Story Behind Unity Workers Union

Submitted by GoWEB Caribbean

 

Caswell Franklyn - Head of Unity Workers Union

Over the past few months I have been approached wherever I go by persons who feel that I have somehow let them down by leaving The National Union of Public Workers to form UNITY WORKERS UNION. I hope that the following would clear up the issue.

Sometime ago I was approached by an executive officer of the NUPW, who asked if I would represent one of his relatives since he has no confidence in the ability of the NUPW secretariat to do the job. I eagerly undertook the challenge, and was successful. That officer then asked if I would be interested in returning to the NUPW Staff. I accepted, since worker representation is my preferred employment choice.

It was explained to me that the NUPW was experiencing financial difficulty, and could not pay me the salary that I deserved. I was assured that my salary would be adjusted when the union received a Government-guaranteed loan from the National Insurance Board. As a result, I declined another offer that would have paid me $1200 per month more.

I took up duties on May 19, 2008 as Grievance/Industrial Relations Office on contract for two years, with an option to renew. Initially, I was allowed to work without interference. Eventually, I started to receive suggestions to be less aggressive when representing individual workers because certain Heads of Department were uncomfortable with my style. Over time, those suggestions became requests to do less than my best while conducting a case. Needless to say, I ignored those request and continued to do my best on behalf of NUPW members.

Are Barbadians Educated Fools?

…take health care for instance. We are educated to believe that doctors and prescribed medication help us to get well. Billions of dollars go into this industry. In many cases ailments can a be avoided through diet and lifestyle and there are powerful medicinal properties in substances that are deemed illegal by our lawmakers. We are educated to believe there is no cure for cancer, and will (like a religious zealot) feel that anyone that claims otherwise is a madman … Maat

According to that ubiquitous source Wikipedia, “education in the largest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another.”

The above extracts are instructive in the context of the current debate on whether the government is getting value for money given the significant investment it continues to pump into tertiary education. Some like Professor Michael Howard are of the view that we must be cognizant of the harsh economic conditions, a key consideration in the amount government should transfer to the UWI, Cave Hill. Others believe education must be supported at ‘all cost’ if we are to enable our people to compete on a global scale.

What Is The Law Relating To Registration and Licensing Of Our Tourism Accommodation

Adrian Loveridge - Hotel Owner

For some reason, all the tourism policymakers I have approached have been reluctant to confirm exactly what the law is relating to the registration and licensing of our tourism accommodation.

While researching the mandate of the Barbados Tourism Authority, the body entrusted to regulate the industry, I came up with Chapter 342 of the Laws of Barbados which clearly states under section 25 (1) that ‘No person shall operate any tourist accommodation unless that person first applies for and obtains a licence issued in accordance with the regulations’.

That seems unequivocal and straight forward enough. If the law has been changed and amendments made since this was enacted which significantly changes the rules then please let us know? If they have not, then clearly the law is not being enforced and judging by the increasing number of websites highlighting new accommodation providers which appear almost on a weekly basis, it must be an area of concern.

Perhaps before the internet, unlicensed properties would have gone largely unnoticed, but that has all changed. With travel reference sites like TripAdvisor attracting over 40 million unique visitors per month even properties with 4 or 5 rooms can generate major interest. Many are not registered or licensed at all and some I am told have their application pending but seem to be carrying on business as usual in the meantime.

So why should we be worried?

Pharmaceutical Terrorism: HIV/AIDS Drugs And Profits At Any Cost

Submitted by Terence Blackett

Pharmaceutical terror began in the early half of the 20^th century. “The petrochemical giants organised a coup on the medical research establishments, hospitals and universities. The Rockefellers did this by sponsoring research and donating monetary gifts to US universities and medical schools where research was drug based and further extended this policy to foreign medical establishments via their International Education Board. Those who were not drug based were refused funding and were soon dissolved in favour of the more lucrative pharmaceutical-based projects.”

“In 1939, the ‘Drug Trust’ Alliance was formed by the Rockefeller Empire in concert with I.G. Farben (an Agent of the Rothschild Dynasty). After the war, I.G. Farben was dismantled but later emerged in the many guises of the companies with whom they had signed cartel agreements.”

“These companies include: Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), Borden, Carnation, General Mills, M.W. Kellogg Co., Nestle, Pet Milk, Squibb and Sons, Bristol Meyers, Whitehall laboratories, Procter and Gamble, Roche, Hoechst and BAYER & Co. (two extant pharmaceutical companies who initially employed convicted war criminals Friedrich Jaehne and Fritz ter Meer as board chairmen). The Rockefellers Empire – in tandem with the Chase Manhattan Bank now owns over half of the USA’s pharmaceutical interests and is the largest drug manufacturing combine in the world. Since the war the drug industry has steadily netted an ever increasing profit from sales of drugs to become the second largest manufacturing industry in the world next to the arms industry (also owned by the self same Elite agencies).”

Hallin Marine Sets World Record At Port St Charles!

On January 6th of this year, ocean rowing vessel Hallin Marine, an 6 man rowing trimaran left the Canary Islands for Barbados

Check out all the details HERE.

Oh No Minister Kellman

Denis Kellman, Minister of Environment, Water Resources and Drainage

Here is what is being written on Kammie Holder’s Facebook Page about a speech delivered recently by new Minister of the Environment:

Ministers of governments must do research before just reading any speech prepared for them.  The money we will put in a Waste to Energy plant  can be better utilized in Renewable Energy. Where will the toxic dioxin be dumped and if the scrubbers breakdown? Tell the investor wheel and come again. Bhopal is still fresh in our minds and we will not survive a Dioxin spill or can we afford an accident. Why do we listen to investors who come and talk pretty with the only motive being profit. Enact legislation to encourage persons to sort their garbage and provide incentives for companies to recycle, reuse and reduce. When will our leaders learn?

I have tagged ministers of government past and present, doctors and an undertaker as he can expect more persons to die from cancer if we so foolishly accept a waste to energy plant in Barbados. Let St Lucia brag about been the first at least there a down wind of Barbados

Here is a press release released by Greenpeace in 2004 which appears still to be relevant.

Successive Government Policies Fall Short

Submitted by People’s Democratic Congress (PDC)

Former banker John Beale

Both DLP and BLP Governments have over the years  been pursuing and implementing some very backward and inept fiscal and monetary policies in Barbados. Such policies include but are not limited to evil TAXATION, INTEREST RATES, INSTITUTIONAL REPAYABLE LOANS POLICIES, etc.

And when they have not been doing so, they have been allowing financial institutions operating in Barbados to almost do as they please in regard  of the setting implementing of many disagreeable harmful  financial and fee-setting policies.  Check for supporting evidence of this political indifference, the preposterously absurd, reported utterances by Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler in the Sunday Sun, of February 6, 2011 – “Personally, I think bank fees are too high and I think they can modulate them a bit more,” and the following non sequiter : “that government was not in a position to TELL BANKS WHAT TO DO AND COULD ONLY USE MORAL SUASION” – What an outright political joker for a Minister of Finance of Barbados,  and for  a Legislator representing many poor people in the St. Michael North West Constituency who have themselves been suffering from the onerously diabolical  effects of such financial policies.

However, the sum total of such immoral and vile fiscal monetary policies is that both the government and financial sectors in Barbados have been  the ones primarily putting the country into the goring dilemmical horns  of a most horrendous development crisis from which the country may never ever recover fully, and have been the ones who have been mostly involved in putting Barbados deeper and deeper into  this present political economic depression – which itself has been realizing thousands upon thousands of  people being laid off; hundreds of esp. small businesses being closed down or downsized; many Barbadian souls being forced to drastically lower their standards of living; many ordinary Barbadians losing hope for a brighter better Barbados in the long run; and increasing levels of criminal violence being meted out by fellow human beings towards one another.

The facts of the matter is that this developmental crisis and this depression would have been avoided if the government and financial sectors of this country had long been demonstrating sound and decisive intellectual and political leadership, and had in turn been making sure that this type of  leadership was objectively seen by the average citizen as a point of departure away from the gross and reckless governmental mismanagement of the recent past, towards efforts at realizing the overall greater  long term  functioning and development of these sectors and the wider country.

A Pact With The Devil? The United States And The Fate Of Modern Haiti

Reproduced from Origins Website, by Leslie Alexander

 

Haiti's National Palace, the president's official residence, stands in ruins following the January 12, 2010 earthquake. The palace symbolizes a tumultuous history, in which Haitians won independence and freedom from slavery in 1804 only to suffer continuing diplomatic isolation, debt, foreign occupation, and political turmoil. Eventually completed under U.S. occupation, its construction in 1914 followed the destruction of two previous residences at the site.(Logan Abassi/UNDP Global)

One year ago, on January 12, 2010, a devastating earthquake struck the island nation of Haiti. The following day, as tens of thousands of the dead and dying lay beneath the rubble and remains of their homes and communities, American televangelist Pat Robertson stated that the earthquake occurred because Haiti and its people are cursed. The curse, he claimed, was the result of a “pact” that the Haitian people made with the Devil centuries ago to gain their freedom from the French.

At the same time, other news outlets were reporting on the extreme poverty in Haiti. The mantra that “Haiti is the poorest country in the Western hemisphere” was repeated incessantly, by nearly every media source, until it started to sound both like a chant and an accusation, rather than a statement of fact.

And then, just two weeks after the earthquake, a blog posting appeared, in which the author proudly declared that he had not (and would not) donate a single penny to Haitian relief because, as he put it, why should he give money to people “who got themselves in such a predicament in the first place?”

He further argued that the lack of economic resources and infrastructure—and the failure of the Haitian government to adequately respond—were an indication of the fact that Haitian people could not be trusted to take good care of themselves. So why, he wondered, should he give such people any of his money?

The blog took the internet by storm; it was splashed across the news, and the blogger, Paul Shirley, a former NBA basketball player and ESPN commentator, was later fired by ESPN for his comments.

However inaccurate or inhumane, each of these comments—Pat Robertson’s veiled reference to the Haitian revolution, the mantra about Haiti’s poverty, and the blogger’s frustration with Haiti’s internal problems—represent the most powerful and widespread beliefs about Haiti.

Questions Asked Of AIRONE’s REDjet

Submitted by Mr. Thompson

 

What’s really the objectives behind the proposed Airone/Redjet low cost airline.

Questions:

• Is it practical to operate MD82, old generation, aircraft on a 15 minute route structure ?
• Are $9.99Bds fares realistic or practical ?
• Can REDJET compete with the heavily subsidized LIAT ?
• Will the FAA grant the airline access to the proposed USA market ?
• Why did Jamaican Government not allow Airone to set up operations in Jamaica ?
• Who is the major Barbadian investor listed in the USA Exception Application ?
• Does Barbados Government Civil Aviation organization have the expertise, experience, regulations etc. to approve, monitor and regulate a heavy commercial passenger carrier ?
• Are two proposed aircraft sufficient to operate an on time scheduled passenger service considering weather, mechanicals, maintenance etc. ?
• What Liability Insurance has Barbados demanded of RedJet ?

The above questions cause me some concern; as the saying goes –

if it looks to good to be true then it probably is.

CARIBBEAN STOCK REPORT 31 January to 4 February 2011

Compiled by the Department of Management Studies, UWI, Cave Hill - Click image to read report