Barbados Government Expropriates Private Land… Then Doesn’t Pay The Owners!!! Canadian Government Gets Involved

Will The Corruption Never Cease?

My friends, I am almost without words this morning. I am in such despair over yet another incident that highlights the apparent inability of successive Barbados politicians to conduct themselves like honest professionals who care about and adhere to the rule of law.

If the Government of Barbados expropriates your land, you should at least be paid for it!

Never mind the arguments about how land expropriation (called “compulsory acquisition” in Barbados) should be justified or allowed… you should at least be paid a fair price for your land if the government takes it!

But that’s not the way it works in Barbados.

In Barbados, a Government Minister will vote to expropriate your land… and in a few months you will find he has built a fine house on it for his mistress! (Yes, Gline Clarke, we be takin ’bout YOU!)

In Barbados, the big-ups in government have no integrity rules against their profiting from their position or insider knowledge. Combine the legal ability of government officials to misuse their offices for personal profit with their ability to expropriate land without any real protection for the landowner… and you have the high-risk disaster that is all too often faced by foreign and domestic owners of real estate on this island.

The latest horror story of expropriated lands not paid for by government can be found at Keltruth Blog, along with a letter from the Government of Canada indicating the sleezey actions of Barbados government officials involved in the Kingsland Estates dispute.

Keltruth Blog: Barbados Government expropiates Kingsland land but does not pay!

Mikko Lost In Barbados – Please Bring Him Home!

For the latest on Mikko, check out FindMikko.com

Please Bring Mikko Home

As of Tuesday afternoon, around 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon our Golden Retreiver has gone missing from our home in Locust Hall St. George. He Answers to the name of Mikko.   Mikko is literally a part of our family and we are totally lost without him. Our last dog only recently passed away due to kidney failure and we cannot stand the thought of not having Mikko come home. He has never gone missing for this period of time and isn’t wearing his collar.

He is not a dangerous dog, but is probably now very hungry and very thirsty by now. He is approximately 4 Years old and answers to the name “Mikko” [pronounce like me-kho].  An handsome reward is being offered for his safe return or for accurate tips leading to his whereabouts.

If you know anything please contact Luke, Mark or Adam on 256-8000, 256-8007, or 256-8001 respectively. Alternatively you can dial us on 435-6699.

If you spot him, please feel free to call the above numbers or email us where you last saw him at info@FindMikko.com . We consider him a part of our family and any tips you have about his whereabouts are sincerely appreciated!

Cable & Wireless Makes 91 Million Dollar Profit – Barbados Consumers Still Pay $4.00 Monthly Charge Per Cell Phone

Why Is This Man Smiling?

Barbadians are being portrayed as over 90 percent literate, but we must ask ourselves if this literacy entwined our behaviour regarding how we are raped by certain multi national monopolies whose only language are Profits, Assets, Dividends and Price Increases. In the last budget speech, Barbadians were fed a rough diet of taxes that are choking us, yet we keep our mouth shut and digest the said diet of bitter pills.

Once before we use to look at homes with electricity, with telephones and with a car as luxuries, but these things are now a necessity. We thought that with the implementation of cell phones was for the wealthy, but we now find that it is a precious instrument for communication. Unfortunately, the PM acknowledged that over 290,000 mobile phones are in operation, thus the excellent reason (in his opinion) to relieve us of $4.00 per month. Owners of cell phones will grease the Consolidated Funds with healthy net revenue of $13.9 million per year.

Cable and Wireless made BDS$659.71 NET PROFIT for every man, women and child on Barbados for financial year ending March 2008.

Are we as a people really analyzed how these monopolies rape economies? Are our leaders really looking at the bottom line especially when these companies have the audacity to let us know that they enjoy a $91 million after tax profit? This is the area where I am angry, fed-up and sick of the raping of our people by companies and our leaders. I am stating that the budget could have embraced monopolies who surpassed a certain profit margin to be taxed accordingly. Would C&W be affected by releasing some of these profits to the consumer?

If as stated by the PM that all these cell phones are in operational, that mean the service provider will be receiving approximately $20 to $40 per month per consumer multiply by 290,000, but alas!, the budget by passed them and imposed the harsh penalty on the consumer. I am saying that Cable & Wireless have been raping us for years and now seeing fit to remove certain costs that should never been imposed in this first place.

This is the time for an open telecommunication market where we will be able to enjoy far better rates. We deserve better Barbados, let’s start putting pressure on these money grabbing entities.

By the way, C&W is now a lean machine due to the downgrading of staff and electronic answering services. What say you Technician?

Written by BFP Reader Tell Me Why.

The phrase in red was suggested by another reader.

Further Reading

Nation News: $91m To C & W In 2007/2008