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Voltaire 8 years, 9 months ago on Peter Nygard 'hired hitmen': Court documents detail alleged murder conspiracy

Peter Nygard 'hired hitmen': Court documents detail alleged murder conspiracy

Birdie and John, your readings of this situation rely on the same supposition – that the police will do their jobs properly. How on earth, living in this country, can you not see that people targeted by wealthy friends of the powers that be might need to act on their own behalf?

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GrassRoot 10 years ago on 'Human rights are being denied'

'Human rights are being denied'

This story has nothing to do with democracy. It shows that the way immigration laws, if any are in place, are enforced in an unconstitutional way. If a Bahamian national gets treated the way this man was treated by Immigration, it should be alarming particularly to persons that want all foreigners out. What the officers do, is racial profiling, if you look anything but Bahamian they book you and if you are lucky you can explain yourself later. If you are Bahamian, you shouldn't have to be afraid of immigration, police or any government official, particularly not if you are a law abiding citizen, irrespective of whether you live in Shantytown or Lyford Cay. Btw., I still believe that if the resources of this country were used properly by the wealthy and the government, no one - NO ONE - would have to live in a Shantytown, everybody would be properly educated and could work in a decent job.

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Voltaire 10 years ago on Bahamian-born woman accuses immigration staff of assault

Bahamian-born woman accuses immigration staff of assault

Ironic coming from someone whose user name suggests they object to new law that will place VAT on our backs. If a law is unjust, we are right to oppose it. Similarly, if the actions of a law enforcement officer are illegal, we should, indeed must refuse to cooperate. There is no legal basis for requiring people to walk with ID. Therefore, an individual cannot be detained on this basis. Added to which, the girl was stopped illegally in the first place, as there was no warrant in her name. The authorities can't just stop whoever they feel like. She did not resist lawful arrest.

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Voltaire 10 years ago on Bahamian-born woman accuses immigration staff of assault

Bahamian-born woman accuses immigration staff of assault

@Deablo01 and CatIslandBoy - thank you for being beacons of sense and humanity amid this sea of bigotry and foolishness. I honestly hang my head in shame over this. How did my people become this? How in 40 years, not even a generation, did we go from the oppressed and downtrodden poor, to the haters of the oppressed and downtrodden poor? When did we, who used to be our brother's keeper, who used to ask "What would Jesus do?," become the kind of people who generalize, who judge an entire group of people instead of recognizing them as individuals. Who blame the victims and condemn them for trying to live. When did we become the kind people that sit smug and self-satisfied, looking down upon people desperate to give their children a better life? When did we become the kind of people that adopt the self-righteousness of ignorant, suggesting these poor people should do impossible things like "Go back and fix their own country"? As if we know how to fix any of our problems here. As if any one of us, given the choice between making our children safe and endangering their very lives in a vain attempt to rescue a failed country, wouldn't do the same thing as Haitians do. What exactly is a poorly educated young Haitian-Bahamian mother supposed to do, exactly, to "fix Haiti"? How is she going to clean the cholera out of the water supply, when the United Nations can't manage to do it. How is she going to make food where there is none, where everyone else is eating mud? How is she to stop her children from dying from the countless illnesses and deprivations that run rampant through Haiti today? What would any of the people on this thread do if they found themselves in her shoes? All the chest puffing indignation on display here is nothing but petty, egocentric tribalism. How did this happen to us? How did we forget who we are and where we came from? We should be ashamed to look in the mirror.

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Voltaire 10 years ago on Bahamian-born woman accuses immigration staff of assault

Bahamian-born woman accuses immigration staff of assault

@Girly, mmm yes, a really christian attitude. Jesus was well known for shunning the unfortunate. As to your charge that some people here must be Haitian, because no Bahamian "would down their own people", I would say you are right - Bahamians support their own people no matter what - and that kind of attitude is exactly the problem - unthinking tribalism. So you know, I am Bahamian, with zero Haitian ancestry at all, but i still don't argue that something is right just cuz "my set" is doing it. I support something as right because it IS right, regardless of who did it. In your world, every member of every nationality and every tribe and every ethnicity should just go around blindly arguing that their people are right and everyone else is wrong. I don't see the point in that. The modern world has evolved past tribalism, to judge the individual on his own merits, and justice is supposed to be blind to considerations of ethnicity, gender, nationality. Our own constitution outlaws that sort of discrimination.

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Voltaire 10 years ago on Bahamian-born woman accuses immigration staff of assault

Bahamian-born woman accuses immigration staff of assault

@Girly, yes Jesus whipped the money changers, who were rich connected men; but was kind to the poor, be they thieves or prostitutes. Check your attitude against that standard, see what you come up with.

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Voltaire 10 years ago on Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

expatkz - thank you for being a beacon of sense and humanity amid this sea of bigotry and foolishness. I honestly hang my head in shame over this. How did my people become this? How in 40 years, not even a generation, did we go from the oppressed and downtrodden poor, to the haters of the oppressed and downtrodden poor? When did we, who used to be our brother's keeper, who used to ask "What would Jesus do?," become the kind of people who generalize, who judge an entire group of people instead of recognizing them as individuals. Who blame the victims and condemn them for trying to live. When did we become the kind people that sit smug and self-satisfied, looking down upon people desperate to give their children a better life? When did we become the kind of people that adopt the self-righteousness of ignorant, suggesting these poor people should do impossible things like "Go back and fix their own country"? As if we know how to fix any of our problems here. As if any one of us, given the choice between making our children safe and endangering their very lives in a vain attempt to rescue a failed country, wouldn't do the same thing as Haitians do. What exactly is a poorly educated young Haitian-Bahamian mother supposed to do, exactly, to "fix Haiti"? How is she going to clean the cholera out of the water supply, when the United Nations can't manage to do it. How is she going to make food where there is none, where everyone else is eating mud? How is she to stop her children from dying from the countless illnesses and deprivations that run rampant through Haiti today? What would any of the people on this thread do if they found themselves in her shoes? All the chest puffing indignation on display here is nothing but petty, egocentric tribalism. How did this happen to us? How did we forget who we are and where we came from? We should be ashamed to look in the mirror.

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Voltaire 10 years ago on Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

I would say three things: 1. I would break the law to protect my family and keep my children alive. I hope you would too. 2. The new immigration policy is in itself illegal and unconstitutional. Two wrongs don't make a right, that is kind of Ethics 101. 3. It is logically inconsistent to put the law on a pedestal and say 'anyone who breaks it is evil', no matter what the circumstances, then turn around and defend an enforcement policy that is illegal just because, you know, too many of them here and they need to go. Either the law is sacred and inviolable, or it is not. You can't have it both ways. In fact, the very fact that you want to have your cake and eat it too in this regard, suggests its not really the law you are concerned about at all, that this is just an excuse to promote an underlying prejudice.

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Voltaire 10 years ago on Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

Oh and 4: You asked if someone coming in illegally should be excused along with "his/her offspring". Responsibility for crimes do not pass on from generation to generation; the individual who committed the crime is the only one culpable. The children of illegals are therefore innocent of committing any crime, unless you construe their mere existence as human beings to be unlawful - an idea which is.... utterly disgusting, particularly among the descendants of a race that was treated as second class humans for hundreds of years.

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Andrewharris 10 years ago on Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

What Good Christian country this is... There are no words to describe this lack of humanity. This is a national disgrace and I for one am ashamed of my country. Yes illegals must be deported, this is not unique to the Bahamas but all Children everywhere must be protected at all costs regardless of nationality, ethnicity, religion. There is no excuse for this. And the hatred expressed above by some of the readers is nothing short or evil. This is a national shame. Maybe a boycott is in order.

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Voltaire 10 years ago on Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

Observer, I will try to respond to all that confusion. 1. The comparative dates of the Constitution and the Immigration Act are irrelevant. Any law that does not conform to the constitution is subject to constitutional challenge and subsequent amendment. It is the supreme law of the land full stop. 2. No one said the Immigration Act is at issue here. The new policy goes well beyond the act. In any case, it is policy, not law. 3. The constitution does not give comfort to a law breaker, but it does set the procedure for determining that someone is a law breaker in the first place. You can't just assume.Everyone in the Bahamas is innocent until proven guilty. So sayeth the supreme law of the land. And, this is precisely the area where the new policy is a problem - it acts as judge, jury and executioner and as such, is a violation of Chapter 3 of the constitution. I do indeed understand the preamble of the constitution,which the country is founded on respect for christian values and the RULE OF LAW. The new policy tramples on the rule of law. Simple as. Hope YOU comprehend.

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Voltaire 10 years ago on Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

And I also don't know for the life of me why you keep telling me that we can't absorb these people and they need to go. I know I AGREE. But that doesn't mean we have to trample all decency underfoot and act like animals. This policy is criminal, time will bear this out. And then we will revisit this issue and i will try my best not to say i told you so.

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Voltaire 10 years ago on Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

@birdiestrachan - I can't for the life of me understand why Girly and yourself continue to assume that because I don't walk lock-step with everything "Bahamian", I must have some other loyalty? Can that really be how you think? Is it really impossible that your country (and mine) could occasionally be wrong? For the record, what I say about a humane and decent approach to this issue, I have said countless times when it comes to disadvantaged Bahamians, the hundreds in this country who are wrongfully imprisoned and those to whom justice has in some other way been denied. The difference between me and you is that I value all human life equally, regardless of nationality or any other consideration.

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Voltaire 10 years ago on Bahamian-born woman accuses immigration staff of assault

Bahamian-born woman accuses immigration staff of assault

Emac - hahah! Tell me you know the philosopher I chose the name in homage to... you seem like one of the most intelligent and sensible people on this thread. It was the principles which that late individual stood for, not the nationality, that I am seeking to evoke, although I can see how ironic it is in this context. In fairness to your other point, I can see how you would say that I am picking battles. All I can say Emac is that you don't know who I really am; if you did you would know that I have done more than most to give a voice to the innocent young black males to whom you speak. Lets just say that for reasons of my employment up until last week, I haven't ben free to engage in this type of conversation. Now that I am, I jumped in, and this just happened to be the human rights/justice issue that was at the forefront. I am very passionate about police brutality as well, all forms of discrimination. Educational inequality, which is a big problem in this country. The poor in general and young black men in particular....

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shamebahamas 10 years ago on Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

The Bahamas has been "called out" by several human rights groups. Haitians living in the country feel threaten should they speak up for their rights. Hopefully, a collective effort will expose the inhumane treatment of the Haitians for the world to hear and see. Thank goodness for social media. Unfortunately, this situation will not die for the Bahamas. If you think our minor discussion here is insulting, you might want to think about the impact this issue will have on the Bahamas globally. Yes, some Bahamians are inhumane and insensitive. The ill-treatment of Haitians throughout the years in the Bahamas is unnecessary. Haitians living the Bahamas are treated as second class citizens. This issue is set by governmental policies of discrimination against the Haitians in education and social integration. Until some Bahamians self-evaluate and look within and discuss its racist attitude towards the Haitians and against other Bahamians, the country will not unite and progress. The country needs a lot more Martin Luther Kings standing up for injustices and protecting human rights.

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countryfirst 10 years ago on Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

Children 'left hungry and slept on floor' at Detention Centre

This new policy is just a distraction so Bahamians can not take note of the high crime,poor education,poor healthcare,high unemployment,corruption,VAT,BOB,BEC,BTC,MOW,BAHAMASAIR and the visionless leadership that we are seeing today.

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Voltaire 10 years ago on Plea for police protection after 'mob' interrupts protest

Plea for police protection after 'mob' interrupts protest

Well said asiseeit and DonAnthony. I agree completely. birdiestrachan, i was referring to the vicious personal attacks on the banners these men were carrying. One called Fred Smith a "Haitian Infidel". I noticed by the way that you conveniently dodged my hypothetical question tho. Oh and about the relevance of Taureano Johnson the boxer being there... oh, i don't know, you tell me:

http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2014…