est. 2007

Barbados Underground

Bringing News and Opinions to the People

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Welcome to Suck Salt!

The strength of the blogosphere can be defined by the number of diverse views on offer. BU is quick therefore to encourage others to step up to establish websites, blogs or any forum to share perspectives on any issue. BU has been playing our part for the past 9 years and the time has come…

blogosphere1The strength of the blogosphere can be defined by the number of diverse views on offer. BU is quick therefore to encourage others to step up to establish websites, blogs or any forum to share perspectives on any issue. BU has been playing our part for the past 9 years and the time has come for others to play a role.

We have been advised there is another blog/website to add to the menu of selection for Barbadians. By the way what is up with Barbados Overground?

Every now and then a company will post an “Application For Work Permit” notice in the paper. For whatever reason, these companies can’t find a suitable local applicant so they have to seek out a work permit for a non-national to fill the role.

Granted, there are times when such a course of action may be required, but there are other times when we Bajans scratch our heads and wonder wuh really goin’ on ’bout here? (see here, here, here, here and here).

It could be worse though. Here are few positions that we hope to never see employers apply for work permits for non-nationals to fill:

Click to access The Suck Salt website.

31 responses to “Welcome to Suck Salt!”

  1. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    I have often expressed the view on BU that hotels in Barbados, Sandy Lane in particular, are allowed to advertise vacancies and subsequently place a notice in the print media stating they did not receive any suitable applications and intend to apply for a work permit for a non-national.

    A few years ago, Sandy Lane advertised for an engineer and one of the REQUIRED skills of the applicant was the ability to speak SPANISH fluently. As usually, Sandy Lane NEVER receives suitable applications and always intend to apply for work permits.

    The “despicable crime” in this case was that Sandy Lane had already APPOINTED a PUERTO RICAN to the job, SEVERAL MONTHS PRIOR to advertising the vacancy. AND I KNOW THIS FOR A FACT.

    I also remember a case where a hotel advertised for an Executive Chef/Trainer who should be a qualified chef, posses a teacher/trainer’s certificate and a Bachelor’s or an Associate Degree in Computer Science. Obviously, this hotel included qualifications to essentially put the job out of the reach of Barbadians and as a means to justify their intension of employing a non-national.

    Coincidentally, however, a man who was a qualified teacher, left the teaching profession to work in the hotel industry. He subsequently qualified as a chef and a lecturer at a culinary institute. He gained employment in Bermuda and the Bahamas as an executive chef and trainer. Ironically, the guy decided to pursue an associate degree in computer science. After applying for the job and seeing the “work permit” notice, he decided to forward his objection to the Immigration Department. His story was also in the print media, as well as his photo and qualifications.

    We speak about Barbados being independent and at this time the government is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a yearlong 50th anniversary of independence celebrations.

    Yet our politicians have to kowtow to a small group of business men, Sandy Lane and Butch Stewart to our detriment, by allowing these people to do as they please.

    It just goes to show that independence is only a farce.

  2. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Artax
    We speak about Barbados being independent….
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    We Who….? …surely you jest…

    Only complete blind, deaf and dumb yardfowls ..whose feathers have already been plucked speak about Barbados ‘being independent’….

    Look and listen to who makes the rules around here …..FLOW, EMERA. REPUBLIC, MASSY, SANDY LANE, SANDALS, Clare Cowan….. just like the ‘good’ old plantation days…
    You MUST know about the golden rule …. (he who has the gold, makes the rules)

    Sandy Lane has been an ‘absentee-owner’ owned plantation now for DECADES. Instead of gradually FORCING these owners to increase local ownership over the decades, while EMPOWERING and enfranchising the locals whose labour and sacrifices have made it what it is today, our ass-licking politicians have supported the ‘plantation mentality’ …and even encouraged its spread to telecommunications, electricity, retail industry, agriculture, business, banking and where ever they have seen the opportunity to get into bed with the albino descendants of our fore parents’ slave-master oppressors.

    Barrow had the vision to use such albino parasites to his own advantage in the early days when there were physically not enough trained locals to do otherwise. But the jackass lackies that have succeeded him are nothing but house niggers – incapable of any vision of black enfranchisement….

    Independence Bushie’s ass….

  3. Old Baje Avatar
    Old Baje

    Each time there is an obvious case of qualified Barbadians being overlooked the unions and the press should be making a big deal of it. Why is it always swept under the carpet?

  4. Old Baje Avatar
    Old Baje

    Is there any possibility of judicial review?

  5. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    Those politicians in Barbados gotta be related to the jackass black men in the US who actually support a beast like Trump, there could be no other intelligent explanation on why black leaders could be so weak willed and backward….in reality, the business people on the island who do as they like because they are allowed to, can only be described as beasts for what they get up to…..ably aided by their little beastlet politicians.

  6. David Avatar
    David

    This is a vision issue. Singapore for example mandates that locals must shadow jobs where work permits are issued. The objective is to transition the job to ‘local’ after a predetermined period.

  7. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    RE Well Well & Consequences March 9, 2016 at 9:15 AM #
    Those politicians in Barbados gotta be related to the jackass black men in the US who actually support a beast like Trump, there could be no other intelligent explanation on why black leaders could be so weak willed and backward…

    BUT DIDNT THEY VOTE IN OBAMA…………..TWICE? with his OBAMA CARE. LOL LOL

  8. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    This is a true story but because it came to me in the course of my job, I have to respect the confidentiality of the person I represent. A few years ago, a well known hotel applied for a work permit for a non national to fill the post of General Manager. It was initially refused but after a few phone calls, the decision was reversed on condition that the hotel identify a local understudy to toke over in three years. From all reports, the understudy was performing above expectations according to the owner. It will be soon time for the non-national to go and the owner fired the understudy without just cause. They now have no understudy and will be seeking to have the work permit extended.

  9. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Bush Tea March 9, 2016 at 9:00 AM #

    “Independence Bushie’s ass….”

    @ Bushie

    You forgot to mention AMBEV, who now control our BANKS and DEPUTY Beers, as well as our renowned PINE HILL DAIRY products. And as the way the systems goes, soon BHL’s top management will be BRAZILIANS.

    The merriam-webster.com defines independence (in simple terms) as “freedom from OUTSIDE CONTROL or support.”

    The Americans’ FATCA is a federal law which Barbados was FORCED to SIGN and ADHERE to its requirements, irrespective of our rights as a sovereign nation.

    Trinidadians, through their wholesale and retail sectors, determine what we CONSUME. Their banks determine how MUCH MONEY we could BORROW and for what PURPOSES. Trinidadian managers determine how many Barbadians are EMPLOYED, since they have either closed or downsized many of the original Barbadian businesses they “took over.”

    Our politicians REWARDED Jamaican Butch Stewart with 40 years of tax concessions and duty free concessions for his Jamaican managers, for “effing” up Paradise Hotel.

    We have an influx of illegal Guyanese and Jamaicans who find employment ahead of Barbadians; they are SQUATTING on Barbadian land; engaging in ILLEGAL VENDING in full view of the authorities (pass in front the Cheapside Market any weekend); the operate ILLEGAL BARS in the old Fairchild Street Market; Guyanese are even operating ILLEGAL TAXIS (they are using cars with ordinary registration numbers).

    Ironically, Guyanese and Jamaicans patronize businesses owned by their countrymen in preference to businesses owned by Barbadians, while Barbadians support the Jamaicans and Guyanese in preference to Bajans.

    So, Bushie, independence does not mean anything to me and I do not have any interest in the 50th anniversary celebrations. What sense does it make for me to talk about independence, when my future and that of my fellow Barbadians is controlled by Trinidadians, Jamaicans, Guyanese and soon the Brazilians.

  10. Sargeant Avatar
    Sargeant

    @Caswell

    They are abusing the system and shouldn’t be allowed to get away with it but somehow I think they will as these complaints are repeated constantly. The section that handles work permits should be referred to as “the Rubber Stamp Dept.”

    Perhaps the Gov’t should take a leaf out of Aruba’s books as I understand they have a work permit system that works, but Aruba is part of the Netherlands so the phone calls to Mr. Big that work in Bim wouldn’t work there.

  11. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    “It could be worse though. Here are few positions that we hope to never see employers apply for work permits for non-nationals to fill……….”

    Yes indeed, it could be worse, because anytime you see a company using a FANCY TERM for a specific job…… look out.

    A few weeks ago a car rental agency advertised a few vacancies in the Nation newspaper. The one that caught my attention was the vacant position of “AUTOMOBILE DETAILER.” On closer inspection I realized what they meant, “CAR WASHER” was stated…….. in brackets.

  12. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    GP….I really did not followup the Obamacare brouhaha, so I cant speak to the pros and cons or which outweighed the other, but it’s frightening that these dudes would contemplate much less endorse Trump given that they can actually see and know of his destructive potential, his fraudulent schemes and failed business, his addiction to bankruptcy and all the people he and his family….read children….have robbed in the US. It’s horrible that they have learned nothing, nothing at all over the last 50 years.

    This is the dude so filled with open hatred and disrespect for other people, that they want as president of the US, nothing that Obama has done comes even close.

    You must give me a run down on the Obamacare, I have no knowledge of it, so am unable to discourse with you on the subject.

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-land-deal-nightmare-gop-voters-warned-buyer-beware-article-1.2554234

  13. David Avatar
    David

    JADA is advertising for a Senior Project Manager in today’s Nation.

  14. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    Every time I read articles like these I wonder “which agencies and which PSes and which Non Governmental Organisations give respective reports to these international agencies like Transparency International and ll of the other so called watch do agencies that file annual reports on Barbados?”

    @ Caswell Franklyn

    Have you ever been interviewed by any of these so called agencies?

    And if so what did you say? Is there a record of what you said anywhere, published or otherwise?

    At the time these white ?? people come to interview you and have indicated that they will be taking notes, do you similarly indicate that you will be taking notes too? and have in fact a recorder recording the session with them?

    I am not being “Caswell specific” but what i am trying to say is that these so called plantation good nigger mentalities do not necessarily have to express themselves like the nigger whose head the manager at that Hardware in Warren pushed into the glass and asked if he could read

    It is the subtleties of serfdom, “becasue it is a white man asking the questions, we humble nigger shytes are very beholding to that privilege of “exchange” euphemism for “looka how important I is, de white man come to me to interview me, I is bettah dan de udder niggas, so i gots to make my moment here”

    Much like the Peter Wickham interview at the US Embassy, the white man and massah understands the mentality of the so called free nigger, and this is why they hate the Farrakans of this world.

    @ Old Baje

    Go to this site and tek a view of the buhkhvnts that are responsible for this travesty and see if they cud have an iota of common sense

    http://www.immigration.gov.bb/

    The first paragraphs place white on a grew background which effectively makes the font invisible to the human eye

    If Ms. Erine Griffith (Chief Immigration Officer ag.) and the elite cohort of brass bowls (oh whom Humpty Dumpty is one) and the Ministry of Home Affairs AND THE UNIONS had any balls there would have been two understudies and when, NOT IF, WHEN THEY WERE BOTH FIRED, there would have been an immediate revocation of the work permit of the person that they califlux the job for in the first place.

    The reason that no one at the institutions that you are speaking about does or says nothing is very simple “the hairy portal”

    At each of those vaunted institutions one of the big boys (or girls) is having carnal knowledge of, or got a buddy having carnal knowledge of somebody from Jamtown, Dominica, Santo Domingo or one of them “low islands” which are no longer low according to CDB.

    When fronts are involved (and backs, I must be politically correct, I am really getting too old for this mess) people wish to safeguard their investments in that portal and therefore, lest a day arrive that your girlfriend, or boyfriend, or in betweener arrives at the airport, and you need a favour, YOU DO NOT BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDETH YOU.

    @ David [The Honourable Blogmaster]

    For 9 years you have been doing this admirable job but from what I am gleaning from this article you are encouraging others to join the fight.

    English carries the comparative and the superlative (adjective) to make us aware that “always there will be greater persons” than ourselves but, as it were by this Desideratic echo, one might easily say, unequalled BU shall never be surpassed.

    You have come as far as these epic submissions can, and will, take you.

    Alot of the bloggers’ submissions here are absolutely fantastic but de ole man feel that the time has come for BU “to up its game”

    The rest of these blogs will come with similar commentary outlets, and pretty WordPress headers, and fancy threads, (and pretenses to keep bloggers’ IP addresses and names secret) but you gots to lead the charge.

    Phase II of BU, as the only credible 9 year organisation in BULBADOS has to be proactively facilitating the mechanism of good governance.

    Ole menses like me, we retired and ent got nuffin to do wid we time but to go in the bank, withdraw we money, count it to see that it is still there and then redositing it, every Thursday (causing Friday for Feed my Sheep or used to be befo’ de pastor fire muh)

    It is really exciting to come here and pick up Jeff prolix words and watch de medical expert denigrate he opposers, or hear how Sherri Veronica try to impute dat you is a doggie-ist and all of this nice stuff.

    But at the end of the day the critical element of social activism that BU is promoting, the “change management” elements of your message HAVE TO BE ENACTED in a manner whereby the “eyes and ears” that speak to, and sometimes expose otherwise secret crimes in and across Bulbados not only let the issues get aired BUT THAT SOMETHING HAPPENS.

    I hope that you have learnt your lesson regarding Sherri Veronica’s betrayal since someone did hit that there was a time when you had a link to her site here.

    My two points are this.

    You are giving a raise to this nex nudder site and remember that if the Blogmaster point you to a ting, your credentials are saying indirectly that them guys on the up and up and like you dem is secure, will not put we information at risk of “electronic eavesdropping”, like de former Commissioner uh Police Darwin Dottin, under threat of interception and on sending to the very pimps and prostitutes dat we the 4th estate heah fighting.

    De second pint is dat even if you set up a little proactive online registry to record de names uh de lawyers dem and gots a place where a man or wuman, or inbetweener cud com and put up sumting, some text, or dem story, or sumting like dat, um is a step in de direction uh deepening the proactivity en ting.

  15. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    A month or so ago the Chinese Construction Co ,applied for a Work Permit for a Motor Mechanic, as they supposedly could not find a suitable local applicant. Since the early 1950, Barbados has been producing some top class Vehicle Mechanics, via the Technical Institute and its successor , the Polytechnic. The only strange piece of equipment that I’ve seen the Chinese using here is a 2 -Wheel ,wheel barrow.
    Its about time that we see such entities as the Workers Unions, the Polytechnic and other training establishment ,and the Ministry of Education objecting to these preposterous applications.
    Also some of these original vacancy adverts are published in the press under a PO Box address, or otherwise anonymous. Such businesses should not then be allowed to apply for a work permit for a non-national, until they have re-advertised the vacancy under the Company’s registered name.

  16. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    David March 9, 2016 at 9:21 AM
    I thought that this was also the situation in Barbados. Did Mr Barrow not introduced this, when the hotels were bringing in a lot of Europeans to fill vacancies in that industry?

  17. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ Colonel B
    Of COURSE it was the case in Barbados…. but Barrow had vision.

    How many bribes do you think it would have taken for one of the subsequent pooch lickers to remove the ‘burden’ from on our prized ‘FOREX generators’?

  18. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    David

    This reinforces the point about a pirate station,as piece stated you have been and are still doing a great job but we are just not reaching enough people so the ante has to be upped…….I am not sure what more this new blog can do even ND mixing facts with salaciousness is unable to stir the pot.

  19. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    I hardly blog these days (though I read BU daily) as I am so frustrated at the way our country is being run. We are talking and nothing is changing. The morons are doing worse and “worser” daily.

    This government is destroying the lives of many Barbadians by their policies while a few people whom in another era this DLP would have shunned are doing the dog…..getting every contract and doing as they like as if they alone own this island. Whatever happened to the promise that 40% of all contracts would go to the small black man?

    Every time I see these work visa ads I get so mad. We have so many young frustrated UWI graduates that cannot find work. Young Barbadian doctors are now having to go to the Bahamas to practice. I know of another young doctor who has had to get a job at a petrol station just to survive. I had a meeting recently with a young lady who has two degrees which under other circumstances had Barbados been properly managed would be using her skills to make a difference……….she has now have to resort to making soaps just to survive.

    Are we getting worried that this government intend to destroy this economy so that whomever inherits the mess will never get it cleaned up? Just look at the estimates laid in the House on Tuesday.

  20. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    Piece

    The Acting Chief Immigration Office retired two weeks ago reluctantly. The government strategically placed one of their hand picked people in the department a while ago.This person is now acting.

    Artax, why are you surprised that just a call could change a decision made by the Immigration Department? Dont you know who is in charge of Immigration? The same wheeler dealer of marina deals and the Cahill deal? Staff there are waiting on this SOB to see how he deals with an application that has been filed on behalf of someone close to him. They say that this person is not entitled to citizenship according to the rules but they await what he will decide as he has turned down all similar applications.

    If the next government does not lock up these bastards …..you hear………….

  21. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    Prodigal Son March 9, 2016 at 6:20 PM #
    Not only the economy is being destroyed, but the whole country in general. With an abundance of lawyers in parliament and in both political parties, we are on the brink of anarchy, when every sob, thinks that he can do as he likes, with impunity. The Road Traffic Act,and Regulations are the first casualties.

  22. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ Prodigal Son March 9, 2016 at 6:20 PM
    “This government is destroying the lives of many Barbadians by their policies while a few people whom in another era this DLP would have shunned are doing the dog…..getting every contract and doing as they like as if they alone own this island. Whatever happened to the promise that 40% of all contracts would go to the small black man?”

    Prodigal, I am sure you are quite aware that the man who was elected by stupid Bajans to oversee the management of their affairs does not give two hoots about Barbados or its citizens.

    The man is just a lucky devil of a muttley interesting only in acquiring political medals to satisfy his life-long ambition of being ‘somebody of importance’.
    He has written his name of the country’s History Pages as being the worst primate inter parris ever.

    Barbados has paid a very heavy price for the egotistical greed of a man who has won the political lottery but has paid the cost by ruining a once successful and proud a nation.

    Bye, bye Bim. The Sun has set on your parade because your people have been easily fooled by a set of corrupt charlatans parading as the paragons of virtue in claiming to be the saintly purveyors of good and honest governance by never lying, cheating nor stealing.

    The former “socially balanced” DLP has been used by the devil to destroy your former paradise. The DLP naked political ambition is now a replacement for Naked Departure.

  23. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    LOL @ Vincent
    Seriously now friend, if you think that simply highlighting the abject stupidity of our ways and ensuring that all citizens are made aware of our plight will make ANY significant difference to our fate then you wil need even more counselling than Bushie has been suggesting….

    Boss, the problem is MUCH bigger than our local brass bowlery…
    ….much bigger than Froon’s clear unsuitability for the post of PM…
    ….much bigger than David(BU) can seriously expect to change..
    ….and much, much more urgent that even you realise.

    BU is here because BBE has committed to ALWAYS WARNING BRASS BOWLS of their imminent peril…..the kind of wisdom needed for BBs to take corrective action cannot be provided by David(BU) …much as he wish that he could…. 🙂

  24. Prodigal Son Avatar
    Prodigal Son

    You are so right, miller!

    A once proud nation is now on its knees and according to a report from the Financial Times of London that Barbados which used to be a beacon in the Caribbean is now on the verge of bankruptcy.

    A read of the Estimates prove their point. How can a country spend twice what it collects? Where is the financial commonsense or responsibility?

    By the way, I thought that the government said it had secured a loan from the Chinese to build Sam Lord’s?

    I am convinced that the morons are now fed up themselves seeing that they cannot get the country managed. They do not seem to care as they have amassed all the money they would ever need. This is the final going down………….over spend….. over spend ……..rack up as much expensive debt as they can from whomever would lend them money and leave the mess for the BLP to clean up. Things will be so bad that the dollar would be put at risk and the dems will then be free of the responsibility for the devaluation………just watch and see!

  25. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    Not only in London, but countries which we used to refer to as Low Islands, have been voicing a similar opinion of Barbados ,as the Financial Times.
    We ,however ,should be comforted that we are still a few rungs up the ladder from Haiti.

  26. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    Recently we have seen Emera advertised a number of vacancies for high end jobs. Given the fact that Emera was retrenched many of its employees ,from low -end to high- end, one wonders how many of these jobs will be filled by Barbadians , and not Americans, Canadians or even Trinis. We are bragging about 50 years of independence. What a pity we now find ourselves unable to brag about managing and maintaining an electric company for 105 years.

  27. Artaxerxes Avatar
    Artaxerxes

    Prodigal Son March 9, 2016 at 6:44 PM #

    “The Acting Chief Immigration Office retired two weeks ago reluctantly.”

    @ Prodigal

    The Acting Deputy Chief Immigration Officer reluctantly went on early retirement late last year as well…….. he told me he had enough.

  28. balance Avatar
    balance

    “Yet our politicians have to kowtow to a small group of business men, Sandy Lane and Butch Stewart to our detriment, by allowing these people to do as they please.”

    and Flow and Digicel too for a mere piece of pottage thrown from the tables of these mercenary multinational corporations to appease the politricians when they see fit

  29. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    balance March 10, 2016 at 6:13 AM #
    Barbados is one big open plantation, left in the hands of modern day ‘Drivers’, the ones with the big gauva stick,”Suprintendents”, and Watchmen.

  30. Vincent Haynes Avatar
    Vincent Haynes

    Colonel Buggy March 10, 2016 at 5:03 PM #

    …..and they are the progeny of our collective history…….ah lie?

  31. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    Speaking of Sucking Salt
    Just about everyday in the Nation Newspapers we are greeted with a young mother and her children looking for support and/or somewhere to live.
    Did not this government, via its Minister of Education Ronald Jones, made an appeal to the women of Barbados to get more children?
    Mr Jones should have realized that it will take more than 5 years, for the 40 acres of breadfruit trees he planned to plant in St Lucy to bear fruit.
    However accommodation for these desperate mothers and children should not be a problem, although one mother is on record as saying that when she made enquiries to her constituency’s office,which comes under the PM , and also to the Leader of the Opposition, she was turned flatly down. What has happened to the white elephants at the Grotto, Church Village St Philip, Coverley and Constant in St George to name a few?

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