Former Prime Minister, Owen Arthur
Former Prime Minister, Owen Arthur

In a surprise decision by former prime minister Owen Arthur to accept the position as Chief Economic Advisor if offered by government, many are asking if the move is designed to undermine the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) with a general election looming. Clearly the government continues to struggle with the management of the economy and BU suspects the Arthur/Government collaboration is a Machiavellian attempt to achieve a win win position.

139 responses to “Owen Arthur Agrees to Serve as Chief Economic Advisor”


  1. While if OSA may be commended for adding his expertise to any necessary actions, the sudden action to bring him in is actually just as alarming to me as if an IMF programme is announced.

    Why?

    Because that he is brought at this late stage demonstrates that we are at the brink, the hardnoses would not have done this without being forced to.

    That he is being brought in rather than simply addressing the issues, which should be obvious and necessary actions obvious, indicates to me that ‘they’ are still trying to defer any necessary actions, as if such has not being deferred much too long, already.

    There is the possibility that he is being brought in to cushion the blame that will be placed on the minister and the PM, should a harsh programme be implemented. The refrain of ‘we did all we could and even OSA could not do better’ would replace the obvious blame without an answer.

    So, it could be another clever move on FS part to shift blame.

    Look, actions need to be taken, like it or not.

    At least Sandi had the gumption to look people in the face and say so.

    One does not need to read tea leaves to know that the manure bag is barely out of the reach of the fan.


  2. @Dompey March 1, 2017 at 7:08 AM “This move obviously shows Arthur’s willingness as well as the prime minister’s, to put ideological differences.”

    There are no ideological differences between the BLP and the DLP, there never has been.


  3. I must admit that I love Owen.

    I love Mia too.

    Can I be like in Sparrow’s song and have both of them?

    I’m in love with Betty-Lu She sister Mary say she love me too
    [Both ah them, both ah dem] [With both ah dem, with both ah dem]
    Ah tell she tings doh work out so She say de next sister ain’t bound Tuh know,
    [Both ah them, both ah dem] [Both ah dem, with both ah dem]
    http://islandlyrics.com/lyrics-mighty_sparrow-both_ah_them_1980s.htm#sthash.0q0fphxG.dpuf


  4. > The other slant is that with the plan to sack Worrell the government > needed a credible intermediary with the external agencies. > >


  5. @Alvin Cummins March 1, 2017 at 7:21 AM “I shall see what is written and by whom.”

    Please note that I am on both sides.

    Why choose when I can have both.


  6. @ Vincent

    I like you bad Vincent.

    doan mind you want to drown de ole man by selling me land in a moat somewhere knowing dat de ole man cant swim and not giving me no boat.

    Now every time dat you posting i see dat you taking “Mugabe for President”

    every time

    Looka whu you say earlier

    “…I hope MAM march comes off and Bimmers get accustomed to marching and civil disobedience as that is the only way to deal with our political class…”

    now dere is a fail accompli for you…

    You not only hoping dat Mugabe march comes off but

    But you now using a “familial” BIMMERS AND

    Dennnn you talking bout getting “accustomed to marching…” behind you president MUgabe as if “one swallow (march) a summer (disruption of the political class) makes”

    Dennnn you end off by saying definitively and authoritattively “this (marching) is de oly way to deal with our political class”

    Whu happen to you earlier suggestion bout tekking a day off?

    Mugabe tell you not to promote dat?

    Doan cuss de ole man boasie cause i jes cyan tek de cussing after de offer to drwon muh….heheheheheheh

  7. fortyacresandamule Avatar
    fortyacresandamule

    @Simple Simon. Weh Kitchy tell Sparrrow? lol,

    @David. The only credible factor the external partners are perusing right now is an IMF deal. Arthur’s appointment is window dressing to them.


  8. @ David,

    You are correct. Arthur is a credible intermediary with the external agencies and the leaders in the Caribbean.


  9. ONE: Politics of inclusion.

    TWO: An irresistible opportunity to juk Mia.


  10. @ De Honourable Blogmaster

    You is spot on correct

    Dat is what Owen Arthur represents

    He is the only political personage dat de DLP could present at this time of purgatory and perdition to international agencies with the credentials and gravitas to allay, i nearly said waylay the fears that they have in this incompetent government.

    Here is whu going happen.

    Option A.

    Owen going come in and fail because (a) it is too late of (b) he surrounded with buhkvunts and dem will not listen to he and continue to teif all de international people money.

    In which case Fumbles going blame he and all de rest of the eminent team who Chris Decimals Bonds claim dat he invite to sever after telling people dat dem doing it dere way.

    We will know that they are failing if, they are not able to secure any $$ AND people, an inordinate amount of people from de snivel service get send home.

    People WILL STILL HAVE TO GET SENT HOME THOUGH under either option.

    Option B.

    He comes in and meks tings perfect and gets things back on keel while these fellows, even though they try to save their seats,will be voted out.

    so they save the throne from mugabe because among the man DLP casualties WILL BE FUMBLES

    OPTION C.

    DE OLE MAN WILL NOT MENTION OPTION C cause i will expose wha that is

    OPTION D.

    I WILL ALSO NOT MENTION WHAT OPTION D IS BECAUSE IT WILL PUT CERTAIN PEOPLE ON NOTICE DAT DE OLE MAN KNOW.

    Wunna can see *** but wunna still cannot do with *** what i can do can you?

    Owen Seymour Arthur is a master chess player

    Call him what you will but one ting i sure dat he is is a patriot who loves Barbados.

    What he specifically is doing is not driven by love of the Prime Minister’s title in the usual mediocre sense of the office but for love of “the Prime Ministership”

    99% uh wunna ent going unnerstand but I dun know dat.

    A Warning to Mugabe!!

    Unlike de other fellow dat ***, Owen doan play dat shyte

    Fly straight or there is a policy and practice of Mutually Assured Destruction

    Attribute all uh dis to de hallucinatory nature of the medication heheheheheh

    Come leh we all wuk up and have a good time


  11. @Sunshine Sunny Shine March 1, 2017 at 12:25 PM “He knows he cannot spill the beans on Mottley.”

    And that is because there are no beans to be spilled.


  12. Piece
    Chuckle…..reread…. I am a pragmatist civil disobedience works against all and comes in different formats……capiche.


  13. One wonders if OSA’s decision will backfire and cause him to become a scapegoat if he is unable to bring the economy back from the brink of disaster. Perphaps Mr Sinckler is in need of another scapegoat as the suitation with the Governor of the Central bank has backfired.

    A true patriot would have called for the Administration to resign and call an election where he himself would have an opportunity to govern.
    The water is already murky and the people have lost confidence in DLP Administration.


  14. What the actual fuck…. I will start a new party which represents….DO NOT FUCKING VOTE AGAIN IN BARBADOS. ALL POLITICIANS HAVE GONE BI-POLAR OR BETTER STILL…POSSESSED BY EVIL SPIRITS SINCE THE CLICO, GEMS OF BARBADOS AND RODNEY WILKINSON SAGA. LETS VOTE FOR THEM ALL AS THE SECOND OPTION. THEN THEY WILL ALL WIN RIGHT!!!


  15. That begs the question David were they not mentoring someone to replace the elderly worrell they have been in power a while . …if not is it an old boys network the polictocracy


  16. It all seems quite simple to Bushie….

    We are ALREADY in duck’s guts, and halfway up shit street.
    It has finally dawned on Stinkliar that he is clueless and has been doing shiite for eight long years… They must have finally aroused Fruendel from his daze and got him to read the reports from back in 2010…
    So CLEARLY the DLP top brass (and even the AC’s it seems) now know that our ass is grass…
    Their challenge now is …WHO WILL BELL THE CAT….

    Well wunna done KNOW it won’t be Froon…. it is not his Ministry… and tourists MUST be wined and dined at Illaro Court….
    Stinkliar has COMMITTED to resigning before going to the IMF ..or devaluing …or dealing again with decimals…
    Nobody has any respect for Darcey the quisling …. Arthur will dump him next anyway….
    Mr ‘physical deficit’ is more suitable for Laugh-it-off…

    Soooooo….
    Let us bring in some big names to make the recommendations for “the hard decisions”…
    The press release will then go like this….

    The DLP is against the following measures, but having established such a prominent panel of experts, WE HAVE TO CHOICE BUT TO ANNOUNCE THE FOLLOWING:
    1 –
    2 –
    3 –
    Questions????
    Don’t ask me …. ask Arthur and his experts …who we have appointed to guide the process.
    Any questions should be directed to the chairman of the Advisory Panel….

    Me and my esteemed ministers and our non-leper associates will be in George Street at the lunchtime lecture where we are calculating our restored salaries and benefits….

    Thank you


  17. @Bush Tea

    Agreed. The shit has already left the fan and is flying. They only need somebody to tell us that there is no chocolate, but some anal thought on our nose.

  18. Caswell Franklyn Avatar
    Caswell Franklyn

    When all is said and done, no matter how you look at Sinckler’s version of the politics of inclusion, the people can only come to one conclusion – Arthur’s employment by his most severe critics is an admission by the Freundel Stuart Administration that they are incapable of carrying this country forward.

    Sinckler and the rest of the wild boys must realise that it takes one set of skills to win an election but a completely different set of skills is required to manage the affairs of state. Unfortunately, those skills are severely lacking or nonexistent in the current DLP lineup.

    Sent from my iPad

  19. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger

    https://www.barbadostoday.bb/2017/03/01/blame-mia/

    Caswelll….and Owen is stabbing..lol

    The current administration is incompetent, there is no getting around or away from that none.they will all now climb up on their soap boxes and lie to the people shamelessly and the most stupid in the the society will turn up to listen to those meetings, instead of boycotting those lies and let their votes speak instead.

  20. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-attorney-general-jeff-sessions-under-pressure-russian-ambassador-a7606986.html

    Lawson…ah told yall Karma is real, one by one the racists gotta go…BREAKING NEWS..lol, lol

    “Attorney General Jeff Sessions had two conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the presidential campaign season last year, contact that immediately fuelled calls for him to recuse himself from a Justice Department investigation into Russian interference in the election.

    Sessions, an early supporter of President Donald Trump and a policy adviser to the Republican candidate, did not disclose those communications at his confirmation hearing in January when asked what he would do if “anyone affiliated” with the campaign had been in contact with the Russian government.

    Sessions answered that he had not had communication with the Russians.”


  21. Moira Bloom March 1, 2017 at 9:07 PM #

    Haha. Your first sentence pretty much sums it up. One big, incestuous mess. Too long fellas been checking for themselves and their buddies (both sides).

    Could have only ended one way, sadly, they are intent on dragging it out instead of putting actions in place (yes, there are possible solutions). But those solutions do not ‘suit we’.


  22. WW he met with many ambassadors stop clutching at straws. just look at pelosi during speach old hag. when will you guys get it trump is president and starting to look presidental the old dems dont know what to do Barbados needs the same thing, somebody that show fiscal responsibility, can draw people in, able to give the masses what they have been searching for … you need the person from CUZ’S fish shack


  23. @ Lawson
    How does it show fiscal responsibility to cut medicare.. and increase (the already highest in history) military spending by 10%…?
    ….or sorry… Bushie forgot…
    Wunna people have this great need to run things viet armis……


  24. BT america is the worlds policeman, and having been falling behind rapidly because they are stretched too thin. Can you imagine if those nice mullahs had nuclear weapons or there was no invasion deterrent we would all be speaking mandarin. Most countries live off the security a powerfull america brings canada for one barbados for another .

  25. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger

    Lawson…it’s not his meeting with russian diplomats that raises questions, it’s that he pretended he forgot about it, not mentioning it at the confirmation and saying what they spoke about, one of the meeings was in his office, how could he not mention it.

    All of that was besides the point anyway, the real objective is to not have him investigate the putintrump bromance…lol…leave that for the real bad boys to do..lol

    Bushman….dont mind Lawson, we will make him and the illiterate weep.


  26. @BushTea, fiscal responsibility is a phrase like physical responsibly. It’s a function of the beholder’s bias and judgement.

    BTW, not sure about the Medicare cuts being realistic politically but there surely will be major cuts in Environmental agency and the Diplomatic and External Funding programs…as a start.

    Stop aiding the local in those far off countries to improve their lot but give corporate some more to gild their armaments profits and bomb the locals to oblivion.

    Great political theater and comedic laff lines that Mr Trump is starting to look so presidential….just as funny as our Bajan comedy show.

    If I start my political journey by saying that Trinis does send all their rapists and bobol BSers to we little island and say that I will send all them illegal overstay immigrant backsides back home as soon as I get elected then I am speaking my mind clearly and unfettered as a PM (Presidential candidate) I would imagine.

    A lot of people thought I was too. They elected me.

    So when I start to speak with less bombast I am now being more ‘precedential’.

    No wonder Sinckler and Stuart could pull this Arthur ploy so sweetly. They starting to look more ministerial adept now too.

    Who writes these scripts… What laffs.

  27. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger

    Lawson…ya will be speaking russian if the keepers of the US gates do not do their jobs, we beat them up mercilessly, but we do depend on them heavily for security in the north particularly Canada….and protecting the Caribbean is in their own self interest….and the illiterate did not need to soak the taxpayers for 56 billion dollars to do that, there is something nasty in play that he probably has no control over…and ya can see Sessions is a weakling whose only strength comes from race hatred.

    Putin owns those boys….ya should see the mess Manafort is in.


  28. Bt has if ever dawned on you that maybe this pacifism you inherited is the reason you are in barbados in the first place.


  29. Arthur was invited about 2 times before this to serve in this regard with the present government. The earliest being the economic breakfast meetings held at Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre when Thompson was PM. Arthur refused. So glad he has changed his mind now and taken up the offer.


  30. Kevin
    In many organisations the Past President is invited to sit at the head table …to provide for continuity of purpose and to provide context to past decisions taken.
    Only big-headed, self-deprecating, brass bowls will see a problem in such a proactive approach.
    Arthur’s involvement should have been constitutional – even if his advice was ignored when given…… if we cared about NATIONAL progress.


  31. @ lawson
    BT’s pacifism (many see it otherwise) is a result of having been adopted and given a big-ass whacker. It is in Barbados because the bushman may have created a bit too much havoc in a bigger country…. 🙂


  32. Arthur has been selected to be Chief Economic Adviser with the present administration. This is a crucial position in these challenging times and I feel it would have be prudent for him to concentrate on assisting the government and country to safer grounds. However, he prefer to dwell on Mia and historical economics instead of meeting with the eminent group along with MoF and his economists to set out strategies for the upcoming budget.


  33. Caught Owen buying his favourite “Jerk chicken & rice and peas at “Irie Foods.!” Anyone that likes JA food can’t be all bad..!


  34. Parkinson

    Mine is ackee and saltfish…

  35. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger

    http://bit.ly/2mQ0OY5

    I agree wholehartedly with the EU, why are US citizens afforded visa free travele when the US is one of the most violent countries in the world and everyone else has restricted travel. The Caribbean also need to put up some restrictionsfor people from outside the region, but they have stupidly allowed themselves to become so heavily dependent on tourism in the last 50 years..steupps….

    …..and foolish Fruendel was about to have bajan citizens fingerprinted when entering their own country…..the electorate should never forgive the mediocre government for that trick that Commissiong slapped down.

    “Suspend visa-free EU travel for U.S. citizens, lawmakers say.

    United States citizens should be denied visa-free access to the European Union before summer because Washington does not allow some EU nationals to enter there without visa, EU lawmakers said in a vote on Thursday.

    The European Parliament vote is set to put pressure on the European Commission, the EU’s executive, to enforce a one-year suspension as a tit-for-tat measure for Washington’s denial of visa-free access to citizens of Poland, Croatia, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria, all members of the 28-country bloc.

    A Commission official said contacts are ongoing with the U.S. administration “to push for full visa reciprocity,” but fell short of saying that immediate action will be taken.

    The Parliament, by a show of hands, urged the Commission to adopt restrictive measures against U.S. citizens “within two months”.

    “The Commission will report on further progress before the end of June 2017,” the EU executive ofss ad foolish Fruendel was about to have bajanficial said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

    EU rules say that a decision to end visa-free access should be taken within two years from a first notice to countries that do not grant free access to EU citizens.

    The first notification of the U.S. lack of reciprocity was sent in April 2014. Parliament argues that as a result the Commission has been “legally obliged” to take measures.

    ALSO IN WORLD NEWS

    Syrian army says it has recaptured Palmyra from Islamic State
    Al-Qaeda confirms death of senior leader in Syria – statement
    Canada also imposes visa requirements on Bulgarian and Romanian citizens, but it has announced that they will be lifted in December.

    (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)”


  36. recaptured palmyra you say how do they know its in ruins. canada has banned bulgarians and romanians till december, by which time there will be new safety measures on our atm’s. al=quada says their top dog was killed so stop looking for him


  37. The BU poll on OSA appointment is split down the middle read the usual political partisan fault line.


  38. Likely the upcoming budget will be more of the same.

    How about actually putting a tax on the multitude of international businesses operating here, using Barbados facilites and not contributing to their cost?

    A good 10% tax rate should bring in much needed funds. Other legitimate countries charge more even.

    Who leaves does, who dont, stays.


  39. Events of this week clearly show those elected to govern the country are about fluff and not substance. Looks like David Estwick will yelp as loud as is possible at the idea of appointing OSA to the job.

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