As we draw closer to the time Barbadians will be encouraged to participate in a national debate about a NEW Constitution, one suggestion is to allow Barbadians- who for different reasons- have settled overseas to be able to vote to elect a Barbados government. Especially Bajans who although the primary address is foreign, they have family, property and other interest still in the land of birth.
The suggestion to create a Diaspora Constituency is a controversial one for obvious reasons but we should discuss it.
The following comment posted by William Skinner to the Did the Many Hands Make Light Work blog, a Barbadian living in the USA in instructive.
The truth is the truth. As I told you recently , I am not a paragon of any virtue known to mankind. But, I value intellectual honesty. As you have said we have our differences but we are heading the same place. One of the great pillars of intellectual honesty is to admit that you’re are not infallible and to quickly acknowledge when you are wrong or even half wrong.
Quite frankly, among overseas Bajans, I am considered a baby. And they tell me that almost every day. I know Bajans who have been away from home fifty years and over. There is a lot of success and a lot of pain. By the time they have achieved success , they have lost family, friends and even visits are a bit depressing because they are seeing the children of their family and friends and don’t know them. It’s a vicious cycle, when one , on the quest for some improvement , has to give up almost anything that is worthwhile at the end.
There is also a cultural dimension. I have a friend, who has lived more of his life in Brooklyn than than Bim. About ten years ago, he brought home his children to the rock for Crop Over. His daughter, a born and bred American, fell in love with Lil Rick. I am informed that she has not listened to any American rapper since! She is into pure kaiso.
Children need roots. A Canadian lady now in her fifties told me that on a visit home, around the age of seven or so, her uncle taught her how to catch a lizard. She has never forgotten that!
I can write a thousand stories. I have advised friends and family , to not give up a job or anything to come chasing the American dream. The price is high…..very high.
The Caribbean Diaspora must be seen as a part of our new horizon in a different way. And for many different reasons. Indians born and live on the rock then they go back to India to find spouses for their children; Jews , Irish and all other groups are in their Diaspora ensuring that their countries and culture are fully and properly defended. When progressive voices talk about the Diaspora , they are talking about he big picture and not only about barrels or who is Dee or Bee.
However, the mere fact that Caribbean people throughout the Diaspora want to be more involved in their countries is testimony that when all is said and done, home is where the heart is. And after mingling with those who call me a baby, I say they got on a plane but they never left Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana or any other island and if they tell you they really left, dey lie !
William…no one wants to give big talk now..
have ya ever seen the STEALTH bomber…sure ya have, could not live in US and not seen it somewhere at least once.. well imagine that as a microscopic ball of fat wrappepd up in an invisible package.
If we didn’t know better we would think that someone has a contract to kill us….or they are PRETENDING TO anyway……The Great Pretenders…
@ Donna
Like I said your idea is indeed very progressive. However, while I do not have a dog in the fight, I think that if we continue to blame the DLP forever, we would end up accepting whatever its twin offers forever.
I will never accept that collecting garbage; providing water; a proper public transport system are major accomplishments , after I grew up with all of those services in Bim ,being the very best, in the entire Caribbean .
While Stuart and company were absolute failures and Mottley and company corrected the failures, I just see them as services that both of them allowed to run down for forty or more years. As for the Sewage spill, I encountered it on quite a few occasions when I was home. It seriously affected a business , I am involved in. It was horrible but then again, I don’t think we need to be indebt to the government I pay a whole lot of taxes and employ at least 7 people.
It’s like people who intend to vote for any DLP government forever because of free education.
People pay taxes for :bus services; public transportation; garbage collection ; proper water services and sewage . Both of those parties are responsible for not properly maintaining the infrastructure of the country.
Quite frankly, I was terribly embarrassed, when I listened to Brasstacks and heard people behaving like if their garbage being collected was a monumental achievement. I was glad because at my business place , it was piling up too but I will never thank any government for providing me with services I have paid taxes for and I made that quite clear to the MP for that area.
One of these days we are also going to wake up and accept the reality of free university education. I am now awaiting the promised education reform. I personally am extremely happy that Mottley has removed Bradshaw from that ministry. She was not a success. Presentation and content are two different things! She andJones along with Mottley have all been poor Ministers of Education.
We can like it or not but our country needs to wake up from DLP/BLP induced slumber.
The current fiasco about the attempts to trample the Constitution and the comments I have read here on BU, have convinced me that we are allowing partisan nonsense to color our judgement.
The entire region needs visionaries and we are going no where very quickly; we either make radical adjustments or we will sink socially, politically and economically.
For those laughing at the idea of a One Caribbean State, they better call the President of Guyana and try to get some cheap gas prices because a price increase now will be like a punch from Tyson in his prime.
Stay firm and keep the ideas coming.
The struggle continues
Peace.
William,
Again I will explain to you that I do not see garbage collection as a major accomplishment.
It was a minor accomplishment that the DLP failed to accomplish!
If you cannot do the basics, what the hell can you do???
I do not care what happened before Mia became PM, the point is that she attacked the minor problems immediately and put them to bed.
Then she restored the university tuition fees and did a lot more besides.
I do not agree with everything she does and indeed I have several beefs with her attitude. And definitely we must watch her carefully.
But at least she is awake enough to know that she has a long way to go before “glory” is in sight.
As opposed to the other folks whose platform proclaimed the glory of shite!
In the few years since May 2018, the DLP has learnt NOTHING!
Therefore the garbage, the shit and the bus blues solved remain winners.
@William Skinner “People pay taxes for :bus services; public transportation; garbage collection ; proper water services and sewage.”
Not only do we pay income, property tax and VAT for these services, we pay direct fees as well:
$93 per year for sewage whether or not hooked up to any public sewage system
$465 per year for garbage pick-up, even though for years I have sorted and delivered the recyclables to a recycling center myself
$660 per year for water
$600 per year for property tax
$600 per year approximately for VAT. Scared to work out the exact amount of VAT
And as a senior, income tax any amount over $40,000
So am I going to kiss my MP or my government for providing a garbage bin? Hell no, especially as I already owned a very good covered garbage bin.
They TRICKED yall to get another 5 years and could end up killing a bunch of people, but what do they care…the unvaccinated and those with underlying problems NCDs etc are at high risk….if infection rates climb to anywhere near 100k as it’s doing in other countries the whole healthcare system collapses…
I have been following the debate between yourself and BU’s Barbara Cartland, aka, Donna.
I am struggling to understand Donna’s antipathy towards the Bajan diaspora. She appears to be more threatened by their presence and the possibility that they may be allowed to vote in future elections. The threat of a proposed 80,000 immigrants, plus members of their extended families appears not to be on her radar. She appears oblivious to the notion
how Barbados existing minority communities live autonomously in Barbados free from government interference. Free to act in their own interests which often results in harm to Barbados majority population.
It was not members of the Barbados diaspora who wrecked Barbados economy and sucked the life out of the country and its black majority population. Unless we include Thompson. I am not certain if he came to Barbados as a young boy and became Barbadosed.
There are many following this thread who are shocked with some of the comments espoused. Time for some British diaspora comedy. A programme and a place to whom Miller and a few others would be familiar with.
https://youtu.be/8uAPK7livSY
I may be completely wrong but my impression of the DLP is that it is composed of way too many old fashioned misogynists…those men, alas, NOT born of a woman.
That might have been barely tolerated in the time of Erroll Barrow, but Barrow has been dead, dead, dead as a doornail these past 35 years, the DLP needs to kill of their misogyny and come into the light.
@Hants
Here I am trying to boost you up and you see it as an attempt to diminish your reputation.
I will have to rewrite my recommendation.
Varied and international experience. Experience gathered by fishing in lake, rivers, seas and of course the Atlantic ocean.
Just show him the water where the fish passed.
If you cannot put in a good word for friend, then your friendship has no real value,
“It was not members of the Barbados diaspora who wrecked Barbados economy and sucked the life out of the country and its black majority population. ”
they don’t want to put the blame where it belongs, you notice they only target those who look like them….i have no tolerance for people like that…lives are now actively at stake with this recent move to do anythign for power and lie to get it…..either get with helping those who are working to reverse these crimes or step aside..
@African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2021. All Rights Reserved January 31, 2022 4:41 PM
“…if infection rates climb to anywhere near 100k…”
What’s an infection rate of 100,000? Please explain. I don’t understand.
@David January 31, 2022 1:02 PM “Fishing is not seen as aspirational.”
It is not aspirational because the fisherfolk have already arrived.
I’ve a friend happily married to a fisherman for more than 15 years…I say no more.
Except if a fisher comes courting your daughter or son, open the front door quick, quick,
To be eligible to vote in an Ontario election, you must be:
18 years of age or older;
a Canadian citizen; and
a resident of Ontario.
Source: https://www.elections.on.ca/en/voting-in-ontario.html
@ TheOGazerts,
That’s much better. lol
Thank you.
UK Parliamentary elections
Across the whole of the UK, to vote in a UK Parliamentary election a person must be must:
Source: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8985/
P.S. I find it interesting that peers, prisoners, and certain convicts are treated the same way.
Who can vote in USA elections:
To vote in U.S. elections, you must be a U.S. citizen, turn 18 on or before Election Day, and meet your state’s residency and registration requirements.
Who Can Vote?
You can vote in U.S. federal, state, and local elections if you:
Yesterday, Portugal held a general election where the Socialist party triumphed. Those with covid-19 were allowed to vote. The turnout was higher than their previous election.
The Socialists won an outright victory. Unlike the BLP and their supporters they were modest and conciliatory. They made it clear they had a moral duty to defend the interests of democracy and to govern all of its citizens fairly.
You forgot it was a snap election:
Portugal’s PM Costa stuns with majority win in snap election | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/portuguese-go-polls-snap-election-marked-by-covid-uncertainty-2022-01-30/
@ Donna January 31, 2022 2:37 PM
Words of common sense!
Anyone who has lived through the terrible ten years knows what Donna is talking about.
Of course, our current government is not doing everything perfectly.
But at least it has prevented currency devaluation, resurfaced many roads, improved rubbish collection, bought new buses, solved the nasty problem on the south coast and dealt professionally with the volcanic ash, the hurricane and the Corona pandemic.
Why is residence verification necessary?
Residence verification is a vital part of ensuring that our voter’s list remains at a very high standard. The law requires that you must vote in the constituency where you reside. Residence verification is our way of ensuring that the address given is really where you reside.
Source: Electoral Commission of Jamaica
The Democratic Labour Party is in an absolute state of political decay and has been since the 80s.
The Barbados Labour Party is also in a state of political decay but it’s not as severe as the DLPs.
The system right now is being propped up by heavy borrowing. If the tourist industry collapses any further at any time for whatever reason , our country will be buried in an economic calamity from which it would take 50 years to recover.
Are we going to wake up and confront these issues or pretend that they are non existent?
Can we honestly say that either the BLP or DLP has done justice to the confidence that we have placed in them since 1966 ?
This is our third or fourth trip to the IMF under both administrations.
Where is the Black economic enfranchisement that Dr. Don Blackman spoke of?
How are we dealing with the white shadows that Comrade Prescod speaks of ?
Where is the developmental models of either the BLP/DLP ?
Can anybody on BU explain in simple language what Mottley and Company proposes to do for the country other than ensure that its twin sibling gets two seats in the Upper House.
Peace.
@ 555dubstreet January 31, 2022 11:02 AM “Whites as Settlers…”
The British people liked too much sex. Maybe they still do. All this sexing led to a diaspora of 200,000 Million?
They should have spent more time on their knees…
Praying
snap-election???
But
“With more than a tenth of Portugal’s 10 million people estimated to be isolating due to COVID-19, the government had allowed infected people to leave isolation and cast ballots in person, and electoral officials donned protection suits in the afternoon to receive them.”
Please don’t tell me about nour covid protocols.
“I am struggling to understand Donna’s antipathy towards the Bajan diaspora. She appears to be more threatened by their presence and the possibility that they may be allowed to vote in future elections. The threat of a proposed 80,000 immigrants, plus members of their extended families appears not to be on her radar. She appears oblivious to the notion
how Barbados existing minority communities live autonomously in Barbados free from government interference. Free to act in their own interests which often results in harm to Barbados majority population.”
Presumably you live in England
The black immigrant haters on BU live in places where there are immigrants from everywhere and really should know better
They are ugly and bitter haters
@ Cuhdear Bajan January 31, 2022 5:37 PM
“The British people liked too much sex. Maybe they still do. All this sexing led to a diaspora of 200,000 Million?”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
That might be so but they clearly cannot compete with either the Chinese or Indians for the spreading of joy and obeying your Jewish god commandment of being foopful in order multiply.
I suspect it was the Blighty British that invented passports and visas shenanigans to stop brown people traveling to conquered lands
@ Cuhdear Bajan
Sometimes , I’m left to wonder how we can so easily declare a right a benefit. However, I heard Mascoll talk about the millions collected by the sewage taxes, he doesn’t call them taxes but I forget the other word used. Maybe levy.
I heard on the radio a woman saying how “ grateful “ she was for having water “ for three straight days “ during Christmas.
How can any self respecting citizen not cringe when we hear , our own people are in glee , at having water they are paying through their noses for.?
It shows how low the bar is . It shows why politicians can turn up every five years and fool us.
I ,as a rule don’t share too many personal stories here because I figure we all have similar or different experiences from time to time. There is a bigger picture here that is missing.
It reminds me of the Joseph Niles spiritual that contains these words: I’ll be happy for the crumbs from the table.
A culture now embedded in our psyche also comes to mind: little with content is great gain.
I have never seen poverty marketed so well: I am so happy the pipe water isn’t so brown this morning.
Imagine a simple truth: Mottley has been in Parliament for nearly 30 years; she has served in every important ministry. She has acted as Deputy Prime Minister but to hear her talk , one would imagine that she just entered Parliament in 2018.
She pretends that she was totally unaware of all the shit that the country was going through .
The hard truth is this: whatever this country has gone through in the last 30 years, the good and the bad, her fingerprints are there.
Whatever mess she cleans up now she owes the people. BLP DLP same shit different day.
This is the same crap that happened with those who idolized Barrow . He could do no wrong. And he is her political hero. She said he is her “grandfather “. He taught her well ! He went after the constitution. He “ grind” his political opponents too. He too mastered the art of making poverty attractive. He was a genius at appearing benevolent.
And at the end, after he created the mirror image, he asked: what kind of mirror image we have of ourselves. Mia Mottley is the political reincarnation of Errol Barrow.
Peace.
“She has acted as Deputy Prime Minister but to hear her talk , one would imagine that she just entered Parliament in 2018.
She pretends that she was totally unaware of all the shit that the country was going through .”
She will probably stop Diaspora voting now due to their bad attitude. Good riddance to Bad Rubbish.
@William Skinner January 31, 2022 6:52 PM “@ Cuhdear Bajan. Sometimes , I’m left to wonder how we can so easily declare a right a benefit. However, I heard Mascoll talk about the millions collected by the sewage taxes, he doesn’t call them taxes but I forget the other word used. Maybe levy.”
I am “average Bajan” and I don’t mind sharing stories at all. A schoolmate of mine who retired as a PS tried to persuade me that a levy was not a tax. I was NOT fooled. If it has gone from my pocket to that of central government or a state agency, IT IS A TAX. I may “not understand” economics or finance, but I do understand language far better than most.
I heard Mascoll too. I did not attend UWI, nor the London School of Economics, but I did attended my village school, the same village school as the erstwhile PS, lol!, learnt well enough to “pass the 11+ for a good school” and I know that 83,000 households multiplied by the past 24 months, multiplied by $465.00 per year for garbage pickup is in excess of 77 million dollars. And that the sewage money is more than 15.5 million. And that water at $500 to $600 per household year, per 83,000 households will generate between 83 to 100 million and we are not talking about commercial entities yet. Just about the money that moves from the pockets of ordinary Bajans to government entities.
I hope that nobody tells me that “I don’t understand” that these entities have expenses.
@William Skinner January 31, 2022 6:52 PM “I heard on the radio a woman saying how “ grateful “ she was for having water “ for three straight days “ during Christmas.”
I expect that the good woman was being ironic. Any householder is pissed when clean water does not flow out of the pipes.
@ Cuhdear Bajan
“ I hope that nobody tells me that “I don’t understand” that these entities have expenses.”
Mascoll tried to infer that the bulk of the money was going to pay the workers.
So, proportionately have the highest paid Sanitation workers in the Western Hemisphere.
I don’t recall when the NUPW and BWU managed to negotiate such salaries.
Did not even make the front page. What a ting !
You and your stupid ass shocked friends could buzz to rh off.
My “antipathy” is directed to all idiots who cannot understand a simple principle but instead chose to take it personally like emotional idiots and label it “antipathy”.
Assholes!
Good post, Cuhdear Bajan!
I made that point since before the election. There is a reason why we are supposed to vote where we live.
So locals must vote in the constituencies where they live.
BUT …Bajans abroad may vote where they do not live .
I cry DISCRIMINATION!
True story
My wife asked me if I will finish painting before the year ends.
My reply” Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel lying on his back, I am lying on my sofa”
Think I bit off more than I can chew. Even my mother and sister are getting in on the joke.
—-xx—
Working on an argument for ‘voting’.
I hired a Filipino named Noel to do my painting, he would sing and paint all day. I just used to bring him the beers.
Funny
You cry discrimination
I cry discrimination as having to vote in a single pseudo constitution is dilution of the vote of those in the diaspora.
Will agree to differ
Noel was a superstar he put down my wooden flooring, assembled bookshelves, tiled bathrooms, put in curtain rails and light fittings, landscaped my garden with paving and plants. I used to get everything from the shops.
@TheOGazerts January 31, 2022 8:28 PM ” Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel lying on his back”
I have a strong feeling that you are not the reincarnation of Michelangelo, maybe that is why your female kin are beginning to ask the difficult questions.
I have no clue what type of legacy people are trying to leave for the young TO JUDGE…but personally, there is not one PRETENDER on this or any other blog….can coerce me to LIE TO and MISLEAD the younger generations, to keep an evil, anti-black status quo in place to financially benefit hateful greedy racist minorities and corrupt governments, just because that is all they know……NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN….
at some point in time we have to take a good LONG look at ourselves and ask what kind of legacy we plan to leave…spent years watching what they believe is most important and none of it benefits the Black population….
“How can any self respecting citizen not cringe when we hear , our own people are in glee , at having water they are paying through their noses for.?
It shows how low the bar is . It shows why politicians can turn up every five years and fool us.”
it’s gone from the ridiculous to the EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, those who tolerate. condone accept. and enable it are a danger to those who don’t…..and none can see the bigger picture….
“I have never seen poverty marketed so well: ”
“She pretends that she was totally unaware of all the shit that the country was going through ”
right along with all the little followers, pimps and supporters.who deserve to SUFFER THE MOST…for their deceitful ways…
“Can we honestly say that either the BLP or DLP has done justice to the confidence that we have placed in them since 1966 ?”
no you can’t…they have ALL BEEN and ARE colossal FAILURES….in the lives of the Black majority who put them there….that is all you will ever get…..the destruction runs very deep and can be traced to the very beginning.
William…a lot more is going on, a LOT MORE WENT ON…but they can only fool who they can and who BEG FOR IT…some like being fooeds, so they can pass on the foolery to others…who won’t smack them down..
others who have found out exactly what they have done and KNOW MUCH BETTER…know exactly what to do with the information.
Long journey, but we GOT THERE, we finally made it…i love sharing good, positive news,.
some will ask where, because they wasted SO MUCH TIME…..but if they never knew from the beginning because they REFUSED to pay attention, too petty to stay focused, the notorious shit pickers, they certainly don’t need to know now…
it’s their DEAD END to live with, no one else’s…
but they will see the results that others spent YEARS selflessly WORKING ON….while they are asleep..
i love success and positive, hard-earned results..
Steupse!
TheO,
I live in St. Philip North. I vote in St. PhilipNorth. Do you live in the diaspora? Why should you not vote in the diaspora constituency?
You are being totally unreasonable wanting to decide who shall govern me and not you.
I find you are just being stubborn. I have presented a principle and given reasons which I KNOW are valid.
And you cannot even present your navel string. It dyn rot and may very well have been scattered by the winds.
@William Skinner January 31, 2022 8:06 PM “What a ting !”
What a ting indeed!!!
I am retired so I have the time to say a hello to the sanitation workers when they come by, I haven’t seen any big smiles, nor heard any talk ’bout no big, big raises. I just see some very hard working young men.
It’s really confusing how there can be so much objection against members in the Diaspora (Overseas Bajans with their open pocketbooks) making an electoral input into the governance of the country in which their navel strings are buried but the same objectors are only to willing to honour with open arms our Bajan Queen Rihanna as their first National Hero of the new republic of Barbados.
Isn’t Her Excellency RR also a well-known member of the same denigrated Diaspora in which she made her fame and fortune?
Isn’t the still unmarried queen (in the eyes of frauds for Christians) setting an example to the young Bajan princesses to help solve the national crisis of a baby shortage?
If Her Excellency RRF can step up to the plate to save her land of birth from a demographic implosion, why can’t ordinary members of the same Bajan Diaspora make their mark in the local electoral race similar to what members in some of the other enclaves of the Caricom Diaspora are entitled to do?
https://barbadostoday.bb/2022/02/01/electoral-department-reopens-on-wednesday/
Dah is a gud job. You read the obi-chew-aries and strike a name out of the book if it in the chewaRies. Wait five years and tell people they can’t vote and check to see if a dead man come through the door.
@Miller February 1, 2022 6:11 PM “It’s really confusing how there can be so much objection against members in the Diaspora (Overseas Bajans with their open pocketbooks) making an electoral input into the governance of the country in which their navel strings are buried but the same objectors are only to willing to honour with open arms our Bajan Queen Rihanna as their first National Hero of the new republic of Barbados.”
Nobody, not even Mia the so-called despot can impose national hero status on anybody. Rihanna has a tongue in her mouth. She like all of us has the right to say “yes” or to say “no”. She STILL has that right. Nobody has taken it away from her. Nobody can. If she should change her mind and say “I no longer want to be a national hero” tell me again who has the power to stop her?
In 2003 my father was older than 90. He said that he was going to die soon. And indeed he did. During that 2003 election period multiple parties, multiple people came to his home to take him to the polls, even though he had multiple adult children willing and able to take him to the polls, but it had been his custom as it is mine to walk to the polling station, to not accept lifts from any party, because he did not want to feel obligated to any party. He had voted in every election since he became enfranchised in 1951. He refused ALL offers of lifts to the polling station. He refused to vote, because as he reasoned he knew that he would not have to live with the result of his vote, so he ethically abstained from voting.
That is ethics.
That is integrity.
It is unethical, immoral, just plain wrong to vote in any election when you do not have to live with the result of your vote. So again I say, a kidney? “yes please” a vote “no.”
If we think that we can legislate integrity we are so wrong.
That old man did not spend a day in a classroom since the age of 11. Did not spend much time in any church either. Spent no time at all in the lodge.
@ Cuhdear Bajan February 1, 2022 6:22 PM
Who is against H E Rihanna accepting the status of National Hero?
That national status was recommended during the debates over the demolition of the Horatio Nelson statue and a possible Bajan-bred icon for its replacement.
But why shouldn’t she also- just like any other hot-blooded adult Bajan living overseas -be entitled to make a mark at the electoral level?
She is also entitled to reproduce in her own image as much as she sees fit to enlarge the ‘small’ Fenty clan just like how you did with yours many moons ago.
@Miller “…setting an example to the young Bajan princesses to help solve the national crisis of a baby shortage?:
No.
Because Rihanna is only barely still a young Bajan princess. A year from now she will be officially a beautiful middle aged Bajan woman. None of us would have a problem if every healthy 34 year old Bajan woman gave birth this year.
But if teen boys and girls who never wuk nowhere give birth this year we would have a problem with that.
So to teen boys and girls no babies for you. Wunna int ready yet.
To healthy men and women, have as many children as you can lovingly care for.
@MillerFebruary 1, 2022 6:11 PM
Personally, I do not mind overseas Barbadians.
As long as they support our Supreme Leader and her movement.