It seems to us that the “highly placed Government official” quoted by the Barbados Advocate has been detached from the reality on the street for some time. Bajan citizens’ concern over Chinese labourers – both legal and illegal – is not a new event created by the Four Seasons project. What the government is hearing from Bajan citizens is “We Have Had Enough”.
For the citizens’ view, see our recent post Bajan Backlash Against China – BLP Election Strategy Backfires
Here is the article from the Barbados Advocate. We’ll reprint the whole thing because the newspaper destroys its own archives regularly, and we want this to survive online…
It’s A Case Of Double Standards
THE furore over Chinese labour in Barbados is showing up a ludicrous double standard. That is according to a highly placed government official.
Speaking to the Barbados Advocate yesterday on condition of anonymity, a senior public officer explained that workers from the People’s Republic of China have been engaged in various projects here a considerable time before it was announced that some were wanted to build the Four Seasons Hotel at Clearwater, Black Rock.
He noted that Chinese built the Gymnasium at a time when as much as 24 per cent of the labour force was unemployed and presumably available. They also helped to build Sherbourne Conference Centre in the early 1990s when the economy was in danger of collapse.
In addition, he reminded that they helped to build Queen’s College; rebuilt the Cheapside Market; and under the former Barbados Cricket Association administration, of which outgoing president Tony Marshall was a member, when Kensington was first refurbished with the Mitchie Hewitt Stand and the media centre, etc., Chinese did the work. Like the proposed Four Seasons Hotel, that was a private sector project.
They also did the upgraded National Union of Public Workers headquarters building at Dalkeith and worked on the Speightstown Esplanade along with the Fish Market; rebuilt a vastly improved Independence Square, the Caves of Barbados (Harrison’s Cave) and are currently working at Coleridge & Parry, as well as building a new multi-storey carpark on Princess Alice Highway.
According to the public officer, “It is illogical to ignore Chinese involvement in all of these projects and just pick on the Four Seasons’ hotel development. The question must therefore be asked: What lies behind this sudden agitation? The real issue cannot be Chinese involvement in local construction”.
Reports in the building sector indicate that the Chinese were also in line for contracts to build accommodation at Mangrove, St. Philip.
“In the context of today’s reality in Barbados,” said the official, “Some of the adverse comments border on xenophobia among our people. It cannot be successfully argued that Chinese have not been doing private sector work in our country”.
“In this particular matter advertisements have now been in the public domain almost six weeks. Signs have also been posted inviting applications from artisans so it is evident that efforts have been made to recruit workers from Barbados in the first instance. Everything reasonable has been done to source workers from Barbados and the Caribbean”.
“When you take all of these factors into consideration,” the official said; “it betrays a definite and ridiculous double standard to be depicting the Chinese as conduits for inferior materials and also as ‘invaders’ whose presence and services are not wanted in Barbados”.
… read the original article at The Barbados Advocate until it is erased. (link here)
40 Comments
July 25, 2007 at 3:13 am
The Official is an idiot. If you want to attract a large number of workers it cannot be suffice to place a sign in some obscure position on the sam,e site and expect a response.
This has nothing to do with “picking on four seasons” it is much wider than that. Anyone with a modicum of sense would recognise that the chinese if allowed to compete unfairly will put a lot of contractors out of work. We need to recognise that this strategy is part of the chines agenda to occupy and dominate every country in the world. They cannot be allowed to pay chinese labourers at the rates as low as 60 cents per day.
July 25, 2007 at 5:54 am
do you really think we could sustain our development without seeking out and utilizing cheap labor wherever we can find it? come on get real business is business and our present government runs the business of BARBADOS let them get on with the job i for one am pleased and hopeful for the future of our nation and the defining legacy this administration will have given to the future of our nation. out PM said we all of us in whatever capacity must contribute to this growth.
July 25, 2007 at 6:28 am
From what I’ve read in these and other pages, the various projects would probably still be awaiting completion if they’d been left entirely, to Bajan workers!
How much they’re paid is a matter for them and their employers.
Xenophobia and an excessively, holier-than-thou, typical Barbadian attitude – the official might well have a point!
You heard any Chinese complaining?!!
July 25, 2007 at 7:04 am
It is so sad when we cannot understand that “home drum beat first”.
To expect Bajans to be satisfied with 3 & 4 day weeks work while others get more is pathetic.
The assistance of China cannot be overlooked, but when it is becoming a “takeover” the line must be drawn. The same applies to Trinidadian acquisitions…too much of anything cannot be a good thing.
July 25, 2007 at 7:59 am
The Government’s position on chinese labour in Barbados, the legality – or otherwise – of those workers at “The Four Seasons Hotel Project” must be as a matter of urgency be explained to the citizens of Barbados, on whose territory they labour.
The wider position is a different matter, and in time should be properly addressed.
This Government which has been elected by the people, and who should be responsible to the citizens of Barbados should explain its position on the matter.
A supposedly highly placed Barbados Government Official comments are not good enough – does this official live in a broom cupboard aided by artificial respiration, that we do not know.
A Government’s response by an elected Minister is what is required and nothing else is adequate or will suffice. This chinese whispers disemination of information – I will not dwell long on the word pun – is not adequate with regard to the Laws of Barbados, having being disregarded, or broken.
July 25, 2007 at 8:39 am
Rudiboyce i hope you don’t get vex and love owen and your country when one day when you go to work[if you work cause wunnah cronies does get a lot of we taxpayers free money]and see a chinese doing what you does do..that time might come sooner than you think,then lets see if you come and type bullshite like the above and give owen full praises.
July 25, 2007 at 9:51 am
They also work on the B’dos Community College
July 25, 2007 at 9:57 am
well said bimbro the chinese r an asset to our economy here in barbados
July 25, 2007 at 10:58 am
Let us put some logic to this situation, the chinese are supposedly cheaper, let us therefore get rid of all Barbados contractors and employ chinese contractors, let us get rid of all Barbados workers and employ cheaper chinese should I go on…. The logic of that stance beggars belief, and no country in the world would sanction such a policy, it is madness.
To have foreign workers employed in an independent country free from the writ of legal recourse is a policy of the insane.
I have confined my remarks to the Four Seasons Project, to bring other issues – and they are many – is a deliberate attempt to “muddy” the waters.
The focus is on the “Four Seasons Project” and the legality of those chinese workers, working in Barbados.
July 25, 2007 at 11:03 am
Bimbro,
I don’t know what your vocation is…but whatever it is, I am sure the Gov’t or your boss can fine a chinese to do it a lot cheaper. Chinese who work for around USD $40,000/year live in luxury in China…not so in Barbados.
We cannot be so ignorant as to overlook the full implications of this cheap labour. The problem is that the cheap labour does not directly effect you and persons like you.
I agree with little boy “home drum beat first.”Why is it that we are so eager to impliment these WTO agreements when people like the USA continue to protect their domestic market.
This unfair competition must stop. Money cannot be everything.
July 25, 2007 at 11:27 am
The unions mekkin a fuss now after they benefitted from Chinese labour to construct their buildings. One wud xpect tht the Union would look after the direct interest of the workers they represent when spending their money.
Construction jobs are advertised for weeks without local response. When the Chinese and Guyanese respond and get the jobs, then we start griping bout ppl tekking we jobs.
Work ethic real real low…dismal even. Why we not commenting on tht in this forum. Many of our ppl dont want work, they want a freeness.
The Chinese come here and grow their food and catch fish out by Pelican. They save the little money they make. Some of the ppl tht complainin should learn from their example. We Bajans dont know bout self sufficency or sustainability. We consume and want evrything free and complain.
Home drums beat first?
Drums dont beat themselves. We sure as hell aint beating them and complaining tht ppl coming here to tek jobs.
The reality is tht the buildings wont build themselves and If we build them, low productivity will raise the cost of construction.
The misguided industrial climate is no longer fighting for workers rights and improvement of standards, we have lost our way…The current lazy and constantly winging climate now fights to take us backward. Perpetuating and protecting a lazy and globally uncompetitive Barbados.
We moved from Pride and Industry to Arrogance and Indolence…
False Pride and Industrial Inaction will be our new motto if we dont wake up and save our people.
The constant complaining and thrashing of ppl in this forum does not help either. We need to see some positive comments in here. You are a contributor to the arrogance and false pride.
July 25, 2007 at 12:00 pm
“Many of our ppl dont want work, they want a freeness.”
exactly ” Money without work” starting with Owen and his cabinet
July 25, 2007 at 12:07 pm
********* … basic rule of journalism, a source shouldn’t be allowed anonymity to give an opinion (anonymity is, however, allowed with giving facts). So 4 all we know the “highly placed Government official” hiding behind anonymity could be Owen, and knowing ****, it probably is!
****************
Edited for bad words by BFP Auntie Moses
You watch your mouth! You be pushin too much to say de bad thing. Watch OUT! Or Auntie Moses gonna take you out back an you won’t be able to sit down for a week! Now finish your breakfast an do your chores before you run off with them no-good-for-nothing friends a yours!
July 25, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I have heard a lot of speculation about how much the chinese laborers are being paid– I have seen them shopping at various stores including PriceSmart. I doubt that they are making 60 cents BB a day–if that is the case then they must certainly be enslaved because they could do far better in the US delivering chinese food. It seems to me that the bajans don’t want to admit that they are not the only game in town– and that companies need it done better and faster. IMO bajans need to step up to the plate if they want these jobs.
July 25, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Welcome to the semi-independent island state of Barinchina, where the chinese workers beaver away in an enclosure impervious to outside influence.
The natives redolent in their idleness stay in a state of inertness as the condos for the rich and famous are erected around them. These “invisible people” watch the rich and famous limousines’ and four by fours ease gently pass them, with windows tinted and inhabitants cushioned in their air conditioned luxury.
They will soon decamp to the beach, from which the natives have been deliberately excluded. The natives only purpose and reason for existence is to add colour to this tranquil setting, for even the land on which they stand is not theirs.
Fools that we are, fools we will stay, for our reasons for existence is snuffed out before our eyes, we are the “invisible people” no one pays any notice to us, we are only citizens of Barinchina, where corruption and naked greed, make cosy companions.
July 25, 2007 at 12:50 pm
I don’t know if Chinese workers are paid 60c per day,I doubt it, but the point is very simple: they do a job for probably half of the price than a local Contractor! THIS IS UNFAIR competition Gentlemen!! Chinese do this in any field, not construction only.
Who says the opposite is false and deceiving.
It is true that many Bajans prefere do nothing or wants to be paid with bad performances at work…but this is another issue…
July 25, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Owing Arthur AKA Bob Barker of The Price is Right fame makes no bones about his position you pay me and I get what I want and you get what you want simple as that.
How do you think the prison deal came together when he and Nicholls wanted 5 % added to the cost and the locals refused they took it to VECO and pocketed $ 200 million instead.
What a deal we Barbadians worked out there !!!!
July 25, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Arrogance and false pride my ###!
Imagine that 500 years ago some Arawaks or maybe Caribs were positing … “but these White men can be good for us, they have better boats and technology! We need to get with the changing times. We have to start using our land, minerals, plants and animals for their highest economic value. All this nonsense about spirits and ancestors just will not do in the new economy. These White people will be an asset to our islands. Our future will be secure with them here!”
Well at most the sea is named after the Caribs.
July 25, 2007 at 2:11 pm
‘Home drums beat first’! My dear fellow, I would love to agree with you but I’m afraid that in the light of harsh reality, I’m unable to.
It seems to me that Barbadian artisans are now suffering the delayed consequences of years of indiffent attitude and standard of work. I don’t have a lot of experience of them but suffice to say that the house they built for me (a) suffered from subsidence and then (b) burnt down in suspicious circumstances! Fortunately, I was insured, so don’t tell me about Bim workmen. At the end of the day people want a high standard of work for the money they pay.
Barbadian workers are notoriously, Que Sera Sera. They need to be brought into the 21st century. Some good natured competition might be the best thing which could have happened to them!
A case of too, much pride and not sufficent industry, also I suspect!
July 25, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Anonymous
The reality is tht the buildings wont build themselves and If we build them, low productivity will raise the cost of construction.
___________________________________Just as cheap imports don’t make local prices cheaper, neither does cheap labour make the price of a building any cheaper. What happens is that the middle man (in this case the construction company and the developer) makes more money. It reduces the COST of construction, but not the PRICE of the building. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Barbados has taken a leaf out of the U.S.A.’s book and allowed cheap labour to enter the country to help force down wages in an effort to become more competitive. It will result in widespread unemployment, because unlike the U.S.A., the size of Barbados does not allow for mobility of labour. As a policy it will be a failure and cause massive social upheaval.
July 25, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Here is an interesting article about Chinese labour in the Caribbean. Thought it was worth sharing:
http://hospitalityjamaica.com/news1.html
July 25, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Peltdown Man
You are correct..cheap labour from between China and Mexico has been responsible for the lost of Millions of American Jobs. If we do not act quickly we are going to have trouble in this country. Like I suggested before those who are supporting the chinese are doing so because they are benefiting directly or are not at all affected directly.
July 26, 2007 at 3:35 am
So well said No-Name , when they feel effects it will be a different story. What do they think will happen to all those people that will become employed because if this policy becomes the norm , it will be nigh on impossible for local contractors to compete with the Chinese set-up. We are a small place it will take quite a while for the effects of so many people to be out of work to be absorbed. A hungry man is an angry man especially when he got a family to feed . These things must be looked at holistically not just just because’it cheapa’ .
I thought a government’s responsibility was to look after the best interest of its employers ( the people ) , somehow i think things have strayed considerably far from this ideal .
July 26, 2007 at 3:53 am
Morality will never beat economics in a boxing match once the referee is politician, and the promoter is big business. It’s all about getting more for less, the same concept as enslavement.
So for Barbadian construction workers to compete they now have to work in gangs, sleep on site, accept whatever massa dishes out, slave and save and sell the odd cabbage to buy your way off the plantation?
July 26, 2007 at 4:58 am
All hail better living through globalisation.
The Suicide Economy Of Corporate Globalisation
By Vandana Shiva
The Indian peasantry, the largest body of surviving small farmers in the world, today faces a crisis of extinction.
Two thirds of India makes its living from the land. The earth is the most generous employer in this country of a billion, that has farmed this land for more than 5000 years.
However, as farming is delinked from the earth, the soil, the biodiversity, and the climate, and linked to global corporations and global markets, and the generosity of the earth is replaced by the greed of corporations, the viability of small farmers and small farms is destroyed. Farmers suicides are the most tragic and dramatic symptom of the crisis of survival faced by Indian peasants.
1997 witnessed the first emergence of farm suicides in India. A rapid increase in indebtedness, was at the root of farmers taking their lives. Debt is a reflection of a negative economy, a loosing economy. Two factors have transformed the positive economy of agriculture into a negative economy for peasants – the rising costs of production and the falling prices of farm commodities. Both these factors are rooted in the policies of trade liberalization and corporate globalisation.
In 1998, the World Bank’s structural adjustment policies forced India to open up its seed sector to global corporations like Cargill, Monsanto, and Syngenta. The global corporations changed the input economy overnight. Farm saved seeds were replaced by corporate seeds which needed fertilizers and pesticides and could not be saved.
As seed saving is prevented by patents as well as by the engineering of seeds with non-renewable traits, seed has to be bought for every planting season by poor peasants. A free resource available on farms became a commodity which farmers were forced to buy every year. This increases poverty and leads to indebtedness.
As debts increase and become unpayable, farmers are compelled to sell kidneys or even commit suicide. More than 25,000 peasants in India have taken their lives since 1997 when the practice of seed saving was transformed under globalisation pressures and multinational seed corporations started to take control of the seed supply. Seed saving gives farmers life. Seed monopolies rob farmers of life.
http://www.zmag.org/Sustainers/Content/2004-02/19shiva.cfm
July 26, 2007 at 6:13 am
Even if the imported labour was comparable to the cost of the local the issue would still exist.
Bajans not applying for all the jobs, not even the ones that require basic skills.
The standard of our work is still intermittent, inconsistant and clearly below the standard of the imported.
Dont get me wrong, we have very capable artisans and tradesmen in construction, but they are few and far between, even more expensive and in demand.
This issue is more about shooddy standards in service, low productivity and poor work ethic.
Spend some time on a general construction site, or simply hire local labour (most not all of them) to do general repairs at home ect. and you will experience exactly what I am describing.
Dont let construction workers in the UK, US or other places in on the secret. They would work for the sand, sea and Sun an a little cockspur, mount gay or Banks Beer. Although they work for more per hour, they work through rain, snow and other inclement weather to meet deadline. Our people stop when there is a slight drizzle.
July 26, 2007 at 6:44 am
unapologetic
July 26th, 2007 at 3:53 am
Morality will never beat economics in a boxing match once the referee is politician, and the promoter is big business. It’s all about getting more for less, the same concept as enslavement.
So for Barbadian construction workers to compete they now have to work in gangs, sleep on site, accept whatever massa dishes out, slave and save and sell the odd cabbage to buy your way off the plantation?
For Barbadian construction workers to compete they simply need to work. They dont even have to be comparable in value. They need to stop being liabilities and start becoming assets.
“to compete they now have to work in gangs, sleep on site, accept whatever massa dishes out, slave and save and sell the odd cabbage to buy your way off the plantation?”
That statement clearly illustrates where the problem lies. The legacy of slavery is such that we prefer to be paid for doing as little as possible and we still equate work and farming with slavery and the plantation. We should instead work, save, build our own, grow what we can and be as subsistent as possible so we can make sure that our children have more choice and do not have to take what is offered to us.
Your narrowist views are exactly the problem.
We should work, save our money, Invest it in wholesome self improvement, plant our own food, trade with each other, buy some tools, do the odd jobs on weekends, educate our selves to be entrepreneurs, enable our people to be independent to get out of the plantation once and for all.
Instead you want us to complain, be ashamed of growing and selling “the odd cabbage” and stay on the very plantation that mentally enslaves you. You dont even realise that by your very statement what you are saying.
Dont you see the COW’s and Bizzy’s and Kiffins and The Indians and Guyanese and now Chinese all start by working in the system and investing. They rapidly grow because they start with a vision and along with family, friends and partners with like vision, they prosper.
They are no more educated than us, in some cases less so. However, persons like you perpetuate the very system that has enslaved us for centuries.
Wake up, “unapologetic” go and get some earth and plant pots, old tyres, oil drum or plant a little kitchen garden and reduce your dependency on foreign food that indirectly employs foreign workers in other lands. Encourage the little potential Cabbage growers to diversify, trade food with each other, you will employ more of our kind. Encourage them to use the system, do an honest days work, be productive and invest so we can employ each other.
Oh yes and do the honorable thing… apologise and promise to open your mind in the future.
July 26, 2007 at 8:15 am
We must be careful not to easily lose our “focus” and divert our attention to matters related, but not at the root of the problem, therefore issues are not solved or properly addressed, they are talked around.
The matter under discussion as the heading of this thread indicates, quote:
” it seems to us that the ” highly placed Government official ” quoted by the Barbados Advocate has been detached from the reality on the street for some time. Bajan citizens concern over Chinese labourers – both legal and illegal – is not a new event created by the Four Seasons Project” unquote.
My take on this heading is that the Four Seasons Project is the “catalyst.” There have been problems before, and there are of course other issues which should be addressed, but we have drifted in conjecture and perception, consequently denigrating Barbadian contractors and workmen – some may say with justification, but that is not the issue here.
The issue is the Laws of Barbados – applicable to all citizens and visitors, even Chinese – and the proper administration of the same by an elected Government.
We must address “facts”
The Chinese workers on The Four Seasons Project are here. A Government Minister has said they should not be, no less a person than the Chief Immigration Officer is on the record as saying no permission has been given to his knowledge, those are “facts.”
The Citizens of Barbados deserve a proper and specific explanation, for what on the face of it appears to be the condoning of an illegal act by the Government, if Government officers will not obey the Law, why should ordinary citizens? that is the issue.
July 26, 2007 at 9:37 am
I repeat; HOME DRUM BEAT FIRST!!!
He who chooses to ignore that fact will one day face a dismal social reality…A HUNGRY MAN IS AN ANGRY MAN… in other words;a starving dog does bite yuh.
How can anyone (Annonymous included) with a conscience support the exclusion of Bajan labour?
Independence Square is still NOT COMPLETED.
Speightstown Esplanade has had some shoddy work done. I saw it when I went there a few days ago to listen to the steelbands. The Chinese work in SHIFTS, so don’t fool your fat that the same people work 18 and 20 hours a day.
Visit a site in the morning and take a close look at the faces, that might help to erase the silly myth that “Chinese work all day”.
July 26, 2007 at 11:47 am
Well, well, well.
I recall a time when the PM led a delegation to China. What really was the purpose of that visit? I recall that he took Leroy Trotman the Trade Union guru with him. What really was Mr Trotman’s role in that?
Now, we only hear from this Trotman on the Chinese labour issue only after the public has cried out, only after the Employers have gone to him. What was he thinking & doing before the Moorjhani led group drove into Solidarity House?
We can now clearly see him bringing his Union to support the Employers in their plight. What of Trade Union action BEFORE, when only the workers were crying out?
July 27, 2007 at 12:08 pm
((How can anyone (Annonymous included) with a conscience support the exclusion of Bajan labour?))
Littleboy I know you are not fooled by Anonymous and his ilk. I would bet my house Anonymous from the same elite that Bob Verdun wrote about in Sunday Sun. How come no discussion on Verdun’s real life piece? Anonymous you read it? Give us a comment.
Heres Anonymous again>
((Dont you see the COW’s and Bizzy’s and Kiffins and The Indians and Guyanese and now Chinese all start by working in the system and investing. They rapidly grow because they start with a vision and along with family, friends and partners with like vision, they prosper.))
Mark the folk he applauds. He wants us to think he from 95% majority.He is so transparent. In real life a white insurance company director secretly hires his wife to sell lucrative real estate belonging to company. Not even policy holders know about it far less the open job market. She makes millions so does he. Insider training, interlocking directorships, blatant racism, enriching friends, family, all of course of same pigment. Thats Anonymous background.
July 27, 2007 at 7:14 pm
All this talk about extra-regional labour..
It’s amazing how recently the Dems were talking about “going to our Caribbean Neighbours 1st” when from 2002 until, now have been anything but — Anti Caribbean.. opposing everything Caribbean & CSME. When it was the DLP administration that signed on to it in Grenada in 1989, wid Sandiford. All of a sudden, now they saying Caribbean workers should get a chance.
They never stick with a principle.. why am i surprised.. THEY NEVER HAVE. But Thompson should be the last to talk about extra-regional and foreign. His wife is from the Caribbean..St Lucia to be exact.. and he is the biggest extra-regional of aLL.. a BRITISH BORN citizen.. hmmmmmmmm.. The IRONIES continue
July 27, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Can’t Believe
How many more Bajans were born in England and elsewhere of Bajan parents?
Should Thompson,John King Allison Hinds, Kevin “KB Kleen” Hinds and many more be blamed for the country of birth. How much more irrelevant can you get.
The DLP has consistently supported CAribbean integration, but like our neighbours realize that a “pint pot cannot hold a gallon”…in other words free movement must entail certain constraints, and social fallout must be avoided.
What would happen if Barbados allowed its own workforce to be substantially excluded ? And the truth is that the “Chinese only” projects are in effect causing too much exclusion.
July 27, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Sir Roy Trotman is quoted in today’s press that he is trying to decide if to relax his pressure on the Chinese workers issue my advice is an absolute no to that stance.
They are here illegally they should be put out of the island until it is resolved.
August 5, 2007 at 11:57 am
I saw a few days ago in the newspaper that a non-national resident contrator is bring charged for employing a Guyanese labourer here illegally, without work permit.
???
One Guyanese labourer vs ??? Chinese?
Haha. Naughty non-national, aren’t they always to blame (sic)?? Call it ‘token’ prosecution?
Dem authorities dat be really mekking sport at we.
August 5, 2007 at 11:59 am
As someone said previously, the ‘inmates are running the asylum’.
Things really cannot be put any better than THAT!
August 19, 2007 at 1:53 pm
These two Patterson and Pemberton are trying to behave like two bullies or two spoilt children, it will happen my way or not happen at all.
Well I tell you what they need to be taught a lesson in humility and manners and that they cannot walk into another mans land and ride rough shod over its people like these have done, coupled with the fact that Owing has been bought by them and their money these two are on the top end of sly corrupt bastards that have created friction both locally and in the UK where they are both from, ask the former partners of Hamptons real estate and see what I mean.
They have riled the population of this island with their callous act of flouting the law and allowing the Chinese to work without a work permit in place, they ought to have been charged and fined and the workers deported as was done with the Indians but no the two scamps get away with no penatly at all because of their personal relationship with Arthur where he permitted them to hire the Chinese, you ever noticed he never said a single word about the issue even as it was creating a storm in the island ?
Why because he has been paid off by them to allow them to do as they like at the expense of us locals.
The total and complete destruction of the terrain at Batts Rock every single tree uprooted and destroyed is an amazing feat aided and abbeted by Owing and TCP department, I would put any money on it had any lowly person applied to destroy one tree there they would have been denied bluntly.
This is where the double standards come to the fore two sets of laws ones for the rich and laws for the poor, sadly many of we Barbadians fall into the poor grouping hence we get the shaft.
These two have scamed Mr CO Willians and Mr Bizzy Williams to the core I wish them well after carrying out this feat actually they not only shafted the Williams brothers they have the gall to use Port St .Charles for docking their luxary 120 ft yacht (that surely the investors have bought for them ) the old people used to god don’t like wicked and wicked they are thats maybe why their yacht virtually sank outside of Port St.Charles on Friday morning !!
I said on this site months ago that their plan was to employ over a thousand persons of which 600 were to be hired from China my words are still true and if you observe well the Chinese will sneek in almost unnoticed to eventually make the 600 as he refers to.
What I need to know is what will Owing do about this crime before it gets out of hand or will he do anything at all ?
Secondly we need to know what is the status of the remaining Chinese that were on location and working and have not been granted work permits have they been deported and never to be allowed to return ?
August 19, 2007 at 3:49 pm
The Nation is the mouth piece for Owing and company and by extension the mouth piece for Patterson and Pemberton thes guys are con artist of another level and we the locals are being conned in no small way with this lot.
The project is supposely two months behind hand and we are supposed to panic and release work permits nilly willy to pamper them well not if I had voice in it not one single Chinese work permit would get issued for them Bajans all the way, they want to make money out of Bajan soil well help make Bajans stronger in their own homeland and secondly the CARICOM region would be next in line for workers, while Owing talks CMSE he fails to carry out its plan or reasoning.
August 20, 2007 at 1:49 pm
I have said it before and continue to say it we have two crooks making arrangements with our leader who is also a know crook, what else can we expect ?
These two are two of the best in the business they have mastered the art of using other peoples money while making their bed comfortable.
Spend a few minutes to see what brought about Pemberton’s demise in Glitter Bay and Patterson’s in Hampton’s there are links with their actions there then and here now.
August 20, 2007 at 1:50 pm
I have said it before and continue to say it we have two crooks making arrangements with our leader who is also a known crook, what else can we expect ?
These two are two of the best in the business they have mastered the art of using other peoples money while making their bed comfortable.
Spend a few minutes to see what brought about Pemberton’s demise in Glitter Bay and Patterson’s in Hampton’s there are links with their actions there then and here now.