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Category Archives: Governance

I Want 50, I Want 100, I Want 2000 …We Want Nunthing but Trust

Posted on September 23, 2021 by David 19 comments

Submitted by Whisper Back in February 2021, according to Acting Prime Minister, Santia Bradshaw, a regional company tried to secure one million “non-existent” AstraZeneca vaccine doses through a Florida-based company for $10.2 million US dollars from a legitimate manufacturer for the government of Barbados, in a deal that did not include Barbados taxpayers money.Acting Prime Minister, Santia Bradshaw briefly outlined

Difficult Conversations – Crack Heads

Posted on September 7, 2021 by David 97 comments

The Barbados National Building Code was published in 1992, as a draft document for review and comment. It was updated and published for use in 1993. For the next 20 years, Barbadian: politicians, senior public officials, lawyers, radio moderators, newspaper columnists, editors, journalists, and building professionals, confidently asserted that Barbados only had a draft building code. For 20 years, I

Giving Back

Posted on September 2, 2021 by David 46 comments

Submitted by Paula Sealy Attorney General Dale Marshall has defended Government’s hiring of private lawyers to provide legal representation for the State, saying that the Solicitor General’s Department, is understaffed. Responding to an editorial recently published in a local newspaper about the Mia Mottley Government engaging with private legal services, when the administration has the Solicitor General’s Chambers at its

A Heather Cole Column – Governance by Confusion, Who Gains?

Posted on August 28, 2021 by David 182 comments

About 20 years ago as we crossed the street to get on to East Street there was a group of people ahead of us and one of the women was lugging a suitcase. We were going to the East Street Vendors Market in London. My son who was five then was with me and when we reached the market, we

Turning Bajan Rum into What?

Posted on August 27, 2021 by David 81 comments

Barbados has a rich legacy of distilling rum going back to the mid 1700s, the Mount Gay brand is said to be the oldest commercial rum operation in existence. Although several of the colonies in that period also produced rum, Barbados registered the highest production. Increase in global rum supply and other considerations led to many distilleries on the island

NIS Needs Lifeline

Posted on August 25, 2021 by David 76 comments

This week government approved a $50 million boost to the Unemployment Fund, the first tranche of a $143 million recapitalization of the NIS Unemployment Fund planned over 3 years. Government’s decision comes as no surprise in the wake of over 52 thousand claims filed in 2020 as a result of the displacement of workers caused by the pandemic. We must

A Citizenry Contented to be Baffled by BS

Posted on August 14, 2021 by David 236 comments

Let’s see which tranches were defaulted and exactly the amount. And what value the “books” placed on the asset(s). All neatly hidden, because we can never see what those entities who received the “loans” did with that money, other than defaulting on repayment. Everybody got bailed out except the local taxpayer. NorthernObserver (call for transparency by BU commenter in the

Governance in Barbados

Posted on August 13, 2021 by David 42 comments

Submitted by Paula Sealy We last had as many as 4000 students write the 11+ in 2003. Therefore it is possible that there are actually fewer students in the education system today than 10 or 15 years ago. However while some primary and secondary schools are overcrowded others remain below capacity. The 2010 National Advisory Committee on Education (NACE) report

Excellent News BUT …!

Posted on July 16, 2021 by David 370 comments

An approach to creating new pathways to generate economic activity by the Mottley administration has been to discover new and deepen existing relationships with African countries. It is axiomatic that an island built on slave labour should prefer to nurture a wholesome relationship with the Mother Country. Despite the political noise created when Prime Minister Mottley toured African countries early

Dr. Ronnie Yearwood: Points to Ponder on Going Republic

Posted on July 15, 2021 by David 137 comments

Let us consider that the Government will continue with its intended plan, it appears of swapping one ceremonial head for another, the Governor General for a President. Then I think that any new President of a Republic, ceremonial or executive should be directly elected and all Barbadians afforded the opportunity to run for and vote for this office. The Prime

Governance

Government by Decree – Covid-19 and the Constitution

Posted on July 1, 2021 by David 78 comments

The government has deliberately stoked fear over coronavirus while behaving like an authoritarian regime relying on police state tactics, according to the former supreme court justice Jonathan Sumption. The Guardian

Difficult Conversations – Amazing Barbadians

Posted on June 29, 2021 by David 175 comments

Jesus said that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. He advised us to identify the type of tree by its fruit. Our political parties invest in public relations for one purpose – to convince the public that their trees are good. Evidently, they are very convincing. The Barbados Constitution protects one

Another Heather Cole Column – An Assault on Democracy

Posted on June 24, 2021 by David 133 comments

Submitted by Heather Cole Based on the 2018 Manifesto of the Barbados Labour Party, it was my expectation that a new Barbados would be created that was a place of economic equity and justice for all, a place where poverty could be eradicated and most of all it would become a beacon for democracy. For me, being guided by a

SEEING DOUBLES

Posted on June 18, 2021 by David 98 comments

Submitted by Observing With all the action going on nowadays its forgiveable for the average person to see doubles once in a while. After all, they say more is less, or is it less is more? We have a Commissioner of Police, Two Deputy Commissioners AND still a former Commissioner who’s a consultant. DOUBLES!!! We have a Minister of Finance,

Four Seasons Project: Public Servants Must Serve Taxpayers NOT Politicians

Posted on June 12, 2021 by David 174 comments

The Four Seasons Project – Story of Failure continues to be an example of how the public continues is short changed by public officials elected and recruited to serve us. The inability of taxpayers to solicit answers to legitimate questions regarding the quality of decisions made by successive governments is an embarrassment to the type of democracy we should be

Four Seasons Project – Story of Failure

Posted on June 8, 2021 by David 259 comments

The most recent Auditor General Report – see 2020 Auditor General Report – Time to Fire Senior Public Servants – continues to generate the usual concerns engaged annually by the general public. Although it must be said there is more impatience being exercised this time around if the blogmaster has tested the temperature of debate correctly. Is it because of the

Governance

2020 Auditor General Report – Time to Fire Senior Public Servants

Posted on June 2, 2021 by David 112 comments

Note that your ace investigator has ever been known to tread carefully, but, a large part of the AudG [Auditor General Report] lack of audits stems from many years from 2008 on, when several of these public bodies never filed a single annual report. The backlog was huge, and some like the Urban Development Corporation has apparently decided “forget them”,

Governance

Little Island Big Cabinet

Posted on May 26, 2021 by David 743 comments

The Barbados government recently launched the Little Island Big Barbados campaign and immediately those responsible are having to defend against a torrent of criticism from the public. The thrust of the concern: the campaign is a tired concept several islands have used to promote tourism for which Barbados is whispered to have forked out $700,000.00. In the blog BLP and

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