Two Questions For Peter Boos, Former Chairman Of Legacy Barbados Inc – Freedom Of Information Act Needed Now More Than Ever

Peter Boos

Freedom of information legislation are rules that guarantee access to data held by the state. They establish a “right-to-know” legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions – Wikipedia

The excuse can be made that Integrity Legislation (IL) is a hard nut for the Barbados government to crack. The smooth implementation of IL is regarded as challenging for small countries like Barbados where nobody is a stranger. The same can’t be said for implementing Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation. Three years into its term the government of Barbados needs to deliver on FOI to be assured of some credibility before entering the gearing-up period for the next general election.

The benefit when FOI is implemented will be to arm the general public with the right of access to state data/information. There is an urgent need to replace vacuous commentary on the Internet, radio and wider society in Barbados. The cynics among us may hold the view that enforcing the legislation will prove to be another hurdle to overcome given the lousy track record of archive management in the public service. Last week BU was able to publish the list of entities who received monies from the Tourism Investment Relief Fund (TIRF). By making the names public some Barbadians were able to ask pertinent questions about the closure of the Silver Sands Hotel. Unfortunately the traditional media has not been able to determine whether the TIRF List is newsworthy.

 

Making a Deal with the Devil: “The Spirit of Hophni and Phineas” – Prosperity Preachers, Self-Proclaimed Prophets, Sexual Deviants and the Proliferation of Religious Scandals in the Modern Church – Part II

Submitted by Terence Blackett

The prophets lie and the priest takes bribes and the people like it so – Jeremiah 5:30

 

The Moral Failures of the Ancient World destroyed by a Flood were as follows:

• Preoccupation with physical appetites (Luke 17:27)

• Rapid advances in technology (Gen. 4:22)

• Uniformitarian philosophies (Heb. 11:7; 2 Pet 3:4)

• Inordinate devotion to pleasure and comfort (Gen. 4:21)

• No concern for God in either belief or conduct (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 15)

• Disregard for the sacredness for the marriage relationship (Matt. 24:38)

• Rejection for the inspired Word of God (1 Pet. 3:19)

• Population explosion (Gen. 6:1,11)

• Corruption throughout society (Gen. 6:12)

• Preoccupation with illicit sexual activity (Gen. 4:19; 6:2)

• Widespread thoughts and words of blasphemy (Jude 1:15)

• Organized Satanic activity (Gen. 6:1-4)

• Promotion of systems and movements of abnormal depravity (Gen. 6:5,12)

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that these same moral failures are now pandemic in our own world. Could we be also on the cusp of a momentous fracturing of time which will bring out what has been prophesied so long ago by prophets, seers and messengers?

Below are a few (not even the tip of the iceberg) random examples of what we face as the people of God as we grapple with overwhelming sin and disgrace:

Related Link:

Making A Deal With The Devil: “The Spirit of Hophni And Phineas” – Prosperity Preachers, Self-Proclaimed Prophets, Sexual Deviants And The Proliferation Of Religious Scandals In The Modern Church – Part I

Space Travel Caribbean Style – Thinking Out Of The Box!

 

XCOR Aerospace is teaming up with the southern Caribbean island of Curacao to develop a space port for future suborbital tourist and scientific flights. The agreement is with the territorial government of Curacao and a group of Dutch investors with the hopes of offering flights in 2014. The joint venture is known as Space Experience Curacao, or SXC. The group will lease one of XCOR’s Lynx spacecraft. The Lynx is a small two-seat spacecraft (pictured above) designed to launch to more than 100 kilometers (about 328,000 feet) - Click image to read about it

The Democratic Labour Party Is Bad For Barbados

Former Chairman of the NAB and BLP Supporter

“Given the Democratic Labour Party’s propensity to self-implode (whether in Government or Opposition) and compounded by the level of indiscipline and mistrust now evident within its ranks – the ruling Party will most certainly have to call general election very soon in order to prevent increased warfare within its ranks.”

 

Already tensions are high. The Dems have simply lost sight of why they were elected and seem to be putting their personal interest before the interest of Barbados. And so, the bitter struggle for power continues.

But while the Dems battle among themselves to see who gets priority access to the fatted calf and to feed at the trough, the rest of the society are left to wonder – exactly where is the “Pathway to Progress“ the DLP promised. BARP members are also wondering what have they done the DLP, that it has implemented a policy that prevents them from getting back the money they invested in Clico. No one expected that having been asked to pay a 60% increase in water rates, that the taps would be dry or there would be so many water outages! There is also great disappointment that the 2000 houses the DLP promised to build every year for the next five year, are not being built and yet the DLP is claiming success in its so-called housing programme.

What is Mottleyism?

Submitted by Gary Cole

Mia Mottley, Leader of the Opposition

I am going to give a detailed account of what I think is the psychology and motivation of Mia Mottley. I cannot be one hundred per cent accurate, psychology is not an exact science but for those of you that will like to read my book Boys in the Band you can click the link and read a limited preview online at Googlebooks – Or you can visit my mother’s official website In that book we argue explicitly this:

“The private lives of public officials are subject to the morality of the office they hold. Adultery, homosexuality and prostitution are the age-old partners in crime. If there is evidence of the subjection of high office to any of these vices then the private lives of public officials cannot be ignored.” This article will seem remorseless in its attack on Mia, but in terms of elections, I have already argued in my previous post why Mia is key. Here is the reason why she is key, and an exposition on the term you use against her – Mottleyism.

Before I go on I must tell you a bit of myself with reference to Mia. My mother Angela Cole and Mia’s mom and dad, Eliot and Amor, were the best of friends, when I was a boy. Amor would hold great parties and I grew always overhearing my mom and Amor, who is not a Mottley, having long conversations on the phone, as friends do, and they were very close friends, so much so that I came to regard Amor as some kind of mother removed. She was a very loving caring woman, and I suppose she still is today, and what I say is in no means disrespect to her or my mother, to which I have for personal reasons come to a kind of falling out, but this is politics and this is the nation.

That was before my mothers fall from grace, which was just the result of my mother wanting out of some horrible nasty things. Carlton Brathwaithe, who was my mom’s partner, and lived together as man and wife, and through his divorce from his first wife, asked my mother many times to marry him, but she wouldn’t, and who I regarded as a father, is a very amoral man. And this hurts to say from a boy who considered him a father to a man who treated me as a son.

International Day of Climate Action – 10 October 2010

Submitted by Kammie Holder (Project Coordinator for Barbados)

 

10 Persons/ Organisations planting, 10 trees at 10am on the 10th October at Morgan Lewis Hill St Andrew at 10am. Do see www.350.org also we are featured on their homepage. This will also be sent to the United Nations by the 350 Organisation as part of Climate Change Day of Action statement – Click Image to access 350.org website

B-Day for Mia

George Pilgrim, General Secretary, Democratic Labour Party

George Arthur and Owen Payne have been politically reunited to a point where we are not sure which name they carry. We know for sure in that combination there is no love for Mia. No matter how we spin it the results will be the same. If we go Owen Arthur and George Payne it gets worst. We can say that the most defining aspect of the last couple months of  Mia Mottley’s stewardship  was that she has learnt  her lesson.  You can be guaranteed that there will no photos ops with the likes of Payne, Mottely and Arthur. Mottley will seek out the soft political issues and rally her most faithful soldiers ..oops soldier, Cynthia Forde.

On the last weekend of October 2010 Mia will find herself staring  down the face of a political barrel as she attempts to wrestle control of the Party from George Arthur and Owen Payne. These two men from the north understand what politics is all about and intend to deliver lesson 101 in Politics of Survival. We have been reliably informed that the upcoming Annual Conference of the Barbados Labour Party has been dubbed  B Day  in the  political life of the boss lady.   The litmus test regarding leadership will be explored as member after member will voice their disapproval at Mia’s performance by voting with the Coalition  Movement  against  Mia  spear headed by George Arthur and Owen Payne.  It is clear to Northern guys that coalition arrangements have their advantages when the bigger picture is at stake. In this picture there is no room for Mia.

Mia’s attempt to become chairman of the Party is in response to her poor showing at the 2010 Nation Newspaper poll coupled with the fact she has discovered where true political power lies. The Union of the North did not happen by accident. Mia’s strategy over the last two years of criticizing for the sake of criticizing has fallen flat. Over that period her political capital has been eroded and she finds herself having to return to base, the membership.

USA Pushing Legislation To Censor The Internet

If one were to be asked who would want to regulate the Internet, China, Iran or USA, China would be on the tip of the tongue for sure. Recently President Obama in the wake of the China/Google incident called for countries to stop* censoring the Internet. Read the latest:

A new bill being debated this week would have the Attorney General create an Internet blacklist of sites that US Internet providers would be required to block –

Read more about the bill: COICA Fact Sheet

 

Last month Google was convicted of defaming a French computer user after the Internet technology giant linked his name to the word “rapist” in automatic web searches. Usually a cool feature only this time Google got it wrong. Even if Google wins on appeal what is evident is that big foot moves are taking place to regulate the Internet.

BU has always shown a keen interest in matters to do with how the Internet is being regulated. Bear in mind freedom of speech which is facilitated by BU is riding a changing tide.

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Political Happenings Create Strange Bedfellows

Hartley Henry - Principal Political Advisor to the Hon. Prime Minister

It’s a pity all Barbadians could not have been in attendance to hear the argument that broke out in the barbershop last Monday morning. As usual, I was texting away on my Blackberry, therefore it would have appeared to some, that I was not listening. Actually, however, I was making copious notes of the conversation, so I could relive the experience with friends and members of the Under the Microscope family. Space is limited, so, here we go:

Barber No.1 – Boy I see the Big Man reshuffle the Cabinet. What you think about the changes?

Barber No. 2 – I aint see nothing wrong with them, but I don’t like the way that man Estwick behaved.

Barber No. 1 – But that is how he gets on all the time. A big up in the party tell me that is the said same way he behaved last time and the time before. Once he gets move, he does throw a tantrum. I really thought he wasn’t going to accept the position this time around.

Barber No.2 – What freaked me out was that statement he released, talking about how time longer than twine. I find that very offensive, especially when you consider that the Big Man sick. Estwick, as a doctor, should know better! He really made himself look thin skin, uncaring and silly. That statement, as far as I am concerned, was offensive, insulting and in very poor taste.

Barber No. 1 – As far as I am concerned, Thompson should have taken back the offer of a ministry and fired him there and then. There is no way if I was a Prime Minister, a member of my government could talk to me like that. Estwick only risked that because he knows the Prime Minister sick.

Barber No. 2 – Well, I tell my girlfriend when I hear it, that if that was Barrow, Arthur or even Sandiford they would have fired him there and then. There is no way that Errol Barrow or Owen Arthur would have tolerated such nonsense from any member of their government. I remember Owen Arthur, in particular, firing ministers for far less. Owen Arthur would have gotten a letter to the Governor General within minutes of that stupid statement being issued.

 

Opposition Leader Mia Mottley Accused Of Confusing Barbadians, Privatization Will NOT Lead To Advancement Of Political Enfranchisement

Submitted by the People’s Democratic Congress (PDC)

 

Opposition Leader Mia Mottley

The idea that there will be “A New Beginning with Mia – A Chance for Barbados” is such a ludicrous flagrant idea to the PDC that it is not even worth considering on a piece of cheap, dirty foolscap paper. Now, let us a little show, commenters and visitors to BU why this is so.

In her address to the Barbados Chamber of Commerce And Industry recently, Ms. Mia  Mottley did talk, et al, about the Government and the People having to find “new models to fuel our future development” and did talk about this DLP Government continuing “to cling to old models of development that assumes that the its only levers of action are to TAX and SPEND”.

As well,  Ms Mottley spoke about the privatization of certain government controlled assets like that Airport, Seaport, Transport Board, BNOC, so that the process of so-called economic enfranchisement can be engaged – what a dangerous wretched fallacy though.

First, however, Ms Mottley must be told in no uncertain terms that – far from being disposed of under some false notion of economic enfranchisement, where a future PDC Government is concerned, these types of  government assets/businesses are the ones that will NOT ONLY be kept and reformed for national strategic political social reasons, BUT will  ALSO be some of the ones  out of those many  THAT WILL   become or will be wholly owned by a new state  partnership entity – that will be owned by those who are presently employed by the government or that are paid by the government – and  that will have – as one of its principal purposes – the  purpose of helping the government and people of Barbados generate more income.