Crisis of Governance – No Damn Labour Party (NDLP)
The Barbados Labour Party (BLP) was founded in 1938 and the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in 1955. For many the BLP and DLP dubbed the Duopoly are the only political parties we know. In recent years both political parties have been criticized for not being sufficiently progressive to sustain a quality life for the majority of Barbadians, present and future generations. Noticeable has been the inability of alternative parties to establish themselves as credible alternatives in a ready environment.
In 2018 and 2022 the BLP won both general elections with an unprecedented consecutive 30 to zero result. While political supporters of the duopoly have understandably contrasting feelings about the results, the more independent minded continue to be very concerned.
A strong democracy depends on quality political parties. Strong political parties depend on quality members. In recent years both DLP and BLP have been unable to attract quality individuals to stem rising voter apathy and cynicism. No need to listen to the taking heads who try to justify declining voter turnout with statistical speak. Unbiased political pundits agree that today’s voter across the globe “appear to be turning away from traditional political organizations”. It forces the question – can the democracy practiced in Barbados survive without fit for purpose political parties?
The Barbados system of government which is a parody of the Westminster system is predicated on the “public’s trust in the integrity of government”, one that embodies “a framework of ethics, professionalism and transparency”. It has become obvious EXCEPT for rabid partisan supporters our political system has been hijacked- whether it is because of a less than meritorious selection of candidates or anonymous sources of funding for political parties that flavour how decisions are made when politicians ascend to government. There is a growing bloc of disenchanted citizens- here and elsewhere- who represent a view the time has come to usher in a more direct participation by citizens to how we govern. Find ways to diminish the role of political parties and the professional political class. The days of the ‘grassroot’ politician whose sole objective was to selflessly serve the public is a faded ideal.
Barbados presents a good case study to prove the notion of a system of government failing because of a declining political party system. There is the BLP with its charismatic maximum leader- remove Mottley from the BLP leadership and there is a good chance the party will flounder to mimic the death throes being exhibited by the DLP. In the meantime and in between time the people are left with no option than to vote for twiddledee or twiddledum.
The majority of Barbadians despite our boast of being an educated people hesitate to discuss governance issues in a meaningful way. That is unless cloaked in a salacious, adversarial and contentious theme. There is the saying, a people always get the government it deserves. Across the globe this is being witnessed.
Barbados Underground 
@Artax
There was a front page story on Sunday where Holder denied she resigned from the BLP?
@Artax
Regarding the PAC the blogmaster judge performance.
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“According to Dr. Belle, it could not be the role of the independent senators to oppose the Government’s will.”
“especially the ones coming from professionals whose credibility is in large measure dependent on their being perceived as independent, or at least not obviously aligned to any political party. They should know a thing or two about independent thinking and the value of independent thought, and should have been staunch defenders of the right of the independent senators to take an independent view, even if they were not in agreement with those views.”
political pimps are dishonorable, untrustworthy and nothing they say is credible.
…i have been asking for years, what is a political scientist, even the description sounds sketchy….now we know they are nothing but political pimps for one party or another, whichever one pays them the most for pretending to predict…they carry a distinct stench..
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@ David
I meant LYNDA Holder of the Transport Board and NOT former Senator Lynette Holder.
Recall the Financial Controller Felicia Sue was also either suspended or her services terminated.
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@Artax
Yes, blogmaster’s error.
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Good!
St Lucia to become full CCJ member
https://www.nationnews.com/2022/03/30/st-lucia-become-full-ccj-member/
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So on clicking on the link to the CCJ article I saw the Nation has a blurb on Melnyk’s passing.
“Born in Ukraine in 1959, Melnyk migrated to Canada”….false. He was born in Canada of Ukrainian parents
“He was married to Sharilyne and the father of Anna and Olivia.”…unless this occurred in his final weeks, they were not married. His ex-wife Laura, is the mother of his two daughters.
Makes me wonder…..
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@ David March 30, 2022 9:34 AM
I agree it’s “good” that St. Lucia has decided to join the CCJ.
Caribbean ‘heads of governments’ often talk about regional integration and unity, yet, they remain divided on many issues affecting the region.
One problem is, you may have an incumbent administration of a particular Caribbean island, for example, agreeing on specific issues. Unfortunately, if that administration loses the general elections, the incoming ‘government’ may find all types of reasons not to continue previous supportive.
In other words, they shout ‘unity’ on some issues and on others, especially when they believe their own self interests are of paramount importance, the situation suddenly becomes, ‘every man brek fuh he self.’
Remember when in March 2019, then U.S President, Donald Trump, met with leaders from Bahamas, St. Lucia, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Jamaica because they supported the United States in backing Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as head of state?
Those five leaders had the perfect opportunity to remind Trump that, despite there may be a difference of opinion, the Caribbean is working towards becoming a united region, and what he did was essentially a method of ‘sowing seeds of division.’ That he either meet with all, or none.
Instead, they ‘took the bait’ of Trump’s promise that a high-level delegation from the U.S development lender, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, would visit their islands within 90 days after the meeting to look at investments.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness told reporters after the meeting that, “It’s absolutely important that it’s not just talk – that there will be real investment.”
It would interesting to know if the so called investments actually occurred…… and, if they did, what is the status of those investments in each island?
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**** previous SUPPORT.
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@Northern, there is so much to your ending re “Makes me wonder”…
The Nation, according to your input, was terribly inaccurate and indeed it makes one wonder why the journalist was so careless and it does paint a bad picture of such carelessness stretching across their entire publication!
Thankfully based on Melnyk’s pass health issues one does not have to wonder too much that his death (considering his Ukrainian heritage) was in any way related to Russian shenanigans!
Another local journalist (who I believe was a more careful exponent of his trade) also passed away a few days ago.
May he and Melnyk and others who left this mortal coil rest peacefully in their faith!
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@NO
Though not intended, your contribution brought a mile to my face.
I suspect that it was a mere cut and paste job. This is in line with what I was saying earlier instead of an article based on an article in a next source, our journalists need to do more leg work.
A week financial column can touch on several topics e.g.
Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin ( I know it is a cryptocurrency; don’t rush to pat yourself on the back as you point this out to me)
Finance
Bitt
Types of insurance
Pensions
.
.
Doesn’t have to new, just relevant and informative
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@NO
This was not meant for you
“( I know it is a cryptocurrency; don’t rush to pat yourself on the back as you point this out to me)”
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@dpd
I do not subscribe to, nor follow the Nation closely. If a link is posted of interest, I’ll click on it.
But this article was listed as an Editors Pick. Not sure if every article becomes so labelled.
Subsequently, I have ‘googled’ the matter. I knew the man back in the early 80’s, and while never close, we in Bajan terms “knew each other”. I have no idea where the journalist got he was born in Ukraine, everything I googled said born in Canada.
I know his ex, Laura, has always kept a very low profile. Yet every other article I sifted through called the current lady in his life ‘companion or partner’.
So minimal research?
As the article noted correctly, he named (or his wife did) most of his many equines after locations in Bim. The one I always teased him about, was one of his more successful steeds, Flower Alley. It is Flower POT Alley, as you will know.
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Source: Nation
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Source: Nation
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Not going to try to provide a summary of what EA wrote.
My in depth analysis consisted of copying his document and putting it in MS Word. At 751 words, EA actually met his word limit.
Like him, I gone,
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Read ePaper
Home / Local News / Barbados falls in competitiveness rankings
Barbados falls in competitiveness rankings – by Marlon Madden April 2, 2022
A year after jumping into second place among Latin American and Caribbean financial centres in global competitiveness, Barbados has slumped to the second to last spot for the region and seventh from the bottom globally, according to the latest Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI).
Of the 13 financial centres named in Latin America and the Caribbean for the GFCI 31st edition, which was released at the end of last month, Barbados was ranked 12th, only ahead of Panama in the region.
Bridgetown was ranked 113th overall, out of the 119 financial centres included in this year’s rankings. This represents a fall in ranking of 23 spaces from 90th in the GFCI 30 rankings which was released in September last year. The country was ranked 64th overall and 2nd among the region in the GFCI 29 ranking, released a year ago.
The GCFI, which is published in March and September by City of London and its most respected think-tank Z/Yen, serves as one of the valuable references for policy and investment decision-makers.
It is compiled using some 150 quantitative measures, which are provided by third parties including the World Bank, the Economist Intelligence Unit, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the United Nations.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, Barbados is ranked behind Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Cayman Islands, Santiago, Bogota, the BVI, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago and Buenos Aires.
According to the report, GFCI 31 used 74,982 assessments from 11,934 respondents and the instrumental factors are combined with financial centre assessments provided by respondents to the GFCI online questionnaire.
The data on which GFCI 31 is based relate to the period up to the end of 2021. The overarching areas of competitiveness assessed include business environment, human capital, infrastructure, financial sector development and reputation.
“While we might have expected more volatility in the ratings as the world continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the broadly level ratings in the index suggests that in the last half of 2021, confidence was returning to the world economy,” the report said.
The top ten financial centres in the GFCI 31 in descending order are New York, London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Singapore, San Francisco, Beijing, Tokyo and Shenzhen.
The least ten competitive in terms of ranking in descending order are Buenos Aires, Vilnius, Riga, Barbados, Baku, Panama, Kuwait City, Xi’an, Tehran and Wuhan.
When respondents were asked to give a view on where in the world they would like to work if they needed to live and work in a different city New York heads the list. (MM
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