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COVID 19 Action Plan Coming Soon – All for One, One for ALL

On the 11 April 2020 Prime Minister Mia Mottley addressed the nation to update on COVID 19. One of the decisions made was to establish a Jobs and Investment Council that includes former ministers of Finance Arthur and Sinckler. She also promised to address Barbadians soon on what an economic plan for the country will look like.

COVID 19 is a pandemic which continues to stymie ALL the economies of the world.  Sensible individuals have to admit that it will take a herculean effort by ALL well being Barbadians to push start the economy.

The past is the past.

We are here now.

We have to dust off our backsides and look the future in the eye with conviction.

Let us join hands and show we care about Barbados.

“What need in the country now …“- Mia Mottley

 

380 responses to “COVID 19 Action Plan Coming Soon – All for One, One for ALL”

  1. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    ^They need to sell $1.5 billion per month worth of cruises just to break even in operating income.

  2. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    OK .. end of the line, start using your braincells…that is what they are there for. That’s why you are being paid a salary.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8246853/Denmark-Poland-refusing-bail-companies-registered-tax-havens.html

  3. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @JohnA
    Share price is simply based on supply and demand at this moment in time. The market, has not a clue of the effects of Covid, other than, it isn’t good for most. Hence the drastic reduction in value. Many companies will face their Waterloo in coming months. Some will survive, some will prosper, others will fail. Business as usual.

  4. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    When is the next budget report

  5. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Plt
    maybe carnival or others find different uses for their assets? Maybe Google buys 4 ships to keep their offices OFFshore and out of the reach of ever grabbing taxmen. Maybe as rents in big cities become prohibitive, they dock and provide shelter at lower rates. Without lots of staff and fuel, their operating costs plunge. There will be lots of new opportunities for the floating hotels

  6. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Hal Austin April 23, 2020 1:43 PM
    “Are we going to get any reports on the economic contraction facing Barbados? There is almost total silence on how the economy is performing, or not, as the case may be.”
    ++++++++++++++++++
    The Barbados labour force is about 140,000 people according to the Ministry of Labour. The IMF estimated the unemployment rate at 10.3% at the end of 2019. The BHTA puts employment figures in the tourism industry at 26,000 people. COVID-19 has put 95% of these out of work, thereby raising the unemployment rate to about 28%. When we add other job losses caused by COVID-19 I estimate the unemployment rate after the curfew ends will be about 35% and climbing.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    Didn’t acting PM Bradshaw advise the country the unemployment fund has received 30, 000 applications for benefits so far?

    >

  8. John A Avatar
    John A

    @ Northern.

    It’s not just the actual failure of the
    Cruise ship companies but the fallout to islands like ours. Maybe companies will merge, maybe the stronger will buy out the weak but in the end less traffic is less revenue for our region.

  9. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @DavidApril 23, 2020 4:17 PM
    “… the unemployment fund has received 30, 000 applications for benefits so far?”
    +++++++++++++++
    That means the unemployment rate has already reached about 32%.

  10. Critical Analyzer Avatar
    Critical Analyzer

    The cruise industry as it currently stands is permanently dead. They are floating virus incubation chambers plain and simple.

    Not one person is going to get on a cruise shop until a COVID vaccine is widely available. Even then, people will be much more mindful of the fact that one sick person with flu symptoms will ruin all the cruise stops for everyone.

    I see a massive consolidation and an end to these huge cruise ships. I see a future with smaller cruises with less cramped conditions that will be easier to manage illness wise.

  11. robert lucas Avatar
    robert lucas

    Maybe the outcome of this pandemic is the awakening of political sense in the masses and drastic reforms in government.

  12. Critical Analyzer Avatar
    Critical Analyzer

    @Robert April 23, 2020 4:26 PM

    I would not hold my breath waiting for it otherwise we would have to add you to the COVID deaths count.

    Politicians only know two tricks. How to talk pretty and pile on the debt.

  13. David Avatar
    David

    @Peter

    Have you included self employed people?

  14. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ PLT

    I mean what is the OFFICIAL report on the performance of the CoVid economy. It is OFFICIAL silence I find deafening.

  15. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Will the NIS be able to handle these claims or will the chickens come home to roost?

    Has the updating and reporting from public entities incl SOE’s now become a higher priority? Or will they continue to dodge and run. Since we all know Barbados has the trained persons capable of providing and presenting this information, one has to conclude nearly 2 years in, there is some other agenda which has prevented it happening.

  16. David Avatar
    David

    @NO

    There was mention the Unemployment Fund will need a top up.

    It is interesting to hear Ryan Straughn commenting on possibly turning on the printing press once more.

  17. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “Corruption is the problem not a construction industry that is structured to deliver enormous social and economic public benefits.”

    ALL THE CORRUPT own construction companies….there is never any benefit to their victims the taxpayers and pensioner…

    thought ya sounded so clever….

    all the corrupt also own insurance companies…..there is never any benefit to their victims…

    #snakeoildon’tsellanymore

  18. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @JohnA
    look at the opportunities, not the losses. It will be a very exciting time for the creative. Service delivery?
    As a simple starter, I see long lines of people in Barbados lining up to pay their bills? Can JohnA Financial Services think of a way to solve this?

  19. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “I see long lines of people in Barbados lining up to pay their bills? ”

    people have been complaining, people who witnessed it says it’s ridiculous.

  20. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @Blogmaster
    was there ever any doubt? Doesn’t Big Sink have the combination to the printing press lock?
    I saw where St.L was paying cash + bond, can you imagine what that does to bond values?
    That’s another division for JohnA financial services Inc, cashing bonds before maturity at a huge discount. I wouldn’t touch that one, even with your 10ft pole!!!

  21. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    Would you buy bonds from a government that less than two years ago defaulted on its debt obligations? The truth is that we are such serious trouble that all of government is almost closed down.
    The president is on her sick bed, the acting prime minister has abandoned her substantive post, and all the other ministers are keeping their heads down.
    Government is now led by a triumvirate of medical doctors – Drs George, Best and Forde – the minister of health, acting PM and a so-called Czar. The attorney general is absent, the police commissioner has been humiliated and marginalised and our economic consultants are out playing golf.
    In the meantime, we are told a provincial agreement has been reached with White Oaks and our foreign creditors, but, months later, we still have not heard about a final settlement. Is White Oaks still being paid Bds$170000 a month?
    Chaos reigns.

  22. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    provisional…

  23. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @WW&C
    insurance companies? yah love them I know.
    Next thing is an insurance product, $150pp offering a covid free vacation. You could get rich in a month? Ask your buddy Peter if he wants to find an underwriter for that. The actual odds are low, you are selling peace of mind. Ask your buddy, mathematician @John

  24. David Avatar
    David

    Nonsense

  25. John A Avatar
    John A

    @ Northern

    I going see if Chris still got the keys to the printing press and where it is!

    The unemployment benefit for 30,000 which is roughly 1/3 of the workforce, may well cause MIA to fire back up the printing press, so she might get there before me.

    The unemployment benefit I think is 26 weeks or more, so paying that for 30,000 when the fund also not collecting the payments from the said 30000 that lay off is a massive bullet to bite! I think she said it only got in $18 million or something so right now.

    I trying to remember what last year’s 2019 financials from the NIS cash on hand was. Wait hold on dem ain t file none for 13 years or something so now I remember.

    Maybe W0 could hold a fire sale on Chris bonds and get 40 cents on the dollar fuh we den! Make sure the buyer pay wunna in cash though.

    I hope those in power now understand why many of us have insisted over the last 2 years that the NIS audited financials be brought up to date. Its in times like these we need to know exactly where that entity stands.

  26. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    Is Mia even allowed to fire the money press? Is that at all consistent with the conditions in the IMF programme?

    Why not simply pay out unemployment benefits as “patriotic bonds” and declare these idiotic, uh “patriotic bonds” by law to be official currency? The naive masses will never get the trick anyway.

    In any case, direct or indirect money printing puts the Barrow dollar under enormous pressure. I therefore expressly endorse the money press, because it brings us ever closer to currency devaluation. When Chris Sinckler brings us the “currency reform”, I will praise him in the highest tones in future.

  27. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Trump just bailed out big companies and universities in the trillions
    Watch Mia try to perform a similar plan in the billions and then hand the bill to the taxpayers

  28. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    Come on people… put on your thinking caps. Almost 230 posts and all we have amassed are complaints, devaluation debate, dire forecasts, and self deluded wishful thinking. That is not good enough… we need viable solutions.

  29. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Mariposa

    Any idea to whom Trump passed his bill ? I am asking for a friend.

  30. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ PLT at 6:56 PM

    We just paid scarce money for face masks. Where are we going to get money from to buy thinking caps? Behave yourself ,do.

  31. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    One new idea to employ 1000 to 5000 Bajans in 2021. Time to shine BU maguffees.

  32. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @ peterlawrencethompson April 23, 2020 6:32 PM

    PLT,

    Surely you know Rubik’s Cube. Imagine that the sides are printed wrong from the beginning, so that there are too many red areas, for example. Then you will never succeed in winning the game.

    It’s a similar situation with Barbados. Many risk factors on the island cannot be changed: Hurricanes, the heat and the sultriness that makes people work like turtles, the lack of resouces, the unfavourable position off the main shipping routes, the environment (poor islands and the criminal, poor mainland in South America), the overpopulation, the insular mentality.

    Even the best government can do very little here. It is not Chris Sinckler or Mia Mottley who have failed as finance minister. It is rather the laws of nature that have worked. Even if we had an anti-corruption law, even if we downsized the civil service, even if we had more agriculture, the economic situation would hardly be any better.

    Look around you: All the small islands in the Caribbean have the same problems as we do, almost all developing countries are supposedly badly governed. Is it the people? Hardly, it’s more the external circumstances.

    We finally need a government that tells the people that in future there will no longer be two cars per family but per village. You can also be happy with little.

    The government could ease the initial pain of the masses by giving out free rum every day. Let’s say 1 liter per day and family. At least this is the factor government can influence.

  33. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Hants
    @ PLTm
    Idea:
    Identify small 500 businesses that can be up and running within three months. Back these 500 businesses with the condition they each employ at least three persons. Subsidize rents and utilities for one year. This should create some jobs.

  34. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ PLT
    Kindly excuse the m. It’s a typo. Apologies. Thanks.

  35. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    PLT
    Ah beg yuh pardon? My ideas are sound.🤣🤣

  36. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @ Hal Austin April 23, 2020 5:15 PM

    Hal,

    You said “provisional”. Think about … …. …

    The problem with our international private creditors may be bigger than we think. It is possible that the creditors have not signed a final agreement because the corona disaster has been looming since February 2020. Think about the owners of Cin Cin. An agreement at this point in time (for the next five years) would be far too risky for the High Lords from the North.

    We won’t be getting any more debt rescheduling any time soon. The rating agencies would then have to set us permanently at “D”.

    In any case, the natural catastrophe clause does not apply because it only refers to building demolitions. I did some research.

  37. Dame Bajans Avatar
    Dame Bajans

    @ Vincent,
    Good idea, but the government should build the incubator for these small start-ups. They stay in the incubator, rent free for up to three years (when they would have passed the fail date). The government should staff such incubator(s) with financial, marketing and supply chain advisors. When a firm can stand on its own feet, they move out and new ones enter. The government should start small and base their choices on the business plans of say between 20-30 micro businesses.

  38. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “Next thing is an insurance product, $150pp offering a covid free vacation. You could get rich in a month? Ask your buddy Peter if he wants to find an underwriter for that. ”

    lol…that would be one for the history books..

  39. Critical Analyzer Avatar
    Critical Analyzer

    @PLT April 23, 2020 6:32 PM
    Viable Solutions will be rejected as long as they upset the status quo and reduce the power and influence of the political class (politicians, parties and their diehard supporters) and society elites.

    We first have to restructure and strengthen our true essential services and supporting industries (food, health, utilities and shelter) to become as self sufficient as possible progressively reducing the foreign inputs required and hence the need for foreign exchange over time. Eventually, they can turned into foreign exchange earners.

  40. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ David April 23, 2020 4:56 PM
    “There was mention the Unemployment Fund will need a top up.
    It is interesting to hear Ryan Straughn commenting on possibly turning on the printing press once more.”
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Why engage in this inevitable reckless exercise of kicking the can down the road only to feel real pain and no gain one year later?

    What purpose will that serve?

    To keep the political class and their cronies with the creature comforts they have recently grown accustom to?

    At least they are grounded for the foreseeable future and will have to wean themselves off the per diems and overseas travel perks.

    Let the Internet be their communication carrier.

    Would the printing be resumed to meet the monthly public sector payroll whose recipients are mainly on downtime and productivity almost on pause (except for those in the essential services dealing with the fear of Covid-19)?

    We could see the justification for meeting the payroll for those in the essential services.

    But for how long can the printing of Mickey mouse money continue before the inevitable outcome of sharp increases in inflation comes around as a result of too many dollars chasing a contracting supply of imported goods?

    Will the press be put back in operation, as under Sinliar, to keep the welfare system in place for political appeasement of that section of the voting class?

    What we would like to see from this administration (which was elected on a platform of promises of transparency and accountability) to tell the public what it is planning to do with the Robinson report on the restructuring and transformation of the public sector and as underwritten in the BERT plan.

    The private sector is already under severe stress, especially the country’s main forex earner and guarantor of the printing press production to keep away the dogs of the financial devil from sniffing out the festering wound called Devaluation.

    As night follows day, the public sector has to make even a bigger sacrifice if Bim is to avoid turning into a “failed state” in every sense of the phrase used by your UK ‘special correspondent and doomsday harbinger Hal Austin.

  41. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    first off, we have to get past COVID. we are not there yet and there will be many disruptions to the importation supply chain if no vaccine is found. in the meantime we ought to concentrate on growing our own products and expanding local protein sources like black belly sheep, chicken, arnold, beef and rabbit and if push comes to shove- monkey. we need to cull drastically our monkey population anyway

    and if we are really desperate for a COVID cure we can try the latest from Trump- lysol injections and or UV rays. i am sure RL, GP or some other sycophant can talk us thru the efficacy of lysol injections and UV rays to combat COVID

  42. David Avatar
    David

    We need to get past a mindset stuck in irrelevant modalities. Once this is accomplished the good crisis currently being experienced will not go to waste. Who will be the great communicator of this time?

    *Words* help leaders cast vision for the promise of the future. *Words* give > life to ideas. *Words* and *phrases* convey the purpose, values, > character, and culture of your organization. *Words* that *motivate* create > affinity and loyalty when the values conveyed are shared by those who > believe in your cause. > > https://www.thindifference.com/2014/06/inspires-power-words/

  43. GreenMonkey Avatar
    GreenMonkey

    A conflict of interest scandal is now coming to light regarding vaccine advocate and biotech/vaccine investor Bill Gates’ “philanthropic” foundation, renown for its generous funding of scientists and scientific research in fields like vaccines and biotech.

    It seems the members of a UK vaccine network put forward to the public as offering impartial, science based advice and recommendations to the the UK government and nation regarding vaccines, have also been in receipt of very generous funding/donations from the Bill Gates Foundation. It does raise an appearance of conflict of interest, with some suspicious souls now viewing this theoretically impartial and independent vaccine network as functioning mainly as a smoke screen. That is, a smokescreen to allow the rubber stamping of pre-selected Gates connected companies to be the authorized providers of vaccines and Covid testing equipment (at a hefty price) to the UK NHS.

    This video puts forward the evidence for the corruption of the UK Vaccine Network panel by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation buying influence. 32 members of the panel have recived in excess of £200,000,000 in grants from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

    https://youtu.be/KkzDQAeKcIU

    More at: beforeitsnews(DOT)com/politics/2020/04/breaking-bill-gates-foundation-and-the-covid-19-vaccine-network-scandal-3183847.html

  44. David Avatar
    David

    Governor Haynes of the Central Bank of Barbados will review the economic performance of the economy between Jan and March 2020 as well as his outlook for the economy on April 29, 2020.

  45. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    (Quote):
    and if we are really desperate for a COVID cure we can try the latest from Trump- lysol injections and or UV rays. i am sure RL, GP or some other sycophant can talk us thru the efficacy of lysol injections and UV rays to combat COVID (Unquote).
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    LOL!! Great one there, Greene!

    Pure sarcasm and with the wit of humour to boot!

    If you are looking for a perfect case of pure insanity wrapped up in a bubble of abusive political power you will never find another in this modern world.

    Americans have another Nero riding Caligula’s horse on their hands.

    But come on Green(e), man!
    There must be some sensible method to the trumpeter’s madness.
    Maybe he is trying to say that the enemy of Covid lies in regular exposure to bright Sunlight and clean seawater.

    The madman ought to apologize for referring to the countries in the Caribbean as Shi**thole places.

    Why not promote Bim as the door to Shangri-la in the West?

  46. David Avatar
    David

    Is there a reason we seem not to be able to kickstart fish farming in Barbados?

  47. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ David BU

    It is water intensive in a water scarce country. There are also health issues pertaining to the method of farming.

  48. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    this is the big game plan, lock off the marijuana legislation tightly in their pockets, sell it out to people who look nothing like them…and borrow, borrow, borrow, if everything goes wrong as it is now destined to….BLAME THE PEOPLE…

    while Fowl Enuff…aka PIMP for the corrupt, TIEFIN minorities who own the construction companies….tries to sell us snake oil…but no one is buying…

    http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/business-report/barbados-to-seek-relief-from-imf-in-wake-of-covid-19_189426?fbclid=IwAR0W25b6mNWQdJCgEFJbaWugD57J4bCo7jupLRsRIzPDX87OO8x5xkjdmuk

    “BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — Barbados is seeking to negotiate some form of relief with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as it hinted at the possibility of not meeting its targets under the US$290 million under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) should the island record cases of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

    Prime Minister Mia Mottley said the Administration would be putting some fiscal measures in place aimed at helping those who would be impacted.”

  49. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ David April 24, 2020 9:14 AM

    It would be interesting to know if the fishing trawlers and their floating ‘mother’ processing plants from Southeast Asia are still raping the Atlantic Ocean off Barbados and the Caribbean sea of its dwindling tuna fish stocks.

    Why can’t T&T and Bim get together and establish a fishing industry to meet the region’s requirements instead of facilitating the leakage of the already scarce US$ to pay for imported ‘stale’ fish in cans from the same South East Asian canning plants?

    Under the coming world economic order of greater scarce resources these small islands of the Caribbean will either swim together to avoid the sharks and survive or sink ‘independently’ to become a backwater of failed states.

  50. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    It is a no-brainer we have to leverage resources in the region. We seem to lack the will whether political, intellectual and otherwise.

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