Israel Versus Palestine, Seems Like Total Destruction No Solution

The six-ship convoy had set out to carry 10,000 tonnes of aid from Cyprus to Gaza, despite repeated Israeli warnings that it would not be allowed to reach the territory

The video shows the Israeli soldiers descending to the ship. The video also shows some passengers on the ship brandishing sword like weapons. The Israeli government claims the ships were warned not to approach its territory. The organizers of the flotilla left the coast of Cyprus on Sunday and is reported to have been boarded by the Israeli while in international waters.

We all know the answer how this conflict will end. The nuclear outfitted Israel with support from the globe’s only military superpower the United States will have its way. When will it end? Well it seems like total destruction no solution.

The Auditor General Exposes An Inefficient Customs And Excise Department

Auditor General Leigh Trotman

BU read with interest in the media an update on the status of the eagerly awaited Integrity Legislation (IL) by Prime Minister Freundel Staurt (Ag).  He indicated the IL could be introduced very soon. Of interest to BU was his explanation the IL would be fairly wide in scope to include key partners in the private sector. The need to implement IL which is relevant has always been advocated by BU. It is against this background the stunt by Opposition Leader Mia Mottley and former Prime Minister Owen Arthur to declare their assets has exposed itself to be a forgettable political gimmick.

An example of how a relevant and effective IL can help to expose corruption in a public or private sector scenario is easily illustrated if we read the Auditor General’s (AG) Report 2009. On page 63 of his report, the AG refers to a few suppliers to the School Meals Department who are allowed duty free status to import for that department only.  Here is the AG’s audit note. … However, there is no system in place to monitor the amounts imported by suppliers and ensure that goods allowed duty free status are imported for Government Departments only. As a result various suppliers imported goods in excess of what had been delivered to the School Meals Department. What a sweet deal!

The first question which comes to mind, why has the AG not mentioned the names of the suppliers in his report? Perhaps the one time the understaffed and hardworking AG Department has opened itself to criticism. There is little doubt after reading the AG’s report that some Custom Officers, School Meal management or both have benefited from the sweet deal. Are we being harsh in our conclusion? Here is the AG’s audit note. …Some suppliers were using both original and duplicate copies of authorization from the School Meals Department in order to obtain goods duty free. Only the original authorisation is intended to be used by suppliers as a waiver for imported goods, and the duplicate copy should be kept as a personal record. However, these duplicates were used by the suppliers to obtain goods free of duties to which they were not entitled.

Tips From The War Against Cyber Crime And Internet Exploitation: 10 Things To Protect Yourself

Submitted by Austin

For the last 10 years I have been at the forefront of the international cyber security war for one of the world leading IT firms.  Unknown to many there is a daily war being waged against computer systems worldwide to include the average Internet user, “you”.

Identity theft has become the well known cyber crime of choice for many hackers these days, who are now using non technical social engineering methods to lure users into given up private information via spoofed websites.

To make matters worst the image of the average hacker has changed significantly in recent years, the average hacker is no longer a nerdy looking guy with glasses sitting at a PC typing in command line codes to break into a PC like on TV. Today’s hackers are far less trained in the art of hacking, and can easily rely on a sea of automated free hacking software tools provided by a large number of black sites as we call them.
The good news is that there are cyber war fighters like me out there waging a good fight for your protection. The bad news is that we are often outnumbered outgunned, and outresourced be those who desire to commit cyber crimes and exploitation.

So what can you do to protect yourself in simply terms:

Austin’s Top 10 Cyber Security Tips

A Matter Of National Security

Auditor General Leigh Trotman

In  his 2009 report Auditor General (AG) Leigh Trotman listed several findings which not only exposed the inefficiency in many government departments but sadly exposed obvious cases of corruption. One such finding was in the Customs Department. He purports in his 2009 report on page 64 the following:

The audit tests showed that for the financial years 2007-09, in a sample of 67 vehicles, about 41 consigned to individuals were listed in the Customs computerised system ASYCUDA as having been released without the payment of duties.

This action would have resulted in a revenue loss of approximately $447 699 in taxes and would have shown a weakness in the controls established by the department to prevent such activity from occurring.

The finding refers to the Auditor General’s investigation using a sample of 67 cars. Was the AG tipped off which might explain the high number of vehicles in such a small sample found to have been released without duty paid? The AG was interviewed by the local media and assured Barbadians that his investigation will soon be completed and all evidence collected by his department will be handed over to the police if it supports further action.

BP Oil Spill Surpasses Exxon Valdez

Submitted by Austin

Click on image to view live underwater feed

Someone better check out the safety of oil industries, production and transport in the Caribbean region: before it’s too late.

Today many news outlets are covering the success of the US space program with focus on the shuttle. Ironically I find it absolutely amazing that we can fly too and from outer space, yet we can’t plug a hole in de ground (noting the oil spill off the US coast).

Just for one minute imagine how we in the Caribbean region would be impacted if a similar thing occurred off our shores.  Our tourism and fishing industries would be crippled if not destroyed, not to mention the money we don’t have for clean up efforts.
As a region we better check out any coast line oil production and transport, noting how close in proximity many Caribbean nations are relatively speaking.

With all BP’s record profits in recent years clearly not enough was put into ensuring safe and environmentally friendly innovation and research. BP has become to the environment what firms like Goldman Sachs was to the financial crisis,  “Too big to fail” has been extended to “Too rich to be held accountable”.

A Very Sad Day In Caribbean History: DLP-BLP Leaders Please Wake Up, Jamaica Today Barbados Tomorrow

Submitted by Austin

The scene where 3 men were killed in McCooks Pen St Catherine yesterday(25 May 2010) in a drive by shooting - On The Ground News

The events unfolding in Jamaica represent a truly sad day in Caribbean history. On the surface we are witnessing civil unrest on a level we usually see coming from other parts of the world, however below the surface are longstanding social, political and economic issues that have  gone unanswered by Jamaican politicians.

It is no secret that the drug culture in Jamaica exist from the exit sign at Jamaica’s airports to the waters edge, and has been allowed to flourish as both police and politicians looked the other way. Now that matters have reached a boiling point here comes the cavalry and the political talking heads.

With all Jamaica has to offer to it’s vacationers, and by its entrepreneurial spirited people, there is still not enough jobs in Jamaica as a tourism oriented service economy. We in Barbados can learn from the Jamaica tourism industry model which at it’s peak is not enough to sustain the hopes and dreams of the masses.

Many Jamaicans view the drug trade as a necessary evil to survive. With that said it does not surprise me to see young men risking their lives in support of a man who has filled the social and economic opportunity gap created by government inaction. Inaction we are currently plagued with here in Barbados.

Rihanna The Sexy

Pop R&B song bird Barbadian Rihanna’s popularity continues to propagate as she promulgates her bad girl image. Despite the haters she continues to scorch the music charts across the globe. Many Barbadians have expressed concern about how her handlers have managed her image since her break-through Pon de Replay single. The sweet innocent 17 year old Combermerian is no more.

Her recent video (above) confirms once again that Rihanna is committed to wearing the bad girl Madonna like image.  Babadians could like it or lump it, Rihanna’s image is about making money and she seems to be doing a good job at it. The question to be asked against the background of the recent banning of Movado and Vybz Kartel, are we practising double standards given the bad girl image being portrayed by Rihanna supported by her naughty lyrics? Whenever we question how our youth ambassador is managing her career the haters surface. Given her global popularity and the fact she happens to be Bajan translates to many young Barbadians idolizing her.

Should we talk about banning some of her music as well?

The Cause Was Greater Than Race

Hartley Henry - DLP Political Strategist

The caller was understandably irate! He couldn’t fathom the thought of Yours Truly, a black West Indian, working for what he termed “the Indian party” in Trinidad and Tobago. Indeed, he went as far as to suggest that I was “selling out the race”.

On the surface and from his vantage point, I guess he could and should be forgiven for such simplicity. But what I encountered in Trinidad over the past six weeks was not a case of black, Indian or Chinese in need of assistance or opportunity; it was a people feeling in bondage and yearning for liberation.

I wrote six weeks ago that it has not been my practice to comment on election campaigns in which I am professionally involved. The simple reason is that I would, quite naturally, be subjective in my thinking and as a rule, I prefer to stay below the radar. However, in this particular instance, I had warned three days prior to the dissolution of Parliament that had Prime Minister Patrick Manning followed through with his threat to ‘ring the bell” he would have been annihilated at the polls.

I made that calculated judgment from a safe distance of several hundred thousand miles and also against the backdrop of not having been seized of all the issues that lay at the feet of the Trinidadian voter. However, the minute the parliament was dissolved and my services were engaged, I knew, beyond a shadow of doubt, that Patrick Manning’s goose was cooked. Indeed, I expected mutiny in the camp, but the ostracisation of Keith Rowley and the silence of party elders made matters worse.

We Are What We Eat, Alloxan And All!

Submitted by ROK (as a comment)

The food that you eat everyday is laced with drugs. The amount of people dying from cancer; the amount of people with asthma; the amount of people with diabetes, where did you think they get these conditions from?

Consider this. We have a flour mill in Barbados bleaching white flour as it has been bleached for about the last 50 years. Now the by-product from bleaching flour is a substance called Alloxan . Look it up.

Alloxan is a drug that is used to induce diabetes in rats so that scientists can study diabetes. They used to fool us that diabetes was hereditary. We know that it is the flour and that drug that eats away at your pancreas. You legally buy the flour that is killing you and these people selling it to you at record profits, but you are not complaining. You want to lock away your own people who, like the shop-keeper getting the flour, getting their hard drugs from the large drug lords and selling them the same way.

The Tuskegee Project: The Systemic lll Treatment Of Black Men and Women By Physicians

Submitted by Yardbroom

A doctor draws blood from one of the Tuskegee test subjects - Wikipedia

In the shameful Tuskegee project, carried out for over forty years – 1932 – 1972 – in Alabama USA, when black men were allowed to die from syphilis as white physicians monitored the progress of the disease so it could be studied.  Only a leak to the press in 1972 lead to the halt of the experiment.  “By the 1940s validation of penicillin as an effective cure for the disease was known and still the experiment continued; even in 1947 when penicillin had become the standard treatment for syphilis the suffering of those black people continued.

The tally of those who suffered was nothing less than scandalous.  “By the end of the study in 1972, only 74 of the test subjects were alive.  Twenty eight of the original 399 men had died of syphilis.  100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children were born with congenital syphilis”.

The happenings at Tuskegee are of importance at this juncture because of the many breakthroughs being made in science.  We must always remember “unpoliced science” can be dangerous.  We should never believe that clever men, physicians or others will always do what is in our – the people’s – interest. Tuskegee has shown us that however brilliant, there are some unprincipled men driven by selfish motives; we should guard against them.

It was said of the Tuskegee experiment it was: