A short three years ago in 2018 then Prime Minister Freundel Stuart remained in office for 90 days beyond the five year anniversary of the first sitting of parliament permitted under the Barbados Constitution. Three years later incumbent Prime Minister Mia Mottley has called a snap general election eighteen months before it is constitutionally due. The early ring of the
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The blogmaster read Wild Coot’s (Harry Russell) weekly column with interest and came away with a couple takeaways which maybe more poignant than the former banker touched on. We live in a capitalist driven society which is ‘defined’ by churning economic activity with the aim to make profit for the capitalists. We can theorize to rival the Adam Smiths and
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The blogmaster continues to follow the story regarding a call to BARP’s membership to attend the AGM- the rule requires 200 members in good financial standing to achieve a quorum. It begs the question why the Barbados Association of Retired Persons with close to thirty thousand members representing a cross section of the local population has been unable to raise
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A contributing factor to a high level of cynicism by citizens directed at government is the lack of transparency attached to selecting national awardees. The exercise is regarded as an opportunity for the sitting government to reward party faithful. The same with appointments to SOEs. The 2021 National Independence Awards was no different although some deserving Barbadians received recognition. A
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Barbados has officially joined the ranks of politically polarized societies. Like the fly on the wall the blogmaster has been observing the quality of debate on a myriad of issues and as a commenter on BU would describe it, the signal noise is deafening and the divisiveness is real. Permit the blogmaster be clear, citizens of a country giving vent
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Some of us have been following the Danny Fenster story, a US journalist sentenced to 11 years in prison by the Myanmar government for alleged breaches to immigration and terrorism laws. Thankfully the latest news is that Fenster was released and should be back in the USA soon. The blogmaster hesitates to use the word empathetic to hint at being
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To whom much is given, much will be required. Luke 12:48 The result of the 24 May 2018 general elections delivered an unprecedented result to the Mia Mottley led Barbados Labour Party (BLP) winning ALL 30 seats in parliament. In the minds of many a clear message was sent by the voting public, it was disgusted with the performance of
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There is the saying he who plays the piper calls the tune. As it pertains to the political sphere, whether abroad or local – players with deep pockets who contribute to political parties expect when said party wins office, political contributions will covert to influence. There is enough evidence in post independence Barbados to agree. In May of 2018 the
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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