Good Morning #realdreamchasers! It's a cool and damp Tuesday morning but that's not going to stop us from having a terrific day.
FREUNDEL'S POLITICAL PLOY - Two leading political scientists are questioning the timing of Prime Minister Freundel Stuart’s announcement that he intends to complete the process of decolonization with the establishment of a republican form of government “in the very near future”.Such a move, which would essentially remove the Queen as this island’s head of state, replacing her with a Barbadian president, would require two-thirds majority support in Parliament. However, pollster and political scientist Peter Wickham has suggested that it was simply an attempt to “divert public attention away from current hot-button issues” of the day. Wickham was equally dismissive of Stuart’s suggestion that the process would be completed by the time the island marks its 50th anniversary of political independence from Britain on November 30, 2016. However, Dr Tennyson Joseph of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies said he was not prepared to go as far as his colleague political scientist to suggest that the move was simply a “ploy”. However, in the wake of the Stuart Government’s decision to stop paying tuition fees for UWI students, Joseph pointed out that a critical aspect of the party’s legacy, and in particular founding father Errol Barrow’s legacy of free tertiary education, had been reversed since the DLP’s return to office in 2008. “They reversed aspects of the post colonial reality of Barbados and they have mainly undone things, rather than done things,” Joseph said. Therefore, “republicanism is the kind of issue that a Government facing this kind of record can wrap itself around,” he argued.
QEH WASTING MONEY - Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Maxine McClean, is accusing some departments of wasting money. Opening debate in the Upper Chamber this morning on the 2015-2016 Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, McClean, who is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, suggested that the more money that departments such as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) get, the more they tend to waste. Speaking at the time on health, the Minister wanted to know what the cadre of health care professionals at the QEH was doing to help cut costs instead of asking for more money.
CRYING SHAME - Shame on you! Senator Reginald Hunte today came out strongly against media reports that a woman appeared at a political meeting and declared herself cut off from welfare, penniless and forced to scrounge for food. He defended the work of the Welfare Department and gave examples of its coverage of the needs of people over the years. “There was always a Welfare Department because there are some people who will work, and there are some people who don’t intend to work, no matter what,” he said.
MORE QUESTIONS - A $120 million question now hangs over the stalled Four Seasons Development. In his just-released 2014 report, Auditor General Leigh Trotman raises serious concern over a loan guarantee, which was provided by the Democratic Labour Party-led Government during the financial year 2011-2012, after the project hit a major financial snag. “This guaranteed debt was called during the financial year 2013-2014 by the lenders. As Government had guaranteed the debt, an amount of $124,329,766, which entailed principal plus interest, was paid through its company Clearwater Bay. This amount was subsequently recorded in the accounts of the Treasury as an account receivable,” the Auditor General noted. However, he expressed concern that to date there was no information available to show that any monies have been repaid. The revelation comes amid a reported resurgence of investor interest in the Clear Water Bay development, which went belly up back in 2009. Well-placed sources say a short list of investors has been reviewing data on the US$200 million hotel and villa project with a view to taking the proposals forward.
BSTU & BUT MEET TODAY - THE TWO TEACHER unions are taking their newfound kinship to another level this afternoon. Following three joint meetings with the executives of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) and the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union (BSTU), the last of which was yesterday evening, the wider membership of both unions will be meeting at Solidarity House at 2 p.m. to ventilate issues surrounding the grading of the School Based Assessments (SBAs). Both unions have already indicated that members will not be grading SBAs this year unless the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC), or the relevant agency, agrees to compensate them for the increasing volume of work and the mounting personal expenses they have been incurring.
SCHOOL JAM - As the debate over the introduction of tuition fees for Barbadians at the University of the West Indies rages on, there is a view that fees will be imposed across the school system in the not-too-distant future. Queen’s Counsel Pat Cheltenham, who described himself as being among the first beneficiaries of free education in Barbados in 1962, said the days of free education at the secondary level may soon be a thing of the past. Speaking over the weekend at the launch of the Foundation Old Scholars Scholarship Fund at Tapas restaurant, Hastings, Christ Church, Cheltenham said while education continued to be free, schools were struggling to provide basic supplies for both students and staff. “To think that several moons thereafter we’re now at the point where we’re passing the hat to educate people. We’ve either gone full circle, or the bottom has dropped out of the bucket,” he said.
RUBBISH FEES - Barbadians, who utilize private waste collection companies for disposal of their garbage, could soon be paying more for these services from April 1. However, members of the Private Waste Haulers Association say they are not the source of the increase. They are putting the blame squarely on the state-run Sanitation Service Authority’s (SSA), which they say has formally written to them informing that a $25 tipping fee will be applied to every tonne of garbage, starting next month. The decision has angered members of the association, who say they cannot afford to absorb the increase and have really been left with no other choice by the SSA than to pass it on to customers. “We are struggling as it is to keep our heads above water,” said Anderson Cherry of Jose Y Jose Liquid and Solid Waste. “There is not a lot of money in the garbage [and] now look at this, they wiping us out,” he added. The fee will charged on all waste material deposited for processing at the Sustainable Barbados Recycling Centre Inc (SBRC), Vaucluse, St Thomas, which is operated by businessman Ralph “Bizzy” Williams.
TIPPING COST - THE PROPOSED tipping fee may result in the public having to pay increased costs to have their waste removed, in some cases as much as double. A group called The Private Waste Haulers, made up of companies such as Hinds Transport Services Ltd, Jose y Jose Liquid & Waste Management Inc, Garbage Gobbler, Sewage Services & Skip Rentals Ltd and three others, said they had been all but ignored by the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) and, if the fees were to be implemented, they would have to pass on the costs to the consumer, as much as 100 per cent. “We have written to the Authority asking for a meeting of the stakeholders; however we have been unable to secure an audience thus far [although] the Authority confirmed . . . once they have more information regarding the logistics of the implementation, they will call a meeting with the stakeholders.”
SCOTIABANK SHIFT - THE BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA in Canada is pulling all its shareholding in Scotia Bank Trinidad and Tobago as well as Scotia Group Jamaica Limited and moving them to a subsidiary in Barbados. The Bank of Nova Scotia, which has been operating in Barbados since 1956, has established Scotiabank Caribbean Holdings Limited (SCHL) in Barbados and is in the process of moving all of its shareholding in Scotia Group Jamaica Limited. While some in Kingston have hinted that the move was linked to tax benefits offered in Barbados, Frederick Williams, chief financial officer and chief accounting officer of Scotia Group Jamaica Limited (SGJL), told the media that any tax benefits were “incidental”. In a move that is yet to be approved by Jamaican regulators, Scotiabank revealed that its 71.78 per cent stake in Jamaica’s second largest bank would be transferred from Bank of Nova Scotia in Canada to Scotiabank Caribbean Holdings Limited, its wholly-owned regional financing and holding subsidiary in Barbados.
LIAT SIGNS MUO - ST JOHN’S - LIAT’s chief executive officer David Evans today signed a memorandum of understanding with Antigua State College (ASC) for an engineering technician training programme in aircraft maintenance. Other industry partners in the new programme, which commenced in September 2014, are Antigua-based Caribbean Helicopters; the College of the North Atlantic and the Marine Institute of Memorial University, both based in Newfoundland, Canada. There are 26 apprentices enrolled in the programme and the ASC anticipates a maximum of 15 new entrants every two years. Evans explained that a major component of the three-year programme will be on-the-job training and students will come to LIAT for the practical hands-on training, while the theoretical aspects of the study will be done at ASC. Engineers from LIAT’s engineering and maintenance department will also serve as tutors for the programme.
CLEAN CRANE BEACH - THE SEAWEED mess at Crane Beach is no more. The Crane Barbados Resort with the use of a bobcat and a host of cleaners removed the bothersome sargassum seaweed that had covered the beach.
Owner and managing director of the Crane, Paul Doyle, declared the beach was back to being beautiful. Last week the Crane Beach, which won Best Caribbean Beach in the USA Today 10 Best Readers Choice Awards was covered with a thick blanket of seaweed. Over the weekend guests had to be shuttled to unaffected beaches nearby while workers moved swiftly to clear the area.
SMALL HONORED - A LONG-TIME community worker was recognised yesterday by the British crown. Blind broadcaster Carson St Elmon Small proudly received the Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) from Governor General Sir Elliott Belgrave yesterday at Government House, Government Hill, St Michael. Small, who has worked for the interest of the disabled and disadvantaged for most of his life, was accompanied by his friend Anthony Alleyne to receive the award. A dapperly dressed Small, posed for the official picture then settled down for a chat where he spoke of his life of social work. “I am honoured to have been honoured; I was never expecting this. When I stepped into the [service] arena, I only ever expected hard work. [Even so], this honour will not make me a greater or lesser person and I will continue to work,” he told THE NATION.
QUEEN SAMANTHA - BARBADOS HAS a new queen and her name is Samantha Prescod. Cheering loudly for the first queen of the Shine Like A Diamond pageant, hundreds watched as Prescod was crowned in the early hours of Monday morning at Hilton Barbados, Needham’s Point, St Michael. The pageant, the first of its kind in Barbados, saw ten beautiful differently abled young women vie for the title. It was such a keen contest that the judges themselves found it hard to select the winner and were forced to deliberate for almost 45 minutes. In the end, Prescod, who represented Martindale’s – City Centre Mall Bridgetown, was closely followed by National Union of Public Workers’ Alicia Wharton and third-placed Planet Fashions Inc. & Marquis’ Nakira Goddard.
Well that's all for today #newsjunkies. Here is a thought - If you don't value your time, neither will others. Stop giving away your time and talents- start charging for it! Have a beautiful & productive day
