Last Updated on September 23, 2021 11:19 pm by Editor
Article by Dr. Aldon D. Tull
The news has broken that a “non-state” actor, namely Mark Maloney of car racing fame, has become involved in a covid-19 vaccine procurement scam that has reached the US courts and attracted the attention of Interpol. For the record, it appears that Mr. Maloney is a victim of the scam.
According to unicourt.com, the case was filed in U.S. District Courts, Florida Southern District on 17 September, 2021. Judge Aileen M. Cannon is presiding over the case.
Before we move on, Barbados Uncensored wishes to express regret that attorney-at-law Lynette Eastmond, who is also President of the UPP, has headlined her Facebook take on this matter as “Covid-19 Scam” and has intimated inter alia, that “The 300,000 citizens of Barbados are cited to be at the core of this case”.
Out of deference to Madame Eastmond, I will not treat to the linguistic-cum-legal faux pas embedded in the clause “cited to be at the core of the case”. I leave it to her learned colleagues to disambiguate her (and the legally challenged among us), of the meaning of that clause, if indeed it has one.
Let us be clear, however, that the 300,000 goodly citizens of Barbados are NOT part of this scam/scandal. I certainly am not! Neither is my wife! Nor our imaginary German Shepherd.
The Background
In this sordid mess, there are three major participants.
- The Ministry of Health and Wellness headed by the indefatigable Honourable Jeffrey Bostic.
- Mark Maloney, principal of Radical Investments, the company seeking to procure the vaccines.
- Good Vibrations Entertainment, the company that essayed to act as procurer of the vaccines.
According to reports, the procurement of doses of Astra Zeneca was allegedly authorized by the Ministry of Health and Wellness. Radical Investments paid Good Vibrations Entertainment some USD 12 million for the vaccines but, at some point, discovered that Good Vibrations Entertainment was moving to a different beat. Ergo the beating of a path to the law courts in the United States.
The fact that Interpol has become involved in this matter is evidence that vaccine scams, whether they are for the vaccine itself or for vaccine passports, is international in scope.
Guyana Case
According to News Source Guyana, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony, was asked by the Opposition to come clean about the Guyana government’s “alleged relationship with a member of the United Arab Emirates ruling family Sheik Ahmad Dalmook Maktoum and his associate Umar Farooq Zahoor after an international media investigation tied the two men to an alleged vaccine racket scandal targeting poorer countries”.
It appears that the Sheik and his associates were selling the Russian vaccine Sputnik to Guyana at more than US$22 per dose whereas the international price point is US$10 per dose.
News Source Guyana also reported the Opposition’s charge that the government was not exercising “due diligence and knowingly participated in an international vaccine racket” that was “deliberately sewn together to defraud the state and benefit a few people”.
Moral Precipice
While we stop short of levelling identical charges at Minister Bostic, we can argue that in these matters, the very appearance of wrong doing is as good as the evil itself.
On the other hand, what is vividly clear is that this government is NOT exercising due diligence and good judgement by its continued association with our “local sheik”. I am yet to find one Barbadian commenter who believes that that personage should be the one engaged to source these vaccines.
In the international arena, Barbados has enjoyed a passing grade so far with regard to respect for law and propriety. However, the international criminal community has now been notified again that there is a shady segment in Barbados that is wide open for business and that that segment, while it may be masked up, is quite immune to lock downs or lock ups.
It is no wonder that elements in this government want to set up a republic WITHOUT THE DUE PROCESS OF A REFERENDUM, a process that is explicitly embodied in the Referendum Act of 2005 and which, to date, has not been repealed. In case you missed it, we dealt with this matter in our article here.
Digressing a moment, our take on the republic matter is that, should this government go ahead with its declaration of republic status on November 30, 2021 without repealing that act, it will be sending a strong message that the rule of law is not a priority for or valued by this new republic. The criminally minded will, no doubt, see this as open sesame.
Members of the ecclesia in Barbados who are fully awake and who know what spiritual warfare and exercising kingdom authority mean, will continue to petition our Commander-in-Chief for the sword of exposure and the arrest of evil in this island.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12 [New International Version]
Minister Should Resign
Irrespective of the outcome of the case Radical Investments vs. Good Vibrations Entertainment, Minister Bostic should tender his resignation. It is up to his government to accept it.
I admire Mr. Bostic and believe that he is a genuine person. A large segment of the populace has expressed similar sentiments. I read his body language very carefully at the ceremony for the handover of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine at the airport some months back and found hope there.
However, this incident is too close to where the buck stops and, therefore, Minister Bostic must do the honourable thing simply out of principle. I know that such a step would go against the grain and seem like a repudiation of his mantra, ‘No retreat, no surrender”.
But in the military, there is also such a thing as a “strategic retreat”. It means a situation in which an army draws back to some position because it gives it an advantage or changes the conditions of the war in its favour. This is what we are proposing. We respect the right of others to differ on this matter.
It is to be regretted that resigning out of principle is not one of those things we have learnt from the British while “loitering on the colonial premises” or subsequently, as we frolic on the outskirts as an independent nation.
Nevertheless, there is actually a silver lining to such a course of action for Mr. Bostic. First, it will relieve him of the pressure of dealing with the pandemic and let Mr. Ellis earn his pay! Second, he will get some much-needed rest. Third, and most importantly from our perspective, he will be stepping back from the steep moral precipice being collectively carved by his colleagues and letting the chips fall where they might.
I, for one, would not hold this against him when the roll is called over yonder. Would you?
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