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2021 Auditor General Report Hits ‘Bestseller’ List, Again

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Auditor General, Leigh Trotman

The 2021 Auditor General Report is in and guaranteed to be another best seller. As usual Auditor General Mr. Leigh Trotman and team outlined a number of incomplete and questionable transaction done by our public servants.

What Barbadians can be guaranteed arising from the 2021 Auditor General Report is that the 2022 report will be more of the same. Although former Opposition Leader Bishop Joe Atherley has voiced concerns about a moribund Public Service Committee (PAC) during the current dispensation with no elected opposition in the Lower House – the question for the good Bishop is tell when has the workings of the PAC ever made a difference? Mind you the blogmaster is not disputing the fact the PAC is designed to be an important working committee in our system of governance.

Since taking the post of Auditor General in 2006, I have requested the filling

of a number of vacancies, and a few additional staff have been supplied. However, the

rate of loss of staff due to retirement, transfers or resignations has far outweighed the

number added. This has resulted in a chronic shortage of manpower, especially at the management level, and results in Executive Management having to take on additional

responsibilities, such as leading audit teams, which is not the best use of this resource.

2021 Auditor General Report

To be honest the blogmaster stopped reading after the Auditor General’s introductory comment on pages 9 and 10. What is the point of reading the same old same old that continues under BLP and DLP governments? There was high expectation given to the public by Minister Ryan Straughn in the finance ministry when the 2019 Public Finance Management Act was passed in parliament. To date state owned entities (SOEs) have largely ignored a key requirement of the ACT which is to present timely financials. We wonder why apathy, cynicism and significant disengagement by citizens continues to grow. Can we seriously describe what we practice as a relevant democratic system of government?

How can a people have confidence in any government of Barbados- including the BLP incumbent with its unprecedented 30-0 mandate- if it is unable to demonstrate an adequate financial management standard of public monies? The NIS fund and Clearwater comes to mind.

Why does the Auditor General have to repeat year after year, whether B or D government, that he does not have adequate resources to efficiently give account how public monies are spent? Instead the BLP administration had no problem establishing a Public Affairs Unit which many believe duplicates the functions of the Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS). We know why ‘dont’ we?

#tired #NTSH

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254 responses to “2021 Auditor General Report Hits ‘Bestseller’ List, Again”

  1. David Avatar
    David

    PAC CONCERN

    Atherley says absence of committee cause for ‘serious worry’
    By Colville Mounsey
    colvileemounsey@nationnews.com mailto:colvileemounsey@nationnews.com

    Former Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley says Barbadians ought to be seriously concerned about the absence of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), considering the most recent Auditor General’s report, which showed several major financial discrepancies, including the payment of $3.9 million to dead pensioners.
    Atherley was the last person to head the PAC before the Barbados Labour Party’s clean sweep of the polls earlier this year, rendering the oversight entity legally inoperable with no Opposition Leader to chair it.
    He told the Sunday Sun that even though the Auditor General has the power to take matters to the Director of Public Prosecutions, he essentially now has “one arm tied behind his back” without the backing of the PAC.
    “It really reinforces my concern over the situation relevant to the functioning of the Auditor General’s office. The office has
    an insufficient complement of staff to do their job and when they do their job, the system of Parliament which allows the Public Accounts Committee to overlook what they have done is no longer at their disposal. There is no Leader of the Opposition to head the Public Accounts Committee but even if one were to make provisions to function under the chairmanship of somebody from the Government, that will serve no purpose and will amount to nonsense,” said Atherley.
    He contended that the office of the Auditor General was already hamstrung by a host of logistical challenges, as well as the absence of legal teeth to command the cooperation of Government entities, and to be further limited by the absence of a PAC was “seriously problematic”.
    “The office of the Auditor General does not always find cooperation coming from Government entities. They find it extremely difficult to get cooperation from non-central Government entities such as the National Insurance Scheme. There are other entities who file reports late or don’t even do the reports at all, so this highlights an already deficient system,” Atherley said.
    “This situation reduces even further the level of accountability for Government. Even with a Public Accounts Committee in place when we had a 29 to one make-up of Parliament, it was not the best situation for such a committee to operate. This situation in the absence of an Opposition now makes it even worse.”
    The former Opposition Leader said the issues that have come to the fore in the recent report certainly merit further investigation by an independent body, as it has provided confirmation of suspicions that Barbadians have had all along.
    “These particular findings unearth for us what many of us have already known to go on in Government, where there are large amounts of money overpaid to people for various situations. This one speaks to reference to people who are getting benefits even though the persons who are supposed
    to be the direct beneficiary have passed on. It is troubling when relatives are still collecting.”
    Atherley’s views are in keeping with recent calls from Auditor General Leigh E. Trotman, who said he wants the authorities to consider allowing an independent senator to chair the meetings of the PAC in the absence of an Opposition Leader. He made the suggestion in his 2021 annual report, asserting that “the PAC performs an important oversight role which should not be stymied because of the current situation”.
    “The PAC legislation designates the Leader of the Opposition as the chairman. However, since there is no Leader of the Opposition, this position is vacant and there is some uncertainty on how the PAC can function. A possible solution is an amendment to the PAC Act to allow one of the independent senators to chair the meetings in the absence of a Leader of the Opposition,” Trotman said.

    Source: Nation

  2. David Avatar
    David

    @NO


    ‘No trace’ of Four Seasons proceeds
    Auditor General Leigh Trotman says that based on public records, the property housing the abandoned Four Seasons Project has been transferred to a private company but he has seen no evidence of payment related to the transaction.
    Trotman gave an update on the matter in a follow-up audit in his 2021 annual report, one year after he raised concern about $120 million related to the project being written off in 2018.
    “In respect of the sale of the property, a review of the records at the Land Registry Department indicates that the property has been conveyed to a private company. However, there is no evidence of consideration being paid,” the Auditor General reported.
    Trotman recalled that in his 2018 and 2020 reports, he “indicated that there were some concerns surrounding the accounting treatment of a loan guarantee made by the Government of Barbados through its company, Clearwater Bay Limited, in the sum of $120 million”.
    “This guarantee was in relation to the construction of the proposed Four Seasons-managed hotels and villas. The sum of $120 million had appeared in the books of the Government as a receivable for a number of years but was completely written off in 2018,” he said.
    The Auditor General also noted that he “previously indicated that enough information was not provided to my Office as to the nature of the arrangement between Clearwater Bay Limited and the developers”.
    “I also stated that, in any event, the entire $120 million should not be written off since the lands on which the project was being built were valuable; instead, the value in
    the accounts should be written down rather than to be completely written off,” he said.
    Trotman also recalled that “based on information made available to my Office, Clearwater Bay held a mortgage over the real property and after the loan was called, Government was required to honour its guarantee and a payment of $124.3 million was paid to the bank”.
    “Action was then taken by the Government company to recover the monies expended through a sale of the property,” he said.
    Trotman said in his update on the issue that “matters surrounding the sale and ownership of this property are complicated and are currently the subject of litigation which is ongoing”.
    (SC)

    Source: Nation

  3. David Avatar
    David

    Audited reports ‘still not forthcoming’
    Some state enterprises are still not meeting their legal obligation to produce annual audited accounts.
    This was one of the concerns raised by Auditor General Leigh Trotman in his annual report for 2021.
    “The agencies reported on . . . have responsibilities for providing services to the public and are responsible for the spending of hundreds of millions of public funds annually. The auditing of their accounts on an annual basis is an important aspect of good governance and accountability,” he said.
    “This process is required by law. Action therefore needs to be taken, in relation to those charged with the management of Government funds, to ensure that the audits of the accounts are completed as required by law.
    Trotman said some Government agencies “have found it challenging to bring their accounts up to date in order for them to be annually audited”.
    “It is necessary for each
    agency to carry out a review of its accounting operations to identify the challenges it faces in the preparation of its accounts and take the necessary action to remedy the deficiencies discovered,” he advised.
    The Auditor General’s Office is responsible for reporting to Parliament on the audit of the accounts of all Government agencies, including statutory bodies, funds and other controlled entities. Trotman noted, however, that “while the accounts of some of these entities are audited by my office, the majority are audited by private sector auditors”.
    “The audit of some of these accounts were substantially in arrears and the Ministry of Finance has been urging these agencies to bring these audits up to date. I can now report that some entities have improved their positions, others have sought waivers from conducting audits for some years while others are still substantially in arrears,” he said. (SC)

    Source: Nation

  4. David Avatar
    David

    Auditor General wants protection against lawsuits
    Faced with a lawsuit related to a special audit of the Barbados Water Authority, Auditor General Leigh Trotman is suggesting that legislation be considered to “minimise court actions” against his office.
    Trotman addressed the matter in his 2021 annual report and said that because it was unclear when the action would be resolved by the courts, “any discussion on this report will be placed on hold pending the decision of the courts”.
    Special audit
    He recalled that in his 2019 report “reference was made to a special audit which was conducted on the Barbados Water Authority”. “This was one of the most substantive performance audits conducted by my
    office in recent years.
    However, recent legal action has been taken against the office by a former chairman of the board,” he said.
    Regarding such lawsuits, Trotman pointed out that “in some jurisdictions there is a provision in the legislation which stipulates that any document produced in good faith by or on behalf of the Auditor General, in the course of the performance of his/her duties or functions under any Act of Parliament, is privileged.”
    “This type of amendment would minimise court actions against the Office of the Auditor General,” he said. (SC)

    Source: Nation

  5. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Sigh! What’s the point in knowing and investigating when nothing will be done to correct or hold persons to account?

    Really, what’s the point?

  6. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    Why give the Auditor General more staff: we need more senior ministers, the PM needs a Chief of Staff and some ministers on her office.
    The Auditor General, as usual is talking nonsense. Why does he need more staff.
    He is just a typical, non-productive public servant.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    When this government won office by popular acclaim, 60 and counting, the public finance management act was touted as the final act that would hold SOEs accountable, a second rh election later and what? If we can’t manage our finances efficiently what is the rh point?

    Dr. Ronnie Yearwood do you have an opinion or his your focus still absorbed with DLP internal. What about any other rh political party born or on born.

  8. angel cox Avatar
    angel cox

    It is mind boggling that the taxpayers money year after year goes unaccounted
    Govts changes and everything remains the same
    The Central Bank governor tells the country govt collects 10million from BRA
    The auditor General reports state wait a minute 6 million of that 10 million is missing
    What answer from govt officials does the taxpayers hear
    We investigating
    Instead of the Ministry in charge of that office hold a Press Conference and giving a full fledged account to the people the dribble and babble emits
    Barbados would continue to arrive closer to being called a failed state
    Nobody cares it is all about self interest
    6million today! so what! the struggling bajan household can make up the difference
    Then the voices asked how did we get here

  9. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    William….i saw the article this morning, but when time presented itself and i went looking for it again, it was gone…i take it no one wants that information out there ….but they still WANT LOCKING UP ..ALL OF THEM…..both thieves and enablers/helpers..

    “‘No trace’ of Four Seasons proceeds”

    dey tief de NIS money, claimed dey purchased de property and now de Auditor General CANNOT FIND WHERE THE MONEY WAS EVER PAID FOR IT….property is still a DUMP…but they are still lucky that has not DISAPPEARED AS WELL.

    pension paid out for over 34 deceased pensioners …OVER A 10 YEAR PERIOD

    a 6 million dollar VAT HOLE….that cannot be explained…just like the 1 billion dollar VAT HOLE they wrote off, will they write off this one too….too MUCH STEAL..

    GOOD NEWS!!!…the island is BROKE…and only IMF, CDB, IDB and every alphabet agency’s LOAN MONEY in the treasury….leh dem TIEF DAT…i can’t wait.

  10. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David

    When will it ever become clear that these systems around us are failing or have already failed, have reached their outer limits, can go no further, that the centre cannot hold.

    If there ever were a moment seeking radical transformation of everything it is here thus.

    This writer has been previously accused of seeking to tear down everything, have not built anything. Wrong on both counts.

    This perennial inability, at the centre, to effectively or efficiently, manage mundane functions, over decades, should be evidence enough thatbeverything we’ve done and are doing is antidevelopmental.

    That the only difference a Mottley will ever make is a “sameness of a sameness” even as decline, in real terms, continues at a galloping pace.

    Let us resign ourselves to the reality that the radical, radical, radical transformation needed must be imported like it always has been. Just this time the exporters themselves are just as culturally bankrupt as us.

  11. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    Are the systems failing because it is flawed or do we have the problem of an absence of integrity in the public space.

  12. TLSN Avatar
    TLSN

    “Colombia is systematically killing off its black citizens | Opinion BY FRANCE FRANCOIS

    Will black Bajans awaken from their slumber?

    https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article239352468.html

  13. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    TLSN…just as argentina did..

  14. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ WARU
    Once we concur that all of this is naked state corruption, there is nothing more that we can do. Once we continue to turn a blind eye at the real issues and only look at our own personal circumstance, while ignoring the decadence that surrounds us , we will get no where at all.
    Children live what they see. It’s no different with a state. Citizens see the corruption and political skullduggery. Once we decide to live with and accept it, there really is no hope.
    And , unfortunately , those who speak up , now face several different forms of extermination.
    Peace.

  15. angel cox Avatar
    angel cox

    Govt states is would be a grantor of 12 million for UWI
    Knowing the debt profile of the UWI and its inability to stand on firm financial backing by itself
    One wonders what colleratal /or security would govt have on hand to secure the 12million if the UWI cannot pay the debt
    This is a govt that promised transparency and accountability however these recurring instances of govt creating large debt profiles absence of transparency and accountability is frightening

  16. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    That’s really the WHOLE plan..

    saw where these stinking tourists, women included and particularly, are going into Kenya to have sex with children as young as 10 years old for money….the Afrikan leaders gotta start deporting these pedophile bitches daily…..

    “Until its regional partners stop ignoring the exploitation and violence against Black people that has defined Colombia for centuries, Colombia will continue to pursue the goal of being a “country with black food, black music, and black dance to attract tourism and investments.

    But without black people.”

  17. John A Avatar
    John A

    I would like a little pick as a cashier at BRA please. Who I got to apply to cause i willing to work for $100 a week once the systems for handling the cash stay as is.

    Also dont worry bout the backpack i does bring work dat got in my lunch! LOL

  18. David Avatar
    David

    Steuspe

  19. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    One of the lesser efforts from this Office. Many pages could be condensed into a single chart on the stage of reporting of the various public entities. If there are NO REPORTS then there is nothing to audit?
    The legal situation on the BWA audit is worrying.
    And lol…the AudGen would like there to be consequences if persons fail to produce information as requested by his office….Boss that means accountability, that is for others not for we. We will starve you of the information you require, what you going to do then…lol
    All ah we got rights you know!!!
    You can’t touch we 😆😆😆

  20. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    “Children live what they see. It’s no different with a state. Citizens see the corruption and political skullduggery. ”

    and participated in it as the new and ACCEPTABLE NORMAL, groupies still ENABLE IT…….that’s all they have ever known, corruption…and all the evil that trails it..and has become a comfort zone….we see a hold ya head moment and then ..”oh well, it happens everywhere,an we cahn do nutten bout it.”

    we have established that they are not ready and never will be…..but many, many thousands have opened their eyes over this last decade, our work was NOT IN VAIN…..no one was waiting for the others, still not, don’t need them for anything..

  21. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Please EXPLAIN to BU how “the Ministry in charge of that department (could) hold a Press Conference and give a full fledged account to the people,”……

    …… BEFORE or WITHOUT conducting an investigation?

  22. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    The systems are failing because we have reached the end of the project called “Life On Earth”.
    We have had our ‘three-score-and-ten’, and the time for the eulogy is at hand.

    “End of life” has ALWAYS been a time of chaos, dramatic change, and sorrow. Why would this be any different? … and why would it NOT be global?
    Wunna could get all the shiite doctors (like David Thompson did); all the cuntsultants (like Mia did); all the CSME (like Arthur tried…. the DOG STILL DEAD!!

    TIME IS UP!!!
    Face it.
    The only question now is the eulogy to be read by the Project Manager….
    So far, it goes like this…

    What a set of brass bowl clowns….
    Imagine, I set before them two options –
    1 – Righteousness, Do what you KNOW is RIGHT. Love GOD, who created every shiite… Love those around you – be unselfish, help those in need, BE COMMUNITY CENTRIC……

    2 – Or you can focus on personal wealth and power like the albino centric have done so ‘successfully’. Be greedy, it is the path to great wealth. Be selfish, no one is more important than yourself. Be callous, don’t waste pity on the desperate ‘chaff’, focus on joining the1% who are successful and wealthy. BECOME TRUE ALBINO-CENTRICS.

    …would you believe they CHOOSE to go for the ‘wealth and power’ OVER the ‘LOVE and community focus’?
    Did they not see that material wealth and power is nothing but a temporary ILLUSION? ….while love and community is EVERLASTING? How blind can a BB be?

    WHAT CAN WE NOW DO WITH THESE USELESS BRASS BOWLS?
    – besides cremation?
    – we will melt their donkeys in a big fire and start all over with a new project….. hopefully with more intelligent BBs

  23. John A Avatar
    John A

    Who said that being a government working is not rewarding? You just got to work at BRA and you will disprove that.

    It just amazes me that a place handling that much cash does not balance its takings to the take every day. If that simple check was done the ” shortfall” would of been found immediately. That is common practice in any business handling cash even a bread shop.

  24. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Agree with NO about a simple table listing all the SOEs and outstanding years. Give Leigh his staff. However, he can’t want to lock up public servants for non-performance but then be absolved from civil suits being brought against him for defaming people. The current situation is not the first time a public servant had plans to put Leigh in court.

  25. David Avatar
    David

    Wasn’t BRA established to rationalize the collection of government revenues?

    Where are we with achieving this objective?

  26. angel cox Avatar
    angel cox

    Good morning
    The Minister of Cherry Picking has arrived dot yuh i’s and cross yuh t’s

  27. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Wuh cherries yuh like picking Minister of Cherrypicking? Idiocy?🤣🤣🤣🤣

  28. TheOgazerts Avatar
    TheOgazerts

    @Donna
    “Sigh! What’s the point in knowing and investigating when nothing will be done to correct or hold persons to account?

    Really, what’s the point?”

    Do I detect a note of frustration with the system?
    Couldn’t the same question be asked of many of the things that we do. Elections that can be likened to replacing a battery in a searchlight. Talk of reform and nothing changes. Really, What’s the point.

  29. Alvin Cummins Avatar
    Alvin Cummins

    2022-minus 2018 = 4 years in office and counting, same result zero achievement….Almost like Eric William’s 10 -1=0
    Boots.

  30. TheOgazerts Avatar
    TheOgazerts

    “Dr. Ronnie Yearwood do you have an opinion or his your focus still absorbed with DLP internal.”

    They boast and rejoice about 61-0. They predict a 91-0. They point to the death and lack of relevance of the DLP; every time they hit a bump, they call on the nonexistent and powerless DLP to provide an answer. Ignore ‘Ronnie Obama’ and ask tough questions of the 61-0.

    (They is a plural and do not refer to just a single person)

  31. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    TLSN…interestingly, that same topic was on another forum yesterday, not surprised by what is being discovered. The end game.

  32. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David

    Is there not a symbiosis between people and the systems we create?

    Therefore both people and systems are failing miserably.

  33. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    Than as Bush Tea continues to say – the dog dead. Pack your bags and go home.

  34. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    ” Give Leigh his staff. However, he can’t want to lock up public servants for non-performance but then be absolved from civil suits being brought against him for defaming people. The current situation is not the first time a public servant had plans to put Leigh in court.”

    Not surprise that you would prefer to haul the AG into court instead of correcting obvious problems in the system. It would be interesting to know how many follow through on their threat of going to court? Are they like the dog that howls when it is hit and then limps off quietly into the night.

  35. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Enuff 08 27

    We fail to see the relationship between those two variables

    With people like you around with a party first mentality collapse is certain😀

  36. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David

    That is one option. The preferred option is to ruthlessly attack causation

    This is the very reason the Roman Empire constructed the dictator.

    Dictatorships are not all bad. But your fake democracy is deceptive.

    And have we not made progress in the dictatorial realm. Make good use of it.

    Life serves up a dictator, make lemonade😁

  37. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    Who has the responsibility of last resort to attack ‘causation’.

  38. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    Than as Bush Tea continues to say – the dog dead. Pack your bags and go home.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Boss, Bushie ALSO had a say on this this morning …but it seems to have beed censored by albino-centric forces…

  39. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David
    Not your amorphous “people”.

    Within the Roman Empire, where the antecedents lie, when their democracy failed or was deemed insufficient to deal with existential problems the Ceasars assumed dictatorial powers. The senate was made virtually powerless. When order was restored democracy was again made effective.

    Your undying attempts to generalize causation, responsibility, to the powerless masses has no historical precedent for a solution. Especially when the people have already acted, as best they could, and have twice elected The Dictator.

  40. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    Anticipated your cop out move. Yawn.

  41. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David
    Touche

    And it is yours to do that which is now so very popular amongst your acolytes in the West – the projection of your own failures of imagination unto to others.

    Dictatorship and “democracy” have always been bedfellows. Stop the pretense! Or suspend the self imposed ignorance!

  42. David Avatar
    David

    What is that famous quote Pacha? Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the alternatives.

    Over to you.

  43. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    There you go again. Are there no other people on whose sayings you can rely as failure in looking you in the face.

    China is certainly not what you we will deem to be a democracy and it has been eating your lunch, bringing 800 million out of extreme poverty in 30 years.

    Is it not time to forget people like Edmund Burke et al?

  44. David Avatar
    David

    @Pacha

    What is the trade off for the progress of China? What about pollution levels? What about human rights issues? What about personal freedoms? Nothing man made is perfect.

  45. 555dubstreet Avatar
    555dubstreet

    “With people like you around with a party first mentality collapse is certain😀”

    if people stopped supporting parties blogging all day long and posting arguments on their behalf, then parties would have to up their game and standards would improve.
    Instead of blind support make both sides work harder to get your vote.
    One anonymous troll cannot change a thing anyway and many trolls encourage the nut jobs like Trump and Johnson.

  46. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Theo + Pacha
    Wuh this got to do with party? The lawsuit was filed in relation to happenings under the DLP and back then I said I wasn’t surprise. If it were party, I would be rejoicing. So I stand by my point, no Auditor General should publish misleading information that tarnishes people’s reputation and face no consequences. Professionalism is professionalism–get your facts straight before publishing so that it can stand up to any legal challenge. Wunna feel the PRDS set up in the Auditor General office and wukkin?

  47. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    The collapse is HERE…

    no amount of pretending can stop it…

  48. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    David

    Your arguments, all four, constructed through Western eyes and predicated on the misnomer that somehow the West must determine and has been the standard by which democracy is judged. We fail to recognize that premise to be true.

    At your centers of false democracies, with Whiteness characteristics, do we not still have the vestiges of chattel slavery, are Black people not still slaves in your dungeons, even in Barbados.

    And if democracy is to be an economic system, like this writer contends, why do wealth distribution patterns continue to represent such distortions – across the board?

    Have you ever wondered how democracy and imperialism or colonialism or neoliberalism can be said to comfortably coexist?

    On pollution, it is your first Industrial Revolution of 300 years ago, circa, which gave us this phenomenon. Indeed, while China has massively increased its own pollution, it remains the case that Western powers over these many years have done far more damage to The Pachamama. China was a very poor country until 40 years ago.

    On human rights, the canard that the West has anything to teach us about this is dated. Don’t you see that human rights discourses are used instrumentally by the West as a weapon in support of hegemony. It’s best friends are dictatorships. Biden goes to Saudi Arabia this week to bow to a murderous dictator. Anybody in Saudi who even talks publicly about an election is killed immediately. Remember Kashshogi!

    David. This writer has been to China. You talk about personal freedoms as if hosting a mind fully propagandized by Western none sense. Also lived in Western capitals. No Chinese person is afraid of the police. The society treats the police as the servants of the people. This writer knows that death is likely in any interaction with Western cops.

    We agree. No system will ever be perfect but the West are the ones continually insisting that their view of reality is the only one there has been, is to be forever, not the Chinese. Even as Western systems of oppression continue to decay.

    David, yuh dead! Lay down nuh!

  49. David Avatar
    David

    Unlike you Pacha the blogmaster subscribes to a view democracy must be a socio-economic system. No system designed to govern humans should be purely an “economic system “.

  50. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    “Idiocy?”

    Enuff

    As a certain man said, some individuals are “like the dog that howls when it is hit, and then limps off quietly into the night.”
    But, there will always be a particular dog that “howls when it is hit,” and, rather than “limping off quietly in the night,” they would remain to make an idiot of him/herself…… only to continually ‘start over’ the ‘hitting and howling process.’

    ‘Idiocy’ causes some people to do some silly things, such as if anyone spits they would lap it up.

    Perhaps they could be best described as ‘clowns’ 🤡 🤡 🤡.

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