Barbados Prime Minister Donald Trump?

Did DLP Leader David Thompson meet with billionaire Donald Trump in Miami “in late 2006” and cut a deal to allow Trump Casinos onto Barbados in exchange for campaign support?

The BLP Blog is running that story today – called “DLP’s Gambling Deal“ … however, the same story says that the Barbados Free Press is “… allegedly managed and operated by close friends of the DLP…”

Ha ha… nice try BLP Blog. Alleged by whom? Friends of Gline Clarke who don’t like that we published photos of him living on expropriated land? Or perhaps friends of Prime Minister Owen Arthur who don’t like it that he won the 2006 Barbados Piggies At The Trough Award? Or maybe our accuser is “Lying Liz” Thompson or “Mama Mia” Mottley? (nah… couldn’t be Mottley. She’s a big supporter of blogging!)

Both the BLP and the DLP have shown themselves to be Barbados Piggies At The Trough.

It’s just that the BLP under Prime Minister Owen $ Arthur has been the most recent party to jump into the slops and is therefore our major target when it comes to criticizing unethical behaviour. If the DLP win the next election, we’ll hit them as hard as we’ve hit the BLP should they engage in the unethical behaviour that has characterized the reign of BLP’s Owen $ Arthur.

Now back to the gambling story…

We already have legalized gambling in Barbados in the form of a slot machine casino in a GEMS hotel under the BLP, and a national government approved lottery.

The issue is not whether or not Barbados will have casino gambling – that has already been decided and implemented and administered by the BLP government. The BLP Blog just seems to be upset about which games and types of casinos are allowed.

The issue is whether or not it should be legal for a political party to sell their influence. We agree it should not be legal for a political party to accept foreign money upon promise of performance if elected. If Thompson and the DLP did this, they are no different than the BLP thieves.

We call upon the ruling majority party – the Barbados Labour Party – to immediately introduce Election Financing and Disclosure Legislation – and to also immediately introduce Conflict of Interest and Integrity legislation. The BLP has a majority – they could make it happen tomorrow.

We also call upon the DLP – Democratic Labour Party to support the immediate introduction of Election Financing and Disclosure Legislation – and Conflict of Interest and Integrity Legislation.

Ladies and gentlemen of the BLP and DLP: do that and you can criticize anyone you want about unethical behaviour. Otherwise, sit down and shut up.

We citizens have had enough.

Message to the BLP: If you are so concerned about the DLP’s Thompson receiving election support from Trump – you have a majority government and (assuming the allegation is true) you can stop Trump and the DLP tomorrow by introducing Campaign Financing and Disclosure Laws.

Your call, Prime Minister!

Lies, More Lies and Damned Lies From The BLP Blog!

I just noticed this at the end of the latest post on the BLP Blog…

“From 1994, this BLP Government has kept its promise of open governance and full disclosure of information to our people. To our credit we are now a Nation of high credible standing. We will keep it that way.“

Fabulous, BLP! Fabulous!

Now… show us a list of all campaign contributors and the amounts given to the BLP since 1994.

“open governance and full disclosure”

Such garbage.

Old Barbados Newspapers Are A Treasure Of History

“James Lunan Esq., late Editor of the Jamaica Despatch has been liberated from Gaol by his Excellency Sir Charles Metcalf. Mr. Lunan was imprisoned for an alledged libel on Sir Lionel Smith…” 

Canadian Firm Offers Re-Prints Of Old Barbados Newspapers & Books

I was cruising the web last week after having searched “barbados history” and I stumbled upon a Canadian firm that sells reprints of old Barbados newspapers. The reprints are bound into large format books and are quite dear, but they have posted a few pages on the web as examples that can be downloaded.

Last night Shona and I spent some time reading the old Barbados papers and talking about what was what way back then. Never mind who owned what land – we’ve been trying to figure out for years if one of our ancestors might have owned the other.

A small intimate admission from both of us to you: sometimes we imagine being able to talk to great great great great great whoever – master and slave – and showing them our life together. One of us says “What do you think?” while the other one says “Take that, you evil old bastard!”

Reading the February 3, 1840 edition of the “Barbados Globe and Colonial Advocate” put me in the same mood – wondering about the people who placed the adverts, wrote the stories, and sailed on the sugar ships. What would they think of Barbados now? What would they think about Shona and me and our son?

What will our descendants (God willing) think upon reading today’s Nation News or Barbados Advocate 167 years from now?

If you enjoy history, you will enjoy a visit to CanDoo.Com

Old Barbados newspaper samples can be found here.

Barbados Burial Vaults From 1600’s

Hello Friends

We are in receipt of emails from several sources about a restoration / preservation of certain family burial vaults on Barbados and other preservation projects being discussed by a fairly large group of people. We think our readers would very much appreciate the importance of your work and would be interested in reading about it.

Could someone from your group kindly put together a bit of an outline and send it to BFP? We will turn it into an article – but we don’t want to do it ourselves from the emails as there are some rather private bits in there and we wouldn’t want to publish anything we shouldn’t.

Thanks!

Cliverton

barbadosfreepress (at) yahoo.com

Hartley Henry Thanks Cricket World Cup For The Wanton, Unaccountable Spending Of Future Generations’ Tax Dollars

UPDATE: April 29, 2010

Three years ago Hartley Henry made some statements about Cricket World Cup. We thought that Hartley might want to review what he said about the direct benefits to Bajans brought about by the CWC and transparency in accounting etc. so we’ll leave this post at the top for a day or two.

At the time we wondered if Hartley was on drugs or something when he made his statements.

What do you think, folks? Here’s the original article…

Old DLP Politician Hartley Henry Still Doesn’t Get It…

A few of Hartley’s quotes from his Nation News piece Thank Goodness For CWC, and our comments…

Hartley Says…

“… Even though I am not sold on the merits as initially outlined, I can look around Barbados and see the direct benefits that have accrued to Barbadians as a result of preparations for hosting this historic event. In future years, financial wizards will quantify the net cost, in hard-earned dollars, to the taxpayers of this country. My hope is that the accounting process on this occasion will be thorough and more transparent than it was when we hosted Carifesta in the 1970s…”

BFP Says….

For Hartley to say “My hope is that the accounting process on this occasion will be thorough and more transparent than it was when we hosted Carifesta in the 1970s…” shows that Hartley is losing it or is in need of immediate drug-rehab! Just another old-tyme politician who is totally out of touch with the mood of the country right now.

There are no laws requiring transparency, Hartley. Your DLP Party failed to institute them. Further, Prime Minister Owen Arthur states that Barbados does not need such laws.

Give your head a shake, friend! This is Barbados and the 2007 Cricket World Cup Piggies At The Trough Feed Fete is in high gear!

What a headache we are going to have in the morning.