Prime Minister Mia Mottley will address Barbadians at 11:30AM, 02.02.2021. Her address comes on the eve of another ‘lockdown’ designed to combat the surge in COVID 19 infections.
Covid 19 Update – 02.02.2021
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277 responses to “Covid 19 Update – 02.02.2021”
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Hal AustinFebruary 5, 2021 7:02 AM
I think that your idea on the new Barbados Cooperative Bank is a good one. However, I would not buy it for more than $1 or at least strict due diligence, retaining the assets and writing down the loan portfolio significantly.
As with any bank in the Caribbean right now.
That is my opinion anyway. I have not seen the loan portfolio, but do not need to. Any idiot will know that loans must have been slaughtered by Covid.
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A more comprehensive report in the opinion of the blogmaster.
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Last night the attorney general, in answer to a question about a family court order and t he emergency legislation, gave what to me was a confusing answer. Anyone want s to talk about it?
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@ Crusoe February 5, 2021 7:07 AM
“I think that your idea on the new Barbados Cooperative Bank is a good one. However, I would not buy it for more than $1 or at least strict due diligence, retaining the assets and writing down the loan portfolio significantly.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Hopefully you are not suggesting that this new Barbados Cooperative Bank would be in any way a reincarnation of the dead BNB under the day-to-day watch of the GoB?
Given the fact that the Bajan economy is under heavy IMF manners and can remain so for the foreseeable (and for sale) future, we don’t think the IMF managers would be too disposed to the GoB getting back into that aspect of the economy in light of the tremendous ICT changes on the horizon which are about to rearrange significantly financial markets.
Maybe such a proposal is, idealistically speaking, more suited to the fulfilment of a longstanding dream of the credit union movement to have their own ‘Bank’.
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@Hal Austin February 5, 2021 8:00 AM “Last night the attorney general, in answer to a question about a family court order and t he emergency legislation, gave what to me was a confusing answer. Anyone want s to talk about it?”
No.
Because you are the only one who is confused.
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@Hal Austin February 5, 2021 5:53 AM “This cult is seriously getting out of hand.”
What cult?
If you think that there is a Mia cult, clearly you have been out of Barbados for far too long.
There is no cult.
Bajans will smile in your face, give you a cheerful hello and good morning and vote for your opponent.
There is no cult.
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Dr Love Qigong
Qigong Party on the Beach
Qigong Party on the Biiiitch
ONline Qigong Thursday Emo Release
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“What cult?
If you think that there is a Mia cult, clearly you have been out of Barbados for far too long.”
Hal’s starting premise for all of his his hard thinking spinning efforts is he has got no love for Mia, so don’t expect any conclusions of his deluded reasonings to be any different. GIGO Garbage In Garbage Out is a programming proverb and axiom of truth for data analysis in any data information system processing where those with inside knowledge advise that you should assume all systems are shit. Trepanation in the Age Of Artificial Consciousness is the remedy which effectively is the oldest medical procedure of making a burr hole surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull.
“Awakening The Inner Child – Qigong Meditation”
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Management of FMH Emergency Medical Clinic said today the facility will be closed until February 8.
A notice posted on the clinic’s Facebook page said: “Due to the possible exposure of a staff member to the COVID-19 virus; we have decided, out of an abundance of caution, to temporarily close FMH Emergency Medical Clinic until February 8, 2021.”
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@ Hal Austin February 5, 2021 5:53 AM
Our Supreme Leader should take advantage of the power vacuum and proclaim the Republic. For now, all we need is an article: “Mia Mottley is president for life. A commission she convenes will draft the new constitution within five years.”
Those who have power must also use it.
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https://www.nationnews.com/2021/02/05/covid-19-deaths-barbados-18/
“Barbados’ deaths related to the COVID-19 virus have now skyrocketed to 18, after two more elderly citizens passed away in the space of the last 48 hours.
The country had entered 2021 with just seven cases, but the latest two make it 11 in less than a month.”
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@ Hal
Don’t ever tell us about any ten year plan. We think in terms only of tomorrow or the date of the next election.
Read in yesterday’s Nation that there has not been a survey of our agricultural sector since 1989. That’s 32 years. We therefore don’t know what our real capabilities are in that sector.Imagine no agricultural survey/ census for 32 years. -
@William Skinner February 5, 2021 9:33 PM “Read in yesterday’s Nation that there has not been a survey of our agricultural sector since 1989. That’s 32 years. ”
True. I was one of the 1989 agricultural census takers
And one of the 1990 population census takers.
I had recently returned to Barbados and I wanted to get a feel of the place and the people. I did both censuses as a part time pick after work. I am naturally curious about how societies work.
Both censuses were very hard work. and not very well paid. I still joke that I have never worked so hard for so little in my whole life, but interesting experiences and well worth it for giving me an understanding of the workings of Bajan life.
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Covid 19 is all over the world
Meanwhile a read if international news tells of govts having plans in place to rebuild their economies
Here on the 166sq . no such plans are heard or talk about by prsent govt
Last year and year before crime and violence increased and it is as if govt did not care less or did not see crime as a priority
What about unemployment havent heard nothing said as to plans govt are putting in place to stem the flow of that tide
Where are the voices of the ministers
How is it that govt can spend thousands of dollars for consultants and nothing positive is done to help increase the growth of barbados economy
Covid or no COVID people bought a pig in a bag when this govt was elected -
@ William
Not a ten-year plan. I am still waiting to see the report by the CoVid economic task force. It was given four weeks to report.
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The real overhaul will come when they remove all the thieves from the people’s pension fund.
“Barbados pension system, especially as it relates to the public service, is in for an overhaul.
This disclosure comes via the International Monetary Fund in its latest report on Barbados following an online review this week.
The IMF notes that an actuarial review of the civil service pension system was completed in November last year and provides the basis for upcoming public pension reform.
New laws are also expected to be passed in later this month to ensure greater fairness, integrity and transparency in how government hands out contracts.”
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Prepare for the New Normal, because it is not intended for it to ever go away.
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@ Hal
To date anywhere from 5 to 12/15 committees have been formed. And to date nobody can adequately report what are their findings .
We are now firmly in the land of make belief . BLPDLP lost. Atherley in the ocean on a bamboo raft. -
@ Cuhdear Bajan
Thanks very much for confirming the story. One thing I learn from being on BU is that there are people who don’t believe anything unless they see it or write it themselves.
Sixty years of ignoring agriculture and now pretending it’s a life savior. Pure BS. Barbados is at least forty years behind other agricultural based countries. No damn innovation . All the wonderful live stock stations in ruin.
Those live stock stations had resident managers. They were part of the community. I bought piglets from one ; raised pigs to supplement my small civil servant income. Workers at these stations came from within the community.
People were educated about all aspects of animal husbandry but we got “ developed” and it has been down hill ever since.
Imagine no frigging agricultural census in 32 blasted years. -
@ William
On Sept 15 the president punished the governor general by having her read a 52-page Queen’s Speech for nearly three hours, with lots of grand proposals. How many of them have been implemented or even initiated?
Do our newspapers or opposition parties ever follow up these proposals? -
I thought it was said that the committee with Sinkyuh and Persaud had submitted their report to the PM? Or was the idea to lend the hotel sector $300M the only idea that was in the report?
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@WW&C
you are confusing “System” with “Fund”. Public service pensions have NO Fund. Their “System” is to pay said pension monies out of the current year’s revenue.
You don’t hear @tron constantly wanting to reduce the (public) Civil service employment? There is a reason. -
@ NorthernObserver February 6, 2021 10:34 AM
That’s exactly how it is. How could they invest their money profitably (see NIS)? There are hardly any worthwhile investments on our island, foreign shares are blocked for lack of foreign currency.
So if the state budget collapses without tourists (from February to October 2021), this must of course also be reflected in the salaries and pensions of the civil servants. They have a secure job. Better fifty percent less salary than no salary at all. In general, the civil servants and their unions are acting in a totally unsolidaristic manner. During the pandemic, they enjoy a comfortable life with a home office, while the employees of the hotels, suppliers and the rest of the tourism industry are facing financial ruin.
Instead of taking a shot at Corbin, let’s write against this apartheid regime (privileged public servants on one hand, unemployed black masses on the other) for once. Of course, there is a lot of hypocrisy involved here. Just look at Presscott: he’s crying because the black masses aren’t rich businessmen, even though as minister he never objected to excessive import tariffs, high taxes and strangulating bureaucracy. These are the real reasons why the black masses are almost as poor as they were in 1966.
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Thanks NO, it is good for others to fact check sometimes. There is too much fake news posted from so-called intelligent people.
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We are talking about a pay-as-you-go pension scheme; the NIS is a hybrid scheme. The real problem with the NIS, as I have said on numerous occasions, is that we must get rid of it and start again. It is rubbish in the 21st century.
The real challenge is convincing local politicians that they need to start again with a clean slate. Discussions about what we have now are a waste of time. -
Oh dear oh dear seems like the sweet days of goverment workers working 33 years and going home at 55 done. Wunna will have to work now to 65 like all we then?
I wonder if they will revise the pensions for politicians too and make them wait to 65 for theirs as well?
Plus what side of the fence Tony Moore going be on, the politician side or the workers side? Interesting times ahead
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@tron
the article being referred to, also noted “strengthening the effectiveness of customs”. Without any further explanation within the article, I am ‘guessing’ the IMF is referring to customs as it relates to the ‘collection of import duties and taxes’, and not the ‘custom’ of paying public service pensions. -
Didn’I the Gov’t increased the eligibility age for public pensions from 65 to 67? Recent recipients under 67 may have been courtesy of being “grandfathered” in but I think the pensions for politicians remained untouched.
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No words. Just Music.
Barbados is not a sizeable country it is more like a small city. Most discussions seem obsessed about monies.
All other things being equal, how do you improve society, community life without money, when there is not much money.
Is India’s microfinance smaller banking model the way to go.
Spirit Bomb
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@ sarge
I believe it’s 67 or 33 1/3 years.
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It appears the IMF are asking the same question as many if us have been asking and as no answers are forthcoming they will now step in. The question of course is
PLEASE TELL US HOW YOU PLAN TO RUN THE COUNTRY WITH A FALL IN REVENUE OF OVER 30%? -
@ NorthernObserver February 6, 2021 11:01 AM
Indeed. It is about public service pensions AND import tariffs.
In any case, it is clear that we must maintain the privilege of duty free purchases for diplomats and expats. Or should they furnish their villas with local knickknacks at full price and pay full price for overpriced shirts and trousers?
Let our businessmen rob the masses but not the privileged. Social differences should also be reflected in the price. Those who can afford a lot should pay less. Sounds illogical? But it isn’t.
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@ John A February 6, 2021 11:37 AM
I have been calling on BU for many years for a radical downsizing of the state apparatus. If we had not hired new civil servants and initiated early retirements since 2008, the bureaucracy would be at least 40 percent smaller. The remaining civil servants would have to work more and would no longer have time to bully entrepreneurs with regulations and other nonsense.
In any case, the fact is that we live in the fourth world in terms of the time and cost of starting a business. Anyway, until today, our BLM activists are silent about the discrimination of the black masses in starting businesses and the like. Why is that? Because they benefit from the bureaucracy itself? PLT is a major exception here. Thank you, PLT! Don’t let the bureaucracy corrupt you.
It is highly indecent and mendacious to bemoan the predominance of white business owners, but on the other hand to systematically put obstacles in the way of black entrepreneurs starting new businesses.
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ST.LUCIA COVID CRISIS
” Tuesday February 2, 2021: a total of 222 tests were conducted with 32 confirmed positive
Wednesday February 3, 2021: a total of 255 tests were conducted with 90 confirmed positive
Thursday February 4, 2021: a total of 409 tests were conducted with 135 confirmed positive ”
https://stluciatimes.com/saint-lucia-confirms-257-new-cases-of-covid-19/
ST.VINCENT COVID PROBLEM
” Kingston – Community spread of COVID-19 has been confirmed in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Minister of Health St. Clair “Jimmy” Prince made the announcement to the media on Friday, a day after Parliament approved an EC$1.2 million (US$444 million) budget following four days of debate in which the pandemic was a recurring theme.
His announcement confirmed what many citizens had concluded for weeks amidst a massive spike in local cases since December 28.
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@Hants
Covid 19 is on the loose in the Caribbean after a slow start.
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@ Tron
That is a very valid point you have on how hard it is for a small business to get started. Small business financing under current bank requirements is practically impossible. Between the security needed and the paper work and projections, most small businesses stall in the starting box.
The thing is with the level of unemployment and contraction in the economy one would of thought that the banks would of come up with a plan to attract start up ventures. Let’s be honest if the large established companies are suffering the bank can not expect to prop their bottom line up on their traditional customer base.
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There are two outcomes
(1) we manage to control the spread of covid or
(2) we lose control of the spread.To ensure (1) we need to have and rigorously enforce sound scientific protocols.
Even with these protocols, time or a lack of adherence are enemies to our maintaining control. A lapse or missing just one infected the person would allow the infection to enter the country and grow unmonitored.
When we become aware of its presence we may be past the stage of community spread.
This is a problem that small countries dependent on tourism will face. I seem to recall some here giving the leader of SVG a victory lap as they were pummeling Mia.
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She said: “I have already taken the UK and Canada out of the market. So can be no push-back there. We have a complete cessation of flights from Canada through April. Typically in the middle of the Canadian winter, you are not travelling for leisure to another Winter-based destination. It makes perfect sense in principle, if you want to be able to maintain no movement within your country…the challenge that we are going to experience obviously is that you have people who are just literally tired and overwhelmed by all that has been happening with COVID.”
++++++++++++++Could someone explain what the Minister is saying or trying to say?
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/02/06/welcome-stamp-takes-impact-as-arrivals-increase/
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@ Tron February 6, 2021 10:47 AM
“So if the state budget collapses without tourists (from February to October 2021), this must of course also be reflected in the salaries and pensions of the civil servants. They have a secure job. Better fifty percent less salary than no salary at all.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++It would be interesting if your ‘justifiable’ fears are in any form going to be reflected in the upcoming Estimates of Revenues & Expenditures given that the public sector emoluments (for both working and retired recipients) make up a relatively large slice of the current expenditure budget and which can pose to be a seriously challenging monthly charge on the Treasury’s cash flow.
BTW Tron, with so much currently on your Lord goddess’s plate to digest do you think your Supreme leader MAM should defer the luxury of going Republic in 2021 (using Covid-20 as the perfect guise) even if the dotish Lizzy is forced to abdicate after her 95th birthday and all hell breaks loose in Mother England?
Or, in true Machiavellian-recommended style in order to protect her political reputation and maintain her popularity stakes, should she exploit fully the golden opportunity to engage in a public display of pomp and pageantry in order to distract the masses away from the looming serious economic problems which can cause the standard of living for the average Bajan to plummet to an unimaginable level?
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@ Sargeant,
How can you criticise the Minister because what she said is just beyond our comprehension or is it just beyond our imagination ?
I would like to explain what she was saying but I am not a university graduate. lol
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Can someone tell what the other industries are in Barbados ?
Methinks borrowing and begging is the new replacement for Tourism and it’s spin off income generators.
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@ Miller February 6, 2021 12:29 PM
Of course, our Supreme Leader should choose the latter, second path. Without question. Currently, GG and CJ are in quarantine. She should therefore strike out THIS WEEKEND and proclaim herself the First President for Life of the Barbadian Republic without elections. After all, she could enact the constitution in a few years and rule with emergency decrees in the meantime. Once the republic is proclaimed without preparatory legislation, the previous constitution automatically expires by virtue of revolution. This would suspend all other organs of state.
If our Supreme Leader chooses this path or a similar one, I will publicly justify the revolution with an expert opinion – provided she requests it. For our new President needs not only a court jester, but also a Consigliere to clean up the mess.
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Attached are updated charts for Covid-19 +ve cases and for active cases to 5th February from Worldometer data. The island wide UWI led search and seek survey has started but any linkage between that project and any resultant testing has not yet been clarified afaik. The charts for the active cases in the 5 Caribbean states show a faint suggestion of trending decreasing active cases in Grenada, Trinidad and Barbados while there is a worrying consistent upward trending in the Jamaica chart – Lyall Small
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@Hants
Mia said there is a lot of fake news going around, I believe the headline qualifies but the Minister’s statement(s) contribute to the fake news or she is baffling us with BS.
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Staff at the geriatric hospital in quarantine
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@John A February 6, 2021 11:37 AM “PLEASE TELL US HOW YOU PLAN TO RUN THE COUNTRY WITH A FALL IN REVENUE OF OVER 30%?”
Cut expenditure by 30% or increase production by 30% or a bit of both.
But don’t mind me, i failed both Economics 101 and Accounting 101 and they threw me out of uni.
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But they all collect a salary paid by taxpayers every month, bet you they don’t refuse to cash the checks…it’s called THEFT OF TAXPAYER’S MONEY…and they will be around in 2023 to beg for votes…throw stale piss on them…the fowl slaves should be able to tell us where they’re hiding.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/02/06/btcolumn-key-ministers-missing-in-action/
“Eleven people have died so far for the year, nine of which fall in the category of the elderly. The Government-run Geriatric Hospital has reported cases of the deadly COVID-19 disease. Vulnerable, elderly people are at highest risk. Many live alone. Many need extra care. Many cannot afford the basics.
But as of up to the time I have penned this submission I am yet to hear from the Minister of Elderly Affairs and Social Empowerment Cynthia Forde. Why is this?
Last year when there was the potential outbreak at the National Assistance Board Forde could be heard. But for some reason now we cannot hear the Minister even if only to offer condolences to the families.
During the same call-in programme an elderly resident of St Thomas said he had tirelessly tried to reach his MP Forde. He recounted that the eventual response was a text message of two words. He lamented that he didn’t feel reassured or comforted by the response. What sad times we are in.
These are the same people who every five years find themselves loitering at the doorsteps of their constituents seeking their support”
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Liars…dump them and the fraud system, it’s dead anyway.
“These are the same people who last November were all bedecked in red and swarming St George North to secure their colleague’s victory and promising everything other than to build a sea for parishioners.
The elderly in this country are dying, some are suffering, some need assistance. Where is the Minister? Where is the MP for St Thomas? Where is Cynthia Forde. Is she in political quarantine?”
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The PM thanks Modi for the donation of vaccines.
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@ Tron February 6, 2021 12:40 PM
“If our Supreme Leader chooses this path or a similar one, I will publicly justify the revolution with an expert opinion – provided she requests it. For our new President needs not only a court jester, but also a Consigliere to clean up the mess.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Why the “Consigliere”.
Are you, the Don, equating your Lady MAM to a ‘Capo Crimini’?
She has a long way to go before she can transform into a ‘Bloody Queen Mary’.
How about the “Camerlengo”, the right-hand man to God’s representative on Earth and next in succession in case of an assassination or coup in the palace of ‘political’ religion?
We are sure Machiavelli would have approved of the Camerlengo role for you.
“The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he{she} has around him {her}”.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.