Senator Henry Fraser: Healthcare Slide at the QEH

Professor Emeritus Henry Fraser

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is in the news again. Professor Emeritus Henry Fraser made the announcement this Christmas week that the crisis at the QEH requires Minister of Health (MoH) John Boyce to meet with Minister Chris Sinckler as a matter of urgency. Of course this is the same MoH who boldly stated during the last budget debate that the deep cuts to the Ministry of Health budget would not compromise healthcare delivery.

Senator Irene Sandiford-Garner in response to the criticism offered the view that the QEH remains the best primary healthcare facility in the Caribbean. BU has no way to assess the veracity of Sandiford’s statement however one has to ask if Barbados should not hold the QEH to our high standard. Why should Barbadians retreat to accept benchmarking against healthcare systems in the region which have always looked to Barbados as the standard bearer?

It is instructive to remember that Fraser is an Independent Senator and Senator Sandiford-Garner is government appointed. The question to the BU family et al – who should we believe? Some issues CANNOT be about politics, the good health of a nation is a wealthy of a nation after all.

Tell your friends:

BU apologizes for this short notice. We ask commenters to avoid posting comments until notified. We will change a few parameters to block comments. We hope to resume comments within the next 24 hours.

Thanks for your patience and cooperation.

David

Tourist Predictions Not Hitting the Mark

Adrian Loveridge – Hotelier

If there was a single phrase to describe this winter tourism season, I think it may be great expectations. Despite all the wild speculation which included ‘this November has been one of the best Barbados had seen in a while’ being made by tourism officials, the month in fact ended by recording the lowest long stay visitors for any November during the last 11 years. It also heralded 20 consecutive months of stay over visitor decline.

As this is the latest in a long line of unfulfilled predictions this year, is it time for our policymakers to focus more attention on what can be achieved, rather than drift into the realms of prophecy and conjecture. I wonder just how much longer we can go on trying to justify rewarding failure. So much is riding on the performance of our tourism sector over the next 120 plus days leading up until next Easter Monday on 22 April, not only in terms of occupancy, but in the critical role of trying to claw back lost revenue from the last almost two lean years.

In our key market, the United Kingdom, traditionally there is a booking surge when tour operators step up their promotional activities on Boxing Day. But one of the largest travel companies, Thomas Cook, pre-empted its competitors by launching a massive sale, two weeks prior to Christmas to tempt the bargain hunters into commitment for summer 2014.

Symmonds Comment Shows Gross Disrespect to Muslims

Submitted by Douglas

Kerri Symmonds, MP

Dear David please permit me some space on your site to make a few comments with regard to something that I feel strongly about.

I recently listened to the debate about the funding of the QEH and I heard the Minister of Health announced the arrival very shortly of new ambulances coming from The United Arab Emirates which I thought was wonderful. These ambulances are gifts to the people of Barbados by the government and people of The United Arab Emirates. Sadly  while listening to the reply from Opposition MP Symmonds, I must say it is not often that I pay attention to Symmonds because I have long held the view that he has no spine and he stands for nothing and will fall for anything, be that as I may, I subjected myself to his presentation which in my view was despicable coming from someone who has been around politics awhile and therefore should know better.

Good judgement is not one of his strong points if we are to judge his actions two days before elections in January of 2008 when he found it possible to take money from a Doctor Boolani to regularise an immigration matter that he did not fulfil and he never returned the money. The copy of the Affidavit is attached as proof that he received funds and of his vicious and brutal attack on his wife for which she had to seek the protection of the Courts of Barbados.

Symmonds file #1
Symmonds file #2
Symmonds file #3
Boolani

Barbados Community College Conversation Continued…

Barbados Community College Government and Politics 100 Outline

Please find attached an image of partial course outline for Government and Politics 100 [allegedly] issued by Walthrust-Jones to Government & Politics students.  I emphasize this is not part of the official outline but is attached by WJ as though it IS part of the outline. Please observe the two notes I have made (1 and 2). These stipulations are inconsistent with the academic regulations and are therefore illegal:

1. A student cannot get an F simply because he has not submitted all course work. In stead a temporary Grade I is assigned.
2. An individual teacher cannot simply debar students from taking an exam.

The above was submitted by Neil Watchman.

Cedric Murrell Describes Sending Home 3,000 Public Workers as UNFORTUNATE

Submitted by Anthony Davis

Cedric Murrell, CTUSAB

“The position which will see 3000 public servants placed on the breadline between January 15 and March 15, 2014, is “unfortunate”, and clearly . . . a situation where Government had no other choice. This is the position being held by the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB), and articulated by its president, Cedric Murrell, following a meeting with Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Chris Sinckler, this morning. What I will say to people generally in this country, because we don’t know who is going home, is that they must have faith. They must have an understanding that there are times when an economy goes through trials and tribulations. (But) what we have to recognize is that the only way we can positively move from this position by growing this economy. By growing this economy, it means that every single person in this country, has to see how best they can contribute to the sum total of the output of this country. With regard to a perceived snub by Government, and them not being informed about the plans to sever workers, he noted that that matter had been discussed and resolved – page 3 of “Barbados Today, dated 18 December, 2013

My, my, my, My mind boggles, Mr. Murrell!

What kind of drivel are you spewing to 3000 people – whom you and the other head honchos are supposed to be representing, but are doing a very poor job of doing – by telling them to have “faith” in these harsh economic times? Why don’t you, and your ilk who are in your tax bracket – and especially you three – give at least 10% of the money you receive – whether you have earned it or not is a horse of another colour; I do not think that you have earned yours, as you have done a great disservice to the public servants of our country –  to the Inland Revenue, to help this Government which has boxed in itself by having an incompetent Minister of Finance, and help those you are supposed to represent?

Workers Misrepresentation, Who Benefits?

Reblogged by request.

Barbados Underground

Recently the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Dale Marshall, accused the National Union of Public Workers of playing politics. That caused me to reflect on the state of trade union representation in this country and wonder if the accusation was true for other unions. A comparison of the roles played by the unions during different political administrations would suggest that Marshall had justifiable reasons to come to his conclusion. During the DLP administration, you tend to get the impression that unions are bending over backward to accommodate the Government. When the BLP is in office, unions tend to be a bit more active which can be attributed to the fact that most union leaders appear to favour the DLP.

From inception workers have been complaining that the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) has not been acting in the best interest of workers, and that it…

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The Mandela Deception!

Reproduced from Mayihlome blog compliments of Rastarivisions.com

“The West nego­ti­ated – CODESA style – with the post-​colonialism lead­ers of African coun­tries…

Last month it was that time of the year when South Africa and the world catch the fever of the Man­dela Day Sab­bath; I say Sab­bath because this Man­dela Day has become a quasi-​religious event blindly fol­lowed by peo­ple who are not pre­pared to ques­tion what the hype about the day is all about or where it actu­ally emanates from.

We are stuck with a cult fig­ure more pow­er­ful than the Dalai Lama and Pope com­bined, yet we can­not actu­ally point out what deed of his earned him this saint­hood among peo­ple, even a mes­sianic sta­tus of some sort.

Read full article

Notes From a Native Son: Pride Comes Before a Fall, Even for Some Governments

Hal Austin

Introduction:
As the IMF troops gather at the gate, the people of Barbados have little time to reflect on how a once proud nation has found itself in this economic mess. But, as night follows day, it had to come; it is a modern-day example of Sodom and Gomorrah, of a people living so much beyond their means, partying and fornicating, that they forgot how hard work and good ethical behaviour has its rewards. For the national decline is not just economic, only that this time it is manifesting itself in an economic meltdown, but it goes right across the range of our social and cultural values. Although we can blame the 14 years of the Arthur administration for sowing the seeds of this predictable car crash, and rightly so, after nearly six years in government the DLP government can no longer use that excuse. The failure to manage the economy is theirs and theirs alone, first with the Thompson regime being caught off guard when it won the general election, and the political ignorance of Freundel Stuart to impose his mark on the post-Thompson government. But we are where we are and it is no good crying over lost opportunities. However, to kick off this period of tighter fiscal controls, government should impose a Bds$50m windfall tax on the commercial banks and use that money to fund a post Office bank; also encourage the credit unions to establish a joint credit union bank, both operating on balance sheet principles.

3000 Public Sector Jobs on the Radar

Submitted by William Skinner

Chris Sinckler, Minister of Finance (l) Fruendel Stuart, Prime Minister (r)

I am fully aware that the decision to get rid of over 3000 civil servants will be met with great applause by those citizens who for decades have believed that our civil servants are not up to scratch with their service to the public. It is a position that I do not share personally. I am also aware that those calling for privatization will now feel they were justified. In my humble opinion, that is nothing more than bunkum because our economy is already heavily privatized and we are still in the debt trap.

Many crocodile tears will be shed by the same frauds, who shed tears over the imposition of tuition fees on the poor, mainly black students at Cave Hill, University of the West Indies. These are the same political charlatans who would abolish free bus fares for school children, who were missing school because their parents had no money. They are the same ones who are now trying to convince us that domestic violence is only found among the poor and poorly educated. It follows a pattern that whenever there is a problem within the society, they zoom in on the poor.

The simple truth is that the economy has been in need of desperate restructuring for at least since the mid seventies. The BLP/DLP government has failed at every given opportunity to reform or restructure the economy .We have a system of sophisticated political largesse that caters to the now emerged upper middle class political managers, who have taken friendship and social contacts, to a level of sycophancy, that we have never before witnessed in our island state!

Committed to Our Goals

Submitted by Douglas

Ministers Donville Inniss and Chris Sinckler

It is never easy to take tough decision which would affect the livelihood of those affected. From the start of the economic recession, the Democratic Labour Party’s administration had always said it would seek to maintain the social safety net and the sending home of persons from the public service would be a last resort so that government could maintain the employment levels in the country as long as possible.

For more than six years, the Democratic Labour Party administration maintained that promise while it introduced policies to restructure the economy of Barbados and position it on a sustainable growth path. This restructuring process which was long overdue is now being undertaken in the midst of the most turbulent, global economic recession which the world has seen in over a hundred years. Naturally, the journey has not been smooth sailing.

From the start of the economic recession our financial experts reminded us of the importance of protecting our international reserves. We were able to do this with reserves consistently above 16 week of imports from 2008 to June 2013. This was a major economic victory in the face of an unsettled global economic climate. This provided the cushion for government to continue its role in maintaining employment levels and the social safety net while putting policies in place to sure up revenue earning and controlling government’s expenditure in areas of goods and services, transfers and subsidies.

To read more:
https://www.facebook.com/DLPBB
http://www.dlpbarbados.org/site/committed-to-our-goals/

Fire the Pimps on the WICB(C)

Submitted by Pachamama

We recall well, between sleep and wake, nightmares of the slaughter of our teams, by the great Australians of the 60’s and 70’s. But this New Zealand team of 2013 is the opposite of the Australians, and yet, the expectation of capitulation remains our constant companion, in this battlefield of dreams, especially at this time of the year.

Last test match the West Indies Cricket Team succumbed for the umpteenth time, over the last two decades, to a less than viable opposition. This cultural rot will only stop when we properly locate its causation firmly in the laps of the administration of the West Indies Cricket Board (of Control) (WICB) and take concerted actions to excise the underlying cancer of this prolonged and institutionalized failure.

Since the coup that ended the ‘Age of Dominance’ the cricket establishment in the Caribbean has not produced one single player worthy of that epoch. What we have had is the constant recycling of average pretenders totally removed from the mind set of Worrell, Lloyd and Richards. The warrior mentality has been stripped from them, by executive design. The coup plotters of 1991 and their descendants continue to destroy West Indies cricket at all levels. So the largesse of team management could be directed to a Richie Richardson, the instrument of the plot which relocated effective power from players to administration.

Destabilization of the Barbados Community College (BCC)

Submitted Neil Watchman

Stephen Broome, Chairman of BCC

There is growing concern among staff at the Barbados Community College where the Board or more accurately, the Chairman, seems to have developed a tight stranglehold on the institution. Staff cannot recall there ever being such a high level of politicization at the institution until the advent of Mr. Stephen Broome who served first as Deputy Chairman and is now in his second term as Chairman.

Some, perhaps out of fear, believe that the Chairman’s mission is to destabilize the institution as a precursor to the Government’s phasing it out. They point to the recent spate of sixth forms set up by the MOE headed by Ronald Jones in support of this supposition. This, coupled with the imposition of higher fees on UWI students from 2014 makes for a very confusing educational policy. One could be excused for thinking that the Government would have put more resources into the BCC but then again, if it didn’t do that when things were well, one cannot expect them to do it in these dire times. So what? Such confusion and contradictions seem symptomatic of the Freundel Stuart administration, anyhow.