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mathematicianadda · 5 years ago

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Why the Greeks?

The Greek islands were geographically predisposed to democracy. The ritualised, antagonistic debates of parliaments and law courts were then generalised to all philosophical domains, creating a unique intellectual climate that put a premium on adversarialism and pure reason. This style of thought proved ideal for mathematics.

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Why the Greeks, of all people? Why did mathematics start there, on a few scrawny little islands in the Mediterranean?

The very idea that mathematics is about systematically proving things is an exclusively Greek invention. Axiomatic-deductive mathematics has been discovered only once in human history. No other culture independently developed anything like it.

The lettered diagram is another uniquely Greek invention. Triangle ABC, the line AB, stuff like that. Geometrical diagrams with the points denoted by letters. Only in Greece did they feel the need to do geometry this way. If you find it elsewhere, it’s because they copied it from the Greeks.

Not that the lettered diagram is a big deal in itself, of course. But it’s a symbol; it’s emblematic of how so many aspects of mathematics that we now consider so essential and indispensable were in fact discovered once and only once in human history, at a particular time and place.

So what was it about that time and that place that made it explode with intellectual progress?

You can make a pretty good case for geographical determinism. The seeds of excellence was not in the blood or the genes of these people, but it was in the land and the sea.

Islands. That is the key. Greece is a country of a thousand islands. In fact, you can hear this in the very names of the great mathematicians of that time.

Consider Pythagoras, for example. More fully you often see his name given as Pythagoras of Samos, his place of birth. Which is an island. One of those typical picturesque Greek islands.

The same goes for other great Greek mathematicians. Hippocrates of Chios, Aristarchus of Samos, Archimedes of Syracuse, Hipparchus of Rhodes: island, island, island, island. Everybody is an islander in Greek mathematics. There’s also Eudoxus of Cnidus, and Diocles of Carystus: those are technically peninsulas, but pretty nearly islands basically.

What’s with all these islands? Let’s see where this geographical argument leads us.

First of all, islands are excellent for trade. Back then, it was a thousand times easier to transport goods by water than by land. Even the Romans, centuries later, used to import huge amounts of grain from Egypt for example. And that’s the Romans, who are famous for their excellent roads. Even to them it was much more of a hassle to get grain from mainland Europe than to swish it across the sea with some efficient ships.

So the Greeks became tradespeople. Because they had so much access to the water.

And what did they have to trade? Think of the typical landscape of a Greek island. It’s hilly and full of slopes and kind of dry, rocky soil. Not the typical agriculture landscape you would have on the irrigated flats of mainland Europe or America. That kind of stuff would slide right off the Greek hills. In Greece you need tougher plants with roots that really dig in and hang on for their life as a rain shower threatens to wash the whole thing down with it down the hill.

Hence: olives and grapes. These plants love a good slope. They thrive there.

And what luck for the Greeks! These plants are perfect for trade. Think about it. You use them to make olive oil and wine: expensive, non-perishable luxury products.

Vegetable and fruit is highly perishable: by the time you get to your destination to sell it, half of it is rotten or eaten by worms. And it’s also very bulky: a big barrel of cabbage isn’t going to fetch you a whole lot of cash. It doesn’t have many calories. So it’s a lot of work to transport for so little payoff. The cabbage business isn’t very lucrative.

But olive oil and wine is perfect. Olive oil is a calorie bomb: a little goes a long way, so it’s easy to transport a fortune’s worth of it. And these products don’t mind being stored. Just stick them in an urn with a good cork on it and you’re set. Wine can even get better by sitting around. Unlike a sack of cucumbers that will spoil before you put your sandals on.

Olive oil and wine are also highly processed. A lot of work goes into the production. What are you gonna do with a bag of cucumbers? They are what they are, you just eat them. But the grapes and olives are processed by expert artisans. Lots of added value. The labor theory of value, you know, that Marx talked about and so on.

So the Greek islands are a recipe for wealth. Perfect products for trade, and perfect access to the sea for trading. This creates wealth, which creates a large middle class with lots of leisure time. That is certainly a precondition for intellectual culture.

Maybe also trade is itself a recipe for a certain open-mindedness and diversity of thought. There was no Internet back then. Travel was a good way to get exposed to other ideas, other ways of doing things. And therefore to start thinking more critically about the idiosyncrasies of your own habits and worldview.

Plus, a merchant needs to trade with whoever is paying. That may be people of different religions and so on. So you get used to dealing with people different than yourself. You develop and kind of tolerance for differences of opinion, and strategies for reasoning with people you disagree with.

All that from trade. But there is a second big consequence of the islands: independent city states. Islands are naturally isolated units. It will be much harder for a single despot to impose a unified rule on a bunch of scattered islands than on a solid land mass.

This is the geography of democracy. And democracy means debate. You don’t have “do this because I’m the king and I’ll chop your head off.” Instead you have one guy presenting reasons for this, the other guy presenting reasons for that, and people are weighing the arguments and making up their own minds.

This is going to be the setting that gives birth to mathematics and philosophy. Geography created this rich, democratic, cosmopolitan people who fell in love with clashes of ideas and took that concept to the extreme.

Geoffrey Lloyd the Cambridge professor has written good stuff about this. I’m going to quote extensively from his works.

“The level of technology and economic development” in ancient Greece was high indeed. In fact, it was “far in advance of many modern non-industrialised societies” today. And “Aristotle [explicitly] associated the development of speculative thought with the leisure produced by wealth.” And not for nothing.

However, “Egypt and Babylonia were, economically, incomparably more powerful than any of the Greek city-states.” So the explanation for the “additional distinctively Greek factor” of “generalised scepticism” and “critical inquiry directed at fundamental issues” must be something other than wealth alone.

The answer may lie in “a particular social and political situation in ancient Greece, especially the experience of radical political debate and confrontation in small-scale, face-to-face societies. The institutions of the city-state put a premium on skill in speaking and produced a public who appreciated and the exercise of that skill. Claims to particular wisdom and knowledge in other fields besides the political were similarly liable to scrutiny, and in the competition between many and varied new claimants to such knowledge those who deployed evidence and argument were at an advantage compared with those who did not.”

The Greeks were so fond of debates and clashes of ideas that they developed a refined social machinery for it. They ritualised and institutionalised the concept of a philosophical debate. “Public debates between contending speakers in front of a lay audience” was a prominent part of ancient Greek culture. Science and philosophy were born on this stage. Many otherwise peculiar characteristics of Greek thought are explained by this format.

For example, the stage debate requires the speakers to proclaim bold and provocative theses, and to strive to avoid reconciliation with other viewpoints at all costs. This is why early Greek thought is rife with crackpot claims such as that motion is impossible or “that man is all air, or fire, or water, or earth.” Indeed, the format demands a multiplicity of such viewpoints in competition with one another, whence “the remarkable proliferation of theories dealing with the same central issues” that “may well be considered one of the great strengths of Presocratic natural philosophy.”

Indeed, this used to always puzzle me. How can anyone in their right mind genuinely believe themselves to have discovered that “all is fire” or “all is water”? What were these people smoking, right? And that’s just a couple of generations before peak Greek philosophy and its many very refined insights in mathematics and science. How can they have been such crackpots and then gone from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye?

But in fact it makes sense in the stage debate setting. “All is fire” is perfect for that. It’s like a dangerous stunt. Jumping across a ravine with a motorcycle, or juggling with three chainsaws. To go on stage and say “all is fire,” now try to prove me wrong, I will answer any counterargument. If somebody pulls that off, credit to them. The crazier and the more implausible their initial thesis is, the more impressive it is if they manage to parry objections and defend their thesis with clever arguments.

Nobody ever actually believed that “all is fire,” but they admired the guts of someone who was prepared to argue as if they did believe it. They glorified the ability to argue unconventional ideas well. This was a great move for stimulating philosophy.

The stage debate setting also explains why these kinds of crazy theses were always defended by abstract deductive reasoning, not empirical investigation. “Given an interested but inexpert audience, technical detail, and even careful marshalling of data, might well be quite inappropriate, and would, in any event, be likely to be less telling than the well-chosen plausible—or would-be demonstrative—argument.” Hence we understand why “with the Eleatics logos—reasoned argument—comes to be recognised explicitly as *the* method of philosophical inquiry.” This “notion of the supremacy of pure reason may be said to have promoted some of the triumphs of Greek science.”

However, these triumphs of reason “were sometimes bought at the price of a certain impoverishment of the empirical content of the inquiry.” In early Greek science, “observations are cited to illustrate and support particular doctrines, almost, we might say, as one of the dialectical devices available to the advocates of the thesis in question.” Also, “observations and tests could be deployed destructively [to disprove an opponent’s thesis], as they were by Aristotle especially, with great effect.”

These uses of observation fit well within the stage debate format. However, “theories were not put at risk by being checked against further observations carried out open-endedly and without prejudice as regards the outcome.” We can understand why since “The speaker’s role was to advocate his own cause, to present his own thesis in as favourable a light as possible. It was not his responsibility to scrutinise the weaknesses of his own case with the same keenness with which he probed those of his opponent.”

Of course, everyone was well aware of the deceptive potential of sly rhetoric for “making the worse argument appear the better.” So much so, in fact, that “early on it became a commonplace to insist on your own lack of skill in speaking.” But the Greeks did not see this problem, the rhetoric problem, as a reason to abandon the stage disputation format altogether. Instead they focussed on explicating “the correct rules of procedure for conducting a dialectical inquiry,” to ensure the intellectual integrity of the debates.

What I just described is basically a summary of Geoffrey Lloyd’s book “Magic, Reason and Experience,” about the origin of Greek scientific thought. Also very illuminating is Lloyd’s later book contrasting the Greek contrarian climate of thought with its opposite paradigm: reverential, conservative thought, typified for instance by the ancient Chinese tradition. The book title hints at this division: “Adversaries and Authorities,” it is called. Here is the argument.

“Any acquaintance with early Greek natural philosophy immediately brings to light a very large number of instances of philosophers criticising other thinkers.” Being a philosopher means being “subjected to blistering attack.” That could pretty much be considered the definition of philosophy in Greek antiquity. “From the list of occasions when philosophers are attacked by name, one could pretty well reconstruct the main lines of the development of Hellenistic philosophy itself.” Nor is this limited specifically to philosophy only. On the contrary, “hard-hitting polemic” is the name of the game in mathematics, medicine, and art as well. There is a “lack of great authority figures”; even Homer “is attacked more often than revered.”

This Greek style of philosophy is connected to its social context. “Greek pupils could and did pick and choose between teachers. Direct criticism of teachers is possible, and even quite common. Argument and debate are one of the means of attracting and holding students, and secondly they serve to mark the boundaries of [schools of thought].” “The Greek schools were there not just, and not even primarily, to hand on a body of learned texts, but to attract pupils and to win arguments with their rivals. They may even be said to have needed their rivals, the better to define their own positions by contrast with theirs.” “Dialectical debate, on which the reputations of philosophers and scientists alike so often depended, stimulated, when it did not dictate, confrontation. The recurrent confrontations between rival masters of truth left little room for the development of a consensus, let alone an orthodoxy; [and] little sense of the need or desirability of a common intellectual programme.”

“It was the rivalry between competing claimants to intellectual leadership and prestige in Greece, that stimulated the analysis of proving and of proof.” “Many have assume that the internal dynamic of the development of mathematics itself would, somehow inevitably, eventually lead to a demand for strict axiomatic-deductive demonstration, and that there is accordingly no need to pustulate any external stimulus such as [this.] Yet the difficulty for that view is [that] other, non-Greek, ancient mathematical traditions — Babylonian, Egyptian, Hindu, Chinese — all got along perfectly well without any notion corresponding to axioms and the particular notion of strict demonstration that went with it.”

The underlying cause is perhaps captured by the dichotomy between “adversarial Greeks and irenic, authority-bound, Chinese.”

The different philosophical styles of ancient Greece and China reflect differences in their political systems. “Extensive political and legal debates, in the assemblies, councils and law-courts, were a prominent feature of the life of Greek citizens.” Democracy primes people for debate, for listening to and assessing different points of view and conflicting claims.

“Greek philosophical and medical schools used, as the chief means for the expression of their own ideas and theories, both lectures and open, often public debates, sometimes modelled directly on the adversarial exchanges so familiar in Greek law-courts and political assemblies.” They imported democratic practices and put them to work in the sciences.

It was very different in China. “Many Greeks seem to have positively delighted in litigation; [they developed] taste for confrontational argument in that context and became quite expert in [evaluating such arguments]. [The Chinese, by contrast,] avoided any brush with the law as far as they could. Disputes that could not be resolved by arbitration were felt to be a breakdown of due order and as such reflect unfavourably on both parties, whoever was in the right.”

“The typical target audience envisaged in Greek rhetoric is some group of fellow citizens,” just as “in Greek law-courts the decisions rested with [peers] chosen by lot [who] combined the roles of both judge and jury.” “In China, the [intended] audience for much philosophical and scientific work was very different: the ruler or emperor himself.” “The Chinese were never in any doubt that the wise and benevolent rule of a monarch is the ideal.”

“We often find Greek philosophers adopting a stance of fierce independence vis-a-vis rulers. With this independence came a disadvantage. Compared with their Chinese counterparts, Greek philosophers and scientists had appreciably less chance of having their ideas put into practice. Autocrats — as in China — could and did move swiftly from theoretical approval to practical implementation.” Not so in Greece. Greek philosophers had little hope of real power, and perhaps that’s why they liked to pretend that they didn’t want any anyway. “The superiority of theory to practice is a theme repeatedly taken up by scientists as well as philosophers in Greece: but that was sometimes to make a virtue out of necessity.”

“Unlike in classical Greece, the bid to consolidate a comprehensive unified world-view was largely successful in China.” “The prime duty of members of a Chinese Jia was the preservation and transmission of a received body of texts. In that context, pupils did not criticise teachers, and any given Jia did not see it as a primary task to take on and defeat other Jia in argument.”

While the Greeks “adopted a stance of aggressive egotism in debate, the tactics of Chinese advisers was rather to build on what could be taken as common ground, [and] certainly on what could be represented as sanctioned by tradition.” “The emphasis is not on points at which [earlier philosophers] disagreed, but rather on what each of them had positively to contribute, how each succeeded, at least in part, in grasping some part of the Dao,” the true or right way.

So there you have it. The source of Greek exceptionalism in intellectual history comes down to this: to glorifying extreme adversarialism; to waking up in the morning and going “today I’m gonna point out errors in other people’s arguments.” The Greeks lived for that stuff. And it was this that made them mathematicians, eventually. But that was not a planned child. Geography led to democracy, which led to this combative philosophical climate.

When some fragments of mathematics from Egypt and the orient were dropped into this petri dish, the reaction was explosive. These two were made for each other. Mathematics and argumentative debate was match made in heaven. The Greek philosophical context triggered an avalanche of mathematical progress that took geometry from a set of obscure calculation rules to mankind’s best exemplar of perfect knowledge.

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thechasefiles · 6 years ago

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 2/20/2019

Good MORNING #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Wednesday 20th February 2019. Remember you can read full articles for FREE via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS) OR by purchasing by purchasing a MidWeek Nation Newspaper (MWN).

GOVERNMENT LOSE MILLIONS IN CHIP-BASED ID CARDS – Government has lost approximately $4 million as a result of having to dump about 500,000 chip-based identification cards, Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology Senator Kay McConney has revealed. Sitting in the hot seat today with senior officials from her ministry and its departments, McConney responded to questions from her parliamentary colleagues in the House of Assembly as debate on the Estimates for 2019/2020 continued into day two. She disclosed that about seven years ago the then Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration had invested in about half-a-million multi-purpose ID cards that were to be used to “re-register the population” and for national insurance purposes and even pay for bus rides on Transport Board buses. However, she said the chip-based cards “sat in storage all of these years” rendering them almost useless. “Just this year the ministry had those cards sent for forensic testing and the ministry also spoke with the manufacturers of the silicone chips that are in those cards, and unfortunately the manufacturers of the chip have informed Barbados that those cards, having sat in storage for so many years, they cannot guarantee their performance at this time,” she revealed. “We were also told that the chips are no longer being manufactured and therefore, should Barbados choose to proceed and use those cards they will not be providing any technical support should there be a malfunction,” added McConney. Lamenting that the country was now forced to forfeit about $4 million in smart ID cards, which was a cost to taxpayers, McConney said the project came at a time when residents were crying out and Barbados could “ill-afford to be losing that kind of money”. However, she added that an approximately $2.5 million database to accommodate the ID cards, was still in place and could still be used. “So out of a close to $7 million investment we will be able to save less than half,” she said. The technology minister promised that the new Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration would be pushing ahead with the implementation of new digital ID cards. Barbados’ ID is currently a laminated paper printed with basic information consisting of a registration number, the holder’s name, sex, date of birth, nationality, height, date of issue and a signature. She said just recently Cabinet agreed to move forward with the new digital ID, understanding that the old cards would have to be discarded and replaced by new cards to take us into the future. “We know that Barbados can now still implement a national ID but with the advanced technology that will cause us, not only to have digital IDs now, but mobile IDs, where you can use your cellphone for ID purposes, to pay and to do business with government…,” said McConney. (BT)

BAD ROADS ACROSS BARBADOS – About 70 per cent of Barbados’ roads are in a state of disrepair. This was highlighted in an international road assessment project completed in 2017, according to Minister in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Maintenance, Peter Phillips. “The results . . . showed that 30 per cent of our roads were good, 55 per cent were poor and 15 per cent were bad. In essence, we have 70 per cent of the roads in Barbados, based on that assessment, being classified as very poor and in need of repairs,” he told the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament this morning. “The Ministry has a four-pronged approach, really, to this. We have a milling and paving programme, we have the road rehabilitation programme and then there is road reconstruction…and I think that this would be the area where we would have to target in terms of the 70 per cent of the roads – in fact, it may be more than that by now – that will need some attention.” He said the Government viewed improving the island’s road infrastructure as critical and had given the Ministry $10 million to get equipment to get the road network repaired. Phillips however maintained that prioritizing was necessary. He said those roads that were in dire need of repair would be addressed first. “The technical work has to be done by the technical officers within the ministry in terms of visiting and so on, and once this is reported to us . . . it will take some time, but once the technical officers visit, it will be prioritized,” Phillips said. Deputy Chief Technical Officer Philip Tudor disclosed that it would take hundreds of millions of dollars to fix all the roads in need of repair. However, he said, due to the country’s financial constraints, complete road repairs is an unlikely goal at this time. “We have 1,570 kilometres of road in Barbados and 65 per cent of that is in poor to very poor condition. When we did the maths, it would take $832 million to bring all of the roads that are in poor condition to roads that are in fair to good condition,” he explained. “So we are basically making a little dent, not a big one, in these road repair programmes.” Tudor said the Ministry was preparing to spend $3 million to upgrade Highway 2A, between Arch Hall Fire Station to Mile-and-a-Quarter. (BT)

NEW ROAD COMING TO WHITE HILL – Residents of White Hill, St Andrew, will soon be getting a new road. Minister of Transport, Works and Maintenance Dr William Duguid today revealed that plans were already underway to construct a new road following the collapse of the main road into the area back in 2014. Over four years ago, the then Democratic Labour Party Government condemned the main road into the rural community after it was severely damaged following heavy rains. However, Duguid who toured the area shortly after taking office, said he recognized “it was a significant problem”. He said a second portion of the road was also breaking away and the ministry had put significant resources into placing gabions in that area to reinforce it. The Minister said that action was necessary, and explained that if that part of the road had collapsed it would have left some White Hill residents “totally cut off”. Duguid said a contractor had subsequently been hired to determine whether a new road could go on the exact site or whether there was a need for an alternate location. “He has not only given an alternate location, but he has given an alternate way of how the road can be constructed using precast concrete. “We anticipate that it will cost in the vicinity of $8 million, between $5 to $8 million, and that is his preliminary assessment . . . but we could not put something in unless we had the empirical evidence,” Duguid reported to the Standing Finance Committee in Parliament today. He said a report would soon be presented to Cabinet on the matter. His comments came following concerns raised by Member of Parliament for St Andrew George Payne that the residents of White Hill were being ignored. While he said his ministry was dealing with those persons who had to be relocated, Payne, the Minister of Housing, Lands and Rural Development had queried why there was no mention of White Hill in the Estimates. But the longstanding MP said he was satisfied with Duguid’s response to the situation. “I’m glad for that explanation and I hope that you as Minister will use your good office to ensure that whatever has to be done in order to satisfy the trauma of the residents of White Hill will be done,” Payne said after hearing Duguid’s confirmation that a new road would be built. General Manager of the Transport Board Felicia Sue also gave her assurance that a shuttle service would be provided for White Hill residents. She said the matter would be addressed in two to three weeks, as there was expected to be more buses available by that time. (BT)

UPP SLAMS PROPOSED BUS FARE INCREASES – Although the actual percentages are still to be finalized, the United Progressive Party (UPP) is crying shame on the Mia Mottley-led Government for its decision to increase bus fares. In a statement released this morning, UPP’ s public relations officer Wayne Griffith charged that Government was essentially piling further hardship on the already overburdened bottom tier of Barbadian society. “All Members of Parliament can hang their head in shame for endorsing this proposed burden on the already suffering average citizen. Since coming to office the Mottley administration has only given Barbadians increased taxation resulting in a higher cost of living. Such an increase will place yet another massive burden on the poorest,” said Griffith, who charged that many of those to be hardest hit have just been laid off by this Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration. During the House Estimates Debate yesterday, Minister of Transport Dr William Duguid, said that commuters would soon have to pay higher fares to ride on public and private transportation. Contending that the current fare of $2 charged by the Transport Board and public service vehicles (PSVs) is inadequate Duguid pointed out that while an increase was coming it was yet to be determined by how much those fares would be raised. However the UPP has asserted that Government had less choice in the matter than they were letting on. “The conditions associated with International Monetary Fund-endorsed economic recovery programmes always include a component of staff cuts in the public service and bus fare adjustments. So the intention to implement an increase in [bus] fares comes as no surprise to the United Progressive Party,” Griffith argued. The party spokesman contended that such a critical service should not have become a casualty of any structural adjustment programme, adding that increased fares will not help the country’s economic woes. “Public transportation is considered a critical service in every country, including Barbados. The cycle of economic deterioration cannot be remedied in any way by inflicting additional costs on our people,” he said. Griffith further argued, “The government still has not identified measures to grow and improve our economic conditions, which is actually the solution to the woes of the nation. The loans, which have been signed off thus far, have only served to plug the leaks but not build measurable capacity. This scorched earth approach to reducing deficit where the poorest are suffering the most augurs ill for national development.” (BT)

AOPT: HIKE WELCOMED BUT OTHER MEASURES NEEDED – The Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) says while the announced hike in bus fares is welcomed, it will take more than that to eradicate the rat race culture that has earned minibus and ZR workers a bad rap over the years. In fact, AOPT president Roy Raphael contends that unless the fare hike is accompanied by additional measures by both Government and Public Service Vehicle (PSV) owners, the fierce competition that sometimes leads to lawlessness on the roads may only intensify. He said factors such as a possible increase in daily lease rates for vans, as well as the continued overcrowding of routes need to be taken into consideration. “It has a lot to do with route rationalization, because if you still have 200 vans on the Silver Sands route and let’s say you raise bus fares to $3.50, you are still going to be at square one. Let’s remember that owners’ fees are relative. So, if bus fares increase, owners are not going to accept the same amount of money as if it was still at $2; it just would not make economic sense,” Raphael said, noting that owners would also need to come together to determine the percentage increase. He also pointed to the possibility of greed, contending that some operators if unchecked, will fall back on their instinct to maximize profits. During the Estimates Debate in Parliament yesterday, Minister of Transport Dr William Duguid announced that commuters may soon have to pay as much as $4 for bus fare on public and private transport, as he contended that the current $2 fare charged by the Transport Board and PSVs is inadequate. “We haven’t made the decision if it will go up by a $1.50 or if it will go up by $2; we don’t know now. But, certainly, all of that has to be assessed to make a decision as to where bus fares will go,” said the Minister, who made it clear that a higher quality of service from private owners would be expected with the increased fares. Raphael said this morning that his organization wholeheartedly agrees the sector must clean up its act and show itself worthy of the increase. He told Barbados TODAY that, to this end, the AOPT has made several recommendations to the Ministry of Transport and Works, which include the amalgamation of the five categories of PSV licences into two. He argued that this would prevent the bad apples from jumping to another area of the sector whenever their licence in one area is revoked. “It’s a case now where even if one’s licence was revoked, a fella could still go and drive a maxi taxi. So, we are going to ask Government to introduce two classes of licences for PSVs. One would be heavy-duty, which means you can drive from a Transport Board bus and all classes below, while with the ZR licence, a person can drive that class of vehicle down to maxi taxi,” he explained. In the meantime, Raphael told Barbados TODAY, AOPT is already on course to fulfil some of the items on Minister Duguid’s wish list, including a move towards a cashless system. He also noted there are recent positive indicators that the sector is capable of change. “I must say that while we saw an increase in complaints during the month of December [2018], we saw a sharp decline last month in the complaints from passengers. So, it is some level of improvement and we will continue to monitor it,” he said. (BT)

INCREASED BUS FARE NOT FAIR, SAY COMMUTERS – Minister of Transport and Works Dr William Duguid appears to be getting a small measure of support from commuters, following his announcement that bus fare could double soon. But many say the proposed increase in bus fare from $2 to either $3.50 or $4 would be detrimental to working-class Barbadians. Speaking in the Lower House in the Estimates Debate yesterday, Dr Duguid said a decision is to be made on whether the fare will be increased by $1.50 or $2. Several commuters at the recently constructed Constitution River Terminal who spoke with Barbados TODAYsaid they did not agree with a hike by either amount, saying that it would make it harder on those who had to take multiple buses to get to and from work and also send their children to school. Veteran snow-cone vendor Tyrone Cambridge said it would be particularly felt in lower income households. “It would be difficult for them because there [are] people . . . who have to catch two and three buses…So I do not know how those people are going to make it,” he said, adding that a metered system of paying bus fare would be a better option. “To be truthful, it is going to be very difficult. I don’t see it getting any better.” Carol-Ann Clarke described the pending increase as “ridiculous”. “We got a lot of people out of work; some have children to send to school. $4 is a real steep thing. A lot of people get their hours cut and [if] bus fare has gone up, I do not know what going to happen. Some people will not be able to buy food,” she said. However, Clarke did not agree with a metered system, saying it would be disadvantageous to people living in rural areas. “I am not sure if it could work as you would be penalizing the ones that live far,” she told Barbados TODAY. However, another woman who did not want to be identified said the proposed fare increase was reasonable and she would not mind paying it once there were more buses in service. “I am not against the increase. I think the $4 is reasonable. I am a bit disappointed that they did not consider like $2 to town and $4 to Speightstown – different stages, a different amount. We are willing to pay the $4, but we want to see more buses,” she said. “I pay $2 from Christ Church to Speightstown. I would not mind paying $4 from Christ Church to Speightstown.” She was supported by hairstylist LeeAndrea Bourne who told Barbados TODAY that Barbadians would have to pay the increase as many people rely on public transportation. “It ain’t really much we can do. Yes, it would be hard on some people but at the end of the day food prices went up and we had to live with it. If bus fare goes up it will affect some, but you still need public transportation,” she said. Nigel Lowe, who is a PSV operator on the Pine and Wildey route, said a fare increase was not a good idea as they are people who already cannot afford to feed their children on a daily basis. “ . . . Then we have to pay extra bus fare to get them to school. The children may not have to pay but the parents have to pay to get them to and from school. It is going to be even harder on poor people. Those that can afford will not want to even pay it; they would rather go and buy a vehicle first. So we got problems all around and we need to find a way around the solution to make it good for everybody,” he said. Lowe noted that while a fare increase is long overdue, history has shown that each time bus fare went up, PSV operators saw a decrease in passengers. “[We have] fewer passengers as they find it hard to get that money. Eventually, they would move when they have to move. It would increase we profit but we can’t only look at we profit, because the situation with we isn’t the passengers that are causing the problem. It is the fuel increases that we get that causing the problem,” he said. The route taxi operator further told Barbados TODAY that “van men” are losing revenue. He said that while they bring in around $600 daily, about $250 goes to refuel the vehicle and the remainder is split among the owner, driver, and conductor. Lowe believes the solution is to lower fuel prices. “If you have low fuel prices and low expenses where buses are concerned [in regards] to maintenance, it would be better for us. Bus fare increasing can’t make it better. It is going to cause more problems as we are going to get fewer passengers and get the same amount of money that we were getting before,” he said. Another PSV operator, who did not wish to be named, expressed a similar view. He said the increase would lead to PSV owners seeking more income from their leases which, at present, range from $275 to $300 per day. “It is going to be harder for the van men because owners are going to be looking at the fact that we are getting more money in bus fare and them going to want more money for the lease. Some at $275 and some at $300 a day and that is not easy, and men have children to support. It is not going to be an easy task. The poor man and women in Barbados will be affected so something has to happen. The Government needs to help the people, but time will tell,” he said. A female commuter who preferred to remain anonymous, said she could not afford to give her daughter a daily allowance of more than $15 and wondered how she would source the additional funds to send her child to school every day. Meantime, educator Mike Cummins contended that Government was forced to increase bus fare as it was one of the stipulations mandated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “I don’t think in their consciousness they would want to increase bus fares to $4, but the IMF is pressuring them into this $4 thing. So, right now Barbados’ hands are in the lion’s mouth and we are going to get bite – that is my position. I would like to see them justify how they would satisfy the people that the $4 is the correct fare for the island,” he told Barbados TODAY. (BT)

SICKOUT – Just two days after Government addressed security and environmental concerns at two rural schools, another was hit by apparent industrial action today. This morning the staff at the Milton Lynch Primary School were forced to call in parents to pick up students after all but three teachers called in sick. Barbados TODAY understands that the educators have long complained of environmental issues related to the physical infrastructure and facilities at the Christ Church school. When contacted president of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT), Sean Spencer, said that he was unable to address the subject of a sickout, but suggested that “The staff may simply be expressing their valid frustrations and seeking to draw attention to the plight of those who occupy the school, six hours a day, five days a week.” Barbados TODAY visited the all boys’ school this morning and witnessed parents picking up their charges. One parent, who did not want to be identified, said while she understood the concerns of the teachers, the closure of the school was problematic for her, as she had to leave work to pick up her son. “We really didn’t know that this was going to happen today, and I had to ask for time off to pick up my child and I have to stay home with him. The school is in a mess in truth and I hope this is sorted out soon,” she said. Spencer explained that the buildings were in desperate need of maintenance. He charged that the school was infested with termites and rodents, and this is compounded by poor toilet facilities and ventilation issues. “It is the view of the union that inspection and maintenance require a serious re-think on the part of policymakers. The current physical state of the school indicates there exists an urgent need for infrastructural work to be undertaken. The toilet facilities for students, ceilings housing pigeons, inadequate lighting, rodents and ventilation have proven to be problematic at the school. Termite infestation has contributed to the rate of environmental degradation. This makes it increasingly difficult to function,” he explained. He lamented that on a recent visit to the school, union officials were able to observe and confirm cases of domesticated and wild animals traversing the premises of Milton Lynch Primary. Pigeons and other birds, dogs, cats and monkeys were all seen on the compound during the visit by the executive of the [BUT]. In addition to the problems on the inside, a vacant field with cow-itch vines is impacting students and teachers. The trade unionist further suggested that such is the condition of the school that some parents have opted to withdraw their children. Spencer revealed, “It is also being suggested that the student roll is declining as parents withdraw their sons. Should one examine the physical conditions, one may wonder precisely what message is being sent to the young boys who represent the student body. Today’s boys are tomorrow’s fathers and husbands. What level of self-actualisation will they trend towards as a consequence of the institutional deficits?” Barbados TODAY reached out to Acting Minister of Education Lucille Moe for comment, but was unsuccessful. (BT)

TEACHER REMOVED – The teacher who is being accused of abusing an eight-year-old boy at the Ellerton Primary School’s Special Education Unit has been suspended Without going into details about the case, Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw said she was extremely concerned about any form of violence in schools. She told Barbados TODAY that the teacher accused of beating the child who has Down’s Syndrome, with a stick, has been removed from the classroom while the matter was being thoroughly investigated by police and education authorities. “The matter would have been reported to the Ministry of Education, and the officials would have met with both the principal [Andrew Haynes] and the teacher in question. Those interviews have been conducted. Investigations are ongoing, but in the interest of all parties, a determination was made to place the teacher on suspension, in order to allow the rest of the investigations to be carried out. “I want to make the point that the process has to be followed, and therefore when the ministry says it is investigating, it is really following the procedure to make sure that any person, against whom an allegation is made, that we have to ensure that due process is followed. The law also allows us to be able to place that person on suspension, and to take certain actions in the interest of all parties. We have acted quickly upon being notified of the situation. “I understand that the matter has been taken by the parent to the police. Those investigations, I believe will be continuing. They [police], have a responsibility to do their part. But we are doing from our end what is necessary once a matter is reported to us,” Bradshaw said. In Monday’s E-paper, Barbados TODAY highlighted the plight of parent Charmane Ifill, who was calling for the teacher who allegedly beat her son with a stick, bruising him, to be removed from the institution. Ifill said the teacher claimed to have lashed the child because “he don’t listen”. Ifill also asked that her son be transferred to another institution because he was traumatized about returning to the unit following last Thursday’s incident. According to Bradshaw, the parent was scheduled to meet with the psychologist attached to the ministry, to ensure that all of her concerns were addressed, and that decisions would be made according to the child’s needs. “Obviously, the decision to place the child was based on the child’s peculiar circumstances and I believe that we are making the attempts to investigate where the child can be placed. My understanding is that most children, even if it is a rape victim, or victim of sexual abuse, people feel uncomfortable going back to the scene of the crime, or the scene of an alleged incident. “Therefore, we have to be sensitive as a ministry to those concerns as well. You know there is a thing in law that you take the victim as you find them. In this particular case this child obviously, because he is Down’s Syndrome, will have some concerns going back to a location where any alleged abuse has taken place. Given that the child may not be able to communicate as other children may, we have to obviously take that into account and be able to address those concerns as quickly as possible,” Bradshaw said. Bradshaw gave the assurance that her ministry has been actively attempting to introduce programmes into the schools, to address issues of violence, including the launch of an anti violence campaign, and placing emphasis on positive behavioural management programmes where teachers are encouraged to explore alternative methods of discipline, as opposed to seeking to use corporal punishment as the first or only method of discipline. Noting that there are alternate ways of disciplining and otherwise dealing with children who may be behaving badly, Minister Bradshaw said: “What is also of note is that our laws still allow for the head teacher to be able to use corporal punishment, or to be able to delegate that authority to the deputy, or to the senior teachers. In this case, as you would appreciate, the principal did not administer the punishment,” she said. She also encouraged other parents, who may have had similar experiences reported to them, to follow the correct procedures in reporting the matter, beginning with the principals. “They also need to, if it is of a serious nature, report it to the police and also to ensure that they seek a medical report,” she said. “I want people to report any issues of violence towards children in our schools. Whether that is student-on-student violence, or whether it is teacher-on-student violence, or even student-on-teacher violence as well. When we did the anti-violence campaign we addressed all three. We talked about peace begins with me, talk it out and violence solves nothing. We recognized it was not a one-way issue. “It is not just the issues between teachers and students, but there are other issues in the system that we are dealing with as well. And the approach is a zero tolerance to violence generally, but in particular to violence where it involves children who are to be protected in the environment within the school. “It is an overall approach that says violence solves nothing, let us find alternative ways to deal with conflict, to deal with indiscipline and to improve our communication. That is really the focus. This isn’t about blaming a teacher, this is about trying to get people to recognize that there are different ways to deal with the situation,” Bradshaw added. The minister revealed that the ministry would soon beefing up its training for teachers on how to appropriately and effectively deal with children who have special needs. She said efforts are also on the way to finalize a special needs policy for Barbados. (BT)

MUM GETS SUPPORT – The outspoken mother of an eight-year-old boy with Down Syndrome who was allegedly beaten by a teacher at the Ellerton Primary School Special Education Unit, is getting the backing of the Barbados Down Syndrome Association. Charmaine Ifill is also receiving support from former communications specialist at the Barbados Water Authority (BWA), Joy-Ann Haigh, who has a daughter with the chromosomal condition. In a statement issued today, president of the association, Asha Alleyne-Renwick said she was extremely concerned about the incident which she described as “an act of brutality and a gross violation of human rights”. Ifill said her son was beaten with a stick so badly last Thursday that his back was bruised. “Under no circumstance is this an acceptable form of punishment for any child. It is our expectation that our children will be treated fairly and with respect while in the care of the state. That such an act could occur in one of our schools brings the safety of Barbadian children with Down Syndrome into question,” Alleyne-Renwick said. Further noting that statistics show that 50 per cent of babies with Down Syndrome are born with a heart defect, Alleyne-Renwick added: “The child in question reportedly received blows to his back which could have had a disastrous outcome. We reiterate that this brutality will not be tolerated and call on the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training to address the issue.” Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw told Barbados TODAY that the teacher has been suspended and the incident is being investigated. Meantime, Haigh was today close to tears as she embraced an emotional Ifill at her workplace in The City. Ifill told Haigh the situation has left her confused and frustrated since the young boy is now afraid to go to school. In fact, he had to be collected yesterday and taken to the doctor because he complained of feeling unwell. The mother said her son has made it clear he does not want to return to the school, and even cried when she was in the process of ironing his uniform yesterday morning. “From the time he hear school he crying, because he ain’t want to go school,” Ifill said, expressing the hope that the incident would not have a long-term effect on her child. She wants him transferred to another school – a recommendation supported by Haigh who said children with special needs can be more easily traumatized than others without such conditions. The former BWA communications specialist who promised Ifill that she would walk with her through the journey, said words could not express how she felt about the situation. She added that she would have had a similar response to Ifill, had it been her daughter. “It could have been my daughter and I would have to take some action too. So I can’t blame the mother for feeling the way she felt. I was really hurt when I saw the marks. I have my child and yes, I have to discipline my child, but I talk to my daughter. I don’t hit my daughter with Down Syndrome and I would encourage other parents not to do so,” Haigh said. “I came down here to Charmaine’s workplace to offer some support. What I can say is that I actually reached out to the Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw who, I can tell you, is against corporal punishment and has zero tolerance for it. She has assured me, as a mother, that all would be done in the best interest of the child, that the process obviously has to involve an investigation with the relevant parties – that being the person the allegation has been laid against which, in this case, is the teacher,” she added. Haigh said she was confident after speaking to Minister Bradshaw that the case would not be swept under the carpet but would be placed on the front burner. She further expressed the hope that there are individuals in the Royal Barbados Police Force trained to interview people with mental challenges, so that the child would not be “drilled over and over again in an investigation”. “We are hopeful that there are some other elements in here, possibly witnesses to the allegation, so that we can put this matter to bed,” she said. Haigh added that she expected if the teacher was found guilty of wrongdoing, she would be punished to the full extent of the law. She stressed that while children with special needs may be unable to defend themselves, nobody should be abused. “Teachers . . . have to look to see other ways of reprimanding the child, by speaking to them; certainly not treating any child, in particular persons with special needs, in this way. It is hurtful for the child, and it would cause some psychological damage, and to the parents too. So I am urging everyone to please rally behind Charmaine and her child if this indeed turns out to be a case that the person has to be punished,” Haigh said. However, she cautioned that the actions of the teacher in question should not cause people to paint all teachers with the same brush. “This should not be a message that all teachers are like this because, certainly, that is not the case. There are a lot of very good teachers. It is unfortunate that if this individual is guilty, it is an embarrassment to the profession. “To all teachers, please, if you are in this profession and you are doing this, please do it out of the love for children, and not for any other reason,” Haigh pleaded. (BT)

TODDLER IN CUFFS WAS ‘JUST PLAY’ – Parents of the toddler who was videoed handcuffed to a pillar, turned themselves into the police and the Child Care Board (CCB) yesterday. The mother, Dania Hamilton, has written an apology to her son on social media, explaining that it was an “unfortunate” incident of child’s play gone wrong. The video, she said, was recorded by the boy’s father as a funny one and shared in a group of male friends. It was circulated on Monday and showed the two-and-a-half-year-old sitting on the floor in a vest and pamper, while handcuffed behind his back around a pillar. The father was heard admonishing the boy for stealing his watch. “Stop stealing my watch, all right? All the time; all the time,” he said, as he showed the handcuffs and a watch on his right wrist. The child, who appeared terrified, cried out: “Daddy!” Yesterday, the CCB, through a Barbados Government Information Service release, said the parents had voluntarily turned up at their offices with the child. (MWN)

TRAGIC END – Residents of Kew Road, Bank Hall, St Michael are reliving the nightmarish screams of an elderly man who was trapped in his house as fire raged through the wooden structure late Monday night. One resident who rushed to the back of 76-year-old pensioner Eric Fenty’s home recalled seeing one of his hands hanging through the window. He tried his best to pull the old man out using the dangling arm, but his efforts were not rewarded. “I tried pulling him through, but it was like dead weight, said Fabian McDonald. “The flames and smoke and everything just gushed through the window, so I had to step back and then I realized there was nothing else that I could do,” he lamented. McDonald was one of the first residents who rushed to the scene when he saw a fire at the rear of the house, around 11:20 p.m. He said when he ran to one side of the house he heard Fenty’s screams. “When I looked, a couple guys were coming to help,” he added. Despite their best efforts. Fenty could not be saved. “Trust me, the fellas out here tried their utmost best to get in there, but they could not get in. He is not a bad person, he didn’t deserve to die the way he died. Everybody round here know Eric, they know how Eric does get on, and when you see he you would got to help he. When 5 o’clock he would come out of there on mornings. He used to walk with a stick. He would walk and go along up the road and sit down there until somebody tek he up and give he some food,” a resident said. Hours after the fire which left the community shocked, shaken and saddened, residents gathered in front of what was left of the elderly man’s home, trying to figure out what might have started the fire which resulted in Fenty screaming for help before he took his last breath. The house was not known to have running water nor electricity. Some residents claimed that Fenty, who has no children to their knowledge, was being abused and that this was reported to authorities, including the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF). They said members of the force visited the house “more than once”. Residents said that as recently as last Thursday, Fenty was abused in public by a man who lashed him and took away his walking stick because he had no money to give him. “Sometimes you would want to try to help, but then you can’t go and put yourself up front there to then end up putting yourself at risk. That was total abuse,” a resident told Barbados TODAY. He charged that the alleged abuser took advantage of Fenty, often relieving him of his pension monies. “He is a disgusting, despicable man, I would like the police to find he. He used to beat the old man and take way his pension and all kind of foolishness. Only Sunday the police went looking for he. I tell them, them ain’t gine find he. Got to catch he 2:30 a morning. They went back yesterday evening, but them ain’t gine find him in the daytime so,” a concerned resident said. Another resident who said he assisted Fenty however he possibly could, especially when he was hospitalized after suffering a stroke, noted he once asked the elderly man about the alleged abuse but he did not want to talk about it. Yet another resident who said he was finding it hard to get the memory of the house engulfed in flames out of his head, lamented: “The man was sitting down at a house here and he [alleged abuser] come and start to feel up his pocket to see if he had money on him. He throw a lash around the man head, and lick him down, and take up the cane he does walk with and go long with it. A lot of people see what happened . . .,” a male resident said as he spoke about the recent incident. The same resident who said they found out about the fire after hearing a commotion at Fenty’s home, said that the young men from the area tried almost everything possible to get the old man out of the blaze. “Everybody was coming out and tried to assist. But by that time everything else was in flames and you could see the results. I tried to help and run on basic instincts. There are a lot of things that you could think about. Like if I could have done this, or if I could have done that, but everything does happen so fast. Your basic instinct does be kicking in like, if I go in if I gine perish in it,” McDonald shared. Damion Jordan also expressed regrets that his efforts to help get the old man out of the house before it was too late, were unsuccessful. He said he even used a shovel to try to gain entry to the wooden structure. “He used to make a lot of sport and thing. Man he ain’t deserve to go so at all,” Jordan said. (BT)

PUMP SHUTDOWN TO AFFECT CHRIST CHURCH, ST PHILIP DISTRICTS – The Barbados Water Authority is advising residents and businesses in parts of Christ Church and St Philip that there will be a critical shutdown of its Hampton Pumping Station on Wednesday, February 20, between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. This shutdown is to facilitate the changing of five valves at the station. The affected areas may include Vauxhall, Durant’s, Grantley Adams International Airport, Kingsland, Callender’s, Lodge Road, Newton, Maxwell Hill, Charnocks, Lowlands, Coverley, Fairview, Pilgrim Road, Kendall Hill Park, Gall Hill, Wotton, Harmony Lodge, Water Street, Ealing Park, Ealing Grove, Atlantic Shores, Enterprise, Chancery Lane, Inch Marlow, Silver Sands, Round Rock, Goodland, Green Garden, Hopewell, Carters Gap, Fairy Valley and surrounding districts in Christ Church. Heddings, St Martins, Rices, Gemswick, Bequest, Wheelers, Long Bay Village, Cave Land, Seaview, Work Hall, Apple Hall, Lynches, Merricks, Eastbourne, Crane Park, Belair, Cobblers Rock, Diamond Valley, Kirtons, Wilcox, Mangrove, Windward Gardens, Long Bay, Harry Smith, Well House, Bottom Bay, Bentham’s, Atlantic Park and surrounding districts in St Philip. Customers are asked to store an adequate supply of water to help them during the shutdown. Water tankers will also be dispatched to assist. (MWN)

CLOSURE OF OPHTHALMOLOGY CLINICS AT QEH – The public is kindly asked to note that the out-patients’ clinics in the Department of Ophthalmology at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) will be closed from Thursday, February 21, through Friday, February 22. The clinics will be closed to facilitate staff’s attendance at the Annual Ophthalmology Subspecialty Conference being held in Barbados. The clinics will resume on Monday, February 25. Patients affected by the closure are asked to contact the Medical Records Department at 436-6450, extensions 6120, 6190, 6339 and 6182 to reschedule their appointments. (MWN)

MONKEY PLAY CUTS CITY POWER – Three green monkeys caused a power outage in The City yesterday morning. The wandering creatures were playing on a powerline near JG’s Wholesale Discount Centre at the corner of St George Street and Cowell Street when they tripped a breaker, causing the power to go out at surrounding businesses. “It happened around 10:30 a.m.,” said one eyewitness. “There were three monkeys up on the power line and then I heard an explosion, close to a gunshot. One monkey dropped down and the others ran away.” Tony Woodall, who was also in the area, decided to take home the monkey, which was in a state of paralysis. He said he had a pet monkey and other animals at home so he would care for the creature until it returned to its normal state. Later in the day, he reported that the monkey was “doing pretty all right”. “He is moving around and eating, but he is a little frightened. I will monitor him for the next two days to see if anything is wrong with its limbs.” Around 11 a.m., two workers from Barbados Light & Power Co. showed up to replace the electrical unit the monkeys had damaged. (MWN)

ACCIDENT ALONG ENTERPRISE MAIN ROAD CHRIST CHURCH –There was an accident involving a ZR route taxi and an SUV on Enterprise main road Church Christ. The extent of injuries is unknown at this time. (MWN)

READY FOR COURT – Public service vehicle (PSV) operators are planning to sue Government for $15 million. This after one of their own was given an absolute discharge by Magistrate Graveney Bannister last Friday after appearing in the Bridgetown Traffic Court. According to a source in the discussions, following a meeting held with the Association of Public Transport Operators (APTO) over the weekend, operators were now looking to recover all the monies they paid out in fines over the last five years, which they roughly estimated at more than $15 million. “This is based on about five to six years because some of the operators have paid $500 to $1 000 in [forthwith] fines to avoid jail time. Some of them were imprisoned because they could not come up with the money. Therefore, a lot of them were imprisoned wrongfully, and to my understanding, compensation for erroneous imprisonment equates to about $1500 per day,” the PSV owner told the NATION yesterday. He added operators were trying to engage the services of Queen’s Counsel Michael Lashley, the former Minister of Transport and Works, to represent them. Lashley was counsel for the PSV worker who was discharged last Friday. (MWN)

PHONE STOLEN FROM BATHROOM – A 39-year-old man who pleaded guilty to a theft charge will spend the next three weeks at the Psychiatric Hospital being evaluated before he is sentenced. Steve Gordon Miller, of Garden Land, Country Road, St Michael admitted before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant today to stealing a $700 cellular phone belonging to a minor on February 18‑. Police Constable Kenmore Phillips revealed that the teenager was in the bathroom of a local restaurant when the accused walked in. He however, left the device in the bathroom on walking out. The minor returned moments later but the phone was no longer where he had left it. A check of the footage at the establishment showed Miller walking out of the bathroom with the device. The police were informed and Miller was seen the following night at St Lawrence Gap where he told lawmen he had sold the phone. Miller will reappear before the No. 2 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on March 12. (BT)

YARDE GETS 12 MONTHS FOR THEFT OF CAR MONEY – It took a Christ Church man almost 14 months to admit to a theft charge and for that crime he has been sentenced to 12 months in prison. However, Jahlanny Tramaine Yarde, of Block 6B Silver Hill Drive, only has six months remaining to serve on the sentence having already spent six months on remand at HMP Dodds. Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant imposed the sentence today after Yarde pleaded guilty to stealing $7,700 belonging to a woman on December 22, 2017. Police constable Kenmore Phillips told the No. 2 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court that Yarde was working with the woman’s boyfriend on the mentioned date. She had given the boyfriend a sum of money to purchase her a car. However, sometime during the day the boyfriend made a check to ensure that the cash was still there but discovered that some of the money was missing. He asked Yarde who denied that he had taken it. Another man who transported the accused later that day raised the alarm to police after he saw him taking large sums of money from his crotch. Yarde was detained and he again denied taking the money. He also pleaded not guilty to the charge in September 2018 but had a change of heart when he reappeared before Cuffy-Sargeant today. (BT)

BUSINESSMAN REMANDED – Despite arguments by two Queen’s Counsel of his strong ties to the community, his status as a family man and an employer of over a dozen persons, a 56-year-old businessman accused of importing over $10 million in drugs was still remanded to Dodds prison today. The drug bust — valued at $10,185,315 million — ranks as one of the largest in recent times. As a result of a search of a container shipped to a business in St John, officers from Customs Enforcement Division, the Police Drug Squad and Canine Division and the Barbados Coast Guard, discovered 1028.4 kilogrammes and 22.7 kilogrammes of a substance, suspected to be cocaine, a release from the Royal Barbados Police Force stated. George Reginald Ivan Parris, of No. 318 Inch Cape Terrace, Well House, St Philip was charged with eight offences of possession, possession with intent to supply, possession with intent to traffic cannabis and “suspected” cocaine on February 14 as well as importation of cannabis and cocaine between February 5 and 6. He was not required to plead to the indictable charges. Appearing before Chief Magistrate Christopher Birch this morning in the District ‘C’ Magistrates’ Court, Sergeant Vernon Waithe objected to bail being granted to Parris on several grounds. The prosecutor pointed to the nature and seriousness of the offences, as well as the quantum of the illegal substance involved. “Evidence in this matter is strong. It’s a strong case against the accused. There are also fears that if granted bail he may not return to court to answer to the charges,” said Sergeant Waithe in his submissions against bail. However, attorneys Michael Lashley, Q.C. and Hal Gollop, Q.C., appearing along with Dayna Taylor-Lavine and Kadisha Wickham, stated that the accused, who is the owner of Ace Recycling and R&R Iron Works, was an “excellent” candidate for bail and a “responsible” individual who had been a businessman in the recycling industry for the past 17 years. “He has 13 employees . . . and on a good day . . . that number can be up as much as 25. If placed on remand . . . [it can result] in workers going on the breadline . . . and his business could fold . . . . He is a family man and cooperated with the police,” said Lashley who also took “strong objections” to the prosecutor considering his client a flight risk saying conditions such as reporting to a police station could be imposed. Lashley used the delay in the justice system in getting matters to trial in a timely matter in his bail submission saying that this case will not be heard within the next two to three years. “My client is an excellent candidate for bail . . . and willing to accept any conditions you set him,” Lashley told the chief magistrate. “He has surrendered his passport to the court showing that he is willing to adhere to any condition. He did that before you asked. He is a man of respect in the community. Who will suffer if remanded? His wife, his family, his business; 13 people and sometimes 25 are about to be placed on the breadline when jobs are so hard to find,” said Lashley before he gave way to senior Queen’s Counsel Gollop who touched on some of the points by Lashley as well as others. “The prosecutor said ‘suspected cocaine’. You can’t have suspected cocaine. Could you imagine what that could mean if you took it to some absurd level . . .[It] raises the issue of serious analytical evidence being brought on this matter. The inability of the prosecutor to say cocaine in my view is another reason why the most favourable consideration should be given to this accused to defend the assault on his good character and his good name,” Gollop stated. He also made reference to other cases now before other magistrates’ courts in which other businessmen with similar charges were granted bail. “The law is about precedence. Recently a large portion of drugs . . . those persons were found on the vessel . . . [in my client’s case] a container came from one place to another place, he was not on the vessel [the container]. I am submitting that this is a better reason why bail should be granted,” Gollop submitted. At the end of the 45-minute sitting however which was attended by Parris’ family, Chief Magistrate Birch ruled in favour of the prosecution. “Excellent . . . submissions by your counsels, but at this point I am not prepared to offer you bail,” the judicial officer stated before giving Parris a March 19 date for his next court appearance. Barbados TODAY has been reliably informed that Parris’ legal team will file papers for bail application before the High Court as early as tomorrow. (BT)

CONFIDENT NURSE EXPECTS WI VICTORY – Off-spinner Ashley Nurse is back in the West Indies team and is banking on a recent run in first-class cricket to boost his confidence in the ODI series against England which starts today at Kensington Oval. Nurse, who was speaking to the media on Monday, said the West Indies were in high spirits after defeating England, the world No.1 ranked ODI team, in the recently concluded Wisden Test series 2-1. “I would really like the boys to get on that high and win the series. My personal target for the series is to contribute in wickets and runs. “I’ve been playing a lot of first-class cricket over the past few weeks and I’ve been getting a lot of bowling in, so hopefully, that practice will come into play [today],” he said. (MWN)

SIR CURTLEY NOW A DANCING STAR – Legendary West Indies cricketer Sir Curtley Ambrose was out in the middle last night, but on a different kind of stage. Sir Curtley and his professional partner Siobhan Power, swept across the ballroom floor on the Australian version of the show Dancing With the Stars. The pair wowed the audience with their Viennese waltz and received lots of congratulatory messages on their respective Instagram pages. After the show aired Siobhan posted a few pictures of their dance with the caption: “Last night was so special I had the most amazing time sharing this moment with @curtlyambrose_ Thank you for all the love and support that’s been sent our way. It means the world! Please vote for us to keep us in! SMS CURTLY to 1995 1010 or via the website in my bio xx #dwtsau #dwtsaustralia #westindiescricket #westindies #cricketaustralia @dancingon10 @channel10au”. Sir Cutrley also took to his Instagram page to encourage his fans to vote for him, saying: “Dancing with the stars Australia premiered last night. Unfortunately those of you outside of Australia are unable to view the show as of now but you can still vote. Please click the link in my bio. An email address is required to vote. Enter your email, accept the terms and VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!. Vote to keep me in this competition and see me through to the end. Voting remains open until next week Monday. Vote everyday, don't miss a day, every vote counts.” The show airs live every Monday at 7:30 p.m. Australian time. (MWN)

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sublimepoetrystudent-univer-blog · 7 years ago

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What Republicans Have to Learn Very first

Free Political Fact #1: Cons instinctively "go there" for every single political determination. Robert M. Pirsig, the author of the '70s bestselling, cultural classic Zen and the Art of Bike Maintenance, provides therein a persuasive principle of a societal break up in the way men and women cognitively approach info. As a means to describe this thesis, Pirsig employs a set of contrasting terms borrowed from established philosophic discourse: intimate vs. vintage, type vs. perform, aesthetic vs. theoretic, humanistic vs. technologic, hip vs. square, and cool vs. uncool. [1] (Be aware: If you might be unfamiliar with these conditions used in this context, Google them! You are going to be significantly smarter for it.) These pairings are familiar to numerous audience, but you may wonder how they are relevant to political evaluation? Take a instant to review the appropriate-aspect time period of each pairing - vintage, function, theoretic, technologic, square, and uncool. According to Pirsig, these phrases collectively explain that 50 % of modern society comprising higher-inductive determination makers. Inductive reasoning, he clarifies, is the current working day application of Aristotle's scientific approach. He more explains how this functions. The scientific technique (a/k/a inductive reasoning) is demonstrated by people who inherently think about the "trigger and impact" of each option they experience with the objective of understanding the most possible outcomes that may possibly outcome from it. When they understand the probable outcomes, they attract conclusions and then make their decision based on people considerations. Apparently, these very same terms (classic, perform, theoretic, technologic, square, and uncool) also explain a major political constituency recognized as conservatives. Which is correct. To demonstrate this position, let's employ a considered experiment. Get a number of moments to contemplate the individuals you know who, in your opinion, are possible conservatives. Now, mentally match the 1st 4 phrases in the previously mentioned list to people individuals' formerly said philosophies. Once you recognize how normally these match up, you will conclude these terms do in simple fact describe your conservative acquaintances. Not completely certain but? Ok then, let's consider yet another workout. Question a prospective conservative you know the pursuing query: Why is taxing a corporation just yet another tax on you? Give him (or her) some time to consider about the answer ahead of responding. When he at some point responds, probably even a working day or two later, you are going to find out that companies treat taxes like any other cost, i.e., they go this larger value of carrying out business together to buyers by increasing the cost of their merchandise or companies. The upshot is that when the govt taxes a organization, shoppers spend that tax in larger charges. So, what's the stage of taxing corporations? Response: None whatsoever, except to disguise a greater tax on you. The stage of this is to exhibit that conservatives (inductive thinkers) normally will get to the essence of your issue and give an solution comparable to the a single over. It is their character to "go there." As for the previous 2 terms on the previously mentioned checklist, just take into account for a moment how pop tradition and its media cohorts characterize conservatives. To hear them say it, "Conservatives are the most 'square and uncool' folks on the planet!" I rest my case: Conservatives are in fact high-inductive thinkers. So, Cons depict the "higher-inductive" fifty percent of society, perhaps, a big part of the voting public. The place does this guide? Inductive in how they procedure data, conservatives instinctively "go there" by connecting the dots of result in and impact anytime they're faced with creating critical conclusions. Inductive people instinctively make selections this way. Human engineering science substantiates the inductive reasoning aptitude and why it's essential to producing powerful managerial conclusions: "Inductive reasoning is the cognitive rationale that permits folks to make conclusions... it is the selection-maker's aptitude." [2] In reality, the substantial-inductive aptitude of Downsides compels them to evaluate political selections this way as well. They do this by mentally stepping through the possible results of trigger and result for each and every political situation to establish the possible affect to them and their pursuits. They then prioritize the relative hazards and benefits of every single result to determine which political concepts to acknowledge or reject. An recognition of this conservative proclivity for inductive determination generating is also important to knowing how they vote. Disadvantages take political sides early in a campaign based on their normal inclination to prioritize issues and guidelines. Applying their personalized priorities to politics this way allows them to determine speedily which concerns, insurance policies, parties, and candidates are appropriate for them to support financially and, ultimately, with their votes. This also explains why mostly high-inductive conservatives make it difficult for their organic political allies, Republicans, to acquire their loyalty in nationwide elections. The fundamental explanation is the party historically deploys a nationwide marketing campaign strategy that promotes too a lot of, narrowly outlined, single concerns. This GOP emphasis on a multitude of granular, solitary troubles turns off substantial-inductive CON voters. Why? Substantial-inductive Negatives passionately just take sides on distinct issues in accordance with their penchant for deciding on the a single or two problems most probably to affect them individually. As a outcome, their loyalties are effortlessly fragmented into one-concern desire groups that are challenging to organize in assist of a national, multi-concern campaign. What is actually the result? High-inductive conservatives presented with a bevy of narrowly outlined, one problems will choose the few problems that most have an effect on them and their people. This fragments them along single-problem strains inside of the more substantial conservative voting block, producing them difficult to arrange. Additionally, the inside conflict engendered by their solitary-minded passion for a handful of troubles important to them gives Cons far more causes to continue to be at residence on Election Day, specifically contemplating their possible enmity for a number of the other concerns on the GOP system. By the way, this dilemma is not heading away due to the fact this cognitive habits is innate to these conservative voters. As a consequence, Republicans must devise a new campaign technique, a single that is much more compatible with their high-inductive constituents. Political Reality #2: The DEMs place out a broadly persuasive message. What do Democrats market as the topic of their countrywide campaigns? Lowered to its essence, DEMs strive to lure voters with a compelling: "Yes, you can have it all for Cost-free!" Sure, you do not have to perform at any time and you can expect your neighbors to pay a lot more taxes for your unemployment check out, your incapacity examine, or your foods stamp allotment. Sure, you can have free health care care and you can expect your neighbors to pay increased taxes and insurance policies rates to give it for you. Sure, you can have as several youngsters as your unbridled, unprotected, promiscuity produces and you never have to monetarily support your offspring instead, you can count on your neighbors to fund their upbringing with their at any time-escalating tax stress. Yes, you can borrow as much in pupil loans as you need to have to fund your school costs you can default on these financial loans and you can count on your neighbors to repay them for you with their greater taxes. Yes, if you happen to be a government union personnel, you can retire at a considerably youthful age and with more generous pension advantages than your personal sector counterparts and you can expect your neighbors to pay for your retirement windfall by bearing an unfair share of the taxation needed to fund it. Indeed, if you happen to be an "illegal," you can enjoy all the rewards that U.S. citizenship ensures and you can anticipate your "legal" neighbors to shell out whatever it normally takes in increased taxes to give these for you. Sure, if you lack the initiative to add productively to culture, you can count on the govt to transfer as a lot wealth as you require from your neighbors in spite of the steadily escalating likelihood these confiscatory taxes will render them not able to supply for their own people. Given the success of their open-ended, no-accountability-required promises to voters, it is simple to understand why DEMs have occur to be acknowledged as the "celebration of Sure." So, what are the political ramifications of these blank-check out commitments by DEMs? Unfortunately, it really is political dire straights for the GOP. Why? Simply because Republicans are unable to compete with a message of bottomless "free stuff" enticingly echoed to uninformed voters by a media complicit with Democrat guidelines. What this eventually indicates is that Republicans have small option but to locate a far more persuasive concept if they are likely to wean voters away from the highly efficient, Santa-like, vote-purchasing equipment of the Democrat Party. Political Fact #three: The GOP puts out a broadly off-placing message. What do Republicans encourage as the theme of their countrywide campaigns? In stark distinction to their Democrat opponents, the GOP seems pushed to thrust absent voters with an alienating: "NO, to every little thing the DEMs want far more of!" In so doing, the GOP assails voters with a litany of adverse sounding single problems - NO authorities bailouts, NO deficit shelling out, NO more nationwide credit card debt, NO unlawful immigration, NO much more porous borders, NO death taxes, NO legalization of drugs, NO homosexual marriage, NO alternative strength funding, NO totally free abortions, NO stem cell investigation, NO free healthcare, NO bare minimum wage, NO free start handle, NO totally free mobile phones, NO amnesty for illegals, NO gun controls, NO increased taxes, NO wealth transfers, and so on. By selling a multitude of downbeat single issues, it truly is no shock that Republicans are characterised by Democrats and their media cohorts as the "party of NO." The GOP's campaign of opposition to almost almost everything promoted by DEMs naturally repels liberals, but it also fragments other people which includes a lot of conservatives. How does this operate? The litany of Republican NOs is amplified to an uninformed public by a statist push that interprets the NOs into impressions the GOP has NO excellent concepts and NO critical intention of assisting individuals in require. This places the Republicans on their heels at the onset of each and every election cycle, forcing them consistently to defend their guidelines to the community. Plainly, the GOP's recent background of electoral miscues proves they have failed to make their sale to voters. To treatment this electoral downside, the GOP should change its marketing campaign strategy of declaring "NO to every little thing" wrapped inside of a myriad of solitary concerns whilst the DEMs ship voters a more palatable "Sure to everything" backed by the implicit promise of limitless government funding for their Santa Claus giveaway programs. The Republican Party must rather undertake a broad-based, constitutionally influenced, constrained concerns campaign and drop the multitude of narrowly outlined, uninspired, one issues that discourage conservatives from offering their unwavering assistance and votes in national elections. Political Truth #4: A manufacturer is a guarantee. Brand name, model identification, and model loyalty are classes typically taught in a second year undergrad organization marketing plan. What do marketing and advertising students learn in these kinds of programs? They discover that an organization's manufacturer is no much less than a substitute for its integrity, i.e., it's a dedication of truthfulness to its customers. It follows that a manufacturer is a assure to consumers to deliver regular value in the kind of its items or solutions. The Democrat Party's manufacturer manifesto is as follows: The Democrat Social gathering guarantees to supply limitless entitlement rewards and other amazing giveaways by way of an ever-expanding government bureaucracy they're certain is the solution to all society's difficulties. The funding for this largesse will occur from a mushrooming national credit card debt owed by all Individuals, sky-is-the-limit taxation levied on functioning People in america, and a third planet normal of living thrust upon unknowing Americans, our grandchildren. DEMs rationalize this shared sacrifice as just compensation for individuals who've been denied an equivalent opportunity who've been oppressed by "the man," and who've been deprived of the American Dream since they've had to run uphill, towards the wind, and through knee deep snow just to nibble at the edges of the Trump-like riches routinely spoon-fed to GOP supporters. The DEM brand assure indicates guaranteed "big brother" govt intrusion improved regulation to "degree the enjoying area" among the rich and the poor steadily growing prosperity transfers from the "working" to the "non-working" class, and more entrenchment of a "everlasting under-course" who'll preserve Democrats in electricity for the foreseeable potential with their purchased-and-paid out-for votes. The Republican Party's brand name manifesto is as follows: The Republican Party promises to deliver elevated prospect and greater prosperity for all Individuals by transforming government into a smaller, far more effective paperwork and by allowing taxpayers to maintain much more of their tough-gained bucks. The GOP brand name guarantee implies earned prosperity for every person liberty to select one's future currently being the very best you can be removing government impediments to specific and enterprise achievement fiscally liable govt and a strict interpretation of the Structure to protect our freedoms. Regrettably, these GO

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sublimepoetrystudent-univer-blog · 7 years ago

Text

What Republicans Have to Learn First

Free Political Real truth #1: Negatives instinctively "go there" for each political selection. Robert M. Pirsig, the creator of the '70s bestselling, cultural classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Servicing, presents therein a compelling idea of a societal split in the way folks cognitively process data. As a signifies to describe this thesis, Pirsig employs a established of contrasting phrases borrowed from set up philosophic discourse: romantic vs. traditional, sort vs. operate, aesthetic vs. theoretic, humanistic vs. technologic, hip vs. sq., and great vs. uncool. [1] (Observe: If you are unfamiliar with these terms utilized in this context, Google them! You will be considerably smarter for it.) These pairings are common to several audience, but you might wonder how they're related to political investigation? Take a moment to research the proper-aspect term of each pairing - classic, perform, theoretic, technologic, sq., and uncool. In accordance to Pirsig, these terms collectively describe that 50 percent of culture comprising large-inductive choice makers. Inductive reasoning, he clarifies, is the existing working day software of Aristotle's scientific approach. He further explains how this operates. The scientific method (a/k/a inductive reasoning) is shown by folks who inherently consider the "result in and result" of each and every selection they confront with the objective of knowing the most possible outcomes that may outcome from it. After they comprehend the possible results, they attract conclusions and then make their selection dependent on people factors. Apparently, these exact same phrases (basic, perform, theoretic, technologic, square, and uncool) also explain a main political constituency recognized as conservatives. Which is appropriate. To prove this point, let us use a thought experiment. Take a number of moments to contemplate the men and women you know who, in your viewpoint, are possible conservatives. Now, mentally match the 1st 4 phrases in the over checklist to these individuals' formerly stated philosophies. When you recognize how naturally these match up, you will conclude these conditions do in truth describe your conservative acquaintances. Not totally persuaded but? Okay then, let us try one more exercise. Question a prospective conservative you know the subsequent issue: Why is taxing a corporation just yet another tax on you? Give him (or her) some time to believe about the response just before responding. When he eventually responds, perhaps even a working day or two later, you are going to find out that organizations treat taxes like any other expense, i.e., they go this larger cost of carrying out business alongside to customers by raising the price tag of their merchandise or solutions. The upshot is that when the authorities taxes a organization, customers spend that tax in larger costs. So, what is actually the point of taxing corporations? Answer: None in any respect, besides to disguise a greater tax on you. The level of this is to demonstrate that conservatives (inductive thinkers) usually will get to the essence of your concern and give an reply equivalent to the one previously mentioned. It is their mother nature to "go there." As for the very last 2 phrases on the over record, just think about for a instant how pop society and its media cohorts characterize conservatives. To hear them say it, "Conservatives are the most 'square and uncool' men and women on the earth!" I relaxation my case: Conservatives are indeed high-inductive thinkers. So, Negatives signify the "higher-inductive" half of culture, possibly, a massive portion of the voting community. Exactly where does this lead? Inductive in how they method data, conservatives instinctively "go there" by connecting the dots of cause and influence every time they're confronted with generating crucial conclusions. Inductive individuals instinctively make selections this way. Human engineering science substantiates the inductive reasoning aptitude and why it truly is important to producing successful managerial conclusions: "Inductive reasoning is the cognitive rationale that allows individuals to make decisions... it is the decision-maker's aptitude." [2] In simple fact, the substantial-inductive aptitude of Downsides compels them to evaluate political alternatives this way also. They do this by mentally stepping by means of the potential results of lead to and impact for each political issue to establish the possible impact to them and their passions. They then prioritize the relative pitfalls and rewards of each final result to decide which political ideas to accept or reject. An awareness of this conservative proclivity for inductive choice producing is also essential to understanding how they vote. Disadvantages take political sides early in a marketing campaign primarily based on their all-natural inclination to prioritize concerns and policies. Applying their personal priorities to politics this way permits them to determine rapidly which concerns, insurance policies, functions, and candidates are acceptable for them to assist monetarily and, in the long run, with their votes. This also clarifies why primarily substantial-inductive conservatives make it challenging for their organic political allies, Republicans, to achieve their loyalty in nationwide elections. The fundamental cause is the social gathering historically deploys a nationwide marketing campaign method that encourages also several, narrowly described, one problems. This GOP emphasis on a multitude of granular, solitary troubles turns off large-inductive CON voters. Why? Higher-inductive Downsides passionately get sides on distinct problems in accordance with their penchant for selecting the 1 or two troubles most probably to impact them individually. As a end result, their loyalties are effortlessly fragmented into one-concern desire groups that are challenging to manage in help of a national, multi-issue marketing campaign. What is actually the outcome? Large-inductive conservatives offered with a bevy of narrowly defined, single problems will select the number of concerns that most affect them and their people. This fragments them together one-problem traces in the bigger conservative voting block, producing them challenging to arrange. Additionally, the internal conflict engendered by their single-minded enthusiasm for a handful of problems critical to them presents Negatives far more factors to keep at home on Election Working day, specifically thinking about their possible enmity for a number of the other problems on the GOP system. By the way, this issue is not heading away since this cognitive actions is innate to these conservative voters. As a consequence, Republicans need to devise a new campaign technique, 1 that is far more suitable with their large-inductive constituents. Political Truth #two: The DEMs put out a broadly compelling concept. What do Democrats advertise as the theme of their countrywide strategies? Lowered to its essence, DEMs try to lure voters with a compelling: "Yes, you can have it all for Totally free!" Sure, you never have to work at any time and you can count on your neighbors to pay out much more taxes for your unemployment check out, your incapacity verify, or your food stamp allotment. Of course, you can have totally free healthcare care and you can anticipate your neighbors to pay out higher taxes and insurance rates to offer it for you. Sure, you can have as a lot of kids as your unbridled, unprotected, promiscuity makes and you never have to fiscally assistance your offspring rather, you can assume your neighbors to fund their upbringing with their at any time-rising tax load. Sure, you can borrow as considerably in student loans as you want to fund your school expenditures you can default on these loans and you can anticipate your neighbors to repay them for you with their larger taxes. Yes, if you might be a govt union worker, you can retire at a considerably young age and with more generous pension benefits than your non-public sector counterparts and you can count on your neighbors to pay for your retirement windfall by bearing an unfair share of the taxation needed to fund it. Of course, if you happen to be an "unlawful," you can get pleasure from all the benefits that U.S. citizenship ensures and you can anticipate your "legal" neighbors to pay no matter what it will take in increased taxes to offer these for you. Sure, if you lack the initiative to contribute productively to culture, you can count on the government to transfer as considerably wealth as you want from your neighbors in spite of the steadily growing likelihood these confiscatory taxes will render them unable to offer for their personal families. Offered the success of their open up-ended, no-accountability-needed promises to voters, it really is effortless to understand why DEMs have occur to be acknowledged as the "social gathering of Of course." So, what are the political ramifications of these blank-check out commitments by DEMs? Unfortunately, it's political dire straights for the GOP. Why? Since Republicans can't compete with a message of bottomless "totally free things" enticingly echoed to uninformed voters by a media complicit with Democrat insurance policies. What this in the long run indicates is that Republicans have tiny choice but to locate a more persuasive concept if they're likely to wean voters away from the very successful, Santa-like, vote-getting device of the Democrat Social gathering. Political Fact #three: The GOP puts out a broadly off-placing message. What do Republicans advertise as the concept of their nationwide campaigns? In stark distinction to their Democrat opponents, the GOP appears pushed to push absent voters with an alienating: "NO, to every little thing the DEMs want far more of!" In so doing, the GOP assails voters with a litany of adverse sounding one issues - NO authorities bailouts, NO deficit shelling out, NO much more nationwide personal debt, NO unlawful immigration, NO more porous borders, NO dying taxes, NO legalization of medication, NO homosexual marriage, NO option power funding, NO free abortions, NO stem cell investigation, NO free health care, NO least wage, NO totally free birth handle, NO free cell telephones, NO amnesty for illegals, NO gun controls, NO greater taxes, NO prosperity transfers, and so on. By marketing a multitude of downbeat one concerns, it's no surprise that Republicans are characterized by Democrats and their media cohorts as the "social gathering of NO." The GOP's campaign of opposition to nearly every thing promoted by DEMs naturally repels liberals, but it also fragments other folks including several conservatives. How does this perform? The litany of Republican NOs is amplified to an uninformed public by a statist press that interprets the NOs into impressions the GOP has NO good suggestions and NO serious intention of helping individuals in require. This places the Republicans on their heels at the onset of each election cycle, forcing them continually to defend their procedures to the community. Evidently, the GOP's current history of electoral miscues proves they have failed to make their sale to voters. To solution this electoral downside, the GOP have to alter its marketing campaign method of saying "NO to every little thing" wrapped inside of a myriad of single issues although the DEMs send voters a far more palatable "Indeed to almost everything" backed by the implicit promise of limitless govt funding for their Santa Claus giveaway programs. The Republican Social gathering must rather undertake a wide-primarily based, constitutionally motivated, restricted concerns campaign and drop the multitude of narrowly described, uninspired, solitary concerns that discourage conservatives from offering their unwavering support and votes in nationwide elections. Political Fact #four: A model is a guarantee. Manufacturer, brand identification, and manufacturer loyalty are programs typically taught in a 2nd calendar year undergrad enterprise advertising and marketing plan. What do advertising college students find out in this sort of programs? They discover that an organization's brand name is no less than a substitute for its integrity, i.e., it's a determination of truthfulness to its clients. It follows that a model is a promise to buyers to provide regular benefit in the kind of its items or companies. The Democrat Party's brand manifesto is as follows: The Democrat Get together promises to provide limitless entitlement rewards and other great giveaways by way of an ever-increasing government bureaucracy they're persuaded is the answer to all society's problems. The funding for this largesse will occur from a mushrooming nationwide financial debt owed by all Americans, sky-is-the-limit taxation levied on operating People in america, and a 3rd planet normal of dwelling thrust upon unknowing Individuals, our grandchildren. DEMs rationalize this shared sacrifice as just compensation for these who've been denied an equal prospect who've been oppressed by "the gentleman," and who've been deprived of the American Dream simply because they have had to operate uphill, from the wind, and through knee deep snow just to nibble at the edges of the Trump-like riches routinely spoon-fed to GOP supporters. The DEM manufacturer promise implies certain "huge brother" authorities intrusion increased regulation to "level the enjoying field" among the prosperous and the very poor steadily escalating prosperity transfers from the "operating" to the "non-operating" class, and additional entrenchment of a "long lasting below-class" who'll maintain Democrats in electricity for the foreseeable future with their purchased-and-paid out-for votes. The Republican Party's brand name manifesto is as follows: The Republican Party guarantees to produce increased possibility and better prosperity for all People in america by transforming federal government into a smaller, much more efficient bureaucracy and by allowing taxpayers to hold a lot more of their hard-attained bucks. The GOP model assure implies attained prosperity for everyone liberty to pick one's destiny currently being the very best you can be getting rid of government impediments to specific and organization achievement fiscally responsible federal government and a strict interpretation of the Constitution to defend our freedoms. Regrettably, these GO

0 notes