positive outcomes. Human nature I suppose.

    That said, I have consented to giving her the benefit of the doubt to show us all that we were wrong about her. Until that time, I will reserve any further disparaging remarks until she proves all that we think we know or assumed about her intentions, was absolutely right.

    Let me end by saying this. I believe it is essential for a head of state in trying times to (re) establish lost ground through diplomacy and ”courtesy’ calls. I have no problem with her travels because TIME will provide the evidence regarding whose interests were being served. As the owner of this blog have indicated, Barbados as a small state (in struggle and lapse), needs to (re) establish a presence internationally so that it will not be forgotten.

    We are not stupid to the devices of the DLP or BLP, persons like yourself, and the work of the owner of this blog, must continue to apply the necessary pressure and increase the awareness, to keep the actions of two very dubious parties, accountable.

  9. John Avatar
    John

    What Mottley is doing is establishing a Barbados presence in the international space, little islands like Barbados must cultivate relationships outside our borders, it has become very important in a world consumed by globalization.

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

    She is hunting $$!!

    Any $$ will do because the island’s credit rating is through the floor and many lenders prefer to keep their $$.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    She is hunting dollars that will come partly through through cultivating relationships. Relationships with international agencies, private sector players, making speeches to grow the Barbados brand and help to infuse confidence in an emotional and economic fatigue nation.

  11. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @LPG
    it was the OECD, and pressures it was bringing via grey or black listings, due to its objection to the operation of dual, parallel corporate tax systems, which led to the tax changes. These were the ‘idea’ of neither party.
    Seeking facts or cause in public financial dealings, appears to be non-existent within the political playbook. Rather much talk and accusation during political campaigns, followed by some huffing and puffing, seems to suffice. Nor is this restricted to Barbados. This paucity of evidence, forces a continued narrative of incompetence. Unless you are FIFA of course, the cat got out of the bag there, because somebody broke the ‘code of silence’.
    Every leader has a style. I agree fully, we should rate them upon their results, and not our judgement of their style.

  12. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    World stage .

    Population 5 million

    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50709422

  13. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Hal
    She should look after the affairs of the state like completing a debt restructure and S&P upgrades from SD to B-? Ya know the one you said would end in tears? Unless you meant tears of joy? Yet people think you’re the Oracle.🤣🤣🤣

  14. David Avatar
    David

    https://barbadosunderground.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/miss-ramm-david-seale.png

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