The Upper House is currently debating the Estimates 2020 – 2021. Debating is a strange word given the fact the Barbados Labour Party won all the seats in parliament 30 to 0. A wart of the government system.
The 2020 -2021 Draft Estimates document
Follow the debate from 10AM of Parliament TV.
http://www.youtube.com/c/BarbadosParliamentChannel
@ Hal
I guess folks prefer to hear from the PM when it’s a subject such as this.
Don’t forget Stuart refused to talk and paid a deservedly high price.
NO
Natural disaster clause Not Hurricane clause
How was the woman being treated unfairly when this type of transaction was the kas of the land for approx 6 years
And is a Copy of what goes on in canada
Bare BS cause the asses dont want to admit their ignorance/wrong
Law of the land
@R.G.
come on. It works both ways?
If a price is 39.99, the books record 39.99, but the cashier float is increased by $0.01, as the customer pays $40. If the price is $40.02, the books record 40.02, but the cashier float is now decreased by 2 cents, as the customers pays $40. At the end of most shifts, with thousands of transactions, the float is rarely off by more than a few cents.
If it costs a country 175 cents to acquire 100 cents in coin, keeping the cent makes no sense, {Quote}
@ NorthernObserver
You should tell that to Baje.
He was the one who talked about money stolen from customers. I just illustrated, using the same method of calculation he used, that the transaction does work both ways and at the end of the day, things even out, that’s all.
All of a sudden now, talking about this foolishness is an outcome of learning by rote and some other irrelevant foolish talk about philosophers being celebrated. Just like the irrelevant foolishness about English.
@R.G.
come on. It works both ways?
If a price is 39.99, the books record 39.99, but the cashier float is increased by $0.01, as the customer pays $40. If the price is $40.02, the books record 40.02, but the cashier float is now decreased by 2 cents, as the customers pays $40. At the end of most shifts, with thousands of transactions, the float is rarely off by more than a few cents.
If it costs a country 175 cents to acquire 100 cents in coin, keeping the cent makes no sense, {Quote}
@ NorthernObserver
You should tell that to Baje.
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YOU DON’T HAVE TO TELL ME SHIT.
THE DISCUSSION WAS INITIALLY ABOUT AN ITEM OR ANY ITEM BEING SOLD ENDING WITH .99 CENTS IN THIS CASE 39.99
YOU CHOOSE TO BRING IN THE EQUATION 40.02.
I CAN BET ANY AMOUNT MASSEY OR NO SHOP RETAILER IN BARBADOS SELLS ANYTHING FOR .01 or .02 AS IN BOTH CASES THEY WOULD HAVE TO REVISE DOWN TAKING A LOSS OR FOR THAT MATTER 96 OR 97 cents..
MY POINT WE ARE DEALING WITH A COMPANY WHO DOES MANY MANY TRANSACTION YEARLY WHICH ADDS UP.
I AGREE WITH HAL AND MILLER IT IS UNETHICAL AND DISHONEST CHEATING THE LADY AND ANYONE ELSE.
IT IS THE PRINCIPAL AND NOT THE AMOUNT WHICH IS THE ISSUE
THE HYPOCRISY IS YOU LOCALS WOULD KILL YOUR OWN BLACK POOR BROTHER FOR A SALT BREAD OR SOME OTHER FRIVOLOUS ITEM FOR THEFT.
It would be interesting to see if- in the ‘darkening’ light of the growing impact of the Covid-19 on a number of economies, financial markets and the international travel market- the Guv of the Central Bank, in a show of professional gravitas, would be prepared to adjust his projected growth figures just as the IMF is about to do for the world economy.
With the world on the verge of a probable pandemic on its hands would the financial gurus in the government be prepared to adjust the recently-laid Estimates to reflect more realistic revenue/income outcomes in light of the possible significant negative impact on the country’s main forex earning generator of tourism which is based primarily on international travel?
@Miller
His next quarter delivery should reveal if the gravitas exist.
The 2012 federal budget states: “The government expects that businesses will apply rounding for cash transactions in a fair and transparent manner.”
The rounding will not be done on single items but on the total bill of sale. If the price ends in a one, two, six, or seven it gets rounded down to 0 or 5; and rounded up if it ends in three, four, eight or nine.
Businesses will not need to adjust their cash registers.
What about the sales tax and the GST/HST?
They won’t make a difference. The government wants the rounding done on cash transactions only after the taxes have been added to the sub-total.
What about non-cash sales?
Cheques, credit and debit cards and electronic transactions will continue to be settled to the cent.
What’s a penny worth?
The government says it costs 1.6 cents to produce each penny.
IT IS A LEGAL AND FAIR WAY OF CONDUCTING BUSINESS IN CANADA
IN BARBADOS IT IS ROBBING AND UNETHNICAL (THE BRITBAJAN CONDITION?)
@baje
again you are wrong
if the woman had purchased another item/s that brought her total to end in .01 0r .02 then the total would have been rounded down to .00
is that being unfair and unethnical also?
when the woman left the store without paying the .01 or .02 would she be stealing, unethnical. dishonest etc?
No it would be /was a fair and legal transaction in both Barbados and Canada
@ Miller February 28, 2020 7:44 AM
Exactly! Our Most Honourable Prime Minister must finally declare martial law. The world is in turmoil. On the many screens in front of me all lines go steeply down. Red lights, where I look on all our markets, where the tourists come from: USA, UK, China, Germany and many more.
And what are the native masses doing? They don’t want to work at COWs plantation, but demand an excessive wage hike despite lack of productivity. And what are the apologists for Barrow’s rotten welfare state doing? All they want is more welfare spending. As Marx said somehow, welfare is the people’s new opium.
Seriously, what we need now is an urgent budget adjustment and emergency measures. I therefore propose the following:
Increase the working week for lazy civil servants to 50 hours, retirement at 72 and a permanent 20% pay cut.
For the private sector, 15% pay cut.
Reduction of income tax and especially the hated property tax to regain the confidence of international investors.
Temporary ban on all demonstrations and unions.
Privatisation or liquidation of all SOEs.
Devaluation of the BBD by 50 – 75 per cent to a new stable level appropriate to the low productivity of the islanders.
But we all know that Barbados is more likely to sink than to undergo such grand structural reforms. And why is that? We need a scapegoat now … Because some Marxist advisors to the government are deceiving our Most Honourable Prime Minister, her Honourable Cabinet Ministers and the people. It would not surprise me if these shadow minions were preparing to overthrow the government and replace it with a regime headed by Chris Sinckler. I therefore express my full confidence in our government of national unity.
@Freedom Crier
“Socialism is a scare word they’ve hurled at every advance the people have made. Socialism is what they called public power, social security, deposit insurance, and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for anything that helps all people.”
—Harry Truman, 1952
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/02/28/estimates-offer-no-hope-says-opposition/
according to the opposition spokewoman, we are saving 700M in the first year of the debt restructuring
According to the junior FM
the government advisor
the pm
Carla D – the economist from trini
the CDB or was it the IDB – think it was CDB
all seem to be in this ballpark.
Only the shopkeeper/ BU official opposition leader seem to crunch different numbers
As expressed earlier, Ihttps://barbadostoday.bb/2020/02/28/estimates-offer-no-hope-says-opposition/MO it saved the Barbados economy more than 1B – —way more!
Wuh Loss.
I hope that Barbados retains an achievement test for Maths and English. Even with these in place, too many of us fail in the correct use of them.
Vincent Codrington
In reading a lot of stupid shite you write on BU I doubt you would pass the Maths and English achievement test you propose in Barbados.
Straughn needs to answer for “misleading” the public.
Sinckler was castigated for a minor mistake.
Straughn is either grossly incompetent or a terrible liar or both. Either way he has no business representing the people.
He also does not understand VAT
Hence the reason Dr. Mascoll appeared on VOB after Straughn a couple weeks ago.
@ miller
Travel stocks are already starting to soften and the Dow is posting major losses already. This mean the average investor is already taking a hit on his portfolio. This is the same person we expect to see on our cruise ship or at our hotels.
The big issue though is the Japan Olympics. Can you begin to imagine the effect a cancelled Olympics will have on Japan’s economy? That alone would trigger a recession there. Add that to reduce travel and global contraction and you have the perfect economic storm brewing.
It is time to declare martial law and seal off our beloved island. When I look at the obesity of the population, we can easily survive three months without food imports.
Lock all steel gates in the gated communities, pull up the barbed wire and activate the electric fence. Time to retreat to your own swimming pool with a glass of Champagne.
@John A
Based on your last comment how could Barbados have mitigated? Is it too late?
@Baje
you are correct, no retailer will price anything at .01 or .02.
read john2February 28, 2020 8:49 AM
You are merely stirring an empty pot, for the sake of echoing “the small man get unfair” and “you peeple too stupid”. Which is by far the most popular refrain on BU. Especially if one can concoct it to appear the big man is a minority, and the small man is a poor black man, and/or, it can be sold as black on black maliciousness.
The principle you are attempting to hammer down, is the locals are stupid and don’t know what they are doing, nor even appreciate when they are mistreating each other. Which is exactly why many don’t care for those Bajans who ‘come from away’.
@ David.
There is little we can do. I heard the PM speaking on the virus and I found she spoke well and was frank. I think we have to now turn the discussion to what we can do should a short fall in revenue occur on the tourism side. Wouldn’t it be nice if at times like this we didn’t have a one leg economy?
Was glad to also hear yesterday 2 persons on the opposition side speak to the need for an urgent growth plan.
@John A
Agree, an overdue discussion. Sometimes a disaster can force change. This blogmaster hopes that the economic challenges would have forced it but it is looking more of the same read trying to squeeze all we can from the entrenched economic model.
The principle you are attempting to hammer down, is the locals are stupid and don’t know what they are doing, nor even appreciate when they are mistreating each other. Which is exactly why many don’t care for those Bajans who ‘come from away’.
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WHERE DID THIS BULLOCKS COME FROM?
I HAVE NEVER SAID THE LOCALS ARE STUPID AND PLACED EVERYONE IN THE SAME BOX.
WHAT I SAY MOST ARE GULLIBLE AND GIVE THE WHITE MAN, POLITICIANS AND OTHERS NOT LIKE THEM A PASS WHILST KILLING EACH OTHER FOR LITTLE TO NOTHING WITH GLEE.
HOWEVER THEY ARE SEVERAL WHO FREQUENT BU RELIGIOUSLY THAT WALLOW IN A LOT OF NONSENSE TO DEFEND THE INDEFENSIBLE..
I DON’T SPEAK FOR ANYONE HOWEVER I WOULD BE STUPID TO CARE WHETHER A LOCAL LIKES ME OR NOT COMING FROM ABROAD SINCE I AM VERY HAPPY WITH MY FORTUNES IN LIFE AND NOT HAVE TO BE AMONG THE BACKWARDNESS TAKING PLACE ON THE ISLAND PASSING FOR NORMALCY.
@ John2
To continue this useless ‘discussion,’ ‘is an exercise in futility.’
However, since you provided BU with information relative to a SIMILAR situation of ’rounding up or down’ that OCCURS in CANADA…………..
One guy who describes Barbados as a “cesspool of an island so full of monkeys with small island mentalities,” and keeps reminding us about his success in the US, (PERHAPS MORE SO TO CONVINCE HIMSELF he IS successful), would probably ‘say’ you wrote that “bullshit to justify the fleecing and dishonesty happening in Bim,”
But, on the other hand, he may probably exempt you from the category of “like a few others on BU (that) use their PERSONAL LIMITED EXPOSURE to show your ass,” SIMPLY because you USED a ‘big country’ like CANADA as an EXAMPLE, rather than making any references to the system being used in OTHER Caribbean islands. (I made that mistake).
As time goes by, these guys keep exposing themselves that although they live in the ‘big countries,’ they’re just as Bajan as we are, with similar short-comings and are viewed by their hosts as second rate lawyers, bookkeepers and journalists………
………….. while also revealing “appalling ignorance” is not descriptive of those who don’t always agree with them, but demonstrates at some point in time, it has been distributed equally among us
Today, the president held a press conference on the coronavirus issue. Why she chose to chair the meeting is highly questionable, apart from an obsession with publicity and a lack of confidence in her ministers and senior technocrats.
Such a meeting should have been chaired by the minister of health, surrounded by his health technocrats to answer questions.
Instead what we had were senior ministers around her like lap dogs. And they appear to like it.
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THIS REMINDS ME OF THE NATALIE CHRICHLOW PRESS CONFERENCE THESE GUYS WILL DO NOTHING TO HIDE BEHIND LIES AND FALSE INFORMATION TO KEEP VISITORS COMING.
THERE IS NOW A CONFIRMED CASE IN CALIFORNIA WHERE A WOMAN had not traveled to China and had not been in contact with anyone known to be infected.
ALSO MANY TESTING KITS HAVE TURNED OUT TO BE FLAWED SENT BY CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL (CDC) TO HOSPITALS IN THE US AND ELSEWHERE FOR TESTING SUSPECTED INDIVIDUALS.
SO HOW CAN THESE “PROFESSIONALS” REALLY SPEAK WITH 100% ACCURACY TO WHETHER SOMEONE IS INFECTED IN BARBADOS OR NOT JUST TO PROTECT TOURIST NUMBERS?
Coronavirus Diagnosis in California Highlights Testing Flaws
Already in deep distress, the patient was rushed last week to a hospital in Northern California, severely ill and unable to breathe on her own.
Doctors at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, near Sacramento, provided the woman with critical care but also considered an unlikely diagnosis: infection with the coronavirus.
Hospital administrators said they immediately requested diagnostic testing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the procedure was not carried out because the case did not qualify under strict federal criteria: She had not traveled to China and had not been in contact with anyone known to be infected.
The announcement on Wednesday that the woman was indeed infected left health officials in California searching for people she may have exposed to the virus and testing the medical workers who have treated her. The case has raised difficult questions about whom to test and whether the nation is prepared to keep the virus under control.
The California woman’s case may also offer the first indication that the virus has spread beyond Americans who had traveled outside the country, or had contact with someone who had.
Even before the announcement on Wednesday, frustration had been mounting among health providers and medical experts that the agency was testing too few Americans, which may slow preparations for an outbreak and may obscure the scope of infections.
“I think the diagnostic issue is the single most important thing that keeps me up at night right now,” said Lauren Sauer, director of operations at the Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response in Baltimore.
CDC officials said on Thursday that they had been unaware that doctors in California made an urgent appeal for diagnostic testing of the woman. But by the end of the day, the agency had revised and broadened its testing criteria, adding to the number of Americans who qualify.
In California, health officials are tracing close contacts of the woman, who lives in Solano County but has not otherwise been identified. Health care workers who have treated her are being monitored for the infection, and some employees at the medical center have been told to stay home.
Officials are bracing for a larger outbreak in Northern California. “There’s almost assuredly going to be a significant number of people testing positive,” said Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, the director of Sacramento County’s Department of Health Services.
The case has heightened concerns about the nation’s ability to test large numbers of people. Only the CDC performs the tests that confirm a novel coronavirus diagnosis, a process that often takes days.
The CDC had distributed diagnostic testing kits to state health departments, but they turned out to be flawed. Replacement kits have not yet been distributed.
Sauer said Johns Hopkins had treated several patients who did not fit the testing criteria, and for whom it requested coronavirus testing. In all but one case, the hospital was able to persuade the CDC to run a test, or eventually identify another cause for the patient’s illness.
The CDC is “pretty much the only place we can access testing,” she added, and the agency has been unwilling to grapple with cases that don’t fit its criteria.
“The idea that we would have to really fight to get that test done, when CDC is saying they have capacity, is alarming,” Sauer said.
“It is a challenge when the most important piece of information — does this person have this disease, yes or no — is not accessible, and there’s no timeline for improved accessibility,” she said.
After the diagnosis in California, the CDC has pledged to greatly expand the state’s ability to test patients for the coronavirus, officials said.
“Testing protocols have been a point of frustration for many of us,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a news conference Thursday. California had just 200 testing kits left, he added.
The governor said that Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the CDC, had promised that state physicians would have a much greater ability to test patients who were showing symptoms, a change the governor said “can’t happen soon enough.”
The CDC has committed to sending a team to California to help track people and make sure they are contacted by health officials about their possible exposure, Newsom said.
“They are being interviewed — points of contact, family members and others,” he said.
Experts said they were perplexed by the CDC’s inability to fix the test’s flaws.
“The obvious observation is that many countries are capable of testing rather widely,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. “Why can’t we?”
The CDC operates two laboratories that test for the coronavirus and can handle approximately 400 specimens per day. Agency officials say there is no testing backlog, but it is unclear whether the labs will be able to keep up with demand if the need — and eligibility — increases testing substantially.
Under the new federal criteria, people with respiratory symptoms who traveled to Iran, Italy, Japan and South Korea should be tested — not just those who traveled in China. So should severely ill patients with acute lower respiratory symptoms who are hospitalized and in whom other diagnoses have been ruled out.
A criticism of the new criteria, however, is that doctors will have to wait until someone is extremely ill to test for the virus if that person did not travel to the affected regions or had contact with a known case.
“If we could identify these people earlier who don’t specifically meet one of the two criteria, or some sort of broader travel criteria, we could get them tested,” Sauer said. “You have to wait until someone’s really sick to push that test now, even with this new criteria.”
Kenneth E. Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, said he planned to appeal to Vice President Mike Pence — whom President Donald Trump named to lead federal preparations — “to order the CDC to develop a rapid point of care test” that hospitals could use to screen patients.
In the meantime, Raske said, the Wadsworth Center, New York’s public health reference laboratory, should be certified to do these tests.
If more community-acquired infections turn up, and the disease cannot be contained, the strategy will have to become one of mitigation, said Dr. Neil Fishman, associate chief medical officer for the University of Pennsylvania Health System.
“That’s a little difficult to do when you don’t have a readily available test, and when the turnaround time for the test can be days instead of hours,” he said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
© 2020 The New York Times Company
https://www.yahoo.com/news/coronavirus-diagnosis-california-highlights-testing-131637176.html
@ Baje
You are right. It is all about tourism and nothing at all to do with the health security of Barbadian people. This is what makes it so dangerous and despicable.
As time goes by, these guys keep exposing themselves that although they live in the ‘big countries,’ they’re just as Bajan as we are, with similar short-comings and are viewed by their hosts as second rate lawyers, bookkeepers and journalists………
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USA, CANADA, UK ARE FIRST WORLD COUNTRIES.
NONE OF THOSE COUNTRIES COME BEGGING TO BARBADOS GOVERNMENT TO FIND THEIR PEOPLE JOBS OR HANDOUTS.
EVEN TO BE VIEWED SECOND RATE IN DEVELOPED USA, CANADA, UK ANY PRACTICING PROFESSIONAL lawyers, bookkeepers and journalists etc………ARE WAY AHEAD OF COUNTERPARTS IN BARBADOS WHICH IS A THIRD WORLD ISLAND BEGGING FOR ASSISTANCE INCLUDING IMF.
WHO increases risk to ‘very high,’ tells governments to ‘wake up’
The World Health Organization on Friday increased its coronavirus risk assessment to “very high” as cases outside of China continue to increase. But officials caution the virus can still be contained if the chain of transmission can be broken.
“We are on the highest level of alert or highest level of risk assessment in terms of spread and in terms of impact,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program. He said the designation was not meant to alarm or scare people, but to alert every country to be vigilant.
“This is a reality check for every government on the planet: Wake up. Get ready,” he said. “This virus may be on its way and you need to be ready. You have a duty to your citizens, you have a duty to the world to be ready.”
At the same time, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director General, noted that most cases can still be traced to known contacts or clusters of cases.
“We do not see evidence as yet that the virus is spreading freely in communities,” he said. “As long as that’s the case, we still have a chance of containing this coronavirus, if robust action is taken to detect cases early, isolate and care for patients and trace contacts.”
Coronavirus updates every day: Get USA TODAY’s Daily Briefing in your inbox
Meanwhile, more than 20 vaccines are being developed worldwide with results from clinical trials expected in a few weeks, he said.
The coronavirus outbreak has infected more than 83,000 people and killed nearly 3,000 people globally as of Friday morning.
China, though hardest hit, has seen lower numbers of new infections, with 327 additional cases reported Friday, bringing the country’s total to 78,824. South Korea has recorded 2,337 cases, the most outside of China.
Here’s the latest on the outbreak of COVID-19:
Stocks continue to get pounded. How bad can it get?
Retail: Medical mask prices surge on Amazon after CDC’s coronavirus comments
CDC confirms first ‘unknown’ coronavirus case in California that could raise concerns about the threat of the virus
Travel plans? Here’s what travel insurance will cover and NOT cover
CDC gives OK for states to test
In the U.S., Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said Friday that the CDC has determined that state and local health officials can go ahead and use testing kits initially believed to be inadequate. She said the CDC has since determined that despite missing one of three components, the kits are sufficient for accurate testing and will serve as the model of new kits.
The decision, she said, would increase testing capacity and that the CDC was moving “as quickly as possible” to get kits to state and local authorities.
– Doug Stanglin
Dow reels as virus anxiety grows
U.S. stocks tumbled further Friday, deepening this week’s global rout on fears that a deadly virus in China is spreading.
The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 900 points shortly after the opening bell, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 slid 2.5%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.7%.
The Dow plummeted nearly 1,200 points on Thursday – its biggest one-day point drop ever – on rising anxiety over the outbreak. Thursday’s losses put the blue-chip average into a correction – a decline of 10% from a recent high – for the first time since December 2018.
The S&P 500 fell 4.4% Thursday, down 12% from its Feb. 19 all-time high. Following Thursday’s losses, the Dow and S&P 500 were down more than 10.5% so far this week, heading for their worst weekly performance since the financial crisis in 2008.
– David Brinkherhoff
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-workers-didnt-proper-gear-130000439.html
@ baje
It would appear that even if we dodge the virus here, we will be unable to dodge the economic fallout that will follow it.
Look to hear when no growth is recorded in 2020 that it’s the viruses fault. Reason of course being we have a one leg economy and no plan B or fully encompassed growth plan.
@ John A
Have the central bank and the ministry revised their projections?
What we need to do is to increase our food production NOW. But how do we do that at the beginning of a 3 or 4 month long very, very dry season?
Other thing can wait. But people always need food now.
For those people who think that agriculture i Barbados is nothing, and that we should import all of our food from foreign places, what happens when we can’t let the ships into our port?
@Baje February 28, 2020 3:24 PM “USA, CANADA, UK ARE FIRST WORLD COUNTRIES. NONE OF THOSE COUNTRIES COME BEGGING TO BARBADOS GOVERNMENT TO FIND THEIR PEOPLE JOBS OR HANDOUTS.”
United States’ population density:87 people per square mile.
Canada’s population density: 10.2 per square mile
United Kingdom’s population density: 701.1 per square mile
Barbados: 1709.4 per square mile
United States’ birth rate:1.80 births per woman
Canada’s birth rate: 1.60 births per woman
United Kingdom’s birth rate: 1.80 births per woman
Barbados’ birth rate: 1.80 births per woman
I guarantee you that if the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom had a population density of 1709.4 per square mile, we would already have had World War 3, perhaps World War 4, and very likely Armageddon.
What do you want us to do because “yes” we are over populated. Kill our children? siblings? spouses? grandparents? grandchildren?
Tell me what you think that we should do?
@ Hal
As of today no revenue adjustments have been made since the estimates have been laid.
If any of those countries had a population density like Barbados i guarantee you that NONE OF YOU would have been permitted to migrate to those countries. Don’t care how hard you begged, you would not have been let in.
@Baje “A THIRD WORLD ISLAND BEGGING FOR ASSISTANCE”
And please explain to me real-real slow because you know i have the Bajan Condition and learnt by rote (in a first class first world university too, but I took my Bajan Condition there with me) explain to me the difference between Barbados “begging for assistance” and you down in the first world people’s country begging fah a lil pick?
@ Hal
Like you I believe that because of the virus a provision against the tourism estimate would be a good move.
@ John A
Estimates are just that, estimates. If circumstances change, then the estimates must change – or at least an explanation given. Passenger numbers down on BA. People do not want to travel. Most travel is discretionary. Travel show in Berlin canceled.
Growth must therefore be endogenous, what are the master plans?
Austin the president as you call her led in this very critcal time from the front unlike the last PM who led from the back.In my view had Mr Stuart been PM still bajans would be speculating and panicking with no leadership to comfort us.This is call leadership maybe you should look up the meaning.Ms Mottley is following in the footsteps of Mr Barrow, Mr Adams, and Mr Arthur who all did the samre thing.Therefore well dpne to the government and Ms Mottley and the heath profesionals.
A point was made earlier about when Stinking Liar Sinckler made financial boo boos he was torn apart
Suddenly the official apologist ran in to say
“… David February 28, 2020 12:54 PM
Hence the reason Dr. Mascoll appeared on VOB after Straughn a couple weeks ago…”
It is as if, with every shortfall of this administration, the damage control team is summoned
And, true to form, the apologist chooses words that show his bias by using the word “hence”
“…Hence definition, as an inference from this fact; for this reason; therefore…”
And does not even entertain the logical follow on that would strongly suggest that Straughn has misled the people AND SHOULD AT LEAST APOLOGIZE!
Some would hope that he resign but that is wishful thinking heheheheh
But this only underscores the fact that while cussing the Democratic Labour Party is permissible and actively promoted, THE BLP CAN DO NO WRONG!
@ Hal
travel out the USA is also trending down around 11% projected for the next quarter. I think we will have a challenging summer, because as you know we depend heavily on those European package tours to fill rooms then.
@ John A
Why is the president, the minister of finance, not saying anything about the economy? Why the silence? She is now a public health expert. Her fan base loves it…more speeches, more speeches, more hand waving, more speeches…more pictures. I am world class, I punch above my weight..
@ silly woman
You said and I quote
“…For those people who think that agriculture i Barbados is nothing, and that we should import all of our food from foreign places, what happens when we can’t let the ships into our port? …”
Go to Fedex.com and you will see that, until further notice, all flights to China and Hong Kong have been suspended
Lives matter more to these companies than money?
Ask the talkative Mugabe Mottley
@ Pieces
Good point and that is why I have said from day one a true recovery plan should have included agriculture. That way if we lost FX from tourism a vibrant agricultural sector would of reduced our food import bill.
I guess it ain’t as glossy and fancy as hotels from hither to thither.
What is actually happening to this fata morgana called Sam Lord’s Castle? The project was supposed to turn the tide and bring us lasting great economic growth. I suppose with the calamities in China, it’s not going to happen.
Will all Chinese workers who are to complete the project be tested for the new form of lung plague in Barbados at all? After all, native workers can hardly complete the project in the scheduled time because they sleep, eat and babble more than they work on the construction site.
Unfortunately the Duopoly that has failed to engineer any progressive agriculture plan in fifty three years will scarcely be competent to do so in six weeks.
Remember: The buzz word used to be International Business…….
BTW Agriculture was not only dead. The Duopoly made sure they killed it.
Oh , and our wonderful private sector prefer fast food franchises etc.
Sir Kevin ; he invested in agriculture but in Guyana.
Hope we get the picture.
Please stop the crocodile tears and embarrassing apologies. They are getting old. Very old.
Just hope that the iron birds keep coming…………
@piece
Your pdp at work.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/02/28/opposition-wants-stiffer-penalties-for-crimes-against-tourists/
Silent at the death of many, crying in agony at the shooting of one.
Austin i have just seen on my tv , Ms Mottley being loudly applauded for her efforts with a cruise ship with apparent heslth issues along with health officials despite your sarcasm.Tell us what or who have you ever led in anything other than misleading the blog on issues and when challenged shifting the goalposts rather than admit you did not know what the hell you were speaking about.By the way where is your sparring partner Mariposa has she been fired by the Dems as their spokesperson on this blog?
We have people on the blog whose aching daily objective is to search for every negative there is about Barbados, then amplify it.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/02/28/bitt-ceo-exits-company/
Has Charles Jong already been tested on Corona? I’m not talking about the beer. I’m talking about that killer lung bug.
He’s been so remarkably quiet lately. Did he visit relatives in China on any occasion?
We must protect our beloved Prime Minister at all costs. She’s the only person standing between total crash back to the raging savages and civilization. I am firmly convinced that, like last year with the hurricane, she will intuitively do exactly the right thing. She should definitely put Charles Jong in quarantine for a month.
@Tron February 28, 2020 7:32 PM “Has Charles Jong already been tested on Corona?”
But Tron. I’ve always assumed that you were Charlie.
The situation in China is even worse than you think, says this analyst with a history of accurate calls
If this weekend’s Chinese economic data isn’t ‘worse than 2008,’ the government is ‘lying,’ Miller said
Global stock markets are seeing their worst week since the 2008 financial crisis as the reality of the unprecedented COVID-19 epidemic finally kicks in for investors, but one analyst thinks markets may still not be adequately prepared for the worst.
Leland Miller is CEO of the China Beige Book, a research firm that collects data from surveys of thousands of Chinese companies and industry participants to construct a report on the economy that’s more granular — and possibly more candid — than the notoriously opaque Chinese government data.
China Beige Book just released to clients a “flash,” or preliminary, set of data for the first quarter this year, documenting the first effects of the COVID-19 epidemic, and Miller spoke with MarketWatch about what they’ve learned.
“The situation on the ground is materially worse than what has come out in the media,” he said in an interview.
For some sense of whether China Beige Book data is a more reliable source than “what has come out in the media,” here’s an earlier MarketWatch profile of Miller. Throughout the winter of 2017-2018, his firm’s data told a very clear story: contrary to what the government was telling the media about transitioning its economy to a services focus, steel production was ramping into high gear. Some months later, the Trump administration made steel production a hot-button political issue and suddenly the world took note of what Miller had been saying for months.
Those insights are worth keeping in mind as the first official Chinese government data to reflect the COVID-19 epidemic, the purchasing manager surveys for the manufacturing and service sectors, are due for release overnight Saturday. “I expect those to be worse than in 2008,” Miller said, “or else they’re lying.”
The interview that follows, about the impact of COVID-19 on China and what it means for the global economy and markets, is lightly edited for clarity.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-situation-in-china-is-even-worse-than-you-think-says-this-analyst-with-a-history-of-accurate-calls-2020-02-28?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo
I had a really bad cough about an hour ago.
Was it from the air conditioning or the fan?
We have people on the blog whose aching daily objective is to search for every negative there is about Barbados, then amplify it.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I BELIEVE YOU LIVE IN A TWISTED WORLD.
WHAT I BELIEVE WHAT MOST OF US WANT IS THAT OUR PEOPLE BECOME AWARE OF HOW THEY ARE USED AS PAWNS AND TO QUESTION AND RESEARCH ON THEIR OWN WITHOUT DRINKING THE DOCTORED KOOLAID.
@Piece the Legend February 28, 2020 5:38 PM “Go to Fedex.com and you will see that, until further notice, all flights to China and Hong Kong have been suspended. Lives matter more to these companies than money?”
But Piece.
You know that i am always on this blog talking about the importance of PEOPLE. When the big shots talking about politics and economics and other hifaluting tings that are beyond my understanding i always talk people.
So why would anybody need Fedex except something is being sent to some person, or some company which is after al only a group of people. And that something might be a common pin, or a jet. But there is no use for common pins nor jets unless we have people.
No people. No need for Fedex.
All of us, when all is said and done, all of us, all of or lives, our work is in service of people.
No people. No work. No stock market either.
People matter.
@Tron February 28, 2020 8:00 PM “I had a really bad cough about an hour ago. Was it from the air conditioning or the fan?”
I visited a friend once who said that she did not know that you are supposed to clean your fan.
Unplug the thing. Take off the guard. Use a damp cloth to remove all the dust build up.
Return the guard. Plug in the fan. Turn it on.
See what a wonderful difference. Do this at least once a week. Your lungs will be healthier.
And give up the smoking do.
For the air conditioning, get a professional to clean it for you at least once every ten week or as instructed by the manufacturer.
@John A February 28, 2020 5:48 PM “Good point and that is why I have said from day one a true recovery plan should have included agriculture.”
Yeah.
But some of the fancy political scientists and political analysts, especially those raised in “town”, like to talk influential shite about the uselessness of Barbadian agriculture
Of course those same people can get on a plane anytime and go somewhere else.
But what about the rest ‘o we?
I guarantee you that my parents woud not have been able to raise a large family without what aso many people now denigrate as petty agriculture.
But what if all of your children lived to be over 65 because they were fed well directly from the land?
That has made a believer out of me. I beleive in agriculture, and I practice it almost every day.
i don’t care who sees it as a useless activity. They haven’t raised almost a dozen children all of whom have lived to be over 65, have they? So what do they know.
Damn theorists.
@ Tron February 28, 2020 5:55 PM
“What is actually happening to this fata morgana called Sam Lord’s Castle? The project was supposed to turn the tide and bring us lasting great economic growth. I suppose with the calamities in China, it’s not going to happen.
Will all Chinese workers who are to complete the project be tested for the new form of lung plague in Barbados at all? After all, native workers can hardly complete the project in the scheduled time because they sleep, eat and babble more than they work on the construction site.”
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You are omitting the fact that Barbados has been sourcing much of its food from China; from tilapia to garlic.
Can you imagine a country- which just only 60 years ago under Mao couldn’t even produce so sufficient food to feed its self and to stop the dying of millions from starvation- can now export ‘stale’ food in large quantities to stupid black places like Barbados?
Chinese working overseas on construction sites are known not only to make their workplace their living and sleeping quarters but also to use the same site to be self-sufficient when it comes growing their own vegetables using their own bodily-produced manure in the great recycling from the earth to the body and back.
They also have the ‘guts’ to peddle any excesses to the gluttonously gullible local black population.
Those whom you depend on to feed you will always have control over you.
BTW, Tron your reference to the “fata morgana called Sam Lord’s Castle” is indicative of a ‘man’ widely read.
Could a ‘similar’ analogy be employed to describe the ‘mirage’ reflecting the Hyatt Ziva as the ghost of the Bajan Succubus stalking the red light district of Bay street while its stagnant dark house of light flickers over the horizon looking for foreign johns to sail in and rescue her from the arms of the devil called ‘Money’?
@ Silly Woman February 28, 2020 4:25 PM
“I guarantee you that if the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom had a population density of 1709.4 per square mile, we would already have had World War 3, perhaps World War 4, and very likely Armageddon.
What do you want us to do because “yes” we are over populated. Kill our children? siblings? spouses? grandparents? grandchildren?
Tell me what you think that we should do?”
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@ Silly Woman February 28, 2020 4:35 PM
You ought to use your “Bajan condition” to recondition the thinking of your stupid Bajan policymakers who are pressing for a dramatic increase in the Barbados population from around 300,000 to close to an optimal million.
The economically-constrained country cannot even properly house, feed and employ a significant portion of the current population far less a tripling of its number.
What young Bajans ought to do- especially those who attended universities- are to stop washing their reproductive organs in the same narrow gene pool in order to press on with their genetic clothes and look outside this narrow incestuously dangerous gene pool to carry on the bloodline.
“We have people on the blog whose aching daily objective is to search for every negative there is about Barbados, then amplify it.”
There are two major approaches to issue confronting Barbados
Some believe in a full ventilation and exposure to sunlight of all issues would assist and encourage the island in its development. We suffer from the notion that corruption/cronyism/misdeeds cannot flourish in sunlight.
Others believe that we should do what was often done in the past. Stay silent on matters and keep things hidden. Some rush in to defend/deflect/mis-direct on every issue. Do you remember in the numerous shootings how someone suggested that we should move crime off of the front page of the newspaper. That is their idea of problem solving ‘hide it under a bushel’.
Not seeking to convert anyone or to be converted.
You must forgive me.
I saw the words “over-populated” or “over-population” twice this week and am now confused as hell. Weren’t we talking about a population of one million a few weeks in the past.
These nonsensical ideas are given life for a short period and then discarded like yesterday’s trash. I must stop here as the “Miller” has already made a nice flour from that grain.
@ Miller February 29, 2020 9:13 AM
The Hyatt is not a fake. I saw the plans with my own eyes.
The fundamental problem is whether international investors want to build more hotels on our island. This question arises regardless of local building regulations and the attitude of our population or the wishes of our government. Our hotels are very poorly booked in the summer. I have great doubts as to whether further large-scale projects in Barbados are economically viable.
But I have a great suggestion: How about a Corona recovery site for stressed Chinese people?
Let me state at the outset that this is not an attack on the use of Bajan dialect.
I was reading two Barbados Today articles and it struck me that the words of the criminals were written in Bajan dialect and it made me wonder:
When is Bajan dialect used in reporting a story?
Why is Bajan dialect used when reporting some stories?
How does the use of Bajan Dialect affect readers? Does it invoke sympathy or does it convince you that they are guilty?
Does the use of Bajan dialect tell you the social class of the “criminal”?
What subliminal signals are being sent out to the different groups in Barbados?
Happy reading..
“On Monday, during her Estimates presentation, Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw announced that this year might be the last for the Barbados Secondary Entrance Examination (BSSEE), also known as the 11-Plus.”.
Just thought I would give you a little glimpse into the future. This statement will be updated and reissued in 2025 and 2030 and the same discussion will be followed. A few here will miss that conversation, but you have seen the future,
“The blog is poorer for the erudite submissions missing on matters of this kind.”
There are some aspects of this BU blog that I do not understand. It seems as if we target some people for continuous attacks. If the gentleman were to reappear, I am quite certain the same madness would start up again. We lose when we try to silence others.
Silly Woman,
A place is being prepared for my kitchen garden as I type. Hearing you brag lit a fire under my dragging feet. Starting small with the herbs until my feet are wait. I am so excited I can hardly wait! I cannot continue to feel stupid buying things that spoil before I get to use them all when i have so much time on my hands and so much arable land available. Imagine that I can cut my exercise walking time in half and simply work in the garden with healthy pesticide free food at the end of it!
Sweet!
What am I hearing in this debate? A person demanding wage increases in the private sector? The argument is that the state has also increased civil servants’ salaries by 5%.
Our Most Honourable Prime Minister should hold said figure responsible for this nonsense. Firstly, the wage increase in the public sector was unjustified, due only to a false and childish sense of national honour and no rational consideration. Secondly, the private sector is dead because it is being sucked dry by the sluggish domestic masses who sleep in offices all their lives as civil servants. How is the profit to be made there to pay the private workers better?
Truly, there are few countries with such whiny public servants as Barbados. They don’t want to work, but they demand annual pay rises for sleeping. It would be better if they all slept at home instead of obstructing the private sector.
You people did hear about talk of building island/s off the coast of Barbados?
For those that worry about the list of FX. – havent y heard that the same fear of a corona recession is also pysyi g the price of Oil lower?
There us no needcto change the estimates
It thing get to bad then there is room for a mini budget or adjustments
If Barbados with 166 square miles and 300,000 is over-populated, can you tell me how big these new islands would need to be to hold an additional 700,00 people?
And if water Barbados is water scarce, why do you think these new islands would have an abundance of water?
Just say the idea needs further thought and avoid going down the rabbit .
——————————————————————xx—————————————————
The idea of one of these new islands attacking, occupying the’ homeland’, moving the capital and changing the flag amuses me somewhat
@ Theo
The kind of money required to buy a spot on one of these islands will be out of the reach of Bajans.
In other words the Mustique approach.
@ Tron February 29, 2020 10:27 AM
“The Hyatt is not a fake. I saw the plans with my own eyes.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
So too were those concocted by David Ames & his business cronies with their convincingly attractive Harlequin investment projects.
Tron, all ‘construction’ plans are nothing but ‘fake’ projects (images or unapproved sketches of people’s imaginations) until they are realized by conversion into physical structures employing capital, land and labour.
The Hyatt project has both the land and labour at its disposal.
Now you can fill in the blank of the puzzle which has been in the public domain for the last 5 years.
Why not enquire of the principal(s) behind the project about its sources of financing especially in the current light exposing the vagaries of tourism based on international travel and high-rise hotels?
Don’t get the miller wrong. He is all for the physical, environmental and economic resurrection of the dying Bridgetown.
But he is not like the Judas but more like the doubting Thomas who is demanding evidence of sources of funds equivalent to the stigmata of real money before offering 100% support.
The current MoT had promised, a few months ago, that the Lighthouse on the Carlisle Bay would, by February2020, be turned into an early signal (flashes of light of reality) to the presence of a lighthouse type beacon of economic hope for the nation already overburdened with your welfare-dependent parasites and looking for some type of ‘working’ light at the end of the tunnel other than a freedom park of a 1940’s dream of recreation and relaxation.
@Donna February 29, 2020 11:48 AM “Silly Woman, A place is being prepared for my kitchen garden as I type. Hearing you brag lit a fire under my dragging feet.”
Thanks Donna. Best compliment i’ve ever received on BU, because as you know the BU people ain’t easy
Best wishes. And pray for enough rain at the right times.
I recently planted about 50 holes of cassava, because cassava is an indigenous crop is is extremely drought resistant as well as being resistant to pests. All being well I’ll plant about another 100 holes as the rains come in. 150 plantings x by a minimum of 5 pounds each yeilds about 750 pounds of good quality complex carbohydrate.
Our old people understood that in hard times a belly full of pone is just as good as a belly full of pudding.
Will plant some sweet potatoes and okras once the rain starts and will plant some yams in early May.
A friend just brought me a weeks worth of chives and greenbeans whic she grew at home in raised garden beds, that is the blue bins cut in half lengthwise.
And of course the sunshine and exercise is an invaluable side benefit.
@Miller February 29, 2020 9:13 AM “…food from China; from tilapia to garlic.”
No need to import garlic. Garlic grows easily, is drought resistant, and resistant to many pests. I grown mine in a pot and re-pot once each year. The plant flowers and self propagates, so be careful that you don’t end up with far more that you wish to have. I chop the leaves and add to most of my meat dishes. The leaves are milder than the cloves, really great added to a ground beef sauce with tomatoes, sweet basil and parsley. A little pasta and you are good. Cheap, tasty, filling, nutritious.
Basil grows very easily too. Grow it in a corner or a pot or it might try to take over all of your space.
Silly Woman,
Will rely on you for tips as i go along.
@ Baje
De more you post, de more de ole man getting to like you!
You said, while responding to the Honourable Blogmaster, and de ole man quotes
“…I BELIEVE YOU LIVE IN A TWISTED WORLD.
WHAT I BELIEVE WHAT MOST OF US WANT IS THAT OUR PEOPLE BECOME AWARE OF HOW THEY ARE USED AS PAWNS AND TO QUESTION AND RESEARCH ON THEIR OWN WITHOUT DRINKING THE DOCTORED KOOLAID…”
You, and many newcomers here, have all come to the understanding that, AS LONG AS WUNNA IS SINGING FROM The Mugabe Canticles, wunna is unpatriotic and treasonous!
The process of repeatedly telly people “it is okay to have a different opinion AND TO VOICE IT, in Barbados, HAS BEEN A HARD ONE!
Can you imagine if my 115 year old mother, 30 years older dan de ole man (wunna behave wunnaselves) was to come back from she grave in Westbury HOW MANY LIKS I WAS GINE GET FOR ALL DE RHs de ole man use heah pun Barbados Underground?
She was gine murderize de ole man for my nasty mouf.
But it is good to see dat over the course of time people starting to wake up and talk duh talk.
You will know it is at it’s best level when de Honourable Blogmaster say dat he gine close down BU!
But keep on Trucking Baje!
@ de Honourable Blogmaster
PLEASE BAN TRON!!!
HE MEK DE OLE MAN HAVE AN ACCIDENT!
IN ME BED!
IN ME CLOTHES!
Look how it happen!
“…We must protect our beloved Prime Minister at all costs. She’s the only person standing between total crash back to the raging savages and civilization.
I am firmly convinced that, like last year with the hurricane, she will intuitively do exactly the right thing.
She should definitely put Charles Jong in quarantine for a month…”
Tron write dat shy$e and de ole man read um, bust out laughing UNCONTROLLABLY, and mess me pants! (Not Hants)
I come pun me suddenly Honourable Blogmaster as man!
Tron does talk pure undistilled shy$e without blinking! Seriously!!
All de time!!!
I mean dem got men who does come heah an give a little comedy some of de time……but Tron does talk ingrunce all de time!
He is a master of sarcasm and tongue in cheek!
Dis sort of ting is not good for ole menses my age good ting de reflux was solid OR I WAS GINE GOT TO BUY A NEW MATTRESS!
Newsbreak:
Legendary Social activist of World repute Piece the Legend (dat introduction got dem vex enough) today passed away most ignominiously!
The social commentator whom the Pair of Rented Jackasses, said was a shy$e talked proved the two confirmed poochlickers to be true!
He was found in a pile of shy$e with his samsung tablet covered in excrement!
The website on the tablet was on Barbados Underground
No foul play is suspected even though the room smelt foul!
TheO
You went down the ravit while with the one mill people
When that happen Mia will not be around and the will be no Or very little land for agriculture
I just throw in the islands cause that is something else that was three out there that you all dont run with only the milloin people
@ David
You owe me a dollar for the bet that a Tertiary sewage plant Would be buult on south coast by march
SW
U the BU carmeta
Why dont you push your thing other places if you can ?
@John2
You win some lose some.
@ the Honourable Blogmaster your assistance please with an item here for Tron
@ Commander Theophillus Gazerts
When I read that article you provided de ole man wept crocodile tears!
Look at what De PdP get authorized to write.
“…A call has been made to look at increasing the punishment for those who commit crimes against visitors to Barbados.
It has come from Scott Weatherhead, tourism spokesman for the People’s Party for Democracy and Development.
He made the suggestion Thursday, saying stronger punishments would have a better effect than first trying to improve regulation of the non-traditional accommodation sector….”
What sort of jobby is this?
Who tell he to write dis useless chvunt!
“…A call has been made to look at increasing the punishment for those who commit crimes against visitors to Barbados…”
Instead of looking for votes from Bajans by writing
“…The PDP is calling on the Rass**le Courts to look at increasing the punishment for those tourists who break de law or commit crimes against bajans while in Barbados…” he writing chvunt bout locking up bajans WHO GINE GET LOCK TO FVUCK UP ANYWAYS!
And how comes it dat dem ent say Rass**le Word One bout Senator Caswell Franklyn robbery, A BLACK MAN, and now talking bout a white man ?
You see de optics heah?
@ Miller February 29, 2020 4:24 PM
You’re right again.
It seems to me that there are two major problems that the official press is keeping quiet about:
First, the apparent overpopulation of the island. We are totally dependent on tourism, but this sector offers only limited profitability and a limited number of jobs. However, the breeding behaviour of the natives in the past was similar to that of a typical developing country, so we now have a large surplus of people. OSA tried to get all these lazy bums into government service. The consequences are well known. Solution: The government must persuade at least 50,000 civil servants and slackers at SOEs to emigrate. However, only those who are on our pockets, not the top performers in society.
Secondly, the collapse of the manufacturing sector. You can hardly get locally produced furniture in Barbados today. Those totally useless UWI graduates can’t even hammer a nail into the wall, let alone work in the fields. Instead they lurk around in offices and – as Deep Southerners – they are almost frozen and hibernating because of the air conditioning.
The Weatherhead man is obviously considering the dollar damage to the tourism industry and not the human value of the tourist. He is thinking that without the tourism industry many Bajans would starve to death. Therefore I do not think he is valuing the tourist higher than the Barbadian. He is ultimately making the connection between the well being of the tourist and the tourism industry and the well being of the Barbadian. He is thinking stiffer penalties would deter crime against tourists but has forgotten that that only means more crime against us. When a man is looking to steal he will find a target. If it is not the tourist it will be the residents. But here’s a thought – if the tourism industry collapses there will still be more crime against locals but probably only a few will have something worth stealing.
There is no simple solution to this problem. His solution was stupid and insensitive, especially with his colour, that of the tourist and our history of slavery.
Donna,
It is a fact that Singapore is so safe because the authorities use draconian punishments against all criminals, from flogging to death penalty.
Look at Singapore and Barbados. In 1960, both countries were at the same level of development. Now Singapore is at the forefront and Barbados has fallen back to the level of many other failed countries in South America and Africa. Singapore is clean, modern and rich. In Barbados, the local academics, the so-called middle class, beg for food on Broad Street. That is a fact.
The main problem on many Caribbean islands is that the upper and middle classes sympathize with the criminals as long as they have the same colour. They don’t care if the country breaks up. The main thing is to show solidarity. This act of solidarity is also the reason why foreign companies in Barbados do not want Barbadians as managers. They don’t want a human resources manager who turns a blind eye when the majority of workers are late every morning and go home early.
In Barbados in the 21st century everything is justified with slavery before 1834: The poor work ethic, corruption, crime, financial illiteracy of the population and so on. Stop lying to yourself.
@ Tron March 1, 2020 4:05 PM
“Look at Singapore and Barbados. In 1960, both countries were at the same level of development. Now Singapore is at the forefront and Barbados has fallen back to the level of many other failed countries in South America and Africa. Singapore is clean, modern and rich. In Barbados, the local academics, the so-called middle class, beg for food on Broad Street. That is a fact.”
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You got it ‘slightly incorrect’, Tron!
In the 1960’s Barbados was way ahead of Singapore on the pathway to social and economic development.
Even up to the early 1990’s Barbados was ahead of Singapore on UN Human Development Index being rated at No.19; whereas Singapore was at some place in the 30’s.
Today the same Singapore is at No.9 compared to Barbados’s dramatic fall from grace and languishing somewhere in the 50’s.
And all this occurred while the UWI was churning out degrees like a paper mill spitting out pulp with the names of certified idiots embossed in a frame of incompetence and laziness.
@ Tron
You are wrong about Singapore and Barbados. In 1965, the year Singapore became independent. Barbados was a more advanced society. Singapore was a swamp, rejected by Malaysia, and used by the British for military training.
In that time, Barbados could have progressed by strides without the Singaporean authoritarianism. We failed because we lost our imagination. We have lost our manufacturing businesses because we all want to be lawyers.
I remember a few years ago a young plumber re-trained to be a lawyer. It was at a time when lawyers in the UK were re-training to be plumbers because plumbers were earning more and doing a more socially useful job..
There is a system of government often described as a benevolent dictator that supports a culture Barbados will struggle to copy. We cannot cherry pick when comparing the two countries.
Dear Hal,
Thank you very much for your fair and balanced opinion – as always.
Tron
n Barbados in the 21st century everything is justified with slavery before 1834: The poor work ethic, corruption, crime, financial illiteracy of the population and so on. Stop lying to yourself.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And here is MY advice to YOU – you should go back and read what I said again and then tell me where I used slavery to justify bad behaviour of ANY sort! What I said was that suggesting stiffer penalties for crimes committed against tourists than for those committed against locals is insensitive, especially coming from a white man, when our tourists are mainly white (and the recent victim certainly was) and our local victims are mainly black and we are still sensitive about racial issues rooted in slavery. It gave some people, even on this blog, the impression that he, being white, values whites over blacks. You should also notice, if you can truly read, that I was not one who felt devalued.
I am one of the few people who NEVER lies to herself. I am too logical. What’s the point?????
Here’s my favourite quote – “What is, is and what ain’t, aint” and since I am not God nothing I say will change that.
Now you can take your unnecessary advice and stuff it! Bloody condescending jackass!
Any early numbers on the nos of people who returned for the “ Gathering”
@Hal Austin March 1, 2020 4:36 PM “I remember a few years ago a young plumber re-trained to be a lawyer. It was at a time when lawyers in the UK were re-training to be plumbers because plumbers were earning more and doing a more socially useful job..”
I would bet anything the young idiot was one of your close kin.
It’s amazing that some on BU can write with such authority on why any particular event occurred.
The manufacturing sector started to collapse over a quarter century ago. It failed because we simply failed to protect our manufacturers from the importation of vastly inferior products.
Another factor was serious under minding of some black manufacturers by other ethnicities who either sabotaged the businesses or used readily available cash to put them out of business by unfair competition.
Of course at the top of all that was a very uncooperative banking sectors.
All of these comparisons to Singapore reveal one single fact: The Duopoly paid lip service to the cry of people who look like them who were in manufacturing. There was no efforts to finance innovation and assistance with export opportunities.
Sometimes when I read the grossly inferior crap about how lazy we are and people spouting a lot of negative garbage about essentially poor people who have been marginalized , I really feel like sending a garbage truck to collect the verbiage and pure stupidness that some write on BU.
The truth hurts.
It also occurred because small manufacturers did not appreciate the advantage of operating with scale by cooperating.
@ Miller March 1, 2020 4:32 PM
Thank you too for your kind support in the name of truth. I’ve obviously stirred up a hornet’s nest of national sentiment here.
TronMarch 1, 2020 8:25 PM
@ Miller March 1, 2020 4:32 PM
Thank you too for your kind support in the name of truth. I’ve obviously stirred up a hornet’s nest of national sentiment here.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
No, you idiot! What you have done is TOTALLY MISREAD my post and annoy me, as most men do, with your condescending, TOTALLY UNNECESSARY advice.
And you were not even man enough to acknowledge your error. That is because YOU are the one who practises self deceit, thinking yourself superior and incapable of making an error.
Jackass!
Another factor was serious under minding of some black manufacturers by other ethnicities who either sabotaged the businesses or used readily available cash to put them out of business by unfair competition.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
YOU SEEM TO BE CAUGHT UP WITH BLAMING EVERYTHING OUTSIDE OF OTHER ISSUES SUCH AS PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
I AM NOT GOING TO DISMISS BANKING AND LARGER COMPANIES COMING INTO THE FRAY.
HOWEVER I WILL GIVE ONE CASE FIRST HAND.
I HAVE A RELATIVE WHO HAS BEEN IN MANUFACTURING FOR OVER 40 YEARS WHO USE TO BE ONE OF THE MAIN MASS SUPPLIERS TO A LOCAL ISLAND WIDE RETAILER.
HE WOULD MAKE ITEMS IN LARGE QUANTITIES AND SELL WHOLESALE FOR ABOUT 20% WHAT WOULD EVENTUALLY BE SOLD IN THE STORES (80% PROFIT AND THEN COMPLAIN BITTERLY ABOUT HE AND HIS WORKMEN/WOMEN WORKING LONG HOURS TO PRODUCE AND HIS VERY LOW PROFIT MARGINS.
SOME YEARS AGO I TOLD HIM THAT I COULD HELP HIM TO DO BETTER BY SELLING DIRECT TO THE PUBLIC BY HELPING HIM OPEN A STORE IN A BUSY SHOPPING PLAZA.
HOWEVER HE WANTED ME TO HANDLE ALL THE RISK FINANCIALLY.
I SAID TO HIM COULD NOT BE SERIOUS SINCE HE HAD PROBLEMS MANAGING MONEY AND WAS A FUNCTIONAL ALCOHOLIC.
THIS LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY WAS PREVALENT AMONG MANY SMALL MANUFACTURERS LOCALLY WHO USED THE BOTTLE AS A PROP OR CHASING WOMEN WHILST STILL ASKING FOR HIGH PRICES FOR THEIR PRODUCTS AND NOT TAKING PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR NEGATIVE BEHAVIOR.
THE WORLD MOVED ON WHILST THESE MANUFACTURERS OPERATED AS STILL 1970 WHEN THERE WAS NO INTERNET GIVING PEOPLE A WIDER CHOICE AND THE SAME RETAILERS THEY SUPPLIED GIVING SMALL MONTHLY PAYMENTS TO CONSUMERS VIA HIRE PURCHASE RACKET.
The reasons for the collapse of the manufacturing sector are many and varied. The black businessmen must shoulder their share of the responsibility.
My experience is with the farmers. They refuse to take good advice to upgrade their practices, keep little or no records, refuse to cooperate with respect to planning which crops to plant to ensure a steady flow of a variety of crops and to also prevent a glut and refuse to band together to fight praedial larceny and refuse to pool resources in partnerships and co-operatives. This remains so even with the shining example of the St. George Co-operative to look to and follow. This co-operative is making it work and have done so for quite a few years now.
@ Baje
@ Donna
I have no problem with either of your positions. I simply offered other reasons for the collapse of manufacturing.
As @ Donna says there are a variety of reasons. What is interesting is that we tend to identify the worst examples from within our race . We seem reluctant to speak of those who did everything right , even going penniless at the end because they simply could not get any help or their efforts were sabotaged.
We seem reluctant to speak of those who did everything right , even going penniless at the end because they simply could not get any help or their efforts were sabotaged.
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I PERSONALLY WILL NOT GIVE YOU A CRY ME A RIVER STORY AS I KNOW FULL WELL ABOUT BEING SABOTAGED LOCALLY.
HOWEVER IT IS NO EXCUSE FOR DROWNING IN FAILURE AND SHOUTING OUT THE POOR BLACK MAN SYNDROME.
THAT IS WHY I ADMIRE MOHAMMED NASIR (CONSTRUCTION) AND NEVILLE RICE (JULIE-N) WHOM I KNOW BOTH PERSONALLY AND AS BUSINESS ASSOCIATES.
OVERSEAS ONE IS ALLOWED TO FAIL TIME AND TIME AGAIN WHILST PICKING YOURSELF UP TO BECOMING SUCCESSFUL WHETHER BLACK WHITE OR BROWN.
IT IS DOWN TO THE INDIVIDUAL’S ATTITUDE AND LEARNING FROM ONE’S MISTAKES.
OR IMMIGRATE TO GREENER PASTURES.
WE ONLY FAIL WHEN WE CHOOSE TO GIVE UP AND WALLOW IN SELF PITY.
@ Baje
“HOWEVER IT IS NO EXCUSE FOR DROWNING IN FAILURE AND SHOUTING OUT THE POOR BLACK MAN SYNDROME”
What is the poor Blackman syndrome?
I don’t talk about syndromes ; I prefer hard facts over feel good nonsense. This idea that we should just go about the world believing that Blacks are on some level playing field is utter crap. I don’t care where you are.
We get knock down and we pick ourselves up everyday. We need to stop these old fashioned red herrings and deal with reality when discussing socio economic issues.
If we used to “ drown ourselves in failure “we would have been extinct ever since.
We will continue to beat the odds.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/03/02/the-cheese-is-gone/
The cheese is gone!AvatarArticle by
Barbados TodayPublished on
March 2, 2020
My first 11 Plus class was in 1995 when a friend asked me to tutor her daughter and thus began a journey that altered my destiny. Twenty-five years later, I am still accidentally teaching 11 Plus English. Her daughter had a brilliant, logical mind, challenged by the hidden inferences incomprehension.
In my garden, sitting on a swing and just simply tossing thoughts around, I Socratically questioned and clued her into the eureka moments that only thinking differently makes possible. The result was that we proverbially ‘cut a road through a limestone cliff’ using prior knowledge, higher-order thinking and imagination, incrementally chipping away years of rote learning which had led to a well-concealed sense of academically driven, personal inadequacy. Sounds familiar?
Every year since then, my heart has wept, witnessing bright, able minds, with vastly different talents, who in too many instances, were ‘fish’ being taught and tested on their ability to ‘climb a tree’. The objective: get the grades to enter a school that would provide them with social inclusion of the ‘right kind’ and be taught by ‘the best’ teachers, thereby ensuring a social and academic future that would make their parents proud.
I don’t even want to go down the road of wondering to what extent, for some teachers and parents, our children’s learning is REALLY about bragging rights. I believe that social mobility was the correct fundamental objective of education in 1950. While still incredibly valid in our society, its objective of 2030 must reside in access to creative prospects and competency in communication leading to GLOBAL contribution.
Read, Who Moved my Cheese by Dr Spencer Johnson. The Honourable Santia Bradshaw has moved our 11 Plus cheese permanently and the response is the wail of, “Bring our cheese back, now!” It’s not coming back and let’s be brutally honest – it was old, rotten cheese that had grown detrimental bacteria because it should have been tossed out four decades ago. “Well, what and where is the new cheese?” many will demand in response, as if life is a fine dining experience, being served by Huxley’s ‘Epsilons’, rather than a buffet where you actively help yourself. Here’s the terrifying part – it is for us to find together with hard work and persistence, receptivity and ultimately, love of our country’s best interests.
From my perspective as both an observer and participant in Barbados’ antiquated educational system, the educators’ fear of change is objectively and pragmatically driven and the parents’ fear of the unknown is subjectively driven. The common ground (hopefully) is that both parties want children to be safe at school, learn for the purpose of meaningfully contributing to an independent and fulfilling life and just to be happy. If we keep that in mind and accept that all radical change is painful, inconvenient, confusing and takes collaborative sweat, we can then move on to designing it together without a magic wand.
Parents don’t have a choice, but those in all education roles do. If any feel that there will be too much effort, personal development, discomfort or displacement, perhaps they need to re-think their future. This change is about our nation’s children on a global stage. However, I have hope (and parents should take comfort) because I personally know dozens of teachers and education administrators who are currently silenced by the din of the status quo brigade looking in problem terms rather than solutions. This band of brothers and sisters will get on the team of a learning revolution in a heartbeat with unbridled, enthusiastic support.
Underneath and beyond all of this, is my deepest reason to support the Minister’s decision: behaviours are manifesting at home that parents are faced with condoning or correcting, negative choices our youth are making in society are tossing away innovative futures this country desperately needs and the inordinately high level of classroom management teachers are having to implement is wearing them down, while they try to just get a lesson taught. All of this indicates that our methods have expired and we are on a runaway Victorian train to disaster.
My truth is that if a child is unable to CRITICALLY THINK through cause and effect and fact and opinion (concepts introduced in Class 2, by the way), we have an educational system that is a failure. These basic tenets of thinking have been left unapplied since introduction because our focus is on preparing students for the great Vegas trip to the 11 Plus examination. No one goes to Vegas without the hope that they will win big, even if they know deep down the odds are less than slim. Let’s face it, in our imaginations, we have already planned how we will spend the hundred grand we will come home with and we haven’t even checked in at GAIA yet!
As Nehemiah said, “I have great work to do and I will not come down.” Minister Bradshaw, you have great work to do and this accidental teacher is behind you 100 per cent. Whatever new ‘cheese’ comes, I look forward to the renewed hope in the future that it brings with it.
Julia Hanschell can be contacted on:
smartstudying@gmail.com
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My thoughts exactly!