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Time to CUT Salaries Prime Minister!

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In her recent address to the nation Prime Minister Mia Mottley indicated a real discussion will take place next week between the government and social partnership as it pertains to how the country will have to support workers displaced in a post COVID period. The idea of pandemic bonds has been floated.

Commonsense Barbadians understand the pandemic will force a change to the way WE have to do business today, tomorrow and in the future. It is important to define WE – it means all actors operating in civil society INCLUDING the government.

Leadership is about leading by example. There is no better time than to illustrate the idea of leading from the front than for the Prime Minister and her very large Cabinet to take a salary cut.

The blogmaster joins with many looking forward to participate in a sensible national discussion about the best way forward in a COVID world. It makes no sense ordinary people asked to make a sacrifice and OTHERS are allowed to operate business as usual.

Cutting salaries will not result in a significant savings in the context of the national budget BUT it is not about that is it.

 

Forced savings discussion could help save jobs

In an effort to keep job losses to a minimum, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley will next week start a dialogue with her financial advisors regarding the possibility of introducing forced savings for public officers.

The Prime Minister said the new measure, through which some public officers would have part of their salary kept in the form of bonds, would play a significant role in helping provide Government with more fiscal space as it continued to deal with the debilitating economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking on Thursday night after consultations with the Social Partnership at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Mottley said forced savings could lead to hundreds of public servants keeping their jobs, even though there was no plan to start sending home any.
“If we have to look to avoid forced layoffs in Government, then we can look at a form of forced savings. We will have that conversation next week, as we want to give everyone an opportunity. We have to cut expenditure, even in spite of the fiscal space we have. We are in a comfortable position, but we want to ensure we have safe work for safe people.”
Mottley said the International Monetary Fund had recommended to its board in early June that Barbados be allowed to move from a six per cent primary surplus to one per cent.

“It will give us at least $550 million in elbow room,” she told the media.
She said Government’s main aim was to slowly get the country back to a state of normalcy. (BA)

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180 responses to “Time to CUT Salaries Prime Minister!”

  1. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @David

    perhaps a Forced Savings of 30% salary. that would ensure that the bonds would be honoured on the redeemable date

  2. WIRA-War-on-U Avatar
    WIRA-War-on-U

    Yeah. Forced savings for those big belly crooks too, let them hold on to their own useless bonds too. Wuh um is theirs that they use to pull scams on the people all the time. The pensioners got robbed blind.

    A state of pretend normalcy does not include the same old. It will be a new normal with no room for old scams and corruption.

    The crooked social partnership is looking out for themselves only and at the expense of the majority population and should not be making any decisons whatsover in the people’s lives.

  3. David Avatar
    David

    @Greene

    We have so many issues to unpack with this proposal that the financial intelligence of civil society will be stretched to act as a counter measure to political opportunism.

  4. Wily Coyote Avatar
    Wily Coyote

    PM knows civil servant layoffs/firings would be an election nightmare, let’s try any ridiculous tactic to stay in power after the next election. Wily has another suggestion, declare national emergency situation and delay/postpone all elections until the GDP turns positive, this would keep present government in power indefinitely. PANDEMIC Bonds is an idea that the moronic uneducated civil servants and their union leadership are haped to BUY, PM knows these individuals will easily buy any pig in a poke.

    Government is floundering, socially and economically, however future personal employeement is forefront in their modus operenda. Hard for oneself to declare they don’t have a clue to how to get out of the FAILED STATE status.

  5. John A Avatar
    John A

    Dress it up how you like here are the facts.

    Government will have to revise their estimates laid to where a shortfall on income of at least 25% will have to be factored in and I am being generous there too. Now when they laid the estimates at their full projected income earlier this year, they had a deficit then of $200M roughly remember? So add to that deficit the value of a 25% loss in revenue and you will understand on 3 billion in projected revenue, a further deficit of $750M. So if we were budgeting pre covid a deficit of say $250M, if nothing is done we now looking at a billion dollar deficit this year!

    That we know can not be financed so government has to cut their expenses big time. But remember they also have to find money to refinance the brek NIS fund too. Remember the MOF said we had over 30,000 unemployment claims. That is also 30,000 less people contributing to the fund as of next month as well.

    That leaves us with only 2 options regardless of how wunna dress it up. Either cut expenses big time or fire up the printing press again. Also regardless of what pretty name you give this new set of paper, be it “Pandemic bonds” or whatever, wunna printing money again. The point is had we addressed the oversized inefficient civil service before, this would not be a problem now. Government has to understand that they may have to run maybe 2 years or more on revenue that is 25% less than they are accustom to. There is no shot term patch here either. The cost and efficiency of government must therefore be addresses once and for all now. In other words they can be no more $500M debt forgiveness packages because wunna can’t be bothered to collect the money.

  6. Tony Trotman Avatar
    Tony Trotman

    I would go further than a salary cut “for the Prime Minister and her very large Cabinet”. It is also time to downsize the Barbados Parliament, e.g. reduce the number of MPs; Senators; and their terms of employment (e.g. pensions).

  7. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “In other words they can be no more $500M debt forgiveness packages because wunna can’t be bothered to collect the money.”

    been telling them for a long time….. tief not, want not….all of them have been tiefing, look at them now..

  8. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ David BU at 8:11 AM

    Fine words with which I agree, even though i am not sure I have captured all the nuances.

    @ Wily Coyote at 8:24 AM

    The GoB is in good company. Are not the governments of more developed and larger countries floundering ,socially and economically. We are not doing too badly, for a failed state.

    Let us join hands ,heads and hearts and work through this crisis of economy and society. It is not a partisan political issue. It is national.

  9. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ John A at 8:34 AM

    On the ball as usual. This is no time for short term patches. Pandemic bonds will not fix it. That is a solution for a non fatal disequilibrium….another symptom fix. When are we going to treat the fundamental disease. How can we make progress by consuming the same arsenic with a different label?

  10. John A Avatar
    John A

    @ Vincent.

    That is why I continue to say that if government continue post covid with the same approaches as pre covid we are doomed to fail.

    The main thing in the news this week is about Maloney breaking ground and the usual politicians by his side. I would of prefer to of seen them in a freshly ploughed ground planting food. My point is we continue to promote growth based on a demand that is no longer there, as opposed to addressing the true post covid economic reality.

  11. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    Once upon a time, a very long time- no I am not going there- but I remember a time (within the last five years) when the DLP voted to increase the salaries for all parliamentarians and the then BLP Opposition stated that the country couldn’t afford it and they would donate their increase to charity. Fast forward a few years and we have a 30-0 Government with a boatload of Ministers one of whose first acts was to give themselves a raise ( well it was the technicalities if the Civil servants are getting a raise yuh have to give the Parliamentarians the same percentage increase) yuh can ask the Min of Finance who is au courant with all the intricacies of the legislation.

    Now in the age of pandemic what better way for an elected official to show his/her support for the country by donating some of the largesse to the most important charity of all i.e. Barbados, most of them- maybe all of them were getting along with lower incomes before their elevation to cabinet and associated positions ah mean that small sacrifice would go a long way to show the poor black man that “we care”.

  12. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    We need to get this country back to work. Can we do so by producing for our selves using only domestic or existing factors of production? Is the market large enough to accommodate the critical volume?

  13. The Watcher Avatar
    The Watcher

    After reading the comments here, one would almost assume that this site is strongly supported by DLP hard-ballers.That can be an assumption arrived at based on the “tone” of comments here.
    However, who cares what party or ideology is supported as long as its in the best interest of the country.
    I will ask again, “Why did we shout down the economy?” What was the threat? Where was our information coming from to make the decisions that we made?
    This “Pandemic” was another big farce played on the world for the purposes and to achieved the whims and fancies of the few. It cannot be logically supported.
    Here are a few facts:
    1. A death-rate which globally or locally is not exceeding 10% of those infected.
    2. Locally: An incompetent health-care apparatus which bought into the W.H.O and C.D.C campaign of mental terror.
    3. A population which was largely exposed. ( Many parents back in Dec and Jan complained of kids esp in nursery and primary school with high fevers and respiratory issues which we only now can identify as Covid)
    4. Measures which made no sense. ( Who bans persons from the sea when it is well known that colds , flu’s etc are quickly eliminated with repeated seabaths) Measures like cover your nose and mouth with useless cloth masks or otherwise and increase the amt of recirculated Co2 back into your body. Stay indoors, avoid direct contact with sunlight so that your Vit-D levels can be lowered and your immunity weakened.
    5. a Campaign of mis-information on just about every established media source promoting stupidity and junk science ( Stay 6 feet away from whomever like that is a magical distance or something.)
    6. Almost no mention of Immune Health and how to achieve it choosing rather to focus of the goat-piss in 4 and 5.

    This was reminiscent of the lies told to the world after 9/11 in support of the campaign which Bush was to embark on. “If you are not with us. you are against us!” That famous line which Owen Arthur, then PM of Barbados effectively refused to join in on as the Americans campaigned across the globe to gather support to go after Saddam and his Weapons of Mass destruction”
    To date, not a single weapon has been discovered but lots of atrocities happened and were buried or covered by some of these same international bodies who are now advising, hell instructing us on how to operate.
    We closed down Barbados. We did that. There was NO evidence to support what we did. Nothing hard. All fabricated.
    If we had employed a single mathematician at the start of this fright-filled campaign as opposed to a Czar of stupidity and fake news, they would have run and better models at the UWI center which they used to model the potential infection spread and would have learnt that all of the “Gathering” in Jan and Feb had pretty much exposed just about everyone here.What do they call it now??? Hmm… Heard Immunity? or something like that. Well, we most likely already had it based on what has not happened here.
    Staying indoors and hiding from the sun did not stop a virus from making its way through a a population. Any good Pharmacists will tell you that a virus released into a population MUST work its way through tat population. What will stop it is how immunity builds in that population. Immunity doesn’t build by hiding indoors and spraying your hands. So that is a Mangrove Pond sized heap of rubbish.
    Sounds like rubbish? Well supply an answer to why no communities like Chapman Lane, Greenfields, The Orleans and Nelson Street, tightly packed, human dense communities where houses and other dwellings cant “Social distance” effectively , did not come down with large numbers of persons with the disease.
    Those places have close to 10,000 residents between them, don’t care much for civil society and its rules, certainly didn’t care for social or physical distancing, would have been involved in “We Gatherin’ even if it was just opportunistically,and they don’t mind certain risks. So its really odd, that if there is the threat of such a highly contagious virus running about the island, and we only locked down in March 15 or there about, persons from those communities would have HAD to come into contact with someone , somewhere who carried the virus. That is indisputable. So why is it again that no one from these communities seemed to have contracted and passed it along ? There should have been outbreaks in those placed like crazy. Yet, nothing.
    We like living in denial. And we can keep doing so. Tourism was high-risk for a long time, but we preferred to deny that fact. Now we cannot! Especially when one looks into Carlisle Bay.
    We could have embarked on Solar Energy generation as a means of reducing the energy import bill, but we liked the white people who kept us in mental bondage and discouraged it for years. Now that is no longer deniable that it has significant value, we are still trying to let those folk unfairly influence the industry while denying that we are doing so.
    Handbrake!
    Skid turn!
    Lets face back toward the start line.
    Economically, we are now destroyed. Cutting salaries in the public service will be followed by the private sector but wont benefit the country. Persons will get richer, but supermarket prices wont fall. More hardship will visit the middle class, but the wealthy here will probably never be taken to task!
    If we want Barbados to thrive, there are only one or two plans which can work now.
    Keep denying this, and nothing changes for the better.
    Watching on!

  14. cpilgrimeaqaolcom Avatar
    cpilgrimeaqaolcom

    @ Blogmaster:

    I think that I read some where that Nevis PM waived his salary for one year and his Ministers took a small pay cut …
    https://wicnews.com/caribbean/nevis-premier-takes-100-salary-cut-cabinet-ministers-give-10-salaries-155127328/

    Nevis, as you well know, is far more developed than Barbados.

    I do not know if this claim about Nevis is/was true and its real import. After all, there is always eyewash and more than one way to skin/kill “the fatted calf”.

  15. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Sergeant at 9 :22 AM

    You keyboarded :” donating some of the largesse.”. In that phrase we have the root of the problem. Some politicians and their supporters think they were elected to collect and distribute ” largesse” . What a waste of education and the public sacrifices of the Adamses and the Barrows.

  16. David Avatar
    David

    To repeat, it is not about the savings per se by a salary cut, it is the message the leadership takes the opportunity to send to the population that we are walking with you. You are not alone. These are no ordinary times.

  17. Freedom Crier Avatar
    Freedom Crier

    CONCERNING THE PM’S MOST RECENT ADDRESS TO THE NATION OF BARBADOS

    What I think so Contradictory is that in one breath Prime minister Mademoiselle M.I A. Speaks of Conserving, saying “If we have to look to avoid forced layoffs in Government, then we can look at a form of forced savings…” While in the next breath About 32 mins into the presentation, she talks about the population of Barbados needing to be 360,000 rather than the 280,000ish we are now, saying this after talking about people being out of work, after this Covid Bla Bla Bla and I didn’t see any of the journalists question her about this, it was very much ‘buried’ in her jokey behaviour.

    With the Barbados Economy floundering and many Businesses unable to reopen, Unemployment will probably reach between 20% and 25 %. Our Tourist Season has not been a Tourist season and Crop Over has been Cancelled, she now wants to import 80.000 foreigners into Barbados and we are not talking of people with means or Merit Based Immigration, she wants to import 35% more people than we currently have from nations that do not have our Cultural Attributes. In addition, with wholesale importation of peoples it has been repeatedly demonstrated, that they do not assimilate.

    This is a Mission whose outlook is to Abolish Nation States by taking away their Sovereignty, (Globalist Open Border Policies)… by filling them with immigrants – probably from Africa, the Middle East and other poor regions like Haiti!

    There aren’t enough jobs, homes, or land for Bajans, so where is she putting these people, Do these people really think we’re stupid enough not to notice the contradiction? We need to concentrate on growing our own food, not importing more mouths to feed.

    She talks about the implications of our standard of life, our stability of revenue, stability of society and social security system. Well, look how that panned out for Europe. Where, More people are living on the social security, not paying tax, a burden on the health/education/infrastructure system.

    She’ll be importing crime, poverty, cultures that don’t assimilate, and less resources for Bajans.

    Importing people from the third world will NOT help Barbados, or Bajans. It will drive away tourism, and she talks about immigration being needed to support the production of our goods and service industry – WELL, AT THE MOMENT WE DON’T HAVE ANY!

    She’s really on the Globalist Mission!

    YOU ADMIT THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH JOBS FOR BAJANS, so what are the extra 80,000 incomers going to do?

    YOU TALK ABOUT THE LACK OF WATER yet want 80K more people living here?

    WE HAVE NO ECONOMY TO FEED OUR OWN, how are we going to feed the extra 80K?

    YOU TALK ABOUT BRINGING OTHER CARICOM PEOPLE IN A FIRST, WILL THERE BE A CRITERIA FOR THEM TO COME? Doctors, Scientists, Engineers, Silicone Valley Type people, Entrepreneurs, and Thinkers…? And will this not brain drain other islands? IS THAT FAIR TO THE REGION AS A WHOLE? Or is the REAL idea to flood Barbados with Incompatible Cultures as they have in Europe? This will dovetail with the NWO idea of no borders, no countries, and a One World Government.

    I would hope Mademoiselle PM, that you would be honest with the people of Barbados if this is the Real Course you are Steering.

    Barbados has One of the Highest Population Density’s in the world so if you Need to Have Immigration it does Not have to come to Barbados, for Instance Belize has Less people than Barbados and about a Hundred Times Larger than Barbados or more, so why bring them here?…

    IS THE PM TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE CRISIS HAVING SEEN HOW COMPLIANT WE ARE TO NOW BE FORCING BAJANS TO ACCEPT 80.000 IMMIGRANTS TO OUR SHORES?

  18. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ David BU at 9:45 AM

    What message what? Do you think Barbadians are fools? We are supposed to have 98% literacy and 100% intelligence.

  19. Dame Bajans Avatar
    Dame Bajans

    If Mia reduces her cabinet to one minister per parish and reduce their salaries, I will send a cheque for $500 CDN to a Bajan charity. Preferably one or more that feed the poor like the Salvation Army. When that beleaguered teacher Broomes started that fund at Parkinson for the poor kids who were lacking in essentials, I was not asked but, I sent a cheque as well. I asked them not to publicize it as I did not want any notoriety. In fact, I did not sign my name to the letter but i phoned after a few weeks to make sure it was received. While on the subject, has the Minister at St. Jude’s church died or become incapacitated? A friend of mine and some of my colleagues’ sister died and I collected $25 from each of them and sent to the Church. The bank draft was for $175 and it was mailed on August 12th, 2019. To date, not a ‘woof’ from the Minister, no acknowledgment and no thank you. The letter was addressed to:
    Mr. V. Watson
    Rector
    St. Luke’s Anglican Church
    Brighton, St. George
    Barbados

  20. John A Avatar
    John A

    Lord help me as you got to say something you is a D. LOL

    For the record I am an I, which stands for independent thinker

  21. David Avatar
    David

    @Vincent

    So true, so true.

  22. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    This mute point has bedeviled the regime from the beginning.

    Instead of trying to pick peas out uh shite it may be better to ask whether the administration has delivered higher than average value from its tactic of ‘many hands make light work.,

  23. David Avatar
    David

    According to the PM’s definition this will be determined by the electorate when the bell is rung to call next general election. It appears there will be no mid term test.

  24. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @ Wily Coyote May 16, 2020 8:24 AM

    Once again, I agree with you.

    “Patriotic government bonds” will never solve the fundamental problem of a public service transition. It’s a sham solution to lull ignorant islanders and fool the unions.

    That is why I have repeatedly proposed that elections be suspended until 2030 so that a government with experts, led by Mia Mottley, can push through the necessary measures such as reducing the size of the public sector by 50 per cent and devaluing the BBD. Unfortunately, despite independence more than 50 years ago, the population is mentally unable to understand economic necessities.

    Therefore, we need an enlightened dictatorship under the leadership of Mia Mottley for a while.

    p.s. I consider the sole reduction of ministers’ salaries to be pure populism, as such a small financial item is only a drop in the ocean. Either we do nothing at all or we hit the whole public sector with a big hammer.

  25. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    the unions and the public / civil servants marched into this. they deserve whatever they get

  26. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ David BU at 11 :28 AM

    You have that right. We have implemented the system of continuous assessment.

  27. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @ Freedom Crier May 16, 2020 9:49 AM

    We are already completely overpopulated because the islanders produced too many children between the 1950s and 1970s. Take a look at the square meters of the other West Indian islands in relation to the population. Barbados is the Haiti of the West Indies.

    We therefore need a population reduction to a maximum of 200000 people through emigration and Chinese-style birth control. Only then can our main source of income, tourism (which will start up again), feed the people sufficiently.

  28. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @ Greene, May 16, 2020 11:45 AM

    That’s it. The Unions (including the said Senator) wanted every human reason to get a pay raise in 2018.

  29. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    @Tron
    What became of your “overpopulation” claim…
    Seem as if you did not get a few of the memos.

    I agree with most (not all) of what FC state.

    @all
    Isn’t the effect of a salary similar to that of devaluation.
    Prices will not drop, but items will appear to ‘cost more’ as you have fewer dollars to spend.

  30. David Avatar
    David

    @Greene

    Unfortunately there are other players involved including ordinary people!

  31. Greene Avatar
    Greene

    @David

    i know man.

    i just remembering them marching up and down the place with MAM and the private sector and now both are about to screw them. how ironic?

    they should have accepted the settlement from the DLP instead of holding out for 25% or whatever the ridiculous number was.

    i wonder what the workers are saying about that now?

  32. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Salaries for about 28 people are a small fraction of all the larger numbers we ‘re dealing with.

    They are merely tactical, not stra tegic, only expenses and we should not have to wait for 3 years to know, with certainty, if higher value is being achieved with the larger cabinet. And what that measureable value is.

    An election should be about bigger questions not a mere housekeeping matter, as this one is.

  33. David Avatar
    David

    This is the mindset of the people and defines the challenge to force change. The political class controls the narrative.

  34. BAJE Avatar
    BAJE

    @ Wily Coyote at 8:24 AM

    The GoB is in good company. Are not the governments of more developed and larger countries floundering ,socially and economically. We are not doing too badly, for a failed state.

    Let us join hands ,heads and hearts and work through this crisis of economy and society. It is not a partisan political issue. It is national.

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    WHAT A LOAD OF SHITE.

    I ASSUME YOU MUST LIVE ON THE LITTLE 2 x 3 ROCK YET KNOWS EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE.

    WHILST I DON’T LIVE IN THE US BUT AS A US CITIZEN RECEIVED FROM THE US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT A US$1200 STIMULUS PAYMENT ALMOST A MONTH AGO AND ALSO RECEIVING OVER US$3000+ PLUS MONTHLY TAX FREE STARTED FROM 15TH APRIL UNTIL END OF DECEMBER BECAUSE OF PANDEMIC AND COULD BE EXTENDED.

    I AM FAR FROM RETIREMENT AGE.

    WHAT IS YOUR GOVERNMENT DOING FOR YOU AND ITS BAJAN CITIZENS INSTEAD OF DEFLECTING ELSEWHERE AS USUAL?

    IGNORANCE HAS NO BOUNDS.

  35. Dullard Avatar
    Dullard

    It is clear that Barbados is now worse off than it was in 2018; and will be going forward. By this time next year “the lost decade” will feel like the golden era. Funny thing this life.

    The horde of consultants/ ministers/ advisors/tsars is collecting free money because they have no solutions. Ninja man could do a similar job.

    Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked
    — Warren E. Buffett

  36. Dullard Avatar
    Dullard

    @ Tron
    We are already completely overpopulated
    Your oft repeated claim is total nonsense and not based on any scientific or economic arguments. Being more densely populated that say, Grenada does not mean Barbados is overpopulated. If you wish to see a lower % of Blacks just come and say so.

  37. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Wuhloss…trouble in paradise, says right there that the greedy is holding the marijuana legislation in her pocket.

    while we see the majority population whom they want to pay paper bonds to like slaves to steal their labor are now struggling to survive… ah.wonder if they also plan to take this to CNN too….playing games for months and months, something has to give..

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/485469478293065/permalink/1553093754863960/

  38. Freedom Crier Avatar
    Freedom Crier

    RE…Tron May 16, 2020 11:49 AM & TheOGazerts May 16, 2020 12:27 PM @ Freedom Crier

    WHY DOES THE PM KEEP BRINGING UP IMPORTING SUCH LARGE AMOUNTS OF IMMIGRANTS INTO BARBADOS?

    WHAT IS HER AGENDA?

    Where Does She want to Import these People From?

    What Merit do these People Have that we Could Desire to Have them?

    What is Wrong with our Vetting Process?

    What Skills are they Bringing that we do not Presently Have?

    Are they going to be Bringing FOREX or are they Coming with their Hands Out Stretched?

    Who is going to Pay for the Housing for EIGHTY THOUSAND Additional people?

    Assuming they are four persons to one house that is TWENTY THOUSAND houses and Plots of Land.

    Does Barbados Poor Need Adequate Housing?

    Who are Paying for the Services for these People, Free Health? Free Education Etc ( Free Food and Utilities?)

    What Kind of Culture are they Coming From? Is it a Violent one? Is it a Corrupt One? Is it a Law Abiding One?

    WE NEED TO ASK SERIOUS QUESTIONS, this is a Foreign Agenda Covertly coming upon our Nation being Passed in Jovial Commentary…Whatever Gains and Losses that Barbados has made have been by Barbadians WE DO NOT WANT TO SELL OUT OUR COUNTRY FOR POLITICAL GAIN!

    Alternatively, is She Going to Tell us We are Our Brothers Keeper…Words Said only once by Cain the First Murderer in a Book that has Thousands upon Thousands of Words and by many Prophets.… PM Mankind are Keepers of Sheep Not People, unless you make Bajan’s Become Obedient Sheeple!

    https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8079/8435343389_247214bc52_z.jpg

  39. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Dullard

    Amazing what a point of reference comes to mean.

    We had, 2 years before it happened, forecasted a deep recession or depression and an existential challenge/s to capitalism as the organizing principles. Our date certain was March 31, 2020. Little did we know that a pandemic would occur coterminously.

    We had also estimated, days after the election before the last, 5 years ahead, that the DLP would be wiped out 30-0 if they did not form a coalition with OSA,

    Unfortunately, there is no part of our culture where long-range strategic planning can take place. Planning considering all scenarios. As a result both the DLP and the BLP, the fledgling party of Franklyn, the whole country for that matter, can only react to the foreseeable after it was unforeseen by the elites forces.

    We were preaching for decades that the economic system, which is still held as sacrosanct by all in Barbados, can go no further. But nobody wanted to even consider that eventuality, not even in academia.

    We are willing to bet you that all the policymakers in Barbados are doing nothing more, even at this time, except hoping and praying, that a non-existent normalcy returns.

  40. Fractured BLP Avatar
    Fractured BLP

    Hi David

    Your favourite blogger is back from Wuhan !

    It was a long 6 months in self isolation !

    Only to return now and find out that your beloved PM…aka MAM…has as her official economic Advisor….the Hon. Chris Sinckler !

    Oh how Covid 19 has turned out as a Blessing in disguise !

  41. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @ Dullard May 16, 2020 1:09 PM

    Your distraction won’t help you. Of course we also have too many white contractors in relation to the barely measurable construction activities, if you want to hear that. This is not about skin colour, but about the fact that neither offshore financial services nor tourism generate enough money to feed more than 270,000 people, whether they are black, white, Chinese, Arabs or whatever.

    The main problem of almost all developing countries is the population surplus in relation to resources.

    Why do you think the Chinese put on the emergency brake a long time ago? Because they are smarter than the rest of the developing countries. BY FAR smarter.

  42. John A Avatar
    John A

    The problem we have to address which nobody wants to is this. Do we for example need both a Drainage Unit and a MTW? Is the MTW efficient or would it be cheaper to contract the work out via qoutes to the private sector? This analysis needs to be done for every ministry and public entity.

    In other words post covid will a proper cost analysis be done on these entities based on work produced? Do we need 30 ministers in an economy that is 25% smaller for example? My concern is that I have heard nothing from government on how they plan to operate with an annual income that will be say $600M less than budgeted.

    Let us as a people be told that, as opposed to statements like ” the virus has badly damaged our revenue base.” So question Is what we doing bout it then? Other than printing money so as to pay for inefficient governance what’s the plan?

  43. David Avatar
    David

    @Fractured BLP

    We know the hearts of members of the political class beat as one.

  44. Calm Avatar
    Calm

    This guy BAJE is such a faking LIAR. He wants us to believe how good he is living and how successful he is yet he is receiving a $1200 stimulus check which is targetted at persons earning less than 75k per year.

    Now tell me how successful and better off you could be, when you not earning more that 75k annually.

    Furthermore as he says he is not living in the USA it means his combined income still isn’t meeting that threshold. Either that, or this jackass is a tax fraud who will have his behind exposed sooner or later by uncle Sam.

  45. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @ John A May 16, 2020 2:25 PM

    Doing nothing and waiting is deeply embedded in the national DNA. It is highly unlikely that this government will reform the civil service.

    That is the logic of the ballot box.

    The government is afraid of civil servants and unions. Both groups give a shit about productivity, want nothing but free time and constant pay rises. People like these don’t give a damn if everything collapses. They just want to go on living like maggots in the taxpayers’ flesh.

  46. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    @calm
    I sit here and watch.
    Often the math does not add up.

  47. John A Avatar
    John A

    @ Tron

    Well the unions better not try to play ” powerful ” as the bajan expression goes because neither the public or private sector now is in any position to entertain them. You have to remember the private sector was week going into covid after 10 years of economic stagnation. Like wise government is also very weak financially. Don’t let them fool you by saying ” our reserves are higher than ever so we can weather this.” Ask them what their net reserves are after loans and liability and see what it really is.

    You see in past we bragged bout reserves being high even if it was made up of loaned money. The problem with that is loaned money got to be repaid and if you income off by $600M and you ain t got the tourist traffic like before, where the money coming from to service both the domestic and international debt?

    Quick so the reserves will turn to liabilities in the form of unpaid loans if God forbid this happened. You never hear the old saying ” an asset is a liability waiting to happen.”

  48. BAJE Avatar
    BAJE

    This guy BAJE is such a faking LIAR. He wants us to believe how good he is living and how successful he is yet he is receiving a $1200 stimulus check which is targetted at persons earning less than 75k per year.

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    POPPING OUT THE SHADOWS QUICKLY TO DEFEND YOUR BULLSHIT BLP GOVERNMENT WHOSE CLAIM TO FAME IS LOCKING UP POOR BLACK BARBADIANS AND FINING THEM BD$3500+ FOR BREAKING A PANDEMIC CURFEW IS I GUESS ANOTHER WAY OF “STIMULATING THE BIM ECONOMY ON THE BACKS OF POOR BAJANS”.

    AS A SELF EMPLOYED INDIVIDUAL WITH A COMPANY I AM ABLE TO RECEIVE MANY TAX WRITE OFFS RELATING TO SELF EMPLOYMENT, CAR, TRAVEL ETC.

    WHILST I MAY REPORT A PERSONAL EARNINGS FOR TAX PURPOSES OF US$8000 (BDS16,000) MONTHLY OR US96,000 (BDS192,000) ANNUALLY.

    I AM MARRIED THE STIMULUS CRITERIA FOR MARRIED IS UNDER US$112,500 FILING AS HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD.

    SINCE MY WIFE IS NOT A US CITIZEN OR PERMANENT RESIDENT SHE DOES NOT QUALIFY HENCE WHY I ONLY RECEIVED THE US$1200 STIMULUS PAYMENT.

    SHOW ME IN BARBADOS WHERE SOMEONE EARNING CLOSE TO US$100 THOUSAND / BD$200 THOUSAND A YEAR IS A POOR INDIVIDUAL.

    I ALSO LIVE IN A COUNTRY WHERE THE COST OF LIVING AND PRICING FOR MOST GOODS ARE MUCH MUCH CHEAPER THAN IN THE US.

    CONTINUE TO LIVE IN DEFLECTION AND NOT IN REALITY WHERE MANY LOCAL BRAINS SEEMS TO BE DEAD LIKE ROTTEN WOOD.

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    The size of the check will decrease based on income for individuals who earned more than $75,000 based on their federal tax return for 2019 (or their 2018 return if they have not filed yet). The payment for individuals will shrink by $5 for every $100 earned over $75,000. For couples who filed jointly, the reduction will start once they earn more than $150,000; for heads of household, at $112,500.

    https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/advocacy/info-2020/coronavirus-stimulus-checks.html

  49. Tron Avatar
    Tron

    @John A May 16, 2020 3:09 PM

    Our currency reserves consist almost exclusively of institutional loans, personal loans and debt from government bonds in foreign currency.

    The next big payday is around the middle of the decade at the latest. Then comes the next default.

    We have one bright spot: We will remain under the IMF’s guardianship until 2025 anyway, so we don’t need a new programme, just an adjustment. BERT III and BERT IV, for example.

  50. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Fractured BLP May 16, 2020 2:14 PM

    Welcome back, ye ole DLP virus of yesteryear!

    And even before you got back into your old politically “fractured” viral self you scored a hole in one.

    The Hon. Sinckliar who has transmogrified from a numerically-challenged yellow duckling into a red rooster sitting on a pale blue Covid-infected fence is already the man of the political year becoming closer to Queen Bee ‘MAM’ than the RH Lord Cecil of Burghley was to Queen Elizabeth 1.

    It seems your ‘yellow’ pot has started to boil red blood, again.
    Here is some raw meat you can add to the stew.

    Please let you ‘red’ boss know that the emoluments of appointed civil servants including that of the recently de facto appointed DCoP cannot be cut, even by way of ‘forced’ pandemic bonds, without first going to Parliament to amend the Constitution.

    You shall soon be able differentiate between the greedy wolves sucking at quickly drying up udders of the private sector and the patriotic sheep grazing on the significantly reduced taxpayers’ feeding pasture.

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