What can the matter be?

WELL, THE 100 DAYS have come and gone without so much as a whimper from the Democratic Labour Party Government. Prior to January 15, they had a lot to say and knew all the answers. Never before have we seen the shine come off the new ball quite so quickly.

 

 

Having bowled Bajans behind their backs with a well-flighted fuel increase that left them scrambling and knocked the stuffing out of the productive sector, our Prime Minister hit the runway yet again to explain his financial policies to the Wall Street set.

It would be helpful if he would explain them to those of us who live here. Everybody knows where we came from, but very few Bajans seem to know where we are going, only that we are getting there very fast.

All through the election campaign, Mr Thompson said the cost of living was too high and his party knew how to solve the problems. What a sick joke! The reality today is that fishermen and fish vendors are at war over the price of fish; the Minister of Agriculture is quarrelling with Sir Charles Williams for not planting more food, while the Prime Minister grants Sir Charles another 80 acres of agricultural land for housing development at Lakes.

Public service vehicle owners are begging to meet with the Minister of Transport. Fishermen are pleading for a meeting with the Minister of Agriculture who fobs them off with the lame excuse of having to discuss the problem at Cabinet. Sir Roy Trotman is calling for double-digit wage increases. Dick Stoute of the Chamber of Commerce is warning about tough times ahead and Harry Husbands of the Barbados Employers’ Confederation is predicting retrenchment.

Barbados is beginning to look like it did in early 1991. Already Bajans are beginning to tire of the excuses thrown across the trail by the Dems that they did not know what they would find. In the words of Rihanna, it is now time for the Prime Minister and his Cabinet to “shut up and drive!” (while we can still afford it).

It is still not too late for the dynamic duo in the Ministry of Finance to revisit their taxation policy on petroleum prices. They could still reduce the amount of excise to offset the increased VAT on diesel and gasoline to bring prices down and raise a bond for the debt incurred by BNOC instead of charging consumers more money to repay it. They still have that choice, but apparently they prefer to make Bajans pull in their belts to the point of suffocation. Where are we going?

We had really wanted to report on the 100-day promises made by the Dems in their manifesto this week. Sadly, this column would be almost empty. Apart from a rash of letters handed out to NHC tenants in the full glare of the television cameras by the Minister of Housing, there is nothing else to report.

Of course a letter does not a title deed make, but we do hope the expectant tenants will be receiving their deeds sooner than the hundred days it took to get the letter.

What we will do instead is give a report card on their first 100 days in office:

l Execution of their promises – D.

l Inspiring confidence in the economy – D.

l Lowering the cost of living – E.

l Causing unnecessary suffering to Bajans – A-.

l Liberal use of excuses for poor performance – A+.

l Guest appearances on television – A+.

l Overseas trips by the PM – A++.

l Conduct/Behaviour – Easily distracted, need to pay attention in class. Not living up to expectations.

Perhaps Peter Wickham was right to sound the alarm and they will be the first one-term Government in our history.

Poor Piggy

 

 

What did you think of Monday

 

night’s interview with the PM?

 

  

Here is a summary of my view.

 

 

….My piggy bank after I bought

 

food

 

and then put gas in the car ..

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

An Interesting Letter we Received

BLP economic policies placed this country on a continuous growth path.  ,
   the  approach of  money flow from top to below,
 It was explained  in the following equation
 
 money into ->  investments ->  increase capital{ building and equipment} formation  lead to increased productivity .
 
This in turn creates more employment opportunities and unemployment reduction -> to increased consumption of goods and services and increase money revenue base for the government via tax.
 
 If the money is just allow to go straight to consumption   and not in the money cycle as set out here, it leads to increased inflation because there will be increased money available for a short time and thus result in increased demand for products and services and then inflation
 It seems to me that that simple equation escaped the DLP.
 
 
As the BLP WAS SAYING BEFORE THE ELECTION THE INFLATION PRESSURE IN THE BARBADOS ECONOMY IS IMPOTED… THOMPSON LIED. AND BLAMED THE LOCAL IMPORTERS, DISTRIBUTORS, WHOLESALERS AND RETAILE OUT LETS FOR THE PRICE LEVELS IN BARBADOS, NOW HE AND HIS CREW SINGING A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT 180 DEGREE TUNE.
 
 One other thing
 
The DLP set them set up for this dilemma.
  
From the latter half of last year, it was global knowledge that oil prices, wheat prices, and corn prices were going up and that they were impacting on local economies everywhere.
 
The DLP chose to ignore these economic realities and advocated promises they knew were unrealistic and delusional as related to the pending economic developments. and capacity of the government finances 
 
Owen Arthur publicly told the Barbadian public in  December 2007  or January 2008   he will gave to the Barbados public  what can be delivered and not what cannot be done under the current and pending economic conditions.
 
The people pay a blind and deaf ear an eye to those statements
 
well the reality  is HERE
 
Thompson  is in the chair of responsibility  and whatever decision he make , those DLP jokers who  put these clown in there will be the ones responsible.
 
 To make  unrealistic promise in the face of the signs of pending  US recession and   high oil and  and food  prices  was and is irresponsible
 

So THE FLOATING VOTERS WILL AWAKE UP WHEN THEY START TO FEELING inflation IN THEY POCKETS AND ON THEY DINNER TABLE AND PLATE,
 
 
Well flour going from today 30%
 
and the electricity subsidies aint getting continued
 
 and gas prices seem set to go up to!
 
What Thompson and crew will do
 
I ask what Thompson and crew will do?
 
This Mascoll replacement aint got no answer (Darcy Boyce , minister state in the Ministry of finances and Energy  he aint saying nothing about it ( see Sunday sun2008-04-13)
 
Now I notice something AS we know; the nation newspaper in the DLP pocket form election time. SO THEY working in tandem with this DLP government.
 
I notice now they slyly preparing the public for the DLP plan  price hikes .
 
 By putting all the justification in the papers , and having some  
 lumber worms who were hiding  in the dark for the last 14 years
  now coming out and speaking and advocating  on the national economic  policies  direction  of the DLP government in a public format  Newspaper for crying out loud)for them (DLP)
 that sly and weak all wrap up on one.
 
They think majority of people in this country foolish?
 
Now I remember Thompson boldly going in from the Barbados chamber of commerce in late January 2008 and saying these famous  words’My primary focus   is cost of living , cost of living , cost of living” 
 
Now I see just as I predict   one idiot in to today nation  who write the
  die is cast  now  going on the same line  ABOUT WORLD PRICES  just as I predict these die hard DLP   would say see it not about rising food and energy price worldwide that the primary concerns.
 
 
IT how  we deal with the case here
 
              [MANAGEMENT]
 
all the economist who suddenly come from out of nowhere  telling Thompson what to do funny not one of them had not a  word OR SUGGESTIONS for Owen.
 
wonder why?
 
That tell me straight them set are bunch of DLP political supporters talking they talk.

 No to subsidies , on oil ,electrify and flour
 
Look out for economy wide inflation,
 Increase cost of production  for goods and services and labor agitation for higher wages in the next few months.
 
This DLP government aint going  5 years  they will be in
 
< 5 YEARS

 I SO BOLD I EXPECT AN EARLY CALL IN 2012
 
SO we only got about 48  months left with these idiots
 
because this is a one term government those floating voters will be coming   to the BLP  once again
    

 
 {Thompson}wanted it so bad ,
 
well let see what he going to do.
 
 

 

 

Cost of Living ?????????

 

WHAT IS GOING ON at the Ministry of Finance? All the signs are there. The world is on the brink of an economic recession sparked by the $1 000 billion credit crisis in the United States and its impact on the financial markets. The OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) cartel has refused to increase production as the Age of Oil squeezes to an inglorious end, drop by torturous drop. The hijacking of Middle America’s corn by the bio-fuel industry, coupled with high energy prices and the explosion in demand for commodities created by China and India, has ironically fuelled its own crisis of surging food prices.

 

 

Everywhere we look the forecast is the same – a “perfect storm” is building on the horizon. And not a word from either of our ministers of finance.

For a party that came to office on a platform of reducing the cost of living, the Democratic Labour Party Government has been remarkably silent since its display of braggadocio during the Estimates Debate.

Not a word from anyone, anywhere about any plan to tackle rising food prices. A lot of talk from the Minister of Commerce about building codes (even as cement prices rise again) while the Minister of Agriculture proudly asserts his prowess as a manager. What the people want to know are his plans to increase local food production. He has the lands of the Barbados Agricultural Management Company at his disposal.

No less a person than the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago recently announced his government’s plan to tackle rising food costs in a nationally televised address. He included a partnership with Guyana to increase regional food production on lands in that South American country.

Bajans will remember that, following a visit to Guyana in October 2007, Mia Mottley suggested that local farmers and entrepreneurs could take advantage of long lease holdings of agricultural land in that country as low as US$5 per acre per year for food production. The Dems pooh-poohed the idea. Well, the Trinis got the jump on us when we could have been reaping our first crops.

The fact is that the removal of the Common External Tariff is not enough on its own to absorb or offset the steep rise in extra-regional food imports. We have as a region to ensure our own food security. Trinidad and Guyana are on the right path, but Barbados needs to get into the game and fast.

With a 30 per cent hike in the price of flour imminent and a ten per cent increase in the price of rice on the world market last Friday to an all-time high of US$850 a tonne, our dynamic duo in the Ministry of Finance have a perfect opportunity in their first Budget to show just how committed the Government is to sustainable food price reduction. They can divert the millions of dollars in subsidies on imported food to subsidies for local food production and to the establishment of a Wages Fund to cushion those in our society who are most vulnerable.

We cannot control the price of oil with all of its implications (especially higher food prices), but we must assume command over those things that we can control. Food in large measure is one of them. In the mid-1980s Barbados was a net exporter of vegetables. There is no reason why we cannot again assume a leading role in food production in the Eastern Caribbean, but we need a plan.

But, of course, the Dems would have to ask the public forgiveness for their ridiculing of Owen Arthur for encouraging Barbadians to start planting more of their own food!

MINISTER FLIP FLOP

The Minister of health continiues daily to flip flop over two issues the first being the need to have the facility at Greenland start receiving Waste which is inevitable as the Mangrove Landfill is at the end of its days and secondly whether his administration is either going to build a new hospital or refurbish the QEH and until he and his administration decide to come straight to the people then they will continue to hide behind the smoke and mirrors so typical of this new Government.

Just a fews weeks ago they brought to our parliament the estimates. This is a document detailing how Government will raise money and spend money for the next year. In this document there was not one word of any new innovation on how to raise any additional money and equally troubling was the fact that there was only one entry to coincide with all of their campaign promises on which they won the election and that was $4M for constituency empowerment.

Surely this new administration can not be taken seriously.
NO OTHER NEW PROGRAMS AS PROMISED IN THEIR MANIFESTO
NO NEW PROGRAMS TO RAISE MONEY TO PAY FOR ANY NEW PROGRAMS
THIS NEW ADMINISTRATION HAS A LONG WAY TO GO

WILL THE ELECTORATE GIVE THEM MORE THAN FOUR YEARS ???????????