Notes From a Native Son: What Lessons Barbados Can Learn from the Cyprus Debacle

Hal Austin

Introduction:
As the dark clouds gather over Cyprus, the mini-state which accounts for 0.2 per cent of the eurozone, but which looks as if it is going to unleash the greatest financial bombshell to hit the euro-member states in its history. Cyprus is a classic example of a small island economy trying to punch above its weight (many of us may remember Iceland and even Ireland, part of a small island, as other examples) and which eventually stepped on a financial banana skin.

Basically, ignoring for the time being the German bullying of Southern European states, allowing a single product or service to dominate an economy is highly risky which is more so if those  responsible for monetary policy do not put aside something in the good times for the inevitable rainy days. In the case of Cyprus, the central bank authorities and politicians clearly thought that being an offshore financial centre was enough to build its citizens prosperity. However, offshore banking is not a development model, but rather a quick and easy way of making money with eyes half opened.

For good examples of this, just take a close look at Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and a number of American states. Given this, it was clear, even to Cypriot banking officials, that the 20000 wealthy Russians who chose to settle in the small, troubled Mediterranean island and bring with them Euros20bn, were not there for the weather. Neither are the Lebanese, Israelis, and numerous Northern European expatriates.

Hugo Chavez Dead at 58

President Hugo Chavez dead at 58

President Hugo Chavez succumbed to his battle with cancer today. His legacy will be remembered by Barbadians for an anti-American foreign policy posture and in our backyard the Petrocaribe agreement which many Caribbean islands signed are signatories.

What is the implication for Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean.

Relevant Link: Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez dead at 58

Petrus Romanus Prophecy; Will The Next Pope Lead To The Apocalypse?

The following by Charles Poladian is reproduced from the International Business Times

Sudden resignation of Pope Benedict XVI

With the surprising and sudden resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, a new pontiff will soon be elected. According to the “Petrus Romanus” prophecy, this pope will be the last and will bring the destruction of Rome as well as the apocalypse.

St. Malachy, a bishop, went to Rome at the request of Pope Innocent II in 1139, according to Catholic-Pages.com. St. Malachy received a vision that outlined a list of 112 popes, starting with Celestine II, who succeeded Innocent, and the last pope, Petrus Romanus, would signal the destruction of Rome as well as the end of the world. The Prophecy of St. Malachy was discovered and published by historian Arnold de Wyon in 1595. Wyon discovered the manuscript in Roman archives.

St. Malachy’s list did not outright spell out the name of each of the 112 popes. Instead, each pope was described in a Latin phrase. These phrases describe a certain feature and are vague, which leads to plenty of interpretation. The last two popes, Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, number 110 and 111 in the Prophecy of St. Malachy, are described as “De labore Soli” or “From the labor of the sun” and “Gloria Olivae” or “Glory of the Olive,” notes Catholic-Pages.com.

Harlequin CONCESSIONS?

Submitted by Check-This-Out

Dave Ames, Chairman of Harlequin

Just came across an article dated November 17, 2011 in Caribbean 360. The following is from the article “Harlequin Hotels restarts Barbados development amid fraud claims”

“Commenting on the developments Ames said, “It is fantastic to have both sites moving ahead quickly now. We are very committed to continued significant investment in Barbados and we are grateful that the interim concessions were finally approved by the Hon. Minister Sinckler and his team at the Department of Finance. This has allowed us to immediately resume works and will result in the creation of up to 200 construction jobs between both projects. Although Harlequin Developments have resumed work on both projects, we are still awaiting approval of the concessions package under the TDA for the luxury boutique hotel H Barbados.”

Garrett Ronan, Harlequin Hotels and Resorts Vice President of Hotel and Resort Development, commented, “We are working closely with the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Finance to expedite these concessions and we are hopeful they can be issued this week. This would help us get H Barbados back on schedule for completion in November 2012, despite the recent delays. We are very appreciative of the recent approval granted by the Hon. Christopher Sinckler and his team, which has allowed us to move swiftly with The Merricks Resort Show Village. As a gesture of good faith, we also resumed work on H Barbados, but we do urgently need approval on  the standard concessions to keep things moving there.”

Is this the Beginning of the End for Harlequin?

Submitted by St. Georges Dragon

The UK  Financial Services Authority (FSA) puts Harlequin under the scope

Interesting news about Harlequin. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK, which regulates the financial services industry, has published an alert: Information on investments made through Harlequin Management Services.

Issued on Friday 18th January, it puts financial advisers on notice that if they recommend an investment in a pension for which the underlying assets are Harlequin overseas properties, the advisor must carry out a thorough due diligence on the various developments being sold by Harlequin Property to fully satisfy themselves that it is a suitable investment. The due diligence should involve:

• consideration of how building work is progressing on the various sites and any factors involved in reported delays to completion;
• establishing precisely how their customers’ funds will be used during the construction phase and the terms of their purchase agreements;
• a full assessment of all publicly available information about the overseas property investments through Harlequin Property and on all the parties associated with these investments

The FSA does not regulate Harlequin, so it is quite surprising that it mentions Harlequin by name. Interestingly, the same day, the FSA released a second alert: Advising on pension transfers with a view to investing pension monies into unregulated products through a SIPP. This sets out further advice on what advisors need to do when recommending investments in third-party companies based on overseas property development.

The Violet Beckles Affair, Separating Fact From Fiction Part V

Memo to Commissioner of Titles

Department of Inland Revenue document

Doctor Watson declares Violet Beckles’ fit’.

Violet appeals to Nation newspaper for HELP!

The Old Lady appeals to Mia Mottley, former Attorney General

Receipt (1)

Receipt (2)

Receipt (3)

Receipt (4)

Receipt (5)

Related Links:

• Rights, Justice And The Law In The Case Of Violet Beckles

• The Violet Beckles Affair, Separating Fact From Fiction

• The Violet Beckles Affair, Separating Fact From Fiction Part II

• The Violet Beckles Affair, Separating Fact From Fiction Part III

• The Violet Beckles Affair, Separating Fact From Fiction Part IV

Barbados Advocate Article Labelled Offensive

Submitted by P O’Connor to the Barbados Advocate, CCed BU

Anthony Bryan – Publisher Barbados Advocate

With reference to your article – Straight to the Point: Prime Minister David Cameron should apologise – by Mr. John Blackman in the advocate 30/12/12

I have just read this article whilst visiting the island as a tourist from the UK and I am stunned that a national newspaper from a modern progressive country such as Barbados would employ a journalist with such prejudicial and homophobic opinion never mind put in print the blatant manipulation of a very complex topic such as colonialism. I will explain further but your editorial staff should be ashamed to promote such borderline medieval opinion, Google results alone paint a poor picture of this gentleman’s past rhetoric and his veiled journalistic style.

Mr. Blackman does well to highlight the abhorrent nature of colonialism and the bullying practice, which the west continues to use against its former colonies as well as the Middle East. However he does not seem to recognise that it is as a result of this colonialism that such hatred and prejudices remain. This is certainly something that should not be held onto and celebrated but disregarded along with the emancipation of colonialism. As a developed country one would not and should not patronise you into assuming that you and your readers are not capable of accepting, supporting and understanding basic human rights.

Notes From a Native Son: This is the Year When Our Long-term Future Will be Decided

Hal Austin

Introduction:
As we enter the dawn of a new year, all attention will be focused on the coming general election and, for some of us, the paucity of ideas battling for votes from a badly informed electorate. As things stand, it is largely a competition between tweedledee and tweedledum, although the recent injection of a broad, if under-articulated, idea of privatisation has raised its head.

However, even this glimpse of an ideological difference has been crowded out by the yahboo background noise of party humbug, rather than a rational discussion of the notion that firms owned by the private sector are in themselves inherently better managed and more efficient than those held by the public sector or social enterprises. Such closed mindedness also acts to shutdown debate, the arguments become irrelevant, as by definition people are either for or against the idea under discussion.

Now, as I have said here before, the world is entering a new phase in which the old economic assumptions are now redundant and the new global economic (and military) power will be centred in the early part of the 21st century in Asia and to some extent, Latin America. Therefore to understand what is taking place and the possible outcomes, one needs to read the runes carefully.  For a little island state, proud of its independence, careful observation is more important now than at any point in our history.

Fire Somebody Please!

Image credit: BBC News – CLICK ON IMAGE TO WATCH VIDEO

“Two British women who were raped within days of each other in Barbados say they are convinced the man who has been charged is not their attacker. Researcher Dr Rachel Turner, from Hertfordshire, and Diane Davies, from Anglesey, in north Wales, were attacked on a beach in Holetown St James in October 2010.

Barbadian Derick Crawford, 47, has been charged but both women, who have waived their right to anonymity, told BBC Breakfast’s Bill Turnbull and Louise Minchin why they believe he is innocent. They say he is much younger than the man who raped them. Both women hope the case will be dropped at the next hearing on Thursday.”

Read full BBC Report

Asthma Study Conducted at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Questioned

Donville Inniss – Minister of Health

A media source – The News Record – which serves the University of Cincinnati (UC) has questioned whether a “potentially controversial study” conducted  at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados, received approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at UC.   “The study tested whether or not a modified version of the Heimlich Manoeuvre could stop an acute asthma attack or treat asthma symptoms without contemporary treatment. The subjects’ parents gave consent and the results reported no adverse effects, according to the study. The 67 children who participated were between the ages of six and 16.”

The person asking all the questions is Peter Heimlich, the some of Henry Heimlich who is associated with the Heimlich Manoeuvre. He admits he has not uncovered any evidence of wrongdoing but he wants “to find out if the researchers and funders followed legal and ethical guidelines.” He [Peter Heimlich] is concerned that although Dr. Anne St. John confirmed that IRB approval was received, the name of the  IRB which provided the approval remains a mystery. Peter Heimlich is reported to have sent a communication to Minister Donville Inniss asking for the name of the IRB and when the Ethnics Committee approved the study.

See The News Record report – Questionable Study has UC Ties

The Middle East Revisited: Islamism Based On a Cult of Murderous Violence

Submitted by Charles Knighton

Middle East continues to be the flash point – Israel Hamas Conflict

And so it begins anew. After months of provocation, Israel strikes back against Hamas, only to be almost universally condemned as the aggressor. As I pen this letter (Nov. 17) how this latest drama will evolve is unknown, though I am certain it will not take long for the wilfully naive to again claim all Israel needs to do is return occupied land in order for peace to reign supreme. Unfortunately, those calling the shots in the Middle East and North Africa are groups I would refer to as Islamofascists who view Israel as a whole as occupied land.

Any student of history must see that there is something horribly familiar about today’s Islamist movement. Like the fascism of Hitler, Mussolini and Franco, Islamism is based on a cult of murderous violence that exalts death and destruction and despises the life of the mind. Both are bitterly nostalgic for past empires and lost glories and bent on avenging various historical humiliations at the hands of inherently inferior outsiders. The Islamists, like the Nazis, have a particular loathing of Jews, homosexuals and women. And for Islamists, as for fascists, the ultimate goal is to establish a vast, unconquerable territory—a “caliphate” the Jihadists call it—where their power and ideology will reign unchallenged.

Governor DeLisle Worrell Publishes How to Stabilize and Grow Small Open Economies

Dr. DeLisle Worrell, Governor of the Central Bank

A Joint Caribbean Group met recently with senior members of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. The Managing Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde of the IMF will remember the meeting for the sharp exchanges which are reported to have occurred with the Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados DeLisle Worrell.

Forgotten in the hullabaloo is the fact that Governor Worrell presented to the two international financial bodies a paper which is worthy of national, regioanl and international discussion titled, Policies for Stabilization and Growth in Small Very Open Economies.

Julian Assange Provokes Ecuador United Kingdom Standoff

Julian Assange of Wikileaks fame

You need to be aware that there is a legal base in the UK, the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987, that would allow us to take actions in order to arrest Mr Assange in the current premises of the Embassy.

“We sincerely hope that we do not reach that point, but if you are not capable of resolving this matter of Mr Assange’s presence in your premises, this is an open option for us.

The Telegraph

The unprecedented support which Julian Assange continues to muster from ordinary citizens across the world makes for interesting study. As a blogger BU empathize with Assange and wish him well.

The threat by the United Kingdom to invoke a law to trespass on what is usually regarded as hallowed ground confirms that the First World powers will not allow Assange to slip through a loophole without baring its muscle.  Ecuador can look forward to a battle. Let us hope it has a David ending.

Follow live blogging on what is dubbed UK-Ecuador Standoff Over Asylum for Julian Assange