The Recent UK Riots: A Different Perspective

Submitted by Yardbroom

Mark Duggan - Photo Credit: UK Guardian

A 29 year old black man Mark Duggan travelling in a mini cab was stopped by the Police in Tottenham.  In the ensuing confrontation Duggan was shot by a member of the Metropolitan’s Police CO 19 Unit.  This incident is being investigated by the IPCC (Independent Police Complaints Commission) but there are allegations that a weapon converted to fire live ammunition was found in the mini cab.

As is often the case rumours spread quickly; however Duggan’s family decided that adequate information was not forthcoming from the police and a march was organized.  Within this peaceful march, elements of society who consider themselves disadvantaged decided to confront the police. It should be said at the outset that the family of Mark Duggan have condemned the subsequent riots as has the black Tottenham member of Parliament David Lammy who appealed for calm.

Over a period of four days riots spread across the UK, where young people hoodie attired and faces covered, broke into properties, stole goods, burnt buildings to the ground and there were the inevitable fatalities.  The resultant court appearances confirms the fact that both white and black were involved in the riots and theft in the main, were in areas with  sizeable black populations.

Why the confrontations with the police?

The Biggest Lies Ever Told By POLITICIANS And CHRISTIANS (1)

Submitted by Pachamama

In circumstances where some have seen the limits to all civilizations on earth and are seeking other places to inhabit, it may be helpful to reflect on the fundamental contributing factors that have led us to this point and to make rough assessments about some of the possible causative reasons we could be at this point. In this process we must, for a brief moment at least, make broad judgments about what is true and what is false within the tapestry of lies in which we live.

How many truths are there and what ends do they serve? What are the general behaviors of truths? Of course, central to this discussion must be the proposition that there is some kind of creative master planner directing all things or whether a firm reliance of science provides a better range of truths. As we polarize these issues we will, of course, ignore the postulations that some type of middle ground exists?

The leading Republican contenders for its party’s nomination proffer a Christian-Zionist fundamentalism that is not dissimilar to that espoused by the Taliban or the other Salafist elements of Islam. And yet ultra-conservative Christian dispensationalists are given the ‘respectability’ of being on corporate media, the generalized pretence that what they are saying is rooted in fact and a presumption that they are directed by some supernatural being whose existence is at best dubious and is not appreciated by the majority of their audience. It goes further than that. Globally, about one billion people call themselves Christians. Another one and a half billion people call themselves Muslims and the list of ‘faiths’ goes on and on.

The BLP Also Lost On The Facts

Submitted by Old School

Minister of Finance, Chris Sinckler (l) Opposition Leader, Owen Arthur (c) Clyde Mascoll, BLP Spokesman on economic matters (r)

1. Mascoll and Arthur made much of the fact that there was a difference between nominal and real GDP growth in 2010 and that the Central Bank was hiding the true picture.  Sinckler pointed out that it had happened in 2003 as well and there was no contradiction from Owen.
2. Mascoll kept claiming that a major cause of the fiscal deficit was not the global recession but the DLP padding the public sector payroll.  He claimed the DLP had added about 4 or 5 thousand to the payroll since 2008, we now find out that is far from correct.  Instead of the 34,000 public servants claimed by Mascoll we find out we have less than 28,000.
3. Owen made much of the fact that even though there was a global recession and we would be affected, that due to poor DLP management, Bim was falling behind its peers and was ranked 197 out of 217.   We found out that the same ranking of countries in 2002 had Bim at 181 out of 191, during a far milder recession than the current one.
4. For me the ability of Owen and Clyde to portray themselves as Trained Economists espousing purely economic views based on their training has been shattered.

I had also begun to think that the DLP was not well placed to manage the economy during a crisis time.  However, the facts seem to suggest to me that the economic outcomes are not that different from the last recession in 2001/2002 when the BLP were in charge.

CARIBBEAN STOCK REPORT 8 August to 12 August 2011

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

Did Gline Clarke Make A Racist Statement?

Mindful of all these opportunities, and as part of Government‟s programme to diversify its economic sectors to assist in further GDP development, we have decided to partner with authorities in the motor racing sector to set out a programme for the further development of the sport in Barbados.

To this end, Government will shortly approve an agreement to lease the Bushy Park Facility to the Barbados Rally Club to facilitate a full upgrade of the race track and adjoining facilities to international racing standards. Resources for this upgrade work are expected to come in part from the International Racing Federation (FIA). It is my understanding that Barbados is already the first country to have taken advantage of the FIA Institute‟s grant for facility development funding to improve race track facilities.

Extracted from the Financial Statement and Budgetary Proposal for 2011

The above government proposal was listed in the just concluded budget presentation to which Gline Clarke, the member of parliament for St. George North had a surprising reaction which has evoked public comment. Clarke’s comment forced his colleague George Payne MP to issue an apology on behalf of the Barbados Labour Party. Tiredness was cited as the reason for the comment by Clarke .

Listen and be the judge.

Barbados Budget 2011 – Feedback

Chris Sinckler, Minister of Finance

The government delivered the much anticipated Financial and Budgetary Proposal for 2011. The unprecedented financial support to the cultural industry in the amount of 50 millions dollars financed over fiver years, and the commitment to integrating an alternative energy solution are the notable deliverables.

We are told it is a tax free budget.

• Read full text of Budget 2011

Why Is World Crude Oil Price Decreasing While Gas at The Pump In Barbados Is Increasing?

BU’s position regarding Barbados’ heavy reliance on fossil fuel generation has been articulated several times. The fact that successive governments have demonstrated a high level of ignorance by not prioritizing an alternative energy policy belies our boast of being a highly educated nation.  If it is one thing we have become good at in recent years is finding reasons not to get up from our tailbones and find solutions to problems. We have become intoxicated by the good life; however such is defined.

One issue which has been raised since this DLP government assumed office is the price mechanism used to determine energy prices. Barbadians have been informed by the government that the policy of the previous BLP government of subsidizing the energy price was unsustainable and that the Barbados National Oil Company (BNOC) had become technically insolvent as a result. We have had to take the word of our policymakers because empirical information has never been made public as far as BU is aware.

The wall of silence which has surrounded the issue of how government price energy is compounded by the not insignificant electricity bills which consumers have been receiving from the Barbados Light & Power (BLP) in recent months. The public outcry has forced the reclusive Sir Neville Nicholls, head of the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) to defend a recent decision by the FTC to give BLP a 10% return on its rate base. The revelation that BL&P generated 45 million dollars in profit has not helped to placate Barbadians labouring under the prevailing hard economic times.

The question which has piqued the curiosity of many Barbadians is why has the energy price in Barbados been rising when crude oil price on the world market has been decreasing?

Selective Denial

Submitted by Adrian Loveridge

Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin

I listened very carefully to the media conference hosted by the Commissioner of Police yesterday, both live on radio and later carried by CBC television. The COP choose for some obscure reason to seize on part of an online press article that I contributed to some days ago, where I mentioned the high cost of security ($60,000 to $80,000 annually) for our small hotel.

The Commissioner sadly avoided all our other concerns regarding the escalating level of violent crime against our guests and those of neighbouring accommodation providers in the Long Beach, Inch Marlow and Silver Sands area. Neither did he comment on the near two years of emails, faxes and letters literally begging for increased police patrols prior to the death of Canadian Terry Schwarzfeld and why these were never answered or responded to.

Of course, we were not surprised by the lack of response, especially after repeated death and rape threats against myself and wife and suspected arson attacks were never satisfactorily investigated, despite overwhelming evidence of the source. Was this source ever even interviewed?

Proving The Case: A Non Toxic Approach To Curing Cancer

Is It Time To Sell Your Ass?

The uncertainty which has engulfed global economies, especially the USA, continues to provoke anxiety among Barbadians. The USA is acknowledged as the world’s largest economy and this makes Barbados most vulnerable given the Barbados dollar peg to the US dollar and its importance as a source market for tourists, remittances and foreign direct investment. There is so much commentary about the prescriptions required to stabilize the local economy it must be difficult for the regular man to understand it all.

In the USA there is the startling statistic that the gap between the über rich and everyone else is growing or as former “President George W. Bush once quipped at a swanky campaign dinner, “the haves and the have-mores.”  In a nutshell while 90% of Americans have had to endure flat incomes over the last 10 years, the top 10 percent or the super-rich have suffered no such problem. Here is what a CNN report revealed: In 2009, the richest 10% of Americans accounted for about half the nation’s wealth. Narrow that focus a bit further, and the trend is even more alarming. The top 0.1% — those who make at least $2 million each year — controlled 10% of the economy. This is a nasty revelation.

It is important to shatter a myth which many Barbadians and others have about the economic sustainability of the US lifestyle model which is built on consumption behaviour. The middleclass in the USA for example owes a great debt of gratitude to easy access to credit which readily feeds its insatiable desire for consumer durables. The  adjunct to the argument has been the fickle architecture of the US housing market which the current recession has decimated and exposed the DDD -/+  personal financial positions which before the recession were masquerading as BBB-/+ and upwards.