Hard Times, Hard Decisions

The recent revision of the Covid 19 directives saw the country receiving a cruise ship on Monday and auto mart convenience stores along with supermarkets are expected to reopen on Sundays. The entertainment group hard hit by Covid 19 directives has started a strong lobby to be able to restart some level of event promotions. The Haywire Weekend being promoted by a foreign travel travel company on the weekend of 2 July to July 6 in Barbados has given impetus to the entertainer’s lobby.

It is no secret the local economy is service based and significantly dependent on tourism. Raging Covid 19 pandemic or not, at some point- like all countries across the globe- we have to find a way to manage the risk of having to live with Covid 19. The global strategy of choice to mitigate against the rate of Covid 19 infection is to achieve ‘herd immunity’, a situation where about 70% of the population are vaccinated. There are no guarantees as the Seychelles experience has revealed. Although 60% of that country is vaccinated it has been experiencing a rise in Covid 19 infections. Seychelles is also dependent on tourism.

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.

Reopening the country to increase economic activity is fraught with risk. Daily we observe a minority of persons in the country who carelessly or deliberately violate public health protocols established to curb the spread of the virus. With the virus continuing to mutate to more virulent forms there is a high level of responsibility required by citizens and government to make reopening the country work to locals and visitors. We have made our beds by morphing to a service based economy and have no choice but to lie in it. 

We have two significant challenges ahead of us. Ensuring the screening process at ports of entry is fit for purpose and the demand by visitors calling for workers in the hospitality sector to be fully vaccinated. There is also the scenario where vaccinated employees may employers to work in a 100% vaccinated workplace. Already a weakness in the travel protocol has been identified – unvaccinated children under 18 entering Barbados with fully vaccinated parents being allowed to adhere to fully vaccinated guidelines. And there is the challenge of employers ‘forcing’ employees to be vaccinated. 

Citizens have rights, employers have rights and there is the dictum that limits the free choice of individuals when it conflicts with the rights of the collective. Some hard decisions will have to be made and the blogmaster is fearful given the unruly mindset prevailing in the country, we do not possess the maturity to navigate this stage of the Covid 19 journey with minimum fallout. In other words the loud voice of political talking heads and egotistical social commentators will grab the opportunity to choke traditional and social media newsfeeds to push narrow interest narratives. The current debate about our social values and public morals is an example.

Those employees who prefer to exercise a personal right not to be vaccinated should be paid severance. Unvaccinated children travelling with fully vaccinated parents should have to observe the quarantine period stipulated for the unvaccinated. In the unprecedented situation we find ourselves these are hard decisions we will have to make.

108 thoughts on “Hard Times, Hard Decisions


  1. Covid hits hard
    The Social Partnership body established to monitor Barbados’ economic reform doubts Government will be able to achieve its main fiscal target this year.
    In its latest report on Barbados’ economic reform programme, the seven-member Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation programme (BERT) Monitoring Committee yesterday said it was “particularly concerned” about the ability to meet the primary balance performance target of zero per cent for the 2021/22 fiscal year.
    The committee said its doubt was based on three main factors related to tourism, corporation tax revenue and Government’s expected increased spending.
    It elaborated that the country would be challenged by quarantine restrictions for people travelling from major tourism source markets, particularly the United Kingdom and Canada, to Barbados.
    The body also flagged “the expectation that the overperformance of corporation tax seen in the current fiscal year is unlikely to be repeated in 2021/22 due to a combination of the [European Union] tax blacklisting inhibiting new business, the reduced profitability anticipated by businesses in 2020 due to the pandemic and a number of large transaction-based tax payments that are unlikely to be repeated”.
    It also pointed to “the additional spending that the Government . . . will need to incur in its continued response to the pandemic, including the humanitarian response in light of the continued elevated levels of unemployment and continued
    implementation of the vaccination programme”.
    New dashboard
    The committee said it also anticipated seeing results from a new Management and Accounting Unit Dashboard “which will be used to publish the financial reporting information of the country’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs)”.
    “We also look forward to further progress being made in the planned review and transformation of the SOEs in order to improve the financial reporting, operating efficiency and service levels across these enterprises,” it said.
    The committee said that despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Government “has managed to achieve the majority of its performance targets and, in particular, the primary balance surplus of minus one per cent of GDP and the growth in net international reserves to levels well above the programme target”. “The severity of the impact of COVID-19 and the resultant significant levels of unemployment, coupled with the shrinking of GDP (down 18 per cent, according to the latest Central Bank report), continue to be the principal risks to the programme,” it added.
    The report, which was based on information available up to the end of March 31 this year, pointed out that the only performance criteria that Government did not meet related to its financing of public institutions.
    Under Barbados’ Extended Fund Facility with the International Monetary Fund, such transfers and grants are not to exceed $444 million, but they reached $530 million under the period reported.
    The committee said the
    need for additional transfers and grants “related mainly to the reduction in revenue experienced by several of the state-owned enterprises due to the impact of COVID19 combined with additional expenditure requirements to address the pandemic”.
    “The major recipients of supplemental funding were the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which required $200 million in total funding during the year, and the Transport Board, where $46 million was advanced overall,” it reported.
    “The other significant recipient of transfers was the University of the West Indies, [to which] $103 million was advanced; however that was in line with expectations for that institution.” (SC)

    SOURCE: NATION


  2. Unit aiding over 11 000 weekly
    More than $25 million was allocated to helping over 11 000 Barbadians through the Household Mitigation Unit (HMU) over the past two years.
    These include people laid off following Government’s retrenchment programme in 2019, others that were negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and families which were already living below the poverty line and whose issues were compounded by the fallout of the virus.
    Special Advisor on Poverty to the Prime Minister, Corey Lane, told the Weekend Nation that the mandate of the unit, which was originally established to help the former Government workers, was altered following the onset of the coronavirus outbreak in Barbados last year.
    Lane explained that initially the unit was assisting 1 100 retrenched Government workers reintegrate into the world of work, providing assistance with job applications and skills training.
    Lane added that the pandemic put a damper on many businesses and as a result hundreds of people from the private sector were also laid off. Based on a certain criteria, the unit assisted an additional 4 000 retrenched workers.
    At no expense of Government, Lane said, the benefactors received assistance on a regular basis in the form of hampers, vouchers, back-to-school supplies and items from local charities, private individuals and corporate Barbados.
    He said that as the fallout from the pandemic intensified, there was a need to do more and the unit worked in collaboration with the Ministry of People’s Empowerment and Elder Affairs to implement the Barbados Vulnerable Family
    Survival Programme (BVFSP).
    The families that qualified for assistance through this initiative had to meet certain requirements, that including not being a beneficiary of any other social service entity.
    Lane said there were many households in need and the project had to be expanded from giving $600 to 1 500 people for three months in the first instance to about 4 400 people for over a 12-month period.
    “We had about another 300 or so people we could not accommodate because of budgetary constraints but were assisted by the Sandy Lane Charitable Trust. We created a secure database to determine the people already on welfare and in the BVFSP and we were able to select people then for vouchers who are in neither of the programmes. So there were quite a number of people who were receiving help from the trust.
    “So across Barbados there are well over 10 000 people being assisted on a weekly basis.” He added that Government allocated $20 million to that programme and an additional $5 million was raised from donations from corporate Barbados, private people and the diaspora.
    Lane said that the HMU was in the process of conducting a review which should be completed by mid-month and presented to Cabinet, to assess the stage all the clients are at.
    “When the assessment is done the information would be presented to the Prime Minister and her Cabinet and they would make a decision going forward (whether to extend the programme or not). So far, we have over 33 per cent of people indicating that they are going back out to work.”
    He said if the programme is extended, Government may have to pull from
    budgets already allocated to other sectors to facilitate those in need.
    (SB)

    SOURCE: NATION


  3. Atherley cautions Govt as travel picks up

    By Colville Mounsey colvillemounsey@nationnews.com
    As Government forges ahead with plans to woo vaccinated tourists to Barbados, Opposition Leader Joseph Atherley is urging the Mia Amor Mottley administration to heed the lessons of previous attempts, warning that the island simply cannot afford any more slip-ups at this time.
    Atherley, who was weighing in on the return of cruise tourism as well as reports of increased traffic at the airport, pointed out that much of the effort towards a return to travel within the context of COVID-19 appears to be centred around the global vaccination thrust. However, he warned Government to be mindful that the jab was no silver bullet for the pandemic.
    “I have to assume that Government is guided in this case by the best advice of the medical professionals. The Government obviously took a decision to reopen the economy, but they must only do so to the extent that the protocols with respect to testing and quarantining are strictly adhered to and properly monitored. One would recall that previously at the end of last year when they allowed tourists to come in here and did not have the requisite monitoring mechanisms in place to ensure that people stuck to the quarantine regime and all of Barbados paid a heavy price, one which we cannot afford again,” said Atherley.
    He added: “We must start from the perspective that the most important priority is the preservation of health and life and then any other consideration becomes secondary. I am hoping that the Government would have learnt from their mistakes last December when we had people coming to private facilities to self-quarantine even though facilities were available, and we had some spread that emanated from that type of thing. If you are telling me now that people can come on cruise ships, then the monitoring has to be done extremely well.”
    With more source market countries resuming travel because of higher vaccination numbers and Government adjusting the quarantine regime for vaccinated tourists to 24 hours, travel agents have been reporting strong bookings for this year into 2022. On Monday, Barbados welcomed the return of a passenger-laden cruise ship for the first time in 15 months with the arrival of Celebrity Millennium at the Bridgetown Port.
    However, Atherley contended that with examples such as the Seychelles, a tourism-dependent nation which was among the first to achieve herd immunity but is still hard hit by COVID-19 spread, Government must understand that vaccinations provide only limited cover.
    “We should be concerned by that type of reference and that type of experience. Vaccinations do not make you immune totally to
    contracting that virus and I think we are all aware of this fact. So we cannot simply be only reliant on cover from the vaccines. We must have the requisite regimes and I cannot stress enough that they must be fully enforced so that Barbadians are protected,” he said.
    The Opposition Leader said he certainly understood the economics behind the decision and therefore he is not against the tourism reboot.

    SOURCE: NATION


  4. Lawyers weigh in on vaccine debate

    The debate over whether an employer can insist that a worker get vaccinated is raging on.
    The issue has been dominating public discussion since the national campaign to have the majority of Barbadians immunised with some people opting not to be injected.
    Yesterday on Starcom’s Getting Down to Brass Tacks radio call in programme, the topic resurfaced with Queen’s Counsel Hal Gollop holding one position while another caller, who identified himself as a lawyer held another. The issue continued from this week when management of Coral Reef Resort sent a letter to its staff enticing them to take the vaccine with a chance for two of them to win $500 each.
    Minister of Labour Colin Jordan said it was not illegal for employers to offer such incentives adding that management should be careful not to disadvantage a worker who did not qualify for the incentive.
    Gollop said the employers had a primary obligation to provide a safe workplace for employees and he believed they were operating within the law if they decided that a person must be vaccinated to work and they would be on firm ground in a pandemic.
    “ . . . In situations like these, philosophically individual rights give way to group rights. The COVID situation presents a pandemic and . . . if the way points towards the fact that in being vaccinated you will give the employer an opportunity to satisfy that requirement
    of providing a safe system of work and, conversely, if all the evidence, the learning . . . point to the fact that a person who does not get himself vaccinated presents a risk to the employers satisfying that obligation to provide for his employees a safe system of work, in my opinion, the employer is in a position to demand that any workers, working in his workplace be vaccinated,” Gollop told listeners on the programme.
    Not a straight situation
    He explained that if it could be shown that an unvaccinated person causes the virus to affect the institution and cause people to suffer, because the employer compromised his obligation and allowed them into the workplace, then the employer would be liable to all those infected people.
    “So it is not a straight situation where you say a man has a right to decide he is not getting vaccinated. There are other duties and … when the issue arises where you have to make a choice between individual and group rights ,which employer is going to allow an individual to put his business in jeopardy?” Gollop asked.
    However, another caller who said he was a lawyer, disagreed with Gollop stating that the vaccine was not approved wholesale by the Food and Drug Administration but for emergency purposes.
    He said while the group rights would trump the individual rights in a pandemic, an employer could not force an employee to say whether or not
    they were vaccinated but could try persuasive measures to get them to do so.
    “An employer cannot insist on knowing a person’s medical record,” he said.
    The caller said it would have been better to point out that if the protocols that were in place for hand sanitising, wearing of masks and social distancing were not followed then that could be seen as grounds for dismissal. Those protocols, the man said, had been well documented to show that they help prevent the spread of COVID. ( AC)

    SOURCE: NATION


  5. Promoters submit Crop Over proposals

    Promoters have shared their ideas about events for the Crop Over Festival to Government.
    President of the Entertainers Association of Barbados (EAB) Rudy Maloney told Weekend Buzz, “We had a meeting with the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) where we outlined our interests and a number of proposals were put forward to the Ministry of Health and Government. So we are awaiting word now.
    “But I think all the proposals were very positive and I am just hoping we will get the approval, so the NCF can then launch a date on when Crop Over will be happening,” Maloney said.
    On April 7, minister in the Prime Minister’s office with responsibility for Culture, John King, said that the Government would showcase a new look for the annual festival, which had to be cancelled last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    King noted that although more people were vaccinated, he said it was not foolproof and said the festival had to change.
    He said details on the roll-out would have been publicised by the end of April, but so far no concrete plan has been announced.
    “We know the vaccines do not actually stop people from getting COVID so we have to be clear on that. Crop Over, as people envisioned it in the past with all the things going on, cannot be in the same way that we envisioned it,” King
    told reporters.
    However, last week, Minister of Health Jeffrey Bostic acknowledged that they were considering events both virtual and in-person.
    “I can see a mixture of things happening, in terms of virtual events and then some live and in-person events that can be controlled by whatever mechanism is available.
    “But it is important to state that this will be decided by the extent of the pandemic within the country at a particular point in time,” Bostic said. (TG)

    SOURCE: NATION NEWS


  6. Years ago I went to a chemical spill in a hospital, after we investigated it we waited for a hazmat crew to arrive. When they did make it there we joked where are your canaries , to which they replied you are the canaries. Just like you dont want to be the first to swim across a river in Africa if you have the money to hold out little longer till more people are vaccinated and you see what the effects are on countries that have to re-open you may avoid mistakes , blunders or another shutdown. Being cautious is not a sign of incompetence on the contrary its what a good leader does, no rash decisions or decisions influenced by pressure or political gain just whats right for its people thats why they are voted in and well paid. When the young bull said to his father ,lets run down the hill and get some of those cows and the dad says son …lets walk down and get them all Slow and steady wins the race.


  7. Two passengers aboard the cruise ship Celebrity Millennium tested positive for COVID yesterday. This is the vessel that was in Barbados earlier this week.


    • Read of the development in the early newsfeed. One suspects it will be the major topic of discussion today, another press conference maybe?


  8. The tittle should be Hard Times, Stupid Decisions.

    Too many bad decisions and totalitarian country type decisions are being made in the name of public health.
    Lawyers are opining on a person’s private health matters when they should keep quiet or push for the public health authorities to make a proclamation and start the debate on rights. The employee has rights too, not just the employers and patrons.

    What I want to hear from the lawyers and the public health officials is
    1) If an employer forces an employee to take a vaccine and they become vaccine injured, disabled or dies, what level of damages the employee can claim.
    2) Why does our CMO has absolutely no policy on any of the cheap early intervention treatments (http://covidoutpatientcare.com/) now backed by numerous robust peer reviewed studies?


  9. @peterlawrencethompson June 11, 2021 7:20 AM

    The dog and pony show is only just starting, soon the people will start running around again like chickens with their heads chopped off.

    Our leaders and public health authorities are too arrogant to admit publicly they followed bad science and implemented seriously bad treatment protocols turning a virus that was the equivalence of a bad flu into a public health nightmare.


  10. During a pandemic the law gives way for employers asked for proof of a vaccine action certificate
    However the employer cannot make demands on the employee/s to be vaccinate
    As in some cases the employee put incentives in place which can give the employee a choice between employed and being vaccinated


    • This will eventually be tested in court, until it is all will be giving their OPINIONS including the lawyers.


  11. @John2 June 11, 2021 8:08 AM

    It would not have even reached a bad flu status and definitely not a major pandemic if the early interventions some doctors were having great success with were not suppressed in favor of the vaccine push.


    • @CA

      How do you speculate the government could have pursued a public health policy detached from the establishment I.e. WHO, CDC, BAMP etc.


  12. DavidJune 11, 2021 8:30 AM

    This will eventually be tested in court, until it is all will be giving their OPINIONS including the lawyers.

    Xxxxxxx
    International countries have already place a legal directive on this problem
    Xxxxxx
    Why is it that govt is once again being tardy on putting pieces of legislation in place with special directives for the employer and employee to adhere
    Needles to say govt knows this is a political football and would rather sit on the side line and shout across the field sending all kind of mixed messages to the Umpire and player
    Govt needs to move swift and fast with a set of policies which will make for a better understanding on this issue


  13. @David June 11, 2021 8:30 AM

    This will not get tested in court.

    You should say ‘Everyone except the doctors are giving their opinion’ and I don’t ever expect to hear any doctors comment on it in public either. The doctors know the vaccines are fraught with problems and have not undergone proper testing necessary to qualify for anything except emergency approval.


  14. @ David

    Sooner or later it will come down to one single decision and it will be economic activity vs health risk. Dress the decision up all you want, give it a fancy name, but in the end that will be the decision that will have to be made before the SS Barbados implodes on the reef of financial ruin.

    So lets say the travellers insist they only stay at hotels where the staff are fully vaccinated what then? So yes the workers have a choice to be vaccinated but what happens if that choice causes the hotel to get no business what then? Will the PM in a tourist dependant economy mandate vaccinations by law? Before you say she cant do that remember she has a 30 to 0 majority.

    Now lets look at the UK where we are still on Amber. There they are seeing an increase in cases made up by over 90% of the indian variant. What will that mean now for us?

    So yes we can sit here and pontificate about employee rights and travel rules, but in the end guess what will be governments formula for the decision? Yep economy vs health risk. That decision to a large extent will however be made for them to some extent based on traveller demands and virus developments


    • You will note the blog predicted we will see the usual characters with narrow agendas shelling out the usual. So far has anyone responded to the current challenge to repeat. How does a tourism dependent country deal with the fact some visitors are asking to be accommodated and served by employees who are vaccinated?


  15. @David June 11, 2021 8:49 AM

    That is the first job of government. The DLP got zero seats because they spectacularly failed to do that. WHO, CDC and BAMP are not the decision makers. WHO, CDC and BAMP can only publish their recommendations based on what they cherry pick to look at.

    It is government’s and the CMO’s/ public health agency resposibilty during a pandemic to review at all the information, research papers and statistics out there or they themselves gather, consult with BAMP if they need additional opinions to make their own decisions.

    If our government is unwilling to do that, we should stop the republic nonsense talk and go back to being a colony of somebody because we would not have the ability or trust in ourselves to make sensible decisions for ourselves. We came up with our own BERT program. We have a ton of doctors in this country with tons of qualifications, why can we not figure our a better way to deal with this pandemic than the unscientific nonsense we have been doing over the last year?


  16. @David June 11, 2021 9:06 AM
    Simple, we tell them we have health privacy here and inform them that if you have been vaccinated, you have nothing to worry about or you can stay home.

    Our biggest deterrent to tourists is the incarceration center for positive cases we have. Our policy should be if you test positive, we give our your choice of early treatment drugs and supplements cocktail and come back if you get worse otherwise enjoy your vacation.


  17. @ David

    I am hoping the BTA, the unions and the tourism minister can meet and arrive at a solution for the hotel workers.

    Look let’s be honest there will never be a vaccine that is 100% effective against all variants and mutations. Not going to happen ! In the meantime we can only do the best we can and get this economy going again. Businesses can not take another 6 months of this trust me when I say this.


  18. I cringe when people dismiss this virus as “just a flu”. It is an instant sign that they don’t comprehend why this virus is a serious public health emergency. Was the Spanish flu “just a flu” too? Why did “just a flu” kill tens of millions of people? Well COVID-19 is the 21st Century Spanish flu. The flu has reared its head as pandemics several times over the past 100 years. They have just been less deadly. If you understand why the Spanish flu was deadly you can comprehend the COVID-19 problem
    I also cringe when the current COVID-19 vaccines as dismissed as “experimental”. As if “Big Pharma” just concocted a water and vitamin mix and “paid off” the WHO or FDA to get approval. The currently APPROVED vaccines have passed through PHASE 3 TRIALS i.e. the stage where the vaccine was tested on ten of thousands of trial participants to which efficacy was found to be very high. On further assessment, the FDA or WHO gave those vaccines “EMERGENCY” use authorization. As yet MOST of those approved vaccines have not been SPECIFICALLY been tested on children or pregnant women but they have not be found to be specifically susceptible to the virus. That why the vaccines are not MANDATORY. It is a choice for anyone including children and pregnant women to take the vaccine.
    I also blame some of the medical professional on some of the messaging but some people are only processing certain information to reinforce their NEGATIVITY BIAS to towards the vaccine. All a vaccine does is present the immune system a safe way to recognize the virus. Far safer than if that immunity was acquired on actual exposure to the virus it self. The vaccine doesn’t stay in the body per se, it is the acquired immunity that persists. This persistence is prolonged after the second dose. Immunity also depends on the virus and the way the vaccine presents the virus. So using this understand, someone can still catch the virus it is just that the odds of spreading and develop severe symptoms are DRAMATICALLY low. The immune system knows what to look for very soon after the person is infected with the live virus. A vaccine is not a forcefield where virions are destroyed on contact. The immune system does not work that way. This is how flu shots\boosters work to protect persons from those minor flu variants.

    I listened to Brass Tacks on both occasions Hal Gollop spoke. The questions I have are.

    1) How far can an employer ensure a safe system of work. I am thinking that insisting employees take a vaccine \ drug MAY be
    crossing that line. I am thinking guidance can be taken from the stance on other vaccines. ​In my mind since the MOH has declared the COVID-19 vaccines not MANDATORY, the employer would be on shaky ground to demand MANDATORY taking of the COVID 19 vaccine.

    2) Also with the limited supply of vaccines how would an employer handle a state where employees DO want the vaccine but only some where able to be vaccinated. Some of those employees may be irritated where after you demand my insistence to a vaccine how can you allow unvaccinated employees to continue to work. .Should the employer put those unvaccinated workers on leave until they get vaccinated?


  19. @David June 11, 2021 8:58 AM
    As far as I am concerned, the whole Advisory Board needs to be disbanded. They have done nothing but constantly miss the ball.

    This virus is simple to deal with,
    1) Mandate all people with any type of flu like symptoms stay home, not go to work and avoid crowded places.
    2) Send an early treatment protocol recommendation to all BAMP members. They can take their from from this wonderful site that has consolidated every successful early intervention in one place complete with references. http://covidoutpatientcare.com/


  20. AM

    @David June 11, 2021 9:06 AM
    Simple, we tell them we have health privacy here and inform them that if you have been vaccinated, you have nothing to worry about or you can stay home.

    Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    Or they Can pat more for the special services


  21. The airports are already loaded
    Everythung seems to be back ti normal except everyone is still wearing masks

    Do they insist that all the airline , tsa etc people be vaccinated?


  22. If I fly to Barbados I have to follow rules as per testing for COVID before I can mingle with family or the general public, what rules are in place for tourists arriving on cruise ships?


  23. @Disgusting Lies & Propaganda TV June 11, 2021 9:24 AM
    I cringe at how many would not be dead now if hydroxychloroquine effectiveness had not been blocked, ridiculed and denied by stupid people with narrow political agendas.

    FYI, Most people who died from the Spanish did not die from the flu virus but from secondary bacterial infections. Antibiotics were not around yet. If the 1918 flu had occurred today, the death toll would not have been that high because we now have the understanding to treat possible secondary bacterial infection.

    Don’t you understand many in the medical fraternity have figured out how to treat COVID since May/June 2020 but they have great difficulty to get the word out because all focus is on vaccines.


  24. @ Analyzer even if using YOUR “explanation” for the deaths from Spanish Flu, it is would have been a causal factor. Medical advancements NOW (and after the experience of the Spanish flu and other pandemics) would have reduced the deaths from the Spanish flu. But in a modern world we are still affected by flu outbreaks. COVID-19 is literally not a disease cause by an influenza virus. It is a coronavirus variant. COVID-19 will become the coronavirus equivalent to “the flu”. Flu viruses mutate, some become prevalent, booster shots are developed to combat them, the immune system develops an immunity to that variant.


  25. @David, what exactly will be tested in court!

    How will the employer be “liable” if the comp. is effectively complying with a directive of the government … at least that will surely be a line of argument!

    I agree that an individual should have the right to REFUSE the vaccination and can test his/her decision right up to (or after) any possible termination … but again what exactly is being adjudicated (rhetorical) …

    As the two legal views noted there is settled precedent re collective/individual rights and a govt’s emergency legislative power/statutes can further completely trump the personal will in cases of a pandemic national threat.

    I disagree with @Critical on his stance re use of ‘hydrox’ as no hindsight analysis has validated how effective that would have been in mass usage… so to suggest it would have saved all those lives is absolutely not in concert with evidence from the many trials done (and some aborted). It showed efficacy with some people, yes indeed …. and some covid patients also DIED after using it.

    I agree with him tho re “…we tell them we have health privacy here and inform them that if you have been vaccinated, you have nothing to worry about or you can stay home.”

    All the folks on that cruise were reported as ‘fully vaccinated” … yet 2 tested positive…. in sum, our hotel/service industry workers still have the onus on THEMSELVES to use all the safety protocols regardless.

    They – unvaccinated- can do LESS harm to a vaccinated visitor than the traveler can do to them !

    I gone.


  26. “Two passengers aboard the cruise ship Celebrity Millennium tested positive for COVID yesterday. This is the vessel that was in Barbados earlier this week”

    i posted my comment and did not even realize the ship was already on the island.


  27. Don’t know who these people think they are, but the Black population better be looking out for own their health and starting looking at alternatives other than working in a nonproductive tourism industry…AND DETER THEIR CHILDREN FROM EVER GETTING INVOLVED, there are tens of thousands of viable alternatives out there..


  28. DavidJune 11, 2021 9:06 AM

    You will note the blog predicted we will see the usual characters with narrow agendas shelling out the usual. So far has anyone responded to the current challenge to repeat. How does a tourism dependent country deal with the fact some visitors are asking to be accommodated and served by employees who are vaccinated?
    Xxxxxxxxx
    Did not Mia say many hands make for light work
    When questioned about the size of her cabinet and the longgated attachments of Consultants
    So why then are u proposing that a country should figure out these unheard problems
    My question to Mia what purpose is having these many hands if the work is too hard for them to solve
    Govt took upon itself once again to bolt out of the stable wearing double blinders
    One would have belive that govt would have pursued policies with legal apparatus that would not have doubt or unanswerable questions on this issue


  29. Foolish Questions 101

    Will these “fully vaccinated staff only” demanding tourist be spending their dollars exclusively with all inclusive properties?
    Does this demand extend to the all attractions and activities available and offered to tourists?
    Will hoteliers requiring fully vaccinated staff, guarantee a Covid free experience to their fully vaccinated guests?
    How long will it take before the “fully vaccinated country” requirement makes an appearance?


  30. David
    I wait to see if more than 2 out of 600 people on board, with 95% fully vaccinated, tests positive. If the 2 (who share the same room) are the only positive cases and both experience mild symptoms, then that augurs well for the vaccines’ efficacy against being re-infected and being gravely if re-infected.


  31. Critical Analyzer, the right-wing nut still believes he knows more than all the experts.

    Yeah, and Trump won the election.

    That should be enough to dun up his credibility.


  32. MiaVirass19 can’t wait to launder to get back to laundering money and land , the Banks are on alert, BBDLP just cant wait to go to Jail, We shall seek every means to tag and bags these lowlife Ministers and lawyers, They will need to send a full empty plane with 2 floors for them all! MiaVirass19 better find all they signed for and all the numbers and money better add up,135 years in Jail sounds nice! she can take her father and brother also!


  33. Mask + social distancing = enuff

    If You are vaccinated then You have more than enuff protection if you follow the above protocols / the unvacxinated person follow the protocols.

    There is no need for special treatment
    Just follow the protocols always


  34. @Donna June 11, 2021 4:10 PM

    I would much prefer you to call me a libertarian nut (Definition: https://www.libertarianism.org/what-is-a-libertarian)

    Also be extremely careful what you say about me being a right-wing nut for my unusual views because you will most likely have to eat those words and I would not want you to choke trying to swallow them when you are forced to admit my genius before the end of the year.

    I follow the entire science, not the cherry-picked science most people do. I first seek to read and understand the science, come up with my questions and research their answers. Have you done any of that or do you swallow every word the CMO, WHO, CDC and FDA tell you without question.


  35. Dr Pierre Kory, pulmonary and critical care specialist, explains why Ivermectin will not be allowed to be an effective treatment for Covid-19(84). Dr Kory: “It’s not about the data. There is something else. There is that thing that we can see and feel out there that is just squashing, distorting, suppressing the efficacy of Ivermectin, and it’s egregious.”

    The above video is a short extract from a longer interview posted at covid19criticalcare(DOT)com/videos-and-press/flccc-releases/covid-ivermectin-and-the-crime-of-the-century-podcast-with-dr-pierre-kory/

    Extract from Dr Kory’s bio:
    Pierre Kory is the former Chief of the Critical Care Service and Medical Director of the Trauma and Life Support Center at the University of Wisconsin. He is considered one of the world pioneers in the use of ultrasound by physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of critically ill patients. He helped develop and run the first national courses in Critical Care Ultrasonography in the U.S., and served as a Director of these courses with the American College of Chest Physicians for several years. He is also the senior editor of the most popular textbook in the field titled “Point of Care Ultrasound,” now in its 2nd edition and that has been translated into 7 languages worldwide. He has led over 100 courses nationally and internationally, teaching physicians this now-standard skill in his specialty.

    Dr. Kory was also one of the U.S. pioneers in the research, development, and teaching of performing therapeutic hypothermia to treat post-cardiac arrest patients. In 2005, his hospital was the first in New York City to begin regularly treating patients with therapeutic hypothermia. He then served as an expert panel member for New York City’s Project Hypothermia, a collaborative project between the Fire Department of New York and Emergency Medical Services. This project created cooling protocols within a network of 44 regional hospitals – along with a triage and transport system that directed patients to centers of excellence in hypothermia treatment – of which his hospital was one of the first.

    Known as a Master Educator, Dr. Kory has won numerous departmental and divisional teaching awards in every hospital he has worked. He has delivered hundreds of courses and invited lectures throughout his career.

    Continued at: covid19criticalcare(DOT)com/about/flccc-alliance-contributions-to-the-field-of-medicine/


  36. Is it appropriate to modify the name of the dreaded disease Covid-19 to Covid-19(84), as in my post above? I report; you decide.

    Techno-Tyranny: How The US National Security State Is Using Coronavirus To Fulfill An Orwellian Vision

    Last year, a government commission called for the US to adopt an AI-driven mass surveillance system far beyond that used in any other country in order to ensure American hegemony in artificial intelligence. Now, many of the “obstacles” they had cited as preventing its implementation are rapidly being removed under the guise of combating the coronavirus crisis.

    BY WHITNEY WEBB MAY 4, 2020

    Also benefiting from the coronavirus crisis is the concept of “smart cities,” with Forbes recently writing that “Smart cities can help us combat the coronavirus pandemic.” That article states that “Governments and local authorities are using smart city technology, sensors and data to trace the contacts of people infected with the coronavirus. At the same time, smart cities are also helping in efforts to determine whether social distancing rules are being followed.”

    That article in Forbes also contains the following passage:

    “…[T]he use of masses of connected sensors makes it clear that the coronavirus pandemic is–intentionally or not–being used as a testbed for new surveillance technologies that may threaten privacy and civil liberties. So aside from being a global health crisis, the coronavirus has effectively become an experiment in how to monitor and control people at scale.”

    https://unlimitedhangout.com/2020/05/reports/techno-tyranny-how-the-us-national-security-state-is-using-coronavirus-to-fulfill-an-orwellian-vision/


  37. Congratulations to our government headed by our Supreme Leader Mia Mottley! No new cases of Wuhan Snuff. Only 18 cases left in isolation Very good.

    So we can soon convert the isolation wards into internment camps for opposition doctors and others who dispute the efficacy of the vaccine doses administered by our government.


  38. @ peterlawrencethompson June 11, 2021 7:20 AM

    COVID19 is statistically fatal for people under 70 only if they are obese. When people are too fat, they are so by choice, because they are committed to gluttony.

    It is not the state’s job to hold an entire society hostage for the fact that a certain part of the population cannot control its gluttony. It would be far more economical if we subjected the overly fat part of society to a compulsory diet of hard work, exercise and food deprivation.


  39. A cruise liner having two Covid patients on board recently docked on Barbados shores
    Not a fellow detected that on board were two Covid infected people until the ship sailed out of Barbados


  40. Ivor Cummins:
    “The title says it all. So many people know that what is occurring with lockdowns and masks makes no sense whatsoever – but cannot understand WHY the whole world has gone mad in unison. Here in this short version of a superb documentary, is a big part of the reason.”

    Best Geopolitical Documentary Ever to Explain the Why? of Coronavirus (30min)
    odysee(DOT)com/@IvorCummins:f/Best-Geopolitical-Documentary-Ever—Explains-Near-Everything-720:9

    The above link is to an abbreviated 30min version of the longer 52min documentary THENEWNORMAL which can be viewed here: https://happen.network/

    THENEWNORMAL
    It’s January 2021, the world is in lockdown and our economy is on the brink of collapse.

    Will the new vaccine enable our lives to return back to normal or does it mark a pivotal point in the evolution of humanity (one that is driven by artificial intelligence, will reimagine capitalism and be governed by extreme tyrannical laws that are dictated by global elites)?

    The New Normal, a factual, 50-minute documentary, investigates The Fourth Industrial Revolution, what the 1% has to gain and the rest of us are about to lose.


  41. Bostic: No need to worry
    Minister of Health Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic says Barbadians need not be alarmed at the news that two passengers aboard the seven-day Celebrity Millennium cruise tested positive for COVID-19 days after making a stop in Barbados.
    In an interview with the Saturday Sun, Bostic said developments of this nature were to be expected and it reinforced the importance of ensuring that the protocols set for the restart of the cruise industry are properly adhered to. He also disclosed that since the vessel came to Barbados, a number of tests for COVID-19 had been conducted on individuals who welcomed the visitors. He said all returned negative.
    “I am confident in our protocols and that they were rigorously enforced for that particular cruise. The science is there to support the protocols that we have put in place. This is something that is being conducted as seriously as we possibly can in terms of the exposure. We have also gotten back the test results for persons involved with the ship’s arrival and they have all been negative. So I am fully satisfied that we are okay in this regard,” the minister said.
    The two guests, who shared a stateroom on the cruise from St Maarten, are asymptomatic, in isolation and being monitored by a medical team, Celebrity Cruise Lines said in a news release. All guests aboard the vessel, which made port stops in Barbados, Aruba and Curacao, were required to show vaccination proof and a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of departing St Maarten on Saturday. Approximately 500 passengers were on
    board, with more than 95 per cent fully vaccinated. Children who could not yet receive vaccinations were required to show negative COVID-19 tests.
    Supports protocols
    President of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP), Dr Lynda Williams, urged Barbadians not to treat the development as an “I told you so” moment, noting that her organisation supported the protocols in place for the reboot of the tourism sector.
    “We have to bear in mind that the economy is still an important consideration, and that the majority of our people are in some way connected to the sector, so we have to try. It is my view that we did the best possible protocols that we can. We have to put something in place and give it an opportunity to work, but we must ensure that we maintain our frequent monitoring and evaluation. We cannot let down our guard in this regard,” said Williams, who disclosed that BAMP was instrumental in coming up with the protocols.
    Williams said while she had confidence in the protocols for the tourism sector, Government must be prepared to act quickly to amend and adjust areas that had proven inadequate while never lowering its guard on monitoring both visitors and the general population.
    “We have to be flexible with the protocols and be able to change quickly if we see that there are some areas that require shoring up. We must ensure that definitely only fully vaccinated people are coming in contact with fully vaccinated workers. This must be the case if we really want to have the best possible outcomes.
    We also must have a lot of surveillance and testing built into our population as well so that we can detect if anything happens or passes through our ports of entry,” she said.
    Williams added: “So I cannot say that we are premature because at some point in time we have to start and whenever we start we must accept that there is some risk. We never said that fully vaccinated people cannot get the virus, only that they have reduced ability to become sick as well as reduced transmission of the virus. Vigilance is what is necessary. We cannot stay shut down until this goes away; we must put things in place, monitor them and try.”
    (CLM)

    SOURCE: NATION NEWS


  42. Despite what the Minister says about “protocols” it is not clear whether the restrictions in place for those arriving via airlines are the same for tourists arriving by cruise ship.


    • @Sargeant

      Information around the revised COVID protocol for arriving cruise ship visitors is still being worked out. The visit on Monday was a pilot run of sorts that operated in some kind of bubble. Minister Kirk Humphrey touched on it briefly in an interview with David Ellis a few days ago.


  43. I have full confidence in our Supreme Leader and General Bosstic when it comes to the so-called Wuhan Snuff. Our government has so far managed the crisis brilliantly, while the opposition is calling for the apocalyptic horsemen.

    In the next elections in 2030, the people will certainly confirm government.


  44. Nobody wants to hear minister input
    His influence in Maritime issues are zero
    Under his watch the reefs were destroyed
    Hard to believe he had any input on the Cruise Industry decisions or even any input on the protocols necessary for them to enter Barbados waters
    Fact being the evidence now shows a Covid infected cruise ship entered Barbados waters docked in the ports and passengers were allowed to disembark without govt detection or intervention
    Minister bobbled head is clueless


  45. Cox,

    you act as if the Wuhan cold is a fatal disease. The fact is that in our country all vulnerable people have been vaccinated for a long time. Those who will still contract the disease and come to hospital have – in 90 % of all remaining cases – only themselves to blame, because they are either too fat or smoke. The remaining 10 % are unfortunate happenings.

    Life must now go on as normal. We need several hundred thousand tourists on the island again from Oc. 2021 on. I therefore urgently recommend that all critical doctors who, contrary to scientific findings, dramatise the dangerousness of the Wuhan snuff for younger people be imprisoned. Our Corona emergency laws allow this with ease.


  46. I speak with precision pointed observation concluding that Minister Kirk is a clueless bobblehead assign to a job of which he knows nothing about
    A job which requires specific training and specialized school in the field of environmental details having to do with land sea and air
    Putting a boy to do a man’s job always end in catastrophy as with the case of Kirk involvement
    I would hold him to his recent remarks about engaging with the cruise line industry seeking compensation for the reefs


  47. DavidJune 12, 2021 1:05 PM

    Vincentian Minister refusing to see unvaccinated people

    Xxxxxxx
    Utter rubbish
    He as a servant of the people has a right of duty to attend the needs of the people first and foremost
    If he feels uncomfortable then he should resign his post


  48. WURA-War-on-UJune 12, 2021 2:51 PM

    Small island idiot politicians in their uppity negro mode as usual

    Xxxxx
    These banana republic clowns tek the populace fuh clowns
    Imagine he talking that crap in other international countries
    A bunch of clowns wearing crowns


  49. Our Supreme Leader continues to conqueror de roughest seas to date……Who calling, who calling? Souse n clean breadfruit, no humongous hog tails n it…Who calling🐖🐖?

    Mia fuh life don’t make no strife 🎼🎹🎸🎤Mia fuh life don’t make no strife 🎸🎼🎤🎹🇧🇧
    Grynner, Grynner, Mia fuh lifeeeeeeeeeeee…🥁🪘🎺🎺


  50. HANG ON!
    AG: Two top cops asked to hold off on retirement
    By Maria Bradshaw
    mariabradshaw@nationnews.com

    Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith and Deputy Commissioner Oral Williams have been asked to continue in office until the end of September instead of going on pre-retirement leave.
    The two were due to go on pre-retirement leave from this month but Attorney General Dale Marshall told the Sunday Sun yesterday that they have been asked to stay on a while longer and were presently assisting the force in “special projects”.
    Griffith is due to officially retire on November 11 and Williams on October 18, after serving the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF) for 46 and 43 years, respectively.
    Marshall explained: “Ordinarily, both of them would have proceeded on pre-retirement leave, but both have been requested to serve until the end of September 2021 instead of taking the leave that they are due.”
    He added: “Both of these fine officers have agreed to continue in service and I certainly am deeply appreciative of their willingness to continue and of their continued sacrifice and commitment to the organisation. Both of them are currently deeply immersed in special projects and exercises and the force will benefit immeasurably from them keeping their shoulders to the wheel for a while longer.”
    Asked about the selection of a new Commissioner and Deputy, the Attorney General said no one had been chosen as yet to fill either of the two positions but the selection process would be undertaken by the Protective Services Commission.
    “Let me make it clear
    that the choice and appointment of persons to those offices are matters for the Protective Services Commission, established under the Constitution of Barbados. The matter of promotion to those two offices will be dealt with by the commission, but there is no question of the Commissioner of Police Tyrone Griffith, who was due to go on pre-retirement leave this month, has been asked to continue in office until the end of September.
    Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner staying on because no one has been chosen to replace them.
    “The commission alone determines matters of promotion to senior offices either to act or on appointment and they have been dealing with their responsibility in an orderly and deliberate manner, and they must be allowed to continue in that vein. I am confident that the commission will give those matters consideration in due time,” he noted.
    Asked if the position of Commissioner of Police will also be on a contract basis, as was being done with other senior posts in the public service, Marshall said: “While the matter of appointment of senior public servants on contract is very much under discussion, I do not anticipate that such would be the approach with the Commissioner of Police, a key post in our national security framework.”
    In relation to previous reports of political interference in the hierarchy of the force, which some years back had reportedly led to major disagreements among some of the senior officers, Marshall said: “I have absolutely no idea of any affiliation, political or otherwise, of any current or previous Commissioner of Police. I can assure the public that this administration will allow the commission to do its work without any interference or influence from us.”
    He revealed that members of the RBPF will be receiving continuous training, starting with 15 senior officers who will later this month undertake a two-week leadership programme with trainers from the (United Kingdom) UK.
    “The force must constantly plan for the departures
    of officers in its senior ranks, and part of that process requires that officers are constantly receiving appropriate training,” he said.
    “From 21st June, 15 senior officers of the force will begin an intensive two-week leadership training programme, with the trainers coming from the Durham Constabulary of the UK, and with inputs from local experts. This programme will draw in particular on the extensive experience of the that award-winning UK police force and will cover key aspects of police leadership.”
    Marshall hailed this as a new approach.
    “In the past, a few officers had the opportunity to travel overseas for training to the UK, the US and to Jamaica. However, no sustained effort at providing continuing policing education was in place. This is the beginning of a new approach, where training will be provided at all levels of the force on a continuous basis,” he added.

    (FP)

    Source: Nation


  51. SSA: We must solve bulk waste problem
    By Barry Alleyne
    barryalleyne@nationnews.com
    Barbados has a massive problem with bulk waste disposal as individuals continue to dispose of old refrigerators, stoves, bath tubs, and even cars and old bicycles.
    Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) officials say soon there will be no more landfill space to put the heavy material, but they are attempting to solve the problem as a matter of urgency.
    The SSA’s assistant manager of engineering, Leona Deane, told the Sunday Sun that disposal of metal had been a problematic issue for decades.
    “We did not have possession of a metal disposal site from 2012, so there was a crisis with metal disposal and quite a pile over by the landfill. This also became one of the areas that people were bringing metal to and it built up over a number of years.”
    She said waste brokering in Barbados was an essential part of solid waste management, and a general plan would have to be developed. Up to yesterday, scores of old appliances were being dropped off at Bagatelle, the new site for bulk waste after the Ministry of Health served notice on B’s Recycling at Cane Garden in the same parish, to stop accepting metal waste.
    “You would be amazed at what people in Barbados are throwing away every day. They are throwing away fridges and we can’t understand why there are so many fridges coming in [to the country]. We get about 500 beds a month, hundreds of fridges, and hundreds of TVs,” she said.
    The SSA official added that it was not sustainable to keep burying all that metal.
    “We are too small, and we just can’t continue to landfill the material. All kinds of avenues that can remove metal are welcome. Once that is done we can move forward and have a circular economy where we are recycling, we are shipping and hopefully we get to zero waste one day,” she added.
    No need to fear
    Deane revealed that even though the four million tonnes had been brought over from the B’s Recycling facility since the last week of April, there was no need to fear Bagatelle also becoming an environmental hazard and being overrun with metal waste in a short timeframe.
    She said the Bagatelle facility still has plenty of life and space left, even after more than four million metric tonnes of metal waste had been placed at the site in a mere two months.
    “We recently returned to the Bagatelle facility about two years ago. There was a large new cell, a quarry that was available for filling, so we are currently filling the bottom of that quarry. With this material (from B’s Recycling) we are filling up a lot faster. Normally every month we would get about 100 fridges, but now we’ve been getting about ten- or even twentyfold that amount,” Deane revealed moments after a team from the SSA, along with the Chief Fire Officer Errol Maynard and Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams gave an update on the situation at B’s, which was closed by health authorities in April.
    Material compacted
    All metal waste removed from B’s after it was served notice was taken to Bagatelle, which prompted an exponential increase in waste received by the facility.
    “There is a tractor on site, and a lot of the material has already been compacted. Once it is crushed and laid out it really does not take up much space.
    “It (the increase in waste) will take time off the availability of space at the site, but we are still fairly far down inside. We still have a lot of years at Bagatelle, and I want the residents in the surrounding areas not to be concerned because we are covering and compacting. When we’re done it will look like a flat football field. You would never even know the metal is there,” Deane said.
    The engineer, who is responsible for disposal of waste in Barbados, said they had been involved in that practice for more than 40 years.

    Source: Nation


  52. Members: Circle a blessing
    By John Boyce
    johnboyce@nationnews.com
    Several members of a blessing circle have expressed “vehement objection” to the position taken by Fair Trading Commission (FTC) director of consumer protection Dava Leslie-Ward in relation to them.
    Leslie-Ward, during a recently held online seminar entitled Scams And Schemes, organised by the Barbados Association of Retired Persons (BARP) in collaboration with the FTC, said the commission was working on getting the regulatory framework in place to deal with all blessing circles and pyramid schemes.
    This, however, did not sit well with the members who spoke to the Sunday Sun recently.
    One member, who gave his name as Vere, said: “It is very necessary, particularly in times like these, where the economy is facing stagflation [high unemployment and high prices] to have an avenue through which you can generate income.”
    He said it was a means by which people could wean themselves off having to depend on Government for handouts.
    Furthermore, he said Government should welcome the blessing circles as they take the burden off the Welfare Department and other agencies on which some were dependent.
    Pointing out that not all circles should be lumped together, he said: “I find the C11 platform [which has about 4 000 members] to be very transparent and authentic and people should come and try the system for themselves before launching into
    criticism.”
    Another member, who owns a business in The City and wished to remain anonymous, said: “People are getting their debts cleared and some are no longer in a place where they have to worry about losing their house or vehicle.”
    She said people were now able to feed their children though they were still unemployed.
    C11 platform
    “With an investment of $2 700 you get $21 000 on the C11 platform and it is legitimate and has been going for over a year. So what is the reason for lumping all circles together?” the businesswoman asked.
    Peter, another member, queried the law that would stop people from giving, pointing out that people gave freely to the church and asked whether that too would be regularised.
    “When I joined the blessing circle, I made a conscious decision to give and share with the person to be blessed and it is a gift which goes back into the economy.”
    However, the FTC director, in her presentation said: “A blessing circle is not even a circle; it’s a pyramid and is just another fancy name for a pyramid scheme. It depends on where you are in the pyramid that increases your likelihood of seeing a return on your investment. If you are not within a certain point in the pyramid, consider it [your money] gone,” she said.
    This comment was rubbished by Michael, another member, who said it was “really unfortunate” that a person holding such a high office could comment like that without seemingly
    fully understanding how a blessing circle works.
    “There are four stages before being ‘blessed out’ on the C11 platform. Therefore, just like a pay day at the office, it comes at a certain time and there is nothing to suggest that your money is gone if you have not yet been blessed out . . . . There is generally a three-month wait,” he said.
    Admitting that some other circles had failed “for one reason or another”, Michael said some segments of society seemed bent on targeting blessing circles.
    During the online seminar with BARP and the FTC, one member spoke out against the consumer protection director’s position, saying: “I have received more returns from my circle than the time I invested in debentures, which was more of a scam to me than the blessing circle. Where was the FTC then?”

    Source: Nation


  53. Too much uncertainty surrounding vaccines

    The COVID-19 virus has been called novel. It is something new. How we should respond to it will therefore be an issue for discussion. The issue of mandating or coercing COVID-19 vaccination was an issue hotly discussed on Brass Tacks last week.
    Hal Gollop QC stirred up a hornets’ nest on the call-in programme when he stated that “If the scientific proof, or might not be proof, but if the way points towards the fact that by being vaccinated you will give the employer the opportunity to satisfy that requirement of providing a safe system of work and, conversely, if all the evidence . . . points to the fact that a person who does not get himself vaccinated presents a risk to the employers’ satisfying that obligation to providing a safe system of work, in my opinion the employer is entitled to demand that any worker working in his workplace be vaccinated.”
    This opinion rests on the legal requirement that an employer must provide a safe working environment for their workers. It may also rest on the non-legal assumption that a person not vaccinated against COVID-19 poses some kind of threat to the health and safety of others in the work environment. But to deprive any person of their livelihood based on unsubstantiated fears wouldn’t be fair. There are just so many questions.
    Consider that the vaccines available are reported to provide varying levels of protection, from around 50 per cent for Sinovac, 70 per cent for AstraZeneca and around 95 per cent for Pfizer. The question would then be, “What level of vaccination should we accept as adequately vaccinated?” What about the fact that people who have already had COVID-19 also have a level of protection and immunity to the virus?
    Natural immunity
    A study from the United Kingdom, reported on in Vox magazine, found that people
    previously infected with COVID-19 could have up to 99 per cent immunity. Would they count as a threat to others as well? Is it fair to force a person with a high level of natural immunity to undergo a possibly less effective vaccination?
    In any case, most instances of COVID infection are mild. This is not to say they are not serious. In India, the high rate of severe COVID cases and high death toll is thought to be linked to the high rates of diabetes and to a rare fungal infection which is associated with diabetes. Would it be right to force people who are particular about taking care of their health and have no co-morbidities, to take a vaccine even if they are at low risk?
    And then there is the elephant in the room. Producers of COVID-19 vaccines have sought and won immunity from lawsuits should you suffer any ill effects from their vaccine. In an article available on the Reuters website, Ruud Dobber, a member of AstraZeneca’s senior executive team, is quoted as telling the international news agency that, “This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in . . . four years the vaccine is showing side effects.” Will an employer who insists on an employee getting vaccinated agree to assume liability if that employee is injured by the vaccine?
    On June 18, the Centre for Disease Control in the United States is holding an emergency meeting to deal with a higher than expected number of cases of inflammation of the heart in young men who received the Pfizer vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine, like others, has gotten emergency approval despite not having undergone the normal levels of oversight and testing. Situations like this led one caller on Brass Tacks to say that people taking the vaccination are guinea pigs for an experimental treatment.
    Despite, all of this, the common advice is, “Trust the science”. However, is it the science which
    we put our trust in or the opinion of those reporting upon the science? Dr Anthony Fauci has found out that he is not immune to losing public trust. His leaked emails have suggested to some that he knowingly misled the public when insisted that COVID-19 was not engineered by scientists in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Now, this fact is not so certain. There is a lot that is uncertain about this novel corona situation. Too much to mandate, force or coerce people into vaccination.
    Adrian Green is a communications specialist. Email Adriangreen14@gmail.com.

    Source: Nation


  54. Need to improve standard of doing business
    By Tony Best Barbados, which relies heavily on its offshore financial services sector to raise government revenue to finance its economic and social development, is unlikely to face any overnight danger of being forced out of the global competitive investment markets by a proposed global minimum tax on corporate profits.
    However, it must continue to pay close attention to the efforts of the world’s richest nations to increase “their fair share of the taxes” imposed on foreign multinational corporations and high-networth individuals from the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Germany who establish a corporate presence on Barbados’ soil as one way of lowering their taxes.
    At the same time, Barbados must also devise its own plans to raise standards of doing business with foreign and domestic companies.
    G-7 agreement
    That was the collective reaction of international analysts and experts familiar with Barbados’ offshore sector who commented on the impact of a G-7 agreement to establish a minimum foreign global tax floor.
    From Winston Cox, a former Governor of the Barbados Central Bank, to Noel Lynch, Barbados’ Ambassador to the United States, and Toby Sanger, a Canadian who heads Canadians for Tax Fairness in Ottawa, to Bruce Zagaris, an American tax law expert in Washington, who once advised Barbados on international tax negotiations, the story was the same. They said it will take some time, perhaps years for the G7 and the G-20 countries to conclude a deal of about 15 per cent minimum tax on corporate profits in each country where the firms operate.
    Cox said: “It is going to be very difficult to negotiate such an agreement and implement it. It is going to take time, perhaps years, to negotiate it. Although the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the rich nations’ club with headquarter in Paris, is pushing it and the European Union is behind it, there are countries in both of those organisations which are resisting it.
    “It is going to face a difficult implementation challenge. It is not so easy to decide what somebody else’s fair share of taxes is. However, Barbados must pay attention to the discussion, including the need to compete in other areas for international financial business. I think Barbados is well placed to achieve that. It has a comfortable social set of norms and it is a country that respects the rule of law,” he said.
    Expressed doubts
    Cox, a former member of the executive boards of the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, expressed doubts that a global corporate tax regime would bring about the “death” of Barbados’ financial services sector.
    Bruce Zagaris said that after confronting several hurdles, the G-7 and G-20 nations were likely to reach an agreement on the corporate profit tax but warned it might run into serious headwinds in the US Congress, especially with the Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
    “The US Congress is pretty split, and the Republicans have said they are not going to support an increase in corporate taxes. It is going to take some time before it gets through. Not every country will approve it right away but it is definitely going to happen,” he said.
    Like Cox, Zagaris thinks Barbados must continue its efforts to improve its standards of doing business in international financial services. But he was quick to warn that it was “going to be very hard to compete”.
    Lynch, a former Minister of Tourism now serving in Washington, said Barbados was “seeking clarification on a number of (crucial) issues” arising out of the G-7 agreement.
    “My sense is that it is not going to be easy to negotiate and implement and it is going to take some time, perhaps by 2023 for the beginning of it. It is not going to hit us overnight but in the interim I would advise that we must gather definitive information on the issues. We must get a clearer understanding from our tax experts” on what may be negative to us, a small economy. We should consider our ranking in the business
    index and improve it,” he said.
    Barbados must pay attention to the discussion, including the need to compete in other areas for international financial business.

    Source: Nation


  55. DUTY-FREE PUSH
    Govt reviewing list of items to come under legislation
    By Shawn Cumberbatch shawncumberbatch@nationnews.com
    Barbados’ duty-free shopping sector, which is heavily dependent on tourism, has “taken a beating” during the COVID-19 pandemic and changes are being contemplated to ensure its survival.
    Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn said the ministry and the Customs & Excise Department are “in the process of reviewing the lists of items and the legislation governing this activity”, but said changes related to alcohol and tobacco would not be included “at this time”.
    He made the announcement to the Sunday Sun as the Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s new president Anthony Branker warned that the duty-free business needed alternative ways to generate cash flow, “otherwise it will not be able to meet its financial obligations, most important of which is to its employees”.
    He said the Chamber, which has 23 members involved in duty-free operations, would continue to urge Government to create duty-free zones where Barbadians could shop.
    Both Straughn and Branker agreed that tourism’s recovery was key to the duty-free sector’s revival. The chamber president reported that the number of visitors travelling to Barbados for the rest of the year was likely to be drastically reduced, resulting in an estimated reduction in sales of 70 per cent for the period April through December”.
    He said tourism’s collapse and worldwide travel restrictions negatively impacted duty-free retailers at the Grantley Adams International Airport, the Bridgetown Cruise Terminals Inc., and all remaining duty-free retail operations located in hotels, as well as in the tourist belt and in Bridgetown.
    “A significant percentage of the estimated 625 persons employed by the key duty-free retailers in Barbados have had their employment reinstated with reduced hours. Retailers who have been forced to permanently reduce their headcount due to lack of sales, therefore now have severance liabilities which have negatively impacted their businesses,” Branker said.
    Seeking reductions
    “In an attempt to protect cash flow and preserve future employment, operators continue to seek reductions in rental fees from landlords and make other significant cuts to operational expenses,” he said.
    Branker said the chamber’s members in the duty-free sector had also collectively developed proposals to be presented to Government.
    The chamber, he added, had already walked away from the duty-free facility it operated at the airport.
    “A review of the performance of the facility has shown that the chamber experienced a peak of 54 per cent in 2018 over the 2017 performance, followed by a decline of 18 per cent in 2019, and a further decline of 82 per cent from 2019 to 2020 in respect of the handling of duty-free packages for travellers and triplicates processed,” he said.
    The two officials reminded that before the pandemic struck, duty-free sector changes were to have taken place from April 1, 2020.
    Straughn said after coming to office in 2018, Government was concerned there was a “haemorrhaging of tax revenue” related to Barbadians making purchases “on a regular basis in any retail store in town offering the duty-free service”.
    It was determined that since dutyfree service was primarily an export activity, it should be transacted in foreign exchange.
    “To be consistent with that premise, we liberalised exchange controls to allow Barbadians to hold foreign exchange accounts at commercial banks without the need for large surrender percentages as was the case in the past,” the minister said.
    “The underlying notion was that Bajans like any visitors could make duty-free purchases but only in foreign exchange whether in cash or by credit or debit card linked to their foreign exchange account. Visitors would make purchases in foreign exchange cash or by credit or debit card issued by a foreign banking institution,” he added.
    Straughn said it was intended that participating retail stores would be required to deposit foreign exchange from duty-free transactions into the banking system and participate in the Balance of Payments survey conducted by the Central Bank annually”.
    “After deliberations with the sector, we agreed to continue to allow locals to make duty-free purchases on their return to Barbados within the arrival areas of the airport and seaport in local currency to further boost activity which was set to come into place April 1, 2020,” he noted.
    Straughn said COVID-19 disrupted travel and therefore that segment of the economy had taken a beating due to the global cessation of travel.”
    He said he expected the resumption of global travel would over time see this sector re-emerge from what had been a most challenging

    Source: Nation


  56. “With an investment of $2 700 you get $21 000 on the C11 platform and it is legitimate and has been going for over a year. So what is the reason for lumping all circles together?” the businesswoman asked.

    “There are four stages before being ‘blessed out’ on the C11 platform. Therefore, just like a pay day at the office, it comes at a certain time and there is nothing to suggest that your money is gone if you have not yet been blessed out . . . . There is generally a three-month wait,” he said.
    Admitting that some other circles had failed “for one reason or another”, Michael said some segments of society seemed bent on targeting blessing circles.

    Put in $2.7K and get back 8 times the amount in a “3 month wait”.. A scam anywhere.


  57. “By Tony Best Barbados, which relies heavily on its offshore financial services sector to raise government revenue to finance its economic and social development, is unlikely to face any overnight danger of being forced out of the global competitive investment markets by a proposed global minimum tax on corporate profits.”

    This is a partial answer to a question I asked previously. However, the general response is …. this will not impact on us immediately as it will take some time for a global minimum tax to be implemented.

    The question “if implemented, how will this affect us?” remains unanswered.


  58. Don’t tell me how it will effect you, tell me how it will affect you. That is the brainer..
    Share the answers.


    • Let us make it simple, if companies domiciled in Barbados have to immediately pay a flat rate of 15% it will decimate the sector, a cadre of well paid professionals who depend on the sector will be on the bread line. There is the indirect impact to tourism, restaurants, rental properties, rental cars etc.


  59. Armed with wo strategies
    (1) Attempt to ridicule
    (2) Attempt to silence
    and two answers
    (1) The other guys did it too,
    (2) It happens elsewhere


  60. There are several ways of bringing matters that are not fully ventilated into further discussion.

    Here we had the G7 embarking on a policy that could have a great impact on tax-havens and off-shore banking centers. And to the best of my knowledge, just one BU contributor (VC) hinted at the implications for Barbados. Then there was this article above, which, instead of laying out the stark reality provided a reason why the impact on Barbados would not be immediate (the slow pace of negotiations).

    Having this hard cold fact come from one side of the fence may serve to wake up some 9(today). It would be good if we start thinking about this problem and possible solution from today and not act surprise when things begin to fall apart.


  61. @David, bro u got me kerfuffulled with “Let us make it simple, if companies domiciled in Barbados have to immediately pay a flat rate of 15% it will decimate the sector, a cadre of well paid professionals who depend on the sector will be on the bread line

    I use ur informed comments to step into these debates and ur “tone” can be perplexing at times.

    1.Are u really saying that a financial services company will ALLOW an imposition of 15c on the $1 to implode their business! Fah real.

    They ‘does’ STUDY and FINESSE money management, RIGHT!

    2.Are you further saying that the supposed GLOBAL imposition will impact Bim comps more significantly than all its competitors all bout de place!

    3.And are you then also further saying that this highfalutin worldwide tax will be actually EFFECTED so legally and operationally well that companies will NOT find ways to expense their way around it!

    Excuse me for being cynical, bro but I have paid little attention to Biden and his fellow leaders hype on this matter as I simply cannot see it being effectively achieved.

    This is a high-wire political walk by the G7 folks which is sweet sounding hype likely to be either still born or so under weight at birth that it endures the life of an undernourished weakling.

    But either way, as former Director Cox said: “It is going to be very difficult to negotiate such an agreement and implement it. It is going to take time, perhaps years, to negotiate it.

    So let’s rejoin this matter a few years on … we can study and be alert steadfastly till den and likely watch the baby get aborted in that hostile US Senate … an additional 15% tax eh … OK …. let’s also look first closely at the corporate welfare that is enriching these financial services corps and that recent reminder of how billionaires AVOID the incidence of taxation so effectively.

    A major issue … nope. A bother to be avoided and finessed, yes!


  62. Trust the science…NOT THE EXPERIMENT…..that is the stage it’s STILL AT..

    and only the very ignorant STILL DON’T KNOW….that you are just as likely to pass the virus on and die from it yaself…even if you are FULLY VACCINATED…

    ..it’s the MUTATING VARIANTS STUPID…and yall done know how yall love to let every half assed tourist in just for a few dollars…and most of them will be CARRIERS.


  63. David, I get it that the leaders are trying to squeeze the multinationals to pay more tax from off-shore operations like those in Bim and how that can ‘encourage’ said companies to repatriate, thus squeezing us … all clear.

    I am simply CYNICAL that it will be IMPLEMENTED.

    I call it a bother at this point because there will be LOTS of finessing and bare knuckled lobbying to stop this ‘bill’ … the US Senate will be hyper actively lobbied undoubtedly.

    Furthermore, let’s recognize that a positive of the pandemic has been the awareness of how awesome ‘Welcome Stamp’ business operations can be … or said differently: corporations can see big benefits of keeping operations in remote locations.

    The proof of this bill will be how effectively it’s written so let’s await those details and THEN too let’s await the political fights.

    We have a long gestation yet on this and even then seems to me there are programs countries like Bim can adopt to keep many of their multinationals happy in managing their tax incidence… they will need to be super creative/practical (legally) to push back on the OECD etc.


  64. From BT (by MM)
    “Persaud explained that one of the measures Barbados took to counter the “shifting goal post” in recent times was to change the corporate tax rate to allow both local and international firms to pay on a sliding scale of between one and five per cent.

    However, with the US engaging G20 nations to agree on a global minimum corporate tax rate, Persaud said the time had come to “move to a different playing field” as they seek to shift the goal post.

    “The next thing we need to do is to actually make sure that businesses are headquartered here. America and the UK may decide to have a global minimum tax rate. That is currently being debated. Now, they can decide how they tax a Barbadian subsidiary of a British company, but they cannot determine how they tax a Barbados-headquartered company. So we need to bring these companies to Barbados to do real business in Barbados and be headquartered here,” he explained.

    Persaud said in order to attract the businesses, several things must be done including training and certification of individuals to provide high-level skills, greater use of advanced technology and an improvement in the doing business climate

    Allow me to compliment Persaud on acknowledging the oncoming problems and (though early, as some suggest) beginning to think of a way out of the increasing maze.. He could have (1) completely ignored the looming problem (2) acknowledge it bus as some are suggesting … Kicking the can down the road or (3) wish for a ‘Hail Mary pass’ similar to PLT’s welcome stamp suggestion.

    It is a no-brainer (my new favorite phrase) that at some stage we are competing against IFCs from all over the world. In same way that we saw the welcome stamp idea being implemented in other countries the suggestion of making “sure these companies are headquartered here” will be implemented elsewhere. He has also pointed out that we must consider “training and certification of individuals to provide high-level skills, greater use of advanced technology and an improvement in the doing business climate”.

    I highlighted his contribution, because it begins to show the depth of thinking that is (not will be) required. We must walk and chew gum at the same time. i do not believe it is any more difficult than walking and kicking the can down the road. The future begins now.


  65. Was just reading that, don’t know why the hell these nuisance lawyers like to push Black people into being oppressed…frauds…they need to shut up if they don’t know what they are talking about and STOP ROBBING CLIENTS..

    “Workers in Barbados are protected by the Employment (Prevention of Discrimination) Act, which, among other things, prohibits discrimination on the grounds of a person’s medical condition. Additionally, employers are prohibited from requiring a person to be tested for a medical condition either as a precondition for entering into a contract of employment or as a condition for continuing employment. This prohibition is subject to if the test or knowledge of a medical condition is required because of what is called a genuine occupational qualification.”


  66. (Quote):
    “The next thing we need to do is to actually make sure that businesses are headquartered here. America and the UK may decide to have a global minimum tax rate. That is currently being debated. Now, they can decide how they tax a Barbadian subsidiary of a British company, but they cannot determine how they tax a Barbados-headquartered company. So we need to bring these companies to Barbados to do real business in Barbados and be headquartered here,” he explained. (Unquote).
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    If only this same ‘slick-tongue’ salesman of dreams had secured those investors to complete the Four Seasons project there would be many villas ready and available at ‘Paradise’ to accommodate the expatriate staff to manage those HQs of the multi-national corporations.

    From one hotpot of hotel bullshit to another full of pipedreams.

    If Barbados cannot even get its own local business environment sorted to make the public service function effectively (except for the Immigration Dept now under TQM) how on earth can it expect to service the headquarters of international brand name companies on a 24/7 basis?


  67. @ david

    Don’t think for a minute they are not ways around that 15% tax but using ” other non associated ” companies to handle the invoicing and such like. Biden is no Trump when it comes to business that much we know already.


    • @John A

      What are you saying? Hope you are not perpetuating the notion Barbados is a tax avoidance domicile.


  68. @ david

    You know the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion?

    One legal and the other is a result of poor accounting and legal advise. .LOL


  69. Like cricket you must know where the crease is and put you toe on it but never get caught outside it. If they move the crease then just move you toe.


    • @John A

      It is why the blogmaster deliberately used the term tax avoidance because developed countries (OECD) lump the two together.


  70. @ David

    As long as you keep within the IAP rules for accounting they can do what they have to do and you can do what you need to do. Yes they will keep moving and playing with the “rules” they make up from one day to another, but they are basic International Accounting Practices that ALL companies are bound by.

    If you think a government got better tax advisors and legal teams than Google or Amazon trust me you wrong. Trump new this and decided not to fight it. Biden has now to learn it. He does not understand the corporate world as he is a career politician, but if he tries to tamper with it they will send him a message. Dont get too worried about the coughs and splutters from the politicians. The companies way ahead of them.


  71. @ David

    The problem comes because you can not have 2 sets of globally acceptable accounting rules, one for offshore and one for onshore. So All companies must use the same practices. So knowing that the government’s then say we’ll we want the same tax structure then. That though is left to the domicile countries like here and the clients we hold to decide.

    I agree with the PM 100 PERCENT on the road she took as she can not be accused of offering any special treatment to offshore companies. Her approach is ” all of we is one ” and look at what happened, her corporation tax even at the lower rate increased.

    No government can push around companies like amazon or Google. They will simply as Tony Best implied, tell them well we will move our head office. The loss from them doing that can cripple states where they are located. The days of being able to push around companies is over and Biden and all need to learn that. All the offshore countries have to do as a group is stand united and tell the Bidens of the world as the PM did, this is our tax rate to all regardless of where they are from. Once the companies see that they will take the fight from there. You ain’t see what fellows like Tesla tell them? We can move to anywhere !


    • Regarding the last part of your comment you know this will never happen. Bermuda, Cayman, Gurnsey and others all have their strings being pulled by the hegemonist.


  72. Water ease is on the way, says Gooding-Edghill
    MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, Works and Water Resources Ian Gooding-Edghill says Government is well on its way to bringing relief to residents who have been experiencing poor water service for several months.
    “We have a duty to ensure that this constituency and all other parts of Barbados benefit from a consistent supply of water,” he told a Barbados Labour Party’s Christ Church East meeting held at the constituency office in Hopewell Road on Sunday night. “We are establishing a containerised desalination plant at Colleton, St Lucy . . . . We are also going to establish another containerised desalination plant at the Hope Plantation in St Lucy . . . . We plan to construct two tanks at Apes Hill, St James, with an additional capacity of 1.3 gallons of water going down there,
    Additional tanks
    “The Government intends to construct an additional 600 000 gallon tank at Walkers in St Andrew and we are also going to improve the existing tank at Castle Grant, St Joseph, and we are going to build a new 1.3 million gallon tank
    there.” Gooding-Edghill added that Government also repaired more than ten reservoirs and did major upgrades to the mains and pipeline network across the island, removing the almost century-old cast iron pipes and installing PVC high-density ones.
    In doing so, he said more than 22 kilometres of piping were laid.
    The minister also spoke about Government’s $7 million investment in acquiring new water tankers.
    “We secured five new water tankers and those were delivered last Saturday and have been deployed in the north of the island up to today to elevate some of the challenges we have in the north of the island.”
    He said they had also boosted the number of water tankers.
    “You can’t service a country with 17 water tanks. The Government through the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) board, approved the procurement of 28 new water tankers in Barbados. Seven are already at the BWA. They are being sanitised, 12 tankers are expected to leave the Bridgetown Port
    tomorrow (yesterday) for delivery to the BWA, and the remaining nine tanks will be on island before the end of this month,” he said.
    (SB)

    SOURCE: NATION NEWS


  73. More essential workers for jab
    MORE FRONT-LINE WORKERS are heeding the call to get vaccinated.
    Co-coordinator of the National Vaccination Programme for COVID-19, Major David Clarke, said while a few hundred employees, particularly those in the hotel sector, did not come forward during the first phase of the campaign earlier this year, recently they indicated an interest in getting inoculated and the process was going reasonably well.
    To date, the National Vaccination Programme for COVID-19 has seen 87 382 people receiving first doses while 62 131 people got their second dose and are fully vaccinated.
    Clarke said Barbados was now on a good trajectory for herd immunity.
    (SB)

    SOURCE: NATION NEWS


  74. ‘Wake-up call’ for Barbados and the region
    by TONY BEST AS THE DEADLINE narrows for Donville Inniss, a former Government minister, to report to a United States federal prison to serve time for engaging in money laundering, a top Caribbean security expert says he hopes it will serve as a “wake-up” call for Barbadians and others in the Caribbean in the public service and the private sector who might be tempted to engage in public corruption.
    Professor Ivelaw Griffith, a former vice-chancellor of the University of Guyana who is now a senior associate of the United States Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a highly respected think tank in Washington DC, told the DAILY NATION that Inniss’ conviction for conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering should discourage people from engaging in corrupt activities which undermine the public’s trust.
    “Very sad. It is a wake-up call, not only to Barbados but to all the (Caribbean) region,” said Griffith, the author of several books and scholarly papers on crime, violence and overall security.
    “The wake-up call is based on a harsh reality that the attraction to [alleged] illegality because of the money [involved) is sometimes stronger than the lessons learned from a case like this [involving] a once proud and successful minister. I am hoping that the lesson learned would at least deter some people from wanting to go that route. It is a harsh reality, given the circumstances.”
    Griffith said that the “attraction, the lure” was often so strong that people holding influential positions “can’t resist the temptation”.
    The former provost of York College of the City University of New York cited the case of a senior South American diplomat who was “propositioned while on a flight” to Miami.
    The proposed corrupt deal came at a time when the man’s personal financial condition and family situation – divorce, financing his children’s university education and other commitments – were being undermined. “The pressure on his (the diplomat’s) finances was such that he almost fell for” the opportunity to use his position for personal gain, Griffith recalled.
    In the end, though, the man’s strong religious background overpowered the temptation to be corrupt, Griffith said the diplomat told him.
    However, he made it clear that there was not any suggestion that the diplomat’s situation was in any way similar to Inniss’.
    The federal charges levelled against Inniss, his conviction by a jury in January last year and the recent imposition of the prison term by federal district court judge in Brooklyn, Kiyo A. Matsumoto, involved US$36 000 “in bribes that Inniss allegedly received from high-level executives of the Insurance Corporation of Barbados Limited (ICBL)”, stated the US Department of Justice.
    “In exchange for the bribes, Inniss [reportedly] leveraged his position as the Minister of Industry to enable ICBL to obtain insurance contracts from the Barbados Government to insure over $100 million worth of Government property. To conceal the [alleged] bribes, Inniss reportedly arranged to receive them through a US bank account in the name of his friend’s dental company, which had an address in Elmont, New York.”
    In addition to the prison term, which is due to start on July 30, the former St James South Member of Parliament was ordered to pay US$36 536.75 in forfeiture.
    Nicholas McQuaid, acting Assistant US Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said shortly after the judge imposed the prison sentence that “international corruption undermines trust in governments, threatens our (US) national security, and prevents the free market from functioning daily for law-abiding people and companies”.
    Inniss has appealed his conviction.
    Griffith said that the ‘attraction, the lure’ was often so strong that people holding influential positions ‘can’t resist the temptation’.


    SOURCE: NATION NEWS

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