Let us consider that the Government will continue with its intended plan, it appears of swapping one ceremonial head for another, the Governor General for a President.
Then I think that any new President of a Republic, ceremonial or executive should be directly elected and all Barbadians afforded the opportunity to run for and vote for this office.
The Prime Minister likes to talk about every Barbadian boy or girl aspiring to the high office and knowing it is not representative of the Queen.
Let us make that aspiration real and not just talk.
Dr. Ronnie Yearwood: Lunch time Lecture at Barbados Yacht Club
Read Full Speech (PDF) – Dr. Ronnie Yearwood’s lunch time lecture at Barbados Yacht Club
This is the most important part of Ronnie’s presentation:
“The fact is that Barbados was not formed out of any love of liberty or gifting of
freedoms, it was formed from generations of violence and inequality perpetuated
by its legal, political and socio-economic system.
The undeniable fact is that in our Constitution, there is silence about the terror
and violence that lay at the heart of the formation of our society.
We must remind ourselves that our current disparities, social and economic, have
origins in this terror, that was overlaid by an independent Barbados. The fact is
that issues of race, class and colourism continue to pervade our country.”
@ PLT
Like you I did not read pass your quoted section of the lecture. David’s upload, the section you quoted and the system of selecting the Head of State of Barbados are three separate issues. These days I try to avoid exercises in futility.
@Vincent Codrington
I read the whole presentation and you should as well. All these separate issues are deeply interconnected as you well know. The only exercise in futility is to bury your head in the sand and refuse to analyse any of the important issues that confront us simply because you cannot disentangle them.
@ PLT
“The only exercise in futility is to bury your head in the sand and refuse to analyse any of the important issues that confront us simply because you cannot disentangle them.”
This is a problem with how we think. Every time anybody speaks of racism, slavery or any of the historical social maladies , they are told to be “ looking back” and engaging in “ exercises in futility”.
You are correct !
But that’s who and how we are. Always dismissing serious issues because we probably woke up one morning and found ourselves with “ an education” ; house and car.
@ PLT
What make you think that I have not analysed all these issues already? My point is : Can we deal with all these issues in this blog? David has selected one issue. You have selected another issue? Are you suggesting that I deal with all the others in Dr. Yearwood’s lecture? Have we not dealt with many ,if not all of these issues, on BU over a period of years?
What are we trying to achieve in this posting? What are BU’s objectives?
@Vincent
The nature of some issues mean that we will be engaged in open ended discussions.
@ David BU
What are your expectations
@Vincent
Why should the blogmaster be expected (always) to influence the discussion? Ronnie stated his views- detailed in his speech- in succinct fashion, it is for others to use his points to inform themselves and others about the relevance of shifting to a republic AND the integrity of the process the government has opted to transition. By sensibly and dispassionately engaging in this important issue, a government of/by/for the people should be guided.
@ William Skinner
Most of us have to live in the present and plan for the future. And no, we did not wake up one morning and found ourselves with an education, a house and a car. We and our parents worked for them using the resources at our disposal. These, however, were never our ultimate purpose as citizens of this blessed land of our birth. They were/ are means to other noble social objectives.
@ Vincent
Did the Jews’ parents not work for their children as well. Do they dismiss the
Holocaust ?
Do the Indians and other minorities dismiss their struggle as exercises in futility?
Do they not live in the “ present “ as well?
Why do we Blacks always want to dismiss our horrific history as living in the past and exercises in futility ?
Perhaps it is an exercise in futility trying to discuss such matters with people who apparently believe we came here by tourist liners.
@William
All right thinking Black Bajan should not want to forget our history. What some of us want more is to emulate the behaviour of the Jews to spur constructive/positive activities to build a framework to sustain quality living. This is a little context we should be using to fuel the republic debate.
Why was an economist appointed to lead the transition committee?
What skill set is the perquisite needed?
What does our unofficial opposition political party have to share?
@ David BU
Thanks for clarifying your expectations. I am one of those persons who hold to the view that Barbados is already a de facto republic. Dr. Yearwood has alluded to this notion in his lecture. The chairman in her briefing to the press diplomatically acknowledged that the decision to go formally to republic status has been made. This issue of going republic has been discussed ad nauseam for at least two decades. Moreover the public does not expect any significant change other than replacing a monarch by a president as Head of State. One should expect the checks and balances that are already in place to remain in place or strengthened/ emphasized.
The issue of who selects or elects a President could be informed by best practice in the British Commonwealth/ Commonwealth Caribbean. There are no infallible/ perfect systems of Parliamentary Democracy. We,the citizens choose what we feel comfortable with.
@Vincent
For years many have debated in this space changes we should make to our governance structure to improve how we manage our affairs. The discussion needs to go further as Ronnie suggested in his speech – should we have baked in changes at this opportunity to the Constitution to support the transition to a republic.
@ David BU at 3:41 PM
The Chairman of the Transition Committee is a trained Political Scientist. In her first degree ,she majored in Government. In my humble opinion, she is quite competent in the matters to be addressed by the committee.
@Vincent
The qualifications of a person to do a job is not based solely on an academic accreditation.
@ David BU at 4:14 PM.
I think the precursive algorithm has muddled your last sentence. Could you please rephrase? I do not understand the point. “baked -in changes”.
This writer has never been overly impressed with the offerings of Ronnie Yearwood.
However, on this occasion please permit us an exception.
Courage is that indispensable ingredient missing from the Bajan character.
That Yearwood would have gone to the Barbados Yacht Club , given all its history, and made such forthright comments may indeed represent a watershed.
Moreover, he has insightfully connected the political to the economic seamlessly as of to turn back the hands of time to an era when the nation was galvanized behind such an agenda as mouthed by a spokesman. A man now happens to be the maximum leader at his place of work.
Are we to expect any different endpoint this time around. Or will Yearwood now betray his son and devolve into the pantheon of eminent sellouts, his forebears at the University of the West Indies? Can his constitutional ideas remove these level of political dishonesty passing for smarts?
@ David Bu at 4:21 PM
Would you employ a Medical doctor or Lawyer without his /her academic accreditation? What do you think one does to be awarded these professional qualifications?
Should a new Barbados constitution not provide in these exceptional circumstances for the deployment of a guillotine for political and economic crimes?
@Pacha
You mean the power of recall we know.
No Dirty or pimp title holder Lawyer need be President of any Republic, No one wants no Crime Minister MiaVirass19 Despot in charge of crime, We are looking to get away from all nasty doing in Barbados and in the World, you all love to think is NORMAL, We not getting back to that after the 400 years of crime against People of African blood, We also not going from no Slave Republic to any to no New GAY Bulling Republic, We can move nasty things against God and man to the head of a Nation, We all have Human Rights and your right to be nasty in your private! Normal, killing, shooting, robbing , frauds, PONZI, bank accounts , laundering , land and money laundering , drugs and guns, robbing of private assets by fraud CROWN land crooks, Minister and Lawyer fraud with a crooks ass BAR , and supports who love to hide the truth! 11+ fraud education and slave code still working great for negros! KEEP YOU NORMAL send it back up North to Europe or England and stay out ! They Want us to get JABS to get back to Normal crimes, this is what you get from UWI educated grads?PHD , Dr. in crimes against your own people! Many of you all on this blog know better than I. Bajan Free Party Trust The Truth! 30-0 again
David
Your editorial judgement will guide you well.
However, people like Waru may hold a quite different interpretation.
@Pacha
The blogmaster will side with the pragmatic approach above rhetoric.
Pacha…don’t mind the republic trick, it’s a slight of hand aimed at blinding people to the true schemes and scams that the robbers in Barbados’ parliament and their criminal minority sidekicks are putting in place, but there are those of us with plans MUCH, MUCH BIGGER than anything they can conjure up… another level of the parliament traitors and their spiritual evil directed at Black people has emerged.
check how the first republic in the hemisphere is going, we don’t need to be rocket scientists to know that nothing good can come from Slave Society Barbados, it has been around for too long spreading blight in Black lives, and is now relabeled a Prostituting Slave Society, with most everyone now looking to SELL ASS to survive…according to Charlie Spice.
That is what the two-faced, forked-tongue DBLP ministers/politicians/lawyers, every liar from those two poisonous groups, have reduced the people to…
sleight of hand.
Independence Vs Babylon the Great, commonly known as the Whore of Babylon
is a tough decision to the X-Slaves beholden to their Masters
Bajans are still undecided and fikkle and like to talk rubbish
Revelation 17:1-18 – Babylon the Great Whore
An angel shows John the judgment of a whore named Babylon, who represents the violence and destruction that nations inflict. In the end, the beast with whom she is associated destroys her.
See for yaselves, keep pretending. More and more diseased tourists will be taking the opportunites to release their perverted energies, once the Slave Society Prostitution created by the equally perverted thieving DBLP governments gets more international recognition….in their underground tourism advertising.
“July 15, 2021
The economic fallout from COVID-19 is prompting a “dramatic increase” in the number of people, particularly women seeking careers in sex work, raising questions about the scientific basis for the ongoing night-time curfew.
President of the Adult Industry Association (AIA) Charles Charlie Spice Lewis revealed that with hundreds feeling the pinch of unemployment, they are approaching him to discuss alternative options to make ends meet and are finding more creative ways to do so.”
Ah really want to see if Black people are going to be stupid enuff..to sit and wait on treacherous black face governments to rob and sell them, or get off their asses and use their initiative and what is available to them as Africans, that they need NO GOVERNMENT to access….this i gotta see.
… BU BREAKING NEWS… … BLACK BLACK BLACK BASTARDISED BARBADOSED BAJANS BAMBOOZLED ABOUT WHERE THEY HAVE COME FROM AND WHERE THEY ARE GOING AND HOW WILL THEY GET THERE AND HOW WILL THEY KNOW THEY HAVE GOT THERE …
… Guided Ancestor Meditation … Build A Stronger Connection to Receive Their Guidance …
… STAY TUNED… MORE NEWS AT 11 …
Ancestor Daily Prayer / Give Reverence
Any of you read the speech and care to address issues raised or it will be the same old same old. The idea is to try to discuss different points raised by different social commentators even if it means suppressing the usual self talk.
Slave Society Barbados…is GOING NOWHERE…
Waru
David will never accord that instrument for political and economic transformation the same in-built credence he assigns to other institutions of Westminster.
His misguided pragmatism departs from critical moments in the development of the model held dear by him when London was the global centre for sending heads to look for shoulders.
Our own determination is that no amounts of constitutional tinkering, or structural changes even, would make any differences unless we are equally committed to letting the elites, socalled, know that we mean business and that there is a price to be paid for crimes against the people – summary execution by popular court.
@Pacha
You play your role to be provocative with people who are easy bait.
“unless we are equally committed to letting the elites, socalled, know that we mean business and that there is a price to be paid for crimes against the people – summary execution by popular court.”
and then some.
Blogmaster is quite happy in La La Land/fake Paradise Island, that’s where he feels most comfortable, who are we to take that away from him….
.many of us are gazing backward at the remnants in wonder from a dimension far removed from what any of them grounded in the slave society mentality can handle.
As succinctly put recently by one of our African geniuses, the continent is the LAST FRONTIER….everything else is a fallacy.
https://youtu.be/iXBuMmYJARE
Pacha…nearly forgot, for those sitting on their lazy backsides drooling for reparations in the form of paper instead of making the VISION A REALITY….as our ancestors intended……watch AND WEEP…
https://youtu.be/wWQLPWAQcsE
Since 1948-2015 the Windrush generation were working and PAYING OFF UK government debt to financiers for slave masters enslaving our ancestors and pretending to free them…..
..6 years later, it’s 2021… the nigas in the parliament, your jailers, are still holding the African descended population captive so that they and minority criminals can continue robbing them and keep them in bondage, suppressed, oppressed and in generational POVERTY to enrich themselves……..seeing no freedom and disenfranchised….and the stink sellouts got the nerve to elevate this criminal trash to do business in Africa…and don’t believe there will be MASSIVE FALLOUT for that treachery..
but some people with their heads planted firmly up their asses, love it so….wearing it as a badge of honor and pride…
All countries around the world have MILITARY INTELLIGENCE to protect themselves from other dangerous, criminal governments..
David
How is our giillotine any different to your friendly “Bush wacker”. And may his righteous mame live forever.
@Pacha
The treatment is measured according to the symptom.
David
Can the camcerous symptoms be any more indicative of serious measures.
At WURA, @ Pacha
“The blogmaster will side with the pragmatic approach above rhetoric.”
This will remain , some say forever, the mentality of the majority of our citizens. We see every attempt to discuss the realities of our existence as provocative rhetoric and then use terms such as “pragmatism” to drown the voices of those who are demanding radical reform in every sector of our social and economic existence.
Tutorials to @David will be clobbered by an ear that is pro establishment and status quo. His voice reminds me of all the obstructionists of the late 60s and early eighties, who told those fighting for real change to go back to Africa or go to Cuba. Many of the radicals left the country or simply faded into the background of national discourse. I assure you both that @David is the product of his socialisation and his almost pathetic defense of the system will not change. Occasionally, we may see a little light in the tunnel but its a train that will crash radicalism and true reform with little if any mercy.
@William
And you are the product of yours, so we have something in common.
Or would you prefer the inevitable societal collapse which now seem unavoidable.
David
@Pacha
Civilized people should not have to retreat to scorched earth measures.
minorities ALWAYS love to rush to the front of African people with their scams, even when it pertains to our birthright…keep rushing THIEVES, FRAUDS, drug traffickers and gun runners….
David
That is White man’s speak to cover barbarity.
Where are these socalled civilized people anywhere in any environment?
Tell us, we find the elites no less brutish than their forebears
@Pacha
The quality of a person is not assume the barbaric behaviour of the oppressor.
David
We must admit, on the substantive issue, that Yearwood seemed to have confirmed that this goverment with this republicanism nonsense is merely engaged in a false nation building project to lionize Mugabe, like we have long suspected. That should have been the kernel.
@Pacha
Important is that Mia has shown a willingness to pull back based on public opinion/feedback. It will be up to the people/NGOs to advocate concerns. Supported by the media of course.
On Fri, Jul 16, 2021 at 1:07 PM Barbados Underground wrote:
>
David
Do you really think these pieties hold any purchase, anymore?
There is a role for political parties if people of integrity support and participate, people include the general public. There is no man made system that will be relevant if people abdicate roles and responsibilities. It always comes back to integrity at the individual level.
David
Mugabe should not be able to make such a major political error and then assume that some sort of graceful retreat can be made without first paying a price.
But this is what you get for allowing Mugabe every discretion known to man. Recall, the second throne speech. We are in unchartered political territory which you David were instrumental in enabling.
@Pacha
You have forgotten what a wedge issue can do to a democracy? If you need help to recall please reread the BREXIT Chronicle.
David
Please, don’t let us change the subject.
For you are well worthy of being pinned to the cross on these issues.
We are on record warning both you and Mugabe but vision cannot win against such widely held political ideologies, as unfounded as they are, buttressed by a fickle public.
David
Mugabe missed a signal political moment when, helped by you, she made a farce of what you call a democracy with the abergation of a social contract.
She missed another by failing to foresee a radically changing economic environment.
These failures are worthy of the highest penalty.
Now all you can do is to continue feeding this monster of your own creation.
@Pacha
What social contract?
Our system is one where a politician has to promise A (masses) to be elected but is financed by B who the politician is liable once elected. Bear in mind a political partyâs job is to be popular.
“His voice reminds me of all the obstructionists of the late 60s and early eighties, who told those fighting for real change to go back to Africa.”
that is the very best advice at this time…even if it’s virtually…get away frm the criminal Slave Society and dangerous government whose only intent is to put Africans at risk, feeing threatened AND FIGHTING TO SURVIVE….
they are about to CRASH and BURN in the most spectacular fashion available….
” Yearwood seemed to have confirmed that this goverment with this republicanism nonsense is merely engaged in a false nation building project to lionize Mugabe, like we have long suspected.”
it’s a distraction, pay no attention, watch the Fintech scam they are using to get a foothold on the continent and leave Black people on the slave society island scrambling for their next meal…
..but i don’t know how the hell the SELLOUTS thought they could get around me with that, when i was WAITING PATIENTLY….
David
The notion of a social contract or compact is well establised within the political science literature, legal traditions and history.
Ask the former NDP people if this principle was not the basis of their formation. Do we have no historical memory? Or are we only now for now people?
How could you David continue to make these tired pleadings about “democracy” and yet when a party comes to the public and makes manifesto promises, as basis for democracy. And when they afterwards determine that those promises were ill-founded, instead of reverting to the people for divine correction, as consistent with your Westminster tradition, erects the fantasy of a second throne speech, as it abrogates the original political crime by commuting another to cover up.
Yours is the last word.
Original promises
social contract
[ˈsōSHəl kənˈtrakt, ˈkäntrakt]
NOUN
an implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection. Theories of a social contract became popular in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries among theorists such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as a means of explaining the origin of government and the obligations of subjects.
https://www.bing.com/search?q=social+contract+definition&form=ANNTH1&refig=e93c25ae12734abb8cac113a03eb5db3&sp=2&qs=LS&pq=social+contract&sk=LS1&sc=8-15&cvid=e93c25ae12734abb8cac113a03eb5db3
@Pacha
Is a social contract legal?
What is the Latin derivative for politician?
“for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection. ”
the Afican population have never had freedom OR state protection from Barbados’ colonial agents….who see them as meal tickets for bribe collection to be robbed generationally….
the first thing these DEMONS did was put racist thieving minorities first in everything and neglect the people…not even the African birthright do these evil, low class criminals want their people to have first option…
no other group would dare do that to their own, the same half-asssed indians and other minorities now salivating and the negros told they could rob our continent… WOULD NEVER EVER DO THAT to india or anywhere else, how many Black people do they invite to india…and were they the inheritors of the African continent they would drop you dead for having the audacity to think ya can encroach on their ancestral rights…,
but the niga has no respect for ancestors or their people and is deserving of a spiritual backlash…
how many Black people do they invite to india…TO INVEST..
i will wait for the Slaves to answer that…yall should be swinging at the end of a rope..
@Waru,
Here is an interesting take on reparations:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/12/jamaica-seeking-billions-pounds-reparations-britain-historical/
yeah TLSN…they got their work cut out for them……they are looking at it from the wrong angle…
while the Barbados government is inviting criminal minorities who would set up political assassinations and commited endless crimes against Africans for the last 6 decades…to the continent like if the bitches own it…..well forget that shit, the government DO NOT OWN A CONTINENT or anything else other than the billions they TIEF from African people, them and the dangerous minorities and now own that debt..
the gall on these evil demons…acting like we don’t exist and have no say…
WE, THE BLACK PEOPLE IN THE DIASPORA OWN THE CONTINENT….and i dare these demonic fcukers and their little parliamentary nigas to continue believing they can invade our inheritance.
i notice the Slaves still can’t answer me..
Pacha…the problem is, no one on BU would call out these BLP criminals for that despicable sellout move, but they always got mouth for me…..when it’s THEIR FUTURE GENERATIONS will be robbed by the minority criminals in the region and who knows what level of evil they will try to get away with IF THE CONTINENT WAS NOT WARNED and know they WILL HAVE TO WATCH THEM ALL VERY CLOSELY……….AND …also the extremely wicked negros in Barbados’ parliament….who WOULD BE MORE THAN WILLING TO HELP THEM…carry out crimes against Africans and ROB THEM….as they have done for DECADES to the helpless people on the island..
.people are shocked that they would even think of such a treacherous act against the Black population who HAVE LIMITED TO NO OPPORTUNITIES in Barbados.., let alone carry it out..they could not hide it, because too many of us are directly connected in Africa…..and they knew the fools in Barbados will meekly and docilely say nothing if they get the crumbs of what is stolen from their inheritance…
..but the political rats will come face to face WITH KARMA….for their Judas personas.
https://www.nationnews.com/2021/07/16/report-of-robbery/
people are hungry and now reduced to robbing supermarkets and scavenging how they could to survive…while the vicious government is busy betraying them..
Pacha…it may be a waste of effort, but we keep trying.
““The oppressed and the exploited of the earth maintain their defiance: liberty from theft. But the biggest weapon wielded and actually daily unleashed by imperialism against that collective defiance is the cultural bomb. The effect of a cultural bomb is to annihilate a people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves. It makes them see their past as one wasteland of non-achievement and it makes them want to distance themselves from that wasteland. It makes them want to identify with that which is furthest removed from themselves; for instance, with other peoples’ languages rather than their own. It makes them identify with that which is decadent and reactionary, all those forces which would stop their own springs of life. It even plant serious doubts about the moral rightness of struggle. Possibilities of triumph or victory are seen as remote, ridiculous dreams. The intended results are despair, despondency and a collective death-wish. Amidst this wasteland which it has crated, imperialism presents itself as the cure and demands that the dependent sing hymns of praise with the constant refrain: ‘Theft is holy’. Indeed, this refrain sums up the new creed of the neo-colonial bourgeoise in many ‘independent’ African states.â€
-Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Decolonising the Mind”
Every crime this traitor government commit against the Black population going forward will be REPORTED ON THE CONTINENT…ya want to use Africa to enrich ya corrupt, criminal friends and yaselves while your people SUFFER AND HAVE NO FUTURE……..ya want fame…..that ya will get..
@ David Bu at 12 :18 Pm of July 16th.
The word politician is a Greek derivative from “Politai” ( I do not know how to access the Greek alphabet).
The latter, literally translated, means citizens. Those who live in the city. The politician usually is a citizen,elected by fellow citizens to administer their public affairs.
I hope the above answers your question.
The Greeks never developed an alphabet. Not dissimilar to the English , the Romans and all of your hollowed Europeans.
The Greeks copied it from the people who actually developed it. And circuitously through the Phoenicians and others the alphabet was gifted to all of mankind.
The alphabet is maybe the most culturally transformative inventions of all times. And it was the Ancient people of Kemet we must thank for this.
This was well known by both the Greeks and the Romans who would brag about their Kemetic education, forty years it took to be a scholar, multi-genius. Brag in the same way Vincent Codrington brags about his eurocentric affiliated miseducation today.
And Kemet is Black Afrika. For we can follow the techno-complexes from South to North informing such genius.
“The alphabet is maybe the most culturally transformative inventions of all times. And it was the Ancient people of Kemet we must thank for this.”
tell them again, i see the fools love to pump up their hollow chests and quote the Greeks said this and the Greeks said that, but who tief the shit from our revered Kemetic ancient ancestors….but fools won’t know that, ya have to keep repeating it because ten minutes later, the information leaves their empty heads…
Source: Nation
Where ignorance is bliss ,it is folly to be wise. I will leave the two of you to wallow in wunnuh ignoranciness.
The commentators obviously do not live in Barbados. I know many black millionaires and very successful black businessmen. Or the commentators don’t live where I reside. LOL.
We need the transformation from kingdom to republic more urgently than ever before! Only republican status permanently secures the power of our supreme leader, namely as president for life following the Chinese or Russian democracies.
Question
Can Barbados holds its own as a republic
Presently Barbados struggles to hold its own as an Independent country
England owe these small countries plenty in financial resources
Why not like Jamaica fight to obtain what is rightfully ours
The time for a republic must be giving serious thought
Why walk away empty handed with the queen having a part of the last laugh
NEWS
Jamaica to ask UK for billions in ‘well overdue’ reparations over slave trade
By Lee Brown
July 13, 2021 | 3:08pm
Sculpture monument of Jamaican National Hero Samuel Sharpe in Sam Sharpe Square, downtown Montego Bay, Jamaica.
An estimated 600,000 Africans were shipped to toil in Jamaica.
Shutterstock / Debbie Ann Powell
Jamaica plans to ask the UK to pay billions in compensation for the centuries-old slave trade in the former British colony, a senior government official has announced.
“Our African ancestors were forcibly removed from their home and suffered unparalleled atrocities in Africa to carry out forced labor to the benefit of the British Empire,” Minister of Sports, Youth and Culture Olivia Grange told Reuters.
“Redress is well overdue,” she insisted.
Grange refused to say exactly how much the Caribbean nation is seeking, but the reparations petition is based on a motion by Jamaican lawmaker Mike Henry, who has put it as worth more than $10.5 billion, roughly equivalent to what Britain paid the slaveholders.
“I am asking for the same amount of money to be paid to the slaves that was paid to the slave owners,” said Henry, a member of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party.
A group of liberated slaves on the parade at Fort Augusta, Jamaica
“Our African ancestors were forcibly removed from their home and suffered unparalleled atrocities in Africa to carry out forced labor to the benefit of the British Empire,” Olivia Grange said.
Getty Images
“I am doing this because I have fought against this all my life, against chattel slavery which has dehumanized human life.”
The petition, with approval from Jamaica’s National Council on Reparations, will be filed pending advice from the attorney general and three legal teams, Grange said.
The attorney general will then send it to Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who remains head of state of the Commonwealth country.
An estimated 600,000 Africans were shipped to toil in Jamaica, according to the National Library of Jamaica.
Olivia Grange
Jamaica plans to ask the UK to pay billions in compensation for the slave trade. Government minister Olivia Grange refused to say exactly how much the nation is seeking.
FIFA via Getty Images
Britain prohibited trade of slaves in its empire in 1807 but did not formally abolish the practice of slavery until 1834.
Seized from Spain by the English in 1655, Jamaica was a British colony until it became independent in 1962.
It remains part of the Commonwealth, although the petition coincides with increasing efforts by some Jamaican leaders to sever formal ties with the UK. Opposition lawmaker Mikael Phillips in December presented a motion to remove the British monarch as head of
“The many other issues like the type of republic along with its legal and institutional framework have to be addressed in order that a proper proposal can be placed before the citizens of Barbados in the form of a referendum.”
It does not matter which side of the political spectrum the author is on. This is one of the steady stream of bloggers who want to see more of the engine.
Some demand more than switching Duracell with Eveready and saying “God damn the queen”.
I am with Jamaica plan
Let’s get what is rightfully ours
Then kick the old Queen to the curve
If Jamaica persist it will make a dent in the royal Throne
Persistence is a well planned mechanism in moving the needle forward
Barbadians long talk as usual adds up to nothing
The queen goes and along takes anything of worth with her
Anything that could help Barbados in times of upheaval
Which brings to mind the problems which Haiti is undergoing and having to beg USA for a helping hand
Meanwhile the current administration answers in a,posturing stance
You are representative of chronic ignorance of the slave typology.
All you can rejoin with is the difference between an a and an o. Nothing substantive?
One of the many errors made here everyday by this writer refusing to re-read every contribution like you an eleven plus boy of nearly 70 years old. In other words, a boy who believes in the rightness of Whiteness.
Hoping the thumbs haven’t deceived us.
Look how David gone and upset my day!
I fear I don’t have the stomach to read the naked truth so early this morning, no matter how I really want to do so.
Seeing the actual documents is too painful.
As for that Drax monster, somebody ought to track down some descendents of slaves who were on the plantation and fly them to England to do the demanding for that plantation to which he still clings while sittting as a British MP. We should make him the poster child for “How Britain Got Rich”.
On the bright side, John Knox’s version of Ebony and Ivory will be obliterated by a read of these documents.
If anybody was stupid enough to listen to it in the first place, that is.
The pressure is piling on to Mia.
BT have published an article from Guy Hewitt, the defender of the UK Windrush generation..
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/07/18/btcolumn-its-how-you-do-it/
https://www.nationnews.com/2021/07/21/moore-improve-police-pay/
look at that fraud already pimping for votes, so all this time as head of a union ENABLING low salaries, enabling the sandy lane racists and other…. and the disenfranchisment of nurses and police, she only now found out that police are not properly paid..
“They also advised that “Mottley’s office did not follow up on multiple requests for an interview.”
The increasing lack of transparency in the affairs of the government should be of concern to the people of Barbados. Given what Guyana experienced in and out of its journey to republicanism, we need to protect ourselves against any possible threat of despotism.”
The SPIRITUAL BACKLASH will be her legacy and the stuff of legends….let her continue believing that she “got this”
our disrespected ANCESTORS and their VERY SPIRITUALLY POWERFUL descendants are WATCHING
time to pay the piper…time to pay for selling your soul…..
There you have it!
Just an ordinary swap of an irrelevant queen for a crippled but costly king.
The big question to the Electoral College of is who would be ‘elected’ to be the first President of the Republic of the New Barbadoes?
How many figureheads would be up for election to be ‘singularly’ selected by the parliamentary queen and courtiers (and not the common people)?
Would it be a new brand ‘Sir’ or would conservative Bajans continue with the ‘Dame,’ KCMG et al?
Does the Constitution, as it stands, have the power to invest such power in an ‘organ’ of Parliament which has not yet been created or would it have to be amended before such a process of electing a President can take place?
Blogmaster, which ‘black’ horse of the Hobson’s variety are you putting your money on to win the Presidential stakes in the Independence Day race to be called the RED Cup for His or Her Excellency of the New Republic?
@Miller
We get it, the symbolism of not reporting to a former colonial master is lost to you? The blogmaster agrees with the decision, however, the devil is always in the detail. We will have to fight whatever challenges present if we want to achieve. The prize:
@ David July 27, 2021 9:48 AM
There is NO prize David!
The prize of Prime ministerial dictatorship has already been won in the republic of Barbados.
The ceremonial figure head of State of Barbados has always been selected by the real (de facto) Head of political power in Barbados.
An that political reality goes back to the de facto ‘election’ of the first native GG.
The real electoral question to you is if you would support the continuation of the present holder of the ceremonial post in the proposed rubbing-stamping job like what took place with the transition from Stowe to Scott?
Or would you go for a new face (even if old ‘red’ blood) for the new de jure republic?
Now that is where the real politics ‘lies’!
@Miller
How will this electoral college work?
Thank God our country has moved away from this dark period in our history. How life is sweet in today’s Barbados for the common black man and woman. For this we must thank our great leaders since independence.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2021/07/27/pan-africanist-repeats-call-for-israel-lovell-and-nanny-grigg-to-be-honoured/
@ David July 27, 2021 10:41 AM
Now that is carrying the debate to a desirably higher level other than the notion of a prize to show off to the masses.
The Constitution ought to be amended, tout suite, to accommodate this ‘foreign’ notion of an electoral college in Parliament ‘tasked with’ the responsibility of acting on behalf of the majority of the people (the electorate) in the selection of the country’s head of State.
We know the role of the Constitutional standing of the Electoral and Boundaries Commission or even that empowered’ to recommend the elections of judges including the DPP.
Are there current provisions in the Bajan Constitution for such an ‘electoral’ organ of State?
BTW, who can be opposed to any plan to turn Barbados governance model into a republic, political adult the qualities of which are already manifesting?
Why not go about it in the light where transparency and integrity are the rules of the game?
@Miller
Hopefully the recommendations supporting the transition to republican status will be shared .
On the ground barbadians are totally confused about the change to Republic
Most applaud the queen Head removed
However the word electoral College takes on different meaning for some
Some even asking if this electoral college would be made up of friends associates and family
Others asking if Barbados Constitution would be revised
Others asking about the need for transparency on this important issue
Electoral College is members of the House of Assembly.
DavidJuly 27, 2021 1:27 PM
Electoral College is members of the House of Assembly.
Xxxxx
hmmm
Lol…apart from getting @ac goat, that hummmm as she thinks of 29-1-0, how can an electoral college be anybody ‘elected’. It is ‘generally’ a predetermined formula applied to all votes (aka popular vote) from a region. It can be absolute so a single vote margin secures ALL electoral college votes, or apportioned based on several predetermined factors. In many cases it’s “peculiarities” are found within the Constitution.
One example is that semi-useless body called the Senate. If Senate appointments were for longer than the parliamentary election cycle, and forced to draw from all geographic regions in an apportioned way, the current government couldn’t automatically stack the Senate.
@Northern Observer
The Electoral College can be defined by whatever the government wants it to be?
Question of interest on the ground being asked
Why didn’t Mia have a referendum vote brought to the people on such an important issue
Does Mia believe that Committes formed by a group of people giving their own assessment of how and why Barbados should become a Republic is a true and tested form of a democracy one that all but shuts out the voices of the majority
Also many of the ground are finding a form of dictatorial messages that emits from Mia mouths in her PR on this subject
The Right Hon.Errol Barrow gave birth to Barbados becoming and Independent nation on Nov 30th 1966
Should not that day be reserved for such an important time in Barbados History and why would Mia chose the very Day of Independence to mark as a day when Barbados become independent
Many eyes on the ground are beginning to see what they believe is Mia attempt to downgrade the important role which Errol Barrow played in the History of Barbados
Some one recently asked after her first blowing up of NIS Building
When is she going to blow up the QEH after all that institution is a symbol of things colonial
Thinking Republic
Questions of concern on the ground
Does Barbados has a military presence financially and military equipped enough (if()chance there is upheaval chaos and domestic or political internal problems lends itself to the over throw of govt.
The unintended consequences of us becoming a republic could backfire on us very quickly. It is a well-known fact that Barbados is sitting on oil and gas reserves. There is the potential for serious money to be made. We also know that there are a number of wealthy individuals both on off the island who are hungry to enlarge their assets. These people are impatient and could in the near future instigate a coup. They know that Barbados is low hanging fruit and does not have the capacity to defend itself.
@David
it should really be the Constitution, but the lines get blurry at times?
And we should depend on the BRITISH to defend us??????
You who were born there and cannot even expect them to seriously defend YOU?????
My God, you people are like little children, wanting to be more independent but afraid to step away from your mother, even an abusive one.
Weak!
How many other republics have we in the Caribbean????
David,
These people are not interested in meaningful debate.
Is Barbados heading down a path where the term shoot first and ask questions after becomes a reality
Who will guard the guards
For what all have seen and observed
The media are toothless giants unto themselves
We should not get a drivers license because we are afraid to be in an accident.
DavidJuly 28, 2021 9:31 AM
We should not get a drivers license because we are afraid to be in an accident
Xxxx
Which brings to mind those who are sitting at the wheel of Barbados economy
Makes for wonder who and where was their license issued
Scary
Go and wear you mask.
Food for thought
Hewitt: This is just not right!
CONFOUNDED and concerned.
That’s how presidential candidate for the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), Reverend Guy Hewitt, has described his reaction to the announce- ment on Monday evening by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, that Barbados will become a parliamentary republic and swear in a president on November 30, this year. His comments came in a
statement released yester- day morning to the media, as he charged that the decision goes against the democratic principles Barbados is accustomed to.
He added, “I am con- founded and concerned that we hear that the Government will start on the 1st of December, a journey of the settlement of a new Constitution will be subject to extensive consultation and commu-
nication with the people of Barbados. I am the only one confused here? How does the Government an- nounce that a new presi- dent will be sworn in on the 30th of November, but that we the people will only be consulted there- after, on what has already transpired?”
Expressing concern about the approach being taken by the Mottley Administration, he said the onus is on Barbadians
to ask pertinent questions regarding that decision, namely – why now?
“This is not good enough. This is not the Barbados we love. This is not the Barbados we know, this is not the democracy that we are accustomed to…” he maintained.
Meanwhile, Hewitt is suggesting that Monday’s defeat at the polls of the United Workers’ Party in St. Lucia, after just one
term in office, could hold some lessons for the political directorate in Barbados.
“What a blow to them, and what a blow to other similar regimes in the re- gion. To me, the outcome of the general election in St.
Lucia was an affirmation that salesmanship is a poor replacement for sound leadership. It is something that leaders across our region and pos- sibly here in Barbados, need to take note of,” the DLP member contended.
How rude .how undemocratic can Mia be thinking that 30-0 gives her the right to stomp on the Constitution
The majority voices all but shut done in this important change
Where is the democracy in allowing four or five talking heads to make decisions on behalf of the people and country
This will backfire in her face
Let freedom ring
She is right
GOVERNMENT MOVE IS DISRESPECTFUL
For generations now, we as a country spoke romantically about a move towards a Republic. It is viewed in some quarters as the next step in maturity and severing ties with our colonial past.
Truth be told, that is not a convincing argument, as there are several Republics within the Commonwealth of Nations grouping, formed almost exclusively of former British colonies.
And there is no whispering of severing our ties from the Commonwealth.
What then is the benefit to the country and people?
The former Democratic Labour Party Government supported Republican status but not without consultation.
It is disrespectful to come to Barbadians and speak to a report, the Forde Commission report from more than a generation ago and behave as though the present generations have no voice in their own destiny.
It is ridiculous as well to waste a momentous opportunity.
This runs deeper than a swap from Governor General to President, but reaches into our civil service, police force, judiciary, and the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Any major Constitutional change should insist that our people are engaged at every level and this Government promised to come to people in June and September. It never happened.
Ms Mottley you have to revisit the relationship between the people and the Government on this matter!
There can be no greater disengagement from the people than to rule by edict.
It runs counter to all the principles of democracy.
This is too weighty a change not to be put specifically to the country by way of referendum.
The views of the private sector were specifically sought by the Commission.
Are not the views of the citizens of Barbados also important? Especially as there are some worrisome features. Those who follow US politics are uncomfortably familiar with the Electoral College and the lack of democracy it represents.
Why a figurehead leader when our people are crying out for greater involvement in their own destiny? Why this rush when there are currently serious deficiencies in governance of the main pillars of this society?
The Democratic Labour Party (DLP) insists that this matter needs to be ventilated in the public domain.
This Government is going down a rocky road. Our people need to be allowed to determine their own future.
Anything else is not democracy!
Verla De Peiza
President of The Democratic Labour Party
I hope Verla makes good use of this issue all the way to Nov 30th 2021 and twisted it tightly around Mia’s neck
Who de hell does Mia think she is taking Barbados towards a style were Her word is the last
Who gave her such authority
She does not own the country the people collectively does
Her in 2021 when all have the right to vote on such issues that creates a Constitutional change
Mia takes matters into.her own hand like a bone headed dictator
February 17th 2016
Prime minister revives republic plans
Event
The prime minister, Freundel Stuart, has announced his aim to make Barbados a republic by November 30th, when the island will celebrate its 50th year of independence.
Analysis
Speaking to a meeting of the governing Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in December, Mr Stuart said that it was no longer appropriate for public officials to pledge allegiance to the British monarchy, and that a parliamentary vote should be held by November 30th on whether the country should become a parliamentary republic.
This would mean replacing Queen Elizabeth II—formally styled as Queen of Barbados in the island nation—with an elected ceremonial head of state. Barbados would remain in the Commonwealth of Nations—a loose intergovernmental organisation of 53 states that belonged to the former British Empire—but under its own head of state, a status enjoyed by 37 Commonwealth states.
A vote to amend the constitution would require a two‑thirds parliamentary majority, which the DLP, as the largest party in both the House of Assembly (the lower house) and the Senate (the upper house), would have a good chance of securing. The opposition Barbados Labour Party (BLP) would be likely to support such a proposal. In 2005 the BLP oversaw the adoption of the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final court of appeal, replacing the London-based Privy Council. The then prime minister, Owen Arthur, also outlined plans for replacing the Queen with an elected head of state.
Nevertheless, Mr Stuart has not made further statements on plans to table a parliamentary vote or referendum. Removing the Queen, while likely to be popular in general, would prove controversial among older voters. Procedurally the vote would also be complex, and ranks as a low priority as the country struggles to recover from six years of economic stagnation spanning 2008‑2014.
The prime minister of nearby Jamaica, Portia Simpson-Miller, pledged to replace the Queen as head of state before that country’s 50th anniversary of independence in 2012, but as yet has failed to hold a vote. Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Grenada, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines also continue to maintain the Queen as their head of state.
The only difference is Stuart spoke to a small privileged group of party insiders, as was his style, while Mottley spoke to all as is her style. Both renegade dictators in their own way.
@ Frank July 28, 2021 2:03 PM
(Quote):
The only difference is Stuart spoke to a small privileged group of party insiders, as was his style, while Mottley spoke to all as is her style. Both renegade dictators in their own way. (Unquote).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
‘Frankly’ speaking, that not ‘quite’ true.
The former PM, the R H FJS, did indeed make his administration’s republic plans publicly known to all and sundry.
And it was done right in the halls of the Parliament in a “Throne” speech delivered to commemorate the 375th anniversary of the said Parliament.
Even the Queen was informed -through Her Son Prince Edward- of his, (not Hers), the RH FJS government’s intention of turning the Independent State of Barbados into a fully-fledged republic.
At least the man had the blue and yellow guts to tell Her Majesty that’s its time Barbados cut the last ceremonial thread of ‘English’ royal vestige in the governance of its affairs since 1652.
It’s inevitable that Barbados will have to take this final step to achieve full political adulthood.
MAM is only echoing what others have relayed to her. There is nothing novel about the republic baby.
FJS might have been the ‘consulting’ obstetrician but MAM is merely the midwife-in-waiting.
For heaven’s sake, the old queen Lizzie is 95 years and must abdicate the throne either to the old Charlie or to a young Willie.
Now who, in 2022, would want to swear allegiance to a white man as king of Barbados when both king sugar and tourism (the queen of prostitution) have fallen from grace?
What you should be more concerned about, ‘Frankly’ speaking, is whether Barbados- by cutting all ties to the British monarchy- has weakened, severely, its chances of extracting reparations from the British Crown for its dastardly role in the institution of black chattel slavery in Barbados.
AC 1:00 p.m.
Verla has upped her game. Very good.
TheOGazertsJuly 28, 2021 4:00 PM
AC 1:00 p.m.
Verla has upped her game. Very good
Xxxx
On an issue this serious which should involved the whole country input
Her voice is necessary to speak on behalf of the people and one which would send a message to Mia and her govt members that a democracy is made up of a whole country and not four or five hand picked house negroes speaking on behalf of the country
At some stage this post went off the track. A few good posts, but most are below BU weight category.
Let’s get back on track
Wura – get out of covid and back to corruption
John – back to water
CA- back to ivermectin
AC- back to your poetry
Lawson- please recycle old jokes
Oops.. that was for the covid post.
Apologies
https://www.instagram.com/p/CR4HRKmqaaT/
God save the gracious queen!
A whopping 246 million increase of debt should be of concern to all barbadians given the slow economic state of the economy
The gov was quick to point that because of Barbados entering an IMF program loans were accessible
The realization of those loans hinges on having the ability to pay
However within an ongoing Covid environment
The probability of repayment would be long and sacrificing to the barbadian household
“Morning. I agree with Barbados becoming a republic.But is it true that the government wants to replace Independence Day by Republic day. Why? It is just another attempt to erase Errol Barrow’s legacy. How sad.”
Michael Howard