The Spectre of Mottley
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?
Barbados Underground 
@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 !!!!
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@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.
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NO
You got to learn How to play thise Options man
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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.
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Having a hard time making money Tron?
Have you ever tried W-O-R-K?
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Lazy people do not work, but let the money work.
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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.
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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
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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
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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.”.
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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..
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@ 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.
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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..
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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.
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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”
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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.”
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