Est.2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

Banner promoting anonymous crime reporting with a phone and contact number 1 800 TIPS (8477), featuring the Crime Stoppers logo and a QR code for submitting tips.

The Great Hornswoggle

← Back

Your message to the BLOGMASTER was sent

CONTACT THE BLOGMASTER ONLY

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

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

79 responses to “The Great Hornswoggle”

  1. Wily Coyote Avatar
    Wily Coyote

    18% —-WISHFUL PROPAGANDA, more like 180%.

  2. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Laughable and then worth spitting at….DBLP have DONE NOTHING for their own people IN 54 YEARS worthy of praise, because they are intellectually barren and HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER…they only TAKE, TAKE, TAKE., tief, tief, tief, LIE, LIE, LIE…sellout, sellout, sellout

    …and even more ugly, PRETEND TO BE ELITE…jokers.

  3. Eugene/John Avatar
    Eugene/John

    One of the 10 largest shareholders in Massy is …. the NIS!!

  4. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    All the above stated policies in the article is deserving of an F
    The cart pulling the horse policies. landen with goodwill and empty promises
    As for the IMF a bearer big of gifts carrying a hangmans noose around the peoples neck

  5. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    But then again the.committees

    WE NEED A COMMITTEE ON COMMITTEES
    Sun, 06/20/2021 – 6:00am
    BY:
    R. E. GUYSON MAYERS
    “If you see a snake, just kill it – don’t appoint a committee on snakes.”

    – Ross Perot.

    “A committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing, but who, as a group, can meet and decide that nothing can be done.”

    – Fred Allen.

    The current Government came into office boasting of its knowledge of all things and its ability to solve all of this country’s problems. In opposition, they were fantastic at identifying problems and, according to some, creating problems. However, the plethora of advisers and consultants which they secured on assuming office should have alerted us that there would be problems.

    From the very beginning, just about everything was done questionably. Some put it down to newness but a solution had to be found. Committees!

    The idea to establish committees to make every decision was a boss move. If things go wrong, as they often seem to these days, blame the committee. If by accident something works well, forget the committee and take the credit. “After all, it was my idea to establish the committee in the first place.” A perfect political world.

    In a previous life I was told that a committee is what you set up when you want to disguise not working. That same person also told me that you can’t be in a meeting and work at the same time because meetings are not productive work: committees only meet.

    Even if one were to question the truth of these wise committee observations, a look at the Barbados situation would show that our recent committees are an admission. It would be totally illogical to resort to committees to develop programmes when Ministers, advisors, consultants and a body of public servants have responsibility for those issues and could work on them, if all of the above had not struggled.

    A committee has been set up to address Republicanism, but no reference is being made to the people of Barbados. The entire population of Barbados needs to be a committee on whether or not this country should become a republic.

    Before one can address the form of the republic, one has to answer the question of whether we should be a republic. And that is not the decision of 60 politicians and a committee. The people of Barbados should make that decision. The issue here is not what the big- ups think, but what system of governance under which the people of this country want to live.

    The popular thing to say is we are better than this and we are in this together, but none of that is true. We are not better than the elitism and the rich are not in the struggles of this country with the poor. The two Barbadoses are far and growing further apart.

    Since it now seems established that no good decisions can be made except by committee, we need a committee on how integrity may be brought to government and governance. We need a committee to set out how a Government may be held to its promises. We need a committee to tell us how to give the Auditor General the power to lock up people if they disregard this country’s financial rules. There needs to be a committee to help management there to stamp out any theft at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

    Another one is needed to tell the Government how to control crime andviolence in the country. An important committee is needed to remind us how to keep workers’ unions independent of Government.

    The resort to committees is a cry for help by the Government, but there is nothing wrong with asking for help if you do not know what to do. The bigger issue is that we continue to pay top dollar to too many people who seem not to be able to contribute anything positive to the development of our country

  6. Observing Avatar
    Observing

    “why have successive Black governments failed to execute policies and programs to unlock the full potential of Black Barbadians?”

    Can we come up with leaders or policies in the past that unlocked this potential???

    Education under the DLP (free education, SJPI, BCC) comes to mind.
    Owen Arthur and Tenantries Freehold Purchase Act is another.
    The Employment Rights Act (barely)
    Can’t think of much more.

    Our problem as a society is we are more worried about how things “look” rather than how things “are.” Like the Trojan Riddim, those lyrics, way of thinking and sub culture existed for at least 2 decades or more. The outrage only came because it “looked bad.”

    Nepotism, vindictiveness, cronyism and thievery occurs daily. But it only becomes a problem if word gets out and it “looks bad.”

    As long as we subscribe to a duopoly without accountability and hold our political leaders up to be gods then we will forever be subservient and dissatisfied when the real gods of capital dictate how the show goes.

    The people get the government they deserve. The inferiority complex didn’t disappear with Juneteenth .

    Just observing

  7. John Avatar
    John

    ObservingJune 20, 2021 8:09 AM

    “why have successive Black governments failed to execute policies and programs to unlock the full potential of Black Barbadians?”

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    One of the top 10 shareholders is the NIS and the NIS is funded by “Barbadians” of all colours.

    Just hope it doesn’t turn out to be another CLICO!!

  8. David Avatar
    David

    @Observing

    We lack the will to make deep changes but the catch is that we need leadership to make it happen. Will the real leaders raise your hands please!

  9. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    David
    The talk of “outside interests” is backwardness that must be stamped out. We can’t continue to ignore reality. Companies like Massey, Sagicor, Grace Kennedy aren’t concerned with where their origins are but what defines HOME in the now. We as individuals need to adopt a similar perspective. It seems the former Montrose owners get it and I hope they took some of the purchase price in stocks.

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @enuff

    You point is understood BUT if our education system and leadership within the country is not facilitating the growth of domestic companies then it means we are doing something wrong. The companies you mentioned are at the behemoths, not good examples in the context of what has been tabled.

  11. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @enuff
    while conceptually sound to take shares, I would prefer Fx. The T&T exchange is no cakewalk to deal with, and the downside of the T&T$ is such that unless I got a very good deal with warrants/options, I would just tek de Fx and run.

  12. David Avatar
    David

    @enuff

    You also realize when we sell of our best domestic companies small medium and large it changes the culture of who we are as Bajans? What is the purpose of labeling yourself a Bajan if we surrender our identity?

  13. FearPlay Avatar
    FearPlay

    Ask yourself this question – $1 Barbados dollar is worth $3.36 TTD. $1 Barbados is equal to $74.48 JAM dollars. Now tell me, if so many successful Barbadian companies are falling prey to these two countries, what would befall us if the rate of exchange were reversed. Would there even be a country named Barbados?

  14. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David
    How is it possible to KNOW these things about such chronic failings of the organizational principles that we live under.

    But yet BELIEVE so strongly in the devine immutability of said systems to serve us, if only.

    What would it take for you to stop your irrational religious-like belief in a dying system?

    Don’t you see internal contradictions here?

  15. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    The caretaker of the systems iwill always be the people. A system is inanimate, the human is the civilized creature.

  16. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    Some people got to move on because any criticism level at govt there intent is to shoot the messenger and disregard the message
    Well done govt of Antigua

  17. Lawson Avatar
    Lawson

    We offshore a lot of our drugs to china and india and got a bit of an eyeopener when the chinese decided to play hardball over our arrest and possible extradite to the US . If all your food goes through or owned by trinidad companys what if they play hardball over fishing rights. Govt shouldnt have all there eggs in one basket no matter what it is and should have a say in market control . Or you may find companys do care where their origins are

  18. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David
    Yours is an ontological argument long gone awry

  19. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    David
    I don’t see domestic as 166 sq miles. But if you do, how do ‘domestic’ firms survive if they remain insular and have a market of 280,000? Tdad has ~1.4 million and Jamaica ~3M.

  20. David Avatar
    David

    @Enuff

    They manage their domestic interest to be competitive and acquire other businesses offshore in the same way outside businesses have been acquiring ours.

  21. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    Your reference to ontology is outside a lowly blogmaster’s pay grade.

  22. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    (Quote):
    Now tell me, if so many successful Barbadian companies are falling prey to these two countries, what would befall us if the rate of exchange were reversed. Would there even be a country named Barbados? (Unquote).
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Don’t be surprised ‘when’ the operations of the BWA are ‘contracted-out’ to a foreign management outfit just like what was done with the Harrison’s Cave business.

    The GAIA might just be the model to follow.

  23. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    “The bigger issue is that we continue to pay top dollar to too many people who seem not to be able to contribute anything positive to the development of our country.”

    Says Guyson Mayers that got $300,000 for a 15-month.contract to produce nothing? Are we forgetting the former government appointed 30 committees of their supporters with 11 members each called Constituency Councils? The chairpersons got $200 and members $120 each every month? What did the CCs achieved? Certainly not fixing roofs after Tomas and according to the latest Aud Gen report bank account statements for fifteen (15) councils missing.🤭

  24. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    I thought this fraud fowl said only 2 weeks ago that the Auditor General is a drama queen.

  25. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Stuupse! You really struggle to be relevant eh. Not today Satan. Next!

  26. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Ya can’t catch a break, ya lie for and cover up corruption too much and ya OWN words now exposes you….

    ya think it’s bad now, wait until 2023….don’t even have to break a sweat…this is cruise control

  27. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    Response #2
    The D’s did it.

  28. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David
    To suppose that there is an internal competitive business ethos in either Trinidad or Jamaica being unleashed on Barbados represents too narrow a view.

    A good doctoral dissertation should have been done on this. The research question being ” the role of Trinidadian and Jamaican capital in the Barbadian economy”.

    Not having this question answered our training and experience would tend to lead up to forces external to Trinidad and Jamaica as the underlying or primary sources of this now 25 year old phenomenon. Other forces would have to be considered as well.

    On the other side of the equation and given the recent economic history of these two countries we would see no internal competitive basis on which these surpluses could have been freed up for external investment, market domination.

  29. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    Agree with your statement. We know the two markets generate excess capital to support external investment. Why local companies of recent vintage with the exception of a Goddards and Sagicor have not able to do the same it would be good to know.

  30. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Same format used by Angela Cox’s response between 2008 and 2018.

    The Bees did it too, so what is your point????

    And here we have the reason why both Bees and Dees can continue to ignore the point being made.

    We continue to give space to shameless people to make the case knowing full well that, in a just world, they would be putting the noose around their own necks with every word written. I would ask the newspaper editor- so what is your point????

  31. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    Enuff all the consultants hired by past govt were local or home grown which meant that their earnings went back into the country development
    Now take a look at the top brass consultants in this govt and their earnings
    Also tell where their earnings are going
    Or being spent

  32. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    “A good doctoral dissertation should have been done on this. The research question being ” the role of Trinidadian and Jamaican capital in the Barbadian economy”.”

    everyone watched it evolve over decades, the physically and intellectually LAZY uppity colonial SLAVES from the parliament coming on down into mainstream society, who still believe they are super special allowed it to happen, now they own very little and the balance has deteriorated significantly, neglected by THEM..

    i remember people repeating what Owen said when the fool sold the national bank, only clown in the world who would be that and justified it with…”the bank is still here, it went no where” the brainwashed believed that shit, now it has a differnet name and no one can remember which Trinidad bank bought it…….AFTER fellow clown Thompson sold the remaining shares…it will never be locally owned again..

    should rename Barbados…The Slave Society that can keep, maintain or advance nothing Black. owned.

    ..i heard with my own ears…it was addressed to me drectly….. what their crooked minority partners said and think about them and their lack of any intelligent business skills or savvy, that’s why they ALWAYS NEED A MINORITY in everything they do….they are so dumb and can’t function singularly in any business environment….someone indian, syrian or white always gotta hold their hands …FRAUDS,,,……

  33. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Pacha

    “A good doctoral dissertation should have been done on this. The research question being ” the role of Trinidadian and Jamaican capital in the Barbadian economy”.”
    What would a “ good doctoral “ dissertation reveal that your basic common sense could not ?
    One of these days we should therefore write some “ good doctoral dissertations on the following:
    Why did BSand T sell out?
    How did Kiffin Simpson turn Suzuki and Schoda into billion dollar enterprises?
    How did the poor whites Goddard develop GEL?
    How did COW start out with a single second hand tractor and end up with a Marina
    Where the hell did Mark Maloney come from.
    Moving on: One day I was listening to Brasstacks a man called in and said that we can use more local produce. He said with great wisdom that we can make breadfruit chips and that they would take off because nobody else made them. I had to call and tell them that Grace Products( Jamaica) had breadfruit chips on the market for some time.
    2. About seven or so years ago another caller asked the moderator: You ever hear anybody mek money out of garbage? Again I had to call in and tell the joker that garbage is a multi billion dollar industry and that countries actually import garbage to convert into energy to power vast parts of their economies.

    Our problem is doctoral studies and the ability to mimic Latin phrases to rattle on that we are internationalists in outlook. These days we yarn about “ fit for purpose” and “ mission critical”.
    Other people just ….. ….. those who got eyes would get my ignorant , non doctoral drift.
    Certainly not a failed state but producing plenty Phds and have more graduates per square mile than most countries. Not a bad thing but what are the returns?
    Somebody ought to write a doctoral
    dissertation on that !

  34. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    William Skinner
    If you are unable to adequately measure phenomena how the hell will a deeper understanding be reached? How would you know how to respond to constantly changing or dynamic environments?

    We would wager that your perception of common sense should fill the void for knowledge.

    A number of the areas you have listed, but seemingly unknown to you have already been rigorously subjected to interrogation. This is how we know with certainty that the White corporate elites got that wealth as a result of government action. We can cite laws enacted to enrich them. How would it have been possible to make a case for the removal economic disparities unless we are aware of these circumstances?

    Your dominant man in the street proclivities will never be able to see causation of the systemic failures of generations of Black and small businesses and the incalculable damage such failures have wrought on society.

    Your predilection for the imprecise guessing games entirely based on emotionalism or responses located in a bygone era makes you a very dangerous man. It will be a blessing when the likes of you are uncentred from national equations.

    An example. We are leaving here today to meet with a physicist who controls patents with immense applications for industrial transformation, domination of markets and determination of the future. So while your head is firmly located in your ass as you assert your bits and pieces, dead-ended narrations the world you have known is long dead.

    In short anything or most things you represent as so based on unscientific methods is fucking foolishness.

    You may have the last word. We have to catch a plane.

  35. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Pacha
    I wish you a safe journey.
    Peace

  36. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    Is it true to say that white privilege we acknowledge existing in developed societies like the US, UK and other places, we struggle with it in Barbados as well? White privilege is the result of many strands weaved into the establishment way of doing things where power structures are firmly embedded. This is not to negate your call for a scholarly review of current state. The blogmaster is anecdotally positing that COW, Kyffin et al benefited LOL.

  37. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Guy Hewitt on Brasstacks pontificating.

  38. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Fret not, William Skinner! Just join the club of cunts who know nothing and should always defer to the royal “We”.

    The Club of Cunts is very large. In fact there is none who can escape it.

    🤔

  39. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ Donna
    Well, I have been cussed by @ Pacha before. @ Pacha has two standards. He knocks the system but then judges intellect/ academic achievement by who have doctorates which are the ultimate academic attainment of the system.
    I have only seen @Pacha disagree with one person on this blog without cussing him. He saw that person as his academic equal. He always reserved his best “ behaviour for that person.
    So, I’m amused when he can’t get you on his side a cussing or vulgarity begins.
    Then he defends vulgarity by claiming that he is not obliged to use the Queens English. However he always found the Queens language , Latin and all for that one particular person.
    I am not troubled by his response I expected it. That’s who he is. His way of defending exceedingly flawed reasoning.
    Highly intelligent , a very good writer but always angered by those who can challenge him or “ we”Lol.

  40. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Can the over-ambitious yardfowls tell us why there are no tetanus shots on the island….

    they are busy accusing each other of disappearing millions into their personal bank accounts, after calling the Auditor General “a drama queen”

    they should have an answer for this..

    what if someone gets a bad cut, have a bad accident etc that requires TETANUS SHOTS…

  41. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    So government consultancies are to be determined based on whether the money stays in Bdos not value? Okay all yuh get through. 🤣🤣🤣

  42. angela cox Avatar
    angela cox

    3.8 million already two million spent the stalls should look like penthouses but we know that wouldn’t happen as seen in the video I posted last week

    https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1242606282836729&id=100012621074104&sfnsn=mo

  43. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Here is for some “context”

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APND0_YJLMc&w=560&h=315%5D

  44. David Avatar
    David

    Adequate fiscal space needed to plan for development – Adequate fiscal space needed to plan for development:

    https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/06/21/adequate-fiscal-space-needed-to-plan-for-development/

  45. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Pacha
    The dissertation will simply tell you that what’s happening is par for the course with regional integration–amalgamation (via mergers and acquisitions) and expansion. The BS&Ts should have been consolidating years ago instead of continuing to function as all them disparate white-owned flyweights. In interviewing a Trini some years ago for some research I was doing, he said that the Trinidadian conglomerates don’t see themselves as trini but Pan-Caribbean businesses. Like I have said before on BU, though, the research of this “phenom” needs to focus on addressing/achieving territorial cohesion.

  46. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    White Privilege is Ignorance rising
    but check out White People’s take

    Robert Halfon, education select committee chairman, dismissed “divisive concepts like ‘white privilege’ that pit one group against another”.

    Mr Halfon described it as a “major social injustice” that so little attention had been paid to how white pupils on free school meals underachieved compared with free school meals pupils from most other ethnic groups.

    “If you think it’s about poverty, then it doesn’t explain why most other ethnic groups do much better,” he said.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-57558746

  47. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Everybody want to be a big, stink, bloated rotten fish, in tiny shallow ponds.

  48. David Avatar
    David

    Today’s Nation Editorial:

    Do more to retain firms

    THE NEWS THAT BARBADOS has lost a long-standing investor in TT Electronics is unfortunate. On the surface, it is not of the same magnitude as in the 1980s when United States technology company Intel shocked Barbados by closing its plant here and putting about 900 Barbadians on the breadline.
    TT Electronics’ job losses are 110, and in these times of high unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, that number of jobless people is still significant.
    In both instances, economic reasons are the chief cause of the closures, and in both cases other markets were affected. Intel’s closure of its Barbados factory, where semiconductor components for its computer chips were made, happened at the same time as the end of manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico. TT Electronics’ end of business here on June 1 after 41 unbroken years of investment comes as it cuts staff and closes some facilities in the United States and United Kingdom.
    Even though the circumstances that led Intel to close its plant here were different from TT Electronics’ move at this time, the two cases illustrate the challenges that Small Island Developing States like Barbados face in attracting and keeping investors.
    While international corporations contribute to the country, including via employment, the sourcing of goods and services locally, training, knowledge transfer and foreign exchange earnings, at the end of the day their profitability and general shareholder returns are most important.
    Barbados is competing for overseas business with other countries that have greater financial resources and hence the ability to offer potential investors more incentives. This does not mean that Barbados should get involved, or can afford to participate, in a so-called race to the bottom, where it tables unreasonable offers to investors in an effort to beat the competition.
    Barbados is still a good place to do business. If it wasn’t, more companies would have exited or would be preparing to do so. They have a readymade excuse in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic and the hammer blow it has delivered to corporations all over the world.
    TT Electronics’ exit highlights the need for the authorities to not merely focus on attracting new investment to these shores from traditional and new markets, but to also do everything that is reasonable to retain the companies that have already chosen to establish operations here, including those that have been here for many years.
    More work needs to be done to make this country a more attractive place to do business, including removing the bureaucratic
    bottlenecks that domestic enterprises complain daily about. Barbados cannot rely on visitor arrivals alone to get out of recession. We also need to attract more local and overseas investment, the kind that can develop and utilise the skills of Barbadians.
    Although the circumstances were out of our control, the departure of TT Electronics is a reminder of the challenges Barbados will continue to face as new avenues of economic development are sought.
    Barbados cannot rely on visitor arrivals alone to get out of recession.

  49. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ David BU

    The Electronics Industry is a dynamic one. Processes and products become obsolete. One expect closures of companies where their output is no longer relevant. We need to scan the world for industries that are on the upward side of the cusp. It is a new more dynamic world.

  50. David Avatar
    David

    @Vincent

    Do not disagree. We have to ensure we attract diverse businesses to mitigate risk of failure or poor performance. In much the same way it is recommended to diversify ones investment portfolio.

The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading