Bizzy Williams SHOCKED that people don’t pay invoices, taxes!

In the Nation, Ralph “Bizzy” Williams is shocked, SHOCKED I TELL YOU, that some businesses and people order products and services from his businesses and then fail to pay. He’s also shocked that people don’t pay the government either. (Nation: Pay shame)

Welcome to reality, Bizzy.

Maybe folks were only following your example…

Maybe people were afraid to not pay you before because you and your brother carry a lot of weight ’bout this place. Maybe they were afraid that you could make a phone call and the police would pay some ‘special attention’ to your reports.

It could be though that people have developed a culture of law-breaking here in Barbados. This is learned behaviour. After watching the government, political and business classes break the law for years, after seeing the government ruin people and businesses by not paying debts, court judgements or VAT refunds, ordinary people are emulating the behaviour of our leaders, including Bizzy and COW Williams.  

Bizzy Williams: Forget the law if illegal development makes money.

“The Law? Piss on it… Successful developers should buy their way out after breaking the law”

Vaucluse Raceway was built without permission. The developers thumbed their noses at the law and did what they wanted to do. And, because we are a country where all laws are selectively applied and enforced for reasons of money, family, status and connections, the developers got away with it.

No permissions, no permits, no plans submitted for approval, no environmental study, no traffic plan… and the only input from the community was HELL NO!!!. With support from powerful elites like Bizzy Williams, the government feared to close the place down. Some government officials tried to close it down, but the developers told them to Piss Off and kept working.  Soon the government officials went away. A wise man would guess the government officials were given the word from high up.

And maybe probably there were some “campaign donations” made too.

Vaucluse developers ruined their neighbours’ property values and destroyed the quality of life for hundreds of folks living within the sound of the revving engines and squealing tires. Some folks can’t even get in and out of their gaps on race days.

The Vaucluse developers knew they would have little chance of obtaining permission if they obeyed the law, so they said “Piss on the Law. We’ll handle the law later and Bizzy Williams will give us a hand.”

Bizzy Williams lends a hand to law-breakers

Vaucluse makes money and Bizzy Williams says that’s all that matters. He says the developers should be fined and then allowed to continue. After all, the place is making lots of money and the developers can afford to pay a fine, so fine them and let them continue, says Bizzy.

The fine is a little concession so ordinary people can’t claim the law wasn’t respected. That is a disgusting manipulation but that’s Barbados.

Bizzy even confessed that he didn’t follow the law when he took Bushy Park track so long ago. So, he says, the same should go for the Vaucluse developers.

Sum up Bizzy’s statements like this: “Piss on the law if it pleases me to do so and I can make money.”

Bizzy and the Vaucluse boys show everybody that certain Bajans can do as they please – so long as Bizzy Williams or some other business or political elite supports the law-breaking.

Same old, same old

For ordinary Bajans, there’s nothing new in this story. We’ve heard similar happenings a hundred times. Remember the Turf Club collected $20 million in gate taxes but kept the money. You and I would be in jail for doing the same thing at our little shop.

The government again proved there are two laws in Barbados… One law for THEM, and another law for the rest of us ordinary folk.

Piss on the Law and pay a only small fine when caught, Mr. Williams?

Ok Sir. I’ll follow your example from now on. Thanks.

Further Reading

Here is the Barbados Today article that started this conversation – Flog them and let them go

Please read the article at their website, but as usual we have to print the entire piece here because the Bajan news media often re-writes history.

Does Bizzy Williams have a piece of Adams Castle Estate?

“Strange alliances, strange happenings here and there…”

Dear Barbados Free Press,

Have you noticed the strange alliances and strange happenings here and there in the last year? So many unusual partners, people who wouldn’t be seen in the same room together all of a sudden working and cooperating on business and land deals. Is it the difficult times? Is it the leadership vacuum since David Thompson’s death and the fracture of the BLP?

Whatever is happening, I’ll say in tribute to Bob Dylan turning 70 (gasp!), “The times they are a changin.”

I heard a rumour the other day and I don’t know if it’s true…

but the person who told it to me believed it was true. They said that Bizzy Williams had a piece of Adams Castle Estate as an investor, not a buyer. Considering the other known players, that would be something new, wouldn’t it? What does it mean if anything at all?

Tell me what you think. Are the times they are a changin’?

Photo of Bizzy Williams at the Adams Castle Estate opening from the Bajan Reporter story New Barbadian Gated Community – Adams Castle Estate: Very Upscale

Bizzy Williams asks BFP readers: “Should Barbados pursue wind generation of electricity… and if so, where?”

UPDATED: September 21, 2010

A year ago Bizzy Williams asked a question here at Barbados Free Press. As we reconsider what Bizzy said at the time, we at BFP ask “What has really been done by anyone in Barbados during the past year to implement alternative energy sources?”

We can think of the bio-diesel project and one man who spent $60,000 equipping his home with solar and wind generated power but not much else. Perhaps it is time for Bajans to bite the bullet about wind farms, and then stand aside and let Bizzy and his team get on with it. Bizzy is a man who can actually make a large project like this happen. We can have another year of talk, talk, talk or let Bizzy do, do, do.

Here’s what Bizzy wrote a year ago and BFP’s original article…

Question to all bloggers. Should Barbados pursue wind generation of electricity? If so would the high ground to the East of the new recycling center at Vaucluse be the right place for the wind turbines to be erected or should Government grant BL&P permission to build a wind farm at Lamberts? Or should both sites be used?

Bizzy Williams, Williams Industries Inc.

Why not harness the wind?

100% Energy: Any man of Bizzy's age who can party until 8am has our respect!

Last Friday ‘Bizzy’ Williams visited Barbados Free Press and asked our readers about wind power. While there are concerns about where to put wind farms, we at Barbados Free Press believe that this country must embrace alternative energy sources – and that we need leaders like Bizzy to make it happen on a large enough scale to be effective.

Barbados has lots of energy just waiting to be captured: wind, sun & tidal – but without people like Bizzy who actually make things happen on a daily basis, this will be just so much talk. Who would you rather see implementing wind power in Barbados… one hundred politicians and bureaucrats in a room discussing what colour the towers should be, or Bizzy Williams and crew saying “Get de hell outta de way! Let’s get it done!” ?

Of course, we can’t just let business do what it wants without oversight to remind business folks that while profits are important (and they are), there are national interests that have to be satisfied. BFP has criticized Bizzy, brother Sir Charles and Williams Industries Inc. in the past when they made choices that were against the people and sometimes against the law. (We’re still waiting for Bizzy and company to apologize to Bajans for making a private beach at his Port St. Charles marina project.) – Editor’s note: Bizzy disputes this last sentence and says so in the comments section at the end of this article.

Reader Fires Broadside At Bizzy Williams’ Nation News Letter – “Xenophobic, Stupid, Intolerant”

UPDATED: Bizzy Williams’ letter added at the bottom…

Dear Barbados Free Press,

This letter is in response to Mr. Bizzy Williams’ letter to be found on page 13 of the Weekend Nation (May 29, 2009).

Dear Mr. Williams:

Let me say for starters I have not read such a xenophobic piece in a long time. I am a born and bread Bajan who is capable of accurately tracing my roots for over six generations. I am deeply embarrassed that someone with your prominence in our society can pen such utterances.

My wife of over 30 years and three children are not born and bread Bajan, however, they became naturalized citizens of my beautiful country because of my heritage; yet you want to deprive them of a right that they have earned..

If you were to get your way none of my children or my wife would be able to vote in their adopted home country Barbados. This is in spite of the fact that they all pay their taxes on time – inclusive of PAYE, VAT and NIS.

Your intolerance for “foreigners” reminds is no less repugnant than the US’ most notorious media bigots, namely Rush Limbaugh, Bill O-Reilly, Lou Dobbs and Sean Hannity.

Editor's Note: Any man of Bizzy's age who can party until 8am has our respect!

By the way Mr. Williams, what do you mean by “a culture unlike ours”? May I remind you that culture is a set of patterns and traits exhibited by humans from the time of our existence and such characteristics are often used to define any given period, community, country, ethnic group or class within a respective society. As you can or should appreciate, culture is by no means static and actually it is a very dynamic process which will continue to undergo metamorphosis over time.

Here in Barbados we do not have a homogeneous culture, For the weekly paid construction worker with four children to support will never be able to sip Chivas Regal too regularly much less own a multimillion dollar yacht, however, both you and I are aware of those Bajans in our midst where this is an everyday part of life. There are some of us Bajans who prefer dancing to the dance hall star Buju Banton at Reggae Longue while there are others who prefer a night out taking in the classical violinist Patmore Lewis at Holder’s Plantation House. We are still Bajan in spite of the fact of our differences culturally.

Both you and I know that political parties here in Barbados seldom dance to the tune of the electorate as a matter of fact they are more likely to cow tow to major political financiers. Case in point both parties routinely break election promises following every election.

Mr. Williams I have always credited you with some intelligence, however, you went onto compromise my opinion when you state, “.. everyone (who was born in Barbados) and allowed to vote would at least have grown up in Barbados…”. Do you see the stupidity of such a conclusion? My Brother’s two kids were born in Barbados but migrated from Barbados when they were 3 and 5 respectively and have lived and are still living overseas for the last 20 years. However, if we were to follow your decree my Bajan born but overseas living nephews should be allowed to vote while my non-Barbados born but Bajan by descent kids should never be allowed to vote in the country they have called home for over 25 years. How utterly stupid!!!

Do you realise that if you were given your way most of out Prime Ministers wives (including PM Thompson) would never have been able to vote for their husband’s political party. Mr. Williams it looks as though that your brain was not in gear when you penned your harangue.  .

Mr. Williams how come we never heard a disparaging word from you regarding “foreigners” when Port St. Charles was being conceptualized and built or for that matter Apes Hill and the plethora of other similar projects. Was the conspicuous silence because these foreigners imported a culture that was similar to yours?

May be we are all foreigners for when our ancestors originally “discovered” Barbados some 550 years ago there were unsuspecting indigenous inhabitants that roamed Barbados for centuries who were a lot more welcoming to our fore parents than you are being to our neighbouring CARICOM brothers and sisters.

I consider myself much more culturally compatible to the foreigners you doth vehemently protest about. However, unlike you I am tolerant of the foreigners from both near and far for I see both these groups of people as having the potential to contribute in a positive manner to my beautiful island country called Barbados even it is no more than to diversify our stagnant gene pool.

A Bajan Forever

Letter written by Bizzy Williams…