Me: hey my not drinking is just about my chemistry, my brain and my body, and what does and doesn’t work for me. It’s a personal thing, to take care of myself. It’s not about you and your drinking, has nothing to do with you and your drinking, and frankly I’m not judging you and your drinking at all.

Also me: drunk people are the most fucking obnoxious scourge on this green earth

A year and some has passed since my last Pastoral, and in some sense it seems as if nothing has changed, though in truth much has changed.  For the worse. The Trump administration, dogged with endless scandal and corruption, simply doubles down. Mired in a cesspool of moral and ethical offenses and plain old crimes, the nation seems stunned, our political parties paralyzed.  Offense on offense is dumped in the public lap, a myriad of impeachable acts are done and while the air is sour with alarm, almost nothing has happened to confront the new reality.  Yet there is a reason for this stasis, one which curiously is what provokes it.

Starved dead whale in OregonFrom Bette Gordon’s Variety

The ascendancy of Trump, seen by many as an aberration,  a slap in the face to our sense of civil decorum, was in reality simply an unveiling of ourselves.  For decades America has been corrupt and rotted to the core – not just the hard-right business oriented sorts, but our nice soft liberals as well.  On the right the military industrial complex and its endless wars, was encouraged to expand since there was much profit to be made from it, and few raised a complaint.  Now President Eisenhower’s Farewell speech warning has come to full flower, and both Republicans and Democrats genuflect to the military, while civilians pay their taxes and utter “Thank you for your service” while veterans, utterly abandoned after that “service”, commit suicide at such rate that far more have died that way than in combat.

On the liberal side the corruption can be seen in universities which have become secondary to their football and basketball teams, where grade inflation and cozy “legacy” admissions warp the fabric of education.  It can be seen in the empty gestures toward “green” behavior, with recycling and hybrid cars and endless feel-good symbolic acts which utterly fail to address the reality that America is a vicious militarist/capitalist system which seizes 25% of the globe’s resources to serve 4.4 % of the world’s population.   To effect any real change requires a drastic down-sizing of American consumption, something which even the most liberal of Americans will not consider. They will say instead that the 25% must simply be more equitably distributed, not that we need to cut back 80% to properly fit our population.  It is a moral corruption no less damning than the rude billionaire’s club of the Republican’s.

Neo-Nazi rally, NCNavy Seal acquitted of murdering Iraqi prisoner

While many “good” Americans abhor Trump, and many others celebrate him, the brutal truth is that he is a symptom, an ugly scab which reveals the broad, deep decadence which has been building in American society for decades, and which while transparently evident for all that time, was discreetly ignored or minimized, as being something which a minority of other people did, and never oneself. Corruption was a flaw of 3rd world places, or Italy or Turkey. It was the kind of lie familiar in totalitarian states in which the official truth is known by all be be false, but has to be accepted for survival.  Americans imagined themselves mystically different but they were not.  While the nation built a vast military empire, visible and obvious, everyone paid their taxes, and few protested. The unacknowledged benefits were simply too enticing, and besides, resisting would just be too much bother and risk.

Since the end of World War Two, Americans have lived in a fantasy bubble, perceiving themselves ever as the good guys, the white-hat cowboy come to save the damsel in distress.  After all we’d gone to Europe’s and Asia’s defense, beating the Krauts and the Japs, sacrificing our youth for others.  Our story.  Never mind it was the Soviet Union which sacrificed endlessly more and did the job in Europe, and never mind it was Japanese over-reach which cost them their war.  But for we Americans, nope, it was our glorious GI’s that turned the tide, and won the day.  Westerns.  We, in our own minds, come what may, were always the good guys.

John Wayne

As the world slowly pieced itself back together after the conclusion of the war, America was essentially a back-door socialist society, recovered from the Depression-era ravages of capitalism run amok thanks to the WPA, Social Security and myriad other government props deliberately devised to save capitalism from itself.  Coupled with the steroid boost of vast government spending (debt) to conduct the war – factories for building ships, tanks, planes, all constructed on the government dime – the USA emerged as an industrial power-house with virtually no competition. It had all been leveled by the war, save for what was left in the USSR.  And together, entering the ’50’s America propagated its myths to the globe, and to itself.

USA USA USA  #1 #1 #1.

And America, and much of the rest of the world, fell for it.  We were the shining beacon, the city on the hill, the biggest economy, the champion of democracy, the general all-around do-good guys of the 50’s.  Everybody loved us and we loved us.  Or at least so we told ourselves.

Charles Sheeler

The fifties cemented America’s self-image as the benign biggest bestest country ever, the melting pot, the energetic inventive nation that had thrown off the shackles of old-world corruptions, tossed the aristocracy on the dung heap of history, and was innocent and pure.  We gave generously to others, developed the Marshall Plan for Europe, and turned Japan into a nation of Peaceniks.

We were a Norman Rockwell painting.

We were, of course, utterly self-deluded, mired in the propaganda we had issued about ourselves to others.  We were the knights riding in on white horses saving the world from the scourge of Nazism and the Yellow Peril.  We wore the white hats, dammit.

I recall in high-school having a final “civics” test which had 100 questions, two of which were the same question phrased differently – it asked why is/was/will be American foreign policy always be formed for the good of the other countries.  I replied it isn’t/wasn’t and wouldn’t be, citing some of the warped history they had taught me – for example, the Spanish-American war, which among other things was the first Gulf of Tonkin trick, to be deployed but a few years later.  I “missed” this question twice, and one other about who wrote the Virginia Bill of Rights.  3 questions of 100.  I was flunked.  As I recall I took the matter to the administration but I don’t remember the result.  The old lady teacher was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

  Andy WarholRichard Avedon

Danny Lyons

In the 50’s, creeping through the back-door of French colonialism, we took over their role in Indo-China, largely in secret. At the same time we overthrew the elected government of Iran, installing an erstwhile Shah who did our bidding and was duly celebrated as modernizing ancient Persia.  Our fingers were in Africa and Central and South America, propping up useful dictators.  This however did not show up much to the American mind until the 60’s.  Pieces occasionally slipped by the censors, but most of America’s dirty work was kept well from view, and what was not was always justified by the Cold War, in which the USSR, our former ally, was demonized.  Anything was justified to stop “communism.”  And stopping communism was a good excuse to construct a global empire, all in the name of doing good.

Thomas Eakins

The 60’s brought an abrupt ending to America’s introverted dream of itself as the perfect Ozzie and Harriet land of white-bread harmony.  Instead the fixed verities of the 50’s were up-ended as kids grew their hair long, disdained Mad Ave proprieties, and the civil rights movement flared into open warfare against the deep long racist reality of the nation.  The “cultural” war was on, challenging the status-quo assumptions of the country regarding race, sex, money, and myriad other “givens” of our society.  The seeds for a decades long tectonic shift in what America really is, and how it perceives itself, were planted.

Dallas, 1963Detroit, 1967Los Angeles, 1968Chicago, 1968

Even more frightening for those who found the 50’s a nirvana of normalcy, the actual demographics of the nation were changing colors: the country was slowly becoming non-white.  Women were demanding equal status.  The old verities of a patriarchal, racist culture were collapsing and anger was in the air.   It still is.

The Vietnam war coupled with the civil rights movement, rapidly joined by feminists and gays and other deprived elements of our society quickly ripped the veneer of 1950’s propriety to shreds and laid bare the hypocrisies of the nation.  It continues to this day, now shrieked out in headlines quoting the erstwhile President with racist diatribes and misogynist vomit.  The 1970’s roiled the nation in the wake of the 60’s and in rode a familiar figure, the cowboy in the white had, to the rescue.  This particular cowboy was about as authentic as Wild Bill Cody, hailing from Illinois and Hollywood, a showbiz shill for General Electric and other corporate interests.  Sporting an aw-shucks demeanor and an All-American down-home fake accent, Ronald Reagan offered respite from nearly two decades of turmoil.  He promised a Shining City on the Hill and trickle-down economics, and except for his own kind – the rich – he actually took a piss on the rest.  All the promised showers were golden.

In America’s seeming zig-zag politics – Reagan begot a one-term Bush which led to led to “good old (iberal) boy” Clinton, a sorta two-term “left” wobble that boomeranged to a two-term “right” Bush,  Cheney’s inside-job 9/11,  briefly stunning the nation into a seeming unity until the real Bolton intent was made clear with a fraudulent WMD claim war, the catastrophic invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the deep fractures in our social comity stepped  up into the glare of the spotlight. Soured on Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” liberals united behind the unheard of a silver-tongued black candidate, and Obama, at best a center-Republican of yore inside, was readily voted in, the Establishment’s Harvard-trained Manchurian Candidate, who deftly pulled the wool over the fawning liberals so pleased with themselves for showing their I-am-not-a-racist credentials for having voted for him.  Of course he could move in next door, though a guy from the hood with a boom box doing rap at the BBQ might not be so welcome.

Obama policies, liberal on the identity politics side, pro Wall Street and hard-core military-industrial complex War War War on the foreign policy side, (but for Obama discreetly, with drones, off-the-books, black-ops, not spoken of lest the liberals notice) managed to flummox the nation.  We were, said he and others, now post-racial.  For eight years it became socially unPC to murmur anything that could be interpreted as racist or sexist or any violation of someone’s norms.  While ample signs pointed to the volcano just beneath the surface of our shared politics, the elite of the Beltway chose not to see it. In private they spoke of “deplorables” and simply missed what had been going on for 40 years behind their backs, off in the backwaters of “fly-over” land, that “globalization” had decimated and left behind. (Read William Kittredge’s 1998 book Who Owns the West for a prescient early view of this.)

Helen Frankenthaler

The flim-flam snake-oil salesman is embedded into our culture as deeply as anything: American as apple-pie.  Right down to our bedrock myths of ourselves, the scrappy pilgrims who built up New World from scratch.  Forget about the millions of indigenous people who were already here; forget about the millions of slaves.  And so on – it is a tired myth woven of lies and self-delusion.  Presently we are experiencing its death throes, the shudder of a centuries old society as it faces the mirror and cannot face the image which returns its stare.  We are brutal. We are ugly.  We are evil.

We are 4.4% of the world’s human population sitting on 7% of its landmass and gorging on 25% of the world’s resources.  We do this by having had the economic weight and military force to seize these resources by blackmail, extortion, military threats and when those fail, pure military force.  We have done it for some centuries now.  We are an empire, and as usual, an evil one.  Like all empires we pretend we’re the guys in white hats.

An honest history of ourselves tells us this was always so, and that the heroic stories we concocted for ourselves were false.  But before we bow out, we have a last show-biz conman to survive and his millions of followers, many or them allegedly devout Christians who wallow in resentment and hatred, while clutching the Cross.  Hypocrisy, if one reads our history well, is as American as apple pie too.

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

                                                                                                               Walt Whitman

Our poet laureate sang his songs, enticing, beautiful.  And they offered one of the many threads which make up the tapestry of our communal delusion.  These days his self-celebration has curdled, as it has now many times, into a narcissism of feel-good gestures – yoga and recycling and solar panels and panels of Norman Vincent Peale emulators speaking the newest hip phrases of the same old balm.  Atop the curdled pop culture of our time sits a vulgarian impressario, a narcissist of the first rank, ready to lead his base of last-gasp old white racists over the buffalo cliff, taking everyone with him.

America I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing. America two dollars and twentyseven cents January 17, 1956. I can’t stand my own mind. America when will we end the human war? Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb. I don’t feel good don’t bother me. I won’t write my poem till I’m in my right mind. America when will you be angelic? When will you take off your clothes? When will you look at yourself through the grave? When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites? America why are your libraries full of tears? America when will you send your eggs to India? I’m sick of your insane demands. When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks? America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world. Your machinery is too much for me. You made me want to be a saint. There must be some other way to settle this argument. Burroughs is in Tangiers I don’t think he’ll come back it’s sinister. Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke? I’m trying to come to the point. I refuse to give up my obsession. America stop pushing I know what I’m doing. America the plum blossoms are falling. I haven’t read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for murder. America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies. America I used to be a communist when I was a kid I’m not sorry. I smoke marijuana every chance I get. I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet. When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid. My mind is made up there’s going to be trouble. You should have seen me reading Marx. My psychoanalyst thinks I’m perfectly right. I won’t say the Lord’s Prayer. I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations. America I still haven’t told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came over from Russia. I’m addressing you. Are you going to let your emotional life be run by Time Magazine? I’m obsessed by Time Magazine. I read it every week. Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candy store. I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library. It’s always telling me about responsibility. Businessmen are serious. Movie producers are serious. Everybody’s serious but me. It occurs to me that I am America. I am talking to myself again.

Asia is rising against me. I haven’t got a chinaman’s chance. I’d better consider my national resources. My national resources consist of two joints of marijuana millions of genitals an unpublishable private literature that jetplanes 1400 miles an hour and twentyfive-thousand mental institutions. I say nothing about my prisons nor the millions of underprivileged who live in my flowerpots under the light of five hundred suns. I have abolished the whorehouses of France, Tangiers is the next to go. My ambition is to be President despite the fact that I’m a Catholic.

America how can I write a holy litany in your silly mood? I will continue like Henry Ford my strophes are as individual as his automobiles more so they’re all different sexes. America I will sell you strophes $2500 apiece $500 down on your old strophe America free Tom Mooney America save the Spanish Loyalists America Sacco & Vanzetti must not die America I am the Scottsboro boys. America when I was seven momma took me to Communist Cell meetings they sold us garbanzos a handful per ticket a ticket costs a nickel and the speeches were free everybody was angelic and sentimental about the workers it was all so sincere you have no idea what a good thing the party was in 1835 Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch Mother Bloor the Silk-strikers’ Ewig-Weibliche made me cry I once saw the Yiddish orator Israel Amter plain.

Everybody must have been a spy. America you don’t really want to go to war. America its them bad Russians. Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians. The Russia wants to eat us alive. The Russia’s power mad. She wants to take our cars from out our garages. Her wants to grab Chicago. Her needs a Red Reader’s Digest. Her wants our auto plants in Siberia. Him big bureaucracy running our filling stations. That no good. Ugh. Him make Indians learn read. Him need big black niggers. Hah. Her make us all work sixteen hours a day. Help. America this is quite serious. America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set. America is this correct? I’d better get right down to the job. It’s true I don’t want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts factories, I’m nearsighted and psychopathic anyway. America I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.

                                                                        Allen Ginsburg, Berkeley, January 17, 1956

  American Pastoral #29 A year and some has passed since my last Pastoral, and in some sense it seems as if nothing has changed, though in truth much has changed. 

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 4/3/2019

Good MORNING  #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Wednesday April 3rd 2019. Remember you can read full articles for FREE via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS) OR by purchasing by purchasing a Midweek Nation Newspaper (MWN).  

PM’ S PLEA – Put down the gun, the Prime Minister has pleaded to the youth, as the murder rate climbs to unprecedented levels so far this year Declaring that the use of guns does not allow those involved to live to see another day, Mottley said that many were simply giving into peer pressure. “Twenty, thirty years ago, two fellas get in a fight they go for a 2 x 3 and hit one another or they cuff one another … they might even try to stab one another. The chances of recovery are far greater than a semi-automatic gun. It is the 15 seconds that comes from the notion that I have been disrespected or that I am offended. “It is that response in the first 15 seconds that determines where next a person goes and part of the difficulty that we have is that there are too many stories of people being egged on by their peers not fully appreciating the consequences of their actions until it is too late,” the Prime Minister said. Mottley was speaking in support of an amendment to the Bail Act, now before lawmakers. She said that there seems to be little respect and regard for human life; and that once that trigger is pulled there is no turning back. “This is not a cartoon. This is not a video game. Within our communities there are too many stories with young people regretting their actions because a gun does not leave a margin of error. There is no buffer for error with a gun. There might be with a violent temper and 2 x 3; there might be with a violent temper and a fist; there might be with a violent temper and a big rock.” Drawing on her experiences as a practising lawyer, Mottley dispelled the belief that those who face serious criminal charges are happy when reality sets in. “More often than not those behind the bars are crying after the act they are not celebrating. No matter the notion that they may appear to be more attractive it don’t go so. All the fancy talk the majority of people I know with whom I have interacted as a criminal lawyer were not in any way happy or celebrating. “The only people I know celebrate the deprivation of liberty and hardship are people who are sociopaths.” While acknowledging that Government would do all in its power to wrestle the crime scourge to the ground, she appealed to all Barbadians to do their part. “Our duty lies within our families, our schools, our communities, our work place, our shops and in our places of entertainment . . . . Our responsibility is to make what they see and hear different. We must let them know that there is a better way, and that they must take that better way.” (BT)

NO BAIL FOR 24 MONTHS – Anyone facing a murder charge will only be considered for bail after they have spent 24 months in custody. The Attorney General Dale Marshall made this announcement today in the House of Assembly while introducing changes to the Bail Act. The amended act now reads as follows: “ . . . In any case where a person is charged with murder, treason and high treason or an offence under the Firearms Act which is punishable with imprisonment of ten years or more that such a person shall not be granted bail unless 24 months have passed.” The AG explained that while the country continues to battle the surge in murders, now at 20, many felt the time should be increased to 36 months or in some cases no bail should be granted at all, the state still has to be mindful of the rights of the individual. “We still have a duty to maintain an orderly society where rights of individuals are balanced. To set a bail restriction of 24 months we think that is reasonable in this case. We know that dealing with the Bail Act this way will not solve all of our problems but I am convinced it will go a long way in bringing some order to our streets.” Marshall admitted that the main challenge with bail has to do with the length of time it takes for criminal cases to be completed. To this end, he said, Government is hopeful that the changes will reduce the time between a charge being brought and the commencement of a trial. “Once these measures kick in there can be no good reason why a trial of any indictable matter should not be able to take place under 24 months. We are putting the judges in place. We are putting the court rooms in place. We have given the DPPs office additional prosecutors. We intend to bring it down from the five, six and seven-year period.” The chief lawmaker said there are provisions for the court to grant bail before the 24-month period in “limited circumstances”. “If the court has a view that the evidence before the court is weak, then the court has the opportunity to say the case is weak I am not going to keep you up Dodds for 24 months. The same applies to a case of self-defence.” Another major change to the Act was the process of bail application. This change, the AG said, is designed to give the state “a significant voice when these bail applications are made”. “A bail application can only be heard no fewer than 72 hours after it has been served to the DPP.  The purpose of that is to give the Director of Public Prosecutions an opportunity to find out what the factual matrix are, what are the individual’s antecedents, where the police stands, if they are currently investigating another offence for this individual… This way the DPP can be the gatekeeper and say to the judge: ‘Judge, here are circumstances we do not think bail is appropriate and these are the circumstances.’” The Attorney General said Government felt compelled to address the bail issue as it relates to repeat offenders. “There are a number of young men and perhaps young women who because of the prevailing notion that: ‘Yuh gine get bail doan hurt yuh head’. There are number of them who are saying: ‘I gine do wuh I gotta do and in six months I gine be back out”. No Sir, yuh ain gine get bail in no three to four months anymore cause we are starting yuh off up there at 24 months . . . .” While pointing out the heinous nature of some of the murders, Marshall lamented the fact that there was a section of society which glamorised crime. “There is today a generation of individuals who see going up to prison as a means of rising in the estimation of his or her peers and in the estimation of the girls who they are trying to attract. Our young men are rendered more appealing to young girls if they went up to Dodds for three months. He gets bail and he comes back out as a celebrity.” (BT)

OBJECTION – While a chorus of lawmakers, many of them lawyers, cheered today’s proposed amendments to the Bail Act, their practising colleagues of the Bar were sounding notes of disapproval. This morning in Parliament, Attorney General Dale Marshall announced that the changes to the legislation would ensure those accused of either murder or firearm offences carrying a minimal ten-year prison sentences are not eligible for bail within two years after being charged, except in special circumstances. But Queen’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim and fellow lawyers Mohia Ma’at and Verla Depeiza have questioned the effectiveness of the measure. Depeiza, who is also the leader of the Democratic Labour Party, said the amendments could be seen as “tampering with the autonomy of the judiciary”. She said the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as well as the Privy Council in London had previously frowned on such moves. “I am thinking about sentences that are at Her Majesty’s pleasure (indefinitely) they have gone by the wayside; I am thinking about mandatory sentencing for firearms, that too has been struck down and most recently the mandatory death penalty. “In that vein then keeping anybody for two years before they can be granted bail flies in the face of these decisions that have already been made,” Depeiza said. She stressed that while the DLP and the nation understood it was going through trying times, there was no need for a ‘knee jerk’ reaction. “There is a feeling in a country and you can’t get away from that, but what you cannot do is also step aside from our obligations to the country. We understand the feelings but we can’t be making legislations based on feelings. You need to be dispassionate in making legislation to make sure you have all of the right considerations at the time. “So I think they need to go and come again, this is the problem with making a knee-jerk decision, you tend to get it wrong. They need to go and come again.” She added that there needed to be clarity on what those special circumstances entailed. Pilgrim told Barbados TODAY he believed the move was reactionary. He reinforced the legal principle that a person was presumed innocent until proven guilty. The Queen’s Counsel said: “I always learnt the law in a particular way and a simple way that in our jurisdictions and in civilised countries someone has to prove our guilt and I hold dear the maxim that people are innocent until proven guilty. God forbid that someone should slip a bullet into somebody’s car now and the assumption will be that person has to do two years. “We’ll see how it turns out but I just hope that along with this measure we’re taking other measures to find out where our young men really are at because that’s really the big question. “You’re going to find that two years is going to run very quickly in a justice system that is not guaranteeing anyone a trial really under six or seven years. But we all want it to improve the behaviour of our people, we are all reactionary people and just as people on the street are reactionary people in Parliament are reactionary as well.” Ma’at said he was completely against the move. He said the legislation would not help in removing the case backlog in the High Court. “To me in my mind that does nothing, because all you are really doing is housing an accused person for two years in a criminal environment for them to learn more about criminal activity. “In doing that, what is going to happen is that it is going to be a case where because that accused man is already in jail and can’t move for two years, then there is no rush to get the matter moving forward. You are going to find a situation now where people are just languishing away in jail and nothing is happening with their matter. It is not a deterrent so what really is it there to serve. I am not in support of it at all,” he told Barbados TODAY. (BT)

NEW BAIL ACT ‘BOOSTS CONFIDENCE IN JUSTICE’, SAYS ABRAHAM – Changes to the law governing bail are aimed at restoring confidence in the judicial system, lawyer and Minister of Parliament Wilfred Abrahams said in the House today. Things had reached the point where the average Barbadian, especially the criminal element, no longer respected the law courts, Abrahams said during debate on amendments to the Bail Act. “The public is lambasting the justice system. They shifted off the police, they giving them a little break now but they are lambasting the judges. It cannot be that someone accused of not one murder but two can be granted bail. “If that person gets out what does the public then think of the judicial system especially when the person commits another offence. The judicial system appears to be a farce and powerless. Our justice system should never be perceived as powerless.” “There is no respect for the police and there is no respect for the court system. You cannot respect a system that allows them to perpetuate this misguided belief that the judicial system and the police force is a mere convenience . . . A blip after which they will regain their freedom.” Throwing his “full support” behind the Bill, the lawyer said the backlog and archaic laws in the judicial system only serve to undermine the good work the police officers are doing. “Based on what is happening now they [changes] are absolutely necessary. The police are doing what they can. It must be demoralising to the police force when they swiftly apprehend a suspect in a serious case and the officers slave and do their investigation and put a case together . . . that because of problems with the judicial system, over which they have no control, that people whose propensity is to violence are back out on the streets with not a care in the world.” The Christ Church East MP pointed out that judges, too, may feel hemmed in given the constraints of the previous law. He told fellow lawmakers: “The judges may feel themselves fettered and having to protect the rights of the individual . . . where the constitution speaks to the right to a trial in a fair time. To remove all doubt to preserve the integrity of the justice system and to protect Barbados and Barbadians, where your crime is so horrific, you are not eligible for bail within the first 24 months. “The people of Barbados are fed up. The police is fed up. The Government is fed up and we are prepared to do what it takes to get this situation under control.” The MP cited a recent incident where a vehicle backfired, startling onlookers within ear shot of the incident who believed it to be gunfire. He said: “The public of Barbados is so frightened that they are paralysed by fear people are confused they don’t even know what to do when confronted with a situation . . . . Once upon a time you hear a bang you thought it was a car back firing or a motorcycle. Everybody felt it was a gun shot. It is well past time for us to do what needs to be done to take our country back.” Abrahams also commended the Attorney General and the Prime Minister for allowing all parliamentarians in both the upper and lower house, inclusive of opposition and independent senators, to be a part of the bill’s changes. A special meeting was convened last Thursday to deal specifically with the Bail Act. (BT)

WE HAVE FAILED – Society is to blame for Barbados’ current crime crisis. So says Minister of Creative Economy, Culture and Sports John King, who has maintained that those responsible for helping to raise decent young men have failed them. Speaking during debate on the Bail (Amendment) Bill 2019, in Parliament today, King said while he supported the new legislation, he did so with “a heavy heart”. He said the fact that young men were murdering each other was an indictment on the entire country. “I support the amendments, but I do so with a heavy heart because the truth is it hurts me to see that this is where Barbados has come in 2019, when we should be leading the Caribbean and the rest of the southern hemisphere in everything. “The young people who are dying and the young people who are committing these acts of murder were born and raised in this society by this society and they belong to us, like it or not, and the blame falls squarely on our shoulders because we have failed…” King said to rapturous applause from other party members. However, the Minister took the opportunity to make an impassioned plea to young men to “stop participating in their own demise”. He warned that they were supporting a widespread mentality that all black people did was kill each other. “I want to pass on a bit of wisdom to the young men in this country. Do not participate in your own demise. “The person who brings the gun for you already knows what the outcome of it is going to be. You are either going to shoot somebody or somebody who knows that you carry a gun is going to shoot you. The second part of it is that you may shoot somebody, but as long as you go to prison your life also is over. “You might not be dead, but the prospects of you becoming anything more than just another number or an ex-con, or whatever other negative label goes onto you for the rest of your life is still there,” King advised. “And then you are not even thinking about your family. If I shoot somebody and I go to prison then what is my mother and my other relatives supposed to do? Are they supposed to feel good about it, because they won’t.”  (BT)

HINKSON URGES LOVED ONES TO HAND IN ILLEGAL WEAPONS – Parents and relatives who know that their loved ones are in possession of illegal guns have been told to hand those firearms over to police, Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson has urged. The Interior Minister has also declared his belief that there are too many licensed gun dealers in Barbados. Hinkson’s advice to turn over illegal firearms comes ahead of a one-week gun amnesty to begin on Saturday, April 7, in which guns and ammunition can be freely handed in to any police station. “We are urging the relatives, those who live at home where the guns are to bring them in too. Don’t be frighten for your son, your grandson, your nephew, you are protecting him when you do this, when you bring in the guns. “The bullets, the ammunition, whatever, you have 168 hours. We have had gun amnesties in the past that have not been as successful as the police had hoped they would be. Let’s hope that this one is more successful,” Hinkson said. The Home Affairs Minister, who formerly held ministerial responsibility for the Police, until they came under the Attorney General’s portfolio, said he was continually bombarded  with requests for gun licences. But he maintained that arming civilians was not the solution to the current crime crisis. “That is not the answer to the problem. I would like every gun removed from Barbados except those that the police would have and the Barbados Defence Force. I don’t see why somebody should have a gun. “This is not America where there is some constitutional right to bear arms… I don’t know why somebody should have any constitutional rights to bear arms and that is not so in Barbados. Let us remove all the guns from around this place. “My opinion too is that there are too many licensed gun dealers too, too many people who could sell guns legally. We need to cut that down as well. This is not any military state and we are calling on all those who have these firearms and this weaponry and ammunition, bring them in next week.”  (BT)

MORE CRIME FIGHTING MEASURES NEEDED – While Opposition Leader Joseph Atherley supports the amendments made to the Bail Act 2019, he said he was not completely convinced that those changes will put a dent in the current crime wave. He was responding to the news from Attorney General Dale Marshall that the amendments would ensure persons who appeared before the court for murder or firearm offences punishable by at least ten years in prison would not be eligible for bail within two years after being charged, except in special circumstances. However, Atherley said his research had shown that Trinidad and Tobago had implemented such a measure, but with little success. “I was trying to do a little bit of research on this and I discovered that Trinidad had gone this route with respect to the matter of bail in response to their own violent crime situation. In 2015 there was an attempt to introduce a measure which denied access to bail in under about four months, we’re doing two years. “What I recall reading by one or two people who did a review and an analysis of that, was that after a while that did not seem to put a dent in the crime wave. I raise that only to suggest that I am sure the Attorney General and the Government will look at this matter down the road and see if this measure now being discussed would have had after a while, the effect upon the crime situation in Barbados that is intended…but in the case of Trinidad it proved not to impact too positively on the crime situation,” Atherley said. He suggested that Government review the initiative “after a while” to determine if it was indeed successful in attaining its goal. “I hope that we will measure this and the effect over time and give necessary review to the measure as to whether or not it should be retained, whether or not the period of time should be extended or whether or not this should be retracted over a while,” Atherley said. He said one concern was that such legislation removed the discretion of the court to grant bail. “So here we are on one hand trying to enhance that discretionary power and on the other hand we are circumscribing it a bit. But sometimes necessary measures must be adopted in necessary times in the necessary context,” the Opposition Leader admitted. Atherley warned that the new move by itself would not be enough to curb the crime situation, saying other things needed to be done. “We can’t simply say no bail for two years and believe that that in itself and by itself will solve the problem. There are other things which must be done . . . so that we wrestle this problem to the ground,” he said. (BT)

GUN AMNESTY WEEK SET FOR NEXT WEEK – Government is introducing a one week gun amnesty from April 7 as the authorities seek to get firearms off the streets. Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Dale Marshall announced that members of the public would have until midnight on April 13 to turn their guns, ammunition and firearm parts into any police station. Speaking in the House of Assembly during the debate on The Bail (Amendment) Bill, 2019, the St Joseph MP said after the conclusion of the amnesty, the first since 1998, he would report its outcome to Barbadians. He also urged firearm offenders not to test Government’s resolve to win the “fight” against gun crime. (MWN)

FIREARM ALERT –Government has gone after the guns, and the gunmen. Under pressure from a society collectively frozen in fear for most of the year, the Mia Mottley administration yesterday made a move to battle the scourge of illegal gun activity, with changes to the Bail Act, as well as introducing the first gun amnesty in 21 years. But those changes have not all gone down well with some players in the country’s political and criminal justice systems. Attorney General, Dale Marshall, in introducing the amendments in the House of Assembly, said Government had to protect a society under siege by gun-toting thugs. (MWN)

HIGH COURT APPLICATION FILED – Queen’s Counsel Michael Lashley filed an urgent bail application for an alleged gunman today even as Parliament debated an amendment to Bail Act. “I am preparing some urgent documents to make an application for bail. He is outside the proposed provisions of the Bail Act. I am going to get the documents before the legislation is passed,” Lashley told Magistrate Douglas Frederick today on behalf of his 20-year-old client. He later revealed that the bail application had been filed in the High Court. Lashley who appeared with attorney-at-law Dayna Taylor-Lavine is representing Renai Mark Barnett, of No. 6 Valley View Terrace, Pinelands, St Michael. He is accused of having a firearm and three rounds of ammunition in his possession on March 28, 2019 without the valid licences to carry the items. Barnett was remanded to HMP Dodds to reappear before the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on April 30, 2019. (BT)

BEST FAILS TO APPEAR, LOSES FREEDOM – A man in his 20s lost his freedom today after he was escorted into the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court  by a court marshal. A warrant had been issued for Devon Shaquire Nicholas Best, of 1st Avenue Bank Hall, St Michael after he failed to appear in court on several occassions putting the $5,000 bail previously posted by his grandmother on his behalf in jeopardy. Best, who is facing several offences including drug and theft charges, told Magistrate Douglas Frederick, “[I was] hustling looking for money so it slip my mind. I didn’t get all the money that I was looking for.” The magistrate told him that his priority was to turn up for his court-appointed dates. “You missing the court date betrays the trust that I put in you . . . so I have to keep you,” the magistrate said. Best’s surety, his grandmother, also addressed the court. She explained that she had not lived up to her obligations as a surety as she had been ill and at one point hospitalised. “All the stress I taking on me,” said the grandmother just before the magistrate said that he would relieve her of that burden. “Please your honour,” she pleaded in asking that her grandson not be remanded to Dodds. She was informed however that the bail amount would have to be honoured. “I will not take the money from you. You care about him but he clearly doesn’t care about you,” Frederick said before he gave Best an April 30 date to return to court. Before that Best will appear in the District ‘A’ Traffic Court on April 5. (BT)

ACCUSED TEEN GETS BAIL – Eighteen-year-old Mitchell Sylvan Sonny who was remanded last month was released on $3,000 bail today. The Reed Street, St Michael resident is accused of robbing Amal Smith of a cellular phone, three gold chains, a pendant and a gold ring worth $1,995 on August 6, 2018. He appeared before the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court for the first time last month after the complainant allegedly identified him in a line-up. When he appeared before Magistrate Douglas Frederick this afternoon he made a bail application “under any condition” claiming that his girlfriend was seven months pregnant and he needed to help her. However, the prosecution again reiterated its objection to bail for the teen. “I can’t warn anyone about a situation that I don’t know about. I have been wrongfully accused,” Sonny claimed before he told the magistrate that his mother was in court to sign bail on his behalf. After speaking to the mother and taking into consideration several factors Frederick granted the accused bail. Sonny who returns to court on August 27 has been warned to stay away from the complainant. (BT)

BOND FOR FIRST TIME OFFENDER – A 40-year-old carpenter who claimed he felt threatened and bullied while travelling on the bus yesterday landed before the law court for the first time today. Ras Kibwe Cazembe Ra of Glebe Land, St John pleaded guilty to assaulting Andre Carter on April 1, 2019 and having a knife, an offensive weapon, in his possession on the same date while on Welches Road, St Michael without lawful authority or reasonable excuse. Ra however entered a not guilty plea to issuing the threatening words “I would cut your belly” towards Carter with intent to cause him to believe that immediate and unlawful violence would be used against him. Both men were on a minibus, which was en route to Oistins when the driver stopped to let Ra out. According to Sergeant St Clair Phillips as the accused was exiting the vehicle he pushed Carter in the back and a confrontation ensued resulting in Ra pulling out a knife from his pocket, opening it and pointing it at the complainant. The matter was reported to police. Ra who described himself as an industrious young man in giving his version of what occurred told Magistrate Douglas Frederick that he was trying to get off the vehicle but “this man would not move”. He further claimed that Carter had his hand on the rails and so he pushed through. “I felt bullied, I felt threatened at the time . . . . I pull out the knife . . . . My girlfriend’s birthday is Sunday and she calling me several times telling me all kind of sweet things . . . I was just looking to go home,” said Ra who also revealed that he was vegan and the knife was to cut fruits such as watermelon to eat. He was told that was not a valid excuse to walk with an offense weapon. The first-time offender was then placed on a bond for six months. If breached he will have to pay the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court a $750 forthwith fine or spend a month in prison. No conviction will be recorded against him if he stays out of trouble with the law during that time. The case in which he is accused of threatening Carter will continue on August 27, 2019. He is on $700 bail in the meantime. (BT)

VISITOR FALLS ILL, DIES AT BATTS ROCK – Canadian visitor Robert Mayo was having the time of his life in Barbados moments before he died at Batts Rock Beach, St Michael, yesterday. The 60-year-old arrived last Wednesday with his wife Doris and long-time friends Heather and Jim Healey. Together the couples set out to complete their packed itinerary. They visited numerous attractions, including the Animal Flower Cave, Holetown, Oistins, Parliament Buildings, the Barbados Museum and the popular St Michael beach, several times. “This morning we got up for breakfast and our plan was to go to the beach; normally we walk. At one point when we were enjoying breakfast, he said, ‘I am really enjoying myself, I’m having a wonderful time’,” a shaken-up Jim told the MIDWEEK NATION. (MWN)

RESOLUTIONS SCRAPPED – Members of the island’s largest public sector union will no longer have to consider two resolutions introduced at the union’s annual general conference. The two contentious resolutions proposed at the National Union of Public Workers’ (NUPW) annual general conference have been withdrawn. With elections slated for tomorrow to fill the union’s top positions, some members had questioned the move to have the union responsible for paying the gratuity and pension of an elected president if seconded which was the gist of one resolution. One senior officer of the NUPW who spoke to Barbados TODAY on condition of anonymity due to his sensitive position in the union, referred to the resolution which stated: “Be it resolved that the president elected to serve his tenure be seconded to the Union to undertake responsibility for policy and policy decisions.” “That resolution is ridiculous. In essence, what this could mean is that the president could be seconded from his position in Government to the NUPW where the union would be saddled with paying full gratuity and pension,” the union member said. He added: “It is interesting that the idea of a secondment to the union in the resolution only covered the position of president. The general secretary of the union, be it the NUPW, the BWU, or most unions, is usually the person in the forefront fighting the union’s battles. Sometimes the presidents of unions can be totally anonymous, though that is not the case with ours.”  Barbados TODAY understands that resolution was withdrawn on Saturday after members questioned the motive behind it. Also withdrawn was another resolution which sought to change the name of the union. That resolution read: Be it resolved that the name of the union as it stands as the National Union of Public Workers be amended and now recognized as the National Union of Workers. The senior union source told Barbados TODAY that the NUPW’s membership had been dwindling over the past few years with disenchantment and the notion of poor representation being at the core of the exodus. “Around 2013-2014, our membership was about 8 000. Today it is somewhere in the vicinity of 4 000. And this figure is not only reflective of retrenchments. It is apathy towards the NUPW. We have become too politicized. I know there is a historical link between unions and political parties but I hear people on the ground basically accusing the NUPW of being used by politicians. There is the belief that this union was used to help undermine the last Government especially as it related to increased salaries,” he said. The list of resolutions, a copy of which Barbados TODAY obtained, explained that the rationale behind removing “public” from the union’s name was to facilitate the recruitment of membership from the private sector. The resolution read: “Be it resolved that the National Union of Public Workers Rules and Standing Orders reflect that membership of the Union be opened to all members in Barbados. Whereas the proposal is being made to include all private and public workers in Barbados. And whereas such a change would mean the dynamics of the membership would not be adequately described with the use of the word “public” only.” The union source told Barbados TODAY that a priority of the NUPW’s future endeavours ought to be the restoration of the confidence and trust that have been eroded in the past few years. He said the attempt to recruit membership from the private sector seemed an act of desperation and an admission of failure by the present union leadership. “I also see it as warning to Toni Moore and her people. That resolution would be sending a message to the Barbados Workers’ Union that we would soon be looking to recruit its membership,” he said. Persistent efforts to reach NUPW President Akanni McDowall over the past few days have been unsuccessful. (BT)

IMF NOT THE CURE – An International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme will not be the solution to the ailing Barbados economy, one senior University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus lecturer has warned. In addition, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Academic Industry Partnerships and Planning Professor Densil Williams is of the view that consumer spending and private sector investment will not be major drivers of economic growth given the current austerity measures. He shared the assessment on Tuesday during a special consultation between the UWI and private and public sector players on entrepreneurship and industry partnership at the 3Ws Pavilion. Williams said the strengthening of linkages between the university and the private and public sectors to drive innovation and economic growth was now urgent as the country goes through “a strong austerity programme”, adding that the anemic growth rate suggested that something significant had to happen. “Most importantly, the question you need to have at the forefront of your mind is despite the austerity programme, how can you reverse the contraction of GDP [gross domestic product] and actually grow the economy in a sustainable way in the long run,” said Williams. “Let us be clear, an IMF programme is not going to be the solution. The solution really lies in how the Barbadian economy, and for that matter, the wider Caribbean economy, will stimulate aggregate demand in the country,” he added. The trained economist reasoned that the major drivers of economic activity including consumption, Government spending and private investment, were simply not enough at the moment to produce the growth needed, especially given the tough measures. “They are not going to be the greatest forces that are going to drive that sort of stimulation in the economy because consumers are feeling the pinch from the austerity programme. Investors clearly will have to recalibrate their portfolio given the contraction in the economy, and logically, with a primary surplus [target] of six per cent Government just does not have the funding to spend,” he explained. Barbados is currently engaged in a four-year austerity programme, the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme, which is backed by an IMF US$290 million stand-by loan arrangement. The major planks of the BERT plan are the introduction of revenue raising measures, retrenchment and enfranchisement of approximately 1,500 Government workers, retooling and retraining of civil servants, the merger of some Government departments and agencies and modernization of all Government processes. Barbados received its first passing grade from the IMF for the first six months of the BERT programme, which was implementated in June last year through a number of revenue raising measures, immediately after the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) took up office. Williams said the “real stimulation” in the Barbados economy, however, would have to now come from improvement in the competitiveness of enterprises that operate locally. “The only other lever that the Barbadian economy has to pull at this moment to stimulate aggregate demand despite austerity is to improve the international competitiveness of the firms so that you can trade internationally and improve your net trade with the rest of the world. So international business becomes a key pillar for the growth and development of the Barbadian economy and most of the other Caribbean economies,” said Williams. He stressed that in order to obtain the international competitiveness that is needed, Barbados must first improve its human capital. “That is the most critical asset that you have that can drive the transformation at the enterprise level,” he said, as he welcomed the entrepreneurship and industry partnership consultation. The one-day session saw officials of the UWI, Cave Hill Campus outlining a number of initiatives that the institution was currently undertaking in an effort to drive innovation and entrepreneurship in Barbados. Officials also had the opportunity to identify gaps between the learning institution and the workforce and come up with possible solutions and identify new areas of training needed in order to satisfy private sector demands. (BT)

MILK QUOTA DOWN – Milk production in Barbados has been significantly low for the past six years. Dairy farmers have an ideal annual target of six million kilogrammes of milk but due to poor breeding and farm management programmes, they have been only able to reach just over half that amount. The last time that quota was reached was in 1998. However, chief executive officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS), James Paul, said the island was still maintaining good yearly milk quantities – producing four to five million kilogrammes. (BT)

CAMERON’S DEFEAT MADE ROWLEY’S DAY – Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley said he had a more optimistic outlook on West Indies cricket following the election of Ricky Skerritt and Dr. Kishore Shallow as president and vice president respectively, of the sport’s regional governing body, Cricket West Indies. Dr. Rowley warned however, that there was plenty work ahead for the Skerritt-led administration for the Windies to avoid being relegated to the second tier of the game. “The ICC is going to create two divisions of cricket, and West Indies may not find it-self in the upper echelons of Test cricket,” said Dr. Rowley. “We’re going to find our-selves with Afghanistan, Holland, and Kenya. “What we are looking for now is a best practice model to rebuild a Test team that has declined. What was happening to West Indies cricket is that we were not able to put that ladder down in that pit to climb out of it, and I’m hoping now that Skerritt provides that ladder so that we climb out of it. We cannot continue to have a C-Class horse running an AClass race.” West Indies are currently ranked eighth in the Test rankings, ninth in the One-day Internationals, and seventh in the Twenty20 Internationals although they are currently the reigning World champions in that format. About the CWI election result which saw Skerritt and Dr. Shallow unseat incumbents Dave Cameron and Emmanuel Nanthan, Dr. Rowley said he was extremely happy about the outcome. “I think it opens the door for us to bring about the improvements that we anticipate. It made my day. “Where Dave Cameron is concerned, what happened in India, in any management structure, that is when things should have come to a head,” he said, referring to the players dramatic walk-out on the 2014 Tour of India. “To have escaped that and become in charge of a hegemony after that told me that West Indies cricket was on the wrong track. “You could not have created an environ-ment like that, created those liabilities for future earnings, and be impregnable.”  (BT)

WILLIAMS, PADMORE SIMPLY SMASHING – Tamisha Williams smashed her way to a fifth successive women’s title while the experienced Andre Padmore captured his ninth men’s title overall in the finals of the Senior National Badminton Championships on Monday night at the Barbados Community College. Williams defeated her doubles partner Monyata Riviera 21-19, 21-19 in a match-up which could have easily gone either way. In fact, after using every trick in the bag, it was simply a case, according to Williams, of “who wanted it more”. “She played wonderfully. She really came for me, I must say, but I think I wanted it more. Going into the second game, I realised that she was really pushing me. I really had to push past the urge to just give up because I was so tired. I just said, you want it more, you go after it,” said Williams.  (MWN)

SOLIDARITY CHAIN AT GARRISON ON FRIDAY – Barbadians and visitors to the island are invited to the Garrison Savannah on Friday, April 5, to participate in the formation of a “solidarity chain” in celebration of World Health Day. The activity, which begins at 10 a.m., has been organised by the Pan American Health Organisation in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Wellness. Minister of Health and Wellness, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic, will address the opening ceremony, which precedes the formation of the human chain link. The theme for World Health Day, which will be observed worldwide on Sunday, April 7, is Universal Health: Everyone, Everywhere. (BGIS)

DEIGHTON GRIFFITH U16 FOOTBALL KINGS – Deighton Griffith Secondary School are kings of the 2019 Coca Cola Barbados Secondary Schools’ Under-16 Football League. They produced an impressive performance yesterday evening at the Usain Bolt Sports Complex to upset favourites Queen’s College 2-1. Junior national Under-13 midfielder Shamari Harewood was the hero, netting twice in the space of five minutes, to end a 16-year trophy drought for the lads from Kingsland, Christ Church. (MWN)

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