For as long as BU has been around there has been concern expressed about the shamble state of travel in the region. The HoGs are quick to remind us CARICOM/CSME is contingent on free movement of people. To be fair, some progress has been made by amending entry requirements to allow citizens from member states to visit for leisure and work, however, facilitating physical movement whether by air or sea remains a hindrance. The financial weight and mismanagement of LIAT finally caused it to crash. Today the region is without a viable and dependable means of regional transport for people and cargo.
It was interesting to listen to Minister of Tourism uttering words this week about a “high-level- vision for Barbados’ tourism sector with special mention the role of aviation. There is talk about creating a Barbados Aviation Centre of Excellence leading to Barbados being a cargo hub along with repair maintenance and other related activities. The eye opener was when she mentioned of a vision to establish a regional carrier using Singapore Airlines as a model. It goes without saying Barbados will have to push to acquire CAT 1 designation, something BU has posted on for many years. Without CAT 1 designation an airline based in Barbados would not be able to acquire permissions to land in US and other key countries important to flying important air routes.
The blogmaster agrees conceptually Barbados and regional governments must do a better job to smooth the environment to encourage transportation solutions from private sector. With the demise of LIAT it has brought the matter to a head and there must be a sense of urgency IF the HoGs are committed to a working common market. Maybe the leadership of CARICOM lacks the vision to mirror the OECS who has demonstrated the benefits of a working union. It is ironic the OECS are members of umbrella group CARICOM. The attraction of being a big fish in a small pond continues to feed the megalomania of leaders in the region.
In the OECS ferry services have been used as a transportation option for years. Why has the region been unable to enhance the model to include other countries with a view to create a viable sea transportation option? It is 2022 and what can be honestly stated about the state of regional travel?
Here is a perspective from BU family member Artax:
After the demise of the ‘Windward,’ which used to sail between BGI and SLU…… BGI and SVG, ‘every other week,’ there has been several discussions about a ferry service that would include other regional territories.
In 2018, the World Bank recommended a ferry service that would transport people, vehicles and goods from North to the South of the Caribbean, after completing a preliminary study.
The Bank was also recommended private sector participation be sought in developing the ferry service.In August 2016, the Daily Nation reported ,that a company registered in Barbados called, ‘Caribbean Ferry Service,’ was in the process of finalising paperwork to operate two vessels, ‘The Dream Jet Express’ and ‘The Opal Jet Express,’ for travel and cargo through the region,
The service was supposed to be initially accessible to passengers from BGI, SVG and SLU. And, eventually, other islands would’ve been added to the itinerary.I can understand ferry services between Antigua and Montserrat; St. Lucia and Martinique; St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius; Dominica and Guadeloupe…… because those islands are in close proximity to each other.
However, I question the viability of operating a service between Barbados and Anguilla, for example. Or, from Trinidad to Jamaica.
Artax
David
Centrally, this is a failure of the capitalist, “big” moguls classes in the region. Real capitalists solve these problems without government assistence every time. And without which development is not viable is the mantra, the business culture.
Aided by the cowardice political-managerial elites within an era where space travel is passe the countries within might as well be as if Jupiter.
@Pacha
Yours maybe a simplistic assessment. These little countries in the region have regulations governing their waters/air space etc.
The Bu is full to the brim of doom and gloom above and below the line, what a bummer man
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David
If money could have been made all those regulations would have been long harmonized.
It is because they are no higher than average profits possible is why we have all kinds of borders. Political constructs.
And why don’t we have a developed corporate culture inform by the desires of the region’s peoples?
We answer – a backward mercantile class wrongly enabled.
Maybe you are correct Pacha, who knows.
@ Pacha
We keep hearing these jokers talk about government and private ventures. It’s all nonsense. As you have correctly stated , when closely examined, we see the governments end up holding the bag and the taxpayers underwriting the failures.
We note what has happened to the marijuana ventures. Let us see what happens to the energy ventures and then let us see what happens to the privatization of the sugar industry.
Note how SAGICOR is positioning itself with the energy effort. Watch very carefully and you would note it’s the same old same old.
Everything now said must be taken with a grain or pound of salt. Half truths and lies are the order of the day. Dazzling the gullible with BS is the norm.
More to come
Peace.
“A ferry that sound like a LIAT at sea.”
John A
I was thinking similarly.
Private sector participation in a ferry service may allow market forces to dictate fares…… unless regional governments subsidise operating costs.
Eventually, we may have a situation similar to what occurred with LIAT and Allan Stanford’s Caribbean Star Airlines.
Remember, Stanford introduced CSA and Caribbean Sun Airlines, both of which were in direct competition with LIAT.
Caribbean Star and Caribbean Sun advertised airfares that were significantly lower than what LIAT was offering, causing the airline to reduce fares to remain competitive.
Obviously, the airline would have been operating ‘at a loss,’ which was more or less ‘camouflaged’ by shareholder governments’ subsides, loans, investments….. or whatever they choose to call it.
Subsequently, in 2007, Caribbean Star and Sun merged with LIAT, with Stanford eventually transferring five (5) Bombardier Dash 8 Q300 aircraft to LIAT.
This essentially meant taxpayers of LIAT shareholder governments were, as the saying goes, ‘left holding the bag.’
We’ve been hearing talk about a regional ferry service, as far as I could remember, since the mid 1990s.
And, we haven’t seen anything materialize thus far……. only more talk.
” Watch very carefully and you would note it’s the same old same old.
Everything now said must be taken with a grain or pound of salt. Half truths and lies are the order of the day. Dazzling the gullible with BS is the norm.
More to come”
102 years worth of lies and cover ups……more will take you to 202 YEARS,,,if the people allow it…
William…don’t mind them, their colonial masters don’t give a shit about them right about now, they are fair game instead of having the freedom to GAME AFRIKAN PEOPLE…into another 100 years of oppression and bondage..
https://youtu.be/ZqXC22fRCBE
Even the highly conservative Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in an article by Alex Vershinin. The Return to Industrial War, demonstrates that the West is as weak as a spider’s web.
More Putin deckie in their pedantic crotch.
William…don’t mind them, their colonial masters don’t give a shit about them right about now, they are fair game instead of having the freedom to GAME AFRIKAN PEOPLE…into another 100 years of oppression and bondage..
Xxxxxxx
BLACK PEOPLE CAN’T DEPEND ON THEIR LEADERS WHETHER IN THE CARIBBEAN OR AFRICA WHO ARE ALL CORRUPT AND FIRST PRIORITY IS TO MAKE THEMSELVES WEALTHY.
I HAVE MET MANY AFRICANS FROM CAMEROON, NIGERIA, SOMALIA, UGANDA ETC WHO FLED THEIR COUNTRY SEEKING ASYLUM IN THE USA. I HAVE LISTENED TO HORROR STORIES AFTER HORROR STORIES PERPETUATED BY THEIR BLACK LEADERS TO THE MASSES.
WE LIVE IN A SICK AND DEPRAVED WORLD.
Nothing but jokes
Vincy says he got a plan for a new regional airline
Now more long talk about a ferry
Still awaiting the fishing agreement
Bunch of jokers managing these small islands
Mia tell he people Barbados gonna warehouse the food supplies coming out of Guyana whenever if ever
But don’t tell the people the transportation cost it would take
Bunch of jokers taking small island people fuh fools
The IMF gives Barbados the green.light to borrow but Barbados doesn’t have a poo to pee in which can be used as collateral for the debt
Govt says road repairs in st. Joseph to start next week and Straughn says the final agreement on the Chinese loan is July 1st
Bunch of jokers in control of small island economies
It’s apparently become a disease with black leaders…they are drawn to not look after their people, they must be on
a sell out stage at all times……a stain from the continent that has escalated around the fools with nonsense titles in the west…..because there is so much false status, fake elitism, and fake prestige as a barrier to seeing reality… they all end up the same way, check out Zuma, one of the best examples to date of the mental weakness that brings them down to their knees all the time……don’t even know why they bother….ya would think they are immune to it after all this time, but apparently it all still seems new to them, although none of it has ever or will ever impress me…
.since the ones on the tiny isle are now exposed everywhere as the most dangerous, corrupt thieves who ever visited the earth….don’t know how they will ever shake off that hard fought for designation now following them around..
this time is differentm we know what they have done……. and as they want others to think for them, during this chaos where everyone must STAND INDEPENDENT, not dependent, to survive, they will get exactly what they deserve……plus they are yeah DEEP IN DEBT that they created themselves…..so happy i don’t know these losers.
The time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in fiction whereby characters re-experience a span of time which is repeated, sometimes more than once, with some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition.
Time is the Master
Taxpayers left “holding the bag” is all that will ever come of private/ public sector failed ventures. That is for sure!
I’ll believe that regional transportation problems will be solved when it happens and not before.
“Blah blah blah blah blah blah,” is all my brain registers.
@ angela cox June 23, 2022 5:14 PM
Ac, why are you so desperately hard on your motley muttley-like administration?
Isn’t it merely carrying on with the same projects your DLP administration put in the pipeline of the wacky races of dastardly consultancies and greasy palm kickbacks involving the abuse of taxpayers’ money?
Why bother to sell Barbados to the Chinese when they could have accessed the US$ 270 million still lying idle in the bank which your man Stinkliar borrowed from the Japanese to revive the dying sugar industry; the same now dead industry which MAM is preparing form embalming?
Do you really expect such an expensive ferry service could ever set sail in your lifetime when the Hyatt erection for a Lighthouse (with a similar sum of investment on the table) can’t even spot a moses in the Carlisle bay for the past 5 years?
Here is the bet:
The Four Season project will be resuscitated and those lovely villas now occupied by the monkeys will be (re)sold to rich Brits before Barbados gets a brand new Federal Maple-cum-Palm solar-panel-driven ‘ferry’ service under the consultancy of Persuadie.
So on which outcome will you be placing your money?
Heads you lose (your weave); tails Persaudie perseveres in bilking (financially screwing) the taxpayers of poor Bulbadus!
Now where is that project implementation super guy called the fully-vaccinated-deal-making Malmoney when his patriotic investments are needed most?
“The IMF gives Barbados the green.light to borrow but Barbados doesn’t have a poo to pee in which can be used as COLLATERAL for the debt…..”
~~~~~~~~~~
🤣 😂 🤣 😂 🤣
Nah….. too easy
@ Miller
“Why bother to sell Barbados to the Chinese when they could have accessed the US$ 270 million still lying idle in the bank which your man Stinkliar borrowed from the Japanese to revive the dying sugar industry; the same now dead industry which MAM is preparing form embalming?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Surely you jest.
That is a comment that Bushie would expect from Dribbles. But you (of all people) must know that the REASONS given for these various loans are just shiite talk designed to placate the yard fowls and Brass Bowls.
The damn money is borrowed to keep the wheels of the duopoly turning …with salaries, allowances, consultants and trips.
Do you think the IMF or Chinese would lend us a cent if they were told that the money was to fund free houses for squatters or to pay constituents to weed the gutters?
This has been going on for YEARS.
1 Apply for a large loan for something that SOUNDS useful (Climate Change / Road works, Alternative Energy…)
2 Pass some to friends and insiders via ‘consultancies’ finders fees and contracts.
3 Some shiite issue then delays the ‘project’ (Pier Head, Andrews, Four Seasons…) and everything goes quiet….
4 Money disappears into the Consolidated (Black Hole) Fund.
Next Phase – Apply for the same loan (with new name and location) and the process starts all over…
The lenders know the game too. But they are waiting for bigger fish….
Minister of Tourism and International Transport Senator Lisa Cummins has suggested that the Singapore Airlines model be emulated to create a regional carrier and that a private-public sector partnership be used to fund it.
+++++++
Here we go again Ms Cummins is supposed to be one of the “bright lights” in the Cabinet but yet seems to be bereft of original thinking, is she one of those people who believes that mentioning the word “Singapore” in any discussion automatically means that the idea has merit or can be adopted?
Barbados is unlike Singapore, our history, people, culture, laws, religion is dissimilar to Singapore and history may prove me wrong but from this corner I believe that we will never be able to emulate the success that Singapore has achieved.
I see very little difference between a Mia led government and that of of South Africa’s when led by Zuma. Why waste words to explain what is evident to all. Bush Tea’s above comments directed at Miller are a stripped down version of why Barbados has become a failed state. If a human being is carrying a parasite within their body it has to be expelled. If not, it will claim the life of that human.
I see very little difference between a Mia led government and that of of South Africa’s when led by Zuma.
You have no evidence of corruption with Mia but are tarring and feathering her and other black leaders with your ignorance like a repetitive retard petard
There are REAMS of paper evidence of MASSIVE CORRUPTION in both political parties….within the last 100 years, this did not start yesterday….they cannot escape or run and hide from it…
“If a human being is carrying a parasite within their body it has to be expelled. If not, it will claim the life of that human.”
they are all POSSESSED and carrying parasites of selloutism, criminality and curses..
TLSN…they are at the crossroads…interesting to see which direction they take, knowing them……
“REAMS of paper evidence of MASSIVE CORRUPTION in both political parties….within the last 100 years”
Mathematics
both parties were formed less than 100 years ago
(but you still can say ‘within’ for smaller numbers)
(eg “MASSIVE CORRUPTION in both political parties….within the last 1000 years”)
Mathematics / Mos Def
Bucka, bucka, bucka, bucka, bucka, bucka
Ha ha
You know the deal
It’s just me, yo
Beats by Su-Primo for all of my people, Negros and Latinos
And even the gringos
Yo, check it one for Charlie Hustle, two for Steady Rock
Three for the forth-coming live future shock
It’s five dimensions, six senses
Seven firmaments of Heaven to Hell, eight million stories to tell
Nine planets faithfully keep in orbit
With the probable tenth, the universe expands length
The body of my text posses extra strength
Power-lift the powerless up, out of this, towering inferno
My ink so hot it burn through the journal
I’m blacker than midnight on Broadway and Myrtle
Hip-hop past all your tall social hurdles
Like the nationwide projects, prison-industry complex
Working class poor better keep your alarm set
Streets too loud to ever hear freedom ring
Say evacuate your sleep, it’s dangerous to dream
For ch-ching cats get they cha-paow, you dead now
Killing fields need blood to graze the cash cow
It’s a number game, but shit don’t add up somehow
Like I got, sixteen to thirty-two bars to rock it
But only fifteen percent of profits, ever see my pockets like
Sixty-nine billion in the last twenty years
Spent on national defense but folks still live in fear like
Nearly half of America’s largest cities is one-quarter black
That’s why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack
Sixteen ounces to a pound, twenty more to a key
A five minute sentence hearing and you no longer free
Forty percent of Americans own a cell phone
So they can hear, everything that you say when you ain’t home
I guess, Michael Jackson was right, you are not alone
Rock your hardhat black ’cause you in the Terrordome
Full of hard niggas, large niggas, dice tumblers
Young teens and prison greens facing life numbers
Crack mothers, crack babies and AIDS patients
Young bloods can’t spell but they could rock you at PlayStation
This new math is whipping motherfuckers’ ass
You wanna know how to rhyme you better learn how to add
It’s mathematics
Yo, it’s one universal law but two sides to every story
Three strikes and you biddin’ for life, mandatory
Four MC’s murdered in the last four years
I ain’t trying to be the fifth one, the millennium is here
Yo, it’s six million ways to die from the seven deadly thrills
Eight-year olds getting found with 9 mill’s
It’s ten P.M., where your seeds at? What’s the deal?
He on the hill pumpin’ krills to keep they bellies filled
Light in the ass with heavy steel, sights on the pretty shit in life
Young soldiers trying to earn they next stripe
When the average minimum wage is $5.15
You best believe you gotta find a new ground to get C.R.E.A.M
The white unemployment rate is nearly more than triple for black
So front liners got they gun in your back
Bubbling crack, jewel theft and robbery to combat poverty
And end up in the global jail economy
Stiffer stipulations attached to each sentence
Budget cutbacks but increased police presence
And even if you get out of prison still living
Join the other five million under state supervision
This is business, no faces just lines and statistics
From your phone, your zip code, to SSI digits
The system break man, child and women into figures
Two columns for who is and who ain’t niggas
Numbers is hard and real and they never have feelings
But you push too hard, even numbers got limits
Why did one straw break the camel’s back? Here’s the secret
The million other straws underneath it, it’s all mathematics
Nothing to worry yuh head
China on the move transportation land sea and airport would be good for the taking
Barbados have a govt that wheels and deal out of the eyes of the people
Transparency and accountability be dammed
Xxxxxx
$256.6m project needs clarity
by John Beale
Yes, The Scotland District is in dire need of development.
It is also very encouraging to note that the government is finally taking action as stated by the Acting Prime Minister, Santia Bradshaw, and pronouncements of the Minister of Labour and Social Partnership Relations, Colin Jordan and Minister Ryan Straughn in the Ministry of Finance.
All the ministers expressed their satisfaction on the attractive terms that the government was able to borrow from the Export-Import Bank of China for the Scotland District Road Rehabilitation Project.
While we appreciate the importance of developing the Scotland District, we trust that a thorough analysis (including investment possibilities) has been done to justify spending these funds at this time. In addition, has there been a study regarding the cost of road maintenance and the life expectancy of the new roads, given the high rainfall and soil movement- including soil creep and slippage? Such a large investment with an unknown life expectancy will need other activities to promote faster returns in order to compensate for the shorter life expectancy of the investment.
One such example would have been Tom Adam’s “vision” of an East Coast Road running continuously all the way to a Conset Bay and College Savannah which would have attracted more tourists.
The concessional loan in the amount of $256.6 million with interest at 2 per cent per year having a tenure of 20 years and a grace period of five years appears attractive.
However, it should be noted that there is also a Commitment fee of 0.25 per cent per annum on the undisbursed balance. In addition, there is a Management fee of 0.25 per cent of $641,530.00 paid by the first disbursement. However, these fees are quite reasonable.
What is of concern is the announced five-year grace period on debt repayment that is really not technically true.
According to the resolution approved by the House of Assembly, the five-year grace period is “from the effective date of the agreement”. It is NOT from when the full loan is drawn down. Likewise, the disbursement period is “48 months (four years) from the effective date of the agreement.”
It would be appropriate to know what is the total project cost of the project and how long it will take to execute it in a realistic timeframe. Experience has shown that too many government projects are not executed on time and often funds cannot be drawn because the conditions precedent have not been met.
A project like the Scotland District requires time to execute and for the development to mature and generate economic results. Hence there is a significant lag between the signing of a loan agreement and the start and completion of this project.
This project cannot be expected to generate funds to repay interest and debt installments until several years after it is completed. Hence the five-year grace period should NOT start at the signing of the agreement. I also assume that the interest payments during the grace period will be met from some other government source.
It is noted that the governing law is China which I imagine was at the Chinese insistence and is understandable but it would have been better if it could have been in a neutral country such as the US.
The other aspects that need further explanations are: It appears that the main contractor is a Chinese company, China National Complete Plant Import—Company (COMPLANT) that specialises in construction and engineering. Once again, I assume this was a condition of the Chinese.
Hopefully our experience has been excellent with this company because they are the main contractor at the Sam Lord’s project. Will the equipment required for the project also be brought from China and what percentage of the workers will be Bajan? John Beale is a former Investment Officer at the World Bank group and an International banker.
Dumbville got his own Malta expo bouncing all around cyberspace…..lawd..
it will be quite the road show when it really gets going…man dey even got his 2/9/2023 release date out there, dat is real soon yuh, he will be back in the fold before ya know it…..and for who is interested in his Myami registration details….dat dere too…
Gonsalves put on Blast
Scolding for Gonsalves
VINCENTIAN PRIME MINISTER CHASTISED FOR BLAMING LIAT’S FATE ON PILOTS
Present and former LIAT pilots have hit out at one of the shareholder government leaders of the airline over recent remarks he made concerning the workers’ roles in the company’s collapse.
The administrators of the Leeward Islands Airlines Pilots Association (LIALPA) are protesting comments made by St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, that the staff are to blame for the airline’s demise.
“The Leeward Islands Airlines Pilots Association (LIALPA) is disappointed and saddened by the unfortunate comments made by the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and Grenadines, The Honourable Dr. Ralph Gonsalves recently in the media,” said the association in a statement issued on Monday.
“You have been silent for virtually two years and in your first address, you found it most fitting to chastise the workers in their time of need. We view the notion that the workers are to be blamed for the failure of the airline as inaccurate and a cheap shot,” LIALPA declared.
The pilots contended that the airline has always been “tumultuous” for reasons beyond the staff’s control.
“What should be of supreme importance to you sir, and the other shareholder prime ministers during these unprecedented times of financial fallout for workers, is to collectively solve the issue of owed entitlements to the terminated workers,” the representative body for the LIAT pilots pointed out. “Terminated workers have been on the breadline since April 2020 and are in dire straits.
“We are forced to remind you sir, as far back as 2013 in the Beverly Sinclair interview on Time to Talk in Grenada, you told Ms Sinclair that LIAT is not an ordinary business and without it we could not get from one island to another,” the LIALPA recalled. “Lastly, you created the rationale that we were lucky if it broke even. In at least three of the last audits conducted, the directors of the board – some of whom you have appointed – admitted that the airline was insolvent,” the statement said.
The bargaining agent for the pilots noted, however, that the directors were guaranteed that the shareholders would support, finance, and amend laws to keep the airline operating.
“The workers were not responsible for the high taxes on tickets, the scheduling of unprofitable routes, the selection of various management, the costly selection of the ATR aircraft, the hangar fire which destroyed vital technical historical records for the aircraft and for the hurricanes which ravaged the region,” LIALPA argued.
The pilots’ body also recalled that in a 2019 meeting in Barbados between the shareholders and unions to discuss the state of the airline, a request for a pay cut of 10 per cent was made to the union “LIALPA agreed to a six per cent cut, but the proposal was ultimately refused by the company and viewed as not being sufficient. Whose fault was that? At that time Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua & Barbuda stated that ‘you could not ask the workers to give more’, [and that] ‘a partial pay cut was better than none’,’” the LIAT pilots’ staff association recalled.
“The workers suggested baggage fees which are common in the airline industry [and] that was flatly refused by you. Other Prime Ministers have also made comments such as ‘LIAT has 10 days of cash left’ which severely impacted the confidence of travelers. Two former Prime Ministers of Barbados asked the company not to retrieve the funds from CLICO and instead of the company doing the right thing to protect the workers’ interests, they gave in to political pressure and left the money in CLICO,” LIALPA claimed.
The organisation asked: “Where is CLICO today and who was involved in the protection of that company?”
LIALPA contended that every step of the way the workers had remained loyal while making “many” sacrifices with regard to delayed salaries, other outstanding monies, no pay increases, and the disregarding of workers’ rights through the years. “Despite these impediments, these issues did not hamper our drive to be one of the safest airlines in the region if not in the Western Hemisphere. LIAT had an envious safety record transporting yourself, other Prime Ministers, citizens and tourists alike. Now, to be discarded as used and spent entities,” LIALPA added.
The association accused Gonsalves of showing no empathy for the plight of the LIAT workers.
“We don’t need platitudes… We need leadership from the four shareholder prime ministers,” the statement said.
The representative group urged the LIAT shareholders to take a leaf out of the book of St Lucian Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre who honoured payments to the St Lucian former workers. (EJ)