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The following comment was posted by BU family member Artax to the ‘Wait a minute PM’ blog on the 27th March 2024.

Oh, another thing, David. Seems as though the decision to buy those BYD electric buses was not as good as we were led to believe. I was told by a reliable source that a few of them are parked at Mangrove Depot, the roof of one collapsing due to the weight of the battery. The construct of those units make them unsuitable for Barbados roads, since they do not have shocks, but ‘air bags.’

TB’s culture is, buses parking at Mangrove are usually scrapped for parts. Sometime during 2000, fifteen (15) HINO Road Rangers [BM2 – BM15], were purchased for TB. At as today’s date, ALL have been scrapped. Yet, the HINOs purchased by PSV owners prior to 2000 are still in operation. Bear in mind, TB has access to more financial resources than the average mini bus owners.

Artax

This week we learned the Barbados government recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese government to supply 100 electric buses, 50 long and 50 short by early next year. Unfortunately the blogmaster has been unable to access informed analysis of the performance of the initial Chinese bus fleet purchased.

We also learned there is a plan to launch a mass transit authority. It must therefore be accurate to conclude the Transport Authority has been an abysmal failure. Under the oversight of the moribund Transport Authority the PSV sector continues daily to reign terror on users of the highways and byways.  

An efficient mass transit program continues to be an elusive pursuit for governments of Barbados. It is fair to make another conclusion: we lack the creativity as a people to solve simple and complex problems. 

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42 responses to “More Chinese electric buses promised”

  1. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    The editorial instincts of he who is in charge, as ruthlessly proclaimed, by the constant selection of tidbits from the same bits and pieces people, is no different than those at the centre of empire who insist that there must not be any student protests against the genocide in Palestine in Western capitals.

    These bits and pieces people will never to asked to leave as any body possessing the fortitude to go against the grain of conformity insisted on.

    And weee say bits and pieces because they have no master narrative. But yet only the throw away lines from these would-be oracles can be given the constant editorial prominance.

    Buses! Indeed, if there was máster narrative, at centre would have been the contradictions which are and will be causal in the war America seeks with China.

    For China, unlike Japan, has now generally abandoned, the cheap consumer goods the West wanted it to be the slave market for and has radically moved to the production of higher quality goods.

    Still, old habits die hard and if people want cheap buses, the capitalists in Cummunist China will oblige even within their long established transformation ethos.

    Recall, Janet Yellen’s recent visit to Beijing to beg, yes we say beg, the Chinese for several things. These included begging them not to produce so much because their industrial output was hurting Western companies.

    Hers an act of economic war, even as her Treasury Department and Congress send arms to Taiwan Island, a province of China, as part of the war being prepared against China. Taiwan long and tituarily accepted by the West as part of their alledged one-China policy.

    An example is the leading iPhone type produced by Hauwei, but far better. But then, those who continue to hate the Chinese will never tire of the Western canard that they steal Western intellectual property.

    These same people, as national beggars, are yet to be convinced even when China gives the country another stadium.

    Such hatreds entirely based on an innate self-hating racist predisposition, as central to Bajan culture. Based on misguided notions that Chinese governance is somehow lesser than what they dream of as Western democracy, even as rasssoul genocide is continuing and more and more freedoms are curtailed by these White, Western, feckers and those who love them so much.

    These throw away lines seek not editorialization. For that is the divine province of the like-minded.

  2. John Avatar
    John

  3. David Avatar
    David

    @John

    Also true is ICE vehicles catching fire?

  4. Wiliam Skinner Avatar
    Wiliam Skinner

    We are convinced that it’s not the product that is inferior but the lack of proper training and the follow up maintenance necessary.
    The perennial corruption in state own mechanic work shops is similar to the lack of maintenance in government buildings and schools.
    We have cars that are still running in Cuba before the revolution; there are school buses in other countries that run for twenty plus years.
    Our Caribbean culture of lick up and brek up needs to change. Regardless of where the buses come from, the results will be the same. We can’t get these basics done but parading on the world stage . The Drax Hall embarrassment was going to come sooner or later in some form.
    Worldwide activists do not just talk, they give up professions and suffer broken families for a cause.
    We have people who are not even prepared to sign their names on anything and we pretend that they can be change agents.
    For example : Comrade David Denny has been fighting in the struggle for well over forty years; Comrade Trevor Marshall for over fifty, the late Comrade Bobby Clarke for well over seventy.
    Where were all the fancy talkers / writers when Comrade Denny stood alone at Drax Hall ?
    So, in all fairness to the Prime Minister she cannot be held responsible for those who destroy government property at will.
    We urge the governments(s) , to be more vigilant and make those drivers understand that it cannot be business as usual.
    BTW , the Chinese are now exporting cars to places such as Panama , with more features than the identical American and Japanese models. They cost between 15 and 30 percent less than the competition.

  5. David Avatar
    David

    Spot on William.

    #Ucal

  6. John Avatar
    John

  7. John Avatar
    John

    Wiliam Skinner
    April 26, 2024 at 6:53 am
    Rate This

    We are convinced that it’s not the product that is inferior but the lack of proper training and the follow up maintenance necessary.
    The perennial corruption in state own mechanic work shops is similar to the lack of maintenance in government buildings and schools.

    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    I could have sworn that UCAL was owned by its employees. Must be imagining things in my old age.

  8. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    It is a GRAVE error to assume that basic incompetence, mismanagement and dishonesty can be solved by introducing the latest technology.

    So ‘digitizing’ national ID cards will NEVER be a solution to the inefficiencies that prevent the VERY BASIC manual systems from performing as they could.

    EDUTECH will never be the solution for an idiotic ‘eddykashun’ system – that became extinct back in the 1980s

    No new Transport Authority will solve the problem of ignorant ministers hiring their campaign assistants who don’t know shit – and focusing their efforts on arranging bribes and ‘campaign gifts’

    Electric buses CANNOT solve the problems of tax-supported incompetents who could not get a basic diesel bus to last for ten years -when individual, highly taxed, ZR owners could get 25 years.

    So in five years time 60% of these (complex) busses will be scrap.

    If a fellow CANNOT do basic arithmetic ….yuh going put him to work with integral calculus??!!

    Steupsss… ONLY in Brassbados, …and only with the taxes of brass bowls….

  9. David Avatar
    David

    @John

    You have been repeatedly advised to stick to sharing on water issues.

    https://ucalbarbados.com/about/

  10. John Avatar
    John

    I have worked with electricity and electronics all my life. The more features a car has relying on electricity the more likely it will be in the garage.

    The environment in which a car functions is a harsh one, modern computerized cars will not have the life expectancy of the old simple gas powered vehicles.

    BTW, a transition from electricity flow to water flow is the easiest of all transitions.

    Both work on the same principles, one you can see and understand better than the other.

  11. John Avatar
    John

    Old is good!! Even the Chinese know that.

  12. coxangela Avatar
    coxangela

    Incompetence at the top filters down to the bottom
    So why buy these buses without having the required man power equpped knowledge to repair them
    Also.knowning that thes vehicles have mechanical designed features that cannot be disposed of in typical fashion when failure occurs
    Presently Barbados landfill has almost reached its capacity level also which cannot accommodate these batteries which are designed to power these bus when they are no longer usable

  13. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    David,

    John is right, of course, about the electric vehicles and the computerised vehicles.

    Even I don’t scroll past his contributions on such matters. So add that to the list.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    @Donna

    The same people railing against EV and all for fracking. There are downsides to everything under the sun. There is the emergence of computerized driven vehicles which is all part of advancement. Not too long ago we had to sit on a boat for 8 weeks to travel to Europe. Like everything else there is the noise that comes with early adoption and then it settles. Let us agree in the case of Barbados the bigger issue is how can we improve management of the procurement process, maintenance etc part of which is to efficiently dispose of lithium batteries and other harmful materials associated with emerging technologies.

  15. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Of course, we all know where he is going with his “worker-owned” barb though.

    That is where he entered into the realm of political ideology and economic theory, where he is invariably WRONG.

  16. Steal houses and steal buses Avatar
    Steal houses and steal buses

    @BT 7:09 a.m
    That is a great piece. It is so accurate that it will be glossed over by most readers. The truth is a hard pill to swallow.

    I should note that our ‘inability’ putting together pre-fabricated steal houses lead to a great cost overrun; the final numbers are yet to come.

    This new bus venture will be a next boondoggle that will transfer money to someone’s pocket. The scam is continuing and real

  17. The OG Avatar
    The OG

    If we would stop hitching a ride on news stories and instead jump ahead to the logical conclusion, we may save the island some money.

    Why get onboard this bus story? Jump off that bus, go to the end of the line (two years ahead) and shout ‘That’s not a bus that is coming, it’s a scam’

    All is a scam/con.

  18. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    David,

    I was merely agreeing that electric vehicles are more fragile and computerised cars will not last as long. Even my computerised washing machine lasted half as long as the non-computerised models.

    I was not getting into environmental issues at all.

  19. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    I travel on these buses.

    https://www.ttc.ca/en/news/2023/April/TTC-adds-336-new-hybrid-electric-buses-to-its-fleet

  20. David Avatar
    David

    @Donna computerized stuff is about plug and play. A board goes bad you replace it. The downside is that given the pace of technology computerized stuff becomes obsolete fairly quickly. As always the relative shelf life of most things is based on selection/price.

  21. phased out Avatar
    phased out

    Coal should be phased out no later than 2030, fossil gas no later than 2035 and oil at the latest by 2040. Last December, COP28 addressed fossil fuels for the first time in the history of these Conferences of the Parties (COPs) as the cause of our global climate change problem.

  22. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    David, UCAL’s mechanics were trained by Chinese to repair those BYD buses. I believe some of them are still here to provide technical support. One of the major problems with the electric buses is the recharge rate, which I understand is approximately 8 hours. 59 BYD buses were imported for TB and assigned to Speightstown, Weymouth and Mangrove. A few of them are off the road for various reasons, as the Board struggles to keep the older diesel buses operational. Most days one will see at least 15 BYD at the Weymouth recharging bays. What about the 2 other depots? That is too many buses from a small fleet, which would obviously impact negatively on TB’s ability to provide a reliable and efficient service. Perhaps ‘government’ should’ve considered purchasing hybrid units.

  23. David Avatar
    David

    @Artax

    Shouldn’t the EV buses be able charged in the offline period between 12 and 8?

  24. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    In 2000, TB recieved 15 HINO Road Ranger mini buses. ALL of them have been scrapped, with parts sold to private sector PSV operators, in some cases. Didn’t the AudGen special audit revealed a former bus driver bought a HINO Road Runner for $500?

  25. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    These things I know.

  26. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    David, obviously the recharing times will vary for each bus. I don’t believe there are 59 recharging bays to accomodate each bus, which create a situation where buses ‘lining up’ waiting to be charged. Also, some ‘last buses’ may park in the depots after 1am, while some ‘first buses’ are on the road as early as 4am.

  27. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    David,

    I was reading a bit of that Computer Misuse bill and I am rather puzzled as to Caswell’s interpretation. He thinks that when the bill states that if a person posts “without regard for whether it is true or not” means that one can be liable for any damage or distress caused by one’s post even if the information posted is true. That would be madness.

    I read it as if a person posts without caring if what he/she posts is true, then there is liability when it is not true. But as with all defamation cases, there can be no liability if what one posts is true.

  28. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ John
    “I could have sworn that UCAL was owned by its employees. Must be imagining things in my old age.” (John)
    This is what William Skinner said:
    “We are convinced that it’s not the product that is inferior but the lack of proper training and the follow up maintenance necessary.
    The perennial corruption in state own mechanic work shops is similar to the lack of maintenance in government buildings and schools.”
    We did not single out UCAL. The point I was making is that it is widely known that there are undesirable levels of corruption and pilferage in state owned workshops.
    Government has mechanic shops and all types of abandoned vehicles , ambulances and heavy equipment running to rot . We know that years ago if you passed by Enmore on lower Collymore Rock, one would see the carcasses of Ambulances all over the place; visit agriculture units the same thing. Once the government was gifted two ambulances from a foreign country, they were parked up Enmore in less than two years !
    @ David
    There are now electric highly computerised wheel chairs that are programmed to take passengers to the gate they need without any human assistance. Nobody has to push them. You sit with instructions not to touch anything and you are taken exactly where you need to go. The chair then turns around and goes back to where it is stationed. It does not bump into customers.
    We are making the point that sentimentality has its placed but we can’t direct the technology. We refused to put the bridges so that the passengers can disembark from the plane and go to customs without getting wet. We talk about the disabled but still no bridges at Grantley Adams.

  29. GreenMonkey Avatar
    GreenMonkey

    Could we face lockdowns and travel restrictions again? This time, not to forestall a supposed deadly pandemic, but to reduce man made emissions of “deadly” carbon dioxide?

    WTF! Biden Administration to Declare National Climate Emergency
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yogGHWVZlYE

    U.N. Planetary Emergency COMING! | Redacted w Natali Morris

    Globalists are about to meet this fall to plan a “Technocratic Takeover.” That is what our guest Derrick Broze calls the upcoming United Nations Meeting called “Summit of the Future” where nations will sign the so-called “Pact for the Future.” It is expected to declare a “planetary emergency.” We don’t like the sound of any of that! Broze is an independent journalist who writes for TheConsciousResistance.com and he joins us to discuss this.

    youtube(DOT)com/watch?v=eSRqUktMZ6w

  30. David Avatar
    David

    @Artax

    Aren’t they enough in the ICE fleet coupled with scheduling to accommodate?

  31. David Avatar
    David

    @Donna

    It appears that this is an interpretation that can be applied notwithstanding a judge applying common sense to a decision. Let us post something on it next.

  32. David Avatar
    David

    @William

    We have to use the technology to add value to what we are doing and resist adopting it wholesale.

  33. Legal help is on the way Avatar
    Legal help is on the way

    Sometimes to make a point, one must venture very close to the edge of the neutral zone. There may be slight incursion into enemy territory and that will draw enemy fire. Weapons fire will not be returned but will be considered as warning.

    With a learned and experienced jurist unable to adequately defend the cybercrime bill, BU legal luminaries have decided to provide an interpretation.

    I suspect the BU medical department will not comment as this are of expertise if heavily defended.

  34. William Skinner Avatar
    William Skinner

    @ David
    Agreed. We don’t fear technology when our not yet two year old grand daughter has her own technology .
    The major problem is that our culture has been severely penetrated.
    Ah mean we tek Crop Over and turn um into one big naked party on the highway.

  35. David Avatar
    David

    @William

    The authority figures will tell you Crop Over was created to fill the summer calendar targeting tourists. However, the soul of the festival was anchored to celebrating crop over and the cultural aspects of our country. That concept has been obliterated to be replaced with a theme of revelry. This is we culture, one big summer carnival.

  36. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    fuh true ?

    https://ncf.bb/the-crop-over-story/

  37. John Avatar
    John

    Hants

    “The Crop Over celebrations that took place on the plantations dwindled in the 1940s after the Second World War when the demand for sugar lessened and a number of plantations on the island closed.”

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Utter rubbish.

    During and after WWI, demand for sugar was at an all time high for the simple reason that half the world’s production capacity was destroyed.

    After WWII output practically doubled with the introduction of tractors and trailers to replace ox and mule carts for transport and the building of bigger factories.

    It makes more sense to argue that in the more leisurely period of sugar lasting up to WWII, decorations of carts and animals may have been more the norm at the end of crop.

    Decorating living animals makes more sense as being the likely celebration to have happened.

    My mother grew up in a factory yard and told me the last carts in were decorated.

    The factory was one of several (>46) factories in existence up the 1946. Thereafter, the numbers reduced as bigger and bigger factories were built to grind more and more cane until today there is only one.

    In 1722, there were more than 500 windmills.

  38. GreenMonkey Avatar
    GreenMonkey

    3 Polish physicists explain why experimental evidence does not support the theory associating increases in atmospheric CO2 levels with increases in global warming.

    3 Physicists Use Experimental Evidence To Show CO2’s Capacity To Absorb Radiation Has Saturated
    By Kenneth Richard on 23. April 2024

    Adding CO2 to the atmosphere can have no significant climatic effect when rising above the threshold of about 300 ppm. Due to saturation, higher and higher concentrations do not lead to any further absorption of radiation.

    If one were to paint a white surface black so as to allow it to absorb as much heat as possible, it is well known the first layer of paint has the most dominant impact on heat absorption. A second coat covers up any remaining grayish color and perhaps a few spots missed on the first layer. By the third layer, there is effectively no more heat absorption that can be attained with the additional coat, as the surface is saturated in black. It cannot become blacker.

    Three Polish physicists have focused their attention on this saturation principle as it applies to CO2 in three recently published papers (Kubicki et al., 2024, 2022, and 2020). Their latest (Kubicki et al., 2024), published in Applications in Engineering Science, summarizes the experimental evidence from their 2020 and 2022 publications substantiating the conclusion that “as a result of saturation processes, emitted CO2 does not directly cause an increase in global temperature.”

    SNIP

    The authors are concerned about the recent push to rely on modeling and assumptions about CO2’s capacity to drive changes in global temperature rather than observational evidence. They point out the current CO2-is-the-climate-control-knob zeitgeist is no more than a hypothesis.

    https://notrickszone.com/2024/04/23/3-physicists-use-experimental-evidence-to-show-co2s-capacity-to-absorb-radiation-has-saturated/

  39. The OG Avatar
    The OG

    Conspiracy theory alert
    I will start the ball here and hope that someone with more knowledge and persuasive skills will take the ball and run with it.

    I am trying to look at how the two major superpowers interact with the Caribbean nations. To me, it would appears as if one is projecting soft power by giving these islands loans and building out their infrastructure, whilst the other is projecting hard power https://www.army.mil/article/275782/tradewinds_24_preparation_sustainment_missions_ongoing_in_barbados with emphasis on military cooperation and exercises.

    I am one who look at these exercises with a jaundice eye, Here’s why:
    We had the Grenadian invasion – by the US (I am taking no position on that action)
    We saw the RSS snatch up a fellow outside of the law and extradition protocol and whisked him to Trinidad.
    With the exception of Haiti, these islands are relatively peaceful.

    I fear that this military power will eventually be used against the citizens of the islands. And it will not be to their benefit but is mainly a continuation and maintenance of the “American backyard” policy.
    https://nationalinterest.org/feature/chinas-growing-influence-americas-backyard-207250

    I have given a frame that someone can work with.

  40. The OG Avatar
    The OG

    I know that my countrymen like to equate things that are unequal. For some reason we would look at our county and find it the equal of the US and China because they are also countries.

    You! yes, you! This is not a put down of my homeland but it is my urging my countrymen to use a more appropriate weighting scheme. In fact, we should have several weighting schemes.

    As an example when it comes to freedoms of the people, Barbados would have a higher weight than China, but when it come to a national economy we should not even begin to compare the two. Second example, compare our 2016 inbound tourist figures “China inbound tourism maintained a steady growth in 2016. About 138 million inbound trips were made into China, a 3.5% rise over the same period of the previous year”.

    Have I made my point? Have I beaten you of the diaspora/unpatriotic track? And that was not a sideswipe; more of a preemptive strike.

    All that preamble was to make a simple point. These numerous treatises that these islands countries make with China are not deals between equals. Our incompetent and secretive minister are selling the future of our children. Their shortsightedness and greed

    Do you really think that Gaston Brown and company know what the hell they are doing and signing? Let me be clear, I don’t think so.

    https://radiojamaicanewsonline.com/local/antigua-barbuda-rubbishes-us-story-about-its-relationship-with-china

    These islands are all bound on a similar trajectory. Each copying the good or bad of the other and …. tourism, citizen by investment …. At some stage one will pick a poisoned fruit

    — The pickings are there. We don’t all have to chase the same meaningless story —

  41. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    Thirty five new buses.

  42. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    football stand.

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