DOCSLIB.ORG

PM Arthur Speech at ACP-EU

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
PM Arthur Speech at ACP-EU GOVERNMENT OF BARBADOS ADDRESS BY THE RT. HON. OWEN ARTHUR PRIME MINISTER OF BARBADOS AT THE OPENING OF THE 12 TH ACP-EU JOINT PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY SHERBOURNE CONFERENCE CENTRE NOVEMBER 20, 2006 2 Your Excellency Sir Clifford Husbands, Governor General Members of Cabinet Co-Presidents of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly President of the Council of the European Union European Union Commissioner for Development & Humanitarian Assistance Members of ACP Parliaments and Members of the European Parliament Without even the slightest tinge of apology to anyone I find it necessary to begin by declaring that Barbados is honoured that you have chosen our country to be the venue for the 12 th Session of your ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. You will find our country to be in a more festive mood than normal as we prepare to celebrate our 40 th Anniversary of Independence. Senior Minister Miller would have, I believe, already indicated to you that one of the requirements of your participation in this convocation is that you must also participate to the full, and as appropriate, in Barbados’ coming of age celebrations. That, I too, now require and command of you. With no intention to be immodest, I must submit to you that it would be difficult for the ACP or the European Union to choose a place that is more qualified than Barbados in the precepts and practices of parliamentary governance and democracy as a location to hold a Parliamentary Assembly. 3 Barbados has the second oldest Parliament in the Commonwealth - a Parliament of some 367 years standing and continuous existence. And although it has not always been the people’s Parliament in the best democratic sense, it has always asserted its claim to Parliamentary integrity in a manner that it would be difficult not to admire. A famous case occurred as early as 1651 when a proclamation constituting a Declaration of Independence was passed by the Council and Assembly - a mere 120 years before the USA Declaration- condemning the actions of the House of Commons of England as being against the freedom and safety of the island, and declaring furthermore that Barbados should not be bound by the measures of a Parliament to which it could send no representatives. The statement issued in support of the Declaration, though being the words of dissident colonial elites, could be used as the mantra of any Parliament: “We will not alienate ourselves from our heroic virtues to prostitute our freedom and privileges to which we were born to the will and opinion of any one; neither do we think our number so contemptible nor our resolution so weak to be forced or persuaded to so ignoble a submission”. That was the Barbados Parliament of 1651. You meet today as a Joint Assembly. Of more relevance to your immediate purposes must be the fact that the Barbadian Parliament of 2006 perhaps, brought a refreshingly new definition to the concept 4 of a Joint Assembly on the occasion that the Leader of the Opposition made our democracy even more splendid and unique by choosing to accept an appointment to my Cabinet. Barbados enjoys a long tradition of parliamentary democracy, born in our colonial past and in part reflecting the values and systems of that period. An independent Barbados continued to build on that parliamentary tradition, adapting it to the needs of a newly independent nation. The task, however is not complete. Perhaps the most critical task before us now is to make our system of governance and our institutions fully reflective of an independent nation with a strong parliamentary heritage. On that enterprise we are now engaged. We have learnt during the initial stages of development of this very young nation that independence does not signify isolation or unilateralism. Independence should signify the enjoyment of sovereignty best used in the pursuit of a destiny that is all bound with our interdependence with others. It is this yearning to promote interdependence that makes our relationship through the ACP-EU partnership so special. The evolution of the ACP-EU relationship over the past forty-three years is a remarkable achievement. It has progressed from a limited agreement covering some aspects of European-African relations to become the most comprehensive North-South cooperation partnership. Along the way, the partnership has been able to evolve by taking into account the expansion of the European Community 5 and the ACP Group, within the context of international developments, such as decolonisation, the end of the cold war, and the effects of globalisation. Our present arrangements are therefore the product of an imposing history. The signing of the first Lome Convention in 1975 represented a clear progression from the two Yaounde Conventions, the first of which was signed in 1963 and involved only eighteen Associated African States and Madagascar together with the original six members of the European Community. Lome not only extended Yaounde from being a purely African aid programme into a global economic cooperation agreement involving seventy African Caribbean and Pacific Member States and fifteen European countries, but it also brought a new dimension to North-South cooperation by introducing a more holistic approach, encompassing both trade and aid. Similarly, after four Lome Conventions, the Cotonou Agreement with its provisions for new trade arrangements, the Economic Partnership Agreements, represents a major transformation. The partnership agreement now links seventy- nine ACP and twenty-five - soon to be twenty-seven - EU countries. Furthermore, EPAs are intended to move the ACP-EU relationship from one based on a preferential one-way trade regime to one which would be reciprocal and WTO compatible. The Cotonou Agreement is noteworthy because it introduced a number of innovations to the ACP-EU partnership agreement. The political dimension of the 6 relationship has been strengthened and is now a key element of the agreement. As a consequence respect for human rights, democratic principles, the rule of law and good governance are all subjects for regular political dialogue between the two sides. The inclusion of civil society, the private sector and other non-state actors in areas which were previously the exclusive jurisdiction of governments is another new feature of Cotonou. In the area of financial cooperation, the programming system has been modified in an effort to increase the utilisation rate of EDF resources. However, the most far reaching innovation associated with the Cotonou Agreement is the provision for the negotiation of new WTO-compatible trading arrangements between ACP regional groupings and the European Unio. Twenty- five years of ACP-EU trade and economic cooperation, under successive Lome Conventions, were built on the principles of preferential market access and non- reciprocity for ACP products entering the EU market. They rested on the solidarity of the ACP as a group in search for or and support of a common development ambition. Indeed, the unity and solidarity of the ACP Group had been a major factor in the negotiation of these Conventions and of the Cotonou Agreements which began as scheduled, in September 2002, presents a daunting task to the ACP. I have noted from your programme that on Wednesday afternoon you will consider, as an urgent topic, “The review of the Economic Partnership Agreements”. This morning I will touch on two EPA related issues, which affect 7 all ACP regions and which will define the nature of the future relationship between ACP countries and the European Union. First, I will speak to the treatment of regional integration within the context of the EPA with some reference to the Caribbean’s efforts, particularly in the economic sphere as it relates to the Caribbean Single Market and Economy for which I have lead responsibility within our regional arrangements. Secondly, I will address the development dimension of the EPAs, something which threatens to derail the entire negotiating process. In the Caribbean, we very much admire the process of regional integration that Europe has been able to undertake, and we acknowledge that it has many positive elements which can serve as very useful models in our own regional integration. Indeed, we are especially attracted to the elements aimed at ensuring social cohesion and the perspective that economic integration should be the tide which lifts all boats. Consequently, we have recognised the need for social and economic cohesion within our regional integration grouping, and have committed ourselves to pay urgent attention to addressing this need. The most tangible expression of this is the recent creation of a Regional Development Fund to enable our LDC’s to offset any disadvantages from being part of a Single market and Economy. In addressing the Caribbean Business Forum in London in June 2005, I pointed out that the CSME will only succeed, if the programme of Special and Differential Treatment for our lesser developed members, as outlined in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, is urgently implemented. I also said that we must be especially 8 sensitive to the fact that the distribution of costs and benefits, derived from the intensification of market integration, will not automatically become equitable and that specific steps would have to be taken to ensure some balance is achieved. We do not wish our integrated economy in the Caribbean to be a permanent coalition of unequals. We equally do not wish to engage in any arrangements with entities outside our region that constitute themselves as coalitions of unequals. While acknowledging that economic dislocation as a result of regional integration is a phenomenon which cannot entirely be prevented or avoided, we believe that it can and should be mitigated. In this regard, we have concluded that compensatory and corrective mechanisms should constitute a necessary and prominent feature of all discussions on the creation of a single economic space within our region.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Address by the Rt. Hon. Owen Arthur Prime Minister on the Occasion of the Re-Opening of the West Wing of Parliament
    ADDRESS BY THE RT. HON. OWEN ARTHUR PRIME MINISTER ON THE OCCASION OF THE RE-OPENING OF THE WEST WING OF PARLIAMENT NOVEMBER 22, 2006 2 In every form of Government known to mankind, and particularly in a Democracy, the land on which the Legislature is located is regarded with some reverence. Trollope captured that reverence well in the sentiments he put in the mouth of one of the characters of his novel “Can You Forgive Her”: “I have told myself, in anger and in grief, that to die and not to have won that right of way, though but for a session – not to have passed through those lamps (on either side of the St. Stephen’s entrance) – is to die and not to have done that which it most becomes an Englishman to have achieved”. Thus, the mere mention of the Palace of Westminster or Capitol Hill to mention two such familiar locations, conjures up in the mind locations which are not mere pieces of real estate, but places of deep constitutional and historical significance, where the people’s business is conducted and the outcome of their democratic right to vote finds practical expression. I am sure therefore that you appreciate as I do, the importance and significance of the reopening of the West Wing of our Parliament Buildings. It bears repeating that within the Commonwealth of Nations, our Parliament, is the third oldest political institution. Only the Parliament at the Palace of Westminster and the Parliament in Hamilton Bermuda are older; and our Parliamentary System of Representative Government is therefore 367 years old.
    [Show full text]
  • The History of Political Independence and Its Future
    The Time of Sovereignty: The History of Political Independence and its Future Dr. Richard Drayton Monday, November 28, 2016 Frank Collymore Hall Tom Adams Financial Centre It is a great honour, pleasure and privilege to give the Sir Winston Scott Memorial Lecture of the Central Bank of Barbados. It is particularly moving to me to look out at this crowd of 500 and see so many people I have known for over forty years, and in particular so many of the elders who formed me. I am conscious that my predecessors include such senior figures in the history of economics as Ernst Schumacher and the Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and such deans of Caribbean intellectual life as Rex Nettleford and Gordon Rohlehr. I am particularly humbled, as a Barbadian, to give this 41st Lecture as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the independence of Barbados. (Clearly, Rihanna was unavailable). I came to this island from Guyana only as a boy of 8. So it was not from hazard of birth but mature choice that I joined you in citizenship. I take no second place to the birth right Bajan in my love for this rock in which my roots are tangled with yours for all time. Our 50th anniversary is a joyful occasion. It is at the same time as a sobering one, when one reflects on the generations of ancestors, living and dying under conditions of the most extraordinary inhumanity, who made our presence today possible. If this Golden Jubilee celebration has any meaning, we need to remember why we sought political sovereignty.
    [Show full text]
  • Market and Economy (Csme) and the Eu-Cariforum Economic Partnership Agreement (Epa) Facilitate This Process?
    Iberoamericana. Nordic Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies Vol. XXXVIII: 1-2 2008, pp. 83-104 ENHANCING CARICOM COMPETITIVENESS: CAN THE CARIBBEAN SINGLE MARKET AND ECONOMY (CSME) AND THE EU-CARIFORUM ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT (EPA) FACILITATE THIS PROCESS? Debbie Mohammed I. INTRODUCTION On January 30, 2006 heads of government of six1 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries signed the protocol for implementation of the Caribbean Single Market (CSM). The realization of this seamless regional market, which facilitates the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour, has been heralded as the first tangible step towards a fully functioning Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) in 2008. What makes this move so critical is the significance, perhaps even urgency attached to the CSME as the potential driver of economic growth, competitiveness and overall development of the region’s countries. Indeed, the sentiment in many quarters is that the regional pooling of resources and markets and the harmonization of economic and related policies is the only real option available to CARICOM countries, most of which are facing severe economic crisis. Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur (2004) warned: “…Some domestic economies are relatively less prosperous than they were 30 years ago. Others, faced with the loss of trade preferences teeter on the brink of collapse. Many are compelled to deal with basic, urgent issues relating to economic survival and solvency.” Arguably, most CARICOM countries have been unable to adjust to a global economic system now premised on trade liberalisation and driven by new determinants of international competitiveness. At a time when constant innovation and knowledge inputs are key to adding value to goods and services in creating a competitive edge in higher-end activities, most of the region continues to rely on low value exports that will no longer enjoy preferential access to secure markets.
    [Show full text]
  • House of Assembly Debates
    THE House of Assembly Debates (OFFICIAL REPORT) FIRST SESSION 1999 – 2004 HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY Rev. J. J. S. ATHERLEY, B.A., B.Sc. (Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney-General and Minister of Home Tuesday, December 5, 2000 Affairs) Pursuant to the adjournment the House of Assembly Mr. D. T. GILL, B.Sc. met at 11.20 a.m. on Tuesday, December 5, 2000. Hon. N. A. LYNCH, B.Sc., M.B.A., (Minister of Tourism and International Transport) PRESENT Hon. A. P. WOOD, J.P., B.Sc., M.Sc. M.Phil. (Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development) His Honour I. A. ROETT, B.A., Dip. Ed. (Speaker) His Honour J. M. EDGHILL, J.P. (Deputy Speaker) Prayers were taken by Canon Father Ivan Harewood. Hon. Sir HENRY FORDE, K.A., Q.C., M.A., LL.M. (Cantab.) Mr. SPEAKER: The House is now in session. Rt. Hon. O. S. ARTHUR, M.Sc. (Econ.), (Prime MINUTES Minister, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs) (Minister of the Civil Service) Mr. SPEAKER: The Minutes of Tuesday, November Hon. D. A. C. SIMMONS, Q.C., LL.M. (Attorney 28, 2000. General and Minister of Home Affairs) (Leader of the House) Hon. D. A. C. SIMMONS: Mr. Speaker, I beg to Mr. D. J. H. THOMPSON, LL.B. (Hons.) (Leader of move that the Minutes for the Honourable the House of the Opposition) Assembly for its meeting of Tuesday, November 28, 2000, Sir HAROLD St. JOHN, K.A., Q.C., LL.B. which Minutes have been circulated, be taken as read. Mr. L. R. TULL, Q.C., M.A .
    [Show full text]
  • Owen by the Numbers by Prof. C
    Owen Arthur By The Numbers The Right Honourable Professor Owen Seymour Arthur became Barbados’ fifth Prime Minister on September 6th,1994 and served in that role until January 15th, 2008. Professor Arthur was famed for his economic expertise and I hope I can do some justice to his colossal economic legacy by exploring the performance of three key macroeconomic metrics during his years as Prime Minister of Barbados, (1) growth in Real Gross Domestic Product, (2) the Unemployment Rate and (3) the Weeks of Imports Cover. Growth In Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) The annual growth rate in real GDP is arguably the most widely used measure of how well an economy is performing. The World Bank provides data on the growth in real GDP for Barbados from the year 1971 and figure 1 below provides an overview of the annual growth rate in real GDP, with the years of Professor Arthur’s tenure as Prime Minister highlighted in red. Figure 1: Barbados Real GDP Growth Rate (1966 to 2019) 10.00 8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0.00 -2.00 1971197319751977197919811983198519871989199119931995199719992001200320052007200920112013201520172019 -4.00 -6.00 -8.00 Source: World Bank and Central Bank of Barbados Professor Arthur’s tenure as Prime Minister saw a sustained period of economic growth in Barbados. Since 1971, the Barbados’s economy has grown by approximately 56.86% (see table 1 below) and while his term of office constituted twenty-nine percent of the time between 1971 and 2019, it accounted for almost two-thirds (62%) of the economic growth achieved over that period.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title "In Plenty and In Time of Need": Popular Culture and the Remapping of Barbadian Identity Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7d59h0c8 Author Bascomb, Lia Tamar Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California “In Plenty and In Time of Need”: Popular Culture and the Remapping of Barbadian Identity by Lia Tamar Bascomb A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in African American Studies in the Graduate Division of University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Leigh Raiford, Chair Professor Brandi Catanese Professor Nadia Ellis Professor Laura Pérez Spring 2013 “In Plenty and In Time of Need”: Popular Culture and the Remapping of Barbadian Identity © 2013 by Lia Tamar Bascomb 1 Abstract “In Plenty and In Time of Need”: Popular Culture and the Remapping of Barbadian Identity by Lia Tamar Bascomb Doctor of Philosophy in African American Studies University of California at Berkeley Professor Leigh Raiford, Chair This dissertation is a cultural history of Barbados since its 1966 independence. As a pivotal point in the Transatlantic Slave Trade of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, one of Britain’s most prized colonies well into the mid twentieth century, and, since 1966, one of the most stable postcolonial nation-states in the Western hemisphere, Barbados offers an extremely important and, yet, understudied site of world history. Barbadian identity stands at a crossroads where ideals of British respectability, African cultural retentions, U.S. commodity markets, and global economic flows meet.
    [Show full text]
  • Cultural Maintenance and the Politics of Fulfillment in Barbados’S Junior Calypso Monarch Programme
    MASK AND MIRROR: CULTURAL MAINTENANCE AND THE POLITICS OF FULFILLMENT IN BARBADOS’S JUNIOR CALYPSO MONARCH PROGRAMME A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAIʻI AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN MUSIC MAY 2016 By Anjelica Corbett Thesis Committee: Frederick Lau, chairperson Ricardo Trimillos Njoroge Njoroge Keywords: Anjelica Corbett, Calypso, Carnival, Nationalism, Youth Culture, Barbados Copyright © 2016 Anjelica Corbett Acknowledgements Foremost, I would like to thank God because without him nothing would be possible. I would also like to thank the National Cultural Foundation, the Junior Calypso Monarch Programme participants, Chrystal Cummins-Beckles, and Ian Webster for welcoming into the world of Bajan calypso and answering my questions about this new environment. My gratitude also extends to the Junior Calypso Monarch Programme participants for allowing me to observe and their rehearsals and performances and sharing their love of calypso with me. I would like to thank Dr. Frederick Lau, Dr. Byong-Won Lee, Dr. Ricardo Trimillos, and Dr. Njoroge Njoroge, and the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa's Music Department for approving this project and teaching me valuable lessons throughout this process. I would especially like to thank my fellow colleagues in the Ethnomusicology department for their emotional and academic support. Finally, I would like to thank my family for support and encouragement throughout my academic career. i Abstract Barbados, like other Caribbean nations, holds junior calypso competitions for Barbadian youth. These competitions, sponsored by Barbados’s National Cultural Foundation (NCF), allow the youth to express their opinions on society.
    [Show full text]
  • Rota News July 30 July 2020 Bulletin-FINAL.Pub
    ROTA NEWS 30TH JULY 2020 Club Officers & Directors President District 7030 - Club # 6798 Fiona Hinds Chartered March 07, 1962 President Elect PATRON Robin Ford HE Dame Sandra Mason, GCMG, DA. Governor General Vice President DISTRICT OFFICERS Ron Davis District Governor Secretary Lisle Chase Ermine Darroux R.I. Theme 2020-21 District Governor Elect Treasurer Sonya Alleyne Meryl Stoute District Governor Nominee Club Administration R.I. OFFICERS Leslie Ramdhanny Jeff Evelyn President Assistant Governor Membership/Youth Service Holger Knaack Peter Thompson Stanley MacDonald District Secretary President Elect Public Relations Shekhar Mether Soraya Warner Gustave Arlene Ross RI Membership District Treasurer Committee Chair Joel Crocker Community Service Adrian Skeete PDG David Edwards Council of Governors Chair PDG Trevor Blake International/Rotary Foundation District Rotary Foundation Chair Makonem Hurley PDG Milton Inniss Immediate Past President District Disaster Relief Chair Peter Williams PDG David Edwards District TRF Annual Fund Chair Sergeant–At–Arms Sonya Alleyne Randy Marshall Weekly meetings on Thursdays at THE FOUR WAY TEST Hilton Barbados Of the things we think, say or do: Needham’s Point, Aquatic Gap, 1. Is it the TRUTH? St. Michael 2. Is it FAIR to all concerned? at 12:30 p.m. 3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS ? P.O. Box 148B, Brittons Hill, 4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned? St. Michael, Barbados THE ROTARY CLUB OF BARBADOS WELCOMES ALL VISITING Summary of Our Club Mee"ng of 23RD July 2020 ROTARIANS AND GUESTS Mar 07 - Club Charter Date - 1962 - Club # 6798 RI THEME: ROTARY OPENS OPPORTUNITIES Rtn. Adrian Sealy delivered the opening prayer.
    [Show full text]
  • Guyana General and Regional Elections
    Guyana General and Regional Elections 2 March 2020 CONTENTS LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL ..................................................................... 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................... 11 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................ 11 Terms of Reference .................................................................... 11 Activities ................................................................................. 12 CHAPTER 2 .................................................................................... 13 POLITICAL BACKGROUND ................................................................. 13 Context for the 2020 Elections ....................................................... 16 CHAPTER 3 .................................................................................... 20 THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK AND ELECTION ADMINISTRATION .......................... 20 Election Administration ............................................................... 24 Voter Eligibility and the Electoral Register ......................................... 24 Recommendations ...................................................................... 26 CHAPTER 4 .................................................................................... 28 PARTICIPATION AND INCLUSION ......................................................... 28 Gender ..................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The President's News Conference with Caribbean
    Administration of William J. Clinton, 1997 / May 10 699 Puerto Rico and the American Virgin Is- NOTE: The President spoke at 10:13 a.m. in the lands lie at the heart of this region. We are North West Plenary Conference Room at the joined today by the Governor of the Virgin Sherbourne Center. A tape was not available for Islands, Governor Roy Schneider; the con- verification of the content of these remarks. gressional delegate from Puerto Rico and former Governor, Carlos Romero-BarceloÂ. The President's News Conference Last night the delegate from the Virgin Is- With Caribbean Leaders in lands, Donna Christian-Green, was here with Bridgetown us, and we also have Congresswoman Maxine May 10, 1997 Waters from California here. The United States is very much aware that Prime Minister Arthur. Mr. Chairman, millions of our fellow citizens trace their her- President of the United States of America, itage to these islands and that we have bene- fellow Caribbean heads of state and govern- fited immeasurably from them. More than ment, Secretary General of CARICOM, dis- ever before, we are linked economically and tinguished delegates, members of the press. politically. Every nation but one in the Carib- First, I should like to say that my wife and bean has chosen free elections and free mar- I are pleased that you could find it possible kets. I am proud that the United States has to come to share the residence with us. It long been a beacon for freedom in this hemi- is my pleasure to inform you that the just sphere.
    [Show full text]
  • Freedom in the World
    Barbados Page 1 of 6 Published on Freedom House (https://freedomhouse.org) Home > Barbados Barbados Country: Barbados Year: 2018 Freedom Status: Free Political Rights: 1 Civil Liberties: 1 Aggregate Score: 96 Freedom Rating: 1.0 Overview: Barbados is a democracy that regularly holds competitive elections and upholds civil liberties. Challenges include official corruption and a lack of government transparency, discrimination against the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) population, violent crime, and poverty. Political Rights and Civil Liberties: POLITICAL RIGHTS: 38 / 40 (–2) A. ELECTORAL PROCESS: 12 / 12 A1. Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4 The prime minister, usually the leader of the largest party in parliament, is head of government. The British monarch is head of state, and is represented by a governor general. https://freedomhouse.org/print/49949 9/27/2018 Barbados Page 2 of 6 Freundel Stuart of the DLP was appointed prime minister after the DLP narrowly won the 2013 general elections, which were regarded as competitive and credible. Philip Greaves was sworn in as governor general in July 2017. A2. Were the current national legislative representatives elected through free and fair elections? 4 / 4 Members of the 30-member House of Assembly, the lower house of the bicameral Parliament, are directly elected for five-year terms. The governor general appoints the 21 members of the Senate: 12 on the advice of the prime minister, 2 on the advice of the leader of the opposition, and the remaining 7 at their own discretion.
    [Show full text]
  • Address by Hon Mia Amor Mottley, Q.C., M.P., Leader of the Opposition Political Leader Barbados Labour Party to the Barbados
    ADDRESS BY HON MIA AMOR MOTTLEY, Q.C., M.P., LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION POLITICAL LEADER BARBADOS LABOUR PARTY TO THE BARBADOS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Wednesday 29 October 2010 “Dare to Dream. Determined to Do.” ________________________________________________________________ Good Day Ladies and Gentlemen; I have had the pleasure of addressing you before, but this is the first time I am doing so as leader of the Barbados Labour Party. It is no less a pleasure today. Let me also say how much I enjoy discussing the business of Barbados with you. I would like you to join me in traveling down a telescope of the economic events that have helped to shape this small but great nation of ours. I will start near the small end of my telescope and remind you that the economic model that was available to Grantley Adams, Errol Barrow, Tom Adams, Bree St. John, Erskine Sandiford and to a lesser extent Owen Arthur is no longer available to us today. The luxury of having access to preferential markets, protective tariffs, quotas, subsidies and industrialization by invitation lives now mostly in the history books and academic texts. They are relics of another time and space that served us moderately well for the first thirty to forty years after Independence. Within five years from now though, by 2015, we will no longer have one of the key instruments that has supported economic growth and that has supported our enterprises. Think if you will that almost every large-scale enterprise in tourism, manufacturing and agriculture has been the beneficiary of generous incentives from the government of Barbados in their setup and operations.
    [Show full text]