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Antiguans demanding high pay with little qualifications face being displaced by CARICOM nationals, PM Browne warns
PM what you stayed is hardly ever true! Let’s start with UWI Five Islands. Do you know there are many nationals with the right qualifications that have been overlooked for others down there? Have you noticed that all of the banks, Cruise industries, hotels etc are filled in the upper and lower echelons with foreigners? Even if this is cannot be avoided in some instances, what has your govt done to correct this? Do you recall that under Papa Bird, who you all claim to revere, only an Antiguan could become police Commissioner? Same was true of all other areas. That is how you build a country man! Even if others come in to fill some area of expertise that is not here, it is the duty of the govt to ensure people get trained in that area, then thank the non-national while you move in your own. That is nation building that is practised by: Barbados, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Kitts and all countries that want to be a nation. But not here. A little hard talk between you and the lady at the airport and now she is gone and replaced by a Trinidadian. I suppose the logic is, she won’t talk back to you.
So there you have it PM. You continue to cast blame on everyone while you and your govt are the ones making a mockery of our nation-building.
so why the f*ck are expats with no qualifications unless it’s because of their skin color getting the better paying jobs and are trained by persons with no qualifications?
here we are facing a crime wave on antigua and the PM saying we should accept poverty wages. The connection between economic hardship and uncertainty and crime is undeniable. and meanwhile, every single individual in the PMs family, including the children, is a apparently a millionaire. stop the corruption and start providing real opportunities for the citizens, including a living wage and u may begin to rein in the crime. driving down wages will only increase it,
This is absolutely sickening to hear. Nowhere else will you hear a leader saying that their people have to compete with foreigners on the same level. Being born in Antigua and Barbuda literally means now. People come here and disrespect us and our nation to our faces and here is our PM giving them even more ammunition. Absolutely disturbing. You would never hear anything like this from the mouths of Mia Mottley or Phillip Davis. No wonder Antiguans with education just want to get out of here, what is the point in staying?
I keep trying to defend Antigua to young professionals who feel that staying here is of no benefit to them because they will just hire a foreigner anyways and look how they are being proven true.
Mr. PM might I suggest you start putting Antiguans and Barbudans first! Why should we be competing with foreigners in our OWN PLACE. Once a qualified Antiguan or Barbudan applies for a job that should be the end of the search, if the foreigner is more qualified give the a short contract, mek dem teach our people what they know and mek them MOVE ON afterwards. Build capacity in our locals where it is lacking instead of trying to make us fear foreigners. This rhetoric is divisive and meant to make us hate foreigners and look down on ourselves.
We are in our workplaces and it’s literally an us against them mentality. Jamaican against Antiguan or whoever else against Antiguan. Ridiculous! We can’t have the first seat at their tables so why should they have the first seat at ours? Why do you continue to fan the flames of the “US v THEM” mentality that we see all over this country?
I am proud to be Antiguan. I wish you would do more to make us feel you had our backs. This kind of talk isn’t helping.
DO BETTER GASTON BROWN.
The same could be said of UNQUALIFIED “sitting” Prime Minister’s and members of Parliament. How many of them are actually qualified for their particular posts or high salaried positions?
They often jump from pillar to post without question.
#brixtonianhighligtingtheeliteshypocrisy
AWTFYL
bounce!
Whilst I agree that citizens must seek to upgrade and educate themselves, free movement or not, priority must always be given to Antiguans and Barbudans to fill major positions in their homeland. Where a non national is allows to come in and work because of the nature of the position, there must be clear succession planning. Antigua and Barbuda is a very small place and we run the risk of being flooded by other Caricom nationals who had greater and better opportunities than us to educate themselves in their homeland. I am personality not against anyone but Antiguans and Barbudans do not currently enjoy the same openness ,ease and simplicity that many non nationals enjoy here. We do not get the same opportunities in our fellow sister Caricom countries. We simply cannot be the only ones making concessions. Other Caricom countries must do same.
Again with all due respect, we will mention two points 1) Antigua has a great amount of highly educated, qualified, experienced and intelligent people and employees sometimes not recognized as such and underpaid, especially if they are not partisans, not recognized as such and replaced or pushed one side even for non-antiguans. 2) Many, many times people are considered “with no qualification” because they may not hold a degree but have accumulated so much experience and knowledge of the job they have done with low pay or not paid enough for their work, results and dedication of so many years, some of which, as soon as they ask for a raise or a promotion are ignored and move aside because they do not have the necessary ‘papers’ ; after so many years of being highly productive and results-givers. They cannot and should not be considered ‘not qualified’ but given a fear opportunity with directives. And sometimes the irony of this is that they are requested to train and lead their new better-paid replacement to doing what they’ve been doing for years. Sometimes those seeking and demanding high pay are people that are seeing others less or equally qualified as them getting a good pay. Then of course, there are those ones that are causing the headlines of this article (those that think they are ‘it’ and just want the job no matter what); we think they are the very small portion of this matter…. Ok done with our two points. Additionally though, we have read and seen in the media comments like; how come this new persons from other islands or places are so great that they have been brought in and appointed here; if they are really so good how come they are not or were not appointed in their own places?? We cannot assert to this but it brings up some questioning and research and at some point even some comparisons. ☮️💟
First Gaston and Pringle both qualified for thier position by being voted in to our constitutional dictatorship. That’s all that required for the job, there are no tests not should there be for elected positions of governance. The question is should we live in an elected dictatorship .
That is the reason why you’ll find more and more foreigners working in certain sectors in 🇦🇬. Some of the foreigners in-charge gives preference to their country men when jobs are available. And many of them have a preconceived notion that Antiguans are lazy and don’t want to work; they say it openly on these ANR threads.
It is annoying reading these comments when Antiguans come on this same medium with their BA, MA, and JD and most of you all saying he or she thinks he or she believes he or she knows more than who is the position, and getting upset because he or she actually do.
You guys are confusing and hypocrite. Have anyone of you supported the ideas of those with advance degrees and exceptional abilities in their field when they post on this medium but now talking?
When people here using research to predict how intensely bad crimes will get over 3 years ago from today and how is it now? Remember those same advance degree holders that stated these paths will be crossed since 2010 blogging on other news portal?
You guys truly need to stop your blogging because you are not standing up for anything and you do not like to see others progress. You only speak when it affects you.
I speak for all, and I want nothing. I do not want or need a job. I speak up because I know better for the country exist. I will not be leaving my job that often provide me with $100,000.00usd a week. I just speak up about hiring those Antiguans and Barbudans with relevant advance knowledge because it gives the country and the locals a better chance of safety, progress, success and happiness.
I actually feel insulted you think my honorable intent is for selfish purposes.
You guys are annoying. Truly annoying because you are really doing and saying what you are saying selflessly.
I went to open a bank account to donate $100,000ec dollars to a village in the country and those incompetent people at the local bank is taking months to open the account so I can hand it over to that village and make it clear, I do not want to be I’m your politics but wanted to do this to make a difference and show you what true selflessness is and hope it makes them go after such people to be leaders and not them acting just to get a position.
I want nothing from you guys other than you using sense and wisdom. Helping each other and stop being so jealous of others.
I have a blogger on here, no one is more jealous of me than him. Why? Because I believe I have better ideas in a field that I spent years studying and being homeless and hungry to complete. Because I love that field so much. Because I studied that field so much. Than someone placed in a position because he or she is friends with a politician or simply was in that service without any advance experience for years.
@ Audley Phillip I would like to agree with what you’re saying but Antiguans have been some of the MOST oppressive people to work under.
I would love to rally behind my own, but they don’t rally behind my, a university- educated person.
My best boss in Antigua has been a Bajan and would work underneath their guidance a million times over the insecure and badminded Antiguans.
There is wrong and right but many locals have a sense of entitlement. Unfortunately, it is so and sad. They come for an interview and before they know what the job is they tell you what salary they want. And worse if they have a degree. Mind you with no experience. If our people were so qualified why is it our water, electricity and roads are so unacceptable? All the top people are Antiguans. And the young people are the worse as they are not being prepared for the world of work. The company I work for now has a policy that we are not employing anyone under 40 years old. All the folks complaining here should have a discussion with any employer in this country and see what they have to say. The Private Sector has no Godfather, no tax payers treasury like government which has 15,000 employees of which about 3,000 are needed. No ambitious person will work for a government department when they can make more in the private sector. The difference is that they will actually have to work and produce. As a nation we have a problem .
The most educated people ever to run this country is VC Bird. Lot of people seems not to know what education really is. Education is for one purpose only and that is survival of the human race.
Listen to the audio…..
Tough, cheap labor saves money– its also why Chinese nationals leave their home but they use the opportunity to build a business in a new country, rather than to work for anyone of that country and they build these businesses in Low currency countries, whereas, for us being in the Caribbean, we can’t higher from the bigger foreign countries because we will lose. So, i guess to save while building money, we use/utilize the abilities of the non-nationals, of low currency Caribbean countries. This may also drive many of the nationals here, away, to seek better for themselves and their family’s survival. There is already a big tax here, with no increased wages for low income receivers, old folks who are still working, want to leave their jobs or small businesses because the law says every year or so, the age requirement for receiving money for retirement, goes up by 2, i may be incorrect or correct on that retirement part, but the struggle is really real.
Irfan ali and andrew holness would never ever say this smh
He acts like doing a high payinh job is Rocket science. Any job you do requires hands on training. Stop making excuses because you think people without a degree are beneath others.
A mechanic with a degree and a mechanic without a degree both do the same exact thing.
A prime minister without a politician science degree and a prime minister with one also does the same damn thing.
It’s stranger than fiction that ALL OF SUDDEN Antiguans are the laziest, under educated people in the Caribbean. 90% of the migrants here are from the poorest areas of their countries and most illiterate in their countries. Hence, the increase in the illiteracy among minors in Antiguan. Educated and highly qualified Jamaicans and Guyanese are NOT coming to this SMALL island. It’s the deportees and criminals are flocking here. So, how did they become sooo skilled, and bright as they land here. You are doing exactly what the colonials masters did and still do today. To make Bona fide Antiguans question their intelligence and ability to perform let’s demean and degrade them. Are the Jamaican, Guyanese, Vincentian, Dominican, Dominica, Syrian, Lebanese, Chinese governments belittling their people for Antiguans. It’s a resounding H***NO! PLEASE STOP THE SHAMING OF OUR PEOPLE! THIS COUNTRY WAS BUILT WHEN THEY GOT HERE OR THEY WOULDN’T HAVE COME. And it will be will in shambles when they leave at the rate it’s been destroyed by crime and violence. The rise in crime, gun violence, Prostitution/pedophilia,bars, night clubs, destruction of once quiet, well groomed neighborhoods occupied by these brilliant minds are more concerning. GIVE ANTIGUANS A BREAK! THEY HAVE BEEN TOO DAMN TOLERANT!
The funny part they cant give us no contract to teach no body cause we not teaching no one our skill and alot no matter how u teach them they are so harden
@Maureen Gomes – nI applaud your comments. So much truth; reality. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👍
I didn’t really wanted to comment on this article. But I have hired many expats in my professional years. And yes I had to chose them above my country men/women. And strange enough, when a local is in charge he gets little respect from his country men/women. The result is that he/she is using intimidation to get respect. And that will never work. But as they say we are like crab in a barrel. We just do not like our own. A hard but true fact. Anytime I put a Caucasian in authority things just run good. Look what happen when Baldwin placed Delano Christopher as Chief of Police. Oh boy the women got no respect from her male colleagues. But when the Canadians came everyone gave them the respect. I have also seen that in the hotel sector. Put a Caucasian in charge and all is well. Put a local in charge and he is disrespected by his own. And let me tell you, it cost a lot more money to pay a Caucasian to do the same work that an Antiguan can or could do. And Antiguan you have to pay by Antiguan standard. While an expat you will have to pay by the standard of the country he/she comes from. And additional benefits are Housing, Car, phone and Travel Allowance.
So economically it is better to hire local, but the reality is that we just do not love one another.
Gaston, himself needs to be fired as a Prime Minister because he himself does not have a degree under his belt. Gassy only has a Antigua State College Diploma and a couple of training certificates when he was banker. Unless, Gassy did a degree program online while working at the bank. Gaston, remember the degree certificate comes in order: (1) Associated; (2) Bachelor’s; (3) Master and PhD.
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