The reaction by Barbadians to two more murders on the weekend evoked a predictable response – the AG should resign, what has gone wrong with our young people blah blah blah. The confirmation from the Barbados Police Service one of the men murdered was out on bail for 3 separate murders and the other well known to the ‘system’ added to the tongue wagging. The defense lawyers will argue a key tenet of jurisprudence is the presumption of innocence.
Two important considerations that are always consumed by predictable narratives at this time are parental delinquency and rehabilitation of incarcerated citizens . From where the blogmaster is perched there are no adequate mechanisms to support the two concerns which are at the root of what is causing young men and an increasing number of girls to fall through the cracks. The result is an unacceptable rate of recidivism. If there is a breakdown in the home and family unit, and the problem is made more acute by a system that pays lip service to rehabilitation of victims then society must take blame. A disproportionate focus on enforcement – which is important – will not move the needle to prevent crime in Barbados. A dysfunctional society will always be the root of the problem.
Barbados Murder Statistics 2017 to 2022
The recent surge in gun play in Barbados has been featured prominently in the media over the last few days (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here).
On July 8, the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, The Honourable Dale Marshall, addressed this, and related matters, during a press conference (see here). During the presser, the AG also shared some statistics relating to murders and firearms between 2017 and present day:
“In 2017, of those 30 murders, 16 have been solved so far. In 2018, of the 28 murders, 19 have been solved, that 19 amounts to 68 per cent. In 2019, 27 of the 48 murders reported were solved; that’s 56 per cent. Of the 41 murders committed in 2020, 26 or 63 per cent have been solved [and] in 2021, 23 or 72 per cent of the 32 murders were solved. And for this year, of the 17 murders thus far, 10 have been cleared up and some of those have only happened in the last few weeks,” the Attorney General disclosed.
Source: Barbados Government Information Service
As a Barbadian citizen and resident, the topic of crime and violence (especially gun related) is of great importance and a worry to me. However, the majority – if not all of my posts – rarely deal with my personal views and opinions. As a data analyst on the other hand, I try to focus on what is being reported (in terms of facts, figures, et cetera), and collecting, compiling and analyzing said data and information. I was therefore excited when the AG shared some statistics which I will now look at below.
Read more @caribbeansignal.com
I need no reminder, David. The two sick scholars are on their own.
@Donna
Good.
Northern…i liked that post….colonists did a great job of dividing everyone and stinking up the earth with falsehoods and crooks….but don’t fear, we have moved from the physical into the spiritual space….where those deceits don’t work…problem is, not many believe in the spiritual, so they must end everything where they are most comfortable…= THEY ARE STUCK…
saw a video this morning where an 11-year-old British kid took the WEF to task and let them know straight up that creatures and monsters from a bygone era will not control their lives or future EVER….she was very forceful and told those old, raggedy dying snakes off….so what we were unable to do in the way of shaking and upending the murderous status quo……the children are ready willing and able to destroy all crimes against humanity…..and the perpetrators too..
NO sounds like you were just starting in business after you got some experience you should have realized that Christians eat fish on fridays and feed on everyone else the rest of the week. I rented to a few middle easterners and after the deal is done I used to think that it was fete complete, but they saw it as the start of negotiations.
NO,
I bet that she was having no worse of a day than any of the thousands and thousands of black people I have met in the supermarket over the decades.
Beside which, she should be sensitive to the history of Barbados and in some ways, the current reality of Barbadian “apartheid” and keep her ass quiet if she isn’t a racist or does not wish to be seen as racist.
I have had bad days as well but I have NEVER taken it out on people who had nothing to do with making them so.
As for being on alert because she was white, I doubt it. I take all people as they present themselves to me and I am always genuinely surprised when people act in such a manner to little humbugs. It’s not only white people that overreact but it is not the norm in that supermarket. It just doesn’t happen there.
I can tell when I am being talked down to. She was dripping with it. Last time I heard those tones was when that Hoad girl thought she could put me in “my place” for “disrespecting” the Queen of England.
That did not go very well for her.
Now off to the bar to prove that the alcohol level s on your bottles are bull excrement. 4 of us Knocked off 42 beers in 2hrs at chill bar something seems suspect.
TheO,
I was thinking that he wished he had a job where he could dress up and be thought of as “somebody”. At first I reacted negatively to his words and attitude towards someone who had done nothing to stop him from achieving. But after being exposed to those who know, I came to understand more clearly the reality of many people who live in certain communities.
This is why I speak of the marginalised communities. Some of us take opportunities for granted.
I have been watching some Jamaican movies online and the stories they tell are of a life of daily struggle that I have never known. These are ordinary people who decided to form a movement to help their struggling community and give the youth an outlet. I watch the movies and I feel the sense of hopelessness. It is like another world.
“People can have suicidal thoughts long term or short term at any time. Having to go to an outside clinic doesn’t always address the immediacy of resolution. 24 hours help if available can help those whose reactions of self destruction are preferable to calm down rethink and put off actions of suicide.”
“However where are govt programs set up like counselling hotlines where people having mental problems triggering negative thoughts can be heard and counsel. The social sides of govt programs are not providing enough help for people having to go through the negative stresses of today.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s clear the author of the above comments is ‘LARGELY IGNORANT’ of issues relating to mental illness and what service are available in Barbados.
But, we all know it is easy for some people to come on BU to talk shiite for ‘cheap laughs’ and ‘scoring cheap political points.’
I’m not a psychiatrist, nor am I a psychiatric nurse or trained in the field of psychiatry. And, as such, I won’t come to this forum to pontificate on a subject of which I do not have any knowledge.
I simply mentioned: “But, we must also bear in mind COUNSELLING SERVICES for MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES are AVAILABLE at the Psychiatric Hospital.’
NEVER MENTIONED ANYTHING about SUICIDE.
However, please bear in mind the Psychiatric Hospital is opened ‘TWENTY-FOUR/SEVEN’ (24/7). There isn’t anything PREVENTING anyone who believes he/she may require counseling as it relates mental health issues, including depression and suicidal thoughts…… from CALLING the Psychiatric Hospital and TALKING to a counselor.
And, the QEH also has a Department of Psychiatry or Psychiatric Unit that provides in-patient care for persons requiring acute care; out-patient services and TWENTY-FOUR (24) HOUR emergency and consultation services.
Taking the above information into consideration, i.e. that any individual who believes he or she requires counselling for ‘whatever reason,’ could telephone the Psychiatric Hospital and ASK to SPEAK to a counsellor…..
…… only an IDIOT would respond with the following comments:
“Some are not understanding the measures built into the suicide program including precaution and preventative measures.”
“Expecting a suicidal person in the middle of night to go to a psychiatric hospital all by self seeking help is intellectual madness.”
The thought of such a person, “harrows me with fear and wonder.”
😄
Now I am feeling good.
You have confirmed there was no poetry in that submission.
Artax,
The one thing she said that is true – there is a stigma attached to mental challenges that would deter many people from seeking help. Many will therefore try to tough it out and work through it alone.
One does not need to be an expert to know that. One only needs to be a human.being.
Play resume the intensity of the bowling increased which found the batsman swipiing all over the place but some how the bowler remained steady in accuracy throwing another ball slowly down the pitch waiting with anticipation to see how the batsman would handle his drive
psychologist Shawn Clarke is calling on the state to pay urgent attention to the mental health and emotional wellbeing of citizens.
He said that while he is aware that the Government is working around-the-clock to achieve and maintain economic growth, it is time that resources be put towards dealing with the psychological challenges that young people, particularly young males, are facing.
“Youth and community organisations need to come out and play their part as well in terms of putting on other social activities, workshops, seminars, whatever, at the community level.
“We need to get back our community centres vibrant again, not only in terms of cultural activities, but in terms of activities sharing information with the populace about suicide, about mental health, about self-esteem building, about being able to cope with the pressures of today,” he said during an interview with Barbados TODAY
Xxccc
Tea time would be back after the break
I see it. I love it..
Afternoon play by ac
Play resume at quarter to three
See the bowler’s focus and intensity
Pace increased and hot like a bowl of peppa
Crowd eyeing batsman and saying ‘poor fella’
Batsman swiping and missing the ball
Telling the umpire he can’t see at all
Umpire gestures to turn on the lights
Crowd laugh and says ‘this is broad daylight’
Batsman gestures for help from de stands
enuff bawls out ‘relax and play your hand’
Lorenzo getting ready but missing a shoe
Enuff running around saying he can’t find J2
Bowler tired of waiting and says in a huff
Looks like none of wunna is man enough.
I think ac should be paid for the volume and quality of her efforts.
I am always amaze when I see those golden nuggets carelessly tossed into her work
Not certain, I think it was NO who referred to her as ‘poet laureate’… Truly deserving of the title.
You go girl.
😃I must have ac head at three times it normal size 😄
Good stories will capture the feelings of hopelessness well.
In USA and Jamaica they describe cities as a war zone between gangs.
They want to make money but it comes at cost to the community.
Gangs pay off police to continue their ops and work with Government to keep it under control.
I’ve been watching some true life stories about Crack in LA with cocaine imported by CIA working with Contras in late 80s and how it hit black communities and get the feeling that is what is simmering away in Barbados.
Kids aren’t afraid of fighting, dying or going to jail, but they are afraid of living like slaves.
Aspirations For Young Xol
Xol’s Pain
Play resume but seems another standby female batter is at.the wicket
DonnaAugust 5, 2022 4:37 PM
Artax,
The one thing she said that is true – there is a stigma attached to mental challenges that would deter many people from seeking help. Many will therefore try to tough it out and work through it alone.
One does not need to be an expert to know that. One only needs to be a human.being.
Xccccc
Couldn’t make this sh.it up
Now a decision has to be made her efforts although meaningful sends a challenge to this asking
Does she understand the challenges of a mind that cannot process the normal.and everyday things of live and the kind of effort it takes to push self forward daily
Xxxxxxx
Waiting to see in what direction she sends that ball
I suspect the retired batsman might one to take a wild swipe at that ball.
Donna August 5, 2022 4:37 PM #: “The one thing she said that is true – there is a stigma attached to mental challenges that would deter many people from seeking help. Many will therefore try to tough it out and work through it alone.”
Donna
NEVER ‘SAID’ someone “needs to be an expert to know that there is a stigma attached to mental challenges that would deter many people from seeking help.”
Recall in my 10:25 AM contribution, I ‘said’ some people prefer to live in denial, refusing to seek help when and where it is available.
Based on RELIABLE information received, the Psychiatric Hospital provides counseling on a 24 hour basis.
Some people prefer not to seek help because they either fear being admitted to the hospital and, as you alluded to, the “stigma attached to mental challenges.”
However, the law requires the Hospital to admit suicidal persons seeking counseling therefrom, as a precaution to prevent them from harming themselves.
Counseling involves talking to the individual, which is followed by an psychiatric assessment.
What I realize, especially from those persons who have a political motivated agenda, is that they make definitive statements about issues of which they do not have any knowledge or formal training…… or without having conducted the relevant research.
Case in point. If angela cox KNEW the Psychiatric Hospital provides counseling on a TWENTY-FOUR (24) HOUR BASIS, she WOULD NOT have asked:
“However WHERE are govt programs set up like counseling hotlines where people having mental problems triggering negative thoughts can be heard and counsel?”
Additionally, being IGNORANT of the above information, then, it was ABSOLUTELY LUDICROUS for her to mention:
“The social sides of govt programs are not providing enough help for people having to go through the negative stresses of today.”
How does she KNOW that and where is the EVIDENCE to SUBSTANTIATE her CLAIMS?
I have heard about case involving a young girl who, at ten (10) years old, had multiple sexual partners.
There are also young girls struggling to cope with ‘lesbianism,’ (if that’s actually a word), suicide, sexual molestation and abuse by relatives and close family friends.
But, you should appreciate why such information is not publicized.
But, these are some of the problems confronting the island’s health care system.
So, it’s okay for angela cox to come on BU talking shiite for ‘cheap laughs.’
GP August 5, 2022 5:39 PM
Agreed.
Well.the end of day play and as was expected the retired batsman showed up.for play relieving the female batter
He positions himself in an awkward manner to face another onslaught of fast paced bowling
Needless to say some method of frustration and angst is showing up in his style
The bowler is quite aware knowing full well that the batsman cannot by the flip of his wrist perform magic
Today was an exciting day some what a surprise when a female batter smoothly positioned herself at the wicket to.bat
Having a two for one performance The bowler can proudly say that there are some balls even the greatest batsmen avoids
The greatest Sir Gary Sobers once said that
End of game play now
back to the Pavillion I think I might hurt my wrist
@John August 5, 2022 7:17 AM “If you were afflicted by addiction to drugs, alcohol, money and women and the addiction was leading you into trouble.”
There is no such thing as an addiction to women. That is just John’s way of blaming women for MALE CRIMINALITY.
@Donna August 5, 2022 8:00 AM “Cuhdear Bajan, You do know about exceptions and rules, don’t you? There are numerous comprehensive and in-depth studies by criminologists that overrule the small sample of FOUR upon which you base your position. STEUPSE!”
I am not aware that I was taking a position. I believe that I stated that in some cases that I know of alcohol, greed, mental illness etc. was involved. I never said that those things were the cause of all killings.
And all of the killers and victims were not black. Some were white.
Now remembering another killing. Even though a man died and even though a man was charged, there was no conviction. In this case a bully was beating the woman he lived with because she objected to another woman being brought to live in the home. A neighboring man intervened and showed the bully with absolutely finality that you can’t come into this village and disrespect and beat one of our women. The bully is as they say “resting peacefully”. He has never again beaten a woman.
Who says that nobody intervenes in cases of domestic violence?
@Donna August 5, 2022 9:17 AM “When almost all black people were deprived, when only white people had money, when we looked left and right and everybody was in the same boat, nobody felt marginalised. This was accepted as just the way things were.”
You beginning to sound like John now, with foolish talk about people accepting their oppression. People have never accepted being oppressed. Even toddlers are quick to say “that’s unfair”. People revolted in small ways and big, from spitting in the master’s food [especially effective in the days of TB] to injuring their children, eating the children’s food, to “stealing” their stuff, to deliberately working slowly, to burning crops, to migrating at any opportunity, to full scale armed rebellions. Perhaps because I am the only one on this blog who had conversions with a grandmother born in the 1870’s I understand how people have always objected to being oppressed.
Human beings have never that accepted that this is/was just the way things were.
@TheOGazerts August 5, 2022 1:34 PM “I do not know why SS felt the need to make that post. She has fed the 🐇/. See rabbit go.”
Please note that note all of the killers nor victims were black Bajans. Some were white people too.
@Northern at 2:16 “It didn’t help that my employers CFO was a devout SDA, and was fired for fraud. (creating employees which didn’t exist and pocketing the $$)”
When Little Johnnie was just just a teen he told me that such people were Badventist, those who give their professed faith a bad name.
There are such people in every single religion.
@Donna August 5, 2022 2:34 PM “The two sick scholars are on their own.”
A waste of the labor and tax money of my elder siblings, my parents and grandparents.
@Artax August 5, 2022 4:19 PM
Mental illness, psychological distress etc. may be short term and resolved with talk therapy and medication; but some illness can only be managed by a lifetime of talk therapy and chemical therapy. Sadly sometimes people abandon treatment because it seems not to be working fast enough or well enough. Some mental illness, may like diabetes, last for a lifetime, and may require a lifetime of treatment.
What can families do? Encourage the person who is suffering to continue treatment including id possible accompanying the person to the treatment.
I thought it would be covid but in barbados it appears there is a new bad back
Cuhdear Bajan,
Maybe I could have put it better because what you gathered was certainly not what I intended.
I NEVER said that black people accepted oppression. They were always striving for a path forward. They knew that it would be a long struggle. They accepted that it would be a long struggle. That was the way it was. It was the place from which they started. It was NOT the place that they expected to end.
Since most of them were rowing in the same boat, they did not feel MARGINALISED. There was a sense of community and belonging. There was hope that we could all move forward as a race.
Whether justified or not, people believed in Grantley Adams’ good intentions. People believed in Errol Barrow’s good intentions. There were others before, both political leaders and agitators in whom people trusted. There was more of a movement for change.
Now THAT is what has changed.
Our progress has stagnated or even regressed. Too many have been left behind, up a creek without a paddle. There is no widespread and vibrant movement for change. There are no trusted leaders to inspire the masses. There is much cynicism. In many, there is hopelessness.
Angela Cox,
I have criticised NOTHING that you have said. I rarely do. I leave that to Artax.
All I have done is point out one valid point you have made. So I do not know what you are on about.
I have said before and I’ll say it again. I no longer play in your games.
What I have said is that people with mental challenges such as severe depression and suicidal thoughts often do not seek help because of the stigma attached to doing so.
And so they suffer in silence and die at rope’s end.
And THAT, to borrow a phrase, “CANNOT BE REFUTED”.
After being elected ! govt ministers should take a course in transparency and accountability
Yesterday outlandish speech by Kerrie Symmonds bodes well to say that he does not understand the meanings of both words
Also how the approach of good goverance is founded
Rather than take a stand for good goverance he placed on his head his gangster style political hat and tried to kill several birds with one stone
Fortunately for those who stood vanguard for good goverance hoisted on transparency and accountability the loose lips of Symmonds only further exposed this govt protection of big business and govt gladiator style approach of shutting the people out from knowing the truth wherever it might lead
All Symmonds word did was to further open a can of worms
Worms that might have been hidden underground which many might have not known existed
The people right to know has been a vibrant and workable part of a democracy and when that right is taken away the democracy becomes nothing more than a process of mockery
Symmonds now can be seen as the poster boy of a mock democratic process a process beginning to lose its way under this govt as he spoke words undergirded of protectionism for a few outlandish attacks seemingly to embarrassed and curtail others and shut out people’s right to know
Shame on you Symmonds
Have to agree with ac here.
This man Symmonds must have been drinking something stronger than mauby before coming up with that speech.
Here we are thinking that he and the ‘Fear Trading Commission’ (which he appoints) are there to represent the interest of ORDINARY Bajans, only to find our that he is the ‘Emera rep’…. and have the GALL to be cussing representatives of ordinary folks who are only seeking transparency….????
Stranger things have happened….Perhaps Emera has now hired a relative of his as one of their ‘Directors’…
….as is their wont….
What a place…..
…and David keeps talking about ‘HOPE’…??!!
LOL
ha ha ha
GRASS!!!
@Bush Tea
The FTC is to protect the interest of BOTH sides?
The field ready set
Two batsmen came on to the field one did a thorough inspection and found everything to be alright
The second batsman came with his usual style scored a single and was quickly sent packing back to the Pavillion
So far The bowler arms length is in fine order Needless to say that several well paced delivered long hops was pounded against Symmonds head with the word traitor attached
Bushman….they still got the nerve to believe no one knows who they are and what to expect….the root of all corruption passed down through generations….they still believe they look and sound good, maybe to cult fowls only…
RE Cuhdear BajanAugust 5, 2022 9:24 PM
@Donna August 5, 2022 2:34 PM “The two sick scholars are on their own.”
A waste of the labor and tax money of my elder siblings, my parents and grandparents.
SIMPLE SIMON
I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT I RESPONDED POLITELY AND HONESTLY TO YOUR COMMENT ABOVE
BUT MY POST GET TEK DUNG…….AS IT OFTEN DOES
THEN YOU WONDER WHY THE ACADEMICS AND SCHOLARS DROP OUT FROM SOCIETY AND WHY MOSTLY SEMI ILITERATES POST HERE
WHY SHOULD THEY DISOBEY JESUS’ ADVICE AND CAST THEIR PEARLS TO THE SWINE?
MAYBE KING DYAL WAS CORRECT IN THE NOMENCLATURE HE USED FOR OUR PEOPLE.
TEK DIS DUNG NOW
I WILL JUST LAUGH AS I ALWAYS DO
And no BU regular ever rejected Dr. Lucas’ professional opinion.
Good afternoon David et al,
Data for July 2022 has been posted:
https://www.caribbeansignal.com/2022/08/06/barbados-murder-statistics-january-to-july-2022/
Kind regards,
Amit Uttamchandani
http://www.caribbeansignal.com
Thanks Amit.
RE And no BU regular ever rejected Dr. Lucas’ professional opinion.
MAYBE BUT HE GONE ANYWAY AND BU READERS LOST THE BENEFIT OF HIS EXPERTISE
BU REGULARS SCOFFED AT MY VERY ACCURATE MEDICAL PPTS IN MEDICAL CORNER AND I HAVE STOPPED BRINGING THEM
BU READERS LOST THAT EXPERTISE TOO
I USED TO BEG FOLK WITH EXPERTISE TO COME HERE
THEY TOOK ONE LOOK AND RAN
WHO WANTS TO CAST THEIR PEARLS TO THE SWINE?
WE NOW HAVE IN ITS PLACE LOTS OF MUSIC VIDEOS AND WARU WARU BULL SHITTING ALL DAY EVERYDAY
@Bushie,
“Here we are..”..
Just as those HR departments, so popular in corporates for somecyears now, are to protect the interest of the body corporate / top management and not the employees.
Newbie employees fall for the corporate spiel, but seasoned employees know to nod, smile and then flush the verbiage where it belongs.
Doan say nuttin to them HR people thst you would confide to a friend.
Or, it goes straight back to executives.
Nuttin!
Symmonds ought not to show up himself in Parliament again
He openly exposed himself as fronting for big business while pressing his knees in the necks of citizens working on behalf of a free and open democracy
Today social media platforms spared no words in expressing their open opinions about his lowlife treatment of Dr. Yearwood and Tricia Watson and others who dared this govt to.be transparent when dealing with the affairs of people and country
This govt has taken it upon itself to belive that their have a bully pulpit to do and say whatever pleases them while they support and cuddle big business efforts to shut the people out govt and corporation dealings
@ Crusoe
Boss, if you calling David a ‘newbie’ with his “The FTC is to protect the interest of BOTH sides?” BS…
Count the bushman out …. LOL
Not stinking Bushie boozie…
Source: Nation
@ ac
Symmonds is of the same ilk as as your shiitehound Stinkliar… a lotta bluster ..and VERY little substance.
It is why his donkey is no longer anywhere near to tourism.
Problem is that he is showing himself to be EVEN more lost now in this ministry..
He can’t play ball, so he is trying to attack the other players….
LOL …. he may have picked on the wrong crowd.
…..so Bushie is predicting that he will become senior minister in Sport next kick downwards…
Sincklar who?
Christopher Peter Sinckler, former Minister of Finance, who all but bankrupted the island, and for that stunning performance found employment as Alternate Executive Director at the World Bank Group since May 2, 2022.
Remember him?😉😉
This govt has taken it upon itself to belive that their have a bully pulpit to do and say whatever pleases them
They don’t have to belive or believe, the voters, ALL voters, gave them the keys to each and every door. Maybe by the next election, they will develop your amnesia and forget who Sinckler was. They may even forget who Froon was. They may even forget the DLP once governed. The new party led Ronnie. Who Dem?
Man that almost bankrupt a country found a highfaluent job
Get out of here
Seriously
by Robert” Bobby” Downes
May he rest in Peace
We will bid farewell to the mortal remains of Ezra Alleyne on Monday, August 8, during an official funeral service. It is interesting that in death he is being given due honour that he did not get in life.
It remains a puzzle why Ezra Alleyne was never given the title of Q.C. based on his outstanding legal service as a criminal defence counsel or even given some of the other legal cases he would have successfully argued during his long career.
We must not forget that he also served in the Law faculty at the Cave Hill campus for many years tutoring some of the now prominent attorneys in Barbados and across the Caribbean. But, he did not make silk.
To make matters worse, he never got a look in with the Barbados National Honours. He was not even recommended to be on the Queen’s New Year’s or Birthday Honours lists by any of our governments, even from the party he so loyally served.
But, there will be a lot of fancy talk about his outstanding contribution now he is gone. May he Rest in Peace and Rise in Glory.
A hit dog yelps
DLP accused of inciting panic over Auditor General’s Report
Minister of Energy and Business Development Kerrie Symmonds has taken President of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) Dr Ronnie Yearwood to task for trying to “stir up a furor and incite panic and strife” over the latest Auditor General’s Report.
Symmonds, who was leading the debate on the Electric Light and Power (Amendment) Bill in the Lower House on Friday, accused the DLP leader of trying to “clutch at every straw he can find in an effort to make himself relevant and hopefully for him to save what is a leaderless institution characterised only by infighting, from extinction”.
“There is a context to the artificial political posturing that we have to look at. It begins, unfortunately, with the cathedral of lawlessness that the Democratic Labour Party has allowed itself to become. The renewable energy sector is not the only victim. As recently as this morning, some of my colleagues and I were commenting on this furor that is being whipped up,” said Symmonds.
Suggesting that the DLP was lacking in policy, Symmonds said: “You can’t just feel that public life is only about stirring up furor and inciting panic and strife. That is how this country, unfortunately, was back in the 60s and 50s, but people now are a little bit more discerning and expect a little bit more”.
“When I listen to that which they are stirring up with regard to, for example, the Auditor General’s Report, I ask if this is the same government that went where nobody else in the Eastern Caribbean went with respect to making sure that there is a Financial Management Act of the highest kind, protecting the interest of statutory entities in Barbados and ensuring accountability at levels that are not be found anywhere else in the Eastern Caribbean. Is this not the same Government?” said Symmonds.
Since the publication of the latest Auditor General’s Report, which points to several anomalies in some state agencies, several pundits have raised concerns, including Yearwood.
In his assessment of the report, Yearwood told Barbados TODAY late last month that the Mia Mottley-led administration should make legislative amendments to allow an independent senator to chair the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
He also recommended that the Office of the Auditor General be better staffed, and demanded certain constitutional protections for that office.
“The same way that this Government can make an amendment for friends and appoint Senators who didn’t meet a particular threshold to become Senators, and for all kinds of other small purposes, you can change the Constitution to do something that actually is meaningful and that is there to protect the interest of Barbadians,” Yearwood said.
The DLP leader has also insisted that the latest Auditor General’s Report has shown poor governance, as he called for greater transparency from the Barbados Labour Party administration and for Barbadians to demand better.
However, Symmonds, who is the Senior Minister coordinating the productive sectors, threw out a challenge to Yearwood.
“Where in the Auditor General’s Report is there a finger pointed at any member of the Cabinet of Barbados with respect to misappropriation of funds? But that has been the story over and over with respect to successive governments in history. Therefore, if there is a comment to be made, let us then again recognise that yes, the soft underbelly of the public administration of this system in this country has been laid bare by COVID.
“I have no doubt that is true, I have no doubt the Auditor General is right when he points to getting information from government departments, but he is equally pointing to the fact that auditing firms, private sector auditing firms with big names, some of whom are ancillary to international companies with big names, couldn’t get the financial statements in on time. So how it is that COVID impacts them and they can’t get financial statements into the Auditor General on time, but if a statutory entity has a problem because 10 [or] 15 people in the department [are] out with COVID, and for six months that has been the case recurring . . . how then does this become something to hang a whole government on?” said Symmonds.
He pointed to several anomalies across several government agencies under the last DLP administration, saying “those were the days when there was political accountability being called for by the Auditor General.”
“I am yet to see a single page in this report that speaks to the necessity for there to be political accountability for wrongdoing,” said Symmonds.
“I see a report that points us in the direction of a weakness and fragility in the public administration system. But the systemic failures have been pointed out by this government from day one and that is why this government has been deconstructing and reconstructing systems across every department of Barbados over the course of the last four years.”
The Energy Minister singled out the Immigration Department, the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation, and the Grantley Adams International Airport where such reconstruction was taking place, adding that there were others and it was still “a work in progress”. (MM)
@ac
Is “A hit dog yelps” your headline. Whosoever it belongs to, a brilliant description of the Minister’s response.
And do you see how COVID gets the blame for missing/late reports. Seems, that in Barbados, COVID has been around even before the outbreak in Wuhan province.
TheOGazertsAugust 7, 2022 8:07 AM
@ac
Is “A hit dog yelps” your headline. Whosoever it belongs to, a brilliant description of the Minister’s response
Xxxxxx
That was a nicely wrapped well delivered bouncer with proper timing tossed against the Minister heads
A govt having 60-0 mandate having a minister yelping like a stray dog
Yelling and barking at citizens who ask questions of govt
Where is the change this givt promised for good goverance
Tax payers money helps Symmonds to earn a living and his arrogance and ungrateful response would not be forgotten
As it is present big business has been calling all the shots
Shots which have been causing pain and suffering
Therfore it is govt responsibility when called upon to be transparent and accountable to bow within the perimeters of humility and not respond like yelping dogs
Arrogance or ignorance?
Clueless comes to mind. Rather embarrassing that an alleged senior minister could make such a statement.
But that statement is very informative however. Even if not for the reasons that he intended.
A blog about crime was started this morning. It seems the height of insensitivity and blog etiquette sone of you would subvert this blog. Irrelevant comments will be deleted from this topic with abandon going forward.
Allow the blogmaster to reiterate to those whose every minute is spent criticizing BU, leave the blog please.
In full support of the blogmaster.
All: please color within the lines.
David,
Apologies for following off topic.
“And do you see how COVID gets the blame for missing/late reports. Seems, that in Barbados, COVID has been around even before the outbreak in Wuhan province”
TheO, entirely predictable.
You forget the prior administration blamed the ‘great recession’ long after most had recovered. So to expect Covid, and don’t forget climate change, to be the ongoing causal factors was a given.
The Ukraine conflict doesn’t play as well in Bim as it does in elsewhere.