Mahogany CoConut Blog

The Mahogany Coconut Group submits that the real vote buying is in the upper echelons of our society. What we witnessed on Election Day was some voters getting   cash, cell phones, IPods and a bill paid here and there. The real votes were bought by those shadows- black and white, - who Dr. Don Blackman referred to a few decades ago! Of course Dr. Blackman talked only about white shadows but the corporate landscape has dramatically changed over the years – we now have shadows of all colors and ethnicities. While we shout from the roof tops about what took place on elections day, we bury our heads in the proverbial sand, by refusing to ask one simple question: How did the two political parties, both claiming to be rather financially impoverished, raise a conservative estimate of over twenty million dollars to pour into a three week campaign? We ask Dale Marshall (BLP) to tell us about the successful “cake sales and car washes” that raised their money. We ask Ronald Jones (...

Time to resign,Mr Warner Story Created: Feb 24, 2013 at 10:52 PM ECT Story Updated: Feb 25, 2013 at 10:06 AM ECT  Mr. Jack Warner Jack Warner's curious decision to accept responsibility for the New Flying Squad shocker after stoutly denying knowledge of its existence must not be allowed to rest there. He must now resign or just as she acted swiftly in the Collin Partap breathalyser affair, the Prime Minister must not wait and fire him. In fact, it remains in question whether his new position is an admission of responsibility at all. A careful reading of Mr Warner's sudden about-turn would reveal his new position to be little more than a formality of taking responsibility for something that has occurred under his watch rather than an admission of direct responsibility which is the issue at stake. All that his statement indicates, therefore, is that someone somewhere down the line may be hung out to dry, leaving the top unscathed and absolved. It is more th...

                                                      By William Skinner The Barbados Flag Many years ago, during the turbulent years of political rivalry between Edward Seaga and Michael Manley, in Jamaica, there was a very violent election and at the end it was dubbed:” elections that people lose”. Sometimes, the only victors are the politicians and their lackeys. The victory of the Democratic Labour Party is a victory for Prime Minister Freundel Stuart. The jury will be out for sometime as to whether it was a victory for the people. This election clearly demonstrated that the fed-up level, with both the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour party is rising; the electorate, caught between a rock and a hard place, decided that the money offered “to be put back in their pockets’ by the Barbados Labour Party, was not enough to convinc...

Mitchell's second coming Story Created: Feb 20, 2013 at 10:57 PM ECT Story Updated: Feb 20, 2013 at 11:10 PM ECT  Dr. Keith Mitchell Tuesday's resounding electoral victory has given Dr Keith Mitchell an emphatic mandate from the people of Grenada to assume the authority and responsibility for leading their country out of its current dire straits. The 15-0 clean sweep by Dr Mitchell's New National Party puts him in the ranks of Caribbean prime ministers who have received multiple mandates to govern. Tomorrow, Grenadians will enjoy a national holiday to celebrate the NNP's victory. After that, however, the returned prime minister should be warned that, despite his overwhelming mandate, Grenadians are unlikely to waste too much time waiting for his government to deliver. For one thing, they have previously had no hesitation in showing him the door as they did in 2008 after three terms; for another, the extent of their country's problems leave little ...

Prime Minister Stuart        Opposition Leader Arthur Like most Barbadians and other observers,TheMahoganyCoconut Group breathes a sigh of absolute relief that the pollution and pollutants that pass for political discourse, comes to an end tonight. Tomorrow, the populace goes into polling stations to exercise what Maurice Bishop once called their “five minutes” involvement in the democratic process. During the last three weeks, we have heard about the broad noses, the sexual orientation and the dishonest proclivities. We have not heard of any new policies in relation to agriculture, education, and the arts. These two political parties wasted valuable paper in reproducing the same manifestoes, they presented five years ago. We have warned the Barbadian public for the last five years that unless some new progressive political party comes forward there will be no change. The real winners of this campaign are the media houses, entertainers, advertising agenci...

Cliff Happy For Second Grammy But ... Disappointed It's Not Presented At Ceremony, Promises To Keep Re-Inventing And   Improving Barbara Ellington,  Public Affairs Editor But Cliff is unhappy that the prestigious award is not presented to winners on the night when the world is watching. "It would have been better if I were collecting it onstage on Sunday night," he said. Instead, someone picked up the gold gramophone on his behalf. Other nominees in the category this year were The Original Wailers, Sean Paul, Sly & Robbie & The Jam Masters and Toots and the Maytals. Cliff who has seen recent increased airplay for singing in the popular Volkswagen Super Bowl commercial, expressed appreciation for all his supporting fans over the years. "The Grammy does not necessarily mean more album sales, better booking fees - the important ingredients for a performer's well-being." But, he is positive that more people will be talking about it...

                                                                                   By William Skinner Machel Montano                               Super Blue Last Friday night, a cultural awakening visited the Caribbean in the form of Machel Montano and Austin Lyons (Super Blue). The occasion was the Play Whe International Power Soca Monarch Competition, held at the Hasley Crawford Stadium in Trinidad and Tobago. These two soca maestros clearly demonstrated that it is our cultural icons who will guide us to perfecting the true Caribbean Nation.  The generational clash was real, and it exposed that, excellence knows no age and true artistes understand that the real beneficiaries of excellen...

Barbados Electoral Map The Mahogany Coconut Group, cannot in all honesty, endorse either the ruling Democratic  Labour Party or the Barbados Labour Party in the recently announced General Elections of February 21 st . 2013. We remain steadfast in our position, that neither party has the intellectual capacity or the political will to engineer progressive socio-economic reform. However, we respect the right of the populace to vote and we will be the first to offer critical support to any party, organization or individual, who come forward with suggestions and or positions to enhance our national and Caribbean well-being. However, we are cemented in our belief, that we are governed by a very sophisticated one party state. In other words, “six of one and half dozen of the other!” Against this background we offer some of the policies we will support in the interest of national development:   Education We believe that there can be no real or sustainable change without ...

JFK International Airport      ...Group starts lime at JFK airport By Renuka Singh Story Created: Feb 8, 2013 at 9:47 PM ECT Story Updated: Feb 8, 2013 at 9:59 PM ECT  A small group of Trinidadians stranded at JFK International Airport in New York by a snowy blizzard have congregated in one of the airport's food courts and started a "small lime". The 20-plus group of strangers are bound by the shared experience, the shared frustration and the shared hope that they will make it home in time for Carnival. They, along with hundreds of other travellers, have been stranded either in Trinidad or in New York because of cancelled flights caused by the storm in the United States. Trinidad-born and bound Sherayne Welch and her best friend, Kimberly Lewis, made plans months ago to be home for the best part of the season, the weekend before Carnival Monday and Tuesday, when the blizzard interrupted their plans. "Of course I can't miss Carnival,...

                                                                                                            Here we go again! Are our Elections a prelude to Crop Over? The coming elections have one certainty: The government will be formed by the Barbados Labour Party and the Democratic Labour Party. The sophisticated one party government will continue. Elections are now about partying not policy. Meetings start in the early evenings and the feting goes on until the comedians come on stage. This one is a   prelude to the Festival of Flesh formerly known as crop over. Progressive thinkers are ignored or condemned to political oblivion. Some even find the guts to dwell comfortably in the belly of the whal...