By Jolly Green

One
of the biggest problems in the Caribbean is the cost of governments.

Notionless
prime ministers who want to play with the big boys on level playing
fields. Want the same salaries and the same perks as large countries
while only administering countries the size of small towns or large
villages in real countries.

They
cost so much to employ that small country incomes simply cannot
support their cost and expenditure. It’s well known that many
countries are robbed blind also with money skimmed, paybacks, and
kickbacks from such things as awarded contracts. Many try and hoist a
family dynasty on the poor people via the route of nepotism.

These
small island states are also very likely more open to election fraud
and bribery. Some of the very same politicians should not even be in
the position they are in. Having come to power via election fraud and
vote rigging, they want to stay along with their families in power
for generations and will do what they can to attain that. They
pervert the police and criminal justice system, even in some places,
the civil law is under their corrupt control.

Prime
ministers and leaders who want to be the big smart guy and put on a
show to suit that pretense. Traveling week long and staying in
expensive hotels. Using public funds to attend university talks and
conferences and even speaking at the same, all of which benefits
their countries in no way at all. Taking the wife and family along
with them and calling them delegates and assistants. Millions down
the drain every year. They are suing anyone who would dare question
the nepotistic cost of the family and friends spending and traveling
schemes.

Paying
off ardent supporters who helped to get them elected and then helped
keep them in power, also for helping their grown children to get
started on the political stairway to heavenly politics. Usually, the
reward for such help by such people is a Knighthood from HM the
Queen, the Queen obviously unaware of the real reason for the grant.
They are also given top jobs in government and installed on
government-owned companies as directors, frequently on several boards
and quangos’ at a time. The rewards are enormous and even spill
over to members of their families, sons, and daughters.

Knighthood
is a rank and honor given to those who perform exemplary service to
their countries and to the realm. So the misuse of the honor is
little more than an act of theft, fraud, and deception by the Prime
Minister recommending the person for a knighthood for his own
personal and family reasons.

It’s
rather common in the Caribbean as in some of the south, and Latin
American countries for leaders to be Marxist-Leninists, brought to
power with the assistance of Cuba. Cuba having trained some leaders
as students and then sending them home to just wait for the opportune
time to grab power.

So
what do I suggest as a cure or procedure to stop or curtail such
behavior? It’s impossible to stop altogether.

Firstly
all first world countries should stop giving funding or goods to
Caribbean nations unless they have strict rules attached. Developing
countries can never repay their loans. They should not be given debt
relief unless they agree to the following because forgiving debt
without terms does not help those countries very much.

1
Insist on tax cuts.

Why?
Some Caribbean tax rates are amongst the highest in the world. In
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines personal tax is graduated from 10%
to 55%, corporation tax 10 to 35%. Plus to make things worse, there
is a 15% VAT rate which gets added to just about everything you buy,
even salt and sugar. Hotels have a 10% occupancy tax, which instead
of stimulating tourism, stifles it. So when you pay a hotel bill it
is often plus service charge, plus 10% occupancy, plus 10% [hotel
rate] VAT on the total. There are enormous import duties on many item
totals [cost of the item, shipping cost, insurance cost] and VAT is
then added to the total cost including the duty paid on the product,
sometimes resulting in doubling the cost of a product.

High
tax rates in the Caribbean make it impossible to build capital in the
Caribbean countries; nothing gets built, not factories, not roads,
not anything. Poor governments are forced to neglect roads, bridges
and all infrastructure and their real-estate property pool. Poor
Caribbean countries have the lowest paid workers in the Caribbean.
Corporations cannot put a factory in such countries like SVG because
of the repressive tax rates. High tax rates kill any possibility of
any development; kill any possibility in putting the workforce to
work. Countries should be helping themselves, but at the moment they
are completely at the mercy of charity and loans and prime ministers
touring the scrounging circuit every week. It’s an evil circle;
tin-pot shit poor countries charge high rates of tax to be able to
pay back the loans. But taxes cannot raise any money if they
eventually kill the economy. The money given and loaned to these
countries has locked them into a dreadful situation. So unless these
countries are forced to cut their tax rates they will never grow
their economies, they are doomed to the garbage can taking their
workforce with them. People are living lifetimes without employment;
hospitals are neglected with shortages of drugs, dressings, and
equipment. Children and old people are going hungry while prime
ministers of these countries massage the figures to prove otherwise.
The charity of other countries will never be enough; prime ministers
will never be able to scrounge enough to fulfill some of the silly
projects that they pretend will help the situation; they never do.
Commercial vehicles are taxed so much on importation that few are
brave enough to risk their capital on the meager returns such
investment will generate.

One
of the most detrimental things to happen to a poor country is to have
a socialist government and administration. Venezuela and Saint
Vincent are evidence of that.

The
Four Poorest Caribbean Countries [US Dollars]

Banks
and money lenders in the islands are taking advantage of citizens and
businesses. Why? Because they can! But besides that, because there is
so little commercial movement in some of the Caribbean islands that
banks struggle to stay in business, hence low borrowing interest and
very high lending interest.

China
and Russia are currently open to lending money to governments for
capital schemes. Caribbean governments are such bad businessmen,
except perhaps when it comes to scrounging. Inevitably just about
every capital scheme goes wrong, and China and Russia end up taking
over the projects and then owning a part of that nation from a
position of command where they gradually drive countries into the
ground and will end up taking over the Caribbean without lifting a
weapon to do it. The traditional allies of the Caribbean countries
will not lend money for such fancy capital schemes because they know
they will never get repaid and they are not interested in owning
these countries, which has taken years to divest themselves of. Take
for instance Sri Lanka wanted to build ports, roads & highways
and build fancy high-rise buildings. So they borrowed money from
China, China made everything that was required for the development;
they also insisted on using Chinese workers. When the government was
unable to repay the loans, the Chinese now own everything. China now
owns land and docks, a base, near and within striking distance of
their old adversary, India. You can currently see the same of the
same happening in Venezuela where the Russians and Chinese all but
own the oil, gold and uranium production. They are now pumping in
military troops to defend their investment.

For
the EU, Brits, Canadians, and the US, it is better to give the
Caribbean countries money and goods than lend them money. But only on
the insistence that they drop taxes to such a level that things start
to work again, that includes people. No one ever objects to paying a
flat 10% rate; no one wants to cheat the system for the sake of 10%.

But
perhaps better than all the preceding, creation of a country or
island wide free port, sometimes called a free trade zone or special
economic zone. Whereby taxes and tariffs do not apply, so you can
import goods, store them and re-export them without bothering the tax
collectors. Going further, allowing firms to import raw materials,
make finished goods and then export them, with no border taxes or
import and export taxes — just 10% on profits and 10% on wages.
Work and wages for everyone.

Real
top notch capitalism will; bring with it real democracy.

Jolly Green

END

DISCLAMER: The opinion, belief and viewpoint expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinion, belief and viewpoint of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com or official policies of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com