It is mid term and the political temperature just went up after Prime Minister Mia Mottley executed a shake up to her management team – see Prime Minister Mia Mottley Changes Cabinet.
Unlike her predecessor Freundel Stuart who preferred to hideaway on the hilltop of Mount Olympus and descend to talk to the people only if poked and cajoled- Mottley in stark contrast has commanded regional and international attention in her short tenure as prime minister – see Barbadians Take Pause to Watch Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s CNN Interview.
On Wednesday of this week (22/07/2020) the blogmaster listened to an interesting discussion on VOB’s Down to Brasstacks between David Ellis and Dr. Ronnie Yearwood. Both gentlemen agreed that Mottley has been successful in resurrecting the international profile of Barbados BUT the job of monetizing (Yearwood’s word) this intangible will be the challenge.
Relevant Link: Brasstacks Podcast (click 22 July 2020)
The blogmaster has broached this subject many times, the importance of a leader effectively communicating, even if it means OVER communicating. The effect it has on the psyche and confidence level of the people being led is one benefit. Especially during crisis situations that have led to economic and social fatigue of a people. There is a reason political communication is studied in political science.
…in Political Communication in America characterize it as the ways and intentions of message senders to influence the political environment. This includes public discussion (e.g. political speeches, news media coverage, and ordinary citizens’ talk) that considers who has authority to sanction, the allocation of public resources, who has authority to make decision…
The blogmaster concedes there is a dark side to the discipline of political communication. The responsibility rests with civil society to apply its collective intelligence to filter the noise and propaganda from the grist of the points at issue.
This preamble serves notice to readers that Barbados joins small open economies at an unprecedented time in the history of the world. Bold decisions will have to be made to sustain an acceptable standard of living. Old ways of doing business will have to be replaced. Different approaches to educating our people, constructing buildings and homes. The use of technology; digitization. Enhance governance in every sphere of endeavour must spike.
The masses however are reminded the political class in Barbados is a secondary class, there are a few who operate in the economic class; the primary class sitting as gatekeepers and ultimately the greatest influence on decision making and execution of policy in Barbados. While this scenario is no different to what obtains in other countries, some argue the degree of influence exerted by the primary class in Barbados is above the global median.
It is unfortunate the influence of Mia Mottley on the Barbados space looms large and has had the effect of sucking the opposition- political and others – from our space.
This is not Mottley’s fault.
The fault is ours.
How will we respond?
Are we able to strip away the political ragga ragga and use God’s gift to citizens – social media – to intelligently respond?
While we were selling the Barbados Welcome Stamp……
https://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/246840/st-vincent-govt-buccament-bay-deal-final
@ Pacha
You can couch your protest to my views in whatever language you feel like. I stand by what I say. Now if the cap fits………oh well.
The hardest working PM in show business leading from the front.
“Newly appointed Minister of Transport,Works and Water Resources, Ian Gooding-Edghill, Permanent Secretary Mark Cummins, and the ministry’s Acting Chief Technical Officer Philip Tudor were all briefed by the Prime Minister about what she expected from the project.
Mottley had visited the area on Thursday, and today she spent time speaking to concerned residents.”
Sargeant
The above makes one go HMMMNNN, recent debate centred around “Integrity in Public Life”, could it be that some person is reluctant to declare their assets and the shuffle is a prelude to exiting Parliamentary life.
+++++++++++++++++++++++
I don’t know what you talking bout. Read more and come again.🤣🤣🤣
Sir William
You say the same fuckeries over and over again as if there is some unavoidable truism therein.
As if real bajans don’t use these words in lived realities.
As if your genetic englishness cannot coexist with all that being a bajan should mean.
As if your leading local hero was not ont of the the greatest deployers of what you now see as bad language usage.
As if you youself has not for decades deployed the same linguistic idioms with utmost effectiveness.
You may have the last word and continue with your meally mouthed respectability shiiite.
the role of any opposition is to point out the failings of the govt and its leaders and how such failings or shortcomings work against the majority.
to this end lets look at what the Mottley crew has achieved thus far-
1) taxes – higher than before- the entire Bim population who have Govt water is paying for a sewage plant on the south coast. the problem with the plant was highlighted in the last election. the agitator was subsequently given a pick by MAM and after all the hoopla the same solution (a new plant) has been given the green light by this govt which is pumping the sewage into the ocean after storing it in the swamp.
VAT and or the interests have been forgiven by this govt. VAT is a tax paid on certain items by consumers to business places which then submit that VAT to govt and for that they are given certain tax concessions. therefore when they dont pay the VAT collected they benefit in two ways. when Govt forgives such taxes -it perpetuates the idea that taxes need not be paid as it will be eventually forgiven and it is involved in a conspiracy to defraud the bajan public. i maintain that VAT is not a tax that Govt can give away- it is money belonging to the consumers until it is paid to Govt.
Govt has also forgiven other taxes and interests. there was not even a cursory attempt to forgive the taxes for 10cents on the dollar. this is a nod to business (mostly white) which supports this Govt. the head of that body marched with the union to defy the former Govt and the union which represents workers has received nothing but the shitty end of the stick
2) default on the debt and the hiring of white hoax- within a couple of months of coming to power the hive defaulted on the debt and installed white hoax to manage the fall out. to this date we have been told rather vaguely how and why white hoax was hired and why the deliberate default. not even drones really believe what the hivers said.
3) of sirs and filial love- MAM made her father a Sir. Rise Sir Elliott your daughter has the throne
4) Maloney- in the election campaign Maloney was named and shamed as the boogey man (the white shadow) behind the DLP . he was vilified and pilloried up and down the place. the Mottley crew made it seemed as though when they got into power he would have to escape in the middle of the night or be burnt at the stake and the Hyatt Hotel would be scaled down if it was given the go ahead to continue anyway. low and behold Maloney is now seemingly the financier of the BLP economy and all his association with the DLP and evil therefrom have been forgiven. he still drives the Merc by the way
5) speaking about Mercs. MAM said that Freundel should not have commissioned the PM Merc., not when Bim was going thru a devastating financial period. it was not necessary she proclaimed. where is the Merc now?
6) Ministers of, ministers in, gurus, czars and other hangers on- too much to mention too bewildering to discuss further. it must be pointed out that MAM berated the former govt for having 16 or so ministers
7)Faux pas- for a cabinet with so many lawyers and noting #6, the silly legal mistakes are ludicrous- illegal appointment of a 2nd COP anyone?
8)white shadows in the open- if you were to ask the average bajan where all these white people we are now seeing in the public arena come from, many would not be able to answer. to a certain extent, i have no issue with it whatsoever. i have always believed that whites need to be politically involved in the affairs of Bim but it is only when the BLP is in power that they seemingly emerged from the crypt
9) a lot of capital projects- maybe the reason for 8. this along with 1 represent a transfer of wealth from the majority. of course the public may not see it that way but examine the beneficiaries of this govt’s large spending projects and other largesse
digging deep and lifting the veil one would see that all is not well but in the land of the blind MAM is king
@Greene
Have no problem with your critique, it confirms what BU commenters agree on except the partisans- the political class has registered members from all comers. Secondly, political rhetoric is a tool of politicians to win favour with the citizenry. That said the job of the politician everywhere is to make decisions which stoke their popularity. It is in this context some will say Mottley assuming leadership of an economy on the rocks AND a pandemic never seen has rearranged how her government will be evaluated.
@ William
@Hal
I am surprised that you would use the removal of a vagabond from our capital city to really discuss such things. …….(Quote)
Are there limits to the discussion? These are legitimate questions. Why is the symbol of Nelson any worse than that of Codrington or the Cathedral?
@William let us dig below the fluff. A few weeks ago the culture minister opposed the removal of the Nelson statue; then a few hours ago we had a Cabinet reshuffle in which the minister was demoted and his portfolio transferred to the prime minister and he became the junior minister in the same ministry (normally, any self-respecting person would have resigned, but I digress).
Let us assume we have Cabinet government in Barbados, which means decisions are made by Cabinet and defended collectively by all ministers. Are we to assume that a Cabinet meeting took place since the reshuffle and the issue of Nelson’s statue was on the agenda and minister King changed his mind as a result of the discussion? If that was the case, should he not have resigned?
More importantly, what reasons have been given in public to remove the statue that we as a nation and the Cabinet was not fully aware of during the Black Lives Matter marches? (ignore the GIS press statement).
@William, you are falling for the populist guff, a deliberate attempt to deflect discussion from the underlying fundamentals of Cabinet change. We know the Cabinet was not united on the Black Lives Matter issue because the president declined to make a statement (giving as an excuse her responsibilities with CARICOM, a regional union of majority black people) and at least two ministers, one Cabinet level and one junior, joined the march. Was this dissent one of the reasons for the change? It cannot be, since the junior minister remains in position.
Then there is the issue of outcomes. Is the removal of the statue just symbolic or does it mean more in policy terms? If so, what does it mean? If it is symbolic, should be simply feel better about ourselves and go around with broad smiles?
@William, the idea of mature discussion is to ignore the mob. We have had fifty years to remove the statue. At crisis time we need policies to reflect the immediacy of the crisis.
One of the real problems with bajans is that respectability is attached to trivia.
However, they see nothing disrespectful about one man owner 20 percent of the land.
Nothing disrespectful about having minds which can only operate based on eurocentric norms.
But national mindguards like Carl Moore and William Skinner would see something disrespectful about characterizations of jackass, raasoul and the like.
The belief that they have the rights of ‘citizens’ is the nuisance. Accepting the fact that they are second class citizens in their country would lessen their expectations and lead to a happier life.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/07/25/construction-nuisance/
I like the fact that some ‘fake Frenchman’ come to Barbados and have them referring to him as ‘Monsieur’. What next ‘blogmaster san”?
@blogmater San
Monsieur Greene at 9:54 is worthy of a separate post/
Let us see how Lorenzo will handle him.
Then we have other assouls talking about mature debate.
But for those cunts, mature debate can only end with Aristotle and his ilk.
These fuckers can go no further.
They never want to engage the issue as to where their White heroes learnt everything they knew. For them that is mature debate.
Anybody who is so intractable bound is worthy of death.
We tell them to us our collective rasssouls
Nothing like being judged by your “Peers” , Pacha.
Greene
Taxes higher than before? It is clear you’re out to deceive BU readers. But I gine leave these few truths here: something as simple as new garbage trucks and buses and income tax returns. Residents of St.John, St.Joseph and other northern and eastern parishes were experiencing serious water shortages pre-2018. Why do you think the community water tanks (the 21st century standpipe) were set up under David Estwick?https://gisbarbados.gov.bb/blog/relief-for-persons-affected-by-water-outages/
Back then Andre Worrell, who lives in St.John, was a sitting Government Senator. He had been appointed since 2010 when guess what, David Thompsom reshuffled his Cabinet and removed Patricia Inniss and Damian Griffith from the Senate; added David Durant and Harry Husbands and made him a Parl Sec; added Stephen Lashley to the Cabinet; and, reassigned Dr.Suckoo and Irene. This was just after appointing Arni Walters to a post that was neither established temporarily nor existed in the BWA Act. But back to water shortages–I don’t recall Andre Worrell raising his voice then, or arranging a petition prior to 2018. Now Worrell is trying to tell the public that if the current government had built the desal plants as the DLP intended under the arrangements agreed, water would not be an issue. The same BWA the Auditor General just released a not so nice report about the infelicitous activities, including the untendered $68M+ 15-yr contract for water extraction at Groves without adequate infrastructure in place to receive the water. You recall the plan to bring water from Suriname https://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/88590/shipped-water-bought? How many reservoirs have this government repaired since assuming office? You and other Dems should stop the gaslighting.🤣🤣
@enuff
Hope you are not suggesting that because Andre Worrell was as quiet as George Payne in the OSA government that he does not have the right to raise his voice now. There is a St.John seat to be won in 2023.
For Pacha
“Who are your peers?
A peer is someone at your own level. If you are a 10th grader, other high school students are your peers. Peer comes from the Latin par which means equal. When you are on par with someone, you are their peer.“
As far as I know you only had one peer on BU. You never “cussed“ him when you disagreed. You reserved the Queens finest language for him on all occasions. You saw him as your peer. I am not your peer.
So like I said whoever the cap fits.
I forgot Jepter Ince was also made a Parl Sec in the March 2010 Arni Walters-inspired reshuffle. Jepter ‘physical deficit’ Ince.🤣🤣
@ Hal
I have already determined that John King has accepted being an expensive paper weight.
Like I said I will personally throw Nelson in the Careenage.
Until Comrade Prescod speaks, I have nothing more to say about the reshuffle. Mottley has changed the constitution to arrange parliament ( lower house). I know for a fact that unless Caswell is on guard she would get away with a lot more.
We have to accept that in our system of government, once a government has that magically two thirds majority it can do anything. We are in such circumstance. Like it or lump it.
@ William
It is also the mind set. Quite frankly, it does not bother me one bit if Nelson’s statue stays or is removed. It is the thinking behind it tht I am interested in.
I have already said that Mottley is not as clever as she and her fans think she is; she plays to the gallery. I am not in to the mob. Mottley has nothing of real interest to say to the nation. She is an Empress without any clothes.
Crusoe…we are speaking about 2 different things…i said..attn: Black faces with white minds, Germany is one of the most racist countries in the world and they worship a Black saint…think on THAT…..Germany has ALWAYS had Black people…
There is documented evidence that Germany had a Black King one thousand years ago…..they are always digging up ancient bones of Black people in and around Germany….they are not doing black musicians any favors…African descended people have always been part of the Germanylandscape.
https://youtu.be/EMJg-SaGokg?t=
Mr Skinner some of what you mentioned about Mr Ssndiford was ttue.However as i tell you all the time you, you like to cherry pick fsctsLike you i marched against the 8% cut like thousands of others.If i recall correctly the technocrats in thr finance ministry had advised Mr Sandiford against regrading of senior civil servants at the time.Mr Sandiford ignored the advice and did just that further worsening a poor econmic situation.Therefore Mr Skinner in my view Mr Ssndiford created the situation and had to fix it.
On another point this is the same Mr Sandiford that claimed the economy was performing better than Sir Garfield Sobers in the 1991 elections only for Mr Blackman when placed in the finance ministry to give bajans an honest assessment of the state pf the economy.Any of this sounds familiar to you Skinner?
Lastly to jog your memory if Mr Sandiford was so good according to you how come he became PM through the back door in my view and not having a facoff with Mr Taitt or Dr Haynes who were fsr more popular.Can you answer that Skinner?My verdict Mr Sandiford was a good education minister but poor PM.who never commanded the full respect of his colleagues.
@ Lorenzo
You are missing the point. I was merely pointing out that it is unfair to judge Ms. Mottley on just two years in office. Ms. Mottley is leading in very different and difficult times. I will give her critical support. You guys are elevating her way beyond reality at this moment. It is totally unfair to her.
Fir example we speak about Tom Adams. When Barrow legislated salaries in 1975 , Tom Adams stood on the floor of parliament and said that salaries should never be legislated, in other words he maintained that the collective bargaining process should never be broken. I was a very active member of the BUT back then.
Tom went on to win the government in 1976 and he too legislated salaries and broke the collective bargaining agreement as well. Six and half dozen.
Fast forward to pre 2018 general election. Mia publicly declared that Czar Mark Maloney was bad news. Today she all up in Maloney.
I don’t cherry pick , you Dees and Bees spit up in the air and then it drops in your faces.
I have never supported going to the IMF but I totally understand why Mottley went; I bluntly refused to criticise the government during the COVID period. It has done a better job than the idiots in the USA; I was the first on BU to support BOSS; I supported Ford’s efforts with the youth in Christ Church; I wanted Stuart and company gone like everybody else; I am supporting the removal of the eleven plus.
Yet you delight in branding me a Dee if I barely critique the government.
Now look at crime. You guys were calling for AG Brathwaite to be fired. Yet you would pretend that the equal failure Marshall should remain. It’s hypocrisy.
How on earth anybody can say that Mottley is the best Prime Minister since Tom Adams. I am no Arthur fan but he is perhaps the only one that came close to Sir Grantley or Barrow., Mottley is not near that esteemed crowd yet. As for Stuart he has been our biggest failure to date.
People like you unwittingly do PM Mottley a great injustice when you parade her as the second coming.
I am certain that she is totally embarrassed at times.
@ Lorenzo
I would not know of the machinations that made Sandiford PM before Haynes or whom ever. I have never been a member of the Democratic or the Barbados Labour Party. I enjoy great friendships with some from both sides. I have dealt with them in business and socially but unlike you they know that I have no regard for their corrupt parties. May their parties burn in the political hell. They always laugh when I say that 😊
@ Hal July 25, 2020 7:05 AM
Profound statement on your part. Read the bs put by people who want to tear down in the guise of all sorts of things. I have lived long enough to have seen all sorts of things. Unfortunately, when asked about the rebuilding process there is total silence. Let me repeat what I have said all along: envy and resentment at having made little contribution to the modern technological advances are at the root of this desire to tear down. A people with superior technology will always dominate one with lesser technology. A fact of history. It is in the interest of those with lesser technological know-how, to make an effort to improve their technical know-how and stop the bs about blaming others for all of the perceived injustices encountered by them.
@ Robert
We can continue to live in our little world and pretend it is the universe.
@ Robert Lucas
You keep saying that Blacks are second class citizens because we have not developed technologies. Gibberish. You certainly have not done your research. You need to read more widely.
The Blacks that have contributed and actually own successful techno businesses would not be highlighted on FOX CNN or evening CBC.
You need to just do a little research.
oh well…
“A New York court has denied former government minister Donville Inniss’ motion for a judgment of acquittal.This was revealed in a Memorandum and Order document 115 filed today and ordered by United States District Judge, Kiyo Matsumoto.
As a result, sentencing of Mr. Inniss will take place on Monday, November 23rd at 11:00 a.m.
On January 16th, a jury in the Eastern District of New York found Mr. Inniss guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and two counts of substantive money laundering.
His lawyers subsequently filed for a judgment of acquittal on all three counts of conviction, pursuant to the federal rule of criminal procedure.”
Skinner maybe you did not see my response to crusoe where i clearly stated that Ms Mottley has not yet reached Mr Arthur as a PM but had already in my view surpassed Mr Stuart, Mr Thompson and Mr Sandiford whom you tried to big up.I noticed you did not touch on tje fact that Mr Sandiford created the mess he tried to fix with the 8 % cut and misled bajans in 1991 with the statement that the economy was batting like Sir Garfield Sobers only for us to be in the IMF hands soon after.Finally i certainly am not overly bigging up Ms Mottley not after two short years. As for Mr Maloney who already had projects in the pipeline what do you what the government to do abandone them or allow them to go ahead once proper proceedures are followed.I am pretty sure Mr Maloney will not walk all over this government like he did the last one and will tow the line.
William Skinner July 25, 2020 1:02 PM,
your rebuttal to Robert Lucas, and to Lorenzo, were spot on. you shoot straight,man
@Enuff
i dont know how to reply to what you said; not because of its profundity but rather its inanity. wheel and come again, please
David
No, not at all. Worrell has a right to talk. There’s a St.John nomination to get first, though, and if Verla wants to see the Lower House she better run in St.John and even then she may lose because it is looking like come 2023 the incumbent may accomplish more in the parish than possibly all his predecessors. I see a National Art Gallery is finally coming; Ghanaian nurses coming; A&E expanding etc. IL passed, prevention of corruption hopefully soon, then proclamation. I await news on the performance of BOSS’ first month. All the talk, the government is on track to win the next election, one by one the boxes getting ticked. What will the other parties campaign on–Mia gave her father a knighthood? Imagine if the government didn’t restructure the external debt?
@ Lorenzo July 25, 2020 2:02 PM
“As for Mr Maloney who already had projects in the pipeline what do you what the government to do abandone them or allow them to go ahead once proper proceedures are followed.I am pretty sure Mr Maloney will not walk all over this government like he did the last one and will tow the line.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
LOL!! Which line is that? Whose ‘toes’ are on the line?
The only one ‘toeing the line’ is your Majesty MAM.
When Mr. MAM says jump the Queen Bee says how high, Emperor?
The question to you, the Footman Lorenzo, is why Mr. MAM is driving around in a duty-free luxury vehicle for the past 3 years imported for a Sales Director working at a non-existent hotel?
What is the justification for this special privilege when he ought to be “towing the line” at the BRA just like other citizens have to ‘toe the line’ to pay their fair share of taxes
Why can’t you accept that under both administrations those who pay the piper (make large campaign investments) call the tunes by way of payback in contracts whether in the form of demolition or erection of buildings?
Greene
Someone pointing at a Mercedes that was already in possession of the government, talking about inanity? Referencing a PM knighting their father, talking about inanity? A PM ain’t knight his deputy’s father? And so what, both are deserving and that is the defining factor. An aspiring DLP candidate talking about taxes but fails to mention the reduction in income tax, expansion of reverse tax credit and the introduction of the compensatory income credit? The impact of taxes cannot be analysed in vacuum i.e. by focusing solely on the taxes imposed. You need to also look at where they were removed and reduced. The GST is $547.50 per HOUSEHOLD annually. The reverse tax credit has been moved back to $1,300 per PERSON and expanded to a maximum annual income of $24,999. This is after Sinckler reduced it to $650 and still didn’t paying it. With CIC, those at $25,000 but under $35,000 can receive a tax rebate up to $1,350. The GST is still only $547.50 per HOUSEHOLD. Moreover, because the ultimate goal must be to determine impact on households and individuals, then other issues like free tertiary level tuition must count. The government should look at those households receiving the reverse tax credit and CIC, free tertiary education, takes public transportation and robustly interrogate the data to destroy the DLP taxation argument. What you need to answervis whether Bdos is better off now than before May 2018. Yuh should tell BU about these new white faces that emerging. I ain’t no former, current or aspiring politician but laaaawd yuh game weak. I am just a Google expert.🤣🤣
A National Art Gallery? And we wonder were an antique statue will end up…lol De museum and the careenage bottom gine loss out.
@ robert lucas July 25, 2020 12:44 PM
“A people with superior technology will always dominate one with lesser technology. A fact of history. It is in the interest of those with lesser technological know-how, to make an effort to improve their technical know-how and stop the bs about blaming others for all of the perceived injustices encountered by them.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Your argument is sound.
The pivot of technology is the one which determines generally who exercises control over the planet’s resources.
That’s why so-called nations have large armies with both defence and offence capabilities.
That can explain Israel’s dominance in the ME.
But it cannot explain the defeat of Germany and to a lesser extent (Italy’s) defeat in WW2.
How about the role of ideology (including religion)?
Doesn’t the effectiveness of any technological advantage require leadership of ‘higher’ morals?
Blacks are too easy to brainwash and to be deprived of their resources.
How then can they to be in the front row of both the technological and ideological classes?
How else can you explain black people pretending to believe in a god given to them by a race of people who enslaved and brutalized them for hundreds of years?
@ Miller July 25, 2020 4:12 PM
“But it cannot explain the defeat of Germany and to a lesser extent (Italy’s) defeat in WW2.”
Do not forget that the Americans and Brits cracked the nearly all codes of the Axis powers! The Allied had TOTAL information superiority from 1942/43 onwards.
Information is everything. Imagine if you knew the exact stock price a week in advance. With that, you could turn a thousand dollars into a billion dollars within a year with leverage products.
I therefore believe that our government should install an application on every mobile phone so that our security forces can better respond to crimes, riots (such as the recent Nelson riots), and inappropriate statements made in the social media.
Addendum: Our government should first install a corona application on every mobile phone. Charles Jong could then use his China connection to download better software in the background, which links the audio and video system of the mobile phone with the central computer of our government. So that our leader can understand us even better.
@Greene July 25, 2020 9:54 AM “- the entire Bim population who have Govt water is paying for a sewage plant on the south coast”
Granted.
But how otherwise would you suggest it be paid for?
I don’t live on the south coast, but when i visit the south coast i don’t bring my “urgent business” back home. I use the toilet at some south coast home or business place.
I don’t have any children in elementary, secondary or tertiary education either. Would you suggest that my taxes be reduced because of that?
In my whole life I’ve spent just 36 hours in the QEH. 45 minutes for the surgery and the other hours resting up. Would you suggest that a person with a difficult chronic expensive illness which requires frequent hospitalization be made to pay more? And should I ask for a refund because I have been such a light user of medical services?
I haven’t had a car for more than 2 decades should I get a refund of the taxes paid to keep bridges and roads vehicle worthy, because I tread so lightly by foot on Barbados’ soil?
If so let me know then when my refund check is ready.
@Greene July 25, 2020 9:54 AM
VERY DETAILED.
GO TO HEAD OF THE CLASS, THE BLP Bullshitters AND DECEPTIVE BAJANS DON’T LIKE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE TRUTH.
“- the entire Bim population who have Govt water is paying for a sewage plant on the south coast”
Cuhdear Bajan, Greene is grasping at straws. This is a weak idiotic argument and does not look on an aspirant. We pay a health levy but all of us don’t use the polyclinics or QEH. A sewerage system, like a hospital, is part of national infrastructure. It is not an amenity!! Imagine if we were allowed to pick and choose what infrastructure we contribute to based on what we use?🤣🤣
do we pay a specific tax for the Bridgetown sewage plant or for any other sewage plant used by one sector of Barbados?
I dont live or use any disposal system on that particular part of the south coast so why should my water bill double to support such.
if we are so strapped for cash why not try to collect 10 cents on the dollar to forgive VAT and other taxes?
Removing symbols that represent slavery/oppression won’t succor our ability to comprehend the reality as a people who are opportunistic. We are so far up the colonialists “A” to see our hands in front of our faces. I pray that Our PM liberates us…..?
https://youtu.be/YQgrwMHVIVg?t=17
@Greene July 25, 2020 7:13 PM “if we are so strapped for cash why not try to collect 10 cents on the dollar to forgive VAT and other taxes?”
I agree with you that any government anywhere should work hard to collect all taxes as they become due, and all outstanding taxes. But that said too many governments both “B” and “D” have let tax collection lapse. I gather that some of the taxes due was from the 1960’s and that the the tax payers are dead and maybe their children are dead too. I mean how was that allowed to happen?
In nearly 70 years I have never called the police, nor has anybody ever called the police for me…at least not yet. Lol!! Should I, and people like me ask for refunds of that part of our taxes which covers policing?
And I have never used marijuana, cocaine or any other illegal drug so why should I pay for the coast guard. If the drug dealers dropped a lump of cocaine as big as Mount Everest on Barbados I would pass it like a full bus, as I have zero interest in that substance or any other. So should I ask for a refund of that part of my taxes which pays for Coast Guarding services?
All sensible people understand that even though there are multi government services that we never or only rarely use we all have to pay for them, that’s how society works, that’s how government works, otherwise why bother to have government at all?
I don’t understand what you are saying, unless you are just being partisan.
@Greene July 25, 2020 7:13 PM “I dont live or use any disposal system on that particular part of the south coast so why should my water bill double to support such>”
So Greene, when you are at the airport, or at a home, business etc. and you urgently need to do a “P” do you use the ai the toilets on those south coast locations or do you do it in the nearest bushes?
That must have been you I saw doing a “P” in the bushes just outside of the airport in February just before the COVID19 shutdown.
Not nice to do that. Not nice at all.
Green
Your water Bill mY have almisser double
But when u say that you have to bring all the infomation or you Exposé you agenda
The majority of the increase on the Bwa Bill
Was infact for the SSA
Ur campaign going down the wrong Lane and the bajan public aint going to buy into it
The sewage potion of the Bill is to keep the Two sewage plants operations and not have a repeat of the shirt in the streets because there is no money to replay broken down Equipment
And dont forget Bridgetown sewage plant was about to Explode.
At least the public can see where some of the increase in taxes is/was being spent
“Yes, the god-like Egyptian born Christian man was called Saint Maurice or Moritz.
A black saint venerated by pale-skin people of the many militaristic old kingdoms of western and central Europe.”
Miller…when all the hoopla about dismantling statues broke out recently the Germans said straight up that there was no way in hell they were getting rid of the statue of their Black Saint…the dude is revered by them and he is actually a symbol they do not want removed….it just reinforces our lack of knowledge of our own history….
i saw some information about the Black Madonna and Child, but will have to revisit that as well
@Hants
they needed to hire your girl from Holland. Do they ever sound test anything? I couldn’t get past the 2 minute mark.
BOSS ON TARGET
By Colville Mounsey
More than ten thousand public servants have signed on in the first month of the Barbados Optional Savings Scheme (BOSS), putting Government well on target for achieving its goal of $110 million in fiscal space.
This was disclosed by the programme’s architect, Government’s senior economic advisor Dr Kevin Greenidge, who also told the Sunday Sun that the Barbados Central Bank was oversubscribed in terms of the requests for the high-yield bonds that were not taken up by the public workers.
Bond allotment
He said that around 50 per cent of those who completed the option form had opted to keep their full bond allotment, while the others opted for part or all to be converted to cash. He further explained that as a result, Government issued $4.6 million in bonds, $1.2 million of which was retained in full allotments by the civil service, while $3.4 million was obtained by the secondary market.
“The programme started in July, and we had about 10 500 signing on to theprogramme at this stage via the option forms. Close to half of those persons opted to keep all of their bond allotmentwhile others opted to convert all or part ofthat bond allotment to cash. We had expected this, as it more or less
reflected the fact that a lot of persons would be consuming most of their paycheque at this time. So as a result, for the month of July, Government issued $4.6 million in BOSS bonds, the workers got $1.2 million and the other $3.4 million went to the Central Bank on the secondary market,” Greenidge said.
The programme, which shaves the public sector wage bill, was designed to create fiscal space in order to redirect budgeted funds towards a capital works programme, as part of efforts to stimulate the economy, which has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the economist noted that the programme, which has a monthly cap of $8.5 million over an 18-month period, was just about $400 000 shy of their expectations for the first month.
“The secondary market was oversubscribed by private citizens, creditunions and other institutions. So that $3.4 million that went to the Central Bank was immediately snatched up. In the legislation, we go up to a maximum
of $8.5 million per month; this was the maximum we could carry to create the fiscal space necessary,” he said.
Greenidge said that requests to the Central Bank for next month’s bonds were already high. He also anticipated that the number of people who would be retaining their bonds was also expected to increase as there were a few stragglers from this month. He also reminded individuals to ensure they receive their statements from the Central Bank via email or mail as this was their receipt.
“We are on target, because anyhow you look at it, 10 500 is a big buy-in, with Government issuing $4.6 million in the very first month. The demand was so high on the secondary market that the CentralBank had to stop taking subscriptions, and in fact they have already
opened subscriptions for the August bonds and people are already expressing a high degree of interest in those,” he said.
“I suspect that we are going to surpass $4.6 million in August because in the first month persons are just trying to organise their paycheque in a way that could accommodate it. Some persons would also have loans that that might come to an end soon and would then put them in a position to get some bonds. So we are well on target to where we want to be and, in my view, the programme is heading towards major success.”
Source: Nation Newspaper
people in St John, St Joseph, certain parts of St Andrew and St George have to pay Water bill inclusive of the sewage tax when they get no water and do not benefit from the sewage system on the South Coast for which the tax was implemented. the people living on and businesses that utilise that specific system should bear the brunt of the cost to run and maintain it.
to install water toilets in those areas and most of Bim we pay a digger around 2000-2500 pounds . is there a specific tax for that? so why should there be a national tax for the benefit of a specific group and or area? the bridge town sewage plant is different for obvious reasons
that was only one of the several points for which i criticised this govt by the way
@Greene
Tax policy of the government is obviously informed by the bad current state of financial affairs. As you are aware the government picked up an economy/treasury in the red, junk territory. Your point may have merit in normal times, we are not in normal times.
@David
the opening sentence in that piece is quite misleading. the onus is on the civil servants to indicate that they want cash instead of the bonds not for the civil servants to sign on. that civil servants will be paid n bonds is the default position in other words.
a better picture would have been how many civil servants have indicated to the Central Bank that they want to be paid in cash.
i suspect that many will not opt out in the first instance
i suspect that the secondary market demand is strong for the simple reason that investments need somewhere to go and Govt bonds (until recently) were viewed as safe
@Greene
Agree, the proof after month 2 and 3 is what is the accumulated savings had from the wage bill.
i think that BOSS will work however gimmicky it started out. the reasons for so stating are that 1) MAM guaranteed to a large extent Govt will not default and 2) the demand in the secondary market for the reason i expressed above is strong, in fact very strong.
the civil servants are incidental to BOSS and are only relevant to the matter of the wage bill.
i have spoken to many and they knew they had no choice but to accept. many have no disposable income and cannot afford to take-home pay cut as this is. some have borrowed or tried to against the bonds. some fear that if they indicate they want the money they will be targeted so they will wait to see how it plays out.
those who can afford the cut revealed that to them it is a savings (cemented by the MAM guarantee), better than they would have got in the banks or credit unions
And the fact secondary market is strong suggest a surprising confidence in government paper.
@MGreene
MAM guaranteed to a large extent government will not default? Two words: White Oak.
gREENE 634am
What is different about the Bridgetown plant?
How much from the increase levvy/tax goes towards the sewage coffers?
If i had no kids i would still be paying for school in Barbados from primary to university.
My kids are schooled in Barbados and for every house i own in the USA (even if i dont live in it/them) i am taxed for schooling on each home( kid or no kids).
The homes and businesses in the sewer areas ( S. coast and Btown) do carry the brunt of the cost for the sewerage plants. When they were hooked up they all pay a “sewage charge” that would be on their water bill. I am not sure if the new levy would have cost an increase to that charge or if that charge was replaced by the new levy.
Point taken that nobody likes to pay more for anything than they they think they should.
However BWA need the funds for the up keep of the plants and those fund will come from the tax payers one way or the other. either by the sewage levy going directly to the BWA or central government (our taxes) when BWA comes running to it to help make up it shortfall
So sir – like it or not your taxes were and still is supporting the sewages plants.
IMO you are flogging a dead horse
When the sewage plants were in a mess it was the whole country that were negatively affected not only the people on the south coast or Bridgetown.
@John2
Some BU commenters live overseas where the country in managed differently compared to a 2×3 island.
>
654am
@John 2
i could rebut but i wont. time to move on as i indicated this was but one of the several criticisms i made. we will agree to disagree
@ Hal Austin July 26, 2020 7:36 AM
explain please
greene
i am curious as to what makes the Bridgetown plant different
@ Greene
We are in the mess we are because of a previous unnecessary default. Would you take her at her word now? It is a Ponzi scheme.
We were in a mess BEFORE the default.
Because COVID is imaginary. SMFH
Barbados Welcome Stamp
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-53385227
Bored of working from home, wishing you were on a beach instead?
That could be a real prospect under a new scheme launched by the government of Barbados.
The Barbados Welcome Stamp, which has just started taking applications, gives international visitors the opportunity to work remotely on the island for up to a year.
Palm trees, sun, and blue skies sound like a dream to many, but even stunning locations have their pros and cons, especially during a pandemic. So what can remote workers expect if they take up the tempting offer?
++++++++++++
The lead in to the above link
“suggest a surprising confidence in government paper.”
Desperation fool’s gold. All the attentive ones, while most realizing the high risk, previously opted for TBills instead of Bonds. The former are not usually touched in a default. Guess what? They guessed wrong, and ended up with a reduced investment in longer term Bonds. The publicly traded firms are in deep doo doo for the most, dividends will drop, and a subsequent share price tumble. Bank account rates for savings have not yet gone negative, but are on the edge. Between property taxes, and the high cost of transferring title, little money in real estate, even if you can find distress sales. Sooooo…wha left? Convert your $Bds and find some foreign destination to invest in international markets? Or GoB paper. Or invest in “some” other opportunity?
@Northern Observer
Where are the opportunities to soak the 9 billion in deposits?
You are providing the answer to why the surprising confidence in GoB paper!!! Mistaking confidence for ‘en got nah choice’.
@NO
Just checking. Hobson’s choice?
Not quite, you can still convert and invest on international markets. Every Bajan has ‘family’ and friends in free markets.
@Northern Observer
Most Bajans are illiterate about investing and this is made worse by our risk averse nature. How are they to get local dollars converted?
@NO
Not quite, you can still convert and invest on international markets. Every Bajan has ‘family’ and friends in free markets
++++++++++++
You joking right?
Hobsons is NO OTHER CHOICE. Investment literacy, risk tolerance or currency supply are merely obstacles.
Sarge…I rarely joke about money. I merely call the options as I see them. Others can accept them or reject them. Life is about choices.
One underlying challenge, is due to the normal democratic cycle, Covid, or self inflicted issues like our GoC, many of the countries with the wealth to offer/provide assistance are very inwardly focused these days. They are in a battle for their own political life. Even the notoriously liberal Lagarde, while opening the taps of the ECB, has been mum of any subsequent redirection of funds. The IMF seems to have no policy. All are trying to keep their ahead above water, in a fast rising tide.
Meanwhile the murders continue.
The Royal Barbados Police Force is investigating the shooting death of a man at Rowans, St George today.
https://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/246884/update-st-george-shooting-victim-dies
Wonder why it is Royal or Force. Do they act by Force? What the RH does the British monarchy have to do with our police? The Barbados Police is fine without the appendage at either end.
@NO
How about RCMP? Don’t forget there are no titles in Canada excepting Conrad Black 😊
@ NorthernObserver July 26, 2020 2:01 PM
Anyone who has been betting on relatively safe stocks in the USA since April 1, 2020, has already achieved a profit of around 20-25 percent in the current year. Plus dividends.
Only the poor, who cannot afford a stock portfolio at a proper international bank, invest locally.
@NO
You have included a good escape clause “relatively safe stock”.
Do you include airlines, cruise line and hotel in that category. I will anticipate your answer and ask you “when did you consider them as not safe’ pre-covid, or during covid.
Some of us with relatively safe stocks still got a little sting.
Side note:
I think MB could be useful here but he gets distracted with Trump and other matters.
You would trust advice from MoneyBrain????
Man, if that dude told me to stand still I would run!
@Sarge
What about the Toronto Police Force? They took down the Nelson statue in Montreal years ago, that was in part, due to the French influence. We also have the RCYC on Toronto island. The Royal Conservatory of Music, the Royal Ontario Museum, Galerie Royal in Mtl, the Royal Air Force and Navy, the Royal Canadian Mint, Royal Canadian Legion, Royal Military College, Royal Ottawa Golf Club, Royal Montreal Golf and Curling Club, Royal Victoria YC, Royal Victoria Hospital, Royal Victoria College. those off the top of my head. No urge to get rid of the Royal association. The RBYC? Done gone. Canada doesn’t fight its colonial heritage, though maybe it needs to rework some of the historic ties between parliamentary seats and the Senate. We still even have a GG !!!!
@TheoG
don’t confuse me with @Trong. Those are his words not mine, he was merely replying.
I am 50% re-invested after clearing house on Feb 14….that was my VD gift!!! I bought into VISA, Google, Microsoft, Walmart, RBC. I had Invidia but sold. Sitting on the fence. Doing OK, but need to replace my dividend war horses.
NO
You got to learn How to play thise Options man
Ordinary inmates of the plantation called Barbados cannot simply invest their savings in quality stocks because our financial laws date back to the Middle Ages. Instead, unfortunately, they have to rely on substandard local financial products. Unfortunately, government advisors like Mr Greendidge stick to this very bad and inefficient system in order to subjugate the population.
We therefore need the liberalisation of our financial system: free convertibility of the BBD in unlimited amounts, foreign transfers without central bank control and abolition of all transaction taxes.
So we need less idiotic post-colonial nationalism and more economic rationalism.
Having a hard time making money Tron?
Have you ever tried W-O-R-K?
Lazy people do not work, but let the money work.
This information has been going around, the doctors are coming out, don’t let stupid governments force vaccines on you if there is already a cure out there for the plague.
https://www.facebook.com/LALewis7Official/videos/641083333175244/
Research this a little more.
i have to take back the TheoGazerts Journalists Award
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/28/facebook-twitter-youtube-pull-false-coronavirus-video-after-it-goes-viral.html
The net is broken
society as we know it is broken
News as we know it is broken. Not going down the fake news path, but there are many of the sources of false news.
Read, reread, research, put the title in your browser and add the words false after
visit snopes.com
It’s crazy out there Theo…but some good news from wall street journal..apparently the protests have become unsettling and disturbing….so the house of representatives is “looking into reparations”
“Weeks of racial-justice protests are pushing the concept of reparations for Black Americans from the political margins toward the center of the national debate, with policy makers from Capitol Hill to city halls weighing compensation plans for slavery and longtime discrimination.
In Washington, House leaders say they expect to pass this year for the first time a three-decade-old proposal creating a federal commission to craft an official government apology and remedy plan.”.
Maybe Barbados lawyers/government ministers who love to sign bad contracts on behalf of the people that end up ripping off the treasury and pension fund can learn something from this..
https://youtu.be/CJ38mEvB3WA?t=251
@ David
That’s one of the reasons why I’m not quick to believe everything on social media.
I’ve seen the same individual claiming information they copied and pasted from Facebook and other social media platforms to BU as being FACTUAL.However, when the info is checked, more often than not, it is usually untrue or misleading.
Anyone attempting to highlight any inaccuracies, are called “SLAVES” or accused of having “the MIND OF SLAVES….willing to accept ANYTHING,”………… yet they ACCEPT lies as truth. Then go off on a tantrum bragging about some self perceived success they achieved over the past 8 years. How much success can anyone gain by pushing false or misleading information?
I believe people should exercise some responsibility, by simply verifying the credibility of the information and its source BEFORE sharing it with this forum.
Theo…. if you are checking the Ambassador Quoa video….the popular sentiment is …automatic citizenship first, then we can talk…lol..born at night, not last night..
I take it France ne n’aime pas les voleurs on social media for the last year or so..at least they stopped being les parasites in the lives of African people, someone had suggested that Africa colonize France since they believe they should get free billions for sitting there doing nothing..ah guess that colonize talk did not sit well with them either …social media can get real creative.
https://youtu.be/fGRze9jyy8c?t=33
I so want the many slave master wannabes in Barbados to get caught up in something like this and finish them off once and for all, there has never been a better time, i would just want to hear a whiff and the info will wrap around the earth in nanoseconds.
“By Julia Hollingsworth, CNN
Updated 7:54 AM EDT, Wed July 29, 2020
(CNN)They thought they were going to New Zealand to make better lives for their families.
They were told they would leave Samoa — a small island nation in the South Pacific — for their larger neighbor, a country with about 25 times the population. Once there, they would work and send the money back home to their loved ones.
Instead, when they arrived in New Zealand, the 13 victims — who cannot be named due to a court suppression order — were confronted with an entirely different situation, legal records show.
Their passports were taken from them. They were kept on a property surrounded by a high wire fence and could only leave or communicate with their family with permission. If they broke the rules, they were assaulted, sometimes so badly that it resulted in scars. When one teenage victim escaped, she was brought back in a car with her hands and wrists tied, Radio New Zealand reported.
Most worked long hours picking fruits from orchards, but they didn’t receive the money they had earned. Instead, it was given to the man who had either directly or indirectly lured them to New Zealand: a Samoan chief named Joseph Auga Matamata.
.
Joseph Matamata has been sentenced for 11 years in prison for slavery and human trafficking.
On Monday, Matamata was sentenced to 11 years in jail for 10 counts of human trafficking and 13 counts of dealing in slaves — the first case in New Zealand where a person has been convicted of both human trafficking and slavery at the same time.
He was also ordered to pay 183,000 New Zealand dollars ($122,000) in reparations to his 13 victims to partly compensate them for the estimated 300,000 New Zealand dollars ($200,000) his family gained from his criminal acts. Matamata has maintained his innocence.
But while Matamata’s sentence brings to a close more than two decades of offending, experts say that his case is just the tip of the iceberg.
They say that although human trafficking and slavery convictions are rare in New Zealand, cases are more widespread than those convictions suggest. And they warn that more people could become vulnerable to trafficking in the post-pandemic world”
Ya see all those marijuana plantations ya selling left and right, setting up and still got them labeled as plantations too, with ya business partners all ready to act their faux slave masters roles, am just waiting, resting and everything..
“But Szablewska wants New Zealand to follow in the footsteps of other countries like Australia by introducing a Modern Slavery Act that requires businesses to do due diligence on their own supply chain. New Zealand businesses operating in Australia that have a turnover over a certain threshold are also subject to the rules.
Szablewska thinks that a Modern Slavery Act would help raise awareness about the issue in New Zealand.”