Submitted by Inkwell
Prime Minister David Thompson (l) Political Strategist Hartley Henry (r)
Hartley Henry, the political advisor to the Democratic Labour Party in his article published April 15th 2010 under the heading “Irksome Realities” stated inter alia:
“Scores of road contracts were awarded companies that existed only in name and they were some individuals who received contracts to build roads and repair bridges that had not the slightest concept of how such should have been done. The result today is a plethora of unfinished projects in rural Barbados, for which monies have been paid in full but which will now have to be completed by this administration.”
In response, I wrote:
“Now here, surely, is an area where we can move from the realm of innuendo and allegation to the safety of evidence and fact. If you are a government and you sign a contract with Mr. X for the building of a bridge at Y place and pay the full amount of the contract, stupid though that may be, and Mr. X does not complete the bridge, he is in breach of the contract and you have recourse in law. Take Mr. X to court. You have the cancelled cheques. Recover the money paid to Mr. X. Use it to complete the bridge. That’s really simple, isn’t it? Why after two years has it not been done? And why are you still complaining?
And who awarded the contract? Was it done in accordance with the rules? And if the rules were broken, is anyone accountable? Or will it be just another item in the Auditor General’s report? more grist for the politicians’ mill?
I’d like some answers, not just more slurs on the previous administration. Would anyone else? In fact, in our supposed democracy, I am entitled to answers. Or does the author’s commitment not extend that far?”
Two additional months have elapsed and of course I have had no answers. I will go further to state that since the evidence to support the allegations would have to be available and since the Government has done nothing (of which we are aware) to prosecute such corruption, it stands guilty of complicity in that corruption, in addition to engaging in willful wastage of taxpayers’ money in expending further funds to complete the unfinished projects as Mr. Henry claims, when such monies ought to be recoverable or the contractors held legally liable.
If there is no evidence to support Mr. Henry’s allegations, then they fall squarely under the offenses of lies and libel and he should be called to account for it. There can be no equivocation. One of two things must be true:
Either Hartley Henry is a liar or the Government is complicit in corruption.
Which is it? It is time we demand answers. One way or another, this nonsense has to stop.
I think Hartley Henry is a liar as a matter of fact I think the whole scenario is meant to mislead the people of Barbados into believing that the former administration totally wasted money by just giving their friends taxpayers money free of cost.I know for a fact of people who are told to vie for certain contracts and no matter how low that contract is someone else gets the contract here in Barbados both administrations you have grease the hand of the giver. Why did the N.H.C. award such a high percentage of contracts to that rich contractor Mr. Maloney, you mean to tell they could not find enough small contractors here in Barbados where you can get them a dime a dozen, so Mr. Henry as far as I am concern DLP is no Saviour in comparison to the BLP give me Owen anyday and stop hurting my Pretty Blue Eyes with your paid rhetoric, steupse
@Inkwell
You make an interesting case here. During an election campaign one may* tolerate some political gamesmanship but it is well into mid-term of a DLP government and the conversation needs to change. This is important especially from a government who promised change.
It is an open secret how the government’s financial rules are flouted and contracts awarded based on a kickback arrangement.
I had adream that Hartley Henry ran for the Barbados Labour Party and what a calamity it was.Everybody knows that contracts are awarded as I scratch your back kindda thing!!!
Hartley Henry is not worth discussing. His continued presence in the DLP hierarchy (which he ensures we remain aware of) and his continued role as its chief propagandist baffles me, saddens me and disappoints me. I would have thought, by now, that the PM and others would be aware of how unfavourable to the government his brand of smug, self-adoring rhetoric has become. It is angering people who voted for this party.
Inkwell
Have you considered that ………..
A Hartley Henry Is A Liar
B The Government Is Complicit In Corruption.
C BOTH of the above
@ Inkwell
So why do I get the impression that you are surprised at these developments?? Going by past history is it any wonder about what is taking place now? If things were not so adverse now I could be laughing my self silly saying, “I told you so!” I must say I have to agree with the good Dr. with his comments immediately above.
The following comment has been taken from google.com via this address http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/argentina.html, and is primarily intended for the reading of those esp. Black Barbadians who would like Argentina to win the FIFA 2010 World Cup Tournament being played at this time in South Africa of the Great African Motherland.
For those Barbadian Blacks that wish that Argentina would win this 2010 World Cup, dont just wish that Argentina wins this World Cup, do a little research and reading on how blacks and things Africa have been historically treated over the years in a very increasingly Eurocentric Europeanized Argentina.
Win??? Win?? Argentina in the Motherland???
No way!!!!
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THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY
H I S T O R Y N O T E S
BLACKS IN ARGENTINA: DISAPPEARING ACTS
By HISHAM AIDI
Posted by RUNOKO RASHIDI
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First published: April 2, 2002
When songstress Josephine Baker visited Argentina in the 1950s she asked the biracial minister of public health Ramon Carillo, “Where are the Negroes?” to which Carillo responded laughing, “There are only two — you and I.”
Scholars have long pondered the “disappearance” of people of African descent from Argentina, long considered South America’s “whitest” nation. A 1973 article in Ebony asked, “what happened to Argentina’s involuntary immigrants, those African slaves and their mulatto descendants who once outnumbered whites five to one, and who were for 250 years ‘an important element’ in the total population, which is now 97 percent white?”
One history book calls the country’s lack of self-identifying black people “one of the most intriguing riddles in Argentine history,” while another notes that “the disappearance of the Negro from the Argentine scene has puzzled demographers far more than the vanishing Indian.” Was the Afro-Argentine community annihilated by disease and war, or absorbed into the larger white community?
Of course, whiteness itself is relative. Many Argentines who proudly consider themselves white come to America and are shocked to find that in American racial discourse they are considered “Latino,” “Hispanic” or vaguely “Spanish,” and not white. Says Paula Brufman, an Argentine law student and researcher, “Argentines like to think of themselves as a white nation populated by Europeans. I was surprised when in the US, people — especially Latinos — told me I was not white but Spanish.”
Today in Argentina, there is a growing interest in the country’s African past and Afro community, “la comunidad Afro,” as it’s called. The past decade has seen black clubhouses, religious institutions and dance clubs crop up in the capital, Buenos Aires. A group called Africa Vive (Africa Lives), made up of Afro-Argentines, has spearheaded the campaign to raise awareness of the country’s Afro-culture and history. At the Durban UN Conference on Racism, Africa Vive presented a widely circulated study about the socio-economic situation of Afro-Argentines. The report documented the high unemployment and difficulties with naturalization that many blacks in Argentina encounter.
“Minorities in Argentina — indigenous, Afro, etcetera — suffer from a problem of invisibility and poor organization,” says Mercedes Boschi of the Buenos Aires City’s Human Rights Commission, who worked with Africa Vive on the aforementioned report, as part of the municipal government’s “Right to Identity” initiative.
So, how many people in Argentina today can claim African ancestry? The numbers are themselves difficult to calculate, says Alejandro Frigerio, an anthropologist at the Universidad Catolica de Buenos Aires. “People of mixed ancestry are often not considered black in Argentina, historically, because having black ancestry was not considered proper. Today the term ‘negro’ is used loosely on anyone with slightly darker skin, but they can be descendants of indigenous Indians, Middle Eastern immigrants. People in Africa Vive say there are a million ‘afrodescendientes’ in Argentina. Although many people are not aware that they may have had a black great-grandmother or -father, I think that this is an overestimation. I would estimate that there are 2 or 3 thousand Afro-Argentines, descendants of slaves, ‘negros criollos,’ 8 to 10 thousand in the Cape Verdean community, most born in Argentina, and I’d add another 1,200 Brazilian, Uruguayan, Cuban and African communities.”
Created in 1996, Africa Vive has reached out to Afro-Argentine leaders with the aim of creating an organization that can battle poverty in Afro-Latino communities. It has single-handedly brought media and the mainstream’s attention to the plight and legacy of Afro-Argentines.
“Different groups have emerged, including Grupo Cultural Afro and SOS Racismo, but Africa Vive is probably the most important group that has rekindled interest in things African in Argentina,” says Frigerio. “It is the main group composed of Afro-Argentines, descendants of the original Afro-Argentine population. Africa Vive has successfully drawn the media’s attention — they organized a conference against discrimination at the University of Buenos Aires in 1999, and were written up in an eight-page article in the daily Clarin. The article was significant because for the first time in almost thirty years, the term ‘Afro-Argentine community’ was used, instead of ‘black’ community.”
Frigerio continues: “Last September, these black groups, led by Africa Vive, convinced a national deputy to organize a ceremony in memory of black soldiers who died fighting for Argentina’s independence. The event took place in one of the traditional halls of the National Congress and was attended by the commander-in-chief of the army and the head of state. The national deputy spoke in honor of the fallen black soldiers and then awarded honorary degrees to the heads of several black organizations. It was quite remarkable that such an event could take place in Argentina.”
War heroism, in fact, is one reason Argentina lags so far behind in recognizing its people of African descent. Even after the official abolition of slavery, many blacks were still slaves and were granted manumission only by fighting in Argentina’s wars, serving disproportionately in the war of independence against Spanish rule and border wars against Paraguay from 1865 to 1870. Blacks were also granted their freedom if they joined the army, but they were deliberately placed on the front line and used as cannon fodder. Historian Ysabelle Rennie notes that the government deliberately placed as many blacks as possible in “dangerous military service” and were sent into batte, “where they got killed off fighting Indians (another race Argentines were interested in exterminating.)”
Argentine sociologist Gino Germani chalks up the “disappearance” to racist immigration policies, saying that the nation’s “primary and explicit objective” was to “modify substantially the composition of the population,” to “Europeanize the Argentine population, produce a regeneration of races.” Marvin A. Lewis, author of Afro-Argentine Discourse: Another Dimension of the Black Diaspora, concurs, saying that “there was an official, concerted effort to eliminate the blacks from Argentine society.”
Many have argued that people of African descent simply “disappeared” by mingling into the waves of thousand of European immigrants. Argentine historian Mariano Bosch wrote in 1941 that Italian men had “perhaps an atavistic preference for black women: body odor led them to matrimony and the blacks accepted them as whites,” or rather, “almost whites, because the Italian has much African in him, and his color is a dull pale.”
“There is a silence about the participation of Afro-Argentines in the history and building of Argentina, a silence about the enslavement and poverty,” adds Paula Brufman. “The denial and disdain for the Afro community shows the racism of an elite that sees Africans as undeveloped and uncivilized….The poverty in the Afro community was terrible. Although slavery was abolished in 1813, the death rate of freed blacks was always higher than that of white people and of slaves. Why is that? Because in Buenos Aires, slaves were very expensive, so the masters took real good care of them. Once a black got his freedom, his living standards collapsed even further.”
The past few years, however, have seen a growing interest among young Argentines of all backgrounds in Afro-Argentine culture — in tango, the dance and music with such strong West African roots, and other dances such the milonga, the zamba and the malambo. For this, many thank immigrants from other parts of South America.
“Afro-Uruguayan and Afro-Brazilian migrants to Buenos Aires have been instrumental in expanding black culture — teaching Afro-Uruguayan candombe, Afro-Brazilian capoeira, orisha and secular dances to white Argentines,” says Frigerio, who has written of various Afro-Argentine cultural movements, including dancing saloons owned by blacks, carnival societies and black newspapers. One such dancing saloon, “The Shimmy Club,” was founded in 1922 and lasted until 1974.
Frigerio believes the newfound interest in Afro-Argentine culture is not only the result of immigration but also of a new state policy. In the 1970s and ’80s, Argentina was ruled by a succession of military juntas who suppressed and almost eradicated black culture. “The military dictatorships from 1966 onwards prohibited or severely constrained the gathering of people in the street or in closed spaces — a practice which certainly negatively influenced carnivals, which almost disappeared; tango dancing, which died out until it was revitalized in the 1990s; and also black dance clubs such as The Shimmy Club. All genres of popular culture severely suffered during the dictatorships and many almost disappeared, but began resurfacing in the 1990s.”
Still, he cautions against too much optimism regarding race in Argentina. “The new laws and institutes help celebrate ethnic diversity and help groups like Africa Vive emerge and operate,” Frigerio says, “but they have not undermined the dominant national narrative of racial homogeneity and whiteness.” While the racial situation is much better today than it was half a century ago — when a review of Josephine Baker’s performance wrote of her “monkey rhythm” — Frigerio says that “today blacks are more exoticized than stigmatized…. What scholar Livio Sansone said of Brazil, we can say of Argentina: there are hard and soft areas of racism, or areas in which it may be advantageous or disadvantageous to be black. In Buenos Aires, being black is advantageous in finding a girl/boyfriend, but less so for finding a job, unless the person is a musician or dance professor.”
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PDC
If the PDC wants to write an essay on a random subject, unconnected with the thread here, please can it do so on its own website.
PDC,
Most Barbadians, I think, want Brazil to win. Have you researched how Blacks are treated in Brazil? Stay on topic, please!
We have been in the process of searching for information on the internet on racism against Blacks, Mixed Races in Brazil at the same time we have been doing so with regard to racism against Blacks in Argentina.
So, for those Black, Mixed, White or Indian Barbadians who would like to see Brazil win the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa of the Great Africa Motherland, dont just remember, if you saw the game on TV, how masterful solid the Brazilians played in that match against Chile on Saturday last, just do a little research and reading on the history of race relations in Brazil and you would see how turbulent race relations have been in Brazil over the years, how race and class discrimination have been dominant features in Brazil life, and how esp. Blacks and mixed races in Brazil have been badly terribly treated in that country over the years.
Anyhow just the following article taken from Google.com via this website email address http://www.roadjunky.com/cultureguide/1398/racism-in-brazil (article by roadjunky)
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At first view it might seem that Brazil would be one of the most multi-racial societies in the world, with every shade of skin from Portuguese white through to African black represented.
At first view it might seem that Brazil would be one of the most multi-racial societies in the world, with every shade of skin from Portuguese white through to African black represented. The slaves mixed with the colonisers here on a greater scale than anywhere else in the Americas and the result is the sliding scale of skin colour seen today.
But when you look closer at Brazil you see that, as usual, the whiteys are on top and the blacks take most of the shit that society has to offer. The favelas are 70% black, the poorest areas of the country are those with the strongest African influence and head to any expensive coffee shop and you’ll see that the moneyed classes could almost pass for Europeans.
Bur racism in Brazil is different to how it’s expressed in most places in the world. Brazilians are a people who prefer to brush uncomfortable truths under the table – or rather, they prefer to hire a maid to do it for them. Few people in Brazil will speak their prejudices out loud but they’re there all the same.
You will see people of brown or black skin mixing in moneyed circles without anyone making a fuss, but there’s a good chance that they’ll be called negrinho (blackie), a term that everyone insists is purely affectionate. The negrinho in question might even agree but deep down, everyone likes to be called by their name rather than their skin colour.
Those of African descent in Brazil have always been feared by the controlling classes, who found their dance, religion and culture to be alien and bewitching. In the early days of samba the jam sessions would be broken up by the police, fearing that the poor were beginning to organise themselves.
These days the fear of the blacks mostly comes from the legend of violence and crime that surrounds the favelas and poor neighbourhoods, places with a strong black demographic. See a group of black kids coming your way on the street at night and you would, in fact, be smart to run. Life opportunities are so limited to those who come from the favelas that crime is a very reasonable alternative.
Naturally, the acts of mugging and drug dealing are looked upon as profound social evils, by the rich, hiding behind the walls of their gated communities, reaping the economic harvest year after year. Corruption and exploitation are too commonplace to even merit attention in Brazil and only when landowners resort to slave labour do the newspapers get a little interested.
The North East of Brazil is amongst the poorest areas of the country and Brazilians from Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo view it as another country. People from the north east make their way south looking for work and get jobs as maids, porters or casual labour.
Having domestic help is a given for most Brazilians who can afford it and how they treat their servants varies greatly. There are some who treat the maids as part of the family, covering the health and retirement plans. Others exploit the presence of servants to do everything from turning on the light to bringing an ashtray. Few see any harm done as, after all, aren’t the north easterners grateful to have a job?
So racism in Brazil isn’t of the violent, abusive variety that can be found all over the world. It’s more an unspoken prejudice that few are prepared to admit exists. Yet when you hang out outside a bar in a rich part of town you wonder how no one sees it – as the white Brazilians with designer clothes discard their empty beer cans, someone from the favelas comes along to pick it up to earn a few centavos recycling it.
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PDC
While we were busy some years ago condemning and castigating South Africa ,and rightfully so, for its stance on Apartheid, we were quite happy to play cricket, and otherwise entertain, another nation, which up to this day is just as prejudice as the Boers. AUSTRALIA no less.
More from roadjunky via the same above link@http://www.roadjunky.com/cultureguide/1396/brazil-fevalas. And if you thought that the Dudas Coke / Trivoli Gardens issue was very troubling to the Jamaican society, then look at what roadjunky had to write about the “viciousness of social life” in the favelas in certain parts of Brazil.
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A favela is a slum, an illegal settlement built on squatted lands.
A favela is a slum, an illegal settlement built on squatted lands. Brazil has one of the worst distributions of wealth in the world and the poor have got to live somewhere. The favela dwellers build their houses out of wood and garbage, then later when they have the money, they upgrade to a home made concrete home.
There are no government schools in the favelas, there’s usually only home made water supply and sewer system and the electric is acquired by gato (a ‘cat’ hook that’s thrown onto the electric supply to siphon power). Those who are born and who die in favelas aren’t recorded – for the Brazilian government, it’s a crime to be poor.
Naturally, the poor in Brazil don’t take their fate lying down and scratch out whatever kind of life they can for themselves. With almost no education or opportunities the career options open to a Brazilians from the favelas are limited to selling on the street, cleaning houses, drug dealing or prostitution.
In Rio de Janeiro, however, favelas arose on the hills overlooking the rich neighbourhoods (where else in the world do the poor get the sea views?) and this gave them a distinct advantage; with so much wealth nearby they were in the perfect position to deal drugs on a large scale.
The drug lords rule the favelas and establish a strict regime within. No one may rob or kill anyone else within the favela without facing severe punishment. Degenerative drugs like crack and heroin typically aren’t allowed in though cocaine and marijuana is readily available. The drug lords employ the youths to deal drugs on the street corners – minors can’t be prosecuted in Brazil.
There are two main drug cartels in Rio de Janeiro: commando vermelho and tercero commando. The political origins of these cartels has since become fairly cloudy but they still periodically conduct wars between each other, invading favelas and taking over the cocaine business there.
Most of the warfare in the favelas though takes place against the military police who are always making surprise raids. The MP’s are very corrupt in Rio de Janeiro and have no hesitation in shooting any young black guy they see on the street in the favela – In fact they used to have a shoot to kill policy when they got bonuses for each ‘criminal’ they killed in the line of duty. The year those bonuses were rescinded the death rate fell dramatically.
The military police are also famous for raiding the favelas, robbing the dealers of their cocaine and then ‘selling’ it back to them. The cops in Rio make next to nothing so they see it as a fair way to make a living.
The people in the favelas let off fireworks when the military police are making a raid and you soon learn to distinguish the sound of fire crackers from the gun shots that often follow soon afterwards. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of the favelas, the walls of their houses are often so thin that stray bullets pass easily through the walls.
Yet in some ways the inhabitants of the favelas don’t have it as bad as others who are struggling to make a living in Brazil. As one beer vendor told us:
“In the favela they don’t have to pay rent, they don’t pay electric bills or water. All they have to do is find food.”
Yet it’s miserable for the old as the favelas are often built on slopes and the staircases are daunting for anyone over 60. The hills were deemed unsafe for construction and in fact hundreds of people do frequently die in landslides following heavy rain.
It’s also a precarious place to live as the nature of the drug business entails suspicion and paranoia. A guy selling coconut juice told us about freedom of movement in his favela in Jaripagua:
“I have to take the bus for three hours every day just to come here and sell. But where I live I can’t visit someone in a favela ten minutes away – if someone saw me do it they would take me for a rat. Being an informant is a capital offence where I live – I saw a guy executed in the street last week in the middle of the afternoon.”
Travelers should never attempt to enter favelas unless they have a trusted guide with them. Yes, favelas are full of drugs and guns but they are not safe places to go wandering around. Even if they did let you in to buy marijuana or coke, the police would probably catch you on the way back down.
An exception to this in Rio de Janeiro might be the favela funk parties that have become trendy. Still, you should go with a Brazilian who knows his way around and only take what you’re happy to lose.
Learn more about favelas in Rio de Janeiro ……. follow further on the pages to the above link.
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PDC
This is simply PDC’s pathetic attempt to offtract Inkwell’s post by writing not one, but two epistles that are totally unrelated to the topic and that no one bothers to read.
Remember Inkwell mek a laughing stock out of PDC about their policies and PDC threaten to car Inkwell to court. Since then the two of them are arch enemies.
Get a life, PDC.
Correction
The information in the first two lines of the fist paragraph of the immediately above reproduced article re the link to this said second article by roadjunky, should have been written as via the following link@ http://www.roadjunky.com/cultureguide/1396/brazil-favelas, and not as erroneously stated as via the same above link – meaning the first link to the first reproduced article – which though is still the correct link for the second reproduced article by the said roadjunky.
PDC
@PDC
You have made your point now please respect the topic.
Hartley Henry is a member of the DLP and writes a partisan column in which he paints the DLP Gov’t in a positive light and the BLP and its members in a negative light. Hartley is to the Advocate what Ezra Alleyne was to the Nation; the only difference is that Ezra was much more circumspect in his language (probably due to his legal training) while Hartley wears his allegiance on his sleeve. It is a pity that the Nation jettisoned Ezra right after the DLP won the last election as it would have been interesting reading his opinions ( though I didn’t necessarily agree with some of them ) in today’s political climate.
Is Hartley guilty of libel? I am not a lawyer but it seems to me that by any standard f anyone is to be accused of libel then that person must have written something which reflected negatively on the character of another and since he didn’t name anyone in his article I don’t think that anyone can claim that they were libeled.
Is Hartley a liar? I don’t know but I will take my cue from the NHC which removed several contractors from its list of approved contractors for non performance among other issues and I will also be guided by those myriad articles that one reads in the newspapers of people whose properties were repaired under the auspices of some Gov’t Department and who are complaining of shoddy or unfinished work. Could the same exist for roads and bridges? Let’s say it is not beyond the realm of possibility.
Is the Gov’t complicit in corruption? Again it depends on the wording of the contracts; if the contracts did not specify a penalty for non performance what can a Gov’t do? If the Gov’t does not try to recover funds which were paid for incomplete projects it may be guilty of negligence but not corruption. People are unaware of the time and high cost associated with litigation whether it is the Gov’t or Joe at the Rum shop who has launched a civil suit. If one spends $300,000 to recover $100,000 it is a triumph albeit a Pyrrhic victory.
Hartley will continue to hurl these accusations at the last Gov’t as long as he thinks that they appeal to the electorate. At a cursory glance based on 3M and Dodds I would say where there is smoke there is fire.
That’s politics
@PDC I think that you are so disrespectful of those who are interested in making points about the topic, if you have a point to make about race relations worldwide do so under another banner. It is time we stop the foolish talk anyway about “:Arfo American” or Afro Argentine are you ‘Afro Barbadian” that is such bull. Are all white people Europeans why is it that all Black people according to your kind Africans. In this world some one is going to hate you whether it is skin race or class so we have to learn to deal with it, at this time we all want to enjoy football without having to pick sides because of race, that is still being prejudice.To your own self be true, my favourite team is Argentina, the little history lesson you gave me is added knowledge but it does not change the fact that they have fans whether they practice racism or not. Here in Barbados so class prejudice it is coming out of our ears, take a look around you go to some of those private schools and get a first hand treatment of snobbery, not because of your skin colour but because of your class. and don’t even tell me it doesn’t happen, I have been in it for over 15 years and I am treated as a celebrity by the rich upper class but some of my brothers who drive the BMWS and Mercedes would not even invite me for lunch at their home.n simple terms let us forget about racism for the next couple of days and let us just enjoy the game.
@dAVID,
We would rather withdraw our participation from your blog, than respect the foolishness that associates with this topic, if you want us to say so.
There is nothing absolutely to respect about this stale rank banality for a recurring reworked hac-KNEED political low down topic blended with cornuCUPia of otiose themes. NOTHING at all!!
You seem not to grasp it!!
Our contributions this evening have NOT been about anything about Inkwell and us.
What a load of garbage by that idiot going by the rubric – WORKOUT.
For that and other reasons, you seem to too have been terribly misled into making the above spiteful response – by a rash of misguided grudgeful minded simpletons coming under this thread and some other threads, and who perhaps like you wish for the status quo to remain in place in this country.
Thus, you and they seem to have over time developed an acute allergy to us simply because of who we are – poor middle class but learned people – and who we vigorously represent – the poor masses and middle classes and what we and they stand for mainly, whether it is in the arena of politics, governance, sociology, history, the administration of justice, sports, entertainment or whatever.
But, our contributions here this evening have simply been about the absolute lack of a thread on here to do with the FIFA 2010 World Cup Football Tournament in South Africa in the Great Africa Motherland and any relevant comments thereto as this tourney reaches its final stages.
We have sensed a total lack of regard for this fact by you as found by your non-coverage of this World Cup – For, not even in your masthead have there been put any images to celebrate its happening for the first time in Africa – a truly historic event.
Yet you often write about blackness on this blog
So, too, we see for the umpteenth time where your social biases are coming from towards us and many of our social ilk – this time with regard to wurl futbol – thus taking out your inner fiobles on those many so-called Barbadian working class followers of futbol.
Finally, we strongly deplore and deprecate your attempt to intone subjection to you and your wishes.
You must be becoming arrogant and thinking mighty – not with us though for only God, the laws of this Government of Barbados, and a few other things we are really subjected to in this world.
Pray tell us if with you cant tell certain characters on here to stop defaming certain people in this country, to stop the sometimes unnecessary unwarranted vilification by certain commenters of certain other contributors to this blog, to stop the excessive vulgarization and bastardization of certain of portions of this blog, etc. how can you tell us to respect some stupid topic?
As our grannies would often have said in certain instances in the past we rebuke you, David, in the name of Jesus Christ and in the spirit of the Most Holy Most Gracious Father Above.
PDC
@PDC
BU requested that you respect the topic in the context of posting comments relevant to the topic. If you believe that Inkwell has written folishness you should do the sane thing by articulating such in your reply. The other stuff you wrote is unfortunate but BU supports your right to express your view.
What HH has written is probably not libel as he has not named names nor has anyone been able to point to any particular company and say that it is to this company that he referred. He has been very vague and very general.
I would like to ask what if hell a “company in name only” is? If it is not incorporated and registered with CAIPO and is purporting to be a company, why is any government doing business with it? It is easy enough to check.
I think that for the DLP to continue its connection with HH is really not doing them any favours at all. He is a laughing stock.
I will only say look for more posts like this by by BLP Inkwell turning up on BU.
Secondly I notice that all those string of posts one after the other with strange names like Workout,Pretty Blue Eyes,Call a Spade seem eeirly like those posts which a little while ago used to come out from the opposition’s office only between monday – friday 9:00 – 4:30 p.m. using names like hogsqueal etc.
So all I am saying is these multiple posts must not be taken as a fact that these are different views or that this is not political mischief.
We recognise the DLP operatives in Wishingin Vain and carson Cadogan etc but at least they don’t send 5 or 6 posts one after the other using different handles.
This I saw a few years ago also at BFP with the BLP operatives.
Just Saying.
This public are not given the credit they deserve and they are smarter than we think.I agree with one thing; the DLP should have dealt with this corruption and stealing by the BLP in a more aggressive manner and the blame stops at Thompson,arthur would never have allowed this to happen.
@ Inkwell Ha Ha soooooo true. Somebody should be in prison; if you know about the existence of bank accounts you can seize and freeze bank accounts. If HH is true then the DLP is complicit in corruption.
@ Sargeant – The government has a lawyers on staff to execute their legal affairs. It is irrelevant if a remedy is found in the conntract, the contract itself implies performance for pay and no performance no entitlement to pay. You can recover our tax payers money.
Sarge they still fooling you, did you not realise that the entire Dodds thing was a hoax. It cost 200m dollars, ask at Min. of Home Affairs they will tell you there were no cost overruns. That is a fact. The smoke blown about the finance charges bringing the 200m loan to 700m, is a fact of the cost of money for mortgages, cars, loans by gov’t. Notice that although they fanned that flame they have not told you the financial charges cost of the $150.m loan for the Water Authority; $400m borrowed to pay back the loan and protect the foreign reserves.
Now see if you can reason, if $200m cost 700m, then how much does 150m cost and after you calculate that do $400m. close to $2b. Guess how much the 2b they plan to borrow in the next 4 years will cost.
What sweeten goat mouth (DLP/HH squandermania, corruption) gine bun he tail , next election. I do not like being taken for a ride by people who purport to be for the black man and claims to be Barrow’s party. if you have any self respect you would feel the same way tooo. If you want to let them ride you or help them ride Barbadians, you will get no help from me. If the media want to close their eyes, protect their poltical choice to the deteriment of the public, they get no respect from me. If UWI lecturers refuse to be objective and struggle to justify actions, inactions, and promote propaganda while using the cloak of being intellectual, they get no credit with me.
BU is aware of the games some people play, in fact we are aware of many things. At this point we urge commenters to discuss the issues. If a commenter has posted using multiple names the issues presented must still hold water. It is up to the other commenters to punch holes in the arguments presented. Has the DLP disappointed on the issue of exposing corruption in the previous government or not? Has the government delivered on rolling out a managed immigration policy or not? Has the government delivered on delivering FOI and IL or not? The list is long. Yes they have mobilized a few social programs but managing a government is a multi-faceted approach, one cannot push initiatives at the expense of others.
For over 3 years BU has encouraged the BLP side to put their view to counter the DLP who has used the Internet much better to push its agenda. It is a democracy afterall.
HH
How much this government paying you every month?
@ Anonymous
You disturb me, where is your written from? I really do not care, it is what you say, is it true, is their evidence, is it reasonable? I find it disturbing if you are with BFP that you would seek to reveal identities of bloggers and you do not put your name. I don’t mind people trying to guess, but what hypocrisy.
@David
@PDC
You have made your point now please respect the topic.
__________________________________________
What point?
Bro. Scout
Hope all is well my dearest. Still looking fa ya.
@Anonymous
I am am seperate and distinct from any blogger, what I have written is my thoughts and feelings about things here in Barbados. Lots of things are swept under the carpet here, as long as you can grease someone’s palm, a blind eye is turned. My feelings would not change, the DLP is not the party for the poor man as they claim, all the talk about illegal immgrants, they come here make a couple of dollars and send back home so what. Barbadians do the same all over the world. The guyanese aren’t buying up and giving their children homes and condominiums as birthday gifts, but the multi rich visitor who spends two mornings in Barbados is doing that, yet we talk, but no legislation has been brought to change this. Limegrove project has been built with Barbadians money yet the poor man cannot own a shop, cannot own a condominium down there, don’t even talk about liming impossible.Take a walk over that restaurant check the prices of the foodstuff yet they have a niche market for the very rich still it is only a front, many meetings of a high calibre are kept right there out in the open, you know the saying “to hied in plain sight”, that is it to a ‘T’.Do you know what is QF Holdings, do you know how many of their children will benefit from the takings, in a couple of years those tots are going to own the west coast, Barbadians open you eyes and start to speak out. Do you know that as we speak Doctors are flown in to attend the ill of those rich households, they do not utilise the services of the doctors here again causing our foreign reserves to dip, since the policy of the Central Bank is that what ever foreign currency you bring in you can carry back out hassel free, that should stop.We make no money from it since they are given special exchange rates.When those vessels come in down Port St.Charles, who is there to see what is being landed. Don’t start me for I can name names and call places that would open your mouths and yes I have a first hand knowledge about what I am talking about I am not a mole but just someone who the very rich foreigner believe they can trust.
Bajan Truth
Sarge they still fooling you, did you not realise that the entire Dodds thing was a hoax. It cost 200m dollars, ask at Min. of Home Affairs they will tell you there were no cost overruns.
********************************
Let’s say the issue of cost is so much hyperbole and political posturing, but I would like to know how the previous Gov’t managed to engage two firms to manage its two largest construction projects and the principals of both companies ended up in court in other countries facing accusations relating to bribery, one in criminal court and the other in civil court.
Did anyone in Barbados receive a bribe from these companies?
I have posted on this very blog an article that appeared in the Times newspaper of Dominica in which Hartley, under dubious circumstances, received over US $100,000 for securing a licence for a certain international bank. That entire transaction led to a public investigation, the firing of a Minister of Government and the uncovering of a host of corrupt deals
In that said article the evidence revealed that Hartley had instructed that the money owed to him be paid into the bank account of the law firm Thompson Associates. I have asked and is yet to receive an answer, is this the law firm owned and operated by DAVID THOMPSON, Prime Minister of Barbados and exponent of the much talked about integrity legislation?
That article appeared in the Times newspaper very soon after the DLP won office and to this day the poor-rakey news reporters we have around this place have not ask our Prime Minister about that article and the information about the money paid into his law firm’s bank account. This is the same DLP that up and down this country telling Barbadians how corrupt the last administration was.
Hartley would do well to tell fellow bloggers about this and his other scandalous corrupt dealings rather than write the farrago of nonsense and political diatribe he espouses on this blog and in the Advocate weekly.
In closing let me say that I have a lot more information and Hartley’s “bag man” life style but unless I am pushed I will speak to them at the right time.
idle foolish threats from Royal Rumble—
@All… Just putting this out there as a talking point…
Wouldn’t it be amazingly wonderfully empowering if Barbados actually had a viable third political party ready for the next election? (PDC need not apply — I said “viable”…)
It’s being done elsewhere. Why not here in beautiful Bim?
@ Sargeant – Do what I do, check the facts, get the info and let us know. The point is not being in court, you need to show where dishonesty occurred in relation to the highway or the Dodds prison. If my carpenter got held for stolen goods, does that make me an accomplice to his crime, or does it make me dishonest, and does it mean that he acted criminally in doing my job. Smoke dat.
This is the point – if you have facts about corruption, dishonesty, put someobody in prison otherwise it is all hearsay, smoke & mirrors. Do that and I will help drive the prison bus to take the person to Dodds myself.
@anonymous
I don’t work in any opposition’s office, and I don’t have any other name on this website. I came here about two months ago to add some historical information regarding The Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary.
However, as a former journalist (not in this country) I have a particular dislike of smug, smarmy, self-aggrandising political propagandists like Hartley Henry. I felt the same way about Ezra Alleyne and Henderson Bovell, that sycophantic turncoat who licked Owen Arthur’s ass on a weekly basis in the letters-to-the-editor section of The Nation. The fact that people such as this are given unfettered access to the editorial pages of our newspapers tells the true and sad story of journalistic integrity in this country.
@ Pretty Blue Eyes // July 1, 2010 at 2:31 PM
If you can so much, please try to contain your emotions. what does not happen in a year will happen in a day. Kick ‘em Jenny will take care of that part of the island. hope that when it happens (in around 8-10 yrs), that the rich loses interest in that area. We are aware that we’ve lost St. James but no government is willing now to bell the cat. know one talks about that underground tunnel built around 14 yrs ago, leading from the sea in a particular parish to a very, very rich person’s vacation home. Tell me, what kind of transactions could be taking place that it could not be done above ground? is the tunnel still in use? And we talk about Jamaica, we have no idea how closely connected to Jamaica we really are. We walk around with our heads high – falsely believing that the dons and drug lords live there not here. ha. A greater than Dugus is among you
@ Ms.Anonymous
if that happens in 8-10 years well, what a shame all that money gone down the drain but do you think that would discourage the rich who already have their children’s navel strings buried here, as far as I am concern they are going to look for another part of the island to populate don’t let us fool ourselves , they are sinking their teeth all over the island it is just so noticeable in St.James and so far one single young rich billionaire now owns most of those lots in prestigious Apes Hill, the man is not even 40 years old yet not even living in Barbados 3 years and because he can pay for them (I refuse to say by what method) he and and his 3 girls plus Burdess own them.He has the gall to but a property in 2008 for One Million Dollars now he has that said property up for sale of Seven Million Dollars. As for the ‘bigger than Dugus is here’ it is known and well protected, that is why we can never eliminate drugs from the streets of Barbados. Sorry about the emotions, it just get to me.
Bajan Truth
If my carpenter got held for stolen goods, does that make me an accomplice to his crime, or does it make me dishonest, and does it mean that he acted criminally in doing my job. Smoke dat.
*****************************************
Now that I know what your standards are I am glad that you are not hiring anyone to build my home. Would you hire a carpenter without due diligence? Would you not check his previous projects? Is he honest? How long has he been in business? Are his customers satisfied? Did he finish on time? Are his fees reasonable?
But we are not talking about a simple building project, this is about major construction ventures costing millions.
If someone had done “due diligence” they would have realized that 3M and VECO were not all they cracked up to be.
@ sargeant
Due diligence will not tell you if someone has something in court or not. When you check a person’s reference you check the previous projects they have done, which if they have sense the commpany will not mention projects that are problematic. so unless you operate in the industry, unless you are in the jurisdiction, unless it is posted on the internet, you will not know, sweetie. You would have a case if was there poor workmanship on the projects, cost overruns, overcharging, if there is no evidence to that what is your point? And still you do not know if the claims about their legal situaitons are true you only have HH word for it. So go and do the research and come back and give us facts.
Try to understnad, politicians cannot do this and that without the civil service knowing, the P.S. and technical officers do the due diligence, and if they turned up problems the info would be allover that the gov’t did this against the advice of the P.S. Unless you are making the P.S. complicit in this corruption charge or incompetent.
What do you believe?
@Bajan Truth
Here is what a minimum of “Due Diligence” would have revealed:
1)3M Corporate office consisted of a Desk, Chair and a Phone. Is it still an operating company?
2) VECO was an Alaskan based oil pipeline services company; why was it contracted to build a prison in Barbados? Would you hire a fisherman to make your pants?
@Sargeant
You should, although it is not wide public knowledge that VECO tendered on the BTII Pierhead Project, but the submissions for that bid had to be done over because that is about the time VECO went south.
Sargeant // July 2, 2010 at 8:30 AM
@Bajan Truth
Here is what a minimum of “Due Diligence” would have revealed:
1)3M Corporate office consisted of a Desk, Chair and a Phone. Is it still an operating company?
I think he refers to 3 S one Danos who was cast upon us by one Steven Hobson and Hallam Nicholls two of the best cr**ks this island has ever encountered.
3S built a good road too despite the dedicated delaying and sabotage tactics of an entire government department .
Chris Halsall @ 4:38
(PDC need not apply- I said ‘viable)
Dat is hilarious. murdahhhhhhhhhhhh
Inkwell and Bajan Truth above are both BLP yardfowls who think that people are fools.
Times have changed fellows, get used to it. We wont have any of your obtuse stupidity anymore, we have had enough of it.
Stop the labeling Rubbenheim. How many posters are Dlp yardfowls. I want to hear both political sides during these crucial times. BTW, where u now come from.
@WIV, Sargeant et al
How you know it only got in a desk and chair, you work there. The state of the art prison appear by magic? Is the company you check a holding compnay while the construction company is a different organisation owned by the holding company, common practice in this world. Or did you think the desk and chair built the prison. You all are a riot, a comedy act. Or is this a Nard performance. LOLLLLLLL
You will have to give me a little more info on Hobson and Nicholls, what is the problem.Thanks for the info, I thought it was Bizzy Willians who had the joint venture project with 3S. Provide the poor job done, overcharging, corrpution, bring the evidence about the prison and three S. More facts and I will be with you. Who you think you can fool?
Dear Rubbenheim who are you? Are you a Bajan with an interest in economics, politics and your country? Do you wish to see it better? You like to talk about facts and ask questions to get the truth. Then you and I can talk, and I do not give a damn which side you on? You can put me on anyside you like, as long as you know there are more sides than two.
Bajan Truth:
I checked out SRL on May 16 2007 and in another place posted
“My last post defining an SRL is somewhere in the ether.
Basically its a limited company set up so US citizens can be taxed as individuals on their profits.
Why the heck our government wants to contract with a company whose directors want to be taxed as individuals I’ll leave to everyone’s imagination.
Check my previous posts, this company is a front.
No previous, no website or even yellow page listing in its home town, and its ” head office ” is a suite in a rented, serviced office complex.”
Investigate the facts before blowing smoke.
@ Straight Talk
What does it matter if their office is a post stamp on a wall. Was the job done, was it done poorly, was it a cost overrun, was their corruption. If you want to know the rationale for recommending 3S and Veco, ask Darcy Boyce. He sat on the committtee with othe rpublic officers that did the due diligence and made the recommendation. Ask William Layne, he will tell you the truth. Let us discuss the facts, make the charge, prove it and get the bangles and lock up somebody. How hard is that?
You, Sargeant, WIV cannot convince the thinking part of the Bajan world that you are reasonable objective and on any search for truth, only propaganda and poor biased reasoning. Once your argument is challenged you cannot adequately and honestly defend it. If we use your reasoning then David Thompson and the DLP would have to be corrupt and have dishonest intentions. Here it is charges have been levelled at Hartley Henry, the political strategist and talent manager of Mr. Thompson and the DLP. Bloggers have raised charges about unsavoury situations involving St. kitts, Dominica, Antigua reported in the media. Additionallly it has been alledged he sought kickbacks for favours, alledged he made arrangements with unsavoury characters to finance the DLP campaign – Standford, and another well known international financier for permission to set up gambling in B’dos. How then should we judge the integrity, honesty and suitability of the DLP.
Please let us deal in facts and reason. If my contributions are untruthful, flawed in their reason, unfair in their conclusions argue that point. Once that is done well I am prepared to acknowledge and change my position. The question is, are you?
@ Bajan Truth // July 3, 2010 at 9:46 AM
Very well said, Sir!
“VECO was an Alaskan based oil pipeline services company; why was it contracted to build a prison in Barbados? Would you hire a fisherman to make your pants?”
Sargeant would you hire a radio personality to rebuild a burned down industrial factory?
@ Bajan Truth
I have no agenda, exactly as you proclaim not to have.
“Once your argument is challenged you cannot adequately and honestly defend it.
Please let us deal in facts and reason”
I have stated the facts as you requested, and you refused to counter these, even though you said “More facts and I will be with you. Who you think you can fool?”
I can back up my statements with facts, and you apparently cannot.
“If my contributions are untruthful, flawed in their reason, unfair in their conclusions argue that point.”
I have done and you refuse to offer the counter proof of larger companies operating through an unproved entityl or as I believe it may be one or two individuals capitalizing on an open ended multi-million dollar project.
“When you check a person’s reference you check the previous projects they have done.”
I did, you haven’t, check the facts, get the info and let us know, before making a fool of yourself.
“How you know it only got in a desk and chair, you work there.”
I checked them out, it took ten minutes, I don’t need the governing coterie of Barbados, or yardfowls as you to tell me what to think, I am a free man.
Once that is done well I am prepared to acknowledge and change my position. The question is, are you?
Well are you?
Now.
@ Enuff
Oh dear, is it a desk and chair company or is it a pipeline builder? Could it be they do construction in more than one area, or do construction in specialised areas. I once knew a company that built wooden furniture and did glass work too; another did chicken and also had a company that made clothes. Since that doing two different types of specialties is a crime, lock them up.
Mind you there may be a problem but you do not have the facts, get them. I knew a magistrate that was real anxious to lock up a lawyer, a politician or a policeman. So he would tell the defendants, those who are guilty sit on the left and those who are innnocent sit on the right, but bejinks if I find any of wunnah over on the right guilty, wunna going up today. A few would crawl over to the left. You need a magistrate like this when you find any BLP person you can get your hands on, or Veco, or whoever. If you look hard I am sure you will find some.
Truth is stranger than fiction,Check the above comments. Weirddooooooooooooo
@ Straight Talk
Sorry did not realise that was your compelling evidence. I now realise you do not know what an SRL was. You should reread your info. It is as you said a type of offshore company to limit taxation and liabilty of wealthy individuals, nothing sinster or dishonest. Perfectly legal. You need to show they are laundering money or something, yuh think; or that it is illegal for the go’vt to enter into contracts with them. They do not have to execute the function, they get their real operating company to do the work. Thousands are registered in Caribbean offshore jursidictions and I think quite a few in Barbados. Read below. Try not to follow HH he will mislead you and cause you to make a jackass of yourself, when you really want to be a thoroughbred. I am sure your mother warn you about the company you keep.Further reading on this matter will do wonders for your understanding.
====================================
Excerpt taken from B’dos offshore website.
Barbados Societies with Restricted Liability
The Society with Restricted Liability (SRL) is similar to the Limited Liability Company in a number of other jurisdictions – it is designed to allow US taxpayers to claim individual tax treatment ON THEIR PARTICIPATION IN AN ENTITY WHICH IS TREATED AS A CORPORATION IN ITS OWN JURSIDICTION
SRLs are formed under the Societies with Restricted Liability Act 1995, and have the following characteristics:
a maximum duration of 50 years (this restriction was removed by a legislative amendment in 2004);
limited liability for the members;
legal personality in Barbados;
restrictions on the transferability of shares (called quotas);
SRLs do not need to have any physical presence in Barbados, but must maintain a local registered agent and registered office; they are classed as exempt or non-exempt.
Exempt SRLs are subject to the same limitations on ownership and trading as International Business Companies (see above) and receive the same tax treatment (see Offshore Legal and Tax Regimes). A legislative amendment in 2004 permitted Exempt SRLs to trade within Caricom.
Non-exempt SRLs can trade within Caricom and Barbados, and are not subject to the ownership limitations that apply to IBCs. They can take advantage of tax treaties (not open to IBCs or exempt SRLs.)
============================================
Now if VECO is registered in B’dos it would be against the law for the gov’t to enter a contract with them, offshore in B’dos is not allowed to do so. So if the address is not a Barbados address then you lucked out, but if it is reigstered here, man you got ammunition. Press on
@ Straight Talk
Went back to get the exact website address for you. Better to read for yourself, won’t get hoodwinked. There are sad rogues misleading people with flawed arguments. Ac you could read it too. tell me how it strikes you.
http://www.lowtax.net/lowtax/html/jbcos.html
Answer the questions, oh ye seeker of truth,
Was 3S an established company prior to thir award of the highway project?
Was their registered office not a serviced suite?
Had they no track record of any sort?
Were they references by any trade journals?
Were they even listed in their local Yellow Pages?
How did the GOB find these non-entities?
Answer any of the above truthfully, or change your handle.
You are a disgrace to your country.
Related articles for bedside reading:
@ST
You have a solid position which can be defended easily.
A government entrusted with spending taxpayers dollars cannot* and should not* enter transactions with companies which have fly by night track records. In fact most companies which have to circulate ‘Requests for Proposals’ will have some basic criteria which companies hoping to win the contract are suppose to meet. Usually a key item in the criteria is a list of customers which the company would have worked for. Usually these companies are approached for references. 3S SRL would have been in no* position to deliver on this basic requirement.
Thank you David for your support,
I would really like “Bajan Truth” to come up with the facts, whicn would allay my fears that this was a set-up to fleece Barbadians.
If not so I would be interested in hearing his evidence to the contrary.
@ Bajan Truth
I was merely highlighting the hypocrisy of Sargeant.
@ Straight Talk
Are we at cross purposes? The questions about Veco & 3S were raised by others, making charges about their honesty or suggesting they are not above board. I did not make a case for their honesty or the BLP gov’ts honesty in dealing with them. I asked for the facts so I could ascertain whether there is a case or not. I am not claiming their innocence but in the interest of truth I cannot make charges without the facts. Can you? You needed to do the research.
What did you come up with.? It is an SRL. SRL is not equivalent to dishonest, shady, not competent to function or not bona fide. An SRL is an offshore special purpose entity whose sole function is to help wealthy individuals, who continue to make money through other companies executing projects to save on their taxes. It is known as TAX AVOIDANCE (legal) NOT TAX EVASION (crime). All that is required is a registered office -desk and chair – in a jurisdiction that offers registration of SRLs. America, C’bbean, Liechenstein etc. Go to Peat marwick ( where Darcy was a partner) or any of the other local accounting firm and you will see hundreds of names of offshore companies etc that are supposed to be operating from their office. It is a legal fiction to allow accounting procedures to take place, no production operations. None of these will be listed in the yellow pages in any jurisidction because they are not an operating company, just a legal convenience.
These entities are linked to other corporations that have the operations you were looking for, a factory, administrative office, equipment etc, which has a DIFFERENT NAME. Usually it is persons associated to linked entity that create the SRL when they are making too much money and therefore get taxed hard. The linked entity has the track record not the SRL. it has all the things you would be looking for to feel it is a bonafide company. It is that company that would execute the work and the one that the due diligence would or should be executed on.
To make it simple. It is like this blog. We all have our names GP, ST, Sarge bonny, but that is not really us. It is a special purpose vehicle to allow us to discuss, vent and for some curse freely about issues we care about. If someone wanted to do a due diligence on GP as he is the only person so far I heard what his business is, could I check the blog for his reference as a doctor, or find his track record? No. Can I then automatically conclude that he is a fraud and dishonest and no doctor. I cannot check your references on this blog. I would need your real name and base of operations, name of the firm you work for, and there I would see you in action. But you are not a fraud. Similarly neither is an SRL a crime or a fraud by virtue of its existence.
Now having said that, it neither confirms or denies Veco’s honesty.Only the linked entity can be investigated for that. I do not have access to its name or functions, so I have to limit my conclusions on the only facts available to me here in B’dos – did they do a good job; was there any dishonesty or incompetence in its execution? if we have proof of that, then I would help you tear up the earth to find out who they are to get at the criminals who took cookies from the cookie jar.
Now you may still be convinced that it represents a shady deal by the BLP administration and want to base it on the quality of the ‘evidence’ you have before you. Now let us reasonable the BLP will not come out and claim it is a fraud, so it can only come from the DLP. Now seeing that Darcy Boyce was a part of this BLP selection process, and as chairman of BTI under the BLP, approved their selection for the project outlined by David BU, he would have to be deep in the doo doo if you are correct. DLP came to office on the basis of accusing the BLp of corruption in such projects, squandermania etc what does it say about them to have chosen Darcy Boyce to look after our cookie jar? Given your evidence/logic, is it to perform for them what he performed for the BLP? Now that should give you sleepless nights, because the hand might be in the cookie jar while we all are engrossed in the plight of our Prime Minister. It represents gross dereliction of duty, and making a mockery of their campaign, the intelligence of our people and taking the passion and commitment of good Barbadians like yourselves to defend something that is ##^#*** My mother taught me don’t swear for a fellow. I cannot swear for the BLP, but I can tell you to date the evidence has not been presented to lock up somebody, but give it time, what does not happen in a year can happen in a day.
@ Enuff
Sorry man. I got carried away.
@Enuff
• I was merely highlighting the hypocrisy of Sargeant.
***************************
Just saw the above as I was celebrating July 4th with some of my American family.
Enuff , do yourself a favour and look up the meaning of “hypocrisy” via an online dictionary.
If seeking to understand the reasons why the B’dos Gov’t provided contracts to unknown foreign entities is “hypocrisy” then your understanding of the word differs substantially from what is generally accepted.
Did I condone the hiring of any “radio personality” to rebuild any industrial factory?
If you want to toady up to Bajan Truth that’s your business, but try to submit a logical coherent argument
true… not sure who said this, but it still rings true: It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from their sense of inadequacy and impotence. We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression.
We cannot win over the weak by sharing our wealth with them… This is assuming, of course, that we did not accumulate our wealth by stealing from the weak, because, ultimately, there is a price to pay – as recently witnessed.
http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/ex-sagicor-manager-off-to-dodds/
Ex-Sagicor manager off to Dodds
printshare0 comments Roger DaCosta Smith (centre) being escorted to court yesterday to answer theft charges. (Lennox Devonish)
By Tim Slinger | Sun, July 24, 2011 – 12:11 AM
FORMER SAGICOR MANAGER Roger DaCosta Smith was remanded to Dodds Prison yesterday when he apppeared in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court on charges of stealing over $1.6 million.
A stoic Smith stood in the dock as Acting Magistrate Manila Renee read out 18 counts of dishonesty, dating from as far back as 2003, and including offences of fraud, money laundering and theft from Sagicor Life Incorporated.
Some of the charges included the purchasing of several thousands of dollars of household furniture and appliances from Courts, DaCosta Mannings and Designer Decor.
An application for bail was set aside when defence counsel Sir Richard Cheltenham, QC, along with Shelly-Ann Seecharan, conceded that prospective bailors for Smith were not able to satisfy the required documented proof of sureties’ assets and worth at the time.
As a result, an agreement was reached for an adjournment until Tuesday for the next hearing of the matter.
Full story in today’s SUNDAY SUN.