The following article appears in the Business Section of the the Independent dated 13 September 2020, a newspaper based in Ireland where Prime Minister Mia Mottley was also reported promoting business opportunities between Barbados and Ireland.
Readers will recall two earlier blogs posted to Barbados Underground which highlighted a matter that has reached the Barbados Courts between Irish businessman Alan McIntosh and local businessman Peter Odle which has been in abeyance in the court system since 2008..
See following links:
- Foreign Investor Unable to Have Case Heard Against Hotelier Peter Odle
- The Peter Principle – The Peter Odle Imbroglio
It makes any sensible person wonder what is the point of expending so much effort and resources to sell Barbados as an international business centre and because of a dysfunctional court system; one that is perceived to be manipulated, potential returns are nullified. Based on the notification from the Supreme Court of Barbados the case is set down to be heard on the 26 January 2021 at 9:30AM. We know this is no guarantee the matter will be heard given the long arm of influence by some in our country.
See article in the Independent newspaper.
Cairn Homes founder warns investors about Barbados
September 13 2020 02:30 AMAlan McIntosh, a founder of Cairn Homes and Emerald Investments, has sent a letter to the Prime Minister of Barbados in which he advised people not to invest in Barbados.
The investor wrote the letter after Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley appeared in a Business Post article looking to increase economic links between Ireland and her country. She also appeared on Irish radio to talk about a “work from Barbados” scheme.
Copies of the letter were sent to others, including Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
McIntosh made a $2.5m investment in Barbados three years ago. He ended up in a dispute with one of the shareholders in the project, Peter Ogle, starting legal action in 2018.
In the letter, seen by Ergo, McIntosh wrote that he has been waiting “almost three years” for the matter to be heard.
Of investing in Barbados, McIntosh wrote: “I am an Irish investor who invested in Barbados, and I wish I’d never done so. Unless changes are made to the legal system in Barbados, I would urge no one to invest in Barbados, either commercially or to buy a condo, holiday home or even take a holiday there. Why? The legal system is not fit for foreign investment or even to settle minor disputes in a timely manner.”
Later in the letter, he wrote: “I have waited for the court system to allow me due process, and after almost three years have seen no progress in the courts whatsoever.
“My advice to anyone contemplating investing in Barbados is: ‘Do not Do It’.”
Barbados didn’t respond to a request for comment.
If the legal system fails, the state fails.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CFDWVkZjRdj/
At some point someone must ask de Madam what are the results of all her long talk? de Madam is fast becoming a hot air balloon
quote ]
“Many jobs that can be filled by Barbadians are not filled by Barbadians because some of them not white and that is mostly what it is. But the biggest problem is when they bring these people in, they pay them four and five times more than they pay the local staff and they provide accommodation for them too. So they are not getting any better work because the local staff still do the work for them. It is just that they are in charge,” he said.
Insisting that the change must come with the minister responsible saying ‘no’, Franklyn said: “We allow it because we want their investment. We are selling our souls. This country is selling its soul for a dollar and that is basically what it is.”
He added: “The government needs to show some intestinal fortitude and tell them no, if you don’t want to employ locals then you can leave your investment.”
Adding that the practice had become the norm in the tourism sector, the outspoken union leader said “The hotels are now the slave plantation of the 21st century. Black people are still being enslaved and treated badly in these jobs.
“No amount of talking will change it, we need radical change in this country,” said Franklyn, who also dismissed the Prime Minister’s suggestion that the country needed a larger population.
“Right now you have almost 40,000 people unemployed and you are going to bring in 80,000? . . . We can’t afford any more people, but this is what the handlers of the Government want and so they make these stupid proposals,” he said. [unquote
https://barbadostoday.bb/2020/09/12/hotel-ad-seeking-to-employ-non-national-draws-ire/
Franklyn seems to be the only credible opposition around. the BLP taking a 6 for a 9
(Quote)
If the legal system fails, the state fails.
Complètement d’accord (Or should we say: “Spot On”!)
And all this bad mouthing of Bim as a gulag for foreign investors is reinforced by the Donvillegate affair.
The justice system is the bedrock of the society and ought to act as both the lubricant and glue to keep the social and economic systems functioning effectively.
No one in their right financial mind would now want to invest in real estate or engage in other ‘honest’ business dealings as long as the legal and justice system(s) operate like a cabal of incompetent and corrupt grandees.
@Miller
The late Amused posted voluminously about the negative effect of our moribund court on the international business sector. It is surprising we have not witnessed a more strident lobby from BIBA. Many of these associations are too political.
Tell the Irishman to relax this all happening on ” Island Time”. Oh and in the meantime we got you back so we just appoint Odle as chairman of a big board we got here. Yes we wanted to send wunna foreign investors a message you see so wunna have a nice day. Yes cause here the beaches sprinkle with gold and all we people got jobs so we dont need wunna foreign money. Plus we does look out for we friends and reward them at all cost, so you must accept that too dont mind the message it send. Thats right that too is de “Island Way.”
If it wasnt so sad it would be funny.
are we witnessing the moment when David realises that de Madam and the Bees are full of bollocks? or as soon as de Madam spouts some BS as no doubt there will be in the Throne Speech the koolaid will be imbibed again?
@Greene
Playing the man does not become you.
man, you have to explain what you mean by that
The bar rats must have ran out of Black people to rob at least 10 years ago seeing as they stole from so many over the last 60 years…so they now have no problem robbing whites and everyone else.
https://m.facebook.com/NationBarbados/photos/a.304733980988/10157165746805989/?type=3&sfnsn=scwspwa&extid=hULigwK0nQA3IESw
Why not highlight the twisting of former Deputy Commissioner of Police , Bertie Hinds arm by a former Prime and the Attorney General. Ironically while the former PM, Owen Arthur is deceased ; the Attorney General, Dale Marshall is now back in Office.
Here we are opening a new thread that has dominated BU for several days but we are refusing to open a discussion of what was perhaps one of the most despicable abuse of power by any politician or politicians since independence. How can we expect any improvement in the justice system when a Prime Minister and or Attorney an Attorney General can directly use their power to get what they want.
Things get curiouser and curiouser.
Look i could see this Sunday morning that nobody didnt explain to thr Irishman how things here work so i going help he out.
Now when the Bees in power dem got them untouchable faithfuls that they does look out for like Odle and others, so you have to understand that before wunna invest here.
I know you saying you will wait for when the Dems in power to invest then. No no dont plan for that causes dem got their faithfuls too to try and give a seat to on a board and reward as well.
Regardless of if them got a little legal problem or not, after all them is still we friends cuhdear.
But it dont stop there cause you got to also watch for a specail breed called the “politcal chameleons.” Now these is very rare and usually does be white or off white like Maloney so. Well them does feed out of both troughs it seem very easy. So one year the yellow with the dems and just so the does turn red and run with the bees.
You see Mr Foreign Investor you have to kmow we politcal chest board and how to play pun it. We small but we is a complex island. Anyhow in case the court thing take another 10 years and you have a child, it may be good to leave the settlement in you will for them. Just in case the systwm outlive you God forbid.
Wunna could laugh but tell me I lie! Lol
WS,
as i understand it Marshall was only the conduit of Arthur’s message to Hinds. however, it is telling that after they refused Hinds’s request they honored a comparable request from Dottin
@ William
We do not have to go far, just look at the case of Officer Gittens. The more things change, the more they remain the same. Barbados is a failed state.
@Wiliam
What is your reventing you from highlighting on your platform?
Steuspe
John A 8:10 a.m.
Nailed it, even if it was said in jest.
@HAL
“If the legal system fails, the state fails.”
Unfortunately the country is allready there, FAILED STATE status. Only the cut off of free credit or DEVALUATION has the potential to bring the country back to REALITY.
@ Theo
You got to laugh or you would dead in these times. We far from perfect but I still glad I here and not living in Trumpland where idiots say its their constitutional right not to wear a mask. Well dead then!
@ Greene
The Attorney General is the Chief Law enforcer under our system of government. No cabinet can be announced unless there is an AG. If a PM uses his political power to over ride the AG , the AG should resign from cabinet immediately. We are operating like a banana republic and continue y try o make excuses for sheer political skulduggery.
Same thing with this now revealed “ College if Negotiators”. We talk about transparency. Who are they . Have their names and experience in purchasing buses or anything been made public? If not why are they a secret? Were they paid and how much?
Now, I have not seen such information made public. In the event that it was, I humbly apologize.
We act as if the DLP is still in office. The people correctly and kicked them out of office. Chances of them seeing office under fifteen years are very slim.We talk about a honeymoon for any incoming government. We seem to be giving the current government a perpetual honey moon. It’s time we become more inclusive when looking at performance rather than rhetoric in some areas.
We all give the government an A plus for handling the COVID. However in several other areas it seems to be uncertainty and too much hocus pocus. For example :the Prescod nonsense fired one day given some title the next; no real determined policy on PSVs; do we still need consultants if BERT is history; Should cabinet be reduced since ministers seem to be overlapping each other – note the Home Affairs minister dipping into tourism policy etc
I am hoping the throne speech will set a clear tone as to how we plan to proceed- the rhetoric( Mottley) is now just as confusing as the silence(Stuart)
@ Wily
Here is a test: Get two pieces of paper and mark one positive and the other negative. List under each the positives and negatives of post-independence, from 1966-2020. Let BU readers know the result.
Barbados is a comprehensively failed state. We do not have to go back to Arthur/Thompson/Stuart. Lt us start from May 25, 2018, when the good people of Barbados took it upon themselves to give Mottley a 30:0 parliament.
Any democratically inclined person of integrity, who believed in transparency, the first thing they will do is to impose self-control on their actions. Making sure that every decision, every appointment, every speech they make was moderate, proportionate, liberal.
Instead, we have a president who has changed the constitution to give childhood friends seats in the Senate, to appoint a friend as an economic consultant with more apparent power than elected members of her Cabinet.
Our democracy has been undermined by a power-crazed, self-obsessed woman, who has no respect for our democratic institutions. Yet , some of her supporters, no matter what, still come on BU and defend her.
So, we are left to see what she will put in the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday. It will either be a roadmap for fundamental change or be further evidence of her true intentions.
Should be incisive not inclusive when looking at performance. My apologies.
Damage control. Spin proposed by a friend.
At request of the PM…….Odle has resigned from the Board.
That would show the PM as strong but nice. ( that is adoosra )
@Hants
That is a nice to see happen. The more urgent issue is for the government to allocate significant resources to make the dispense of justice in this matter AND others a reality. This is why the negative exposure being generated by this matter may have a win win effect.
So far, no one has explained the miracle of devaluation. Is it that they think they will get “properties” at a fraction of their current cost?
As an example, if wunna think that a house costing BDS $100K (now US $50K) gonna cost US $10K after devaluation (1 US=10 BDS) then think again.
The price of that now $100K Bajan will go to at least $500K new Bajan dollars. Only the most desperate will sell very cheap.
If wunna got money in wunnah pocket and think you will pick up stuff on the cheap, abandon that idea.
Please, no hand waving, no insults, no name calling. Just explain in simple language why devaluation is a solution.
Please explain, why if devaluation will solve our problems, why the rest of the Caribbean will not follow suit in order to be competitive.
The Miller
The truth is that this so-called legal system has never done anything but fail the Bajan African descended population.
Those who would now like to make that irrational connection in order to serve narrow argumentative agendas have always refused to supply more broadly defined and substantial arguments.
This is the same legal system, for example, which historically criminalized vendors from trading on beaches and on main streets in Bridgetown – Black people. On the other hand, the legal system has historically passed laws in the Parliament of a Barbados to enrich poor Whites like the Goddards et al. In more recent times, under a purportedly independent Barbados, it has done the same thing to enrich a poor White Jamaican in the person of Butch Stewart.
Where was the failure of the state then.
The real truism is that the government of Barbados is, and has never been anything less than, a private CORPORATION for the enrichments of elite economic forces. In in that regard we can safely say that it is well inline with the international consensus as built over 500 years. Well done Bimshire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Harlequin
What I cannot get my head around, is that with our abundance of island scholars, our abundance of university educated folks, our abundance of lawyers and with over 50 years of political power, we have been unable to swing the needle from one side to the other.
One must wonder if our politicians are given offers/orders that they cannot refuse.
How can we sit back and allow ourselves to become second class citizens in our own home. Soon to be 3rd class with the arrival of 80,000 new immigrants.
@ Pachamama September 13, 2020 8:48 AM
Can find no ‘fault’ with your argument.
One only has to look at the treatment of marijuana users to underscore the point that the criminal justice system is there to destroy the lives of young black men.
people and their expectations have always intrigued me. de Madam has been around politics for a long time. she spent 14 as a Cabinet Minister. she has a history. it is one of failure and less failure notwithstanding that some young bloke came here and said she was a successful AG and the fact that she was granted a QC designation meant that she was an outstanding lawyer. when i asked him to point to the precedent setting cases she was involved in or to any legal papers she authored or co authored, there were crickets.
i had no expectations from this Govt except a continuation of its 1994-2008 regime. i have always contended that that period signalled the no return point for Bim. the desecration of the west coast, the sell off of Govt lands, the borrow and spend policies by Govt which was followed by the borrow and spend habit of the population at large, the rise of land prices and other prices with no comparable rise in salaries, the stupid mantra of land is only an asset and the push to make Bim a first world country built on credit and piss poor laws and enforcement thereof, were a milieu for disaster. it was a slow burning crisis that just needed a catalyst to set events in motion.
all the latent signs were there of system failure- huge national and personal debt, corrupt politicians, a population spending beyond its means, weak legal infrastructure, dilapidated island wide physical infrastructure, an uncaring and expectant public, an unchecked criminal underbelly, and a greedy private sector.
then enter a deep recession and the limp dick DLP regime after Thompson.
“The truth is that this so-called legal system has never done anything but fail the Bajan African descended population.”
and that’s why it’s being FULLY EXPOSED from the Continent of Africa to the Americas and clear across Europe, cause if these sellout rats in the parliament think they are going to pimp any credit for selling out in the new reconstruction while pimping reparations off the backs of their enslaved, murdered and brutalized ancestors and while proudly continuing the racism, segregation, exploitation and oppression against the African descended population and determinedly maintaining a slave society using the people’s money to furtherdestroy black people, without DIRE consequences…let them carry on smartly…
“The real truism is that the government of Barbados is, and has never been anything less than, a private CORPORATION for the enrichments of elite economic force”
but the dirty no good negros ALWAYS have to approach the BLACK POPULATION every 5 years to BEG for votes with their mouths filled with lies and deceit to achieve any of that…am sure they already started practicing their lies to the people….with less than 3 years to go to election..
Hal Austin above: If the legal system fails, the state fails.
As the 19th anniversary of what’s commonly regarded as the international “Crime of the Century” just passed two days ago, let’s examine that crime in light of Hal’s statement above.
It’s a common principle of detectives and criminal investigators to determine who profits from a crime to identify the most likely suspects, and therefore those who should be submitted to a rigorous investigation. Why did 9/11 investigators not use the fundamental principle of identifying who profits from a crime to determine the most likely suspects to be further investigated for the crime of 9/11/2001?
9 /11 Trillions: Follow The Money
Forget for one moment everything you’ve been told about September 11, 2001. 9/11 was a crime. And as with any crime, there is one overriding imperative that detectives must follow to identify the perpetrators: follow the money. This is an investigation of the 9/11 money trail.
“One only has to look at the treatment of marijuana users to underscore the point that the criminal justice system is there to destroy the lives of young black men.”
all of that is being exposed worldwide, one white female called me of all people recently and was appalled that the demons in the parliament are still treating Black people like that for Marijuana, was even more repulsed at what the Mia government is doing to Black people over the medical marijuana…..but she thinks she looks good, so let her carry on smartly….,more exposure for the clowns..
@David, your statements say it all if one wants to read with understanding…
You noted: “The late Amused posted voluminously about the negative effect of our moribund court on the international business sector.”
That suggests quite bluntly that this Irishman and all others who invest in Bim KNOW or SHOULD KNOW into what they invest.
Yet they do and are willing – it seems
– to suffer the RISKS therein associated! …. Thus they either hedge those risks accordingly, perceive THEIR clout will see them prevail (expeditiously) if there is a dispute or are willing to wait out the system!
For years companies invested heavily into China although they faced a very difficult legal system there; almost mandatory give-away of some of their intellectual property and other damaging impacts on their investments … yet they went into China.
Then when you also assert quite correctly that “It is surprising we have not witnessed a more strident lobby from BIBA. Many of these associations are too political” we should readily accept that LIFE and BUSINESS is ALL too political.
These are KNOWN risks … the shock and awe of the delays (CCJ harsh critiques) lack of payments on judgements (Barrack matter), abject apathy by Bajan authorities to sanction wrong doing (ICB bribery, CLICO) and so on seem often as no hindrance for future investments !
Just saying … this Barbadian swamp didn’t start three years ago or 10 years ago and yet our investment climate “seems” robust and just the other day we were on international media selling ourselves as an IDEAL domain for young professionals to come and live and work remotely with legitimacy of their tax laws and other legal considerations …. Whaloss!
Lots of amoke and mirrors and I MUST believe everyone with common sense hedge their bets sensibly when they invest in Bim!
I gone.
“The bar rats must have ran out of Black people to rob at least 10 years ago seeing as they stole from so many over the last 60 years…so they now have no problem robbing whites and everyone else.”
We all wish that people were honest and do the right thing. Perhaps the fact that they now prey on whites will bring about the desired changes.
For the person charge with writing the memo, please write “be honest with all” and not “do not steal from whites”.
“What I cannot get my head around, is that with our abundance of island scholars,”
island scholars want nothing to do with sell-out negros in the parliament, bar association and supreme court, they see it as lowering their standards so they stay away..
“That would show the PM as strong but nice.”
no one will ever trust Mia, she used the deceased Holder child and his mother to be elected so she can show a minority of thieves like maloney who is directly responsible for that child’s death…et al that she sees them as 1 st class citizens and is willing to keep the population who elected her and who fund the country as 2nd class citizens to achieve that evil crime against humanity…..and that will BITE HER…..until she closes her eyes
…..start wrong……….
@DpD
You left too quickly as I did not understand all of your points.
How you could take the fact that a investor should do research and make it an excuse for being cheated puzzles me.
And to some how link it with the initiative to have professionals live here and work remotely is reasoning that I cannot understand.
Help me (a sincere appeal)
If I see the moniker “tortured logician” in the near future I will have a good idea of who it is.
Say it again:
“At some point someone must ask de Madam what are the results of all her long talk? de Madam is fast becoming a hot air balloon.”
she and that tub of poop on 2 legs in St. Vincent still attempting to fool the gullible and weakminded that they somehow have some kinda power over international financial wheeling and dealing….they are pretenders and frauds…
Lest we forget Another Pesky Irish investor used Barbados to
https://www.ftadviser.com/investments/2017/11/07/harlequin-boss-in-court-on-fraud-charges/
Now that we have looked into the mirror and do not like what we are seeing there, what are we doing about it?
More long talk?
Theo…years ago i met the wife of a dude who worked at one of the local banks, he was imported, the man got physically and mentally sick at the way they do things in Barbados, he had to take his family and RUN TO SAVE HIS SANITY and health…
thing is, despite being common knowledge on the island for years and years, it was still not exposed enuff internationally until now, they still kept it secret, talked a good game, LIED A LOT…..a lot of fowl slaves on BU are also responsible for spreading untruths about the true nature of the incompetence, corruption and inefficiencies on the island…but day runs…….until night catches up…it’s going to be a long , long nightfall…..and the fowls are hiding…
wait until all the whites and others they robbed over the years start crawling out of the woodwork..now that would be worth watching, it will be better than TV….
@ Vincent
Get another mirror maybe as surely there is nothing wrong with us?
Plus mirrors is funny things cause I does see some things out on Kadooment day and I kmow dem in look in no mirror before dem left home!
the entertainment value of the 3 hour long Throne Speech will be precious. lots of blame (last 10 years and or Covid), loads of promises to reboot and nothing will change.
I suspect the shopkeeper started early or last night party is still going on..
Have a great day Barbados.
Party on, John
HAGD
@ Hants
See you are Googling my old newspaper. I warned Barbados.
@ Hants at 9 :48 AM
Are those dates for UK hearing any shorter than the one we are reviewing?
On my way out I listened to Mia. I did not google..
Seem like she said, talk of “quantitative easing” is shiite talk. Funny, I had the same idea
When I see ‘trillion’, ‘quantitative easing’… my eyes glaze over.. not applicable to Barbados .
By the way, if you count prisoners among the unemployed in these dire times it changes by less than 2 percentage points.
Bread and butter, not BS.
Have a good day
Passive/aggressive 🙂 and like you I return to the scene of the crime when others think it is over
HAGD
@Theo, you readily create contrivances where they should be none.
1.Its obvious we as a country have major problems with our legal system … as the Blogmaster alluded to above when he said: “The late Amused posted voluminously about the negative effect of our moribund court on the international business sector.”
Amused was a senior attorney and lambasted the system for YEARS.
2.That sets the tone NOT as “an excuse for being cheated” but for the ubiquitous, well known: CAVEAT EMPTOR.
This Irishman knows that and $1 million plus investments demands careful due diligence with that warning top of mind.
3.Thus I am sure he didn’t plan to be cheated and hedged his bets to minimize such … thus it’s also my expectation that he considered a PROTRACTED process if things got out of hand and planned accordingly.
That’s NOT to say this is a good thing or that things are working as he planned.
4.But that leads us to the fact that ANYONE making the decision to come here under the recent remote-work 1 year offer MUST reflect that if a multi millionaire can be screwed like this in our legitimate court system that they could be trampled into ruin if they have a problem … not to say they should expect one… but they would be FOOLISH not to look at how our system works and its possible impact on them!
5.Therefore, sir they as any other sensible outsider coming to invest in Bim need to be BEWARE AS A BUYER … just as anyone investing in China does but still GOES.
Why.. because the UPSIDE is so great… you HEDGE (take an action in order to offset a potential future loss) and go for it!
Yes the system is plagued with problems but investors are not FOOLS walking stupidly into a con to be cheated.
So respectfully, please stop the unnecessary touturous contrivances.
@ theo
Yes i running a specail 4 beers for $10 and you can use the bathroom for $1 each time you need to!
I learn from the politicians how to give and take back!
Anyhow folks have a good day will check back later and see who cussing who!
@ Theo
Two points: no one said ‘trillions’ in relation to Barbados. I said the developed countries had spent (passed tense) trillions since CoVid. Is Barbados developed? I pointed this out before.
As to Mia and quantitative easing, can she spell the two words? She is an economic illiterate. Ask her to define it. She should stop taking tutorials from Persaud.
@ Vincent
You are asking @Hants, who is in Canada, about a UK case that I first reported and have kept on top of? Really? The paper @Hants Googled is the one I used to edit. I have already said on BU that Ames is due in court in the autumn.
@ John A at 10 :43 Am
Those four beers cost $14 . I now see why the bush grew up around your shop. Bush likes urea.
@ vincent.
I thinking of planting some weeds (not weed) for them go water if dem dont pay the dollar to use the toilet!
Listen have you been following the economic fallout Covid has slapped the UK Market with so far? I have to tell you we better diversify out of tourism fast cause its recovery is not going to be what the people here talking about. If the UK didnt have its own currency and could print as needed they would be in hell now.
Hal should be able to help with the amount of sterling they have printed since March but it is plenty!
Long and short is if we talking about foreign investment being we saviour wunna better take a long hard look at the reality in the source economies.
@ TheOGazzerts
A poster said the only reason Vonda Pile got 3 years in jail for stealing money from her client was because she came from Deacons Farm.
Cheraine Parris got 4 years for stealing money from her client too. Did Parris get 4 years because of where she came from or that the client is white?
Do you agree that where a lawyer come from is a non issue or that a lawyer should get locked up for stealing money entrusted them don’t care if they came from Nelson Street or Fort George Heights?
@DPD
Enough of the “whataboutism”, dare to mention China in any comparison to Barbados with regard to investment? At least pick another small island State; Investors have been flocking to China since Nixon and Pepsi went in 1972 because of its enormous population and will overlook legal challenges because of its potential while they will overlook Barbados because the pickings are measly and these “sea water and sand” islands tend to be stereotyped as having a “manana” attitude to getting things done.
BTW and since others have mentioned it and I don’t want to pile on, are/were you a student of olde English? Some of the prose (not necessarily in this case) is absolutely torturous but maybe you are a Lawyer/English professor trying to baffle us with profundity.
On other platforms that host nearly one million people, it was suggested by the most militant to take the house negros in Barbados outside and cut their asses for still promoting …..white is might…..and 1st class citizens in a Black majority country…..
….i have a feeling we may see it happening when they invite in 80,000 immigrants to work remotely and then still allow their little shitehound tiefing rejects for minorities to practice racism, segretation, exploition and oppression like the jackasses and wannabes they are, while ignoring that many will accept the invitation to the island and they will be Black….😂🤣😂🤣…..unless they plan to EXCLUDE black immigrants…
…yep…it will definitely be better than TV….
DPD is just boring…
@ John Aplse tell Mia that furlough is part of QE)
Mia has been disparaging about quantitative easing. It is good that at least you read the reports coming out of London and not taking lessons from Persaud.
A few weeks ago, the EU alone issued US$884bn in common debt; The big debate was if this was a loan or grant. ie repayable or just a thank you.
As to the UK, our main tourism market, Gatwick is practically now closed down; BA flights out of London now come from Heathrow and Virgin is not yet flying.
In the first half of this year, UK GDP fell by 22.1 per cent, the wort fall since 1955 and the worst of any G& economy. The British economy is now back to its 2003 levels.
The Office of Budget Responsibility, has predicted that unemployment will peak at 11.9 per cent, the highest level since 1984. And Britain’s debt is now £2trn, 100.5 per cent of GDP, for the first time since 1963.
The furlough alone (plse tell Mia that furlough is part of QE) is £35.4bn. I do not want to bore you with any more figures, apart from telling you that this year alone 800000 young people emerged from schools and colleges without jobs – that is in addition to the already rising jobless figures.
Government is now trying to cook the books by re-defining who is unemployed and who is economically inactive. What is Mottley doing about this new economy and the changing nature of work?
It will take more than shouting on a platform, pointing with flaring hands, to get this juggernaut of an economy to turn round. On Tuesday we will know when the Governor General reads the Queen’s Speech.
@ Hal
Yes and the fall out is the effect it is having on the pound. It has weakened badly recently and as a result will make travel to places like us who are tied to the USD very expensive for the Brits. That is why I say i dont think our tourism people here are plugged into reality. The ecomomic reality does not equate to the political mouthing locally. Its one thing to be optimistic but another to be fool hardy.
As for Persaud and his sheep I leave them in La La Land to discuss things like fiscal space and the tooth fairy.
@HA
Word is the PM has been occupying a West Coast beach house preparing for the forthcoming ‘reset’. You will be pleased the ‘guests’ (advisors?) seem to be some of the regions most creative people, with significant IMF experience.
@Northern
Lord that could only mean one thing more austerity.
@JohnA
FYI…the £ is higher to the USD today, than it was a year ago
@ Northern Observer
I can believe what your contact has told you. It is more of the same, all singing from the same song sheet. We need new ideas, new forms of thinking.
The IMF’s Washington Consensus has exhausted itself. It has nothing else to offer apart from bullying. The old story is the same about these economists. If someone has made his reputation by regurgitating neo-classical economics.
It is not in their interest to later reject this school. To do so means they will be rejecting their ‘expertise’. It is in their interest to attack anyone who opposes them.
They do it in the universities by not even teaching the alternatives. After the 2008 banking crisis, it took students at the London School of Economics and Manchester University to challenge their professors to teach about the causes of the crisis. Although it was happening before their very eyes they still pretended it was not happening.
Remember, Obama’s mantra of ‘yes we can’, he turned and recruited the same old same old when he took up the presidency in January 2009.
It is fear of the unknown. One reason why our central bankers do not want to invest in derivatives and repeat nonsense about foreign reserves. That went out in the 1960s. Read Milton Friedman on derivatives.
@HA
But they are Jamaican (regions most creative people)
@Northern Observer
You are probably aware WO is still active in the market renegotiating deals.
@ northern
It was 1.34 on the 15th aug and down to 1.28 and falling. Looking back at where it was pre covid is pointles. The Uk didnt have nearly 12 % unemployment then and the debt the average household carrying now or the contracted economy they have now wasnt there last year.
Dont compare pre covid with post covid just so as too many other perameters have change like employment, GDP etc. In simple terms the people got less pounds in dem wallet than last year.
WW&C
In the Saturday headliner in the Globe, was about a lady of Grenadian heritage contemplating becoming a mother. After all the talk about black and blackness, she describes the partner she has found.
“He is a straight white cis-male merman”. Help me with that in simple English.
@Sarge, if you guys and gals who grew up reading the same Eng Lit I did find the “olde English’ references distressing then I must revisit the dictum of speaking the language of one’s audience… the problem is that when I use colloquial social media slang and abbreviations there is critique from other bloggers. So, wha to do but write as the merry mood blasts me! 😎
No bro, the reference to China made the point of DIFFICULT barriers for an investor … it was NOT about opportunity size for ROI. An Irish investor has MINUSCULE business risk difficulties coming into Bim (or Cayman or The Bahamas) about which he cannot HEDGE accordingly … the same could NEVER be said of going into China’s legal systems or otherwise!
Why thank you @WURA, coming from you the lady whose first post ten year ago is almost verbatim (except the current details for the person/matter) the same today that’s a resounding complement. I expect to be more like you some day soon … repetitively moribund! 😢
@John A
Dr. Greenidge just rubbished the idea of changing our currency peg to any other option. As you know Greenidge is a former central banker on secondment from the IMF.
>
@ John A at 11:09 AM
You and I have been preaching the gospels of economic diversification and food security months if not years before COVID -19. We were roundly cussed. For open economies ,there is a limit to the effectiveness of quantitative easing. That is the main reason I have scrolled pass his reference thereto. He does not recognise the limitations of small size and openness,. Therefore he attempts to transfer solutions from large powerful economies to micro economies like Barbados.
BTW the USA is also using the printing press freely as well. We do not have that freedom of action. BBD $ is not a reserve currency.
Good luck with your greening of the environment . I hope you are planting savannah grass and potato slips.
@ David Bu at 12 :23 PM
I agree with Dr. Greenidge. There is no economic advantage in the published alternatives.
You all keep your ears open for sweet mouth MiaVirass , a lot of talks and taking people money and nothing to show, not one red cent for her but jail for her and her crew! Barbados investment 100% robbery! Going to court can cost you more money than the investment, buy a Roti of KFC
@Blogmaster
I ‘assume’ they are, though I do not know who is a WO operative and who is not.
@JohnA
Then based on your reply, the trading value of the £ is of no relevance post Covid. Other factors rule.
@ Vincent
I just got one question when the police say them seize ” 100 lbs of vegetable matter” what dem mean?
Just want to be sure i aint got too many (sorry) i mean no vegetable matter plant in my vegetables!
As for the mouthings of persaud et al I leaving them to their big brain ideas. I know dem is only one solution if you dont have you own international currency like the USA or Uk and its either you earn more of their USDs or spend less. Their is no other workable option. How ever you dress it up you down to them 2 options.
I see more austerity coming in an attempt to protect the reserves, seeing that without tourism in any real numbers to replenish the reserves will be hard. So wunna tighten the belt and brace. Hopefully they will expand agriculture and alternative energy in a major way and ease the demand on FX.
As for us getting cuss yes you are right. But let me ask you a question where we end up now, not exactly where we said over a year ago we would if nothing changed? All that happen is covid hasten we arrival.
@ David BU at 12 :25 PM
“active in the market”? What market? Is that the theoretical one in which TheOgazerts is applying his “stochastic processes”?
@Vincent
The local market, renegotiating deals between private and public sector arrangements.
Bajans tend to go into debt to catch up with people who are already there
Northern
We have been telling this PM, here on BU and through back-channels, that this ‘reset’, so-called, is highly misconceived.
Our suggestion is that an election should be called to ‘reset’ the political-economy. Not the farcical and ritualistic contrivances as planned for sometime this week.
Her sequestration, seclusion, on the gold coast should have been unnecessary as neither she nor those beating a trail to meet with her has anything of material importance to tell her beyond pomp and pageantry.
Maybe her isolation would finally bring her to recognize that an election must be called for the people to decide on her mandate in the circumstances where all traditional economic responses have expired, when the regional and international environments portend only further hardships.
An election, for one, will give the government the legitimacy needed to navigate the far worse conditions likely within the next 2 to 3 years, possibly spawn the worse of times.
Whereas this ill-advised ‘reset’ represents no more than mere window-dressing to cover-up the gigantic failure of vision demonstrated so far by Mugabe and her regime.
A failure which this writer foresaw as the more pressing threat at the same time when we were stoutly defending the Mugabe regime around the issue of strategic default (SD).
However, we are being made to expect no more than lipid attempts to taper.
@ northern
Yes and no. But this is how it would pan out to the traveller last year in very simple terms in their wallet before they arrived compared to 2020. I know its over simplified but you and Vincent bear with me for doing it this way for everyone and not factoring in inflation etc.
Had £20 n the wallet that could of buy at 1.20 to the USD a total of $24 USD.
2020
I only got £14 in de wallet cause the wife get fire so this year I got 14× 1.28 to the USD so de wallet only got in $ 17.92 USD to buy beer with this year, so i standing home.
So that is why I say comparing currency rates pre covid to post covid, without taking into account the liquidity factor and economic reality is not a fair comparison post covid.
on You Tube
Kes the Band – Savannah Grass “LIVE” @ Gateway to the World 2019
@ Pachamama
Calling an election now is ten times more ineffectual than a reset through a Throne Speech. It is not only unnecessary the result will be no different than the current position politically.
Let us face facts, we do not change administrations because of the difficulties caused by an exogenous event which no one foresaw. Especially when over 90 % of the electorate believe that the crisis has been handled well by the GoB. If any thing it will cement the present Administraion in power for the next five years.
We live in a real world. We need solidarity and workable solutions to unforeseen developments. We either rise to the occasion or flounder until the rising tide, that floats all boats including SS Barbados, returns.
@John A 12:53
Simply brilliant.
Even I, a bread and butter man, got it.
@Pacha
Think I understand and agree with most of what you said. Cannot see how an election will help. If you have the same or similar to a 30-0 outcome we are back to where we were.
Like taking $10 from one pocket and putting it in the next and telling yourself you now have $20.00.
Please explain some more.
Wow; saw VC comment. feeling brilliant…
Dr. Greenidge just rubbished the idea of changing our currency peg to any other option. As you know Greenidge is a former central banker on secondment from the IMF….(Quote)
I am sure the chairman means Dr Greenidge disagrees. That is great, it is a free market of ideas. But did he say why not? Any other option is rather broad, or is Dr Greenidge talking rubbish, bluffing like his colleague..
I have said before. Stop being deferential to these people with titles. Jobs in the Brettons Woods organisations, and most international organisations, are distributed geographically, not necessarily on merit. There is an entry level ie a PhD and X years experience. Once you have met that barrier, then it is this job goes to Europe, this one to the US, that one to Africa, that one to Latin America, etc.
What I like about Persaud is that his bluff is catching him out. At some point he has to show what he knows. Owen Arthur also had that trick.
If challenged, he would always say I can’t tell you; or if only you knew. Giving the impression he had secret information.
Persaud also gives that impression that his sophisticated economic knowledge is such he cannot discuss it with ordinary people. He may fool Mia.
@David Bu at 1 : 02 PM
Have you any more jokes? You need to come better than that.
@Vincent
The blogmaster does not joke about serious business.
@ Theo
Thanks for the kind words that is the shop keeper explanation. The politician would of talk bout fiscal space last year compared to this year and a whole set of long talk that mean nothimg. Lol
@JohnA
You fahget I does live away?
I understand. And doan leff out the encouragement to spend your dollers at home, after de govment tek on nuff nuff new debt. All ah dem printing, $£€¥.
tepid
“You are probably aware WO is still active in the market renegotiating deals.”
Is renegotiating a sign of failure?
Do we have to pay additional money for these renegotiations?
Is WO part of the College of Negotiators?
How do I join/graduate from the above college?
Did a WO packet fall off a truck or is the blogmaster doing wishful thinking?
@ Northern
When you shake out the pockets put any loose change in a bottle for we less fortunate ones done here please cause it looking like we going need it to prop up the reserves with.
@ John A,
We use credit or debit cards no cash / loose change. lol
Our Irish investor is really very naive. I wonder how he came to his wealth. Every investor knows that he either needs an arbitration clause or has to bribe the native, impoverished judges and politicians. After all, we are in the Caribbean and not in Scandinavia. LOL.
Away from that: It is clear that times are getting more difficult for international investors. Racists like the radical Prescott and some activists are probably already planning large-scale expropriations. I wouldn’t be surprised if our expats and our businessman set up a militia to fight back these radicals.
Anyone knows the maimum amount of money a non resident Bajan can take out of Barbados per year ?
I was told bds $ 50,000.
@Pacha
We know you have been beating the election drum, for reasons not fully understood. Or agreed with. Unless you wish to show what a disarray any opposition is in, or give @John the chance for a ‘legal opposition’.
More interested to know the laws passed to enrich the GEL bunch. Since Sagicor moved their trading base, I am left with them, and trying to appreciate what makes them tick.
My research thus far suggests their ‘going public’ initially was based on political pressure.
@Hants
You can take out however many $BDD you want, you cannot spend them in any quantity anywhere else.
As to how much Fx you can get permission for, that depends for what.
@Hants
Ask the blogmaster bout de ole trick. I have a biz in Canada and you have one in Bim.
Let’s use a product called “transmissions” as we know they can cost anywhere from $2000 – $30000 based on recent public exchanges.
I will charge you $3000bdd foreach of 10, BUT I will invoice you for $20000bdd each. You will get permission to send me (20×10/2) $100,000US. The overage, of $85,000US I will deposit for you, in a bank account overseas.
@Northerb Observer
Several of our member clubs and brand name wholesalers are familiar with this mode of doing business. It is so old the authorities have to know.
@ NorthernObserver,
I don’t like tricks. I am the one who would get caught if Idid something like that.
@ David,
After Covid, if I live, I will go to Barbados for a ( fishing )vacation and then onward to Amsterdam and Belgium to see G G and the Ladies of Soul live.
Those are the only items on my bucket list. lol
@Hants
This will pass.
@Hants
So you want a private concert, hence the $$ allowance?
@ NorthernObserver,
No private concert. Just front seats at the venues. Too old to stand up for 2 or 3 hours. lol
“Why thank you @WURA, coming from you the lady whose first post ten year ago is almost verbatim (except the current details for the person/matter) the same today that’s a resounding complement. I expect to be more like you some day soon … repetitively moribund!”
My posts from 10 years ago has me going places today where you cannot go at this time, so you can aspire to be just like me where you can actually go places and contribute significantly, nothing wrong with being just like me, much better than being like those garden variety BU fowls now in hiding..
Northern, Vincent, TheOGazerts,
On the history of GEL, Barbados Shipping & Trading and others of the former big-6,
the nearest source that you can find and we can recall, if you can find it, is the Mutual book by one Hillary Beckles, circa 1989. Not currently near our library, otherwise we’ll tell the page number, or send it.
We are not at all surprised that the overwhelming and numerical majority of bloggers on BU disagree with us on the matter requiring a general election.
Our job is primarily to predict the future. And we predict that within a year or two most here would be coming to this determination.
If you say that we are a ‘democracy’ governed by Westminster ideals and a political party comes to the people with a manifesto, constituting a moral contract, and just over two years hence is forced to contrive a second throne speech or ‘reset’ having found that it lacked the political foresight to discern short-term future events and can still contend that what happened before has no credence, that the government can as a rightness pretend that their mandate is legitimate, then we contend that you cannot also claim to be still a Westminster system of government.
We have been here before with the DLP election victory of 1986 when this party, according to the late Richie Haynes, performed a ‘back-street abortion’ of the manifesto promises it had made to capture its mandate.
It matters not what the results will be or what you estimate they will be. This is the tradition within parliamentary democracies. Are you saying that the people of Barbados should not have a right to test again the ideas of all comers. Seek to find out whether the government now has the mettle to deal with the radically changing circumstances.
It is untrue Vincent, that ‘no one foresaw’ neither Covid-19 or the accompanying economic recession. In the first case, scientists have long known that this century will be characterized by pandemics. In the second case, this writer had forecasted, almost to the date, this recession, right here on BU, many times and two years before it occurred.
@Pacha
I have the book at home so I will review whenever I return.
Elections we know will occur every 4-5 years, so that is a guaranteed prediction. Without guarantee we know economies will ebb and flow.
It was known 2020 presented economic challenges beyond year 1 of the mandate. There were gloomier predictors but it is hard to bank of those when they have been inaccurate over the past two decades. The climate gurus are even taking Covid as caused by climate? The religious can find writings from whatever they follow to signify Covid. etc etc
We now have multiple economies who will be spending 33+% of revenue to service/repay Debt.
We do not need general elections. We need a swift purge against the remaining DLP grandees not yet in jail.