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Chairman of LIAT's board of director, Dr. Eric Holder.
Chairman of LIAT’s board of director, Dr. Eric Holder.
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Chairman of LIAT’s board of director, Dr. Jean Holder, says he is pleased to be associated with the “irresponsible act” of investing US$100 million in the “cash-strapped” regional airline.

Holder, speaking at a ceremony to welcome LIAT’s ATR 72-600 to St. Vincent on Wednesday, said that regardless of what LIAT does, the press invariably uses the adjective “cash-strapped” before the airline’s name.

“And there is nothing truer. LIAT is cash-strapped,” he said, adding that it is a risk to invest US$100 million in the airline, but a risk with which he wants to be associated.

“If this is an irresponsible act, put me at the head of the list,” Holder said at E.T. Joshua Airport.

“This act is as irresponsible as the idea that you can build the Panama Canal and stop people from having to travel around the horn of South America — very irresponsible,” Holder said.

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“This is the kind of irresponsibility that I am hoping when I leave this planet people will associate me with,” he further stated.

But Holder said he prefers to see the investment “as an act of faith.

“If you are going to achieve anything of real importance, you have [to] wake up one morning and say men have not gone there before but I have the faith in God and I have the faith in my fellow men …”

He said that Tuesday morning LIAT had not yet received permission to fly the aircraft to St. Vincent but Chief Executive Officer Ian Brunton believed that permission would have been granted in time.

“This is an airline where there is a lot of can’t do. I can’t do this; I can’t do that. But these people here, these are the can do people,” he said, adding that he hoped that after his death, the 57-year-old airline would still be expanding.

“I see the light at the end of the tunnel and it is burning brighter every day,” Holder said.

He further stated that he believes LIAT has been given a special responsibility to unite the Caribbean, which spreads over one million square miles.

“I always say the Caribbean is a place which both God and man fragmented and LIAT has been given the responsibility for building this bridge over this region,” Holder said.

He said that LIAT is so important that if it stops flying tomorrow, “this region will come to a grinding halt.

“There will be more paralysis here than any doctor has ever seen,” Holder said.

14 replies on “LIAT chair stands by ‘irresponsible’ US$100m investment”

  1. This man Holder should be fired forthwith, such irresponsable talk will have quite an effect on lenders and lessors of aircraft, he will frighten them to death.

    Like Saint Vincents leaders, Holder need lessons in diplomacy, etiquet and public and invester relations, he is a total idiot.

    Doctor, Doctor of what?

  2. I want to know why an airline that has a near monopoly for regional travel is cash strapped in the first place, seems like there might be stealing going on with the higher ups at Liat. This is the same airline that SVG has a significant share in and at the same time, our tickets are the most expensive in the caribbean. It cost more to go to barbados from SVG, than to go from Barbados to New York on another airline. I would like to know why the people of Vincentians being singled out to pay so much.

    1. Disturbing emotions not only disturb our own state of mind, they also disturb the minds of others. Self-centredness gives rise to fear and insecurity, which in turn creates distrust. This is why having an altruistic attitude brings a great sense of happiness and peace of mind.

  3. This man Holder is a Genius. Without Him, His beliefs and convictions, LIAT would probably be an Airline of the past. He is the Christopher Columbus of this century. He is right there with Assassinated US President Kennedy in November 22nd 1963. He is a believer. Peter…Peter…Peter. You really don’t know Mr. Holder. Give the Gentleman credit where is due.

    Everyone is entitled to their OPINION. Equal time for everyone.

  4. Horace stop being stupid. Columbus was by chance related to the Gonsalves family of Madeira by marriage. He was directly responsible for enslaving indigenous people from all over the Caribbean and sending them back to Spain. He was responsible for the death of millions of indigenous people throughout the Caribbean. He encouraged the enslavement and working to death of millions. Because of what he started there was not a single indigenous Indian left in Cuba by 1700.

    Now that I am informed by you that Holder is the modern equivalent of Columbus, that makes the matter even worse. Because it means he has rejoined the Gonsalves of Madeira family, his boss is our very own fat man who is a direct descendant of the Gonsalves family of Madeira. Antonio Gonsalves grabbed the first Africans from a beach and chained and manacled them, dragged them on board ship and took them to Portugal. That was the beginning of the Atlantic international African slave trade.

    It would of been far cheaper to give a private airline a seat commission to fly into SVG than pay year on year 16 to 20 million every single year to LIAT, because LIAT are a financial and operational nightmare. Holder has I am sure taken the advice of our PM who has already shown his fiscal inability in running SVG, our little country is bankrupt.

  5. He is certainly not a genius, if he was he would never of made such a speech, and what he has got to do with Kennedy only someone with the insight that you have would know.

    Man you are an idiot, why don’t you go and park your head in Gonsalves motor bike wheel rack, where the sun doesn’t shine.

  6. I was going to say that LIAT have made us the laughing stock of the Caribbean and Americas, but there are more people crying than laughing. Yes thousands of people at different times have been brought to tears by the ineficiancy and bad managment of this airline.

    The ignorance of the man to be wearing dark glass’s when addressing a group of people, how downright rude, and that smirk tells it all.

  7. Could you or anybody out there please write to Mr.Holder or the powers that be, tell them how to improve LIAT. I certainly don’t have a clue.
    I was brought to tears many times travelling throughout the Caribbean by the inept behavior of the LIAT Staff. So everybody has a story about LIAT. I will write my story another time because the tears are flowing again. “Who say big men don’t cry” LIAT left me stranded in Puerto Rico some time ago for three days. First it was a sickout then on strike. Not even a glass of water they offered me. I eventually had to purchase a ticket on American Eagle to ST Lucia and then SVG AIR to get to St.Vincent. What a nightmare.
    Still no response to a letter to LIAT more than five years ago. I am also still waiting for my luggage that they misplaced “STOLE”. No response to the claim either.
    So you want to fly to SVG from “FOREIGN”. Tell me how to get there in one day without LIAT. Do tell me because I do not have a clue. I do not own a jet.
    By the way, Aren’t they building an airport at Argyle? LOL. RIP. “The bus cyan swim”
    I gone. Mi soon come back yo hear.

  8. I am Stupid-Idiot Rudy says:

    I have a plan. We are all unhappy with LIAT right. Let’s not fly LIAT. Everybody stay at home for month or so. Well a month is really pushing it, Try two days. We all fast for a day or two right, We can do it. “LIAT” Leave Island Any Time. So why can’t we go on strike for a day or two. Let’s plan on a day so LIAT PILOTS and Flight Attendants can go on a Joyride all over the Caribbean with out us. You think we can do it. Come on guys, we can do it. Just imagine. yes just imagine. Nah, nobody wants to do that. Your dead relatives can wait a little longer!!!.

  9. I agree with everything you say Peter. Now I am a YES-MAN and I am Stupid and I am an Idiot. Could you please tell me what I am NOT.
    SIMON SAYS.. Peter says JACK ASS too.

    June 29, 2013 at 8:02 PM

    This man Holder should be fired forthwith, such irresponsable talk will have quite an effect on lenders and lessors of aircraft, he will frighten them to death.

    Like Saint Vincents leaders, Holder need lessons in diplomacy, etiquet and public and invester relations, he is a total idiot.

    Doctor, Doctor of what?

  10. Peter: I can fix this for you.

    You are full of S%*IT

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  11. NUDY RUDY, what on earth has any of that shit got to do with what I wrote or the subject of the article?

    What you are not is honest, what you are not is truthful, what you are not is a patriotic Vincentian.

    Why not try and disprove anything that I previously wrote.

    You see the continual attack on me personally, without any reference to the subject matter of the article, or following comments, proves you are just a pratt.

    Your the man who cheered at the rape rally, cheered at the US$1 million in cash that the ULP were hawking around Kingstown. Your the man that cheers this Marxist regime, regardless of how they behave. Your the man that cheers when we vote in the UN for all those crap regimes, all for the sake of state prostitution.

    Your the man that cheered the crap regimes that we support such as Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, and all the other rubbish states.

  12. To say that the $100 million was irresponsible is about as stupid as Gonsalves telling us “I sometimes tells lies”, or “if i work Obeah, I only work Obeah for the Lord” stupid statements by educated idiots.

    They should both be got rid of, they are about as silly as each other.

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