The US presidential election is less that 80 days away. The blogmaster has always been intrigued how Americans select political candidates through a system of primaries and caucuses. Compared to the process in Barbados where the Executive Council of the the two main political parties are known to have vetoed candidates nominated by constituency councils, it begs a question… …For
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Search BU Archives for ‘Auditor General Report‘ and page after page of results will be the result. Again in 2020 the blogmaster will do his bounden duty and post the 2019 Auditor General Report. A scan of the 110 page report immediately caused the blogmaster to yawn. The yawn was not intended to be disrespectful of the Auditor General’s report,
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Barbados is in the grip of the worst pandemic, in my lifetime, Covid-19 that has taken the lives of over 200,000 people worldwide to date. And it does not seem that the Government is up to the task of managing this crisis. To my mind, it is certainly not setting the example by complying with the conditions that it has
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Posted to Afra Raymond’s website Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley, appointed a 22-member COVID-19 ‘Road to Recovery’ committee on 16 April 2020 to handle and advise on the path of the post-pandemic economic and social recovery. Afra Raymond discusses what he believes should be the priorities of this committee. Programme Length: 00:10:15 Programme Date: 18 April 2020
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Press Release by Guyana Trades Union Congress The Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) notes with deep concerns the tsunami of misinformation permeating our social space and its impact on public opinion threatening to destabilise the Guyana Elections Commission’s (GECOM’s) declaration of which party/group will form the next government. It also threatens Guyana’s democracy, credibility of our institutions of governance, the rule of law and community
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The Upper House is currently debating the Estimates 2020 – 2021. Debating is a strange word given the fact the Barbados Labour Party won all the seats in parliament 30 to 0. A wart of the government system. The 2020 -2021 Draft Estimates document Follow the debate from 10AM of Parliament TV. http://www.youtube.com/c/BarbadosParliamentChannel
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There is another important exercise unfolding in the Barbados Parliament. One of the most important working committees of parliament – PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE (PAC) – chaired by leader of the Opposition Reverend Joseph Atherley has been meeting to call to account the workings of the Transport Board. The revelations from the PAC so far corroborate the Auditor General’s several reports
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Submitted by SSS We wanted change and we got that change. We wanted to see the backs of a very wicked, deceitful and crooked Barbados Democratic Labour Party and we got that. It did not matter what reservations we had of a BLP that has operated in a similar fashion; rather or not their previous track record of controversies, arrogant
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There is the overworked quote credited to Albert Einstein that the definition of insanity “is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result“. There is another popular saying that “the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits” attributed to an unknown author. For the second consecutive year schools in the
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The government has introduced a new format to debating the 2019 Appropriations Bill. Ministers of the respective ministries and support staff will be questioned by members of parliament. It is early days how the new format will improve government, however, it must be said that hearing directly from government officials is a refreshing change from the annual humdrum of ministers
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The blogmaster must be honest and admit that the reform and structural changes required to transform the Barbados economy and society will have its negative impact. No austerity program can be rolled out without negatively affecting people. Unless one is rabidly partisan or dishonest it is obvious the work rate of the BLP government is much higher than that of
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At the root of the state of things in Barbados is the high level of voter apathy commingling with a heavy dose of ignorance about the individual role John citizen must play to ensure an effective democratic system. One does not have to read, All the Kings Men or be acquainted with the insights of Niccolò Machiavelli in his well
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The embedded documents support a view the government has backtracked on a promise made to employees at the BTPA and the Barbados Workers Union. In the interest of transparency and integrity it is important for the Mia Mottley led government to clarify the matter if it is to sustain the confidence of the people it serves. The last thing the
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This is a BU reblog from 2015 – David, blogmaster Mia Mottley Prosecutes Government on CORRUPTION in Her Reply to 2015 Budget Posted on June 19, 2015 by David 245 comments Those Democratic Labour Party (DLP) members in parliament advocated the need for Barbados to enact Integrity and Freedom of Information legislation prior to being elected in 2008. There was an
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The problem with enforcing the VAT laws has nothing to do with the junior public officers whose duty it is to collect the tax. Often, officers are proceeding against someone who has failed to pay the VAT and the officer is taken off the case after the VAT cheat made a phone call to a Minister of Government or a
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At this time, people tend to reflect on the twelvemonth past and to contemplate the coming one. Today, I propose to attempt the first. From my perspective, 2018 has been dominated by issues of governance and by their relation to the prescriptions of our supreme law. A review of my columns for the year corroborates this opinion. I had even
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Two weeks after the publication of the Tobago Sandals MoU yet there has been no cogent defence of these detrimental provisions. The stark analysis is that the provisions of that MoU all favour Sandals’ interests, so much so that I am frankly wondering if they were the authors. Serious and inescapable questions of professional responsibility arise, given the eminent named
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Before the crap hit the fan on the South Coast the blogmaster was haunted by a pronouncement of Dr. John Mwanza almost three years go. It was at the height of the embarrassing period the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) was unable to supply water to rural parts of the island. Mwanza reminded Barbadians that besides Barbados being a water scare
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