Senator Henry Fraser: Healthcare Slide at the QEH

Professor Emeritus Henry Fraser

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is in the news again. Professor Emeritus Henry Fraser made the announcement this Christmas week that the crisis at the QEH requires Minister of Health (MoH) John Boyce to meet with Minister Chris Sinckler as a matter of urgency. Of course this is the same MoH who boldly stated during the last budget debate that the deep cuts to the Ministry of Health budget would not compromise healthcare delivery.

Senator Irene Sandiford-Garner in response to the criticism offered the view that the QEH remains the best primary healthcare facility in the Caribbean. BU has no way to assess the veracity of Sandiford’s statement however one has to ask if Barbados should not hold the QEH to our high standard. Why should Barbadians retreat to accept benchmarking against healthcare systems in the region which have always looked to Barbados as the standard bearer?

It is instructive to remember that Fraser is an Independent Senator and Senator Sandiford-Garner is government appointed. The question to the BU family et al – who should we believe? Some issues CANNOT be about politics, the good health of a nation is a wealthy of a nation after all.

Symmonds Comment Shows Gross Disrespect to Muslims

Submitted by Douglas

Kerri Symmonds, MP

Dear David please permit me some space on your site to make a few comments with regard to something that I feel strongly about.

I recently listened to the debate about the funding of the QEH and I heard the Minister of Health announced the arrival very shortly of new ambulances coming from The United Arab Emirates which I thought was wonderful. These ambulances are gifts to the people of Barbados by the government and people of The United Arab Emirates. Sadly  while listening to the reply from Opposition MP Symmonds, I must say it is not often that I pay attention to Symmonds because I have long held the view that he has no spine and he stands for nothing and will fall for anything, be that as I may, I subjected myself to his presentation which in my view was despicable coming from someone who has been around politics awhile and therefore should know better.

Good judgement is not one of his strong points if we are to judge his actions two days before elections in January of 2008 when he found it possible to take money from a Doctor Boolani to regularise an immigration matter that he did not fulfil and he never returned the money. The copy of the Affidavit is attached as proof that he received funds and of his vicious and brutal attack on his wife for which she had to seek the protection of the Courts of Barbados.

Symmonds file #1
Symmonds file #2
Symmonds file #3
Boolani

Barbados Community College Conversation Continued…

Barbados Community College Government and Politics 100 Outline

Please find attached an image of partial course outline for Government and Politics 100 [allegedly] issued by Walthrust-Jones to Government & Politics students.  I emphasize this is not part of the official outline but is attached by WJ as though it IS part of the outline. Please observe the two notes I have made (1 and 2). These stipulations are inconsistent with the academic regulations and are therefore illegal:

1. A student cannot get an F simply because he has not submitted all course work. In stead a temporary Grade I is assigned.
2. An individual teacher cannot simply debar students from taking an exam.

The above was submitted by Neil Watchman.

Cedric Murrell Describes Sending Home 3,000 Public Workers as UNFORTUNATE

Submitted by Anthony Davis

Cedric Murrell, CTUSAB

“The position which will see 3000 public servants placed on the breadline between January 15 and March 15, 2014, is “unfortunate”, and clearly . . . a situation where Government had no other choice. This is the position being held by the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB), and articulated by its president, Cedric Murrell, following a meeting with Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Chris Sinckler, this morning. What I will say to people generally in this country, because we don’t know who is going home, is that they must have faith. They must have an understanding that there are times when an economy goes through trials and tribulations. (But) what we have to recognize is that the only way we can positively move from this position by growing this economy. By growing this economy, it means that every single person in this country, has to see how best they can contribute to the sum total of the output of this country. With regard to a perceived snub by Government, and them not being informed about the plans to sever workers, he noted that that matter had been discussed and resolved – page 3 of “Barbados Today, dated 18 December, 2013

My, my, my, My mind boggles, Mr. Murrell!

What kind of drivel are you spewing to 3000 people – whom you and the other head honchos are supposed to be representing, but are doing a very poor job of doing – by telling them to have “faith” in these harsh economic times? Why don’t you, and your ilk who are in your tax bracket – and especially you three – give at least 10% of the money you receive – whether you have earned it or not is a horse of another colour; I do not think that you have earned yours, as you have done a great disservice to the public servants of our country –  to the Inland Revenue, to help this Government which has boxed in itself by having an incompetent Minister of Finance, and help those you are supposed to represent?

3000 Public Sector Jobs on the Radar

Submitted by William Skinner

Chris Sinckler, Minister of Finance (l) Fruendel Stuart, Prime Minister (r)

I am fully aware that the decision to get rid of over 3000 civil servants will be met with great applause by those citizens who for decades have believed that our civil servants are not up to scratch with their service to the public. It is a position that I do not share personally. I am also aware that those calling for privatization will now feel they were justified. In my humble opinion, that is nothing more than bunkum because our economy is already heavily privatized and we are still in the debt trap.

Many crocodile tears will be shed by the same frauds, who shed tears over the imposition of tuition fees on the poor, mainly black students at Cave Hill, University of the West Indies. These are the same political charlatans who would abolish free bus fares for school children, who were missing school because their parents had no money. They are the same ones who are now trying to convince us that domestic violence is only found among the poor and poorly educated. It follows a pattern that whenever there is a problem within the society, they zoom in on the poor.

The simple truth is that the economy has been in need of desperate restructuring for at least since the mid seventies. The BLP/DLP government has failed at every given opportunity to reform or restructure the economy .We have a system of sophisticated political largesse that caters to the now emerged upper middle class political managers, who have taken friendship and social contacts, to a level of sycophancy, that we have never before witnessed in our island state!

Destabilization of the Barbados Community College (BCC)

Submitted Neil Watchman

Stephen Broome, Chairman of BCC

There is growing concern among staff at the Barbados Community College where the Board or more accurately, the Chairman, seems to have developed a tight stranglehold on the institution. Staff cannot recall there ever being such a high level of politicization at the institution until the advent of Mr. Stephen Broome who served first as Deputy Chairman and is now in his second term as Chairman.

Some, perhaps out of fear, believe that the Chairman’s mission is to destabilize the institution as a precursor to the Government’s phasing it out. They point to the recent spate of sixth forms set up by the MOE headed by Ronald Jones in support of this supposition. This, coupled with the imposition of higher fees on UWI students from 2014 makes for a very confusing educational policy. One could be excused for thinking that the Government would have put more resources into the BCC but then again, if it didn’t do that when things were well, one cannot expect them to do it in these dire times. So what? Such confusion and contradictions seem symptomatic of the Freundel Stuart administration, anyhow.

The Wolf is at the Door

Walter Blackman

When judged against the harsh background of adversarial politics, only two prime ministers of Barbados (who led the country for 7 years or more) can lay claim to being able to escape the clutches of the IMF for the entire period of their rule – Errol Barrow and Owen Arthur.

Say whatever you will, it is an undeniable fact that Barrow and Arthur were able to utilize whatever resources they had available at their disposal without plunging the Barbadian economy into disequilibrium. This achievement in itself represents a public demonstration of their political and economic skills. One was from the DLP, and the other is from the BLP, but we must commend and applaud both of them equally for distinguishing themselves in this regard.

Borrowing, taxation, and easily accessible NIS funds were the main resources available to Barrow, Arthur, and all Ministers of Finance. Naturally these resources varied in amount as administrations came and went.

By the time the David Thompson administration assumed office in early 2008, the world had changed drastically. Volatility and uncertainty had become so widespread that the Governor of the Central Bank informed and warned all Barbadians that the macroeconomic models used to analyze and predict outcomes under the “old” economic order, were no longer applicable.

Barbados Governance and Next Steps

Behind every dark cloud is a silver lining.

The respected Bloomberg posted the headline [13/12/2013]  Barbados Debt Higher Than Cyprus Prompts Firing of 3,000. The preamble to the article reads “Barbados will fire 3,000 public sector workers by March and freeze wages as the eastern Caribbean island’s debt burden soars and the International Monetary Fund says “urgent adjustments” are needed.”  BU recalls in 2010 the suggestion to government to consider freezing public sector wages was mooted. In fact Minister David Estwick was publicly rapped on the knuckles for making the suggestion. The late Prime Minister David Thompson addressed the matter of wage freeze in his first press conference in 2010 – see Prime Minister David Thompson’s First Press Conference in 2010.

Where we find ourselves, AGAIN will provoke the usual political cackle from participants in the diluted Westminster system of government  we practice. In fact, leading political scientists and pundits will rationalize the political cackle as NORMAL,  emanating from an adversarial system borrowed from a colonial past.  Despite years of investing i education we have given little thought to changing the system of governance which continues to be a polarising force in a 2×3 country given how irrelevant it has become.

The national discussion will now mirror the tenor of the 90s when another DLP administration took the decision to slash public sector wages by 8% and jettison 8,000 public sector employees. Lessons learned you think? ‘Go to the ant thou sluggard…’.

The BU household always focuses on the part of the issue which Barbadians feel uncomfortable. Perhaps it explains why traditional media and prominent people in society read and contribute to BU but with a hushed involvement. This is the hypocrisy which supports a mendicant culture which is no longer relevant in a today’s world. No more preferential treatment from the More Developed Countries (MDCs) and no more lack of competition from the Lesser Developed Countries (LDCs).

The sending home of 3,000 public sector workers is not the solution to the problems which confront Barbados, it is a manifestation of one of many symptoms which ail the nation.  If there is one issue where there is consensus, it is that our economy has some deep flaws which must be addressed. Even the head of government’s economic advisory council has publicly admitted this to be the case. It seems to BU this was a good place to have started the discussion regarding a strategic economic approach in 2008. Looking forward, where do we go from here full in recognition that there is no silver bullet?

Barbados Labour Party MPs Questioned by Police – Freedom of Expression Under Threat?

Mia Mottley, Leader of the Opposition

Dale Marshall, MP

Kerri Symmonds, MP

Speaker of the Barbados House of Assembly

Three Barbados Labour Party (BLP) members of parliament were questioned today by the police in connection with a Nation newspaper story penned by Barry Alleyne. The story based on a Voice of Barbados report has to do with coverage of the Opposition walk out of parliament in July 2013.

Barbadian Author Andrea Stuart Discusses her Book Sugar in the Blood

Listen to Barbadian author Andrea Stuart gives a riveting insight into her book Sugar in the Blood at the Barbados High Commission in London. An introduction is given by Barbadian historian Richard Drayton who is the widely respected Rhodes Professor of Imperial History at King’s College London. The book launch comes at an interesting time with a reparation claim being explored by Caricom. The book highlights how the history of Barbados and England is forever intertwined. Sugar built Britain on the backs of slaves.

 

CIBC First Caribbean International Bank Instructs Leroy Parris to Take a Hike

Court Order: Professional Services Inc AND CIBC FICB

The Lowrey Worrell Affair, Foundation School Coverup

Lowrey Worrell, Foundation School Music teacher

BTII: Investment and its Importance to the Local Economy

Sen. Darcy Boyce, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, Investment, Telecommunications and Energy

Positioned on the periphery of local politics, the independent is always forced to chuckle. The idea that Senator Darcy Boyce was CEO of the Barbados Tourism Investment Inc (BTII) between 2004 and 2007 reporting to former minister Noel ‘Barney’ Lynch is reason enough.

BU will continue our remit to shine a bright light at the underbelly of Bajan society much to the annoyance of the establishment. Politicians on both sides have become very comfortable issuing vacuous promises to a largely forgiving electorate. The coming of transparency legislation indeed!

All agree tourism along with attracting investment are critical  to a vibrant local economy. The agencies responsible for overseeing related activities are expected to bring a good game.  Have a look at the BTII website which has… committed [itself] to this development and invites investors around the world to evaluate our investment opportunities and work with us in profitable and beneficial projects. You too can benefit from our success by taking advantage of tourism investment opportunities on the island…Local media has credited the BTII with leading the agreement to purchase Heywoods property known as Almond Beach Village.

BU is willing to offer the management of BTII an apology if proved wrong but the website appears not to have been updated  since 2006. Here is a snippet: