The Secretive World Of Peter Andrew Allard And The Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary: Does Barbados Need Any Of It?

Submitted by a BU family member

It seems that, having failed miserably in his efforts to acquire Kingsland Estates Limited and to drag Barbados’ court and government and people through the mud in the Ontario courts, Canadian (Albertan) Peter Andrew Allard is attempting now to sue Barbados under a Canada – Barbados bilateral trade agreement.

The attempt to subvert and use the Canada-Barbados bilateral agreement is not new for Peter Allard. Indeed, back in 2005, just after Madge Knox lost her Privy Council appeal, Allard engaged counsel from the Ottawa office of prestigious Canadian and international law firm Gowling LaFleur Henderson LLP to bring just such an action, not in respect of Graeme Hall, but Kingsland Estates Ltd. He couldn’t make it stick then and his chances are no better now.

Allard bases his case on Graeme Hall and, Canadian that he is, attempts to tar Barbados in the eyes of the Canadian public with not looking after the ecosystem of Barbados and that this has impacted negatively on his investment in Graeme Hall (which has been on the market for sale for about 2 years now at an asking price of Bds$24 million. He is now asking for US$35 million and involving Barbados in yet another costly and unmeritorious case.

However, as BU family member Pat has pointed out, Allard should start his crusade in his own country and his own province and stop minding the business of Barbados.

Pat, never known for the mincing of words, says:

// October 29, 2009 at 11:30 PM . Peter Allard never gives up. He hitting out at Barbados and the pollution by the sewerage treatment plant. Well, let me tell Allard, to just look at Ottawa. Every time there is a large rainfall, hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage is pumped into the Ottawa River.

This is disturbing because towns downstream – Wendover, Hawkesbury, Alfred, etc. get their drinking water directly from that same river. The City was fined last year by the Province, but the practice has not stopped. This means that all the beaches are closed for weeks at a time because of the high e-coli not only in the water, but in the sand as well where the water rises when it rains.

Allard should also look at the Alberta Tar Sands, where oil is being extracted to feed the American behemoth. He should go document the environmental damage being done from those operations.”

Well said, Pat and it can be added to.

Are Our Key Professions In Crisis?

All professions are important to ensure the productive capacity of the country is firing away on all cylinders. Is is true to say however that some professions can be viewed as being more important than others? BU subscribes to the view in the Barbados context teachers, policemen and nurses represent core professions which are key to building and sustaining a productive society.

It is interesting to observe in recent years how the three professions named have declined if measured by their ability to attract and retain human resources.

Many of our teachers can’t wait to retire. This is an indicator which can be used to judge the state of teaching in Barbados. Many of our teachers are also being recruited by several countries around the globe. BU recalls in the last 3 years several of our best teachers were raided by school boards from Kentucky and New York.  Importantly is the fact few men are being attracted to the teaching profession in Barbados. Some statistician worth their salt maybe able to do some analysis to show cause and effect as far as tracking the lack of male relationships in the school system and the boys (men) in crisis syndrome which has appeared.

Is Hooliganism On The Rise Among Our Youth?

On an earlier blog mention was made of a video of school children making the rounds where they are beating the hell out of each other. Again we repeat, a picture is worth a thousand words. BU concedes the video above probably does not represent the behaviour most of our youth would engage in but it probably is indicative of a worrying trend.

We are not psychologists in the BU household but the behaviour shows a lack of social and emotional immaturity. To those who will respond to the video that like bullying there has always been this behaviour, we say continue to keep your heads in the sand! In our day someone would have step forward to ‘part’ the fight, who will risk it today?

Mia Mottley Blinks First, Will She Pay The Price?

Leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley

Former Prime Minister Owen Arthur

At the beginning of the year BU warned Opposition Leader Mia Mottley that there is a centipede in her bed. Today the centipede ran across the bed and is yet to be found. Today the centipede had this to say about Mottley:

They want to like her, they want to respect her, she has to use power skilfully.

Despite the protestations of former Prime Minister Owen Arthur that he has no interest in the leadership of the Barbados Labour Party, political pundits know better. Based on the between the lines meanings by Arthur in his press conference today, it appears he has some issues with Mottley which he felt motivated in a special way to counter publicly. Barbadians have accepted that the BLP has historically not vented their problems in public, Arthur today broke the longstanding tradition.

One point we agree with Arthur is why would Mottley force this matter to a vote by the parliamentary group? The 6-2 result in her favour means nothing when viewed against the CADRES poll which placed Arthur several points ahead in the national leadership perception. BU remembers well Mascoll was in a similar position where he had the parliamentary support but Thompson was preferred by the people. When Thompson challenged for the leadership the support shifted from Mascoll to Thompson. The 6-2 vote means nothing, it was a nuisance vote and now threatens to divide the BLP.

Arthur’s move today appears to be well calculated and has nothing to do with airing dirty linen in public. He obviously intends to ride the popularity he still enjoys with Barbadians and see where it leads. Mottley still growing in the leadership role has blinked first in the standoff with Arthur, he has wasted no time in responding with the ruthlessness of a seasoned veteran.

The following was submitted by BU family member Adrian Hinds as a comment earlier today. We found it very interesting:

Cable & Wireless, LIME and Demerger

When Bartel and Cable and Wireless (C&W) consolidated its business some years ago to operate under the one-name C&W it made sense. Back then Bartel managed the local business and Cable and Wireless managed the outbound traffic.  In 2008 when C&W rebranded its Caribbean operations to  LIME (Land, Internet, Mobile and Entertainment) the reaction was what the hell! The word LIME in the Caribbean lexicon does have a meaning which  one has to admit is not complimentary in a business context.

The rebranding exercise immediately signalled major restructuring in the company which continues today. In Jamaica CEOs are being changed like dirty socks. In Barbados significant numbers of LIME employees have been retrenched and there is promise of more to follow – all in the name of balance sheet efficiency and creating a more competitive entity. LIME formerly C&W after comfortably raking in profits operating in the Caribbean as a monopoly since colonial days has now been jolted it seems by the deregulation sweeping the telecommunications industry globally.

Many decisions which LIME has taken since rebranding continue to baffle observers. Many people on the street are convinced C&W is planning an exit strategy from the Caribbean in the face of the onslaught from competitor DIGICEL in the mobile arena.

Time To Stop The Damn Folishness!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. BU understands what is being demonstrated in the video is the symptom. After two years in office the current government, supported by an impotent police force, has been unable to regulate the PSV sector. The current chaos in the sector exposes a lack of political will and leadership.  The sector as it has been for awhile continues to operate out of control.

In the video several observations are visible. The minibus is overcrowded, loud music is playing, the driver seems not to be driving with due care and attention…

Bear in mind the government of Barbados has introduced free travel on the public transportation service for all school children up to 18. We are told the economic benefit is significant for many families as a result. We also know it is an attempt to extract our young minds from a negative sub-culture before it is too late.

It is time for our politicians to what is damn right!

Who Or What Am I?

A few weeks ago we listened to veteran journalist David Ellis expressing exasperation on air about all the race talk around in Barbados. His position as we understand it – educated Barbadians need to conceptualize positions which would move the country forward. We believe if Ellis were to think a little on that utterance he would realise it was an  asinine statement. Bear in mind the issue of race is being discussed in many countries around the globe including the great USA which is described as representing the melting pot of people from all backgrounds. He should also bear in mind the greatest Roman philosophers who we quote freely today were always prepared to enter the public squares to discuss the issues, good and bad with the people. The debate facilitated cross fertilization, more importantly the approach allowed the PEOPLE to vent and for the learned to respond. Hopefully both sides were the richer for the exchanges. It is a model which BU is committed to following for as long as we exist.

For any people including Barbadians to understand who they are and what they want to become, an understanding of their past lives must feature prominently. Decisions in the present cannot be divorce from experiences of the past. The psyche of the Barbadian has been influenced over time based on ALL of our history. Sadly our past is tarred by the experience of slavery and the colonial governance system which enforced it.  Today when we survey our system of government, church and other institutions and symbols which support civil society, the vestiges of our colonial relationship remain visible to all who want to see. For us to move forward as a people we have to discuss and debate how institutions which were active in our pre-emancipation period must be reconfigured to ensure a  Renaissance which the late Right Excellent Errol Barrow would have envisaged for our small but proud nation when he uttered that Barbados would be friends of all and satellites of none. Sad to say Barbados has progressed admirably if we use economic measures but boy have we neglected the social structures which are the intangibles of equal importance.

To understand the Barbadian and the negative reaction we have had to the large influx of Indo-Guyanese, we have to revert to history.

Barbados Light & Power Shame

Submitted by Zee Babb

Marketing Manager Stephen Worme (l) General Manager Peter Williams (r)

Let us say that BL&P technically and legally have a case for a review of rates. Even if only on the basis of not having done so for 25 years.

But on what basis does a company that has been making profits every year – not even based on competitive productivity, but on legislated guarantee, demand their right to earn an additional 4.4 % return on investment in a market where all others are facing losses, cutbacks, layoffs and failures?

BL&P is guaranteed a profit on whatever expenses they can convince the FTC they need to incur to produce electricity.

What ever salaries

What ever consultants

What ever equipment

What ever ‘expenses’

The cost of fuel means nothing to them – it is passed directly on to customers.

They presently add these costs all up and collect a cool 6% profit on top. (so the bigger the *cost of operation* the bigger their profits) They now want 10.4% instead of only 6%..

No wonder they do not care about renewables.

Swine Flu Confusion Continues To Reign

Follow an interesting discussion on Mercola.com about the Swine Flu pandemic.

The Difference Today Is Glaring

Hartley Henry - DLP Political Strategist

Back in my previous life as a politician, I had difficulty, on occasion, responding to those cynics who suggested the two main political parties in Barbados were the same. There was actually a period in the 1980s and early 1990s when it was difficult to differentiate between the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour Party, given the similarity of philosophies and approaches of respective leaders.

I recall sitting with the late Rt. Excellent Errol Barrow and hearing him commenting positively on the policies of then Prime Minister, the late JMGM “Tom” Adams. Indeed, political animal that I have always been, I wondered sometimes whether Barrow really wanted Tom’s job back, because he spoke more as an elder or a teacher, than as an opponent.

I recall also, meeting with Adams and hearing him acknowledge a “good delivery” or “a quick one, outside the off stump” from Dr. Richie Haynes. Adams too was very yielding to the political skill and guile of Barrow. He often times referred to how Barrow handled situations as Prime Minister, suggesting for the most part that Barrow’s approach was the preferred template.