Monday, May 31, 2010

NO MORE SHEDDING OF INNOCENT BLOOD!

Far too much innocent blood is being spilled in the streets of Kingston, Jamaica! Totally blameless working-class women, children and men are being injured and killed as the two halves of a venal ‘criminal/political’ establishment battle each other over the Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke affair.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding and the Jamaican political establishment have no moral right to cause the spilling of the blood of the ordinary working-class residents of West Kingston in their violent search for their long time Jamaica Labour Party henchman - Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke!
The Jamaican political establishment must not be allowed to behave as though there is no connection between them and ‘Dudus’. After all, it is a well established fact that for several decades now both the Peoples National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have been wrapped up with many of the so-called "Dons" of ‘garrison communities’ such as Dudus Coke.
Thus, if ‘Dudus’ is to be held to be guilty, the political establishment must share in that guilt as well! And therefore, a system with blood on its hands and guilt in its soul cannot arrogate to itself the right to spill or cause the spilling of innocent blood!
The only moral course for the current Jamaica government to take in this very tragic situation is to make a public declaration to the effect that ‘Dudus Coke’ has escaped the dragnet, and to temporarily call off the current military campaign to locate Dudus, thereby bringing hostilities and innocent deaths to a halt.
And once the social climate returns to some level or normalcy, the Jamaica political establishment, inclusive of both the JLP and the PNP, must publicly admit their collective guilt in taking Jamaica down a path of political and social decadence.
They must publicly admit their guilt and concede that as a result they have forfeited the moral authority to lead the country. Furthermore, as part of the process of repentance and rehabilitation, they should propose the establishment of an interim government of national unity to oversee the construction of a new and reformed political order in Jamaica that will feature a genuine empowerment and involvement of the mass of ordinary Jamaicans, and a severance of all links with organized crime.
This, in our opinion, would be the moral and peaceful way forward. We very much doubt however that the Jamaican political establishment possesses the moral rectitude or the sense of responsibility to take this difficult but very necessary path.
Our Party also wishes to make it clear that we do not consider that the political decadence that is so graphically on display in Kingston is something that is confined to Jamaica! On the contrary, we consider this to be a phenomenon that is present, to some degree, in every single CARICOM country.
Indeed, the terrible display of death and destruction in Jamaica is symbolic of a process of social and political decay and decline that has taken hold in every single CARICOM nation.
The Caribbean anti-colonial leaders of the 1940's, 50's and 60's extricated our countries from the jaws of formal colonialism and established the initial basic foundations of independent national societies.
However, it was always clear that if our governments did not move on from there to deepen these very basic structures by genuinely empowering and involving the masses of people, and by setting our sights on the development of a collective, self-sustaining national economy, that a process of decay would set in and the initial good start of the founding fathers would be squandered.
And so said, so done! In Jamaica, the Seagas, P.J. Pattersons and Bruce Goldings have presided over the destruction of the initial good work of Bustamante and the Manleys, just as, in Trinidad, the Pandays and Mannings have presided over the squandering of the positive early start of Dr Eric Williams. And of course the list goes on and on, implicating every single CARICOM country, including our very own Barbados.
If ever there was a time for us to admit our mistakes and take fresh guard, that time is now!

Women Have Been Misled.

The United States has been capable of misleading some of the best brains around the world with its propaganda machinery and foreign policy and this is actually what is now happening with the Woman’s movement.
The reality is the first woman’s rights organization was when Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton lead Seneca Falls New York Women’s Rights Convention July 19 – 20 / 1848.
Feminism revived as a culture and political movement (Friedans Feminine Mystique 1963)
The National Organization for Women founded in 1966 and a movement for homosexual rights emerged (Stonewall Riot in New York City 1969).
NOW objective was equal rights for women this was supported by millions of men across America.
However by a vote of 84 to 8 the senate approved a Constitutional Amendment banning discrimination against women because of their sex and sent the measure to the States for ratification in 1972.
The Equal Rights Amendment was defeated after a ten year struggle for ratification in 1982.
Nevertheless NOW continued its struggle until it was used as a front to target women by luring them into a shopping extravaganza purchasing US products around the world. The reason to target women is women are greater in population, more fashion conscious and also larger consumers. This is capitalism at work using countries around the world as markets for US goods including Barbados.
So therefore the scam is to promote women and discredit men using the propaganda machinery in the most derogatory sense with lies and deception.
(For an example) Removing men from the family, also from jobs replacing them with women. Giving girls more grades in the schools than boys. Exaggerating the catch phrase Domestic Violence. This is to mislead women giving them a negative perception of men. This was all fabrication by the US State Department.
The above was to bamboozle women that there were getting ahead of men and Barbadian women have been mislead by this propaganda that keeps coming out of Washington.
However the next step was to excite women by bringing an influx of exciting female products into this country that have women’s heads spinning like a top, especially the fancy cars, and the introduction of credit cards at twenty percent interest.
All this glamour has triggered the shopping spree having women in the whirlpool of debt with all the profits leaving the country for the Banks in the USA and our Government is left picking up the crumbs that fell off the table.
I do hope that Barbadian women will get wise like American women reaching for the scissors and cut the credit card to ribbons and get back to family life.
Neville Roach

Sunday, May 16, 2010

We Warned You About Dodds!

The recent revelation by the Goveror of the Central Bank that Dodds Prison will cost the people of Barbados a total of $749 million, payable over a 25 year period, further convinces the ‘Peoples Empowerment Party’ (PEP) that Barbados is well on its way to a status of ‘debt slavery’, compliments of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) and the Barbados Labour Party (BLP)!


The BLP must be condemned for the shenanigans they perpetrated on the Barbadian people when, in 2005, they initially gave a price of "around $100 million" for Dodds, only to increase it to "$288 million" two years later, and then subjected Barbadians to having to wait a full two years after they left office before details of the full price were publicly revealed for the very first time!


Similarly, the ‘DLP’ must also be condemned for failing in their duties as a Parliamentary Opposition during the period of BLP rule, and for accepting the ridiculous contractual arrangements entered into for the construction of Dodds. It is noteworthy that the new DLP government paid the Dodds debt in 2008 and 2009 without once protesting or even bringing the matter to the attention of the Barbadian people. In fact, Barbadians should note that it was the Governor of the Central Bank who brought this matter to their attention and shared the relevant information with them - not the Minister of Finance or any other DLP policitican! Indeed, the DLP Minister of State, Senator Darcy Boyce, actually participated in accepting and approving the Dodds contract!


The clear conclusion to be drawn from all of this is that the DLP tacitly approved of and went along with what we now choose to call "The Dodds Fiasco". The PEP on the other hand, has been publicly protesting about this matter since 2006!


Indeed, in a Press Release dated 4th June 2007, our party stated at follows:-


"The PEP is demanding that Prime Minister Owen Arthur explain to the Barbadian people why the cost of the contract to construct the new prison at Dodds in St Philip has escalated from $100 million to $288 million................. The PEP is extremely concerned about this phenomenal increase in the contract price of the new prison........... Indeed, as early as 8th March 2006 our Party signalled our concerns about the prison contract to Attorney General Dale Marshall, when we wrote to him requesting that we be given copies of the construction plans for the new prison and be permitted to visit the construction site at Dodds, St Philip..........................


The PEP demands to know why a foreign firm was selected at a price of $288 million over a local consortium of firms, whose price was much lower at $120 million.............. The PEP denounces the practice that has been routinely engaged in by both the BLP and the DLP of awarding contracts at a particular figure, and then agreeing to phenomenal increases in the cost of such contracts..................................


The PEP also deplores the trend that has emerged of favoring foreign companies over their local competitors, even in circumstances where the local company is offering a lower and more reasonable price."


The recent revelations of the Governor of the Central Bank have confirmed the relevance and correctness of the concerns that we raised back in June 2007.


The real issue is that the narrow, incestuous two party system of governance is leading our country to ruin! And you, the citizens of Barbados need to bestir yourselves and join the PEP to engineer a broadening and a democratisation of the system, thereby facilitating greater accountability!

The Meaning of Hammie La

Hamilton Lashley began his political career in the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) camp in the capacity as one of Delisle Bradshaw’s "right hand men". He then switched allegiance to the Democratic Labour Party (DLP), before switching back to the BLP, and last week made his most recent switch back again to the DLP!


But Lashley is far from being alone in this capacity to jump back and forth between the BLP and the DLP! There is, for example, the case of Clyde Mascoll, who jumped from being leader of the DLP one week, to being a minister in the BLP government by the following week. And there are several others, including Kerrie Symmonds and Wendell Callendar.


The question the Barbadian people should be asking themselves about all of this is:- "Why is it so easy for a politician to jump from the BLP into the DLP and vice versa?"


Well, the simple answer is that there is no real difference between the DLP and the BLP! Thus, "Hammie La" and Clyde Mascoll were not required to change one iota of their political philosophy or ideology as they moved between the BLP and the DLP! Indeed, Lashley and Mascoll can feel equally "at home" in both the BLP and the DLP!


And so, the real meaning of the Hammie La version of political musical chairs is that it really does not matter much whether a politician is in the BLP or the DLP, since there is no significant ideological or programmatic difference between these two parties - the only difference is one of personalities!


It is high time therefore that the Barbadian people stop fooling themselves. Clearly, the fate of Hammie La, or Clyde Mascoll for that matter, is a political triviality - part of the comedy that passes for politics in Barbados.


For sure, we in the Peoples Empowerment Party (PEP) found it extremely comical when Hammie La identified the policy of free bus rides for school-children and the establishment of constituency councils as key reasons for his opportunistic switch.


Hammie La could read the DLP’s General Election manifesto from cover to cover, and he will not find a single reference to "free bus rides for school-children". Indeed, if he wants to discover where this policy truly came from, he would have to consult page 20 of the Nation Newspaper of 10th January 2008, and the report on the PEP published therein under the headline - "PEP Offering Free Bus Rides And Medicines". The Nation reported PEP’s Bobby Clarke as follows:- "We (a PEP government) are going to take out (abolish) bus fares for children .... It should be free..... The Government doesn’t gain anything from the $1 schoolchildren pay".


Similarly, the proposal for the establishment of constituency councils first appeared in PEP’s widely distributed leaflet entitled - "Bajans, Take Back Your Government!" - almost two years before the DLP manifesto was published. The only difference is that we proposed that the Councils be elected by the people, and be given significant resources!


And these are not the only purloined policies! For example, Minister Sinckler continues to prattle on about the proposed establishment of a "Department of Elder Affairs". Once again, there is absolutely no mention of this in the DLP manifesto, while page 12 of PEP’s manifesto states as follows:- "We will establish a specialized government "Department of Elder Affairs", with a mandate to secure the welfare and well being of our Barbadian elders and to create national structures and initiatives for the expression and utilization of the collective wisdom of our elders".