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The Great Hornswoggle

Recently the blogmaster observed a sign that announced the takeover of Montrose supermarket by behemoth Massy. A caller to a talk show asked what does it mean if all of our successful businesses are being ‘huffed’ by ‘outside’ interest? Education and health are the top two allocations in the national budget. Minister of Youth Dwight…

Recently the blogmaster observed a sign that announced the takeover of Montrose supermarket by behemoth Massy. A caller to a talk show asked what does it mean if all of our successful businesses are being ‘huffed’ by ‘outside’ interest? Education and health are the top two allocations in the national budget.

Minister of Youth Dwight Sutherland recently announced a $100,000 anti violence campaign targeting gangs. DLP candidate for St. George North Floyd Reifer responded with a counter-call to implement community sports programs targeting young men in order to arrest crime. The blogmaster was reminded to double check the definition of generational time which typically ranges from 22 to 33 years. 

On another blog a question was posted – why have successive Black governments failed to execute policies and programs to unlock the full potential of Black Barbadians? We forget that the relationship between political and economic classes is greatly influenced by the economic agenda of those who own capital.

Public outrage at the release of the Trojans Riddims video interpreted by many Barbadians as glorifying gun violence, mirrored similar outrage at the release of the Auditor General listing malfeasance and incompetent management of public finances. The blogmaster suspects similar outrage WHEN the next NIS actuarial report eventually is made public. The last actuarial review was in 2017 and dealt with the 2012-2014 period?

Great fanfare was made of the arrival of 10 new water trucks, this was followed by the news several BWA pumping stations were knocked offline by an electrically outage caused by a freak weather event. In the classroom we are still taught man’s basic needs are food, shelter and water. Have we missed the boat to innovate and aggressively integrate food production with the tourism sector? Mark Maloney delivered The GROTTO, Villages at Coverley and of recent there is HOPE at Chancery and Lancaster to satisfy high demand for housing solutions.

It does not matter if our trade unions go to sleep at the switch, in the adversarial form of government practised in Barbados, we are fortunate to have two Labour Parties. Barbadians on the tropical sunny isle are encouraged to protest the high price of imported commodities including gas at the pump and take consolation from the feedback of the IMF.

Barbados has made good progress in implementing its Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) plan to restore fiscal and debt sustainability, rebuild reserves, and increase growth…have helped rebuild confidence in the country’s macroeconomic framework. However, a virtual standstill in the tourism sector during the pandemic took a significant toll in 2020, with the economy contracting by 18 percent.

Fifth Review Under the Extended Arrangement, Request for Waiver of Nonobservance of Performance Criterion, and Modification of Performance Criteria-Press Release; Staff Report; and Statement by the Executive Director for Barbados

79 responses to “The Great Hornswoggle”

  1. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Steupes…if yall want to stay blind and dumb that’s your perogative…

  2. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ David Bu at 10 :24 Am

    I believe that you are aware that the diversification strategy does not always work

  3. David Avatar
    David

    @Vincent

    You are correct, it is a mitigation strategy. Once properly implemented we have to live with the results.

  4. David Avatar
    David

    CDB: Private sector must do more

    GREATER INVOLVEMENT from the private sector will be needed to help turn around Caribbean economies.
    And president of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), Dr Hyginus “Gene” Leon, believes that with more collaboration between government and the private sector, that can be achieved.
    “We do not have a sufficiently vibrant private sector that’s driving the region yet. So I think that would be one repositioning, pivoting point that I think the bank should look at closely.
    Build consensus
    “It’s important because it is not so much about government directing, neither is it about the private sector doing it alone but the point is to build that consensus across society beyond the political, beyond the private sector and the general public. He said the bank could help by being an incubator and help facilitate more innovation.
    “And it’s just not a matter of financing, but how do we encourage through policy, advice or through being an innovation incubator type. How can we help government shape the environment within which the private sector can function better?”
    he said. He made these comments yesterday during CDB’s
    President’s Chat,
    which was hosted by Professor Emeritus Andrew Downes. The bank’s past president Dr Compton Bourne, who served the Bank from 2001 to 2011, participated virtually.
    Leon also said resilience to climate change was another major issue affecting regional economies. He suggested that more proactive planning was needed to avoid reactive clean-up efforts.
    Bourne agreed and added that not enough had been done to improve building codes and other areas that would strengthen infrastructure so it could hold up during natural disasters.
    “I think that one would hope that when we look at the Caribbean in 20 to 30 years, it would be a region in which the economic growth trajectories are much higher. We know that for the last 30 years we’ve had slow or steady growth and sometimes prolonged economic decline.
    Can’t do much
    “In a way, we cannot do much about the external economic shocks in terms of preventing them, but we can build our economic structures in such a way that we can moderate the impact of those shocks.
    “With respect to the natural hazard shocks, I don’t think the region has done a good job. We are still too heavily focused on relief and recovery and not sufficiently focused on building structures that minimise our vulnerability to the shocks.
    “One has to think in terms of sea defences, our building codes, and land settlement patterns. We have really not significantly addressed those things and I hope that 30 years from now one would not be making the same kind of statement and going around the world seeking funds for disaster relief and recovery,” Bourne said.
    (TG)

    Source: Nation News

  5. David Avatar
    David

    Public sector pension setback

    PUBLIC SECTOR PENSION reform has been delayed.
    Government had originally agreed to table a revised public pension law “to enhance the sustainability of the public sector pension scheme”, by the end of this month, but this has been pushed back to the end of December.
    This was communicated in the Mia Amor Mottley-led administration’s latest supplementary Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) under its International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Fund Facility, which was published in the IMF’s new country report on Barbados.
    Government and the IMF said the six-month pension legislation delay was because “the necessary public consultations were not possible given the urgent challenges of the pandemic”.
    “Civil service pension reform aimed at ensuring that the system is sustainable in the long run is a priority. We will review the civil service pension scheme to address its long-run sustainability,” Government said in the MEFP.
    “To this end, we will table in Parliament a revised public pension law informed by the actuarial review that was completed in November 2020 and costed different pension systems for new entrants into the public service.”
    Government said it had completed a pension reform white paper which would be discussed in Cabinet, but that public consultation was necessary.
    “We will carefully weigh different options, with important considerations related to the earliest age of eligibility for new employees and the rate of benefit accrual for each year of service for new employees,” it added.

    Source: Nation

  6. David Avatar
    David

    Call for court action
    Toppin: Caribbean must fight EU, OECD impositions
    THE TIME HAS COME for Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean to consider taking the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to the International Court of Justice over the continuous imposition of stifling regulations and restrictions related to international business.
    Advocating this in the House of Assembly yesterday, Minister of Industry and International Business Ronald Toppin said in frustration: “We have to fight back and I do believe that the way to resolve this issue, hopefully once and for all, is to recognise that there is an International Court of Justice to hear and determine these matters.
    Serious challenge
    “I believe that our time has to be well spent in time to come, ensuring that we can muster enough support regionally and internationally to mount a serious challenge in a court of law . . . . That is the direction that I believe ultimately sooner rather than later, we as a small developing island state will have to go to avoid being pushed around.” While introducing an amendment to legislation connected with a suite mandated by the EU to
    force compliance with its international business tax regulations, Toppin complained about the pressure constantly placed on Barbados and other small states, which made it difficult for those states to benefit from their tax regimes in place for international business operations.
    The Companies Economic Substance (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which Toppin introduced, requires, among other things, that companies carrying on certain activities conduct their core income-generating activities in Barbados if they are to benefit from the lower rate of tax Barbados offers.
    That rate is currently 5.5 per cent.
    Toppin said Barbados had already amended 14 pieces of legislation and converged all corporate tax rates downwards in accordance with EU and OECD requirements, thereby dismantling a 40-year tax structure that had originally been designed to carve out a niche for the island in the international business sector.
    Requirement
    He explained that Barbados was classified as a low-tax jurisdiction as a result, which triggered the requirement to enact economic substance legislation.
    “When we jumped through the hoop of converting our tax rate, we really thought that by and large
    the battle was over. It was not easy to dismantle something you had in place for 40 years,” he added.
    He said this country was being pushed to its limit with the EU’s demands, but stressed: “Barbados can’t do it alone, not in terms of voice, not in terms of financial resources that will be necessary to be expended to really assert our rights, but it has to be done.” (GC)

    Source: Nation

  7. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    The ICC is also there to remedy small island crooks for lawyers, government ministers, dirty minorities TIEFING billions of dollars from the people for them and their friends and business partners too…it swings both ways..

    stop using loopholes to LAUNDER BILLIONS YA STEAL FROM BLACK PEOPLE..

  8. David Avatar
    David

    World Bank to consider US$100 million loan for Barbados:

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/06/23/world-bank-to-consider-us100-million-loan-for-barbados/

  9. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    ICJ…is also there for thieves who rob the treasury and pension fund of billions of dollars, launder the money everywhere and recklessly leave vulnerable populations in LONG TERM poverty.

    still gotta get all the names of those money laundering yardfowls/slaves who reside in countries like UK, US, Canada etc, just found out that there exists the BLACK SIDE of the family of crooked cow etc….too bad for them they like to boast and brag publicly about the THIEVES OWNING AND CONTROLLING the island…lawd…

    should be quite a show…

  10. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    William…am sure they have not even thought of it, but since they “run things on the island” as they brag and boast that they are the owners…they also own the 5-6 billion dollar THEFT, the heist they carried out…..and ALL THE DEBT… for the next 50 plus years…

  11. David Avatar
    David

    A good initiative even if delayed.

    https://wicnews.com/caribbean/grenada-pm-mitchell-spearheads-caricoms-telecoms-deal-removal-roaming-charges-413635540/

  12. David Avatar
    David

    Call for fresh thinking in business
    By 2030, many businesses in Barbados will be no more if they continue to operate with outdated models.
    That prediction has come from business consultant and entrepreneur Greg Hoyos during a lunchtime presentation entitled The Way Forward, at the Barbados Yacht Club on Bay Street, St Michael, yesterday. He said the average local business owner had a narrowminded vision of commercialism which would be to his or her detriment.
    “Everything is changing, the world is changing.
    Nobody knew that you were going to have
    Facebook, nobody knew that things were going to go bad with hotels and Airbnb was going to come.
    “We were all very happy going along with what we thought was good and what we thought we were good at,” Hoyos said. “But behind the scenes changes were happening [with] technology, people, money and imagination – how can I do things differently and better?
    “And when that happens and that idea comes out, then all of a sudden you find you have no more business. So you are running an old type of business and the consumer has gone somewhere else.
    So it is important to think differently and broadly.”
    Failure to adapt
    He said this occurred over the years in Barbados, pointing to the closure
    of many stores in Bridgetown as many consumers were purchasing commodities on websites. He added the failure to adapt to e-commerce would have a negative impact on the growth of businesses in Barbados. “It is important to think outside the box; outside where you are comfortable.
    Quite often businesspeople, when you suggest ideas, say, ‘No, I’m good’ and they don’t want to hear because their approach is working. But things are changing that they don’t see and they don’t want to face that, and then they end up going out of business.
    They need to stop assuming they know everything because no one knows everything.
    They need to be more open to ideas and adapt to change.”
    Hoyos added: “People also say Barbados is a small market and they don’t have any more money to invest, but don’t always think about money.
    Think about alliances and partnering with likeminded people.”
    As it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic, he said consumers were thinking more before they spent their dollar, and in many instances were weighing needs against wants. Therefore, he stressed, business people had to be more mindful of this and get creative on how they go forward.
    (SB)


    Source: Nation

  13. David Avatar
    David

    This comment is directed at those living in the great North American posting to BU.

    U.S. Unemployment Rescue Left at Least 9 Million Without Help

    https://flipboard.com/article/u-s-unemployment-rescue-left-at-least-9-million-without-help/f-bc783538cc%2Fbloomberg.com

  14. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Got it. Don’t know what to do with it.
    Expecting a PIIYPASI.

  15. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    @ David.

    correction!

    ” This comment is directed at those living in the great” United States of America.

  16. David Avatar
    David

    Thanks Hants!

  17. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    The big elephants in the room who have inacted such policies to block unemployment are Republicans
    Biden ushered millions of taxpayers dollars to every home in America
    The republican govts can implement policies when it comes to who receives the unemployment

  18. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Murdaaaah!

  19. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years for the murder of George Floyd

  20. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    angela coxJune 25, 2021 3:59 PM

    The big elephants in the room who have inacted such policies to block unemployment are Republicans
    Biden ushered millions of taxpayers dollars to every home in America
    The republican govts can implement policies when it comes to who receives the unemployment

    Xxxxxxxxxxx

    Meanwhile in Barbados govt has handed out gift baskets and such a policy does not bother the intellectuals on bu
    However however these knucklehead got the audacity to pick at the USA govts policies
    Meanwhile the NIS is running on economic fumes and cannot pay thousands of barbadians who have paid into the system
    Also employees are left standing in the hot sun begging govt to intervene in helping them to get their severance pay from crooked employers

  21. David Avatar
    David

    Govt to boost Unemployment Fund
    Cabinet has approved a plan to recapitalise the Unemployment Fund.
    This disclosure came on Friday from Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn, who said the plan was accepted on Thursday and involved discussions with the National Insurance Board.
    He explained that the Unemployment Fund had to borrow money from the National Insurance Fund to pay out a large number of claims that were made because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    Speaking after the launch of the Clean And Green programme at Kingsland Drive, Kingsland, Christ Church, Straughn said: “The amount required to recapitalise the fund is $143 million, which is a lot of money. But you would appreciate that the fund did pay out $155 million last year. In a normal year, the unemployment fund would take in roughly $50 million and pay out about $37 million or so on average.
    “But obviously with the extraordinary claims last year, the fund was completely exhausted and obviously with lower levels of employment, it meant contributions going into the fund were lower during 2020 . . . . Over the next few fiscal years, we will see that fund being replenished, but as it stands at the moment, we will give to the National Insurance enough money to be able to ensure that persons can continue to receive benefits.”
    Straughn said Government was hopeful that more Barbadians would return to work as quickly as possible. He said about 11 000 unemployment claims were made because of the lockdown earlier this year, but those numbers were significantly less than last year’s.
    ‘Things look positive’
    He noted that the World Bank approved BDS$200 million last Thursday as part of the island’s budget support in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which came on the heels of the IMF recognising that the country had met its targets under the revised BERT programme.
    He added that public health was being managed very well and urged Barbadians to continue following the protocols.
    “Things look positive for the country as we further accelerate Government’s capital works programme until such time as we can get the tourists to come back. With Barbados now on the green list for [United Kingdom] travel, I think we are in a good place right now . . . , knock on wood; everything appears to be coming together for us to be able to accelerate the recovery,” Straughn said. (BGIS)

  22. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Not just gift baskets, you LIAR! Financial support was also provided to many families.

    There will never be enough.

  23. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    DonnaJune 27, 2021 6:55 AM

    Not just gift baskets, you LIAR! Financial support was also provided to many families.

    Xxxccccccc

    Explain to me how I am a liar when stating Mia gave out gift baskets
    Maybe I did not include what u wanted to hear
    However my saying gifts baskets were handed out is a truthful statement

  24. David Avatar
    David

    Canadian investor remanded on drug charges

    A CANADIAN CITIZEN who was charged in Canada in 2008 with fraud in relation to millions of dollars was remanded to HMP Dodds when he appeared in court last Saturday on drug offences.
    Michael Namroud, 58, of No. 35 Apes Hill, St James, was charged in relation to three kilos of cocaine valued at $150 000, which was allegedly discovered in a Mercedes Benz vehicle during a police search on June 23.
    He was not required to plead to possession of the drug, having a traffickable quantity and having it with intent to supply. He was also not required to plead to having two rounds of ammunition.
    Namroud, who was represented by attorney Ryan Moseley, was remanded by Magistrate Christie Cuffy-Sargeant.
    A co-accused is expected to appear in court today with similar charges, including possession of a gun and ammunition.
    Namroud, a wealthy investor, who was born in France, has been living in Barbados
    for the past two years. In 2018, he and two partners registered a business, Canada Import Distribution Inc., in St Lucia. (MB)

    Source: Nation

  25. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Please give someone with a knowledge of law an opportunity to explain the consequences of

    “He was not required to plead to possession of the drug, having a traffickable quantity and having it with intent to supply.”

    Let’s first get an informed opinion. I am holding off on speculating, but I am ready

  26. David Avatar
    David

    Former South African President Jacob Zuma sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court

    https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/29/africa/jacob-zuma-contempt-sentencing-intl/index.html

  27. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Let me rephrase it for you. This time you were a deliberately misleading cherry picker. You were attempting to give the impression that gift baskets were the only help offered.

    But a liar you still are on almost every occasion!

    And that is a provable fact, ac, Mariposa, Angela Cox.

  28. David Avatar
    David

    World Bank given credit for new stance on Barbados
    By Tony Best “Thank God they have seen the folly of their graduation policy” and have provided much needed financial resources to Barbados at a critical time.
    So said Winston Cox, a former executive director of the World Bank in Washington, who was once the Governor of Barbados’ Central Bank.
    When the Bajan used the word “they”, he had in mind the executive decision-makers at the global financial institution whose official name is the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
    And his reference to “graduation” pinpointed the World Bank policy that had barredBarbados for several decades from having access to lowinterest loans designed to finance infrastructural projects which upgrade or expanded health care and educational facilities and services, build bridges, roads, harbours and seaports that help kick-start moribund economies.
    Just last month, the World Bank decided to lend Barbados $200 million, earmarked to help it fight the highly infectious COVID-19 pandemic that has killed millions of people in almost every corner of the globe, 47 of them in Barbados. The disease and its impact also triggered one of the worst worldwide economic recessions in the 20th and 21st centuries.
    Cox lamented the bank’s graduation decision of the 1980s but hailed last month’s decision to provide a hefty loan.
    “It’s a policy we in Barbados have fought against since 1985 or even before then,” explained Cox.
    “It is a policy we have been fighting for almost 40 years and [sadly] it had to take a pandemic to bring them [World Bank] to the point where they realise the folly of graduating” vulnerable, small developing countries because of their upper middle incomes.
    “Barbados was graduated from the status of a borrowing member country in the 1980s,” added Cox. “We knew all along that a small open economy like Barbados really needs to have access to the resources of the World Bank.”
    The money is needed to help “support” Barbados’ COVID-19 relief efforts and promote a resilient economic recovery from the [health] crisis”, the World Bank explained. It is a “one-off loan to Barbados with a 19-year maturity, including a
    grace period of five years, and it is part of a coordinated assistance effort by international financial institutions during the pandemic”.
    Cox, who at different times also sat on the executive board of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington and later became the deputy Commonwealth secretary-general in London, said in an interview that the resumption of Barbados’ access to World Bank’s soft loan window couldn’t have come at a more challenging time.
    Without calling the names of specific nations, the Caribbean and European trained top economist complained that some rich countries had tried but failed to get regional financial institutions, including the Inter-American Development Bank, to adopt a similar graduation policy that would have blocked Barbados from qualifying for concessional financing.
    “Some countries have been trying to extend that (graduation) policy to the regional lending institutions, such as the IDB. But fortunately they have not succeeded in doing so up to now,” Cox said. Actually, the attempt “was aimed at Barbados and the Bahamas.”
    As he saw it, COVID-19 was something of a “silver-lining” for both Barbados and The Bahamas, meaning that it had contributed to a change of policy that recently benefited the two CARICOM states.
    “The pandemic and its economic impact have turned out to be a wakeup call for the World Bank,” Cox said.
    In the case of the IDB and the suggestion that it should establish a graduation policy several years ago, the former Barbados central banker said if the Western Hemisphere financial institution had followed the World Bank’s example, both Barbados and The Bahamas would have been the prime targets for graduation and could have been barred from getting low-interest IDB loans.
    “The countries that would have been immediately affected would have been Barbados and The Bahamas but some countries felt that at some point, graduation would have held for them as well,” he recalled. “That was why there has been a pretty solid effort by the (IDB’s) borrowing member countries against any graduation policy.”
    Indeed, if anything, the “pandemic has shown the vulnerability of small states like Barbados and
    its Caribbean neighbors and has underlined the need for support from the international financial institutions,” Cox said.
    “I would also say that on reflection the World Bank has shown a tremendous amount of flexibility, having first argued strongly for graduation, and its policy on Barbados has now shown that it recognises that a place such as Barbados has demonstrated a need for resources . . . .
    “I give them (World Bank) some brickbats and some credit. I give them brickbats for instituting the graduation policy in the first place and credit for exercising the flexibility” to change course,” he added.

    Source: Nation

  29. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    As a child I felt a sense of financial empowerment when on Saturdays I took my little cooper’s and deposit them in a savings account having a purpose that in case of a rainy day I could withdraw that money which was all mine and used it for a set purpose
    The feeling of such accomplishment was great and real
    Fortunately I never encountered a rainy day but made further or any use for those savings to be spent during the holiday seasons without having to repay one dime to any financial institutions
    That money was all mine to do as I pleased
    Saying all that as Barbados economic gurus seem to have engaged in a hell bent policy of hand clapping borne on a policy of borrowing
    At the end of the day when this money is spent the borrowers has encouraged debt placed on the backs of the people
    It is past time that govt pursue a path of financial empowerment founded on sourcing what is theirs and not on what govt owes to people

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