Government Claims $90 Million A Year In Departure Tax Revenues… Where Is The Money?

Where is the logic?

The justification of the 140 per cent increase in departure tax was to pay for the airport improvements.

But not only has the tax increased, it is now applies to a much larger number of people due to a change in age requirements and the fact it is now levied on in-transit passengers.

If Minister of Tourism, Noel Lynch, boasting about the 1.5 million passengers that pass through or arrive at Grantley Adams International Airport per year is correct, then that that’s an annual revenue through departure tax alone of $90 million.

That’s before any landing fees, rents collected on concessionary stores etc.

$90 million a year and still the airport leaks and the air conditioning does not work effectively!

Why isn’t this same logic applied to other Government owned entities like Caves of Barbados Inc, and dare I mention Hotels and Resort Ltd.

The Minister has promised Intra Caribbean airfares will fall within four to six weeks.

Let us wait and be pleasantly surprised.

Adrian Loveridge

We Publish Exclusive Photo Of Cricket World Cup Final Game Ending

Match Officials Slammed By ICC For Cricket World Cup “I Can’t See The #@$! Bat” Final Game

“The World Cup, which had already been dogged by poor crowds, bad publicity, and one-sided cricket, not to mention the lingering shadow of Bob Woolmer’s death in Jamaica, desperately needed a successful final between Australia and Sri Lanka to salvage some respect.

Instead, it got the most farcical finish of all time.” (from CricInfo.com)

We thought that the final game was most appropriate… a fitting end to Cricket World Cup 2007. A worldclass public event managed so badly that not even the Prime Minister would show his face publicly at the grand finale.

If you need more punishment, read “World Cup Officials Slammed By ICC“ at Cricinfo.

Will We Ever Have A Police Commissioner With The Courage To Arrest A Politician? Or Is Lack Of Courage Not The Problem?

Are Police Commissioner Dottin And PM Arthur Cousins?

Barbados Underground talks about how the Prime Minister and other Barbados politicians regularly deposit “campaign donations” to their personal bank accounts and then transfer the money (or not!) to the party coffers. Owen $ Arthur got caught in public a few months ago doing so with a cheque for three quarters of a million dollars.

BU asks…

The question BU wish to pose to Arthur is how long did he leave the cheque in his personal account before transfer to the BLP party account?

During the time it was on his personal account did the money receive interest from FCIB and if so was the interest received transferred to the party account as well?

Just asking. (read Barbados Underground’s story here)

David at Barbados Underground also asks folks to email his story to at least two friends to sensitize all Barbadians to be on the look-out for wrong doing.

Interesting Point: Our old friend Thistle is well plugged in to upper and lower Bajan society and he reports that Prime Minister Owen Arthur and Police Commissioner Dottin are first cousins.

Barbados Underground had been wishing that the Police Commissioner had some, er “courage of the bull”, but perhaps lack of courage isn’t the reason that no Barbados politicians have ever been arrested for wrong-doing during the last twelve years.

Well, Commissioner Dottin…. ?

Are you related to Prime Minister Owen Arthur or not?

One cannot choose one’s relatives, but in a free and transparent democracy even potential conflicts of interest must be put on the table.

Now that the issue has been raised in public, you must respond Sir.

Bridgetown Street Scene – Thanks To Careless Merchants And Vagrants Working Together!

Sanitation Service Authority Begs Bridgetown Shop Keepers To Shape Up

PRESS RELEASE: Businesses & Merchants are urged to improve Bridgetown’s appearance!

The Sanitation Service Authority is urging all members of the Bridgetown Community to join with us as we strive to improve conditions of sanitation in the City.

You are requested NOT to put out garbage between the hours of 9:00 am and 3:00 pm.

Your collection hours are 2:00 am to 8:30 am and 4:30 pm – 10:00 pm on weekdays.

Disposing of your garbage after the designated collection times allows vagrants to tear open and empty bags, thereby creating an unsightly mess.

You may contact Mr Payne or Mr Neblett at our City Office, the telephone number is 430-5039.

(Thanks to Ian Bourne at Bajan Reporter for the story and photo. Hey…. wait a minute…. Cliverton? Isn’t that your girlfriend?) 🙂

July, August, September = Robert In Airshow Heaven, Will Meet Lee Archer, Also Wants To Buy Some Concorde Scrap

BFP’s Robert Will Be Blogging The Airshow Circuit This Summer

Near the end of July our own Robert will once again be making his every-five-years pilgrimage to Oshkosh, Wisconsin to attend the largest airshow in the world. Officially it’s called “EAA Airventure“ and to Robert and pilots everywhere it is simply known as “Oshkosh”. Although I saw and enjoyed one airshow years ago in upstate New York, I don’t really understand the allure of spending a week of sleeping in a tent and using porta-potties just to watch flying stunts being performed every day. But that’s Robert’s idea of a good time, so who are we to argue?

For Robert though, even saying the word “Oshkosh” in his presence invokes a quasi-religious trance that soon culminates with him saying something like “Did I ever tell you about the time that… “

And then he fills in the blanks with some variant of…

a/ “… I met (insert name of famous pilot) at Oshkosh?”

b/ “… I sat in a (insert name of ultra-rare or exotic aircraft) at Oshkosh?”

or the ever-popular…

c/ “… I saw (insert name of famous aerobatic pilot) upside down only three feet off the ground at 400 miles per hour at Oshkosh?”

Last time Robert was scheduled to attend this “fly-in” his old employer made the mistake of saying that he couldn’t have the time off in the summer. Foolish employer.

After Oshkosh, Robert has a short-term contract job doing “hot-section” inspections and other tasks for the entire month of August and into September. We can’t say too much about where he’ll be working, but if you’re really interested you could check out the Blue Angels airshow schedule for August and September because Robert will be seeing their show on one of his weekends off.

Then at the end of September Robert will head to Columbus, Ohio for the Gathering of Mustangs at Rickenbacker Airport where he hopes to meet Lt. Colonel Lee Archer (U.S. Air Force Retired) up close for the second time. That airshow is all about the World War Two P-51 Mustang airplane and the men and women who flew them in wartime. (Yes, women too!)

In case you’ve never heard of Lee Archer, he is one of the remaining Tuskegee Airmen – the first black US combat pilots who flew in World War II.

Robert promises to continue blogging and also to provide some photos and stories for the Bajan flying enthusiasts who can’t get to Oshkosh this year.

Supersonic Concorde Parts Auction

Robert is also talking about buying a window frame or some other identifiable part from the supersonic Concorde airliner. It seems that France is auctioning off their Concorde parts to aviation enthusiasts at the end of September. (Robert counts as an “aviation enthusiast” as he once owned an ejection seat taken from a German made F-104 jet fighter. His woman made him get rid of it “or else”. He claims he made the wrong choice and that his “life in hell” for the next 2 years was proof of that.) 😉

We’ve had a look at the Concorde Auction Website and we think that Robert should re-consider his choice of bidding on a window frame. He should be bidding on Item #259!