Banks Beer Branded ‘Caribbean Lager’ In Sweden

Submitted by Andrew Nehaul

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Imagine my welcome surprise to go into the Systembolaget in Sweden (Liquor store) today to find Banks beer on the shelf. This welcome was not long lived when I read on the bottle “Caribbean Lager”, in fact practically nowhere could one find the word BARBADOS or that it came from the great island of Barbados.

The only reference to this was at the back in small print where it said Banks Holdings (Barbados) Ltd. Does Banks think that they will capture more market share by using the words Caribbean instead of Barbados?

REDjet Sabotaged By Caricom: The Big Two Jamaica And Trinidad

Two events occurred in the news this week which confirmed to BU that Caricom is in a coma. A mini-Caricom summit held in Guyana saw four heads absent, Prime Minister of Trinidad among them. In the obligatory end of summit communiqué which nobody reads except Rickey Singh, the heads advised the world implementation of a common currency would be further delayed until a review of the Guyana-based Caricom Secretariat. Have to admit the decision was a surprise, in fact the Caribbean is still in shock!

The other happening was REDjet’s decision to cancel plans to fly the Trinidad and Jamaica air routes. It is no secret both Jamaica and Trinidad have frustrated REDjet’s application to operate its low-cost airline between Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Jamaica. Barbados and Guyana gave the all clear to REDjet about a month ago.

About Economic and GDP Growth

Submitted by Looking Glass

IMF Headquarters

We seldom look beyond our particular opinions, goals, beliefs or those of significant others to the context in which they have meaning and reflect the true state of affairs. All too often fabrication and criticism of reality is accepted as fact. There is no reason for the IMF or the Central Bank to fabricate our GDP growth. Increases in some of the GDP components such as taxes, Vat, construction (Pickering, Merricks, Four Seasons) house sales and loans (borrowed funds) may well be enough to generate the 2% GDP growth

IMF first became ‘involved’ in Barbados in 1991, discovered the loans to some of the regime to build homes were written off and has been ‘resident’ ever since, but prior to 2007 got little mention. In fact we were told that the IMF had been asked to leave (Nation 5/8.2006). Given the pre 2007 IMF comments about the economy under the BLP, it is hardly surprising that Lord Arthur and company would find it necessary to criticize the Central Bank and the IMF observation about growth. That a government who inherited an empty bucket was able to generate growth is a big slap in the face. Criticism for criticism sake or political purposes is not symbolic of virtue and does more harm than good.

The Central Bank not the PM or his cronies formulate/determine the GDP and notify the government who in turn apprise the people. In 1991 and again in 1993 we were told the GDP grew by 1% when if fact it had declined. Ask why the Governor resigned.

Baird’s Village Aquaponics Project, A Case Study For Homegrown Success

Submitted by Ready Done

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Baird's Village Aquaponics

Many of us are of the opinion that our little island is in need of good leaders (not saying we don’t currently have any). The Barrows and Adams type leaders who had a clear vision and the will power to give us what was needed for 50 years and even beyond. Our new leaders have so many problems on their plates I can understand why it seems as though there is no medium term plan. This makes it imperative that each of us do more to guide this island in the right direction and not leave such a heavy work load on our leaders.

Looking at the most advanced societies and economies worldwide to see what we can aspire to be, we see they are mostly industrial. Unfortunately Barbados cannot be an industrial based economy because of the obvious lack of natural resources and our small size. What we need is to look forward to a post-industrial type society. In my recent quest to get a glimpse of this almost “utopian” world of what Barbados could be, I came across Ivan Illich. In his work he refers to the concept of a convivial society and explained in some detail the prospects of what the next level of society can look like. Such a type of thinking is based on a Euro-centric view but can apply to Barbados in my opinion.

We are hearing a constant call for more small businesses to be established and greater innovation shown. Our leaders recognise the need to harness the people talent/power to make this an efficient society.

CARIBBEAN STOCK REPORT 23 May to 27, 2011

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

Protecting Our Youth From Adults

Barbados Underground is committed to cover issues which often escape the full attention of traditional media. It is a nasty job when one has to peer at the underbelly of anything on a frequent basis. One of the negatives emanating from what we do is the tendency to get bog down by all that ails Barbados and the world.  To be honest members of the BU household get depress sometimes when we have to update the blog with some of the content. The worst feeling we get is when we have to write negatively about issues affecting young people.  This blog is one of the hardest we have had to produce to date.

At a recent youth forum in Barbados BU was made privy to some of the conversations between the parties. For obvious reasons we have sanitized the exchanges to protect the first, second and third formers who participated many who wear the label of problem children. The forum discussed teen pregnancy.

One of the second formers described how she and her sisters participate in sex with grown men. The men contributed to the household. One can draw their own conclusions. In another case a third form student spoke to the relationship which her friend has with a 39 year old married man. Money is exchanged with the full knowledge of her parents.

Israel’s Right To Defend Its 1967 Borders

Submitted by Charles Knighton

The editorial in the Nation of May 25th What shall become of the Palestinians reaches the conclusion that “all this talk of peace in the Middle East for over 30 years is nothing more than a sham“, laying blame for this state of affairs solely on Israel’s refusal to withdraw to its 1967 borders, borders which Israel asserts would invite attack from its Arab neighbours. Your editorial [Nation] suggests Israel has conjured up this rationale from whole cloth, as its true motivation is to maintain control of the fertile Jordan Valley.

The 1967 borders are essentially the same borders mandated by the United Nations with the creation of the Jewish state in 1948.  From 1948 to 1967 Israel was set upon by Arab armies, each time repulsing these onslaughts while maintaining their precarious but legally mandated borders. Had that been the end of the Arab aggressions not only against Israel but a United Nations mandate as well, the currently contested lands would have remained under Arab control, including the fertile Jordan Valley.

A Feast Of Blood For NATO Last Night

Cynthia McKinney, in Tripoli (Repost)

 While serving on the House International Relations Committee from 1993 to 2003, it became clear to me that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was an anachronism.  Founded in 1945 at the end of World War II, NATO was founded by the United States in response to the Soviet Union’s survival as a Communist state.  NATO was the U.S. insurance policy that capitalist ownership and domination of European, Asian, and African economies would continue.  This also would ensure the survival of the then-extant global apartheid.

NATO is a collective security pact wherein member states pledge that an attack upon one is an attack against all.  Therefore, should the Soviet Union have attacked any European Member State, the United States military shield would be activated.  The Soviet Response was the Warsaw Pact that maintained a “cordon sanitaire” around the Russian Heartland should NATO ever attack.  Thus, the world was broken into blocs which gave rise to the “Cold War.”

Avowed “Cold Warriors” of today still view the world in these terms and, unfortunately, cannot move past Communist China and an amputated Soviet Empire as enemy states of the U.S. whose moves any where on the planet are to be contested.  The collapse of the Soviet Union provided an accelerated opportunity to exert U.S. hegemony in an area of previous Russian influence.  Africa and the Eurasian landmass containing former Soviet satellite states and Afghanistan and Pakistan along with the many other “stans” of the region, have always factored prominently in the theories of “containment” or “rollback” guiding U.S. policy up to today.

The Day STARCOM Kicked Christians In The Hiney

Vic Fernandes - CEO Starcom

The Christian right (also known as the religious right and the evangelical bloc) is a term used predominantly in the United States of America to describe a spectrum of right-wing Christian political and social movements and organizations characterized by their strong support of conservative…

…Wikipedia

The Christian Right in the United States is known for its strong lobby to support public policies it views as being social conservative. Remember the name Jerry Falwell? There is also a strong Christian lobby in Australia and recognition of a growing Christian Right in Canada. One cannot help to envy the ease which people organize in those countries to promote common interest.

Last week in Barbados a raging debate was stoked by the controversial Anglican Reverend Charles Morris who asserted that no where does the bible address the issue of pre-marital sex. The hailstorm of opinions and analyses but moreso condemnation by Christians which followed his comment signalled to many that Barbados is indeed a Christian society, or regards itself to be. The normally taciturn Right Reverend Bishop John Holder was provoked to deliver a rebuke from the pulpit to Reverend Charles. We should expect that Reverend Charles will remain a priest who is unassigned a Church to pastor for a little while longer.

Filtering Truth From Fact About The Performance Of The Barbados Economy

Governor of the Central Bank Dr. Delisle Worrell

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently released a statement on the Barbados economy which has caused some Barbadians to sigh with relief. Central Bank Governor Delisle Worrell was also also full of glad tiding in April when he forecast the economy to grow 2% during his Review of Barbados’ Economy for the First Three Months of 2011. Why is BU not as optimistic?

Is it not ironic suggesting growth for an economy which relies heavily on that of the United States? The US legislature is currently debating whether to raise its debt ceiling to 16 trillion dollars!   Following close behind the US is the UK government  who has committed to cut 600,000 government workers over a three year period. How can we be so confident about growth when the two main markets we rely on for inflows of tourist, foreign direct investment and remittances continue to struggle? What growth the US has managed to achieve in the last year is what the economists refer to as jobless growth.

Given the prevailing economic uncertainty one might have reasonably expected our intellectual cadre of professors at Cave Hill,  to have come to the assistance of ordinary Barbadians, and provide an unbiased and reasoned interventions to demystify the economic gobbledygook we are being fed. No such luck. Instead what we have had to ‘processed’ is an attack on the credibility of the information presented by the Central Bank of Barbados in its periodic updates  to the nation. The Central Bank of Barbados has always held the respect of both sides of the political spectrum in Barbados. This is our first recollection of any Governor of the Central Bank attracting the kind of attack delivered with the fierceness as we are witnessing from former Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition Owen Arthur and former Central Banker, economist and Arthur’ s right hand man Clyde Mascoll. They have both vehemently dismissed the view posited by Governor Worrell that the economy has grown.