Not very long ago, in relation to the notorious, two-year-old still-not-debated Motion of No Confidence, Denzil Douglas boasted that when he decides to do something, no man can stop him.
For many, many years our country’s passports contained a place to enter our place of birth; and if we changed our name, the name change had to be entered in the passport.
However, in 2011, Douglas rushed to the decision that passports issued from January, 2012, would no longer have the place of birth information. And part and parcel of this move was also the exclusion of any change of name information.
Big mistake! Especially considering the very serious attention being given in the international community to refugee challenges, identity theft, money laundering, terrorism, and so on.
So why did Douglas take that decision? Was he being naïve? Was he being deliberate? Was he trying to satisfy the demands of certain players who had no regard for the wellbeing and best interests of the citizens and residents of St. Kitts & Nevis?
Whatever the cause, he took the decision, and, as he has said, once he makes a decision no man can stop him.
Shortly after taking his decision, problems started to pop up. We began hearing about the Tursunbayevs, the Moghadams, the Charles Ergens, the Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangues, the Arthur Porters, Ogunbambo, Nayebi, Hooseinpor, Farsoudeh and others.
We started hearing stories about the influence that persons with known criminal backgrounds were wielding in our business. We started hearing of people paying US$200,000.00 for a piece of land and getting citizenship, and of projects selling units for US$400,000.00, and offering sales commissions of nearly US$100,000.00. And about there being, not one Citizenship by Investment Unit, but as many as three, and about questionable due diligence situations.
And we began to see the feathers of certain governments and security agencies becoming ruffled, to the point when, in 2013, the Canadian Government took some steps. It expressed its concern with the absence of the place of birth on our passports and about other identity issues. Moghadam was part of that conversation, but there’d been others before him.
How did Douglas react? He extended the ban from Iranians residing in Iran to all Iranians. But it appears that he didn’t take steps to make corrections to the passports.
And questions and concern also arose as a result of the people who were given diplomatic passports. How did they get them? Why did they get them? And why do they still have them?
Meanwhile, the Americans stepped into the picture some months ago with their Treasury Department Advisory, which named certain Iranians with St. Kitts & Nevis passports who were on banned lists with regard to money laundering and terrorism.
With all of this pressure building, the man who said that when he decides to do something no ma can stop him, continued along his merry way, apparently with reckless disregard towards the damage that he was doing to the people of this country.
I’m even told that a high-powered Canadian delegation came to St. Kitts to discuss the matter and that he refused to meet with them, allegedly saying that nobody can tell him how to run his Citizenship by investment Program.
Of course, we also know the old saying ‘Who doesn’t hear will feel’, and so, having had enough of Douglas and his crap, Canada, and acting in its best security interests, Canada on November 22, 2014, expelled St. Kitts & Nevis from the family of privileged nations whose citizens could enter Canada without visas.
Now Kittitians and Nevisians, whether born here or in Iran, Syria, Pakistan, India, Russia or China, will require visas to enter Canada. And the application process is as stringent as is that of the USA.
‘Code 1 Protocol’, some people call it.
Immediately, Douglas’ people tried to put all kinds of absurd spins on the action by Canada and tried their best to downplay it. They even took swipes at Canada.But their efforts didn’t work.
So Douglas has now stepped into the ‘Hurry Dog’ mode. The man who said that nobody can make him change his decision is now desperately trying to fix the problem which he created and which Canada, USA, and others, have been telling him for some time to fix. They’ve apportioned full responsibility for this to him. So he’s hurrying up now, and especially so because the issue has done him severe political damage and he’s trying to stop the bleeding.
But he’s still going to eat raw corn, because over the next few months, as the fallout reaches more and more people and becomes a harsh and bitter reality for them, things will get worse for Douglas. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he hurries into an election for next month, just because of this.
This week announced that all relevant passports issued between January 2011 and July, 2014, are being recalled, and will be replaced by Government, free of cost.
Of course, you’ll have to pay for photographs and you’ll have related costs. I encourage you to take steps to recover the costs. For example, if you have to go to Barbados again to apply for a US Visa, or anywhere else to replace your Visa, and also if you bought a ticket to Canada before the announcement, then now find yourself unable to go because of the new arrangement. I advise you to try to recover for every penny spent and for every moment inconvenienced. Go after Douglas for that. You don’t deserve what he has done to you. And I encourage economic citizens to likewise seek to recover your costs.
At the same time, all the new passports to be issued and the manpower to process them will bear a high cost to the tax payers. A cost which could’ve been avoided had he not gone and disturbed the place of birth and change of name items on the passports.
He said the people with these passports have until January 31, 2015, to turn them in. After that date, those passports are dead.
Just imagine the inconvenience, the suffering, and the anxiety that this whole mess will cause to you, your relatives and other loved ones.
In fact, overseas professionals are already highly anxious as they ask how their economic citizen clients are to get their own, shortly-to-be-defunct passports replaced.
And of course, those persons who wanted to get passports because of the absence of the place of birth and change of name items will no longer want to use our passport anyway (which, thanks to Canada, is one way of weeding out some of the bad eggs that were allowed to enter the basket--Canada is helping to clean up the mess that Douglas has made).
And now that he’s under severe, severe heat, the ‘hurry dog’ syndrome is becoming even more evident in his behavior. He is hurrying to fix his broken boat while he’s in the middle of the political ocean in a perfect storm.
So he just extended the list of food and other items to be exempted from VAT. Why did he have the VAT so high in the first place? And why did he put VAT on food, medication, health, sanitation and hygiene items and funerals?
And when he talks about providing our people with the opportunity of cheaper food for a balanced diet, am I to believe that pig ears, pig tail pig snout, corned beef, Vienna sausages, salt mackerel, herrings etc., are particularly healthy foods? Isn’t there enough hypertension, diabetes and other disorders that can be easily avoided or mitigated with better diet? Why not remove the VAT from ALL food so that people can have a better choice of healthier foods to put into their and their children’s bodies?
Further, he said that the measure was to have immediate effect. So businesses and other stakeholders would not have been sufficiently informed, and no arrangements settled as to pricing at the counter and VAT adjustments and set offs between Government and the businesses.
Another mess right there again. Hurry dog eat raw corn.
Further, he said yesterday that if there’s a problem at the store, the customer and the store can work it out.
Just so? Too desperate. Too hurry. The man has lost it.
And the more desperate Douglas gets, the more of a hurry he’ll be in, and, as is in clear evidence, the more and the greater will be his blunders and indiscretions.
What a terrible price we’ve been made to pay to indulge him.
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