The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

2021 is gone and will not be missed too much by most Bahamians.

It was a stressful year and we saw and still are seeing the devastation of the ongoing COVID pandemic.

The economy started to sputter in the third quarter of that year and we changed the political directorate.

Minnis and his crew were shown the door and pushed out with great indignity by the bulk of the electorate.

The tourism and hotel sectors are coming along nicely. All is not well, however, in our wonderful nation.

With the symbolic exit of 2021 we have a new slate so to speak.

We are a relatively wealthy country no mind what some say for whatever hidden agenda or intent.

We have Crown Land gone to bed. Let’s start right here.

I well recall the now Most Hon. Prime Minister, Philip Brave Davis, QC, MP (PLP-Cat Island) on numerous occasions standing in The House of Assembly over the past decades, advocating for the liberalisation and timely processing of bona fides application for grants of Crown Land to the rank and file Bahamian, across the board.

Well, as fate would have it, Brave is now in place as the Minister with responsibility for Crown Land.

Surely, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

We had our political Moses in the form of the late great and deeply lamented, Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling, who led us along with the help of others, into Independence.

We had a glance at a pseudo Joshua in the strong character and focused vision of the late Sir Cecil Wallace-Whitfield, who should have taken us into The Land of Milk and Honey. Alas, death, in my view, took both of them too soon from us.

Former Prime Ministers the Hon Hubert A Ingraham, PC, and my brother the Hon. Perry Gladstone Christie, PC, would have both left footprints on the sand shores of The Bahamian.

I am unable or unwilling to ascribe any Biblical personages to whom they may have emulated.

What we need, in my view, for 2022 to get this nation on the right track is to embrace ‘Joseph’ as The Bahamas leaps into this brand new year.

For the last years of the second Christie administration and the four years of the Most Hon Dr Hubert A Minnis akin to the Biblical ‘Pharaoh’, The average Bahamian caught eternal economic hell and dislocation. Indeed, except for the elites, there was, truly, no corn in Egypt.

The Lord had to rise up a ‘Joseph’ to administer the entire Egyptian Kingdom, after he interpreted a series of dreams which Pharaoh had.

Eight years of plenty was ushered in by Joseph and his crew.

Who is this Bahamian Joseph of whom I have alluded to?

None other than the Most Honorable Philip Brave Davis mentioned above.

Brave is the right man for the heavy task of being Prime Minister at this time, in my opinion. 2022 gives him a stellar opportunity to demonstrate that he actually has what it takes to take The Bahamas and her people across the Jordan into the fabled land of Milk and Honey. A short buck list, with your permission, for 2022:

1) Introduction of National Health Insurance;

2) Introduction of Local Government here in New Providence;

3) Introduction of National Youth Service;

4) Affordable fully serviced residential lots at heavily discounted prices, say a maximum of B$25,000. The government would not, ideally, actually build any homes. That would be subject to contract between the proposed home owner: The Bahamas Mortgage Corporation and/or the lender;

5) Expansion of The Bahamas Development Bank all of the Family Islands on a daily or weekly basis. Additional shares in BOB should be offered to Bahamians so as to shore up its capitalization and to afford concrete economic opportunities for the unwashed masses.

6) Sell of Our Lucaya Hotel & Casino over in Freeport to a Bahamian/foreign consortium within this quarter.

And so, the above is my relatively short buck list for 2022.

You’d have noticed that I have neither asked for or sought anything for myself or immediate family.

I am convinced that this year will be the best year of my life, to date, with the ever present assistance and support of The Lord Jesus Christ.

This is why I am literally dropping my bucket deep into the well. Happy New Year!

ORTLAND H BODIE, Jr

Nassau,

January 1, 2022.