Trading Black Africans

Submitted by The Peoples Democratic Congress

Beginning in the 15th Century and continuing right through until about the mid 19th Century, both the system of Europeans, on one hand, and Africans, on the other hand, so-called trading in Africans on African territories, and the system whereby thereafter these Africans were taken hold of by the Europeans and brutally inhumanly enslaved in various parts of this Western World,  were representative of the most sordid cruel mechanisms ever set in motion in the history of humankind.

But, notwithstanding, the false, crude, racist, inhuman, and violent bases upon which these systems were created and carried out, the fact is that they were bound to come to an end within some eons of their establishment; thankfully, as a result of the many respective (un)foreseen, unprofitable, destabilizing aspects involving them and that had been enveloping other extant systems too.

At the same time, they were bound to be replaced by other evil politically constraining, income generating social systems!!

What has therefore been significant in the PDC’s pointing to the inevitability of the collapse of those systems and their replacements with other evil systems has been that at the core of what had for a long time been operating the system of Europeans and Africans so-called trading in Africans, and that at the core of what had for a longer period been operating the system of Europeans enslaving Africans, were the constant and recurring patterns of landed, trade, material, political, social relationships – which surrounded the enslavers and enslaved at the time, but that which nevertheless were bound to in the long run lose momentum and direction, and which were also bound to reproduce, thankfully, less and less in material, financial and social terms, in so far as to have helped make those evil systems unsustainable – rather than viable – in the long term (See the late Dr. Eric William’s thesis in Capitalism and Slavery for supporting references).

Dr. Brian Francis, Economic Advisor To Leader Of The Opposition

Dr Brian Francis: Photo Credit Nation

BU has led the call for academics on the ‘Hill’ to speak out on the many issues which are at play in our society. The challenge it seems is that many of them can be tarred by a political brush if we are to judge by their public offerings. What purpose is learning if it cannot be shared dispassionately to enrich the human space we occupy?

Recently Dr. Brian Francis, a lecturer at Cave Hill, UWI, generated a furious debate triggered by a post-Budget discussion, when he ‘knocked’ the recent budget delivered by Minister of Finance Sinckler. Again BU was forced to ask – was Francis providing analysis as an economist or a partisan leaning academic?

The attached document titled The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Departmental Reports 2009 – 2010 on  page 148 lists Dr. Brian Francis as a Member,  Economic Advisory Team to the Leader of the Opposition, Barbados. Readers are free to draw their own conclusions when perusing or listening to Dr. Francis’ analyses. All the public require is transparency.

Minister Ronald Jones Sagging Under The Weight Of Two Hats – What Human Development Strategy What!?!

Minister of Education and Human Resource, Ronald Jones

… AND WHEREAS this Human Resource Development strategy is aimed at empowering citizens to actively contribute to sustainable growth and development in a dynamic, global and competitive economy’…

Human Resource Development Strategy 2011-2016

We live in what is described as an increasingly global competitive economy which makes a tiny country like Barbados – with scare natural resources – very vulnerable to what economists delight in describing as exogenous shocks. To maintain our standard of living which strives on consumption expenditure, there is consensus we will have to rely on services for the foreseeable future; until Barbados is able to discover black gold or other eureka finds to reduce reliance on tourism and international business.

Singapore is held up as the model for service-based economies. The efficiency of its civil and private sectors along with the ancillary services is a key attribute to the competitive advantage Singapore has built over time. We must be honest and recognize that the discipline which exist for Singapore to achieve what it has is derived from a command and control approach operating in a ‘dictatorship-like’ system. If Barbados is to be able to compete draconian changes will be required both in the public and private sectors to improve efficiencies.

A Call To Arms: Should The Church Play A "Bigger" Part In Influencing Barbados’ Society

Submitted by Yardbroom

It Is best being clear at the outset, to prevent unnecessary distraction and diversion into non-productive debates leading into cul-de-sacs.  There are people – of sober mind and disposition – who do not believe in the Bible and what it teaches.  Some boldly say they are not Christian.  Many others have no interest of any kind in Religion and even think it is not a force for good in the world.

This submission is not a vehicle to facilitate an argument to the above views, as I am aware logic “however” arrived at is limited in changing a belief system.  However, it is a fact that a major section of Barbados society is Christian or go to church regularly and have religious beliefs, even if tenuous.

“Protestant 63.4% (Anglican 28.3%, Pentecostal 18.7%, Methodist 5.1%. other 11.3%) Romam Catholic 4.2%, other Christian 7%, other 4.8%, none or unspecified 20.6%”

Source: Religious Statistics

You cannot change a society by “ignoring” the belief systems of a major section of that society, it is that which has led me to pose the question in this submission.

Doctors On The Take

Barbadian expectations were raised when the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) switched from being a department of government in 2002 to being run by a statutory board. We were convinced by the then government that the autonomy of a board was just what the doctor ordered for the QEH.

Successive governments have had to battle many challenges when asked to manage our premiere health institution.   To read the full-page ad which was placed by BAMP in the weekend newspapers detailing yet another conflict with the Board of the QEH would not have registered on the cognitive index of the vast majority of Barbadians. We have come to expect it. One is left to wonder why the industrial relations climate at the QEH always seem to ring of a discordant note.

Based on what BU has observed over the years the problems at the QEH are many and solutions difficult. The question which has to be asked is whether healthcare delivery is now being compromised as a result of unresolved issues between doctors and Board which have been outstanding for too long. BU’s sense is that there is a hardening of positions at the QEH. According to our sources the junior doctors especially are being asked to work extremely long hours which means there is no work life balance and a 12 hour day is not uncommon.  A spirit of cooperation which was part of a now distant culture has reversed to the detriment of the patient. As if this isn’t enough some in the know believe the quality of Interns entering the QEH in recent times is inferior compared to that of old.

Barbados has always prided itself on its standard of healthcare delivery, the unsettled industrial climate at the QEH over time is beginning to undermine it all.

Government Waives Land Tax For Cruising Club

Caswell Franklyn, Head of Unity Workers Union

By a notice published as S.I. 2011 No. 88 in the Official Gazette of July 28, 2011, the Minister of Finance waived the payment of LAND TAX by the Barbados Cruising Club for a nineteen-year period April 1, 1992 to March 31, 2011. The Minister forgave the payment of $125, 871.06.

I do not pretend to understand these weighty matters of state, and I am not questioning the Minister’s right to grant exemptions from the payment of land tax or any other tax. He has that right under the provisions of the Duties, Taxes and Other Payments (Exemption) Act, Chapter 67B of the Laws of Barbados. My concern is that while Government is squeezing every last cent out of the average Barbadian, why would it forgive the payment of land tax to people who can afford to own yachts and cruise as a hobby?

As I understand it, Government leased land to the Barbados Cruising Club to use for their members’ recreation. For the period of the lease the club should have been paying land tax on the property. They failed to do so. Rather than ensure compliance with the provisions of the Land Tax Act, and make sure that the country gets the much needed revenue, the Minister of Finance forgave the tax.

Zimbabwe: Spirited Back To Colonial Slavery

Reproduced from The Herald

Gaddafi meeting Obama

Africa has haplessly watched the insanity of NATO in Libya, the AU has passively watched French and English military jets being used as the air force for the rag tag rebels in Libya, and today Africa listens attentively as Westerners say they want to bring humanitarian aid to Libya, a country that owes no debt to anyone, a country whose US$70 billion has been illegally confiscated by Western powers, indeed a country that has been the AU’s major funder for years.

This writer broke in tears listening to a rebel in Libya saying “we built this entire infrastructure with Gaddafi, and we will build it again. We are capable of building our country.” He had been asked by a journalist why he was wantonly shooting at buildings and smashing windows. To me this was a sad sight of a young African being spirited back to colonial domination, being used by Western powers to destroy what took forty years for Libya to build, and totally lacking consciousness over the meaning of national independence.

We have a sad reality where the destructive acts of Libyan rebels are celebrated as freedom fighting; while we are told to ignore the threat the continent is facing by allowing Western war planes to rampage our cities at will. I feel so powerless to stop it, yet so powerful to fight it all. This is a time when one feels like doing anything possible to hit back, anything thinkable or imaginable. This aggression by Westerners can be for long but it won’t be forever. The current African Union is a bunch of cowardly bucolic boofheads totally mesmerised by Western donor funding. They look pretty scared as they seem all determined to avoid angering the Westerners. What an unthinking lot of hopeless traitors!

The Origin of Life: Can Theories Like Abiogenesis, Exogenesis, Quantum Mechanics & Stellar Nucleosynthesis Help In The Debate Between Creationism And Evolutionary Science?

Submitted by Terence Blackett

Charles Darwin

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth – Gen. 1:1

Who holds the “patent” on the things we see all around us in nature? How do we explain that it takes an estimated 100,000 different proteins to construct a human being? Is that the product of accident, chance or randomization – or does it spell Intelligent Design? For many, the origin of how life emerged remains one of the great unsolved mysteries and conundrums for both ancient and modern science.

It is recognized that the subject of this current piece is beyond the gamut of unlimited word count to do it any serious scholarship – however as this is a galvanizing issue and feelings run deep on both sides of the divide, we will attempt to do some form of interim justice given our lack of brevity. For although questions regarding the genesis of life remain a talking-point even within the realm of philosophy – religion (understandably) dominates this platform; yet science continues to hold its own in keeping the debate alive.

So how can concepts like ‘abiogenesis’, ‘exogenesis’, ‘quantum mechanics’ and ‘stellar nucleosynthesis’ assist us in making sense of our primordial quest for understanding?

Let us begin in 1870 where Thomas Huxley opined that “I shall call the…doctrine that living matter may be produced by not living matter, the hypothesis of abiogenesis…” This was a paleoanthropological echo from a not too distant past when Charles Darwin had chained himself to the Tower of Babel in defense that there was no GOD* and in turn hatched a lurid tales of spontaneous regeneration of biological organisms which metamorphosed over billions of years to eventual form all living things including man.

Author Timothy Aldred Claims The Bible Is Rubbish And Has Dumbed Down The Black Race

Caribbean Radio Show interviewing Timothy Aldred on his new book

Some on BU will find this blog distasteful, you are cautioned that the video is not complimentary of the Bible and religion. In fact the author Timothy Aldred of the book BAMBOOZLED! refers to the Bible as rubbish which should be tossed into the garbage.

It is no secret BU has led discussion on religious subjects in the Barbados space sometimes with emotional effect. We have some individuals who have stopped posting on BU because of opinions and perspectives shared about religion. Those of us with commonsense know that believing in whoever God is a leap of faith and using logic to justify a position is illogical.

Believe in what Deity tickles your fancy and to hell with whoever thinks otherwise!

Building A Relevant Education System Otherwise On In Life ‘You Gine Ketch Red Hell’

Ronald Jones, Minister of Education and Human Resource also wears the hat of President of the Barbados Football Association

The Michaelmas School Term begins tomorrow and will mean different things to different people. For many Barbadians it will mean leaving home one hour earlier than they have been for the past 8 weeks or so because  traffic woes will revert to causing a migraine.

For BU it will make a concern we have had for about the last 5 years more acute. While many have been focussing on the scarcity of males in the present school system which many attribute to the boys in crisis state. There is another concern that many of our experienced teachers, both male and female, have been making an earlier than planned exit from the teaching service.

It is noteworthy that the Human Resource Development Bill is before the Senate at this time. There has been no strident discussion on the need to strengthened that most noble of professions to date that we are aware. Perhaps this places the issue in its proper perspective. If the government is not making this a priory matter, why should the people care? Then again the government is suppose to serve the people so does it mean the people do not care? A worrying dilemma for a society which has used education as a vehicle for social and economic advancement.