Dubai is one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has become a regional business hub in the Middle East.
Behind the facade of respectability that Dubai has carefully cultivated over the years, the flow of illicit funds “has helped to fuel the emirate’s booming real estate market; enrich its bankers, moneychangers, and business elites; and turn the city into a major gold trading hub,” the authors of the Carnegie report added.
Dubai, in particular, has become the piggybank for corrupt politicians from around the world. Those who secretly plunder their countries finances hide their money there. It used to be Switzerland and Lichtenstein, but they have become so unsafe and transparent putting the stolen cash in their banks is a risk.
The Russians, South Americans, Caribbean leaders, and those who can still plunder their countries go there for holidays and visits. For many, the real reason to go there is to count their ill-gotten cash.
Some will remember the exposures that showed countries such as Saint Vincent and the Caribbean had millions tucked away in Switzerland. But, unfortunately, no one has got to the bottom yet who deposited that money, and it has not become public knowledge if they have.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are a money-laundering country. The U.S. State Department identified St. Vincent and the Grenadines as a significant money laundering jurisdiction. The small set of islands remains vulnerable to money laundering and other financial crimes due to drug trafficking and its active offshore financial sector.
The Americans say Dubai is a ‘haven for money laundering.’ The UAE’s unwillingness to tackle corruption and money laundering is a global challenge that must be addressed, says the U.S. think tank. The Gulf city of Dubai has been slammed as a “money laundering paradise” by the leading anti-corruption group ‘Transparency International.’ One of the seven emirates that make up the UAE, Dubai has built a reputation as the pre-eminent business hub in the Middle East, with an open economy that welcomes companies and individuals worldwide.
A new report from the U.S. ‘Carnegie Endowment’ has found that the wealth underpinning “Dubai’s prosperity is a steady stream of illicit proceeds borne from corruption and crime.”
The report from the US-based think-tank will likely further cast a long shadow on its much-vaunted projected image as a haven for respectable investment.
Dubai is one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has become a regional business hub in the Middle East.
Many politician thieves have adopted cryptocurrencies to move money without the paperwork and accountability. Banking watchdogs across the globe are making AML/CFT norms stricter for their subjects, forcing banks to upgrade their scanners for fear of massive fines. Having spent billions of dollars on new systems and personnel, they have reduced money laundering activities to a certain extent. However, criminals have also grown smarter. They employ professional money laundering cells that do not operate within the confines of static, predefined, overly-broad transactional actions. As a result, they can circumvent many regulatory norms, which were thought to be perfect, with the sophistication involved in the latest financial technologies. At the same time, some of the technological advances like cryptocurrencies helped them avoid the formal financial systems for value transfers while paying for and receiving goods and services and buying villas and property in the UAE.
Perhaps the public should ask questions about why their politicians are visiting Dubai? If your politicians or any close relative of theirs is involved in cryptocurrency, then I suppose extra scrutiny should be made.
But keep in mind it is not illegal to save your money in an overseas bank anywhere. The illegality comes into play when the money is illegally and improperly obtained. It is also not unlawful or unduly suspicious to visit Dubai because many do that without depositing or investing stolen money there.
If there is any information that the reader can give Transparency International, it will be gratefully received, and whistleblowers will be respected. ti@transparency.org
An aspect that should get people asking questions is whether drilling into areas of active magmatism might cause volcanism.
That controversy was sparked in the Philippines when 20 earthquakes were felt soon after drilling for a new geothermal prospect on Canlaon Volcano. A congressional enquiry has been suggested, an inquiry into the tremors and their relation to the drilling and Canlaon. This would be a serious issue as Canloan (the volcano) is close to Canlaon City (population ~50,000).
This is not a new accusation in the Philippines either, as the Aetas believed that drilling caused the 1991 eruption of Pinatubo.
Drilling is the most likely cause of the infamous “mud volcano” in Indonesia, but that is related to the water and heat rather than magma’s new movements. It must be easy to link geothermal drilling to any increase in “restlessness” at any volcano nearby, but there is no hard evidence that drilling can have such a direct effect on volcanism.
Because there is no evidence that drilling can cause a volcanic reaction does not mean that such actions cannot cause an eruption. Of course, drilling companies will never repeat such beliefs; they would be more likely to suppress those mutterings.
Nature being what it is, anything is possible when you interfere or tamper with it.
It is instructive to briefly look at the close spatial association between volcanoes, eruptions, and geothermal development as a means of justification. Active or potentially active volcanoes are often targeted in the search for high-temperature geothermal resources. One specific example of an existing geothermal installation at an active volcano is the 22 MW Momotombo geothermal relatively small eruptions, interspersed with occasional, considerable explosive activity. The most recent eruption at Momotombo was in 1905, when lava flowed down from the summit crater to the volcano’s NE base (Siebert & Simkin, 2002-).
There appears to be some correlation between geothermal development and Holocene eruptions; concern for the potential impacts of future volcanic eruptions on geothermal installations is warranted and should be extensively studied. As more geothermal development occurs near potentially active volcanoes, the chances of significant eruption will only increase.
In Iceland, on September 8, 1977, magma moving through a subterranean dike intersected a geothermal borehole at the Námafjall geothermal field in Iceland (Larsen et al., 1979). Three tons of magma erupted through an 1138 m deep borehole in 20 minutes, leaving a deposit of 968 tons of volcanic scoria and ash on the land surface around the well. The Námafjall geothermal field is located on Krafla caldera’s flank, which experienced a major volcanic rifting episode with associated faulting and magma intrusion since December 1975.
There are all sorts of stories regarding the volcanic eruption in Saint Vincent. Some say that the wells drilled for the geothermal project were on the island’s wrong part. The drilling took place there because ULP politics were in play, advice had been to drill elsewhere, but multimillion expensive drilling nevertheless was ordered and went ahead.
Drilling of the first well SVG01 lasted from April 30, 2019, to July 27, 2019, 89 days to a depth of 2,700 meters. With challenges due to the unstable formation in the well, it was necessary to correct the well’s inclination, which then collapsed at a depth of 1,889 meters. The total cost of drilling this well was $7.7 million, and a temperature of 155 degrees Celsius was measured at a depth of 1,880 meters. The project team announced there was still the possibility of successfully drilling a side-track from 1,800 to 2,700 meters and additional stimulation.
The second well, SVG03, was drilled between August 7, 2019, and October 29, 2019, including seven days of stimulation to a depth of 2,283 meters (total length 2,800 meters). The well collapsed at a depth of 1,627 meters and a side-track from 1,160 meters. The total cost of the well was $7.6 million. The well’s temperature was 220 degrees Celsius at a depth of 2,800 meters with though low permeability. They announced the well testing was outstanding, but they planned to continue stimulation to increase flow capacity.
Drilling for the third well, SVG02, began on November 4, 2019, and ended on January 15, 2020, including 19 days’ stimulation. The depth of the well is 2,990 meters (2,869 vertical depth). The drilling cost was $5.6 million with a temperature of 230 to 250 degrees Celsius. They announced this well would have to be stimulated.
Side-tracking the first well, SVG01 was next on the agenda with stimulation using a downhole packer to seal the downhole at 1,700 meters. The same was then tried to SVG03.
It was expected that testing would be concluded around July 2020; at that time, estimates could be made about the wells’ possible capacity for power generation.
In August 2020, Ellsworth Dacon, the Vincentian Project Director of the project, told local news. “The results weren’t as expected. We got permeability, but not sufficient enough for it to be commercially viable.” “While there is undoubtedly a geothermal source at Bamboo Range, the inadequacy of the permeability of the rocks means that the heat cannot pass through the rocks at the needed rate.” Dacon went on to say, “We are looking at some closed-loop systems and speaking to three companies, so we will see how it goes.”
In real quick time, the Icelandic company packed up and pulled out of SVG. The geothermal project on St. Vincent & the Grenadines spent over US$ 35 million since the start in 2012, with around US$700k from the Vincentian government, US$ 29 million in grant funding, and $7 million in funding from private equity.
Drilling equipment was hastily moved from the site and shipped overseas.
The ULP propagandist Vinciman said in 2017, “Our greatest fear is La Soufriere Volcano, and even so, we just go about our business as usual, like … it doesn’t even exist.”
In reply, Peter Binose wrote in 2017, “We now know the greatest fear of Ralph Gonsalves is La Soufriere Volcano erupting before Argyle officially opens. Because if that happened, it would be the end of the Argyle airport project; no airline would ever fly in there after that. There is the possibility that it will erupt in the future, perhaps even sometime soon.”
Binose went on to write in reply to Vinciman, “I am glad you mentioned La Soufriere Volcano and being worried about it erupting, so you should be. Because it is very much a live volcano and, according to records, is overdue to erupt. All aircraft sitting at the airport will be lost because the hot ash will destroy them. They will end up as scrap metal. They certainly will not be able to fly in the ash cloud, and the airport is within an area where hot rocks will rain down. Argyle may become an insurance nightmare for resident and visiting aircraft, with runway subsidence more than a possibility, huge winds when not expected and now a live volcano to consider.”
La Soufriere Volcano is an active volcano, it last erupted in 1979, and there is always steam and gasses rising from it, although it is currently resting. Looking at the record of La Soufriere’s past eruptions and the intervals between them, an eruption is now long overdue. So, it is not ‘if’ but when, and the regime knows that, which has frightened them. And as I previously said, “so it should”.
Binose wrote many articles about the Gonsalves folly of building facilities such as the Argyle airport and the Specialist Medical facility at Georgetown. But everything was built in those dangerous areas for ULP political purposes to generate jobs for the abundant ULP supporters in those areas. Binose even wrote about the folly of drilling where they did; perhaps if his advice had been taken, there would have been no current eruption and no investment damage.
Once more, we must place the blame squarely on the shoulders of Ralph Gonsalves actions, even in this current event. What has happened was on the cards to happen. He ignored sound advice from many critics and must be considered a fool.
Proverbs 12-15 – The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.
Comrade, have you gone completely mad? Are you starting to imagine things, are there people peering in your bedroom windows while you are sleeping? Are your room and telephones bugged?
Since the 1970’s the comrade has during times of personal stress claimed people are trying to kill him. He has made such claims several times since he has been PM even.
Paranoid schizophrenia, or schizophrenia with paranoia as doctors now call it, is the most common example of this kind of behaviour.
Schizophrenia is a kind of psychosis, which means your mind does not agree with reality. It affects how you think and behave. This can show up in different ways and at different times, even in the same person.
People with paranoid delusions are unreasonably suspicious of others.
Obesity is a common problem for people with schizophrenia, with an estimated 40-60% of this population being obese or overweight. Obesity among the mentally ill may contribute to adverse medical and psychological consequences as well as medication non-compliance and lower quality and enjoyment of life.
What I have noticed is that whenever there is a stressful situation, he makes strange unfounded and unprovable claims.
1979, he was banned from Barbados, he claimed death threats.
Then before or around the time of almost every election, he makes strange claims, also each time he has been accused of rape or sexual assault, he starts acting weird again.
The SVG telephone exchange is in the grounds of Arnos Vale old airport. It has a room where the SVG police specialist technicians monitor phone calls and internet. Only they can listen to our phone calls, only they have the ability and the facility to tap our phones. Do they do that? Well, I suppose if they are there and that is their job, yes, they do. The comrade knows that, so where else can NDP illegal phone tappers listen to telephones? Only the ULP government and their political police have the facilities for that.
Gonsalves is running scared he is losing his grip on the people who he has so long fed and nurtured with a little money and some building materials. The NDP is way out front, so expect the comrade to invent all sorts of nonsense. He has already used the sympathy card with his family’s illnesses and ailments.
Watch out for assassination threats, accusations of people using nasty tactics to win the elections. All these types of silliness will be used at this extremely stressful time for the comrade.
The people have their own eyes and can see what is going on, the rush to repair roads, paint buildings, to give money for whatever cause, all that lumber, cement and galvanize delivered to the supporters. Nothing for four years then a sudden gush.
People have had enough, they see how things work now, they watched and listened to the Yugge Farrell affairs. They have suffered not just undrivable roads, but un-walkable roads: no work or employment, small wages with no prospects. Wage slavery and mental slavery, whilst the ruling dynastical family ride in big cars wear expensive clothes. Travel around the world at a whim. Own the jobs, police, and judiciary, control the finances. Under the ULP administration, people see tame contactors getting contracts unjustly while others like the Balcomes are punished for speaking out. Whole families and their workforces destroyed Bigger Bigs, the De Freitas’s, and so many more. Communist-style unjust grabbing of people’s property, it is all happening, and we are expected not to see it, or to mention it.
Well, it is over comrade, we want you to leave government, take your family and dynasty with you, and whilst you are at it take your unelectable cousin with you as well.
What is a real shame is that the original publisher refuses to publish my replies, such a shame for history.
Most Vincentian have heard or read the story which says, ‘Show me a liar and I will show you, a thief’. A remarkably interesting equation really when you think hard and put it into context.
Remember the story. He knew an old Vincentian man who used to cut sugar cain in Cuba. A man called Mr Doyle. One day while talking to Mr Doyle, Mr Doyle told him “show me a man that tells lies and I will show you a thief”. That was the story he told the Nation from parliament one day.
But what I found even more interesting is that a report I read today is more informative than that story. The median estimated body‐mass index of cabinet ministers is positively correlated with conventional measures of corruption, Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, World Bank worldwide governance indicator Control of Corruption, Index of Public Integrity. This result suggests that physical characteristics of politicians such as their body‐mass index can be used as proxy variables for political corruption when the latter is not available, for instance, at a very local level.
So, what the report says is if a politician is fat, according to statistics, they are more likely to be corrupt. If we add that information to the story we were told about liars being thieves, it must follow if a liar is also fat there is a double possibility of them being corrupt.
What an interesting correlation, so searching a little further, I discovered this.
The Berlin-based media company Business New Europe IntelliNews conducted amusing research, based on 299 facial images of 2017 cabinet ministers from the 15 post-Soviet states.
The study showed that only 10 of the former Soviet leaders had a “normal” BMI, and none were underweight.
The research revealed that the most corrupt post-Soviet states are Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The states with the highest median estimated ministers’ BMI are Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine, while the countries with the lowest median estimated ministers’ BMI are Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Georgia.
“Countries with relatively more obese cabinet ministers tend to have a relatively less overweight population. Ironically, this suggests that there might be a health benefit to the fat and grand political corruptions”, the researchers concluded.
I looked for such information specifically about the Caribbean and Americas. Before Hugo Chavez died from the Cubans medical treatment, he was as fat as a pig ready for the barbeque pit. He died fat; most people die thin unless they have a heart attack.
His whole family today are multi-millionaires. Yet before his presidency, they were all broke. His daughter today is the richest woman in the hemisphere.
Then he was replaced with Maduro who rapidly became a second for the pit. Both highly corrupt politicians.
The communists in the Americas and the Caribbean tend to be fat.
Are they all corrupt, they all tell lies, are they all thieves? Well, we know for sure these two are.
According to one Caribbean politician who is very fat indeed, the key is being a liar, to be a thief.
I put a verse into Google and found several pages’ Gonsalves said show me a liar, and I will show you a thief’.
I just read another story which I found interesting, but that is for another story on another day.
‘He killed the truth in Saint Vincent’
It appears in several publications throughout the Caribbean.
Patrick Manning said the same thing. “Show me a liar, and I will show you a thief”. https://youtu.be/phf-FnptGyA So perhaps it is true!
But before I go, I just found this which puts a doubt to the reliability of any Caribbean leader being the source of the saying, which indicates even more lies.
“Show me a Liar, and I’ll Show You A Thief” is a quote from George Herbert (1593-1633), an Anglican clergyman who wrote metaphysical poetry.
So, the original Mr Doyle story told in SVG may be a total crock of plagiaristic horses do-do, thou liar of the first magnitude.
The upcoming elections in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, should they be a worry to all democratic countries in the Caribbean as well as the USA?
The question needs to be asked now and prepared for now, if Ralph Gonsalves loses the election, will he head a revolution to stay in power.
Peter Binose was an amazing guy when it came to looking into the future; everything he wrote was correct at the time, has come to pass, or is looming on the horizon of the future.
He wrote so much political expose that the Vincentian ULP government, and in particular Ralph Gonsalves called him an internet crazy, and passed laws designed to silence Binose, called a national cybercrime strategy.
The new law, which the Caribbean nation’s Parliament approved in 2016, broadened the previous criminal defamation provisions to include what the now decided was cybercrime, among which is was described as online expression and added vague and subjective definitions of “cyber-harassment” and “cyber-bullying”, which are designed to carry potential prison terms. [“Shut up Binose, or go to prison forever, or perhaps the mental home to get some drugs to correct your mind.” Unfortunately for Binose, but fortunately for Gonsalves, Binose died in London in 2017]
Many organizations at the time called on SVG to reverse this law, they objected to it.
Association of Caribbean Media Workers
Committee to Protect Journalists
International Press Institute
Reporters Without Borders
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
Center for Independent Journalism – Romania
Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Freedom Forum
Human Rights Network for Journalists – Uganda
Independent Journalism Center – Moldova
Index on Censorship
Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information
International Press Institute
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance
Media Rights Agenda
Pacific Freedom Forum
Pakistan Press Foundation
Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms – MADA
PEN American Center
PEN Canada
PEN International
Vigilance pour la Démocratie et l’État Civique
Both Binose and myself had called on Ralph Gonsalves to state what he meant when he told the World “I Ralph Gonsalves want to say I am here to do the work of Maurice Bishop” because it is known as a fact that the Russians and Cubans supported Bishop, many believe in the hope he would take over the whole Caribbean in a chain reaction series of communist Coups.
In 2012 Binose wrote a fascinating story called ‘Were the Vincentian Marxists ever close to revolution?’ This was published throughout the Caribbean, the hemisphere, and has since been repeated many times world-wide. Every word the truth and written from records, public accounts, and newspaper reports.
In that story, Binose tells of a yacht arrested at Villa beach, called Sayonara which was loaded with guns and ammunition. This story was about events in 1979 when SVG was believed to be on the verge of revolution, and it was thought by the prime minister of that time that the guns found on the Sayonara were to be used for that purpose.
Well since then Binose wrote hundreds of stories about Venezuela, about smuggling cocaine at Argyle airport, about Ralph Gonsalves alliance with the Castro’s of Cuba, Hugo Chavez, and Nicholas Maduro of Venezuela. All revolutionaries, all Marxist communists. I also wrote some articles repeating many times the words of Vincentian hero, Peter Binose.
Now with the elections around the corner, bribery underway for weeks giving away millions of dollars’ worth of building materials, under a sham scheme called Lives to Live. The recipients all expected to vote ULP. Suppose the ULP is willing to carry on this dirty procedure still to try and ensure a winning success at the elections. It shows they are ready to do anything, all the things that happened at the last election. All the fraud, all the dirty tricks, all the bribery. So, if they lose how about a revolution, would they go as far as a revolution?
I raise these questions because, on August 15, 2020, an aircraft loaded with guns and ammunition which was destined for Saint Vincent was arrested. But alas to those waiting for it, there was a permanent delay by the customs and police at Miami airport, when they arrested the pilot and co-pilot, two Venezuelans.
The Vincentian police chief a Ralph Gonsalves chosen man, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) police chief, Colin John says the jet intercepted in Miami on Saturday [August 15, 2020] was “fully loaded, from the cockpit back to the lavatory, with cases and boxes of weapons, ammunition and household goods” was not bound for SVG, notwithstanding the flight plan filed with U.S authorities.
On Tuesday night August 18, 2020, a rapid three days after the incident, Commissioner of Police, Mr John said he had been briefed on the matter, he asserted that CARICOM IMPLEMENTATION AGENCY FOR CRIME AND SECURITY (CARICOM IMPACS) confirmed that the aircraft in question was not destined for St. Vincent and the Grenadines; the country name was used only as a decoy,” the Police Public Relations and Complaint Department said in a press release late Tuesday night.
We may well ask how CARICOM would know that? Perhaps Ralph Gonsalves told them because he is currently the Chairman of CARICOM and besides that, he is also their spokesman on all matters relating to air transport and air control. I would guess that Colin John was told to make the statement by Ralph Gonsalves.
There have been many denials regarding Venezuela and Saint Vincent over the last 15 years. Remember how the bag of cocaine mysteriously turned into a bag of washing powder in Union Island, and all the Venezuelans were released despite having had a shoot out with police resulting in deaths. Then there have been lots of cases of Venezuelan shipped cocaine turning up in Europe aboard yachts via the distribution hub SVG, caught by European police forces and denied by SVG. Other shipments of something arrived at the ET Joshua airport, boxes and packing cases that bypassed customs inspection, loaded straight onto a truck, and driven away. The drug dealer, while being prosecuted, claimed drugs were unloaded on a beach to police and a ULP politician. Peter Binose wrote about Argyle to be used for shipping cocaine. One of the latest stories was about the expose of an offshore bank in Kingstown sending money on behalf of Maduro to the leader of the Spanish Catalan political party. The ULP government denied it despite paperwork supporting the transaction appearing on the internet. Strangely enough within a couple of weeks, the bank had pulled out of SVG and relocated elsewhere. The very latest is a planeload of arms and ammunition, a Venezuelan plane destined SVG, denied by the SVG police chief.
So how about it, is there a need for the long-term comrade who just cannot give up power, to have a revolution? He wants to stay forever, will there be a revolution if he loses the election?
I must ask the question because of his revolutionary background. Surely it must be a fair question to ask?
International media reports are that the private jet was loaded with 82 firearms, including a sniper rifle, plus 63,000 rounds of ammunition.
The firearms included a Barrett .50 calibre sniper rifle and 18 rifles. The cache also had a firearm suppressor, body armour, as well as undeclared cash and endorsed cheques worth over US$20,000.
The Vincentian police chief also said according to reports “one of the defendants said after being arrested that the aircraft’s ultimate destination was Venezuela.
But I have to ask with all the connections Venezuela has with the Russians, Chinese, Iranians, and just about every dirty group and dirty country in the World, why would they need to buy arms and ammunition in the U.S. when if the asked any of their allies they would send enough weapons to sink Venezuela, free?
I believe those arms were destined for SVG; I would like to see the cancelled cheques.
Before I sign off there are two questions that I have asked before and remain unanswered
1/ Is Ralph Gonsalves an honorary member of the Cuban Communist Party?
2/ Were Vincentian police officers sent for training in Cuba during the last two years?
Communism, Marxism, and 21st Century Socialism are anti-Democratic. The attempt by the ULP leadership to fool Vincentians into believing they and the ULP party are democratic with democratic policies must be treated not just as untrue, but as totally unacceptable.
Bribing Vincentian people using Vincentian taxpayers’ money to do it. Doing it now before the upcoming elections with building materials is an extreme undemocratic action.
Being caught in election fraud during the 2016 elections has not taught them anything.
Many articles about bribing the people with building materials have been published, and they do not care that the current bribery action is being recorded and filmed, to be published internationally.
The continuing distinctly undemocratic behaviour tells us that if they are blatantly bribing now while being watched and scrutinised, they will blatantly do what they did last time and stuff the ballot boxes and have people voting more than once in more than one constituency, using ghost voters and dead peoples votes. Because if they are willing to do one dirty operation, you can guarantee they will do all the others this time exactly as they did last time. Also, you can be sure that whoever is guiding this undemocratic action will now introduce even more dirty tricks to steal the election.
They believe they are untouchable, and the people approve of them being elected by whatever means they choose.
Suppose we look at everything that the ULP has done while under the present leadership over the last twenty years. Everything they do or have done that is undemocratic.
Bringing down the properly elected government of SVG by revolution, ‘the roadblock revolution’.
Falsely promising people at the time an across the board 30% pay rise, they never paid it.
Giving the teachers a contract, which was knowingly unenforceable and unconstitutional, while lying and saying it is the best ever.
Telling hundreds of lies to the people, to parliament, to anyone who will listen.
Touring the world to scrounge from undemocratic governments.
Aligning SVG closely politically and otherwise with nasty communist regimes like Cuba and Venezuela.
Joining the country without public debate with the ALBA organisation, which is an undemocratic organisation with undemocratic leaders, based on Marxist doctrines.
Taking payment from governments with known human rights abominations and then voting to assist those countries and those dirty violating leaders by voting in their favour at the UN.
Taking money from Venezuela, while women and babies are starving.
Taking medical goods from Venezuela while people are dying of COVID virus in droves.
The nasty, wicked, cruel, and malicious treatment meted out to citizens like Bigger Bigs, Marcus De Freitas, Randolph Toussaint, the teachers, the unions, to anyone who is recognised as not supporting the ULP government or its leadership. There are simply hundreds affected.
Continual violations of human rights.
Demanding and instructing Vincentian businesspeople not to become politicians.
People are beaten at police stations, police acting as political police on behalf of the regime, Police Special Branch illegally gathering information on the opposition party, sending police to raid those who do something politically opposing the regime, police obtaining search warrants with fraudulent applications.
Extrajudicial killings suspected but not proven.
Sending Tax and VAT inspectors to people homes and businesses for political reasons, to disrupt and cower them.
Buying church and religious leaders with tax-free and import free status to control what they do and say, ensuring they stay in line with the rules of the regime, making them political tools.
Calling people who oppose the regime nasty, degrading, abusive, and defamatory names, like internet crazies, and worthless dirty dogs.
Making nasty and dirty hand gestures to people who displease the regime.
Frightening newspaper and online media owners and editors to stop them from publishing exposė’s of political dirtiness.
Introducing acts of parliament to stifle online commentary and freedom of speech.
Being accused and not appearing before a court when accused of rape and sexual assault.
Freedom of speech, movement and assembly inhibited.
Giving out passports with citizenships without transparency and in secrecy.
Announcing “we will hunt them down until they exist no more.”
Announcing to a Christian based society and citizenship that “If I work Obeah, I only work Obeah for the Lord” which is a grossly based Blasphemy. An insult to all worshippers of God.
There is much more, and it is all undemocratic. If you remember what I forgot, please list it in the comments below.
If there is anything written here that you would like me to explain, just ask in the comments section.
Democracy in SVG under the ULP and its leadership does not exist, not at all.
The claim of Democracy is little more than a fraud on the Vincentian people.
Have Sandals been told the truth about Buccament Bay Resort? I ask the question because Ralph Gonsalves may just have forgot. Nothing to do with mendaciousness although that did cross my mind. So, did you tell them, comrade?
Have Sandals been warned that Buccament Bay Resort sits on an ancient and historic flood plain which has flooded several times in the memory of man? It last severely flooded in December 2013 when several employees of Buccament Bay Resort, then being operated by Harlequin, drowned. Also, several villagers perished in the flooding leaving the whole nation aghast.
There is no way to know when it will flood again, today, tomorrow, next week, next year, in ten years? There is absolutely no way of knowing and no way to prewarn when the flash flood will occur, night or day. If it happens again, or more positively when it happens again, because it will, as it has done for millions of years, people could die again. Perhaps once again when least expected guests and employees will perish.
Some rock filled gabions placed, and river defence have been carried out since the last flood. But that is, in my opinion, inadequate in containing the ferocity of the Buccament river flooding when it occurs, more so if a sea-surge takes place at the same time.
I am not even sure Sandals can insure against such a risk seeing it is beyond being a risk and is an actual reoccurring event waiting for when next to happen.
The Buccament flooding is classified in law as a 100-year event. Which does not mean it will only happen every 100 years. It means that it is an event that will occur once in every 100 big cloud bursts or storms. If you had a hundred of those in a day, there are probabilities that such flooding will occur. If it happens in a week, then once a week, if it occurs in a year once a year etc. A 100-year flood is a flood event that has a 1 in 100 chance (1% probability) of being equalled or exceeded in any given year. A common misunderstanding is that a 100-year flood is likely to occur only once in 100 years. There is approximately a 63.4% chance of one or more 100-year floods occurring in any 100 years.
The 100-year flood is also referred to as the 1% flood since its annual exceedance probability is 1%. For coastal or lake flooding, the 100-year flood is generally expressed as a flood elevation or depth and may include wave effects. For river systems, the 100-year flood is usually shown as a flowrate. Based on the expected 100-year flood flow rate, the flood water level can be mapped as an area of inundation. Areas such as Buccament which adjoin the coast can also be flooded by combinations of the tide, storm surge, and waves. So, in the case of Buccament, there is not just the probability of the flood plain being inundated by water from the river and extreme runoff from the surrounding mountain arena. But also, from inundation by sea surge, if both happened simultaneously, the whole resort would be swept into the sea.
The current villas are built without foundations; they are built on concrete slabs. Such construction in a flood plain and sea surge area is bad engineering because, in such environments, slabs and villas can quite simply float away. The initial planning before construction called for the raising of the land by ten feet, pilings, and footings for the villa bases. But Harlequin decided to cut costs at the expense of safety and security and abandoned that engineering necessity. So basically, the structures are unsafe for habitation in the floodplain and sea surge area that Buccament is in.
So I hope that Sandals have appropriately been made aware of the problems at Buccament, if not they are put on notice by this letter/article, that now knowing about the risks they will be fully responsible for claims against them at some time in the future. It will not be classed as an act of God but an unpreventable tragedy which they were warned about.
I also at this time enquire if the Court orders in favour of certain people who brought some of the villas, giving them priority payment in full of costs and interest at the time of resale have been satisfied? I also enquire how the PM and the government can enter a contract of sale when the property is in the hands of a receiver/liquidator/administrator legally appointed by the court?
I am not sure precisely what kind of deal has been signed, I suspect it is an MOU.
The legality of sale seems to have been taken care of; this was published after I wrote this letter – [Did you mention compulsory purchase comrade, mmh?]
Sandals needs to be very aware that they for the sake of their investor and shareholder get proper surveying carried out, and an accurate report on the flood-plain aspect before they conclude any deal. It is most unfortunate that Harlequin never took those precautions, so they were unaware of the flood plain aspect until it flooded, and several employees were drowned in the raging torrent.
Sandals will have an international airport in the equation; Harlequin only had the promise which never happened in their time. Harlequin would have had a chance of success if they had the airport operational.
To finish, I would like to enquire if PM Dr Ralph E Gonsalves wife, Mrs Eloise Gonsalves will have a contract to carry out the interior design and furnishings of all, or some of the Villas when they are finished as she had with Harlequin.
Also, just one more request, I must ask if the comrades’ cousin, Senator Julian Francis, will be acting as Mr Fixit for Sandals as he was for Harlequin. He invited people to go to him if they needed help with Harlequin; it is recorded in several news stories.
Oh! Something else, will the ex-Harlequin employees get the wages and severance they did not get from Harlequin? You have made no mention of this, please tell us their status for payment. Is there any provision for those workers that worked for months without pay, only to be dumped with no severance?
Here are a few useful articles on the matter, there are over a thousand if you check out your search engines.
Harlequin denied they built on a flood plain, but that denial is worthless because it is a fact that they did. Perhaps they did not knowingly build on a flood plain, because they were probably never told or warned, or their now-deceased lawyer never did any searches. But the fact is that they did build on a flood plain, and the resort remains on a flood plain, and always will.
Almost every country in the world, including the UK and the US, has a citizenship by investment program except SVG, North Korea, China, and most of ALBA including Cuba and Venezuela. Why do you think that is? The answer to that is simple. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines [SVG] under Unity Labour Party [ULP] leadership has spent almost twenty years converting the citizenship into a class of citizens they can manage and fool, what is known as the ‘peasant class’. A significant part of the population has been mentally raped into political submission. Believing that the Unity Labour Party of today is the same old Labour Party of Saint Vincent, which was taken over by the MNU a Marxist based communist party.
The ALBA Leadership, every one of them a Marxist.
In Marxist theory, the proletariat is the social class that does not have ownership or the means of production and whose only means of subsistence is to sell their labour-power for a wage or salary. Proletarians are wage workers, while some refer to those who receive salaries as the salariat. There are few proletariat classes in SVG, due to most people owning their own property regardless of how meagre that is. The Vincentians also at heart are self-employed self-sustaining people. The home is usually family property, so it just keeps passing down to the boys as the parents die, and the girls get married and move elsewhere, blighted fodder for communist manipulation, still the ULP persevere, with some success.
What the ULP has worked endlessly for is to create a nation of peasants, people who rely on the state or party for handouts to live. Clear evidence is the jump in the number of people out of work, and the number of people being paid by the state from what is locally known as the poor fund. There are more people out of work in SVG now, than there was at any time in its recorded history, and that includes after slavery ended.
To get these poor innocent but ignorant Vincentian people to vote ULP, they are bribed before every election. The ULP devise all sorts of schemes to entrap the people into voting for them, even giving money and goodies to school children so as they can convince their parents to vote ULP. They give away truckloads of building materials, goats, sheep, and chickens. Little packets with money in pass hands as ULP politicians walk through their constituencies. It is such a shame that Vincentians can be brought for such a low price, the fact is they can be, and they are.
Children are leaving school with no prospect of ever finding work as the state supports and follows the social path of Venezuela. The state has failed to attract any large-scale employers; they have driven away some of the existing industry and frightened off prospective investors. Everything the ULP government have invested in becomes a white elephant, a liability to the people, and that includes the new Argyle International Airport.
Understanding the mindset of the comrade, Ralph Gonsalves, is challenging to say the least. If citizenship by investment is adopted, it will lift every citizen out of poverty, and there will be no need for the poor fund to exist in the form it does today. So why would he deny the people that, why?
People who can afford to invest large sums of money in a country to become a citizen obviously have money to be able to do that. They are certainly not peasants, that is a reason not to allow such people to reside in SVG in any numbers. Because no one with a brain and money would ever vote for the ULP, for Gonsalves, for Marxism, for 21st Century Socialism. So, selling citizenship by investment runs counter to the Marxist scheme to convert everyone into peasants because investors would bring together a class of people who would not vote ULP, at least while it has the current leadership.
Much of the middle-class in SVG has fled to the UK, Canada, US, just about anywhere that they feel safe and there is work for them. You can also find Vincentians working in top management positions and police forces throughout the Caribbean.
We all know that the kind of communism being brought to SVG is not real communism. Most forms of communism everywhere are not valid forms of communism. Because in the kind we are gradually being subjected to, not everyone is expected to be equal; some are more equal than others, some becoming stinking rich. That I can assure you, happened even in the USSR [but not North Korea].
I was told by a well-argued and knowledgeable man a few days ago, what we have in SVG has developed into Fascism. I would not say I like the thought of that, so right now I will not consider it. Perhaps another time, and another place.
The kind of communism we are being brought is where the rules, all rules legal and social only apply to the peasants, those ruling, live the life of the European nobility. How many of you can afford to travel anywhere in the world you decide whenever you choose? How many of you can afford to educate your children in leading universities in the UK? How many of you can choose to eat the most expensive imported food and eat in the most expensive restaurants, stay in the most expensive hotels? How many of you can pay $600 for a pair of shoes, $2000 for a suit, $350 for a shirt? The rulers of SVG can do that every day and only spend a little of the money in their pockets which they call walking money.
How many of you qualify for tax-free imports of cars, boats, and anything you decide to import? The rulers of SVG have that privilege, and everyone in government employment who they approve can do the same, they have even given those privileges to your pastors and Church leaders.
The Cuban Communist Party (Partido Comunista Cubano) was founded in 1925 by Moscow-trained members of the Third International (Comintern). I have asked Ralph Gonsalves if he is an honorary member of the Cuban Communist Party. To date, he nor anyone else has confirmed or denied that he is.
Ralph Gonsalves was a Marxist-Communist by the time he was at university at UWI in Jamaica. In 1968 he organized a demonstration which turned into a full-blown riot when the Jamaican government banned his uni-lecturer Walter Rodney, a Marxist-Leninist communist agitator of the Jamaican people. Rodney had been trying to get a set of Rastafari to murder white people on beaches to try and cause damage to the tourist trade and thence the economy. In doing so, Rodney had hoped to start a revolution against the Jamaican government of that time. The government had information from the police Special Branch about Rodney’s actions and had acted on that information and banned him from the state.
Citizenship by investment is an adequately regulated conception that almost every country in the world has adopted, except those where the politicians are afraid of importing powerful opposition. Today it is possible to find out the smallest of details about someone; nothing can be hidden. When I say nothing, I mean absolutely nothing. Saying that you cannot be sure who you are granting citizenship to is a lie of the very highest order. It is possible to find out more about anyone today than they know about themselves.
The ULP came to power through election bribery, election fraud, and vote-rigging. After the last election, the NDP accused the ULP of ballot fraud and took the case to the courts. The ULP government spent millions of dollars on foreign and local lawyers to stop the court from reaching a decision. If they did nothing wrong, they would have welcomed a court decision and could have saved the state from spending millions to defend their position.
The people in SVG cannot break free of the chains and shackles they are now held in by this regime. They do not know how to break free, how to emancipate themselves from mental slavery. Bob Marley sang about it in Redemption Song, “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; None but ourselves can free our minds.”
The only chance of Vincentians breaking free of this political enslavement is for the relatives in the diaspora to advise their families in SVG how to vote to get rid of this nasty dynastical regime of plantation owners, the plantation called Saint Vincent.
Tell them to vote them out at the next elections, one is coming soon, they have the chance, and it may be their last before the system becomes a permanent part of a family dynasty.
After all you the diasporans have kept SVG afloat over the previous twenty years sending extremely hard-earned money home to your families, 45.12 million U.S. dollars in 2018. You can, and you must help us break free, it is your duty to your family, the motherland, and honest to goodness decency.
Firstly, what is corruption? Often, we use expressions or terms without having a clear understanding of their meaning or implications. In most dictionaries, corruption is described as dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.
Is corruption merely the reflection of a lack of integrity? I suppose it can be described as that, but it can also be described as a breach of Christian values, theft of decency and society led by corrupt officials using corrupt means to stay in power.
So where does election corruption come into the equation? In most countries, democratic elections have been assumed to play a crucial role in curbing corruption among public officials. Normally voters, due to their general distaste for corruption, are expected to sanction politicians who misuse public office for private gains. But not in Saint Vincent where a large proportion of the voters are more than willing to accept bribes to vote in favour of the Unity Labour Party [ULP].
Integrity is another term we often use but without realizing its implications. For instance, when the 2001 elections took place in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Mr Vincent Beach MP, said if we do not have integrity legislation within a hundred days, I will be gone. The ULP had championed integrity legislation before it came to office in 2001, saying while in opposition that it had a draft law. But once in power, it turned out that it was the last thing they wanted because it tied their hands.
Integrity is defined as: ‘honest’, ‘uprightness’, ‘soundness’, ‘completeness’, ‘wholeness’, ‘incorruptible’. Evangelist Billy Graham, said, ‘When we speak of integrity as a moral value, it means that a person is the same on the outside as he is inside. There is no discrepancy between what he says and what he acts, between his talk and his walk.’
But this moral model cannot be found in the current government of SVG.
February 24, 2009, in a historic moment in Parliament, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves seconded a motion raised by Opposition Leader Arnhim Eustace, bringing the motion on Integrity Legislation to the floor. That draft included the establishment of a Commission to oversee the execution of the legislation. It was recommended that this Commission include the Director of Audit and four other persons to be appointed by the Governor-General from among persons who could include retired judges, persons who have served as Director of Finance, Comptroller of Inland Revenue or in the position of Director of Audit.
Parliamentarians will declare their assets, liabilities, and income from every source to this Commission within three months of their election. They will then make a fresh submission by December 31 every year, while they serve in parliament.Eustace said that Commission must also have the power to report any illegal or suspicious findings to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
If a person fails to make the mandatory declaration, they should be reported to the parliamentary leaders, namely the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader.
Persons on the staff of the Commission are also going to be held to the strictest of confidence, and if they leak any of the information declared to the Commission, they can be fined or jailed for any unauthorized breach.
Dr Gonsalves obviously did not like the legislation at all, he raised questions about the demands of such legislation, saying that it could create difficulty in attracting persons to public office, who may find it difficult to submit themselves to that.
By 2016, the integrity legislation was still not gazetted and made law; it appeared to be abandoned. Gonsalves made a statement “The question is to enlarge those things and to go particularly for the matter of declaring assets and liabilities. And the difficulties with it, are you going to do it for ministers and not doing it for permanent secretaries?” said Gonsalves, who is also Minister of Legal Affairs. He said the difficulties that arise with the various integrity legislation drafts include senior public servants wanting exemption because they must submit not only their returns but also that of their spouse and children who live with them.
“They say, ‘Listen, I am not going to take on this burden. I am a permanent secretary, and my husband is a businessman. I have to do that?’’’ Gonsalves said.
Gonsalves said there is already a difficulty in getting people to serve as members of boards of directors of state companies. But we the Vincentian people know there is no difficulty in awarding such jobs to the boys, who are paid such huge fees they would have no cause to turn down such a position when offered. Legislation or no legislation they will take the jobs and take their salaries to the bank in wheelbarrows.
So, no integrity legislation, and what appears to be a licence for a free for all within the government departments to steal as much as possible as quickly as possible, just like before.
On Thursday, June 28th 2018, Gonsalves speaking in parliament said he has been in discussion both in CARICOM and OECS and would like countries to fashion integrity legislation more particular across the OECS where there are more significant similarities, and where the integration is tighter.
In July 2018 Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, leader of the ULP Government of St Vincent, told CARICOM that he wants to tackle integrity in public life from a CARICOM standpoint. “I would like us to have a model piece of legislation regionally to addresses matters in relation to quote and quote Integrity legislation”.
Most who have followed the situation in SVG will say Gonsalves spoke untruthfully when he made such statements; that he has no intention of introducing into law any integrity legislation. He dares to blame the NDP when he told parliament that the opposition is not serious on the issue and noted that an integrity commission was included in a proposed new constitution which they rejected. “The new constitution was far superior to what we have now, and there were no downsides in term of democracy and transparency. However, an opportunistic political position was taken by the opposition”.
So Gonsalves claims that because the NDP and most Vincentians rejected the new constitution, that is the reason we have no integrity legislation today.
Yet when you look at the elections, it is allegedly the ULP that is giving away before each election twenty million dollars plus in building materials in return for the recipients to vote ULP.
Corruption is a complex phenomenon, often deeply rooted in the cultural and political practices of societies. It has become so deep-rooted in Saint Vincent that it will take international help to break the cycle.
Although the precise costs of corruption are hard to quantify and vary significantly from country to country, research suggests that corruption is bad for economic and social development (e.g., Rothstein 2011). Corruption has been shown to have a detrimental effect on tax revenues (Pani 2010), investments and economic growth (Mauro 1995, Del Monte & Papagni 2001), equality and poverty (Chong & Calderon 2000, Gupta et al. 2002, You & Khagram 2005, Uslaner 2008), and overall subjective well-being and life satisfaction (Tay et al. 2014). Moreover, corruption is said to erode political trust and undermine political legitimacy in a variety of institutional settings (Della Porta 2000, Seligson 2002, Andersen & Tverdova 2003, Chang & Chu 2006).
In other words, the backwardness of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines can be directly attributed to the corruption brought not just to the ballot box but many different branches of the ULP government.
Remember all left-wing governments in the Americas and the Caribbean need to create a peasant class to keep them in power. Poor ignorant people who gladly accept bribery as the norm. But they often go hungry, no work, massive crime, murders, children with drug habits. The result will ultimately be a situation, just like Venezuela.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines already under the ULP have more people than ever before receiving money from the poor fund. The ULP is proud of that and brags that because there are more being paid from the poor fund, they must be doing a better job. But the truth is more peasants have been created under this government.
Time for a change, time for integrity and decency, time for the NDP.
I could not believe what I was reading when I went to the Facebook page of The Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy [CGID]. I was amazed that the Peoples National Congress Party [PNC] had been able to look inside the ballot boxes which the ULP fought tooth and nail to ensure Saint Vincent and the Grenadines [SVG] courts would never allow in SVG. What the PNC discovered and have proved was voting fraud was so widespread and their further investigation votes were rigged in every way possible to try and ensure the Peoples Progressive Party [PPP] won the election.
Guyana has a two-party system, which means that there are two dominant political parties. The main schism is not of ideology [they are both socialist], but ethnicity; the People’s Progressive Party is supported primarily by Indo-Guyanese people. While it is Afro-Guyanese people who mainly support the People’s National Congress. Ralph Gonsalves most obviously supports the Indian Guyanese PPP against supporting the African Guyanese PNC.
A group from CARICOM offered their services to investigate and advise Guyana on the way forward and how to deal with the stalemate situation. Whereby Ralph Gonsalves perhaps stepped outside that circle and suggested that the PPP should be recognised as the elected party to take Government.
Why would Gonsalves take such a position and support what is now fraud proven without any doubt whatsoever? Well, I suppose the whole procedure of rejecting fraud, opening boxes etc. if finally agreed in the Guyanese courts will become part of a legal precedent which would perhaps apply in SVG courts as well.
Read now what the Guyanese CGID think about not just his actions, but about him.
Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy – CGID CGID CONDEMNS RALPH GONSALVES’ INTERFERENCE IN GUYANA’S ELECTIONS ON BEHALF OF THE PPP
Dr Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, at the direction of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), is brazenly attempting to pre-empt the CARICOM elections recount Observer Mission in Guyana.
In a radio interview yesterday, he attempted to dictate to Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) how it should execute its functions as prescribed by the Guyana Constitution. GECOM is currently assessing recount results as well as allegations of fraud.
Dr Gonsalves, a foreign head of Government, is attempting to undermine this process on behalf of the PPP. CGID doesn’t know how Dr Gonsalves’ conducts elections in his country, but Guyanese will not accept the results of an election riddled with fraudulent ballots.
Dr Gonsalves is advocating that Guyanese must accept a vote tabulation that includes ballots which a Police investigation has established contains fraudulent votes. We, therefore, wonder if the people of CARICOM should apply Dr Gonsalves’ reasoning and accept and believe numerous allegations of sexual assault against a CARICOM Prime Minister without any investigation to determine the veracity of the charges.
GECOM is currently following a process set out in its May 4, 2020 order, in accordance with the laws of Guyana. It is disgraceful and repugnant to the CARICOM Treaty for Dr Ralph Gonsalves to interject himself into this process and attempt to interfere in Guyana’s elections. Dr Gonsalves’s statements also demonstrate contempt for the Courts and State institutions in Guyana.
He should focus on elevating the standard of living in his small island rather than act as the bagman and water-boy for his friend Bharrat Jagdeo and Guyana’s opposition PPP. Mr Gonsalves’ party has itself been accused of electoral fraud and rigging the past five elections. It is, therefore, no wonder that he finds himself in the company of the PPP.
We urge the Prime Minister to address the myriad of allegations he faces at home, keep out of Guyana’s business and stop making a mockery of CARICOM’s non-intervention policy.
I hope that when the upcoming St Vincent and the Grenadines elections take place that the NDP in SVG can keep abreast with the security of our ballots and ensure no fraud takes place.
I have got almost a hundred applicants who are going to film the giveaway of the building materials on their cell phones, a local video crew and director willing to film and produce a video. I am currently negotiating with an international TV group who will take it over and show it worldwide. The film will be presented at the UN, World Bank, Transparency International, and the EU. I am also in touch with other International agencies who will be sent copies of the video film. If the distribution of the building materials takes place, I will even be asking the US to apply economic sanctions on the culprits and if necessary, on SVG.
It is ‘A’ typical for left-wing leaders, more so those with Marxist tendencies to use emotive projects to stay in power. Education, low-cost or free social housing, and exceptional medical facilities are usually what they choose to fool the electorate into thinking they are God sent messengers.
In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez promised free University for everyone. He promised to build 10,000 social houses a year, but the most he ever achieved was 1,500 and some years just a few hundred, or none. Since president Maduro arrived, no houses built, the hospital system has collapsed, and the universities are closed. He really is among the asshole class of politicians, and there are many of them in the Caribbean.
In the late 1990s, the National Democratic Party [NDP] took up an offer from the World Bank to reorganize the education system in SVG. The World Bank project was called ‘Education for All.’
The NDP negotiated and agreed on terms of engagement in the project; there was a project lead time of about two years.
Dr Ralph E Gonsalves came to power and found that the country was on the cusp of starting the project. He looked at it, decided to continue with it, but renamed it ‘The Education Revolution.’ No mention of the World Bank, who were the main funders and architects of the project.
In general, the SVG project has been partially successful, thanks to the World Bank and the NDP’s foresight.
Could the success have been better if it had been appropriately managed by the NDP instead of the ULP?
Children are still dropping out before their education is complete. Crime and violence among the youth is rife. Many children leaving school are unable to properly, or not at all, read and write and carry out simple mathematical tasks.
Thousand leaving school to find no jobs, and so undereducated they are unable to travel abroad for positions other than fruit picking. That is not a condemnation of, or the failure of the youth; it is a condemnation of a failed education system under a ULP administration. .
There are, of course, children that excel in their studies and learning. But that is more because those children are carrying genes that mean they will succeed wherever, whenever, and whatever. Others are coming from middle and upper-class homes where the parents ensure proper personal input into their learning.
The ULP not only failed to educate the majority of SVG’s youth properly, but they built only a minor few low-cost houses, yet have built middle-class homes for those that do not require help.
The hospital in Kingstown has been a failure for the last twenty years. A few medical centers have been refurbished, and a couple of new ones built. But in all those cases due to schemes by foreign organizations, nothing to do with the ULP’s ability, capability, or initiative.
Here are some of the records regarding help from the World Bank education scheme.
Britain gives somewhere approaching a billion US dollars a year to the World Bank.
2000, Caribbean: The World Bank introduced a scheme and initiative internationally to improve world education called Education for All.’ Education for All (EFA) was first launched in 1990 to bring the benefits of education to “every citizen in every society.” To realize this aim, a broad coalition of national governments, civil society groups, and development agencies such as UNESCO and the World Bank Group committed to achieving six specific education goals:
1/ Expand and improve comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
2/ Ensure that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, those in difficult circumstances, and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete, free, and compulsory primary education of good quality.
3/ Ensure that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programs.
4/ Achieve a 50% improvement in adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.
5/ Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieve gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.
6/ Improve all aspects of the quality of education and ensure the excellence of all, so that recognized, and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy, and essential life skills.
By 2000, 189 countries and their partners adopted the two EFA goals that align with Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2 and 3, which refer to universal primary education and gender parity. The World Bank recognizes that achieving these goals requires supporting the full EFA commitment.
The World Bank funded the scheme, which was generally successful. One small country in particular led by a left-wing socialist even adopted it as their education revolution to fool their voters into believing they are excellent and responsible for the scheme.
Since 2004, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, supported by the World Bank, has undertaken the construction and rehabilitation of secondary schools to create an additional 750 school places. Increase secondary enrollment by about 30 percentage points, provide instructional materials, train counselors and teachers, and help to increase the Caribbean Examinations Council pass rates by 14 percentage points. About 15,000 students benefitted from the project.
The Bank provided financing of SDR2.2 million and US$3.1 million in 2004.
The United Kingdom’s Department of International Development (DFID), provided close collaboration during design, it helped to provide funding for some of the quality enhancing activities.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines – OECS Education Development Project (English)
REPORT ABSTRACT
Ratings for the OECS Education Development Project for St. Vincent and the Grenadines were as follows: outcomes were satisfactory; risk to development outcome was low or negligible; Bank performance was moderately satisfactory and borrower performance was satisfactory. Some lessons learned includes: if procurement delays or failed tenders occur despite good faith efforts of the government, then related requests for project extension should be granted. Extracurricular activities are a cost effective way to generate interest in school, particularly that of boys. Though of modest cost, after school activities such as the school band was reported to have enticed students, especially boys, not only for attendance, but also for avoiding failing their courses. In a context like St. Vincent, all efforts should be made to include and preserve vocational education opportunities. Even with the delayed approval of implementing regulations for the new education act, institutional changes can continue as if the regulations were passed. Classroom libraries can be a critical input to engagement and literacy.
Most certainly not a scheme initially related to the ULP. The SVG’ Education Upgrade’ was someone else’s idea, someone else’s money, and someone else’s initiative.
The World Bank Group also supports the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) as a Board Member, host of the GPE Secretariat, trustee, and supervising entity for the vast majority of GPE grants.
Finally, the World Bank supports EFA efforts through analytic work and the sharing of global knowledge and good practice. The Bank’s analytic work has, for example, helped establish benchmarks for quality, efficiency, and resource mobilization in the education sector. Ref: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/education-for-all
So dear Vincentians, I am sorry you were all fooled to believe this was the idea and design of Comrade Gonsalves, but it was not. It was initially organized by the NDP, funded and designed by the World Bank, in collaboration with the UK government. Only the name belongs to the comrade ‘The Education Revolution.’ Of course, he also owns the failure part of the scheme. Under the ULP management, it has been a tragic underperformance of the original concept.
All of these Caribbean countries took part in the World Bank education scheme, ‘Education for All.’ Only Saint Vincent renamed it the Education Revolution.
As sure as God made little green apples, the giving away of building materials immediately before an election in SVG to influence the outcome of that election is bribery and is illegal. Everyone involved that knows the truth is guilty of a crime, the arranger, negotiator, giver, the distributor, the loader of the truck, the truck driver, the recipient.
The use of a real or false Program, to create a sham reason to give away the building materials and other items is another conspiratory criminal act. So using a program like Lives to Live is in itself a crime if that institution is operating a sham created to shield the very politicians who created the program to claim legality, and hide illegality.
For instance, I have checked out Lives to Live; there seems to be no parliamentary oversight for the program or registration anywhere within the government website. I have sent enquiries to a government department about the program, no one has answered me.
Most of us, and certainly every lawyer knows what a sham is, and is fully aware that a sham is an artificial, bogus, dummy, ersatz, fictitious, fake, false, faux, imitation, imitative, man-made, mimic, mock, pretend, simulated, substitute, and synthetic reason created to hide something, which in this case is the crime of election bribery.
What is ultra important is intent in these matters, and by what has been said by a leading politician in the past makes the intent understandable and undeniable. Remember a program such as Lives to Live cannot commit a crime, only those operating or controlling it can commit the crime in the name of the program.
So what is this particular sham designed to hide? First, let’s all understand what election bribery is. To bribe electors prior, during, or after an election is an illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of the favoured candidate, depressing the vote share of the rival candidates, or both.
Because the process has been done before in SVG, it does not make it any less a crime when it is done again at any time in the future.
There are different causes and factors to the spread of election bribery, which impact the integrity and transparency of an election and the real will of voters of making their own choice of a qualified representative.
Deteriorating social conditions play an essential role as one of the facts that lead to the appearance of political corruption.
Poor education and absence of a good model, as well as family disintegration, are all facts that affected drive to crime in general, including the crime of election bribery.
In many parts of the world leaders are afraid to give up power because they have done so much wrong. They and people under them have stolen and plundered every ministry. If the leader loses power he may well end up in prison, or worse losing his property and all he has stolen and stashed. So such a leader will ensure people vote for him by paying money or giving away things as a form of payment for their vote.
Not that I am saying, or inferring this is the case with SVG, I am not a policeman or a Judge, so such matters are for them.
Often these type of leaders stand out because they bring their family into government to assist in keeping a firm hold on ministries, the most powerful position after Prime Minister is the Minister of Finance. Once a family controls the major ministries they own the government. I am of course thinking about people like Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude Duvalier of Haiti. The other danger is from political families forming dynasties which eventually means they own everything including every square inch of every corner of what is now their personal plantation. This can happen anywhere if the people allow it.
In many Caribbean countries, there are indicators of the spread of administrative corruption. Among those are bribery, embezzlement, apathy, low motivation for work, and other negative phenomena that several Caribbean countries have come to suffer. Corruption is so destructive eventually it will destroy a country.
There are undoubtedly some psychological reasons and facts that lead to the crime of election bribery. Lack of condemnation through local media, in many ways, fails to help stop the practice and perhaps helps to spread deviation among citizens, particularly youth, and provides criminal motivation and fertile atmosphere for electoral and other bribes.
The local press and media indeed have to regularly condemn bribery in the strongest of terms.
Integrity is something that can be gained and shall be established in a person in early life. Schools should pay more attention to civic and moral education. The Vincentian so-called ‘Education Revolution’ does nothing to inform the children that election or any other kind of bribery is a gross anomaly. Children think it is normal for their parents to receive a truckload of building materials from a political party. Children sit and listen to their dad discussing who he voted for, and why.
The acceptance of the bribe throughout Saint Vincent is so widespread among many citizens. Even police officers and others from almost every walk of life are involved. People don’t just accept the bribe; they expect it at every election.
Church leaders have a great part to play, but they themselves are receiving year round tax free status, tax free imports and all sorts of special treatment. So they say nothing, as men of God they are in league with the devil.
The police know exactly what is going on and do not raise a finger; they stand by and wave the delivery truck on their delivery journeys to the bribed. They must be aware a crime is taking place yet do not investigate or act to stop it. Worse than that, in some cases are directly and knowingly involved.
Even the States numerous lawyers, judges, and magistrates know it is happening and do not contribute as much as a comment, not a single word of condemnation.
Likewise, Transparency International, The Commonwealth, the US State Department, all know about it, because I have written to them about it in the past, they do nothing except report that all is well. What is wrong with these people? Do they approve of bribery?
The giving away of the building materials before Vincentian elections is not a matter of giving out a few trinkets, a few T-shirts and a bottle of rum. It is such an enormous operation that it is believed to exceed the value of twenty million US dollars, perhaps even double that figure. Prior to every election like clockwork a ship arrives from a company called Tankweld Ltd of Jamaica.
There has been a stream of essays and articles over the last twenty years about what is going on in SVG at every election time, nothing you read here has not been said or written about before.
If the so called, Lives to Live program, which at last elections was supposedly used to give away these materials was in continuous business of giving away building materials every day, every week, of every year, it may have some credible status. But when Lives to Live only gives away such materials during a few weeks and days before each election, it is a most obviously a sham. Before the last election, the materials were allocated by order form, through, or at the ULP constituency offices. I witnessed it with my very own eyes and with my very own ears.
I feel sure that the giving away building materials in the few weeks prior to each election, would not stand up in a court of law as straight forward aid to the people by an agency or program.
It is also the responsibility of the National Democratic Party to stand up and call it a sham and protest. They should employ outside observers and present the matter to the courts. They must do more, they must report the matter internationally to every agency possible.
It is the responsibility of the Media, printed and online, to investigate and call it the way it is. The media must do more, but most of the local media are frightened to publish the truth. They need to publish statements about it before, and during it taking place, not just afterwards, or as the majority do, not at all. The whole world relies on the media.
Calling all honorable, upright, decent, and honest Vincentian Citizens.
I am calling on decent Vincentian people who are willing to participate in the videoing of the Vincentian people’s mass bribery with building materials during the run-up to the forthcoming election.
I want people to video the trucks queuing at the storage yards, registration numbers, being loaded, on the road, unloading, the recipient’s names and addresses. I want phone videos also of the proposed issuing of the acquisition notes or delivery notes. Please, a record of anything and everything. The video compilation will be made into an international TV film featuring bribery of the Vincentian people. It will be screened locally, regionally, and internationally, particularly in the US and UK. It will be seen in schools and universities everywhere.
Helpers’ identities will be treated as divine secrets. A little nearer the election date, I will publish my postal box address in Grenada.
Any professional video operators or film makers that wish to participate, please contact me. Students are encouraged to help with this project, democracy, your future and that of your country are at dire risk from bribery.
Government whistleblowers, we need copies of invoices and delivery notes, bills of lading, documents, and anything relevant. Please do nothing illegal and do not steal anything. If you are reporting wrong doing you are protected by international law.
Remember, democracy dies in darkness, and SVG is being bathed in darkness politically.
Please feel free to Contact me initially at jollygreenandall@gmail.com
PS any videos of unloading at the port and the places of current storage will be gratefully received. Please be discreet in videoing or filming, and stay safe.
Time we unleash our true potential. The United Kingdom has taxed and barricaded our other crops like sugar and bananas, even tourism (APB) almost to non existence. Think that was by chance? Think again and while we at it, reconsider the Vincentian Prime Minister Dr. Gonsalves’ position.
I make no apologies of staying with the subject of implementation, or rather the lack of it this week, because I feel it remains the single biggest impediment to returning our tourism industry to viability and restoring previous levels of long stay visitor arrivals.
What prompted these latest thoughts was scanning through various media coverage quoting several named Government officials and politicians, stating that by the end of the year, Grantley Adams International Airport would receive Category One status. The trouble being that the press articles referred to were printed in 2007. Here we are six years later, with the same proclamations being made in the same publications.
Of course, it’s not just the aviation issue, but the much vaunted Tourism Master Plan, the restructuring or the Barbados Tourism Authority, an all-embracing Hotel Refurbishment Fund and so on and on. According to the organisation charged with the responsibility of making the new St. Vincent and the Grenadines airport a reality, the International Airport Development Company (IADC) state on their website, that ‘the new Argyle Airport is expected to come operational in 2014’. Just months away from opening and I wonder what impact , especially financially, it will have on any plans there may be for our own airport (GAIA Inc.). Already GAIA Inc., has been negatively affected by reduced passenger arrivals and the use of smaller aircraft into Barbados, resulting in diminishing revenue generation. Not only directly, but for it’s tenants, concessions and service providers.
I have visited St Vincent and the Grenadines and have noticed that as a visitor from Canada that the laws surrounding domestic dispute and abuse is taken as a joke or lightly I have experience police been called in a domestic dispute but the plaintiff was scared to press charges because she was treated by her boyfriend that if she press any charges he would kill her and nothing comes out of it he would just pay some money and spend a couple of weeks and get out just like his buddy. When the police was summoned although the scares were fresh, visual and obvious she was crying but was scared to press charges. the police did nothing they just left.
In a case like that it is now out of her hands the discretion should now be left in the police hands to make an arrest. Instead The man was told to go home and love is wife. So it is evident that with all the death of all these women whose husband or spouse kill them in St Vincent the court system allow them to get off to go kill another woman and brag about it. This is so pathetic and should be stopped.
I was told so many stories how lackadaisical and how caring the police force is in St Vincent and the Grenadines, I have even seen young girls been pick up in police vehicles and dropped off with a box food and you wouldn’t want to know what I was told.
St Vincent needs to step up. They are considered to be the slackest Caribbean country in the Justice system or should I say the worst.
Bribing Vincentian people using Vincentian taxpayers’ money to do it. Doing it now before the upcoming elections with building materials is an extreme undemocratic action. 
Bringing down the properly elected government of SVG by revolution, ‘the roadblock revolution’.
Freedom of speech, movement and assembly inhibited.
The ULP came to power through election bribery, election fraud, and vote-rigging. After the last election, the NDP accused the ULP of ballot fraud and took the case to the courts. The ULP government spent millions of dollars on foreign and local lawyers to stop the court from reaching a decision. If they did nothing wrong, they would have welcomed a court decision and could have saved the state from spending millions to defend their position.
