Prime Minister Mia Mottley advised the country tonight that Barbados will impose a curfew from 8PM to 6AM starting on Saturday 28 March 2020 until 14 April 2020. On a personal note the Prime Minister also shared she will be MIA for a while because her medical team advised her to undergo a medical procedure…
Prime Minister Mia Mottley advised the country tonight that Barbados will impose a curfew from 8PM to 6AM starting on Saturday 28 March 2020 until 14 April 2020. On a personal note the Prime Minister also shared she will be MIA for a while because her medical team advised her to undergo a medical procedure this coming weekend. Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw will act as prime minister. The blogmaster wishes her well.
fs2018to2019 March 28, 2020 10:23 PM
Many thanks for the article. We need to get away from this Corona hysteria. Many people die from the flu every year, some say as many as half a million.
What’s real are the economic consequences of corona hysteria. Barbados will stop the IMF programme called BERT because the general conditions have radically changed for the worse. We now need a new IMF programme called STARVE to finally repair the structural deficit in the national budget. That means fewer lazy laggards in the civil service, fewer social benefits and more personal responsibility.
It was totally irresponsible that two years ago that the unions (including the Senator of the opposition) blackmailed to gov to massively increase the salaries of civil servants. There was no economic justification for this. We don’t need a 5 percent salary increase, we need to halve salaries in order to finally become competitive again.
A Canadian investor.
The sun will come out tomorrow!!
Took about 3 months.
Europe started about 3 weeks later and America about 5 weeks.
Europe was hit harder than America or for that matter China.
Maybe America will be on track in a few weeks and Europe shortly after.
Time will tell.
Is Boris Johnson a smoker? it seems not but according to this:
https://www.dw.com/en/brexit-does-boris-johnsons-track-record-explain-the-man/a-48866005
For decades, his [Boris Johnson’s] childhood was described as idyllic, until last year, when his younger sister, Rachel — a well-known journalist and now anti-Brexit candidate for the European Parliament — revealed to London’s Sunday Times that their mother, artist Charlotte Johnson, had been crippled by depression and “a galloping obsessive-compulsive disorder,” which saw her hospitalized for long periods. The young Boris and his three siblings were BROUGHT UP BY A NANNY DESCRIBED AS A CHAIN SMOKING “tower of strength” who took the children on when their father, Stanley, secured a job as a civil servant with the European Commission.
John,
Teenagers are also vaping. They were dropping dead from that alone. Put this virus on top of that and there’s bound to be a problem.
Silly Woman,
https://www.healthline.com/health/what-happens-when-you-quit-smoking#takeaway
Boris would have recovered from any childhood damage of secondhand smoke by now. The effects are reversed.
Victor Davis Hanson on Trump’s strategic foresight.
In times of uncertainly and genuine fear comparative statistics means nothing. Comparing the common flu fatality to covid- 19 adds little comfort. Case in point, whenever there are tragic plane crashes, especially, over a short duration of time, people fear of flying increased. Statistically, even though flying is still safer than driving, that adds little comfort to ones psychology.
This will be the norm when doctors are nonchalant about symptoms. People with compromised immunities are very high risk, especially recent surgeries and such.
“Zororo Makamba had returned from New York with flu-like symptoms and was told by his doctor that it was a regular flu, the family says.
But on Friday 20 March his condition deteriorated and he was tested for coronavirus. The positive result did not come through until the early hours of Saturday morning, but his admission to the isolation facility was delayed because “they were not ready to admit him”, according to his family.”
Prince Donald had to back away from the quarantine idea, even without the virus people get spring fever after the winter and it’s never pretty, add Corona and there will be no turning back, this is a much better plan.
“President Trump on Saturday walked back his plan for a two-week quarantine covering New York, New Jersey and parts of Connecticut, and instead vowed a “strong Travel Advisory” that will be administered by the governors of the three states.
“A quarantine will not be necessary,” Trump tweeted. “Full details will be released by CDC tonight. Thank you!”
This right here is the biggest problem, super spreaders….stop listening to the idiots from the churches, let them get infected and go to hell by themselves.
“Indian authorities in the northern state of Punjab have quarantined around 40,000 residents from 20 villages following a Covid-19 outbreak linked to just one man.
The 70-year-old died of coronavirus – a fact found out only after his death.
The man, a preacher, had ignored advice to self quarantine after returning from a trip to Italy and Germany, officials told BBC Punjabi’s Arvind Chhabra.”
RE: “Actually all he said was America was not built to be shutdown!! TO BE … FUTURE TENSE!!”
YOU ARE LIAR!!!!!
Trump said he’s aiming to REOPEN the US by Easter. And, it was against this background he said: “Let’s go to work. our country was not built to be SHUTDOWN……. this is not a country that…was built for this….. it was not built to be SHUTDOWN.”……
…… and you’re interpreting this to mean “FUTURE TENSE?”
RE: “Watched it live!! Got from it then that Trump was being a real leader!!”
Trump wants to blatantly disregard the effects of COVID-19 and reopen the US by Easter because that’s a “great time” and he wants “to see churches packed all over America,” and you’re calling this idiot a great leader?
RE: “It is actually you who is doing the assuming. I am applying simple logic to your words!!”
I responded SPECIFICALLY to Dan Patrick’s comment re he and some other elderly people he spoke with were willing to sacrifice their health in exchange for the reopening the US economy, amid the rising cases of COVID-19 infections.
You used your misrepresentation of my comments as a basis to respond to issues YOU raised that were TOTALLY IRRELEVANT to anything I mentioned.
And, you’re ‘saying’ I’m the one “who is doing the assuming?”
Are you suggesting INTENTIONALLY MISREPRESENTING someone’s comments is “applying simple logic to (their) words?”
RE: “Woke up after four hours sleep with a fresh clear mind. Many times it is just after waking up that I do some of my best work!!”
Clearly you don’t know the meaning of SARCASM. Because, if you did, you would’ve immediately recognized the word “RANTS” in my comment, was an obvious hint I was being sarcastic.
Your penchant for ‘over thinking,’ intellectualizing simple issues, manipulation and misrepresenting people’s comments, is a clear indication you’re are just an ORDINARY, WEAK, MANIPULATIVE individual who uses the ‘straw man fallacy’ as a technique to prove you are ‘intellectually gifted.’
That’s why you purposely misrepresent or ‘cherry pick’ parts from people’s comments that seem to confirm an opinion you hold, while ignoring other significant portions of those same comments that may contradict your opinion.
Then, you create YOUR OWN arguments that makes it EASY for you to knock down, so you’ll come out looking like the ‘brightest boy’ on BU.
My friend, the reality is, you are a PSEUDO-INTELLECTUAL….. you aren’t as brilliant as you PRETEND to be.
Exposing UKs RACISM to the WORLD…let’s hope Ms. Fighting Imperialism gets the message that her own people from Barbados are not to be SACRIFICED or SOLD to these modern day parasites as slaves and to be the generational victims of racism….400 years is more than Enuff..
https://www.facebook.com/NABSS2007/videos/10157949160132534/?t=64
Worst state in the US is New York, 53,455 cases out of the 123,781 cases in the US.
There are 2.666 serious/critical in the US.
I interpret to mean there is a need for 2.666 hospital beds throughout the US.
Not every one will need a ventilator but in the worst case lets say all needed one then 2.666 ventilators are needed in the whole of the US.
Let’s say half are needed in New York, 1,333.
It is clear Cuomo panicked listening to the news.
He is now asking for 30,000 ventilators.
Trump the consummate manager said you doesn’t need 30,000 ventilators.
Here’s what Cuomo came back with.
“Andrew Cuomo is pushing back on President Donald Trump’s assertion that New York doesn’t need the tens of thousands of ventilators the governor has requested to meet the coronavirus health crisis.
In an interview on Friday with “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt, Cuomo said of the president, “I hope he’s right.”
“I hope no one gets sick,” Cuomo said. “I hope no one needs a ventilator. But — I don’t operate on what I hope or what I would like to see or what my expectation is. I operate on the data and on the numbers and on the science. And every projection I have, from multiple sources, and these are worldwide health experts, say that we have to be prepared for an apex of 140,000 hospital beds and 40,000 ICU beds with ventilators.”
Back on 24th March Trump was sending 4000 respirators.
https://patch.com/new-york/new-york-city/trump-will-send-4k-ventilators-nyc-speaker-says
Then, officials were asking for 150,000 ventilators.
“New York City needs 15,000 ventilators to meet the demand of a COVID-19 outbreak expected to peak in two weeks, officials have said. ”
The Trump administration will send New York 4,000 ventilators after an outraged Gov. Andrew Cuomo reported the new coronavirus would slam the state in just two weeks and New Yorkers would die without federal assistance.
New York will receive 2,000 of the machines Tuesday and 2,000 more Wednesday, meeting about an eighth of the 30,000 ventilators that Mayor Bill de Blasio estimated are needed, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson confirmed.
“New York will hold them to this and we expect more ASAP to combat the outbreak,” Johnson tweeted. “We still need more from the federal government.”
Two thousand will be sent to New York City, said Mayor Bill de Blasio, who said the machines would mean life or death for seriously ill COVID-19 patients.
“[Without the ventilator] That patient will suffocate,” the Mayor said. “That patient will die a horrible death.”
Trump is the man of the moment.
He is keeping his head when all around him people are losing theirs.
Stable genius.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
This was written 125 years ago about Trump!!
Cuomo is the cause of the debacle in New York.
He is panicking and yet Trump is still carrying him to a position where he can make amends.
Same goes for other governors.
Artax
March 29, 2020 4:08 AM
RE: “Actually all he said was America was not built to be shutdown!! TO BE … FUTURE TENSE!!”
YOU ARE LIAR!!!!!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here it is again, plain as day!!
A beautiful morning to all of Barbados.
May God be with you, your leaders and the nation.
May he fill your leaders with wisdom as they make their decisions
Have a Great Day Barbados
Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations, Colin Jordan, expects there will be more reliance on the agricultural sector in Barbados, given the impact of COVID-19 on the economy.
https://www.cbc.bb/2020/03/27/agriculture-will-be-crucial-during-covid-19-impact/
@Hants
Slowly but surely…
>
@John March 29, 2020 7:21 AM
“This was written 125 years ago about Trump!!”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If you can make such outlandish a claim that Rudyard Kipling wrote that poem “IF” (about the yin-yang concept of Life’s triumphs & accompanying disasters) specifically to predict the rise of the genius Trump, wouldn’t it be just as farfetched to make a similar conspiratorial claim that Nostradamus also predicted the rise of a madman living in the head of the same Jekyll and Hyde genius?
“The great shameless, audacious bawler,
He will be elected governor of the army:
The boldness of his contention,
The bridge broken, the city faint from fear.”
This is also the perfect time to cultivate and to carry out intensive research on the Marijuana industry. It has so many uses. One of the benefits of Marijuana plant which is often forgotten is its ability to cleanse the soil. Land that has been saturated with chemicals can be cleaned up with the extensive planting of the Marijuana plant. Perhaps GP or Dr Lucas would be able to confirm this.
@ Hants March 29, 2020 9:14 AM
Hants, it seems that the Bajan’ powers-that-be’ have at last removed their blinkers and ear plugs and have started to see the light you (and a few enlightened others on BU).
A bright light of commonsense which has been constantly spotted in their faces for the last ‘lost’ decade during which poor Barbados was experiencing her economic woes but borrowing from the foreign loansharks to keep up the appearance of opulence and to satisfy the yearnings of blatant greed?
Covid-19 is simply the carrier encoded with the message:
“Food comes first!” Signed:
Carmetta Fraser, Forex or No forex!.
Which overseas suppliers would ship food to ‘poor-great’ little Barbados (with so much land lying idle) while their own people or their big friends are in need?
If the Trinidad government could perpetrate such inhumane acts of disowning their very own stranded on their way back home in times of crisis, what do you think it would do when Bajan importers (and distributors owned by Trinidad-owned and controlled conglomerates) seek to source food from that country or from their commission agents in Florida?
So the “C” in Covid stands for Carmeta!
Carmeta Orders Vegetables In Dirt!
Now I see why Artax did not want me to talk about Trump! He wanted the job himself! lol
TLSN
March 29, 2020 9:34 AM
This is also the perfect time to cultivate and to carry out intensive research on the Marijuana industry. It has so many uses. One of the benefits of Marijuana plant which is often forgotten is its ability to cleanse the soil. Land that has been saturated with chemicals can be cleaned up with the extensive planting of the Marijuana plant.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
…………. but for heaven’s sake, don’t smoke it!!
It won’t cleanse your lungs!!
Donna
March 29, 2020 10:16 AM
Now I see why Artax did not want me to talk about Trump! He wanted the job himself! lol
++++++++++++++++++++++++
You better help he/she out.
He/she mekking a mess of heself/sheself
If proving you’re a JACKASS is “making a mess of myself,” then……….
@ John March 29, 2020 10:46 AM
“… but for heaven’s sake, don’t smoke it!!”
It won’t cleanse your lungs!!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Agree that smoking marijuana, like tobacco, is not good for human health.
Burning vegetable matter can convert beneficial natural chemicals contained therein into toxic substances which could be harmful to the human body.
How about treating it like a kind of vegetarian “burnt offering” as stipulated in your book of Jewish obeah and voodoo?
It might just keep away the evil Covid from visiting the altar of infestation.
Is it true, Quaker John, that the Quakers of old used to drink hemp tea instead of the daily ration of rum aka kill-devil?
Not really, John. The rest of us can see that you are just frustrating him with your pretzel logic. He has already acknowledged that you are a master at that. We know that Trump meant the present. Language is a funny thing but we know that you are twisting it. That is your MO.
Fortunately, I am in The Chill Room, so twist away
Artax, if you must hit your head against a brick wall try hitting this one!
Trumps policies now conventional wisdom!!
Miller
March 29, 2020 11:39 AM
Is it true, Quaker John, that the Quakers of old used to drink hemp tea instead of the daily ration of rum aka kill-devil?
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Mount Gay Rum claims its origins in 1703.
Families were all Quakers.
So this Rum was a Quaker brew!!
Beer and ales were also made by Quakers.
“And so, in the words of William Bradford, landed the Pilgrims on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the small cargo ship Mayflower in 1620. European-style brewing was soon underway on the American continent, but often with whatever could be found or grown. By 1670, the English Quaker John Fenwick arrived to found the town of Salem, New Jersey, and noted that his fellow settlers “straightaway busied themselves in erecting breweries for manufacturing beer for common drink.”
Alcohol is a poison but it disinfects!!
It was commonly used from the year dot to kill bacteria before it killed you.
GP reminded me that it is written in the Bible:”Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.”
https://biblehub.com/1_timothy/5-23.htm
The question really would be does hemp have the disinfectant qualities of alcohol?
Would making hemp tea be justified when alcoholic beverage were available?
That would determine if hemp tea was consumed in the past.
My supposition is people stuck with what they knew worked from Biblical times an stuck with their alcohol.
Just a little education for you!!
China botched its handling of the virus, weakens it and strengthens America.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/03/coronavirus-china-response-will-weaken-it-on-world-stage/
This may help calm the troubled and panicked among us.
PLT have a read.
You are not using the numbers sensibly.
John,
Watched a documentary on Prohibition that said beer was drunk by the masses because they did not trust the water.
I resumed my stroll this morning at about 8.40am. Bay street is practically deserted. There are no pedestrians and the occasional vehicle passes. It is really very silent. It reminds me of my walks starting from any where between 2.30 am and 3,00am.when I go from Bay Street to St .George’s Secondary School and back. The curfew has put paid to that. Passed by Jordan’s Supermarket. I am shocked. There are not many people in the line, but some type limitation on numbers seem to be in place Proceeded to Roebuck street. Since this thing has started haven’t been this side of the world. See my friend Lambert who is about 86 and is still consuming the drinks by the Green Fields.. He shouts me off, asking if I am shopping. Tells him yes and that I will be back shortly. Buy a pint bottle of Diamond Rum. Lionel C. Hill is well organized. One person in.one person out. No crowd when I was there. Lambert wants me to come up with a sanitizer. Tells him to wash his hands with soap and water. Tells me he has been doing so since he was a boy. But tells me I am the scientist. Tells him that if his immune system is okay he has nothing to worry about,
Walk up Roebuck Street. into Hall’s road. Visit Cyril the Surveyor who is on hard times these days. He invested in property just as the bottom fell out of the market. He wants to know if I have brought any thing to drink. Tell him that I have a pint bottle that I bought From Hill’s Supermarket. We sample the stuff and the talk settles around the virus. Wants to know what I think. Said I have already stated what I think in the newspaper and else where. He has not been from home for more than a week. The talks turn to cricket after ,Todd the newspaper man comes and talks about my sons the cricketers. The talk centers around fielding in slips. Told them about my experience in Trinidad playing for the University. Had never fielded in slips, but the captain of the team kept dropping catches. I was a point fielder and pretty good at it. I got promoted to field in slips ( third slip). I made it known I was not too keen about the promotion The first time in slips, Campbell( from Grenada), the University fast bowler (very fast ,always over pitching the ball and very straight)was bowling. Third ball of the first over( always remember that), the batsman drove, got an outside edge ,high up by the shoulder of the bat ; saw it come off. It was really second slip’s catch but he wasn’t paying attention. I took the catch left-handed over the second slip position. That was the worst thing that ever happened to me playing cricket. The congratulations went to my head. I couldn’t imagined that I had actually taken that catch. Was basking in the excitement when I dropped a sitter two overs later off the same bowler ;did not have to move. I got cussed left ,right and center( by the bowler and captain), couldn’t say a word in my defense: got banned to the Bamboo thicket at St, Augustine where there were lots of snakes.
Left Cyril and walked home. Entered Henry’s Lane. could not believe my eyes. There is a big crowd, the alcohol is flowing and the dope also. The music is blaring out( a pulsating beat, that stirs the emotions of even an old fart like me).I cannot say a word. The young people are doing their own thing. This country has to do like India flog some folks.
@Dr.Lucas
Have to admit this one evoked laughter, especially you being sent to field close to the snakes…lol.
John
March 29, 2020 7:26 AM
John said – Cuomo is the cause of the debacle in New York.
He is panicking and yet Trump is still carrying him to a position where he can make amends.
Same goes for other governors. End of John’s words
Really???? Your definition of panic and your definition of action are rather interesting. Cuomo is working on action, as opposed to rattling out rubbish such as ‘hoax’. Cuomo has called for additional resources, which yes, needs to be an urgent call, that is not panic, it is understanding the situation. Make no mistake , this is an emergency. In an emergency, speed is of the essence.
Trump has really dropped the ball on this one, or rather, never held it. A weak and ineffectual president who again is proving that he cares nothing about the average man, not even those who kneel and worship him.
robert lucas
March 29, 2020 1:17 PM
Dear Sir, I too enjoyed that short writing, would you care to expand it to some tens of pages, that we may enjoy some more. Then, do so every week on your experiences.
If so, wonderful, if not, that is fine too, just asking.
Regards
Dr. Fauci who is USA’s infectious diseases CZAR opined that New York is regarded the epicenter of COVID 19 because it is the entry/transit point for the USA.
>
John
March 29, 2020 7:15 AM
Sorry, but a weak analysis. This virus has barely even started in the US and your analysis suggests a static view.
But, people will place their argument to suit their worldview.
David, quite. It has just started in the US. Surprising that some are asking the New York figures as static, or so it seems. They will rise and it will spread to other cities. May God spare us.
From what I see, many do not understand the gravity of the situation, even in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Whether youngsters who party away, carefree who dismiss the issue or the Trump apologists, they simply are not getting it.
@Crusoe
It is why the blogmaster shared the S Korea experience yesterday. The importance of an evidence base dispassionate approach to COVID 19 planning.
The countries that will come out of this best are those who have the source production. That includes China and the agricultural nations.
China will come out of this well, because it is in a position to restart production. Restarted production means their economy gets going faster. The economies that depend on distribution, retail and services will take longer to recover.
Yes, to produce, one needs sales, but that will come.
Barbados needs, as soon as possible after this is under some sort of control, or after enough have had it and recovered, to restart projects and small manufacturing urgently.
@Crusoe
China has a large domestic market and of interest a large % is “unpenetrated”.
@ David March 29, 2020 1:22 PM
In the second innings of the opposing side I was recalled from that boundary position and placed in in a short forward leg position. I took two catches. One had to concentrate in that position. Whenever I hear of a fielder in slips dropping a catch, that fielder was not paying attention. Once you see the ball come off the bat you can hold it. The hard catches are the ones that go high in the air. The wind blow the ball around.
@Dr. Lucas
You can copy the last two comments to the other blog.
David
March 29, 2020 2:07 PM
Good point and why China is the one with the least worries in all of this. Most other countries, even manufacturing countries, rely on China is some measure for components.
China is the main source country. But your point on their own captive market is crucial as well.
@ Crusoe March 29, 2020 1:49 PM
I have only written for the fun of doing so. For example this morning, there is no way that one can catch anything. One has the streets to one’s self.
@RL,
LOL. you outdid yourself there man
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