Tag Archives: Dwight Sutherland

Size Matters

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There is a recent article in The Economist which highlighted a problem of high demand for housing in London, England. Not unlike Barbados the demand is significantly located at the cheaper end of the price scale. 

Britain badly needs more homes. In the past two decades its population has grown by nearly 8m; another 2m people will be added by 2030. Many will be drawn to cities, the engine-rooms of the economy. Yet the supply of new housing is not keeping up. London alone needs an estimated 83,000 new homes each year, according to Savills, an estate agent, but is building only half that. The biggest shortfall is at the cheaper end of the housing market—anything costing less than £450 ($560) per square foot, or £4,840 per square metre, to buy. This segment accounts for nearly three-fifths of demand but less than a third of forecast supply in London (see chart).

Can high-rise buildings solve London’s housing problems
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The Phartford Files: The Sutherland Dynasty & Bertoldian Betrayal

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Submitted by Ironside

The rhetoric of the Barbados Today 29th October editorial entitled: No time for Party. Not now is as silky and as sanitized as an educated Barbadian can get. I suppose that as an “above-ground” newspaper, the Barbados Today editor has no choice. And to be fair, the editor did as good a job as he /she could…in the circumstances.

But in this country, I doubt that the sanitized rhetoric of the article, replete with biblical parallels, will get the attention of the intoxicated, money hungry faction of this country that calls itself the BLP and the government into whose hands stressed and reactionary Barbadians committed the next five years of its life back in May 2018.

So, dear BT editor, let me help you…let me take a crack at these SOBs here on BU, no holds barred!

Corruption Endemic
One of the critical issues in the last election was the matter of corruption in government. The BLP promised integrity legislation. (See:
https://www.barbadosadvocate.com/news/blp-promises-new-integrity-legislation).
As I expected, the BLP government went through the motions of passing integrity legislation knowing full well that that would not hinder corruption where it mattered most.

Corruption is endemic to Barbadian society. Translated, this means that all of us practice and tacitly support corruption…every day! You beg to differ? OK!

  • In general, how many of us ask for favours knowing well we were not qualified to receive them?
  • How many of us have asked for exceptions to be made to the entry of our children to schools where they are not qualified to enter?
  • How many of us feel no compunction in jumping the queue of people waiting in line for a service?
  • How many of us rely on friends “in high places” to bale us out of trouble rather than throw ourselves on the mercy of those in authority?
  • How many of our “business people” bribe customs officers to get reduced charges or illegal items out of the port?
  • How many of sold our vote to the first bidder during the last election…and the one before?

What do you call those practices? Still beg to differ? Go phart on yourself…in the mirror!

Corruption is so endemic in Barbados that we have a motto that expresses it all; “Boy yuh got to have a grandfarder to get by in Barbados!

We, the so called masses, are as guilty of corruption as the relatively few demagogues that we elect to rule this land from time to time. Therefore, the logical and ethical solution to the problem of corruption in Barbados lies in dealing with our own corruption FIRST.

Time to Repent

My submission is that we ordinary people need to repent of the corruption in ourselves. And I mean REPENT and in the biblical sense. Until we do so, we are in no position to wield any moral power to demand the end of corruption in government.

And make no mistake about it; the politicians know this; they know that we ourselves are as corrupt as they are. That is why the Sutherland Dynasty is laughing all its way to the bank. The Sutherlands know that sooner or later some self-despising, mentally enslaved, “corrupt” Barbadian will knock at their constituency office door and beg for the crumbs that fall from their table while they and their family, close friends and bodyguards continue to dine sumptuously and travel lavishly. On OUR blinking taxes!

BERToldian Betrayal (With Impunity)

Imagine that: we are asked to pay a 2.5% health levy on top of all the other taxes and the first thing that the BERToldian Labour Party – they can’t be Barbadians, right? – spend it on is a $200,000 plus salary a year (over $16,000 per month) for a minister’s wife – IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH.

Do you know that this salary is just circa $1,000 shy of a Minister’s salary? An eighteenth minister without a ministry? What a betrayal of trust! What gross disrespect for Barbadians! Did we vote you in with this understanding in mind? Or are you “overstanding” the matter as Rastafari would say?

But I wonder: how many votes is the Sutherland Dynasty worth in the next election? You know, there is a kind of arrogant “pharticidal” idiocy about nepotism and cronyism that really boggles the mind!

But look at it…there are no protestors in the street, far less rioters! Today is indeed a very funny night! And that is because too many of us are full of existential shiite!

So, where are all the new garbage trucks promised? Don’t be surprised if Jose and Jose gets a contract to “do the garbage” in Barbados! If you don’t know who really owns Jose and Jose (We are No1 in the No.2 Business) get off this frigging island!

Proportional Representation Now

Excuse the hell out of me; but this political system that we have needs to be drastically reformed or dismantled! I don’t know that there is a fundamental flaw in the concept of democracy itself but the political system – meaning the number of parties, system of representation, elections rules etc – is a bare joke.

It should never have been possible for one party to win all 30 seats! Under proportional representation this would have been virtually impossible! So there goes your first reform….if we are going that way!

It is time that Barbadians called for a referendum on the matter of the implementation of proportional representation and let’s see what this government will do with it. I think I know how the Bertoldians will react but screw them!

2023 Ah Coming!

In the meantime, let us prepare, come next election, not to forget how the Bertoldians are pharting on us now with the acrid smell of heartless corruption. Let us prepare to help MAM make more history …the first woman PM in Barbados with a one-term government!

P.S. Perhaps, I will speculate on how we can ensure this in the next edition of the Phartford Files.

Government Planning to Increase Penalty Fee for Vendors

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One of the things we have to respect is that vending has been a way of life from slavery days, whereby people would have plied their trade whether selling fruits, whether selling whatever to feed their families and indeed vending has taken people in this country out of poverty. It send [sic] many children to school including myself. I am testimony of a grandfather who was  vendor in Ellerton, St. George… so indeed I am supportive of vendors …We just need to give them the respect that is due to them and also give them the space that they require to be part of the landscape of this country.

Last weekend the Prime Minister Mia Mottley at the Barbados Labour Party’s annual conference made passing reference to itinerant vending in Barbados and the need for some order to be brought to bear. The matter of vending along the streets of Barbados has been given lip service by successive BLP and DLP administrations. All will agree that citizens of Barbados from the lowest social class are members of the vendor class.

– Dwight Sutherland, Minister of Small Business (2018)

A scan of parliament’s website shows the Markets and Slaughter-Houses (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on the Order Paper. One of the reasons for the amendment to quote the Bill – “… is to amend the Markets and Slaughter-Houses Act, Cap. 265 to make provision for the imposition of pecuniary penalties and other matters related thereto…The pecuniary penalty in respect of an order made pursuant to subsection (3) is $300″. The current fine is $50.00.

Given the class of person who will be affected by the increase in penalty begs the question – is the proposed increase in the fine and other amendments to the Act fair?

Relevant Links

 

Fund Access for Success

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Screenshot 2019-07-28 at 13.39.43.png

This can be seen on Fund Access website

 

The quantum of deposits that you see in Credit Unions and Commercial banks are not capital. They may at best be described as savings, maybe money, BUT NOT CAPITAL. These institutions are Financial Intermediaries, that may, according to their risk preference, transform them into loan capital. I note that one other high profile commentator makes the same mistake

– Vincent Condrigton

Understandably the government’s public relations machinery is working overtime. Any iota of information is being shared with the citizenry that will cloak positively the government. The role of propaganda should not be underestimated how it controls the narrative and by extension the minds of a people.   It gives the blogmaster no pleasure to remind the BU family propaganda was used to good effect by the Nazi Party with Hitler appointing a minister of propaganda. This is an extreme example to emphasize the importance governments will place on the function of controlling and ‘sanitizing’ information.  It is left to an informed citizenry to promulgate a countervailing view.

The quote above reminded the blogmaster of a feel good message Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce, Dwight Sutherland has been repeating without challenge in recent months. To quote a media report:-

Our Government, we have started talks with non-governmental entities, international agencies, whether the loans will be secured or non-secured we recognised that Fund Access has a number of clients who are knocking on the door. In 21 years of operations, Fund Access has approved over $64 million to 1,500 clients (Blogmaster’s emphasis).

The minister’s message was supported in the same media report by Chairman of Fund Access David Simpson:-

We have also approved an additional 138 loans, and refinanced a further 266, all accounting for job creation of just below 2,400 jobs. He also pointed out that they had surpassed $6 million in disbursements for the calendar year 2018, having approved and disbursed in excess of $5.9 million in loans and created 144 jobs.Up to June 30, the Fund has disbursed $2.4 million to 51 clients and created 68 jobs in 2019. Is is only the blogmaster waiting for more relevant information? How about breaking out the loans by sector, size, date loan given linked to the date same business was established. Important is the failure rate i.e. number of businesses receiving loans and whether they are still in business. What is the rate of delinquency etc etc etc. Some of us prefer our leaders to share a level of analyses with the public that will inform about how our tax money is working or not for that matter.

Relevant link:

‘More money’ for Fund Access

If the small business or what is commonly referred to as the SME sector is regarded as important, those leading the sector must up the game. We see the same tired faces, have to listen to the same tired narratives and expect that miraculously the sector will emerge to save us from ourselves.

Minister Sutherland @Shopsmart Notsmart

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The Editor

Barbados

Barbados Underground

Bridgetown, Barbados

West Indies

Dear Sir/Madam,

There was an article in the Daily Nation of the 20th.December 2018 captioned Sutherland calls for sanitary lab. The article alluded to the fact that “Shop Smart” seemed to be having problems over the amount of money it was losing when food products had the Best Before Date (BBD) embossed either on canned or film-packed foods. Minister Sutherland alluded to the fact that money could be saved if the products basically,were tested to determine their wholesomeness after the BBD. He also mentioned in paragraph six that :”the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, (DCCA)… we can’t carry that because we may engage in the risk of harming people………..”

All I could do was laugh. Is it not the function of the Supermarket to ensure that products stocked and their movement through the facility are monitored, to facilitate savings? Obviously, products with short moving times should be purchases in larger amounts than those with longer moving times. Surely this is not the job for Minister Sutherland, as was clearly seen in the awkwardness with which he addressed the topic. Surely this a management problem which the management Shop Smart must address. Some Supermarkets have shelves devoted (Popular Discount and Cherish to name a few) to BBD products. The price of the items are reduced and the consumer buys them.

It is also quite obvious that the DCCA does not seem to have a clue about what tests would have to be done to achieved the goals stated by Minister Sutherland. As a matter of fact one must ask oneself if there are persons trained in food science in DCCA.

In 2000, there was a letter published in the Barbados Advocate on the first of November under the caption: “Not such an easy matter” by me; part of which I now reproduce:

The following comments are made from an educational and consumer aspect…….since it is evident that …..needs more exposure in the area of food science and the quality characteristics associated with stored food products. To illustrate what Iam talking about,I will deal with a box of cornflakes. In the fresh state the consumer expects the product to have the following kinesthetics or textural characteristics: crunchiness when chewed in the absence of milk;brittleness when bitten and mashiness when mixed with saliva in the mouth. These characteristics all come under the heading of mouth-feel and are taught as part of the undergraduate program in food science…..Storage test at room temperature and accelerated storage tests at elevated temperatures are conducted to determine the length of time over which the stored food products retain premium quality status.Chemical analyses to determine the levels of ash,sugars,vitamins….Analysis of the head space in canned and film-packed foods are also done to determine if there is any change in flavor or odor and a BBD is then issued. Cornflakes are packed in an inner barrier of wax paper,which is enclosed in a cardboard box. The inner wax barrier reduces the rate at which moisture and oxygen diffuse from the surroundings,through the cardboard and into contact with the flakes themselves.Over a period of time,diffusion of moisture and oxygen affect the texture of the stored flakes which become soft.The consumer will not buy such a product. It is therefore pointless to talk about extending BBD of cornflakes. In the case of canned food products, simple observation of the shape of the can tells one whether or not the contents are wholesome. Whole chapters of food science books under thermal processing of canned foods are devoted to this. In any event, extending BBD means that the nutritional values would have to be checked and since Barbados places no stress on the scientific capabilities (apart from computer science) of its nationals, there is a slim chance of nutritional assessment being done,since a very high level technical ability is needed to do so. I have not addressed perishables (meats, fish and fruits) for self-evident reasons.

Minister Sutherland would better serve the country by dealing with food fraud instead. In a letter to the Barbados Advocate of the 18th. November 2000,captioned : “Food fraud a global occurrence” I outlined the adverse effects of such fraud: from the mixing of red lead to paprika; the addition of mineral oils to olive oils, to the fake antibiotics that cause an increase in antibiotic resistance; changing of labels ,expiry dates and BBD are all par for the course with food fraud. Advanced countries have their hands full dealing with food fraud.

Robert D. Lucas,PH.D.

Certified food scientist (CFS)

Dwight Sutherland’s One Year Contract With Rock Hard Cement

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Submitted by Dr. George Brathwaite

Dwight Sutherland, M.P.

Dwight Sutherland, M.P.

I refer to your article in the Barbados Underground which states that Dwight Sutherland is serving two MAMs. From my standpoint and certain knowledge, Sutherland is a professional with considerable amount of training in cement manufacture.  He was offered a one (1) year contract in 2015 as Consultant – Business Development and Operations with Rock Hard Cement.

We researched but could not find Sutherland’s name attached to any wrong doings of Rock Hard Cement during his one (1) year stint with them. Sutherland spoke only of cement as it is his passion and training. Sutherland completed his one (1) year contract with Rock Hard cement as a professional and has done nothing wrong.

He was not responsible for the building works at Rock Hard Cement sites neither was he responsible for TCPD applications for Rock Hard Cement.

When last we checked, the only thing that Sutherland was doing Rock Hard is busy working in St. George South cementing himself. He is indeed rock hard in that area as he appears irreplaceable at this time.

As a man of integrity we assumed he saw the writing on the wall and did what was right.

Dwight Sutherland Serving Two MAMs, Mottley and Maloney

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There is the saying, ‘if yuh start wrong, yuh gine end wrong’.

A lot has been written and said about MAM (Mark Maloney) and his latest Town Planning Department (TPD) breach (controversy) Hard Rock Cement. His name was mentioned by Governor Delisle Worrell when he delivered one of his closed door Economic Reviews. In the recent No Confidence Motion brought against the government by MAM (Mia Mottley) Maloney’s name was again mentioned several times. In the same way she catapulted the Cahill Energy Scam to wide national attention, she has apparently done the same to Mark Maloney and his company Hard Rock Cement.

The BU household has joined many who have become enthralled by the reported exploits of Maloney. The current debate over his refusal to respond to an enforcement order issued by the Town Planning department (TPD),  who then flipped it to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Charles Leacock, who has since requested additional information from Chief Town Planner Mark Cummins to clarify the order is the stuff Hollywood is built.

Photo credit: Barbados Today

Photo credit: Barbados Today

Although Barbadians have been labelled creatures who have a short attention span, surely we have not forgotten it was in January of last year Mark Maloney announced that a top of the line cement plant would be constructed next to the flour mill on Barbados Port Authority lands. The verbal indiscretion and insight into how decisions are made in Barbados have now come into the light. His announcement then forced a hurried response by Chief Town Planner Mark Cummins to the effect no building construction application had been made. The Business Development and Operations Consultant Dwight Sutherland was given the job to explain away Maloney’s ‘faux pas’ of sorts which he attributed to overexcitement.

During the No Confidence debate Mia Mottley was relentless in her prosecution of Maloney and the authorities who have not been able to respond to what she labelled TPD breaches. While on her feet government member using sotto voce were quick to ask about Dwight Sutherland’s role in the Hard Rock Rock Hard affair. She responded that it would be INVIDIOUS of her to deal with the Sutherland involvement during the motion.The meaning of the word – likely to arouse or incur resentment or anger in others. Members of the BU household immediately discussed what she meant and concluded she did not want to upset her junior colleague.

BU is of the view given the aggressive public position the leader of the Opposition and Barbados Labour Party Mia Mottley has taken – and rightly so – makes it easy for Sutherland to resign his job as a Consultant with Maloney’s Hard Rock Cement company. Given Sutherland’s role and his public mouthings as a representative of Hard Rock Cement, it is obvious that he was involved in TPD discussions. It is obvious he was privy to the direction the company was about to take last year. Even if he was not aware the time has come to select one master. There is another saying – you can’t serve two masters.

It is a matter of principle Mr. Dwight Sutherland M.P. and Business Development Manager and Consultant. All are watching you as you construct a career in public service.

The DLP Must Go Now: “Man Call The Election” Part II

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Austin

The DLP had a meeting in St. Michael for five constituencies and it is reported that only 130 persons attended total for all five constituencies. Now compare that to the BLP Dwight Sutherland’s St. George South Branch meeting held on Sunday the 25th March at St.Luke’s Brighton Skills Training Centre which featured Opposition Deputy Leader Dale Marshall and former political leader Mia Mottley where over 100 persons attended.

What is happening in St. George South is beginning to happen all over Barbados as the election grows near, finally the people of St. George South will get the kind of representation they deserve in these challenging times from its BLP candidate Dwight Sutherland.  Dr. Suckoo has “not” served the people of St. George South well, and she has done a “poor” job as Minister of Labour.    The labour force in Barbados and the people of St. George South want more that seeing their representative “cheesing in the newspaper every day” saying and doing absolutely nothing tangible for her constituency in St.George South, or bajan people.

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