#Current affair 2033

[currentandpastaffairs]

IndiGo Flight Diverted to Karachi Due to Medical Emergency

On March 12, 2023, an IndiGo flight from Delhi to Doha was diverted to Karachi due to a medical emergency on board. The flight, which was operating as 6E 1457, had taken off from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport earlier that day with 176 passengers on board. Read More...

[ladysomething]

4 other lestappen fics after this one? 😏

hehehe well now you've done it!!!!

behold, the other fics in waiting, including snippets from what I've already written of them.

in likely posting order, they are:

Post Aus GP fic where Max and Charles have been hooking up casually for a while and they both need to let some steam out after the race. daddy kink!

"Charles doesn’t text Max back until just past midnight. 

It’s a little earlier than Max expected, really. Back when every win for the team was hard fought, Max usually didn’t stumble back to his hotel until after the sun rose. 

Then again, if the team won, it was usually because it was him. Not his teammate. The circumstances are different. 

Charles replies with a room number, then says, I’m already back. Come when you can. 

Max see’s no point in waiting around—he’s been itching for this for hours, and Charles probably knows it. Instead, he quietly pushes back the sheets of his bed and slips out. He puts jeans on over his boxers, and then pulls on a sweatshirt, and pretends he can’t see Kelly watching him in the low light of his lit up phone screen. 

She doesn’t say anything when he slips the hotel key in his pocket, nor when he walks out the door, so Max doesn’t either. He knows she more than suspects he’s having an affair, but he’s not sure she know who it’s with. By now, she’s surely clued in to the fact that it’s somebody associated with F1 and who is always wherever he is."

hanhaki au where Hanahaki is a chronic illness developed when one keeps their feelings/emotions inside, and Max and Charles are both suffering from it.

"“You really haven’t spoken to him?” Daniel asks as Max picks the next track. 

Max rolls his tongue on the roof of his mouth as he tries to figure out how to answer. 

“I didn’t really want to talk to anybody after I was diagnosed,” he says eventually, hoping it’s enough to sate both Daniel and his own symptoms. His chest always gets tight when he talks about Charles these days, no matter how honest he is. Francois says it’s because he’s been living with the disease for a long time, now; that Hanahaki is degenerative, and soon he might not even be able to think about Charles in passing without coughing up flowers. 

“Sure, but Charles isn’t you,” Daniel answers. “He’s a yapper. It’s how he processes things. And being about to talk to someone who actually understands would be extra helpful, I’m sure.” 

Max knows all of that, obviously. He’s in love with the man—of course he knows it. 

Max just . . . doesn’t know how to be that person for him. He doesn’t know how to be comforting, he wasn’t built for it. He was built for ruthlessness, precision, for seeking out weakness and using them to his advantage."

fake Max autobiography that he releases in 2033. parts of the story are how the people he used to be friends with (so people on the current grid) react to what he reveals in the book, and then one who chapter is just a whole fake chapter from the memoir. that's the chapter I've written, so here's a piece from it!

"I don’t think there’s anything I can really do to make up for what I did to Charles. He and I haven’t spoken since I retired, in case you were wondering. 

Even the email exchange I talked about earlier actually went through our managers. 

Honestly, I don’t even think I deserve his forgiveness. He put up with me when no-one else would, loved me fully and completely, put me back together, tore me apart, then put me back together again. 

In some ways, I think he saved me. 

In other ways, he saved himself from me. 

I’m endlessly grateful for both. 

I don’t want you to feel sorry for me. I can recognise now that a lot of my behaviours were because of the trauma I experienced at the hands of my father. I can also recognise that I need to take responsibility for them, because I was a grown adult making decisions of my own free will. 

I’m paying my penance for it, regardless. 

There is no chance that I will ever love anybody the way I loved Charles. It’s just too unlikely, that I could be lucky enough to meet a second person on this planet that made me feel like he did. 

But you don’t need to feel pity. You don’t need to be angry with me, either. I can assure you, I do plenty enough of both for all of us. 

And I’m fine. Life is fine. I’m far from unhappy. 

I know what I sacrificed. I know what I gave up. I know what I traded, to win what I won, to have what I do. 

And if there is one lesson my father taught me that I’m grateful for, it’s this: 

I know that I can bear a burden."

finally, a body swap!au in which Charles wishes to be World Champion, and instead body swaps with Max.

"“Make your decision, Mister Leclerc,” Althea says, not even looking up at him as she continues to sort her things. “Do you want to be Champion?” 

Charles’ breath hitches in his chest. 

“Yes,” he says decisively. He knows he can pick a secret that will satisfy Althea without it being life-destroyed. “Do I tell you the secret now?” 

He sifts through his memories, trying to come up with something he might be comfortable sharing. 

But all that comes up are things he would never say; how he’d once told Arthur that their parents didn’t love him and then felt terrible when his little brother had burst into tears; that he’d cried after having sex with a girl for the first and only time because he’d so desperately wished he could just like it and be normal; that he’d told Jules that he was in love with him and Jules had awkwardly patted his head and said it was probably just a crush and that he’d get over it, and, worse, that Jules had been right and he’d moved his attentions to a boy his own age by the end of the week; the terrible, awful, things he feels for—

Althea inhales sharply, eyes sliding closes. 

“Yes,” she breathes. “That.” 

Charles rips his hand away from hers, breathing deeply. “You—can you—” 

She raises a brow at him, pressing her red-painted lips together. 

“Get out of my head,” he commands hotly, standing up so fast his chair falls back, slamming against the ground."

[beardedmrbean]

Government ministers met on Sunday to try and agree a package to ease consumer electricity bills but failed to reach a consensus, Helsingin Sanomat (siirryt toiseen palveluun) (HS) reports.

Prime Minister Sanna Marin (Sdp) had invited her coalition partners to discuss a so-called 'hybrid model' of energy policy which would involve a price cap, state-guaranteed energy contracts and longer payment periods for larger electricity bills.

Marin's party's proposal suggested a price cap of 0,20 euros per kWh, according to the paper.

Some coalition partners consider the proposal expensive and slow to implement. HS writes that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, led by Mika Lintilä (Centre), is among those critics.

Ilta-Sanomat reports (siirryt toiseen palveluun) that other types of criticism hold that subsidy models do not provide enough support for those currently struggling with high electricity bills and that they fail to encourage moderation in energy use.

Ministers will be discussing the matter again on Monday at 8am, with opposition parties invited to join discussions at 2pm.

Report picks on Finland's role in Afghanistan

Tabloid Ilta-Sanomat (siirryt toiseen palveluun) (IS) writes that a new report by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) suggests Finland's involvement in Afghanistan was motivated by geopolitics rather than goodwill.

Finland's involvement was portrayed as a humanitarian act in the media at the time when in reality, the country was mostly interested in strengthening its relationship with the US and Nato as well as solidifying its decision making capacity within the UN, according to IS.

"Finland’s actions in Afghanistan were guided primarily by the desire to maintain and deepen its international foreign and security policy partnerships. The aims related to Afghanistan’s development and the strategic monitoring of their attainment remained secondary concerns, and Finland’s actual efforts were not based on a comprehensive approach or a realistic analysis of the situation," the report, published on Monday morning, reads.

While the two-decade involvement saw some 'positive change' regarding human development, the impacts' longevity remained weak due to a lack of long-term strategy, IS writes.

At the same time, the report highlights Finland's active role in an intervention that ultimately fuelled large-scale corruption and resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians.

Some 2,500 Finnish soldiers and 140 crisis management experts served in Afghanistan with the total price tag nearing 700 million euros, according to IS.

More holidays in 2023

Multiple papers report how people in Finland will be entitled to more bank holidays in 2023, following a year that saw most holidays fall on weekends.

Next year will see nine bank holidays, compared to just seven in 2022, the lowest possible number of weekday holidays in a year, newspaper Aamulelhti (siirryt toiseen palveluun) writes.

Finland does not reschedule most holidays when they fall on a weekend.

May Day, Midsummer Eve and Independence Day are among the holidays to fall on a weekday next year.

"In a way, you could say that the fat years are upon us," University of Helsinki Almanac Office's Asko Palviainen said, adding that "a year as bad as the one we're having now won't come for a while."

The next time a year will feature only seven days off will be in 2033, according to the paper.

2024 and 2025 will both be years when a total of ten holidays will fall on a weekday.

[untitledtheunknown]

Valor Rzeszutek timeline from birth to 2077+ cuz have put way too much thought and planning into his dumb ass. It's not 100% to everything, a lot of things are over simplified and had major effects on him, as well as other smaller events that did occur. But its something to kinda base him on of where he's been and where he's at now.

October 21st 1994 - Valor and Glory Rzeszutek were born to engineer Jeremiah and corpo Vivienne Rzeszutek in South Africa.

August 2005 - Vivienne received a new position with the HQ of her company, uprooting the family from SA to NUSA Las Vegas.

June 2006 - Jeremiah takes Valor with him on a small trip to NC, surprises him with tickets to see Samurai.

October 21st 2006 - Valor gets his first electric guitar for his 12th birthday.

November 19th 2010 - Vivienne dies of sudden health complications. Corporation covers her funeral costs and gives an additional 1 year salary to the family.

July 2012 - Valor joins Lazarus Group starting his mercenary/solo career.

September 2012 - Jeremiah leaves LV joining a group of Nomads heading East.

2013-15 - Valor served as gunner for Trauma Team LV; Glory was quickly rising through corprate ranks with Liive a doll company.

December 2017 - Corprate counter extractions, target found dead in a warehouse with a wreath around his head. First of many to be found this way.

2021-27 - Valor is assigned on military contract back to SA, orders suggested territory dispute and area fortification but actual politics of it was left out for troops. Mostly a show of muscle and patrolling different hot zones.

February 4th 2027 - Transport detail, halfway camp under fire. 14 dead another dozen injured, Valor and 3 others are taken prisoner.

February 6th 2027 - Valor wakes up strapped to an operating table, system diagnosis states a foreign piece of unregistered cyberware has been installed. Installation location is unknown as all ports are open, given the bandaging around his head and the pain at the base of his skull, assumed it was surgically implanted.

February 8th 2027 - Dumped in an unknown location, small town, in the middle of the night. Bloody, bruised, and weak manages to get himself up and starts to stumble down the empty street. Chip is activated, neural system goes offline, cyberpsychosis takes over sending Valor into a chaotic feral state.

February 9th-15th 2027 - Valor is held prisoner by local military company. Believing he works for the black market vendors he is tortured for days on end until information arrives that he is one of the MIA soldiers with Lazarus Group. Returned to a nearby base and sent back to NUSA for medical evaluation.

March 30th 2027 - Valor is released from medical care, honorably discharged from Lazarus for medical purposes. Do to the chip's nature it is unable to be removed, with no known tracers on the technology he is put on as risk for possible cyberpsychosis relapse. No evidence to prove that he will relapse he is free to leave the facility.

June 2027 - Valor meets a street drummer that goes by Rango. Former Nomad, part time roadie. He's a part time drummer and makes for good company, two start hanging out on the regular.

August 19th 2027 - Abduction in progress, high on painkillers Valor gives chase. First official run in with Arasaka Extractor, Umbra. Though the fight was short lived and Valor failed, Umbra, impressed with vitality and fight, severs Valor's ring finger. Taking it as an oath for the fight to continue on a better day for the solo.

December 7th 2027 - Valor is selected among a small group of Solos for a new prototype of cyberarms known as the MonoBlades by Kendachi. Do to his medical records he is unable to undergo the procedure for the new cybernetics though is assured his spot will be held until he's well enough.

April 2028 - Once again confronted with Umbra, though no fight happens, terms of the affair are made clear. Valor is being stalked by the other, for better or for worse. Next several months this obsession is made clear.

September 2028 - Convinced by his sister that he needs to get out more, get back to work, do something with his time. In a haze of foggy memories ends up joining an inferno and becoming a dom for hire. Pays good and keeps his nights filled can't complain.

December 19th 2028 - Clearance for the new cyberarms is granted, Valor is sent to one of Kendachi's orbital stations to receive the procedure and physical therapy for the new arms.

March 14th 2029 - Contacted by an old Netrunner friend asking to meet up. Meeting up at a Café off the old strip Sami introduces Valor to Kelvy Kai-Eurodyne, an independent media hunting down a Netrunner killer in NC. The name Umbra comes up in intercepted Arasaka documents, Valor tells them to drop it if they value any part of their lives before leaving the Café.

September 2029 - Working more on his music, got a group of friends together and produced their first demo by the end of the year going by the name Herken.

April 2030 - Local rock station for Central Vegas started playing their music, shortly there after Damion Kre Saint for No End Records signed the band, started work on their first official album.

August 2031 - Herken releases their first studio album, Remembering Nothing More to major success

October 15 2031 - First major tour for the band, switching from opening act to headliner at different gigs

May 2033 - Second album is released, touring there after

September 2036 - Third studio album is released, Cherish the Pain, album becomes a sensation in the rock scene

2038 - after several strings of murders, and NC naming a new serial killer, Sami contacts Valor thanking him for his warning nearly 10 years ago about Umbra.

February 2040 - Fourth album is released

August 2045 - Valor returns to work with Lazarus, back into solo work, mainly preforming counter extractions.

November 2046 - Attempted counter extraction comes too late, Valor calls in the body only to be confronted with Umbra as he attempts to exit the scene. Conversation was not recorded, both men left unharmed.

March 17 2049 - Glory Rzeszutek is murdered several blocks from her home, during an attempted robbery. Trauma is unable to revive her, information regarding her death is forwarded out to Valor there after.

March 23 2049 - Valor is switched from ops being put back on leave to manage his sister's affairs. He is the sole beneficiary to her estate, inheriting her wealth and stock with Liive, overnight making him a multi-billionaire and part of the Vegas elite.

April 2049 - dealing with the loss of his twin sister, Valor begins to go through a deep pit of depression. Having dealt with loss before, Solo career wasn't uncommon to lose friends, this however was different. Depression began to manifest into visual and audio hallucinations, making work nearly impossible to do

May 2049 - Jan 2050 - Valor is in and out of court and legal hearings in regards to his inheritance and the remainder of his sister's estate. Interviews running like its a celebratory thing gaining this wealth, truth being he just wants to get back to work. Ending result 75% of the wealth is locked in accounts and will not be released for another 20+ years.

February 2050 - Valor once again returns to work with Lazarus taking on smaller gigs for a time. Still dealing with his own mental state, he refuses to take on anymore large gigs.

July 2051 - Contract comes in for a security gig, easy job, 24/7 body detail for 1 year on tour. Contract is immediately pushed forward to Valor who accepts, only during briefing for the gig find out its for Kerry Eurodyne.

July 2052 - contract concluded with the tour a benefits relationship starts between Kerry and Valor. Valor opting to stay in NC for a few months extra on a "private" contract with the Rockerboy.

September 2054 - Kerry once again hires Valor as security for a shorter tour, media events for new album put on by his label.

2057 - Rumors start to surface that Umbra has been decommissioned amongst a small group of extractors, Sami brings up that Arasaka is keeping it quiet because he was the NC Gallery Killer and that is not a PR mess any company wants to deal with. All traces of him have been scrubbed from their databanks.

2058 - Valor receives a token from the Nomad group The Veils, and invitation to join them. Having heard rumors of the group, he's hesitant to act, even more so to inform anyone.

June 2059 - Valor retires from Lazarus and takes up the offering on The Veils token, following it out into the desert.

2060 - He is officially accepted into the clan, given a title by Azera and branded as part of them with his unique code. Beginning of a new life.

2067 - Valor begins spending more time at the Edges of Silence, a bleak stretch of dead desert where nothing grows. The clan believes the desert out there will either consume or the spirits will direct. Something keeps calling him back whenever he is close.

August 2074 - The choice is made to continue heading out West, follow the signs and see if he can make sense of the visions and voices. Gifted passage and return by Azera it is not a final goodbye from the clan.

2075 - Settled into NC, doesn't take long for his reputation to catch up with him, starts taking on independent Solo gigs. Quickly climbing up the chain and becoming a regular at the Afterlife, a gifted work horse for Rogue, but one she knows will get any job done.

2077 - Happens, that was a thing... yeah.

January 2078 - Valor and Kerry make the trip back out to The Veils, after a trial devoted to loyalty, Azera decides to spare them both, attempting to save Valor from the effects of the Relic.

May 2078 - Finally wakes back up, and on the recovery as his vitals have evened out and a sense of normalcy is restored. Though some side effects of the Relic cannot be reverted in his current body, he has his life with no threat of a imminent collapse.

[mahendrayadavsworld]

30 June current affair in Hindi daily uploaded prshnotari quiz

26) किस देश ने निर्णय की है कि 2033 तक मंगल ग्रह पर पैदल कर्मी भेजें जाएंगे

उत्तर चीन ने

27) हाल ही में विदेशी प्रजातियों वाले फलों के निर्यात को बढ़ावा देने के लिए ड्रैगन फ्रूट को किस देश में निर्यात किया गया है ?

उत्तर संयुक्त अरब अमीरात में

28) हाल ही में किस देश के स्वास्थ्य मंत्री मैट हैनकॉक ने अपने पद से इस्तीफ़ा दे दिया है ?

उत्तर ब्रिटेन के

29) डिजिटल धोखाधड़ी से निपटने के लिए गृह मंत्रालय ने कौन सा ऐप लांच किया है ?

उत्तर - साइबर सेफ

30) नेशनल इंटरनेट एक्सचेंज ऑफ इंडिया ने अपना कौनसा स्थापना दिवस मनाया है ?

उत्तर - 18वां

[magpiejay1234]

With the recent affairs in Turkey, it is probably guaranteed now that we are getting a constitutional referendum later this year, again.

AKP’s primary concern is to get rid of the “laicite” clause** (Turkey does not have true secularism as organizing for religious purposes is functionally illegal unless they are legacy institutions under the protection of Lausainne Treaty, so we just have a defunct French-style faux-atheistic state worship, though Hanefi Islam is more or less the official state religion.) though they are planning other stuff such as changing presidential electoral system to a Latin American one* or allowing a simple majority system with 30+ of the vote (which doesn’t exist in any other country) and replacing the Constitutional Court with a Supreme Court.

Because of Biden’s hard-line anti-communist and anti-Iran stance, Turkey can probably be temporarily brought back into a marriage of convenience against Russia by yet another US betrayal of us Kurds but it won’t last for Harris presidency. Turkey will try its hardest to get a Trump presidency though in 2024, because Erdoğan has personal connections to him and his family.

What will determine the next referendum is if Turkey will do what US wants it to, which is replacing unitary system with a federal structure and further privatization of state institutions, especially national propaganda devices like Turkish History Institute and TRT. First part is impossible with current government, but if they replace current provincial system with an Italian-Spanish-style regional parliamentary system, it should be satisfactory enough***.

Despite opposition’s attempts to make amends with the US neoliberals and neocons, USA remains the primary supporter of the presidential system in Turkey (though not in this dysfunctional authoritarian state) even if EU is institutionally hostile to it, which means it is going to remain in place for a few decades, even if Erdoğan is removed from power.

With the new constitution, Erdoğan should be able to remain in power until 2038 (current constitution allows him to remain until early 2033 with legal loopholes and until 2028 under normal circumstances) which might be increased to 2043 if Trump is reelected in 2024. But this is still an unlikely prospect for the time being.

*In most Latin American countries, if the forerunner has 10 points more than previous candidate and around 40+ vote, they get to be the president without a second round. AKPMHP get a 40+ vote share easily, though it is unlikely that will get a 10 point divide.

**Fun fact, doing so won’t actually harm Turkey’s prospects for entering EU programs, as Bosnian’s constitution does not have a clear separation of religion and state either. Many EU members don’t actually.

***Turkey has 81 provinces, which is the same as Philippines, but most of them have less than 500,000 people. Since Erdoğan wants to have a plurality-at-large voting those can be abolished in favour of something resembling the NUTS statistical regions. But the current system benefits them, so I doubt it.

[exploremars]

By MATT STAGGS | UNBOUND WORLDS

The National Geographic Channel’s “Mars” is a six-part global event series that depicts mankind’s first crewed mission to Mars in the year 2033. This reality-based drama is accompanied by unscripted interviews with today’s biggest innovators in the growing field of space exploration. Among them is aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin: a longtime advocate for a crewed journey to Mars, and author of several books, among them How to Live on Mars.

Zubrin recently spoke with me about the television program, the opportunities that a journey to Mars would offer, and the limitations of conventional thinking. 

Note: This article is from November 2016 but republished here for its relevancy to current affairs in the space industry, NASA, and the recent formulation of a National Space Council via the Trump Administration.

UNBOUND WORLDS: I see that you invented three-player chess as a young man. What were you like as a kid? Have you always been someone who didn’t want to take accepted wisdom as the final answer to a problem?

ROBERT ZUBRIN: That was my first patented invention: I invented it when I was in high school. I would say that’s true. I’ve always looked for alternative ways to do things, and always asked why it can’t be done a different way. One thing impairs people from being inventors is that a lot of people have this idea that if they think something could be done a different way, and it’s not already being done that way, then they think there must be a reason why they’re wrong. My attitude has always been, “show me”, okay? They also think that if it was a good idea then someone else would have thought of it first.

There are so many inventions that you could look at, from bicycles to parasails, that could have been invented decades or centuries before they actually were. Did you know that the wheelbarrow wasn’t even invented until the 1200s? The Romans didn’t have wheelbarrows. It took until the high Middle Ages to invent wheelbarrows, but there was no reason why the Romans couldn’t have had them, or invented bicycles or at least scooters, but they didn’t. By World War II, people knew pretty much everything about subsonic aerodynamics that they know now, and yet they only had parachutes that could not be directed, as opposed to parasails, which were fully within their understanding, but no one had them.

I mean, look, the ketchup bottle you stand on its head so you won’t have to knock the ketchup out? We had that until 5 or 10 years ago when someone thought to put the ketchup bottle that way. There’s a lot of stuff that hasn’t been invented yet. People just need to have the guts to say, “Show me why I’m wrong.”

UW: How often have you been in that position? Do you get a lot of pushback when it comes to things like Mars and your plans there?

RZ: You get this throughout life. I always got, “You can’t be right because someone else would have thought about it first.” I recently published a critique of Elon Musk’s space colonization system. I said that he has this giant second-stage booster that he’s sending all the way to the surface of Mars and back. Seven million pounds of thrust? He should stage off of that just short of Earth escape and then it would be back in Earth’s orbit within a week. It could be used five times per opportunity, or every other opportunity, and you wouldn’t be sending it all the way to the surface of Mars and back. I published that.

Some people see what I’m saying, and then others believe that Musk must have already thought of that and rejected it. I don’t buy that argument. If you think that it’s wrong, then show me why it’s wrong. It must be wrong because otherwise Musk would have thought of it? People make mistakes. People leave things out. It happens all the time. That’s what you’ve got to do: Look at it with not cold reason, but brave reason.

UW: You’re an advocate of settling Mars by getting there and then developing what we need on the ground, is that right?

RZ: We’ll have to do it with what we have now, or what we’ll have soon. You have to understand that technologists are not the constituents of the Mars program, although they appear to some managerial types to be that. They are the vendors to the Mars program. You need some of them, but you want to need as few of them as you can.

It’s like running my business: I don’t run my business to please my vendors. There are certain vendors that I have and I make a lot of use of them, but I don’t run my business to give them maximum business. I try to economize. The problem that you have at NASA is that whenever anyone says, “Let’s send Humans to Mars”, then a bunch of people crowd into the room representing various technologies, and they say, “We love this idea because you’ll give our technology a job. We’ll support your program if you use our technology. On the other hand, if you don’t, we’ll hate you forever.”

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The problem with the 90 Day Study wasn’t that the engineers who designed it were incompetent: It was that the managers who were leading that effort were trying to find key roles for everyone’s pet technology. It’s exactly the opposite of the correct way to do engineering: They designed the most complicated mission they possibly could. In contract, with Mars Direct, we said, “We want to send humans to Mars. What’s the simplest way to do it?”

UW: “Mars” is set a couple of decades or so in the future. Did you have much input on the program or the mission as it is portrayed?

RZ: I was interviewed and you’ll see various comments by me scattered throughout the series, but to the extent that I influenced the design of the mission, it wasn’t as a consultant to the program. It was through my contributions to our thoughts about space travel, more broadly. For example, you have this ship that lands on Mars: There’s no mothership, just like in Mars Direct. That’s a break from the Von Braun paradigm, and I think one that I’m significantly responsible for. I haven’t seen the future episodes, but I have to assume that they’re going to come back using methane and oxygen produced on the surface of Mars. The direct landing on Mars only makes sense if you’re going to use in situ propellant. If you try to land on Mars bringing with you all of the propellant you’ll need to go home, then you’ll blow the mission’s mass budget out of the water. It’s impractical.

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UW: Were we able to come together as a species and use private and public resources, would we be able to make this happen sooner than we think?

RZ: I think we could have humans on Mars by 2024: not in 16 years, but eight. In fact, I just had a caller from a conservative publication who asked what I thought Trump should do. I said that he should commit the nation to land humans on Mars by the end of his second term. If Trump wants to make America great again, then great nations do great things. That’s what you have to do.

From a technical point of view, we are much closer today to being able to send humans to Mars than we were to being able to send them to the moon when Kennedy started the moon program, and we were there eight years later. Here we are, a country with twice the population and four times the gross national product of the America of the sixties. For us to say we can’t do this now — that we’re too poor, weak, or this or that — is to say that we’ve become less the kind of people that we used to be. That is something this country cannot afford. If you’re asking me if it’s realistic that we could be landing people on Mars in 2033 (the year that the Mars mission depicted in the program occurs), then, yes, absolutely. I think we could do it sooner.

UW: What frustrates you? What do you wish people would come together and solve right now?

RZ: What frustrates me is that we’ve had a number of swings at this. There was the original one when NASA landed us on the moon and said that we were ready to go to Mars. We could have been on Mars by 1981, but Nixon derailed the whole thing. Then the first president Bush, in 1989, said that we should go to the moon, Mars, and beyond, and then NASA totally hosed it up. Rather than embracing the goal and Bush’s desire to do that, they treated it as a way to justify a gigantic assortment of programs and that’s why they came up with that very expensive report that killed that program. I was fighting that and that’s how Mars Direct came about.

I was saying that we didn’t have to do it that way. We could be on Mars in 10 years, not 30, and it didn’t have to cost $400 billion. We could do it for a tenth of that. I did educate a fair number of people at that time and got NASA to embrace a Mars Direct-like approach. They then said, “Well, gee, we could have human beings on Mars in almost 10 years and it would cost $55 billion.” Yet, it didn’t go anywhere and most of those people have moved on from their jobs, so in 2004, when the second Bush announced an initiative for space exploration, I had to go in and educate a whole new group of people who then passed.

Now, here we are again. Maybe. We’ll see if Trump wants to do anything significant or not, because who knows what’s going to come out of this, right? I know that if he does announce it, then I’ll have to go in and re-teach everything: Why we don’t need giant, electric propulsion-driven space ships to go to Mars, and why you want to fly to Mars in conjunction class missions and not opposition class missions — that means a long duration stay and not a short duration stay. We’ll need people to finally look at the numbers and realize the radiation doses aren’t that great. As a matter of fact, we’ve already had a number of astronauts and cosmonauts with the same radiation dose by being on Mir or the International Space Station that they would get going to Mars and back.

This is not something to be done by Captain Kirk or Picard: It can be done by us, and it’s frustrating to have to keep digging it out. We’ll see you, know? Trump’s victory was a surprise. Most people, including me, thought that Hillary was going to win, and I had worked out a strategy to deal with that and get a humans to Mars program going because it would be a way to get millions of young people to enter science and engineering: to become technological entrepreneurs and inventors, medical researchers, and everything that would advance the nation. This would be a way to astonish the world and show what free people could do in a time when we’re being challenged by Putin, the Islamists, and the Chinese. They say that we’re of the past, and we need to show that we’re not. I think there’s still a message in there for the Trump crowd, assuming that he does want to stand up to Putin.

UW: What makes you hopeful? What are you excited about?

RZ: I think that in the long game we’re winning. Even though we’ve had all of these false starts, the fundamentals of the space program are much stronger than they were in the sixties. Right now, I would say that a significant fraction of the American population — it could be a majority, maybe 30 percent, but certainly not less than 20 percent — believe that it is essential for a positive future that humans expand into space; that we’re not just doing this for a temporary geopolitical purpose and that it’s something people really need to do. The mythos that has been developed through science-fiction and movies, as well as the missions themselves, has established this in people’s minds: This is where we’re going. That’s the fundamental driver on this.

We may have temporary reverses, but the fundamental technological foundation is advanced. We have wild cards like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who have advanced technological innovation greatly through entrepreneurship. That’s caused by two things. The spread of the idea that it is essential to a positive human future that we expand into outer space recruited Musk and Bezos so that they are doing what they’re doing. They aren’t doing this to make money: They have other ways to make money. They are doing this because they believe this is the most important thing being done in the world at this time and they want to do it.

The other fact that lends itself to make itself possible is that there’s a lot more very wealthy people in the world today than there was a hundred years or so. A hundred years ago, there were maybe 10 people in the United States that were like Bezos or Musk. You could name Rockefeller or Morgan, but now there must be at least a thousand of them. Because the world has gotten wealthy as a function of the advance of technology, average people are much wealthier than they were a hundred years ago or 50 years ago. At the far end of that income distribution there are a thousand people like that where there were 10. Were there only 10 such people, then it would be much less likely that one of them would be recruited to this idea of devoting their fortunes and talents to human advancement into space. You’ve got Musk doing this thing, and he has now demonstrated the ability to build space systems at a third of the cost and time of the mainline aerospace industry, and not only that, but developing things that nobody had developed before, like the reusable first stage. He’s really pushing the envelope and he’s much more daring than any bureaucracy could be. He has a higher rate of failure as a result, but that’s actually a good thing. Only if you’ve got the guts to fail will you do things that haven’t been done before. Even if Musk fails completely, if he has as series of failures and fades, or his political opponents manage to knife him, there will be others. He’s showing how it’s done and there will be others.

There are millions who understand that this is the most important thing going on at this time in history; that it will be remembered by others because this is the time that we first set sail to other worlds. They want to be the ones who made it happen, or helped to make it happen. It’s going to happen. We’re going to win. Failure is impossible.

Source: UNBOUND WORLDS

Images: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ‘MARS’ 

Thinking about moving to mars?

Well, why not? Mars, after all, is the planet that holds the greatest promise for human colonization. But why speculate about the possibilities when you can get the real scientific scoop from someone who’s been happily living and working there for years? Straight from the not-so-distant future, this intrepid pioneer’s tips for physical, financial, and social survival on the Red Planet cover:

• How to get to Mars (Cycling spacecraft offer cheap rides, but the smell is not for everyone.) • Choosing a spacesuit (The old-fashioned but reliable pneumatic Neil Armstrong style versus the sleek new—but anatomically unforgiving—elastic “skinsuit.”) • Selecting a habitat (Just like on Earth: location, location, location.) • Finding a job that pays well and doesn’t kill you (This is not a metaphor on Mars.) • How to meet the opposite sex (Master more than forty Mars-centric pickup lines.) With more than twenty original illustrations by Michael Carroll, Robert Murray, and other renowned space artists, How to Live on Mars seamlessly blends humor and real science, and is a practical and exhilarating guide to life on our first extraterrestrial home.  

Robert Zubrin is a recipient of the National Space Society’s prestigious Robert A. Heinlein Award and is the author of the bestselling The Case for Mars, as well as Entering Space, Energy Victory, and First Landing. He is the president of the Mars Society, an international organization committed to furthering the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet. With a doctorate in nuclear engineering and a master’s in aeronautics and astronautics, Dr. Zubrin led the Mars Direct project at Martin Marietta Astronautics (later Lockheed Martin) and is the founder and president of the engineering firm Pioneer Astronautics.

Source: @penguinrandomhouse​

[trcyprkr]

The Destroyer is Coming

https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?sstr=apophis;old=0;orb=1;cov=0;log=0;cad=0#orb

Future History for you

Forthwith and straight away (eutheos) with (meta) the Tribulation (thlipsis - great affliction caused by applying pressure and pressing together leading to oppression and anguish) of those days the sun will be darkened (skotizo - obscured) and the moon will no longer provide light (pheggos) and celestial bodies (aster - asteroids, stars, or comets which can be seen radiating or reflecting light) shall fall (pipto - descend, being thrust down) from space (ouranos - the expanse of the sky, universe, or heavens) and the power (dunamis - energy, force, and influence) of the universe (ouranos) will be set in motion and be unsettled (saleuo)." (Mattinyahw / Matthew 24:29)

There is such an event looming on our horizon. And it is predicted to occur right on schedule. NASA scientists reveal that there is a 1 in 60 chance (some astronomers say a 1 in 38 chance according to the Washington Post) that quarter-mile wide (390 meter long) asteroid called 2004 MN4 (also named Apophis) will impact our planet on Friday, April 13, 2029 - about two and a half years into the Tribulation, toward the end of the Magog War. While current calculations show this stone missile missing the Earth by a scant 15,000 miles (less than a tenth of the distance to the moon) Yahowshah said that it would "be unsettled" sufficiently to impact our planet.

Interestingly, the reason the doomsday asteroid isn't well known is that its discovery coincided with the Christmas 2004 tsunami (another of the seven signs) that devastated South Asia. Apophis isn't large enough to completely destroy the earth - only an area the size of all of America's mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states. Its impact is estimated at being equivalent to 100,000 times the energy released in the nuclear blast over Hiroshima. The Washington Post claims: "2004 MN4 is a 'regional' hazard - big enough to flatten Texas or a couple of European countries with an impact equivalent to 10,000 megatons of dynamite - more than all the nuclear weapons in the world." The dust of its impact would envelope the entire planet, darkening the sun and eliminating the moon's light, consistent with the prophecy.

I'm not going to be dogmatic here, but what if the Revelation 8:8 mid-tribulation second trumpet prophecy predicting "something like a great (megas) mountain which was consumed in fire (kaio pyr - lit by being set on fire and burning [sure sounds like an asteroid]) was thrown (ballo - fell, allowing gravity to do its work) into the sea...." correlates to Yahowshahs mid-tribulation prediction in Matthew 24? Could the asteroid Apophis represent the literal stone which is going to be "set in motion and be unsettled" so as to descend from the heavens into the sea, spewing enough debris into the atmosphere to darken the sun? The smallest interaction with another piece of space debris would be sufficient to nudge Apophis' current orbit sufficiently to cause it to hit the earth rather than miss. And an asteroid of its size would generate sufficient heat to make it look like a fireball as it entered the earth's atmosphere, thus being "a great celestial body (aster - asteroid, star, or comet) shall fall (pipto - descend, being thrust down) from space (ouranos - the expanse of the sky, universe, or heavens) burning (kaio - set on fire and consumed) like a torch as it fell." (Revelation 8:9)

But beyond the timing and the description there is another fascinating Scriptural connection to Apophis. John tells us that the asteroid he is describing in revelation "has a name and it is called Apinthos (errantly replaced with "Wormwood" in English Bibles)." Apinthos (as it is rendered in the earliest Greek manuscripts versus Apsinthos in all reference dictionaries) and Apophis are remarkably similar names, one being of Egyptian origin and the other Greek. Apophis in Egyptian mythology is the name of "the evil spirit of destruction that will plunge the world into darkness." What a coincidence, that's exactly what John and Yahowshah said Apinthos will do.

The universal portrayal of the Greek name Apinthos as "Wormwood" is telling. In a small way it helps explain why Christians remain unaware of Yahowah's message and timeline. You will find "Wormwood" in the King James Version, the American Standard Version, the English Standard Version, the International Standard Version, the New Century Version, the New International Version, the New King James, the New American Standard, the New Revised Standard Version, and in Young's Literal Translation. This uniformity tells us that one of two things is true. Either apinthos is a word which requires translating and is not a name which must be transliterated, and also that apinthos is the Greek word for "wormwood" or all English Bibles are derivatives of the highly politicized, purposely corrupt, and grotesquely errant King James Version rather than being faithful translations of the inspired text.

Every lexicon readily admits, and the Scriptural text clearly confirms, that Apinthos is a name and not a word, so it should have been transliterated in every Bible and not translated in any one of them. John's testimony says: "The name (onoma) of the aster is called (lego) Apinthos (αψινθος)." (Revelation 8:11) That's as clear as words allow. The simple truth is, the name can't be translated because apinthos doesn't mean anything. It is of "uncertain derivation."

To add insult to injury, Revelation ends with this warning: "I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God shall add to him the plagues which are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and from the set-apart and purified city which are written in this book." (Revelation 22:18-19) Yahowah doesn't like it when men copyedit His revelation and change His name and His words to their own.

The explanation, or should I say excuse, for this universal blunder is that the asteroid is said to make the waters pikraino which means: "to make them bitter and to embitter, to exasperate and irritate." The root of pikraino is pikros, and it means "to cause agony and suffering by being virulent - something that is marked by a rapid, severe, and malignant course and whose venoms or poisons overcome life's defensive mechanisms." From that, the KJV translators replaced αψινθος with "Wormword." Scholars now allege that is because this plant, known as the species Artemisia absinthium and named after the pagan deity Artemis, made water taste bitter. Then these same scholars justify their translation, or more accurately, their opinion, by saying that "the choice of Wormwood is universally supported by the early church." Sorry boys and girls. Every early Revelation manuscript renders the name of the asteroid "αψινθος," which is transliterated "Apinthos." There was no early "church" because the first followers of the Way didn't substitute the sungoddess' name for Yahowshah's descriptive term: ekklesia/out-calling. And, "Wormwood" is an English term. The transition from Anglo-Saxon to English occurred in the 15th century, and therefore it was hardly an "early church" affair.

Unable to resist the temptation of copy editing God, these same fellows plastered Wormwood all over the Old Covenant, too. The Hebrew word lanah, from an unused root meaning "to curse and to embitter" is cited metaphorically by Yahowah to demonstrate the consequence of turning away from Him to serve the foreign and false gods of the Gentiles. Such people's roots become rotten and Yahowah says that they will not be spared according to Moshe's testimony in Dabarym /  Deuteronomy 29:18-20.

Apart from the similarities of name, timing, and description, I also find it interesting that the aster Apinthos is listed as the second of seven trumpet judgments in Revelation. The first describes the kind of nuclear winter that would follow an atomic war - something that the Magog conflict is predicted to devolve into. It speaks of "giant hail storms mingled with fire and blood," saying that "one third of the earth's land and a third of our planet's trees and grasslands will be burned up" in it. I find this telling because we should expect the Magog war to begin in 2027 and go nuclear in late 2028 putting the spring 2029 arrival of Apinthos/Apophis right on schedule.

Oddly enough by the Yowbel count the man in opposition to the Towrah will assume his world leadership role in late Oct 2026

Bringing it all together, one (3968-2968 BCE) is about God who is one creating a one on one relationship with the first man. Two (2968-1968 BCE) is the presentation of choice, choosing the Ark of the Covenant or the deluge brought on by the Devil’s delusion. Three (1968-968 BCE) is the story family, and so Abraham established what would become the family of God in the third millennia of man. Four (968 BCE-33 CE) completes the time of testing and the arrival of the greater light at the twilight of the fourth millennial epoch. Five (33-1033 CE) designates the time of the great serpent and consequently the era of religious confusion. Six (1033-2033 CE) is the time of man, the time that gave rise to Socialist Secular Humanism, and its replacement moral code—Political Correctness—where being judgmental has become a sin. This has led to injustice, immorality, irrational opinions, deceit, destruction, and death at an unparalleled scale. Seven (2033-3033 CE) is the shabat, the time man and God come together, our debts settled so that we can settle down with Him to form a perfect paradise.

[robertdensmore]

There might be a problem with the Church of England

I was recently asked, yes asked, to share my thoughts in a job interview of what the challenges are that face the church. I did not enjoy this task, but sadly had much to say.

One current projection forecasts the dissolution of the C of E as we know it - by 2033. Permit me to quote at length from a 2015 article written by British religious affairs journalist Damian Thompson:

Every ten years the census spells out the situation in detail: between 2001 and 2011 the number of Christians born in Britain fell by 5.3 million — about 10,000 a week. If that rate of decline continues, the mission of St Augustine to the English, together with that of the Irish saints to the Scots, will come to an end in 2067. That is the year in which the Christians who have inherited the faith of their British ancestors will become statistically invisible. Parish churches everywhere will have been adapted for secular use, demolished or abandoned. Our cathedral buildings will survive, but they won’t be true cathedrals because they will have no bishops. The Church of England is declining faster than other denominations; if it carries on shrinking at the rate suggested by the latest British Social Attitudes survey, Anglicanism will disappear from Britain in 2033. One day the last native-born Christian will die and that will be that. These projections are based on the best available statistics: the censuses, the British Social Attitudes surveys and the British Election Study. But because these surveys are constructed differently, it’s not easy to crunch them into a single timeline. Crucially, a projection is not the same thing as a prediction. So feel free to take any apocalyptic vision of religion in Britain in 2067 with a pinch of salt….

Thompson’s approach to diagnosing the C of E is of course but one projection (and a dire one at that). And statistics admittedly paint a more complex picture than such articles can do justice to. Who knows what will happen and when, exactly - what reorganisation might achieve in certain areas and what pockets of unforecasted growth may spring up. I certainly do not see things through such a dark glass as Thompson does. But certain facts cannot be ignored.

We are in decline.

As I scan the Statistics for Mission Tables from 2018, I can see that every diocese, save two, has steadily lost attendees since 2014 (Lincoln has held steady; the Diocese of Europe has grown).

The problem is that we are not often honest about our situation in the CofE. It is not that we intend to deceive anyone, or even that we are in denial. Anyone poking their head in an Anglican rural church across the country will very likely see small ageing congregations. Those who have been part of the church for longer will have taken note of attendance in the past 15 years. They can remember full churches - and now our smaller churches are only full on very rare occasions.

Why are we in decline?

Damian Thompson conjectures that the rise of secularisation has everything to do with the decline of the CofE (along with many other denominations, both in the UK and in the US). I don’t actually think this is the case at all. Like so many other mission minded folk out there, I come across a vast number of people who are asking questions about God, about life and about what comes afterwards. But like other established churches, the CofE is not necessarily adept at such conversations - in fact, it could be argued that the CofE does not do that kind of evangelistic dialogue well, if at all. Why might this be?

The established church  

From the 1500s onwards, those who refused to attend Anglican services in this country were labelled nonconformists and recusants. This was primarily intended to target Catholics, who were liable to incur civil and criminal penalties for their nonconformity. This failure to conform was interpreted as an act of disloyalty to the crown.

Interestingly, recusancy laws were not struck from the law books until the late 1800s and some aspects of these laws remained in effect until the 1920s. Upon reflection, it would be fair to say that up until the 20th century, it was not legal to abandon worship in an Anglican church on any grounds. From this comes the mindset that everyone in this country is ‘Anglican’ unless they say otherwise. This tends to set something of a precedent - and that is that many still view the church today as an outworking of the state. From Boy Scout meetings to Mayor’s chaplaincies to Remembrance Day events - all have become part and parcel of ‘church’, though they have virtually nothing to do with apostolic faith or the New Testament tradition, as such. Of course, this is not to say that they are harmful.

But what happens when people begin marking their identity with something other than rank, title or attachment to state authority? What happens when people identify with ideals more than the power of the state? What happens when the crown can no longer command ultimate loyalty in spiritual life among each and every citizen?

The power of self-determination

Those on the outside of the CofE see an institution that offers little room for critical self-examination as an organisation. Dialogue with the world beyond church has never been needed before. In the last 50 years, we have made some efforts to do so  -but since the church is still very hierarchical, controversial statements on faith related matters are often left to higher ranking members of clergy.

Still, in a world of a multitude of voices, the church finds itself more and more cut out of most conversations. It is true that Lambeth issues statements on everything from payday lending to Brexit - but who is listening?

Among the millennials that I have come across, very few are ignorant of the Gospel or Jesus Christ. The vast majority have some idea (the right idea, usually) of what it is that He stood (stands) for, who He claims to be and what the church is meant to do. The problem as they see it is that the church is not doing the thing it says it aspires to do. In their eyes, it does not love people; it does not take care of people who are worse off; it is more interested in laws and regulations than relationships; it does not speak a language that is readily understood by just about anyone on the outside; it too readily cozies up to power and money. These are all things that millennials have told me directly to my face (and there are much worse things that I can’t write here, but which are sadly true). And I like to think that, in the greater scheme of things, they may be wrong. But this is what they think - and this is why they are not in church. We always blame millennials for their seeming reticence to commit to anything, for their waffling, for their cool approach to civic institutions, social organisations and churches.

But to my mind, they are simply making their actions reflect their views. They are voting with their feet. I think what they are searching for is authenticity. Further, unlike previous generations, they are mobile. They are willing to seek authentic inclusion wherever they can find it. And it may be in a local context; and it might not. Those millennials who I talk to who are involved in church are very happy to travel some distance to get there; and they are very happy not to tithe; and they are very happy to stop going to one church in order to go to another that they think is better, more authentic. The fact is, the rest of us could be dismissive of this attitude; or even of most millennials. The fact is that when we say we want young people and families in church, this is who we are talking about. There is no other generation who meets this demographic; and they are not like us.

They don’t respond well to traditional authority; and they certainly don’t see established church as any more worthy of their love and respect and money as anyone or anything else - just because it is the Church of England.

A brighter future

That being said … it is my belief that this Church of England is on the cusp of an incredible breakthrough. I believe it is on the verge of discovering how to put to use the power that God has given it in this generation. It need not rely on the power that the state has given it - indeed, this is slowly diminishing. I don’t believe there has ever been so much opportunity facing the church as now. Communities like Uplyme are comprised of people (25%) who are avowedly not Christian; and a vast majority of people who claim Christian status but who do not go to church. Whether this 75% would confess Jesus Christ as Lord of all is questionable - based on church attendance numbers.

But instead of feeling despair, I feel an incredible sense of opportunity looming. For many in large church structures, the way we have communicated the Christ message is to stand on the mountain top and shout down to the lost sheep in the valley; directing them to the foot of the cross; instructing them in the right way of worship. This is done with the best of intentions, and is certainly a tradition in which I was raised. So this is not at all a British problem; this is not a CofE problem. This is what happens when churches become big and powerful. They find it easier to tell people what to do than actually demonstrate that kind of life themselves. And for many years I thought this was how church was done.

Until I reached the age of 35, I had never seen one single suffering person in church. I had been to war, and then went back - and there was plenty of suffering on display. Walking around a veterans hospital, it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that there is brokenness all around. And people in that place are very clear that they desperately need and want healing. They will cry out for it; shout for it; beg for it; get down on their knees for it.

But there are very few churches I’ve come across who will suffer this kind of transparency. And even fewer that will come down from the mountain to get down on their knees next to the suffering at the foot of the cross.

But I think this is the future of church. And I say that because I am a keen follower of Jesus’ work in the Acts of the Apostles. Here we find a group of disciples who were generally less studied in the Scriptures than we are today. Further, they had fewer monetary or institutional resources to hand; and they certainly did not live in an environment that was sympathetic to their faith claims. Most of what they had to go on was the power of the Holy Spirit.

The good news is that power has never left us. Jesus has never left us; and he continues to inspire and encourage and work through us in performing signs and wonders - for the explicit purpose of creating new disciples - this is the view of apostolic succession that I think is important. The Holy Spirit continues to anoint people for this work today; in the same miraculous way He anointed the disciples. I think much of this reality was lost to me until I saw people healed before my eyes; until I saw people come to faith; and until I saw people delivered from possession. And to my amazement, I saw God equipping imperfect people who seemed to have lots of chaos in their lives; people with no official title or rank or office - but nonetheless who had been released by the Holy Spirit to do God’s work in the here and now.

And Jesus continues to do this - He is building a church militant equipped with a variety of skills and spiritual gifts; and planting them in every community in the world.

But He won’t go about doing this within the church if we, as a church, resist Him. He will make a new church, reconstituted, made fit for purpose - this process is not completely unfamiliar. The whole thing needs to be baptized - candlesticks and all. Brought to its knees at the foot of the cross and delivered into God’s glory. Not by our power, but by His.

[thechasefiles]

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 1/13/2019

Good MORNING #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Sunday 13thJanuary 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 Saturday Sun Nation Newspaper (SS).

GOVERNMENT ON FAST TRACK TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY – Government is moving quickly to turn Barbados’ economic situation around so that persons can once again be employed. Minister in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Investment, Marsha Caddle, made this known Friday, as she addressed the “Blast-Off” seminar held by the Barbados Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors at the Hilton Barbados Resort. She stated: “We are not sprinting for show, we are running because we understand that many of our decisions will cause and are causing some pain and suffering.  And so, we …have to complete the job early so that the recovery can come early and we can get people back into jobs early.” Noting that Barbados’ agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) enabled the Ministry to quickly secure supplementary agreements with other multilateral development banks, Minister Caddle pointed out: “With their help and changing confidence in the private sector, our reserves rose from $400 million in May to, as of this morning, $1,060 million. We saved the dollar. “We settled one of the largest domestic debt restructurings as a per cent of the national economy in history. Our debt has already declined from near 170 per cent of GDP in May last year to 124 per cent this year. The IMF projects it will hit 60 per cent by 2033.  As a consequence of the change in the way we are managing our finances; our credit rating had its first uplift in over a decade. More is to come.” Caddle also stressed that Government was committed to ensuring that Barbados never had to return to its current economic position. “We have made significant reforms to monetary and financial governance to ensure we do not get back here again. The printing of dollars that caused our reserves to run out has ceased. We are running a surplus for the first time in a long time,” she disclosed. Pointing out that Government had successfully mitigated the high number of job losses predicted, Minister Caddle said that while Government knew it could not save every job it would “protect every Barbadian”. She added: “Those jobs may not look the same as they did. The future of work is changing in organization, [and] in flexibility.” (BT)

MORE POWER – It will soon be more difficult to get away with stealing money and materials from Government. The Mia Mottley Administration is seeking to strengthen the powers of the Auditor General by enabling that officer to report any suspicious transactions directly to the police, and for fines and/or imprisonment for those who ignore summons to attend their investigative hearings. The new thrust will also see tougher financial checks being done within ministries and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) with the introduction of an Internal Audit Office – which will be responsible, generally, for conducting audits of all public entities. These are just two of the provisions of the new Public Finance Management Act 2018, which is before a joint select committee of Parliament for review. Two meetings of that committee were held last week in the Senate chambers, with another scheduled for tomorrow. The bill was laid in the House of Assembly last December 18. (SS)

FARMERS ASSURED SPILLS ‘WON’T HAPPEN AGAIN’ – A three-million-dollar project to repair oil pipeline damage in the community of Pegwell, Christ Church, is being overshadowed by residents’ concerns of a long-standing environmental catastrophe. While a senior official of the Barbados National Terminal Company Ltd (BNTCL) has assured the residents oil damage to their farms and water will not occur again, many of the victims voiced concerns about a loss of income, lack of compensation and contaminated wells during a town hall meeting Friday evening. “We want to ensure what happened in Gibbons will never happen again,” technical operations superintendent Terrence Straughn told community members of Pegwell. Straughn and consultant Barry Mayers, while empathising with residents, noted the environmental damage could be traced to prior ownership of the oil pipeline and not the state-owned oil company. Farmer Wesley Nurse and other residents traced the damage from oil spillage to between 500 and 600 acres of land to Shell oil company, a prior operator of the pipeline. (SS)

COMPANY DENIES DAMAGED TANKS – Roto Plastics Barbados Ltd. has thrown cold water on suggestions that its tanks used by the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) in the community outreach programme were sold damaged. Earlier this week a number of 1000-gallon water storage tanks purchased by corporate Barbados from Roto Plastics for the authority and installed in different districts, ruptured. While the BWA has pointed to what it deemed “vandalism”, an internal report from 2015 prepared by the authority’s now former mechanical engineer Edmund Brathwaite questioned the “integrity” and “stability” of the same tanks after a similar incident. But while Roto’s acting operations manager Jackie Wilson maintained that she was unaware of the 2015 incident, she dismissed any suggestion that the recent rupture was due to their tanks being faulty. “It is definitely, categorically not. Roto Plastics does not sell damaged tanks. People come in and say they only want one to catch rainwater, but our policy dictates that we do not sell damaged tanks. We cannot sell them. Even for a reduced cost we do not sell because it is dangerous and we have a reputation to uphold. We give quality, we give supreme service to people that come in to our office so this is totally bizarre,” she told THE NATION. (SS)

BATTLING IN COURT FOR 21 YEARS – The legal owners of what has become the biggest squatting village in Barbados are finally speaking out. Valdeen Broomes and her daughters Pamela and Mona have broken their silence on Six Men’s Village, St Peter, which is now being occupied by more than 300 squatters. The family, who have been quietly fighting in the law courts for 21 years to have control of what is legally theirs, told THE NATION they had gathered enough evidence to show that corruption, theft and lies, surrounded the coveted Six Men’s land. The 84 year-old matriarch is convinced that several squatters, including non-nationals, who now occupy the 27 acres of prime beach front land, a portion of the wider 240 acres Six Men’s Plantation, were given permission to settle there by politicians. (SS)

POLICE INVESTIGATE SHOOTING IN ST. JAMES – Yesterday police responded to a shooting incident around 2:50 p.m. at Fox Club Gap, The Garden, St James. On arrival police discovered that Jamar Greaves, of Grape Hall, St Lucy had been shot in his right forearm and was taken to QEH by private transportation. Investigations are continuing. Anyone who can provide any information that can assist in these investigations is asked to contact Police Emergency at 211, Holetown police station at 419-1700, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-8477(TIPS) or any police station.  (SS)

REIFER ‘READY’ TO COACH WINDIES – Floyd Reifer is in no way angry that he has been overlooked as a West Indies assistant coach for the upcoming series against England. In fact, the 46-year-old Barbadian, who had a taste of working with the regional side on recent tours of India and Bangladesh, is hopeful of landing the job as head coach later this year. Reifer served as batting coach for the Asian tours towards the end of 2018 – he was head coach for the last two T20s against Bangladesh – but with Richard Pybus taking over as interim head coach for the next few months, his services have not been retained. “It is unfortunate and disappointing but I am not bitter about it. I have no bitterness at all. I try to focus and improve myself as a coach and continue to work with all the young guys who need help,” he told THE NATION. (SS)

ODAINE AND BARKER SHINE – Keen to erase the disappointment of missing selection for last year’s CARIFTA Games, a determined Shemia Odaine got a useful warm-up for the new season with three commanding track and field victories at an Athletics Association of Barbados (AAB) Developmental Meet on Saturday. Racing and jumping on home turf at Lester Vaughan School, Shemia, watched by her dad, cricketer Kelso Odaine, was too hot to handle in the 60 and 150 metres open events after leaping 2.49 metres to take the standing broad jump. It was a solid start to the season for the 17-year-old Odaine, who was unlucky not to make the national team for the CARIFTA Games in The Bahamas. “I had a few niggles but I worked them out and I am happy with both sprints. I am looking forward to making the CARIFTA Games team. That is my goal this season,” she said. (SS)

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 4/11/2019

Good MORNING  #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Thursday April 11th 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 Daily Nation Newspaper (DN).  

GOVT MAY NEED TO TAKE ADDITIONAL MEASURES TO ACHIEVE FINANCIAL GOALS – A top International Monetary Fund (IMF) official is warning that Barbados’ ambitious target of a fiscal surplus of six per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) at the end of the current financial year will not be an easy goal to achieve. In fact, Assistant Director in the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF Cathy Pattillo said while the Mia Mottley-led Government has been implementing important measures to achieve this, it must be prepared to take even more steps if needed. “The overarching objective of the Barbados programme is obviously to restore debt sustainability and in our view, the proposed adjustment mix, which includes upfront fiscal consolidation, meaningful debt reduction, including a hurricane clause and structural reforms to boost growth, is appropriate,” Pattillo told Barbados TODAY on the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington on Wednesday. “Now, the budget for 2019/2020 does provide a solid basis for reaching the targeted primary surplus, but the Government will need to stand ready to take additional measures if needed,” she warned. So far, Government has managed to shave the fiscal deficit from over five per cent of GDP to just over four per cent towards the end of last year, as a result of new taxes and reduced spending due to layoffs in the public sector as part of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transportation (BERT) Programme. In her marathon Budget presentation last month, Mottley also announced sweeping measures aimed at raking in over $117 million in revenues, including an increase in bus fare and new taxes, in an effort to help drive down the fiscal deficit. “Barbados is making good progress in implementing its ambitious and comprehensive economic reform programme. So on the fiscal side, achieving a primary surplus of six per cent of GDP in 2019/2020 and maintaining that for several years after is going to be challenging, and reforms of state-owned enterprises is critical to reduce Government transfers to those [agencies],” Pattillo said. The IMF’s fiscal monitor expert also pointed out that adequate and efficient social spending and an improved social safety net for the most vulnerable should be important priorities for Government’s recovery programme. Additionally, building physical and financial resilience to deal with natural disasters was also critical given the high risks the country faces. While commending Government for slashing its debt from a staggering 160 per cent of GDP to around 125 per cent in under a year, Pattillo acknowledged that debt levels in Barbados were still too high. Stating that the sharp reduction in debt levels was mainly due to the swift completion of the domestic debt restructuring, Pattillo said it was important that Government completed the restructuring for external creditors. Government has missed its March 31 timeline for winding up negotiations and agreeing on a deal with external creditors, and is yet to announce a new date to complete this part of the restructuring. “Progress is being made by the authorities in furthering good-faith discussions with the external creditors and that is very welcomed. So here we just stress that continuing open dialogue and sharing of information will remain important to the completion of an orderly debt restructuring process,” said Pattillo. Government’s projection is that debt fall to around 80 per cent of GDP by fiscal year 2027/2028 and to about 60 per cent by 2033/2034. Commenting on the fiscal situation in Jamaica, the IMF official said that country has managed to maintain fiscal discipline with a primary surplus of about seven per cent, which has helped to place debt on a downward trajectory. “So public debt is expected to fall below 100 per cent in Jamaica this fiscal year 2018/2019 for the first time since 2000/2001. So it is really falling and the projections are for it to fall close to 66 per cent by 2024,” she pointed out. Delivering the Fiscal Monitor: Curbing Corruption report this morning, Director of Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF Victor Gasper stressed that country-specific circumstances required that fiscal policy decision-makers pursue sound policies. “Governments would be well advised to pursue smarter and more agile fiscal policies to facilitate change in the face of fast-pace technological transformation, globalisation and demographics. Sustainable and inclusive growth requires improving tech systems and more and better investment in people and infrastructure,” Gasper recommended. “What we do know from historical experience and empirical analysis is that financing conditions are volatile and they can change abruptly. There is no scarcity of financing crisis, some involving advanced economies, some involving emerging market economies and some involving low-income countries,” he said, while advising that ministers of finance carefully manage risks associated with the roll over of high debt levels.  (BT)

GOVT TO BUILD NATION’S QUALITY STANDARDS SYSTEM – Admitting that Barbados’ national quality infrastructure is not yet fully developed, the Minister of Commerce  has pledged urgent attention to the system by which international standards are measured and enforced here. Assuring delegates to the 34th meeting of the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), Minister Dwight Sutherland said the Barbados National Standards Institution (BNSI) and CROSQ would ensure the infrastructure’s development, under a new NQI policy aimed at boosting export competitiveness. “Government considers this goal as urgent, and of very high priority, in our efforts to enhance the national competitiveness of our local micro-small and medium size (MSMEs) businesses, industries and the promotion of fair trade,” he said. The Commerce Minister said the proposed NQI policy is to improve the export competitiveness of Barbados’ goods, services and produce, and strengthen the capacity of MSME businesses and entrepreneurs to flourish and succeed locally, intra-regionally, and in extra-regional markets. Stressing that the NQI policy would also serve to defend our domestic and regional borders from inferior, hazardous and illicit goods and services, he said that it was also Government’s objective to use the application of the NQI to rebuild the economy “in a sustainable manner”. Sutherland said to expand international trade, countries cannot underestimate the importance of adopting and implementing internationally recognised and accepted metrology, accreditation, standardisation, and quality practices. Meeting global standards is the gateway to global trade, market access and export competitiveness, and contributes to consumer confidence in product safety, quality, health and the environment, he told the delegates. Sutherland said regional economies needed to continuously upgrade on new trade standards and be able to conform to an increasing number of new regulations, or question the validity of proposed regulations that they consider discriminatory, and put the region’s perspective strongly. He added that the basic enabling environment for providing proof of compliance was the national quality infrastructure, and he stressed if CARICOM countries wanted to attract foreign investments, they must keep in mind that infrastructure, including quality infrastructure, was one of the key pre-requisites which foreign investors considered. Sutherland said: “In the case of a national quality infrastructure (NQI), they must at the very least ensure access to international standards and technical regulations, guarantee reliable measurements, and set up a system that will allow accreditation of their testing and certification facilities in such a way that the results of these bodies will be internationally accepted.” (BT)

‘ROUTE MASTER’ – The Transport Board is in the early stages of developing a new and improved “master plan” for its future operations, which could see Government’s role reduced to a mere regulator of a privately-owned, public route network. Chairman Gregory Nicholls in an interview with Barbados TODAY indicated that it is still “early days yet”, but predicted that the new structure would significantly reduce the financial burden currently placed on Government. “All the buses will be painted the same, the drivers will continue to wear the same uniforms, but the Transport Board, instead of being an operator of 300 plus buses, will instead be a route manager,” said Nicholls. “Instead of sinking $60 million of taxpayers’ money into the Transport Board, we will be trying to create a platform for the public transport sector to operate on a much more regulated and orderly basis but without the requirement of being subsidised to that extent by the public purse. “We’re talking about a system where the Transport Board is not the owner of 300 plus buses, but more the regulator of a route network which will have much more private sector participation in the delivery of those services. That is the Government’s plan going forward,” revealed Nicholls. He added that the new, profit-making endeavour would afford drivers at least a 20 per cent stake in the new entities to create opportunities for current drivers and operators to have an ownership in the business. On Wednesday, Nicholls revealed that Government had awarded a tender for the provision of electric buses, adding that the Transport Board was well on the way to having the buses in the country by year-end. “First of all, we have to sit down and negotiate a contract that is beneficial to the Government and people of Barbados while ensuring that the entity which won the bid is happy with the arrangement as well. So we have to make those determinations during negotiations,” he said. Approximately two weeks ago, 85 workers, mostly bus drivers, accepted voluntary separation and early retirement packages as the Transport Board intensified restructuring efforts. With further reform on the horizon, Nicholls said the Transport Board was engaged with trade unions on the structure of the entity amid numerous operational challenges, reduced subvention and a significantly depleted fleet. “No one is anticipating that the Transport Board will have to own in excess of 300 buses again in order to service the network,” he said, adding that the plans could only be rolled out, when all stakeholders were on the same page. “We have designed a master plan which we have submitted to Cabinet for approval. The unions have responded to a number of things that concern them and we have to continue those discussions and negotiations,” said Nicholls.  (BT)

BUS FARE INCREASE ADDING TO LABOUR PAINS – Workers in Barbados cannot continue to bear the brunt of Government’s restructuring programme says president of the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations (CTUSAB) Edwin O’Neale. And he has criticised the Mia Mottley-led administration for its recent decision to raise bus fares by 75 per cent, saying it would further add to the “labour pains” currently being experienced by workers. In a press conference at its Garrison, St Michael headquarters this afternoon, O’Neale contended that since the implementation of the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) Programme, workers had paid a heavy price. He said the programme had led to a loss of jobs, the lowering of disposable income and increased crime. O’Neale said the move to increase bus fares from $2 to $3.50, which is set to take effect on April 15, would be a huge burden on the island’s lower class. “Labour has, from the time this mission critical agenda has been embarked on, been the one facing and taking the brunt of the loads. So labour pains now in this economy are not just about the state of the delivery of the infant, but now has a real meaning on work and workers and disposable income. “If ever a time that labour pains are being experienced in the economy, it certainly is now,” O’Neale said. He said what further compounded the difficulties for low income earners was the increase in water bills as well as the sewage tax. O’Neale added while he understood there was a need to improve the efficiency of the Transport Board, workers were being asked to make all of the sacrifices. “Labour is concerned with the increase in bus fares. There are all kinds of statements about the need to retool, refurbish, increase and repair the rolling stock of the Transport Board, which in any developing society is the principle means by which the labour force is moved,” he acknowledged. “Any difficulties, any shortcomings in mass-based transport is going to impact on the profitability and earning capacity within the economy, so I don’t for one moment try to minimise the fact of the difficulties of the Transport Board. “ . . . Something has to be done, but when the cost of that falls on workers in the manner with the percentages in which it has done, there cannot be an easy way out. That translates into hardship, that translates into a reduction in disposable income…” O’Neale added. The union’s general secretary Dennis Depeiza described Government’s proposal to absorb retrenched workers as a “myth”. He accused Government of giving those workers false hope. “The suggestion that those workers will be re-absorbed is nothing short of a myth, because if there are other jobs that are being created in sectors . . . are we to understand that these administrators are now going to be turned into carpenters or artisans? “There is a sense that persons are being given hope in the economy when we can see that there is little opportunity which readily avails itself,” Depeiza said. He contended that at a time when thousands of workers were being retrenched, Government was continually hiring large numbers of consultants who were being paid millions of dollars. (BT)

TEACHERS TO FACE POLLS – Safety, environmental hazards and dwindling membership have emerged as the major issues among a trio of presidential candidates, as the country’s largest teachers’ trade union prepares to elect a new executive. On Friday, a new contender will challenge two familiar faces for the leadership of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) amid mounting challenges facing workers in the critical sector. Nathaniel Boyce, a teacher for over 12 years assigned to the Luther Thorne Memorial Primary School has blamed a lack of strong leadership over the past 12 months for an increasing level of disrespect shown by the country’s leadership. “I don’t know if everybody is quiet because government has changed, but certainly the BUT has been quiet and sat back and allowed certain statements to be made that were very disrespectful to teachers. “The reason why I decided to run was not simply to address the issues, but to solve the problems going forward. Critical issues such as discipline in schools as well as health and security, because these things are causing teachers a lot of stress. Boyce argued that teachers remained passive in the face of an education crisis, waiting on the union to respond. “Even at my school recently, we had a situation where an irate parent threatened a teacher. We have a lot of broken fences where people can just wonder onto the compound. We have rats in schools, which I see on a day-to-day basis. At some schools there are no groundsmen and there is trash in the gutters and the pastures need to be cut,” he said, while declaring that he could spearhead the changes needed. In contrast to newcomer Boyce, veteran union leader, Pedro Shepherd who served as the BUT’s president for six years is staking his claim for a return to leadership after standing on the sidelines for just a year. In his 32 years as a teacher, Shepherd has served on the executive from 1996. Shepherd told Barbados TODAY that after presiding over a union, which oversaw 749 appointments between 2015 and 2016, improvements to the union’s properties and continuous agitation for the rights of teachers, he was confident that his record would speak for itself. Like his younger counterpart, Shepherd complained that a lack of “vocal leadership” was preventing the teaching profession from returning to its former glory. Stressing that he felt no urgency to return to the position Shepherd said he entered the race after being urged by numerous teachers to return. “I think that people saw my worth and my record and asked me to come back, because they saw in the last few years that the union was not as vocal as it was in its 44 or so years of existence and they missed seeing and hearing the union,” added Shepherd. The veteran has placed unification of teachers and a level of respect from external parties for the teaching service as two major priorities. “There are other issues of health and safety, better conditions under which the teachers work, discipline and so on. But I think as a body, we have a lot to do in terms of getting the status of teachers back up to where it was and if I am elected, I intend to meet with membership more than once a year. We have over 1700 members and we have to afford them the opportunity to operate in the union’s business,” he added. Current President, Sean Spencer meanwhile defended his representation of teachers as he made a case for his re-election. Despite some criticism from opponents, Spencer indicated that his chance of retaining the presidency was as good as any. “There’s no mathematical certainty, but I have a chance and I would like to think that what I have done over the past months would speak sufficiently for persons to give me another mandate,” said Spencer. He also admitted that there was much work to be done in restoring a greater level of respect and awareness of issues affecting teachers. “We have been openly castigated on various platforms and I think that it’s time we took our good work further afield to the wider public. We also need to start to secure a certain measure of direct benefits and services for our members. Spencer said plans were in place to facilitate greater collaboration with corporate partners to restart the unions discount programmes to help educators “stretch their dollars”. In a second term, Spencer promised to investigate to a greater extent, best practices in education, to spearhead educational reform and improve conditions for teachers. “While I was campaigning, the point was reinforced that we really need to address the deficits in the maintenance of the school plants. Perimeters, facilities, furniture and a number of areas need to be examined, because these are causing serious problems for the teachers and for the student bodies as well.” The three candidates all pleaded with members to display a greater level of participation in this year’s election which will be held on Friday, April 12.  (BT)

SMOOTH START  - On the eve of elections for a new executive of the Barbados Union of Teachers, president Sean Spencer is predicting a smooth start to the Trinity school term next week, despite what he has described as myriad challenges facing teachers. Spencer said that while remedial work on some schools would have to be inspected before the all-clear was given, the majority of schools are expected to reopen as scheduled. Speaking to the media at the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations press conference today, he said: “As it stands right now, we would anticipate a smooth start to the third term, however, there are cases in certain schools where work which would have been commenced would have to be evaluated before I can speak definitively to those individual schools.” He said teachers across the island’s schools had several concerns. Some of these related to the non-payment of allowances and increments, the issue of contracts, health and safety challenges and an inadequate number of teachers and general workers at some schools, he said. But as Spencer faces the polls on Friday in the BUT’s elections he declared that some of those issues were being addressed. “Many of the issues have been outstanding, some of them have been in a cycle where they have not been entirely resolved, but these are issues which we keep driving home. “I am able to say that we are now getting attention from the Minister herself, and in some cases they are now being pressed home. What would have obtained before would have been a matter where we would have sent correspondence, but that correspondence would not have been responded to, but at least we are getting responses now and we’re seeing some level of action in that regard,” he said. Despite acknowledging the ministry’s willingness to address the union’s concerns, the BUT president said teachers were prepared to stand up for their rights if necessary. He call for an end to verbal and physical attacks on teachers by parents and guardians and for more respect to be shown to the profession.  (BT)

SUPPORT FOR TIGHTER SCRUTINY ON CHARITIES  -Two charities have backed Government’s decision to closely scrutinise the activities of aid organisations, arguing that it could help to weed out fraudulent and nefarious players masquerading as charities. And Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society president Kemar Saffrey and National Organisation of Women spokeswoman Marsha Hinds have both suggested Government do even more to crack down on illegitimate charities. Attorney General Dale Marshall revealed Tuesday that people desirous of setting up a charity would have to divulge certain information about the proposed charity in the interest of transparency. The changes will require charities to provide information about the occupation of trustees and information on the properties they own. New measures will also require more information on applicant trustees or beneficiaries who held prominent public office in any international organisation. The Attorney General told lawmakers the regulations would address money laundering commitments and transparency issues. Hinds said: “Over the years, legitimate charities have been hard hit by sponsors who are hesitant to work with you, because of their experience with individuals who just set up charities to syphon money into personal accounts, so it is long overdue.” She argued that in addition to guarding against corruption, Government needed to put steps in place to demand minimum standards from charities for the provision of services. But the women’s advocate has questioned a recently announced project by the Salvation Army to set up a shelter for battered women. “Not only were they free to set it up, but they are free to operate it without minimum standards. Those things are problematic, because at the end of the day, the ones that you’re serving are the ones that are abused, manipulated and taken advantage of. “Just because somebody opens a charity and starts offering a service doesn’t mean that they have the ability or the know-how to do it,” she said. Saffrey indicated that for sometime, he was concerned about the number of people registering charities who had no intention of helping people. “With this new framework in position, it would really minimise or cut out a lot of that, especially because the legislative framework is involved as well. It’s something that we at the NGO network have been calling for and it’s definitely something that we support. “Obviously if the international donors can’t find enough information about the individual running the charity, the trustees or the charity itself, then they are more reluctant to give. So having this information out there would be good and if my organisation has to put forward its information when the law is passed, we will willingly do so,” he said. (BT)

WORRELL BLASTS MINISTER ON PLASTICS BAN – A former Democratic Labor Party (DLP) senator wants Minister of Maritime Affairs Kirk Humphrey to be muzzled by the Prime Minister over his response to food vendors’ complaints over the plastics ban. Declaring that the Minister was “inconsiderate” and harsh on vendors who complained of expensive and flimsy alternative food containers, Andre Worrell accused Humphrey of ignoring the vendor’s plight. He said the minister’s comment, “If you buy cheap then you are going to get cheap”, which was directed to food vendors was callous and insensitive to the realities of everyday vending. In light of those comments, Worrell, a former DLP vice president, suggested that Humphrey should face action. Worrell said: “The DLP is of the opinion that Minister Humphrey should be muzzled or placed under the direct supervision of a senior minister who has a real-world appreciation of the struggles of the average Barbadian. “How can a Minister be so out of touch with the small vendors’ struggle? Is he aware that scores of these entrepreneurs have seen a drastic decline in revenue since the start of this Government’s massive layoffs? Does he know some now sell less than ten meals some days? “His heavy-handed approach to the implementation of his first sensible policy has been fraught with blunders. This has resulted in contempt for an initiative which really should be embraced by all.” The former senator said the Labour Party Government should have provided concessions in the Budget to allow vendors to purchase high-quality alternate containers. He said this would have put vendors in a financial position to be able to afford those alternatives. Worrell added: “Concessions could have been offered to veg-ware vendors in an effort to cushion the losses made by the dumping of petroleum plastics. That would also make the price of the veg-ware products comparable to the banned items. That is what a caring Government which is motivated by concerns for the environment would do.” He also took issue with the ban’s timeframe.  He said that it did not allow suppliers sufficient time to source alternatives, reduce their stock of petro-based plastic products, and order large enough quantities of the alternatives at comparable or competitive prices. (BT)

UNSIGHTLY PILE-UP – Former Democratic Labour Party candidate for St Michael South East in the 2018 General Elections Rodney Grant is charging that the area of Golden Rock, Pine, St Michael has been neglected by Government. “It is a problem with neglect and marginalisation of certain areas. We have to find a way to treat these kinds of communities better [if not] the things that we face will not change. If we continue to treat the community [as if it’s]derelict, then the residents at times will act derelict. We create ghettos and slums because we do not put the extra effort to make these communities look aesthetically pleasing,” he told Barbados TODAY. The area which is filled with heaps of garbage, as well as a dilapidated minibus was spotted by a Barbados TODAY team on Tuesday. Grant claimed that in other areas you would not see an overflow of garbage to the point that it is posing a health hazard to the residents of the community. “You would never see this in certain parts of Barbados. So why you allow it to happen in the Pine where you have garbage overflowing to the point where it could become a hazard? You would never see it happening in certain places because if the garbage gets to a certain level people would have the resources to call in private contractors or the system would deal with it,” he said. Resident Rhonda Hollingsworth told Barbados TODAY she is at her wits’ end with the garbage collection in her community as it is leading to an unhealthy rat infestation. “This is very bad for the community because of the stuff in the area. The wells in the community are filled with stuff; they are not doing anything about it. Rats are running out of the stuff during the day. I have a shop and it is very bad for people’s health. It is very unfair,” she said. Hollingsworth noted garbage collection in her area comes ‘when it feels like’ and on top of that the area no longer has a skip for residents to place their garbage in should their garbage cans be filled. This concern was raised by another resident in the area who wished to remain anonymous. He told Barbados TODAY the area has not had a skip in approximately four weeks. The unemployed resident said dogs and chickens interfere with the garbage heap resulting in some of the debris travelling along the area. “When the water settles it smells. The dogs pull out all of the garbage,” he said. Today, less than 24 hours after a Barbados TODAY team stumbled upon the garbage pile-up a skip was placed in the area. Residents in Avon Lane said the problem affecting their area was as a result of people from other districts travelling to Golden Rock, Pine, St Michael to dump their garbage. Resident Cheryl told Barbados TODAY that from the wee hours of the morning scores of people come to the area to dump their garbages. “They come and dump things [such as] old fridges, old stoves and carpets,” she said.  “Rats are jumping out of the skip. It’s not easy for me [because] I am a businesswoman at my home. I sell my sugar cakes and snacks from my house,” she said. Another female resident who did not wish to be identified said, “As long as people see stuff they are going to keep putting it out whether the skip is there or not. People who are not from the district put stuff there also. So I don’t know what they can do about it but I would like them to do something because even the smell alone is really terrible,” she said. (BT)

NCC THREAT – Does public space in Barbados belong to a select few? This is the question that entrepreneur Shawn Morris needs answered as his three-week-old beach chair rental business at Bathsheba, St Joseph, is threatened with closure by the National Conservation Commission (NCC). This morning Morris told Barbados TODAY that despite giving him a licence to operate in the first place, the NCC has given him until Saturday to remove several integral structures of his business. “There is a little PVC booth there that I didn’t dig any foundation for. I just put some soft stones on the ground and levelled the ground with some mortar. The booth is made light enough to be moved if the waves come in. Also, when you are coming onto the beach there is a steep hill, so I built steps using sea rocks and wood. This morning the NCC called me and told me that I have to move by Saturday or they will come and remove the things themselves,” he said, revealing that he has sunk close to $15,000 in the business. The businessman explained that the 6×6 hut was vital for storage and shelter while the steps provided access, noting that without them it was pointless being open for business. However, Morris is claiming that the pressure to move his fledgling business first began when some frequent beach users deemed the project a detractor from the natural aesthetics of the beach, which has become famous for its surfing. “To be honest with you I don’t even like to discuss race because I believe that we are all Bajans and we should be living in unity. But I think that there is a bit of racism in this because there is a white guy right now at Batt’s Rock that is doing a lot more than me and nobody is complaining for him,” he said noting a photo of his business recently appeared on the Barbados Photographic Society’s Facebook page and the image drew quite a bit of negative comments. Barbados TODAY visited the page and saw the comments in opposition to the business. Morris explained that when he first began setting up the business the area was filled with rotting sargassum seaweed and debris. In addition, the coconut trees on the beach were unsightly due to a lack of care over the years. “I would have invested about $15,000 into the business after I received permission from the NCC to operate there. When I went on to the spot it was full of debris and overgrown coconut trees, which had dry coconuts that could fall on people’s heads at any time. I got somebody to cut the limbs and remove all the old coconuts. It took about nine truckloads to move all the stuff away,” lamented an emotional Morris, who claimed that three Government Ministers visited the spot recently and applauded his efforts. This account was supported by public relations officer of the St Joseph Independence Parish Committee, Victor Morris, who was equally baffled by the opposition to the project. “I have been living in this parish for 69 years and I was very happy to see things starting to happen here. Two Friday’s ago, I saw three Ministers visit the area. One was Minister of Culture John King, Minister of the Environment Trevor Prescod and Minister of Foreign Affairs Jerome Walcott. While they were here, I complimented the youngster on how beautiful he had the place. All the moss is gone, so I was shocked this morning when I heard that the poor chap has until this weekend to move. It is unfair because this is the type of business we need,” he said. Barbados TODAY made several attempts to reach NCC General Manager, Keith Nebblett for comment but was unsuccessful However, this morning Morris said he felt as though the fates had conspired against him as he was recently forced out of the boating business after one vessel was destroyed in an accident and another by fire. “To come here now and be feeling this kind of pressure just feels like I can’t get away from the stress. It is really stressful for me because for the past couple of nights I couldn’t even sleep because I don’t understand what I did wrong. I have not done anything to anyone, I just came and clean the area and try to make a living and to receive so much pressure is really unbearable,” he stressed.  (BT)

EMMERTON FOLK SET BACK – It was déjà vu in the worst possible way for scores of Emmerton Lane residents yesterday. Just like they did 14 months ago, The City folk turned up at the Supreme Court building hoping their civil suit against the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) would get off the ground. And just like last February, they left a frustrated lot when the case had to be adjourned for the umpteenth time. The Emmerton residents now claim that people involved in the lawsuit are dying, as one passed away this week, and they fear many families could be affected by death long before the case reaches a conclusion. (DN)

DRUGS GO UP IN SMOKE – A million-dollar stash of cocaine and cannabis seized last year was incinerated today by police. Just over 238 kilogrammes of drugs with a street value of $1,124, 600.00 was destroyed. Police supervised the destruction of 93 bags of cannabis weighing 232.4 kilogrammes , and five bags of cocaine weighing 6.5 kilogrammes. Senior Superintendent Acting Bruce Rowe, who supervised the destruction, told reporters that the drugs came into police custody following an investigation last year in which three people were charged. (BT)

DEEJAY PLEADS GUILTY TO COCAINE POSSESSION – His ticket for his trip to the Big Apple this Saturday has been purchased but a 25-year-old who believed he could make fast money selling cocaine will not see those bright city lights anytime soon. Shaquille Alexander Thornhill, of No. 37 Hillview Apartments, Durant’s Gardens, Christ Church appeared before Magistrate Douglas Frederick today and pleaded guilty to possession, possession with intent to supply and possession with intent to traffic 5.6 grammes of cocaine on April 10, 2019. Police were in the area of St Lawrence Gap when they spotted Thornhill around 2:10 a.m. He was stopped and he consented to a search. A Ziploc bag containing a white powdered substance suspected to be cocaine was found in a bag he was carrying. A vial with the same substance was also found in his possession, Sergeant St Clair Phillips revealed. “I get lay off from . . . [and] I had it to sell,” Thornhill allegedly told police when he was arrested with the illicit drugs which had a $275 street value. Attorney-at-law Harry Husbands in mitigating on his behalf revealed his client was unemployed and was scheduled to leave the country for New York for work that had been lined up for him as a disc jockey. “He made a silly mistake of having this item for sale . . . he has not wasted the court’s time and is not known,” Husbands told the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court as he sought to get a sentence for his client that would not appear on his record and allow him to keep his travel plans. But Frederick made it clear that the travel plans would need to be cancelled. “He was selling cocaine only today and wants to travel to a bigger society. We have to put him through a drug rehabilitation programme. He has to delay that trip because he was selling cocaine just a few hours ago. He is not ready to go anywhere,” the magistrate stated. The lawyer however argued that keeping Thornhill here would only cause more hardship for him given the harsh economic times. “If he stays here . . . he will still be unable to support his son and still be unemployed,” the attorney stated. But Magistrate Frederick replied: “When you hear a Bajan man get hold for cocaine . . . it reflects on all of us”. Thornhill also addressed the magistrate informing him that he had been a deejay at one of the island’s major hotel chains. “Actually it is my first time . . . me and a tourist lady became involved . . . I got laid off a few weeks ago . . . I saw an opportunity because she said there is a good set of money involved,” the accused said. He was informed however that was just the beginning. “They are going to offer you money to bring it back too,” Frederick told him adding, “I need to wean you a little bit more before you can get to the bright city lights”. The magistrate then ordered that Thornhill report to the Probation Department for counseling regarding drug rehabilitation. The matter has been adjourned until April 26, 2019 and he is on $2,000 bail in the meantime.  (BT)

BUS STOP BRAWL – Two Jamaicans who have been living here illegally were handed over to immigration officials this afternoon after admitting to assaulting a female compatriot. Twenty-four-year-old Shelly-Ann Shareace Welcome, who resides at Bonnetts, Brittons Hill, St Michael pleaded guilty to the charge that she assaulted Lenica Townsend on April 8, 2019 occasioning her actual bodily harm while her co-accused 25-year-old Olivia Thompson of the same address pleaded not guilty. In relaying the facts Station Sergeant Carrison Henry said Townsend was at bus stop in front of Government Headquarters when Welcome, with whom she had an altercation earlier that same day, approached her. A confrontation ensued and Welcome hit Townsend across the nose with a Bluetooth speaker belonging to the complainant before fleeing in the direction of Bush Hill, St Michael. The matter was reported to police and Welcome was subsequently seen on Bay Street and arrested. “She is the one lic me first. She wasn’t at the bus stop. Me and she (pointing to Thompson) walk from the stoplight in Bay Street and . . . she cross de road. My foot sick and me choose to sit and she choose to sit at the bus stop and plug in the boom box,” Welcome explained. She went on: “De gal say ‘B-clat gal when you dey see me, don’t see me’ and I tell she me don’t know what she talking bout. She pick up de boom box and lic me and me tek it an hit she back.” Frederick then asked what was the genesis of the problem between the two. “Me nah know. Me and her never have anything before,” Welcome stated. An immigration officer who was in court with two other colleagues informed the magistrate that Welcome arrived in the island on September 24, 2018 and was granted six months as a visitor in care of a gentleman with a St George address. Her status expired in March and she has not regularised it. Welcome responded by saying that she had plans to leave Barbados this coming Monday and was going to buy the ticket online today. Magistrate Fredrick convicted, reprimanded and discharged her and handed her over to the Immigration Department for their consideration. Thompson who denied the charge, was told that she would be remanded to HMP Dodds as she had no ties to Barbados and no status, after the immigration officer told the court that she had been residing here illegally since 2017. Prosecutor Henry also objected to bail. “Sir send me home. Which part de girl dere? Me nah want spend no time inna custody, send me home,” the woman said just after 12 p.m. before Magistrate Douglas Frederick informed her that the system did not work in such a manner. Thompson was later escorted out on the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court in preparation to be transported to the Dodds. However she returned a little over two hours later and changed her plea to guilty. “Sir me wan go home,” Thompson who was also convicted, reprimanded and discharged said before being handed over to immigration officers. (BT)

SHOP HILL MAN TO RETURN TO COURT NEXT WEEK – A 40-year-old vendor who admitted to pushing a woman will return to the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court next Wednesday. Nealson Oneal Mason, of Shop Hill, St Thomas had been charged with assaulting Philica McPherson on April 5, 2019. Sergeant St Clair Phillips told Magistrate Douglas Frederick that McPherson was walking along High Street when she came across several persons standing in front a store where the accused was also vending. The woman tapped Mason and asked him for an excuse to pass but he responded by pushing her into the road. When she asked him why he had pushed her, he reportedly replied: “You is not from here so you can f*** off.” However, Mason said the incident did not occur exactly in the manner the prosecutor outlined it. “It was Friday . . . and customers were rushing all around . . . it was rush hour . . . we sell on the side walk . . . and she push me and I push she back. It did no lil tap . . . she tell me I blocking de road and she push me and I push back . . . and told her go off of me . . . it was a reaction because I don’t like she . . . . “This morning . . . me and she eyes butt and mek four and she said ‘just wait’,” said Mason who explained that he was arrested, charged and appeared today which is his birthday. He was released and given a stern warning to stay away from the complainant. The two sides are expected to appear in court on April 17.  (BT)

STABBING LANDS TEEN IN COURT – An ongoing dispute between two teenagers on New Year’s Day landed before the law courts today. Seventeen-year-old Renako Robin Holder, of Whitehall Tenantry Road, St Michael appeared before Magistrate Douglas Frederick and pleaded guilty to unlawfully and maliciously wounding Avery Lorde on January 1, 2019. Sergeant St Clair Phillips told the court the two, who were involved in a previous dispute, were walking along Browne’s Beach around 1:30 a.m. when Lorde bumped into Holder. A scuffle erupted when the accused saw who it was. During the fight Holder took up a broken bottle and stabbed Lorde in the stomach. Lorde went to the police to make a report and he was transported to hospital, treated and discharged. “He threatened to kill me,” Holder disclosed after he was asked whether he had anything to say about what the prosecutor had said. “He attacked four of my friends,” the first time offender told the magistrate saying that Lorde also issued threats towards him on social media and in his presence. “He bumped into me . . . I was on a patch and he bump into me  . . . I stabbed him with a bottle that I found,” Holder added. Frederick asked the teenager why he had not reported the matter the authorities. “Suppose he had died, you would be on a more serious charge . . . you didn’t think about that? He threatened you, why didn’t you go to the police, your mother, your father anybody like that?” A pre-sentencing report was ordered on Holder who told the magistrate that he had been “kicked out” of one of the island’s prestigious secondary schools. He was granted $2,000 bail to reappear in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on June 11, 2019. (BT)

OISTINS SHOCK AS CREWMAN DIES – Fisherfolk at the Berinda Cox Market in Oistins were thrown into a state of shock this morning with the discovery of the lifeless body of a man floating in the sea. Just after 10 a.m., members of the Coast Guard recovered the body of Benjamin Burgess, 23, a British national, from the water. Burgess worked as an engineer aboard an oil tanker anchored just off the fish market’s pier. Police at Oistins had received a report of a body submerged in the water around the jetty. Several fisherfolk told Barbados TODAY they saw Burgess in the area of the neighbouring Bay Garden, last night. “This got me real surprised,” one vendor said. “He was out here last night. Now he body getting bring in on a boat. I hear he was working on that ship.” A statement issued by a spokeswoman for Pritchard-Gordon Tankers, Sally Bishop, said the company was awaiting details of the incident from the Royal Barbados Police Force. “The Master and crew of the vessel Lucy PG (IMO: 9229013), together with the company are cooperating fully with all local authorities who are carrying out the investigation into these tragic circumstances.” Burgess’ next-to-kin had been informed about his death, and were being kept up to date with information as it becomes available, the statement added. “Everyone at Pritchard-Gordon Tankers is devastated by what has happened. All our thoughts and condolences go out to family and friends of the deceased at this very sad and difficult time,” the company said. Police have asked anyone who may have information related to the incident to contact Oistins Police Station at 418-2612, Police Emergency 211, Crime Stoppers 1-800-8477 or any police station. (BT)

SHERATON VICTIM LAID TO REST – AS DAMIAN STEVENSON TROTMAN, the 20th murder victim, was laid to rest yesterday amidst heavy police presence, young people were advised not to turn to violence to resolve issues. Reverend Sylvan Payne also reminded the grieving relatives and friends of Trotman that the Lord was still present. “During your time of sorrow, Jesus does not become distant; He is even closer to you than before. He is always faithful and He will be your refuge and strength in time of war and in every crisis He will be there,” he said before praying for the young people present. Scores of mourners, some wearing tribute shirts, turned out at the Fairview Church of the Nazarene, Fairview, Christ Church, to bid farewell to the man gunned down in a brazen daylight shooting at Sheraton Mall on March 21. (DN)

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