banker 9 years, 11 months ago on KKK style protest at Junkanoo parade a 'national disgrace' says Smith
KKK style protest at Junkanoo parade a 'national disgrace' says Smith
I am ashamed to say that I am a Bahamian. The lamp of enlightenment has flickered out, or perhaps was never lit. We have descended into a tribal banana republic of thugs, and the xenophobic idiots on this forum fan the flames of hatred.
The Bahamas is the laughingstock of the world and the folks like Birdie and SP don't even know how ignorant they come across to intelligent people. That is the truly sad part.
With such a thick, ignorant, hateful, hate-filled populace, where the milk of human kindness has soured and curdled, there is no hope for the Bahamas. The socio-economic fabric is being torn apart with the new taxation. Tourism and Financial Services are in decline, corruption in the public sector is at an all-time high as is crime and unemployment.
In the meantime, there is continual erosion of the quality of life, and there is no hope on the horizon for the ordinary citizens of the Bahamas. The sad fact is that Bahamians do not know how to govern themselves, their behaviours, their lives, and their country.
chairarranger 9 years, 11 months ago on FNM promises to bring in annual tax-free day
FNM promises to bring in annual tax-free day
Where's a statement that says "we will support legislation introducing a comprehensive Fiscal Responsibility Act and Freedom of Information Act, and we will enact both of these important transparency measures upon becoming elected if the current government fails to do it now"??
Economist 9 years, 11 months ago on Gibson not surprised by rise in unemployed
Gibson not surprised by rise in unemployed
ThisisOurs is correct. We need a new approach to our economy. Stafford Sands is died a long time ago. He had a great vision for about 20 years out; but that vision is old tired and worn out.
We talk about Singapore but are not prepared to do what they did. We are xenophobic so would never allow in foreigners from whom we could learn and milk for ideas; use their connections to bring investment.
We would never let our Permanent Residents to start businesses. Remember, they did so well in their own country that they can afford to live here without working. If they have done well why don't we get them to improve our economy by saying that they could start a business but must employ at least two Bahamians. They are of an age where they would probably mentor their staff. They have already proved themselves so they won't be trying to keep anyone down.
We need to think out of the box. That is not the solution, but it may be a start to expand our economy.
CDMortimer 9 years, 10 months ago on Bran: PM's comments 'hypocrisy personified'
Bran: PM's comments 'hypocrisy personified'
@TalRussell....with no disrespect intended, I can care less whether the DNA is a sub-group of the FNM. At this point in our country's demising-state, who gives a rat's behind!; what bothers me, as I can only assume bothers other genuinely concerned Bahamians is the blatant cavalierism, which is continuously demonstrated by our so called "Leaders" no matter the shirt-color, and the repeated lies that spew from their mouths as cover-up for their and their colleague's dubious activities. We have to stop pointing fingers and start accepting the role we play in this carnival-environment.......STOP being politically-tribal and seek a change for our country and its future.
All governments have deficiencies, but the scandalous, larcenous, lascivious, and nonchalant behavior is appalling. The crime is outlandish and seemingly out-of-control, how is it that the monthly average for murders just a month and 9 days (40 days) into the year is about 11/mnth?????? Everyone that holds a "Title" seems to be able to talk--i.e. BS, but don't possess the ability to be individuals of action. It truly is a shame when the writing on the wall is not mere graffiti, but rather a developing portrait that is a master-piece that illuminates the sad reality--which in essence is that we can't govern our own country--and need assistance to do so.
asiseeit 9 years, 10 months ago on Business ‘screams’ confirmed: 40% of workers can’t compete
Business ‘screams’ confirmed: 40% of workers can’t compete
The only two sectors of The Bahamas that have reaped the benefits of an uneducated population is the political elite and the church. The political elite have been able to swing uneducated people into voting them into office time and time again when any educated person would have thrown them out with the dirty bath water long ago. The church has been a parasite upon these same uneducated people, sucking money out of them as a tick sucks blood from a dog. Is there any wonder that both of these organizations have done nothing to enlighten the average Bahamian, it would end their reign over the country!
asiseeit 9 years, 9 months ago on S&P ‘wants more’ from Gov’t on spending curbs
S&P ‘wants more’ from Gov’t on spending curbs
Birdie, something stinks and it ain't rotten conch. The Bahamian people have been ripped off by government so bad it is crazy. I know you are so in love with your PLP that you refuse to open your eyes. You remind me of a domestic abuse victim, "I love him, he won't hit me again", yet they always get hit again, don't they? Both the PLP and THe FNM have done this country more harm than good, it is time they are held accountable. Wake UP your nation is in serious trouble!
realfreethinker 9 years, 9 months ago on 'Tell the public truth over BAMSI'
'Tell the public truth over BAMSI'
themessenger they would also be looking for sweet milk and cigarettes
TalRussell 9 years, 9 months ago on BAMSI repairs to start when insurance issues resolved
BAMSI repairs to start when insurance issues resolved
Nothing new here Comrades. These are the outcomes we usually associate with a PLP administration. Only in a PLP Cabinet the mystery whether you have insurance coverage in force or not is just about to be revealed until after the alleged arson fire. I hate say this being the bad decision it was but had they only paid the worker his earned wages, we would never have known about this insurance thing. In a way he is as much a whistle blower as as he is an alleged
arsonist.
Still this PLP cabinet has refused to address why workers were not paid. In fact reports are still circulating with claims of BAMSI workers going unpaid, by both the contractor and the PLP Cabinet?
I would suggest any sudden insurance policy emerging must undergo an non-government
forensic audit?
Sorry Comrades, but I no longer believe - much less trust - anything coming out mouths
of anything that looks, walks and quacks like a PLP.
asiseeit 9 years, 9 months ago on 'Tell the public truth over BAMSI'
'Tell the public truth over BAMSI'
General, we know you are crazy but honestly, you also have become a bore. Just because a person is questioning the current government does not mean they are supporters of the FNM. Many know that BOTH political party's, sadly, are corrupt. Many want better than what this country has offer as leaders. Bahamians need to be educated as to exactly what is happening to their country, why don't you help with that instead of wallowing in the past. Lets make the Bahamas better. Wrong is wrong and degrading everybody just does not help, people just tune you out.
DonAnthony 9 years, 9 months ago on Don’t back down
Don’t back down
Mr. Allen should familiarize himself with the last actuarial review done on NIB. Based on current contributions and benefits expended the fund will be insolvent by 2026. Fully 22% of contributions are consumed by administrative costs, by far the highest in the Caribbean. Barbados and even Jamaica by comparison are under 10%. In short NIB is a wonderful idea, it has helped many people, but it is terribly bloated and inefficient and has been mismanaged by successive governments. And this is the govt that he wants to manage a massive health care program? Truth is these funds should be sacred and managed by an independent management team free from govt interference. Instead govts have used NIB as a slush fund to pay for all manner of expenditures that have nothing to do with pensions. We can not afford a national health program until our beauracracy becomes honest, and efficient and with as minimal govt interference as possible. The 40 year track record of NIB gives us no such hope.
DonAnthony 9 years, 9 months ago on Don’t back down
Don’t back down
This is the review, all bahamians should read this, it is a sobering warning of what can happen with a govt managed health program. We deserve so much better.
http://www.nib-bahamas.com/UserFiles/HT…
Administrative costs as a percentage of contributions in the Bahamas 21.6%, Barbados 5.2%, and Trinidad 4.9% - simply unbelievable mismanagement and wastage of precious pension funds!
lkalikl 9 years, 9 months ago on AUDIO: PM SAYS OF JOURNALISTS: 'TO HELL WITH THEM'
AUDIO: PM SAYS OF JOURNALISTS: 'TO HELL WITH THEM'
birdiestrachan, you and your PLP stooges are the only ones who lack credibility, as does our PM, DPM and many of his dishonourable ministers. The media is only biased in the sense that they are biased against corruption, incompetence, arrogance and stupidity, all of which the PLP display in abundant supply. The media are biased in that they stand up for transparency and accountability against a government that doesn't care for either. That is our reality. Our PM should resign and there should be a vote of no confidence in the government and a new election. These clowns are destroying our country's reputation, both at home and abroad.
There is nothing patriotic about supporting corruption, incompetence, arrogance and stupidity. Nothing at all. The PM is only deserving of support if he makes wise decisions, shows integrity, follows and enforces the rule of law and shows himself to be worthy of the office he holds. The PM has done none of these things, so real patriotism at this point is being for his resignation and the resignation of his corrupt party.
DonAnthony 9 years, 8 months ago on Shock over AG advice - Legal opinion over PAC 'unprecedented'
Shock over AG advice - Legal opinion over PAC 'unprecedented'
So the attorney general sits on the rubis environmental report for a year while innocent bahamians are exposed to carcinogens, still has not brought charges against the bec bribe taker although the case has been practically completed by the U.S. , still has not brought charges against minister gray, but finds the time to issue an unsolicited opinion on the auditor's urban renewal report. Seems she has has priorities straight, she is a natural disgrace and needs to go too. Is there no one in this govt with integrity? We need a commission of inquiry to incarcerate this entire cabinet.
TalRussell 9 years, 7 months ago on Freedom of Information delays ‘inexcusable’
Freedom of Information delays ‘inexcusable’
What is more currently "inexcusable" is despite Comrade Paul Major promising a full audit on Carnival "Freeport's" 2015 weekend would be made public - within (7) days of weekend before last's Freeport event - no damn audit has been released - yet the media, including The Tribune, says not a damn word about his missed deadline? Why not? Only thing saving this PLP cabinet, is with every new scandal, it does cover up old ones.
banker 9 years, 6 months ago on POLITICOLE: The Bahamas was never for Bahamians
POLITICOLE: The Bahamas was never for Bahamians
The Ghanaian economist, George Ayittey, in a TED Talk, said "There have been over 500 Black leaders of nations. Name ten famous, good ones." Nobody can. Nelson Mandela comes to mind first & foremost. And yet one can easily name many bad ones: Idi Amin, Mobutu, Mugabe, Al Bashir, Charles Taylor, etc. He frequently addresses why more often than not, Black people have trouble ruling themselves post-colonially.
It is because of tribalism & cronyism that post-colonial countries lose control of the civil service, security forces, judiciary, election centers & national bank to these despotic criminal leaders. That is exactly what happening in the Pindling era & that is what we see today with the PLP Attorney General squashing oversight into public funds; extra-judicial killings by police officers; he raping of the treasury with BAMSI & Urban Renewal.
There is just one exception to post-colonial failure in a Black country & that is Botswana. It succeeded primarily because of state legitimacy & a strong democratic tradition. Publicly elected leaders acted patriotically, protected the state and her possessions on behalf of the people and worked for the common good instead of self-interest. Other reasons given are a spectrum of good governance, inter-ethnic harmony & unity, respect for democracy, & strong commercial traditions.
Essentially we were screwed from the beginning with Pindling. He demonstrated his lack of respect for democracy by throwing the Parliamentary Mace out of the window & once in power, ran a racketeering ring to enrich himself & his cronies. These are the foundations of our country.
As for commercial traditions, we did have a convertible currency & a currency board (before the Central Bank) where one could use Bahamian dollars outside the country at a given exchange rate. Because the PLP government got hooked on running the country on debt, the currency board was abolished the Bahamian dollar was pegged, and non-convertible, ruining the global aspirations of Bahamian business. You can't participate in trade if your money is no good anywhere but at home.
So essentially we are truly incapable of governing ourselves. When Prime Minister Ingraham put forward a referendum for the constitutional equality of women, and put forward plans for eCommerce as the Third Pillar of the Economy, the criminal PLP campaigned vigorously against him, and even having odious scum like Valentine Grimes delivering fake ballots to polling stations. There are still pictures on the internet of lineups on Grand Bahama of Obie Wilchcombe buying votes publicly and the police guarding the moneybox.
As a result, the country is a mean old junkyard of rapacious, crowded rats in a cage, lying to each other and eking out a living the best they can. Human dignity is lost. The truth is rotting with the dead potcakes in the bushes, and the noble Bahamian people have been stamped out, replaced by nasty hypocrites. There is no hope.
banker 9 years, 6 months ago on POLITICOLE: The Bahamas was never for Bahamians
POLITICOLE: The Bahamas was never for Bahamians
I would like to point out the dissonance between what Johnq is saying & what I am saying. My leitmotif was about governance. It wasn't about fighting for independence, or African or Pan African ideals. It was about stable governance in a post-colonial setting.
Johnq references Lumumba, Cabral, Sankara et al, who were freedom fighters for majority rule. None were in power as governing figures of a state for more than a year. They were assassinated by the CIA, colonial powers, internecine warfare & a whole host of agents, external & internal who ultimately were responsible for their violent demise. They were effective leaders, but there is no measure of their governance, because they were not long in state power. The point that Ayittey makes, is that once a peaceful statehood struggle is over, good governance of Black-led & Black-peopled post-colonial countries is abysmal in general.
As a Black Bahamian, I am too young to know what the heady days of independence were like or what the pre-conditions were like. I do know that my great uncle from Grants Town fondly remembers the UBP days when nobody was hungry, the country was safe &secure from all alarms, he was a regular at the Cat & Fiddle, and life was not the grind that it is for him today. The Bahamian cultural scene was alive with government-promoted stars like Ronnie Butler and King Eric Gibson, and he fondly recalls years satisfied well-being that he misses. His neighbourhood has fallen to shreds around him & the punks in his neighbourhood scare him.
I am not too naive to understand that there was no equality Blacks and White -but today in 2015 there is no equality for women in the constitution at present.
The bottom line is that we have not had good governance. Occam's Razor tells me that we are not a success as a democratic state. Our government is rife with corruption and our founding government was criminal.
If the endemic low nationalistic self-esteem from a Black population prevents us from rationally acknowledging that our own leaders led us down the garden path to a failed state then there is no hope for this beautiful archipelago. The first step to solving a problem, is admitting that there is one. PLP partisans who cannot handle the truth of our history are rife in these lands & that is a major impediment towards development & advancement.
We have not done a very good job of self governance, and until we admit that fact, raise our consciousness, enlightenment and development to the point where we say "We are not going to take it anymore", then the future is indeed dark for The Bahamas. And throwing out the mace was a disrespect to the democratic tradition that it represented. It represented the authority of House, and he himself gained that self-same authority represented by the mace through the democratic tradition that he violated.
Thanks again for your point of view. I hope that you can see a little bit of mine. “Forward Upward Onward Together”.
asiseeit 9 years, 6 months ago on Wilchcombe: I will make people happy
Wilchcombe: I will make people happy
It would make me happy to live in a country where ALL citizens had the same rules to live by. Where all citizens had the same opportunity to make something of themselves. Where corrupt officials where arrested and put in jail. Where public funds where used for the benefit of all, not just the party faithful. Where our public servants where held accountable. Where laws where enforced across the board no matter who you are. Some basic stuff but I know our leaders are far to immature and childlike to ever see how this could even benefit them and theirs!
banker 9 years, 5 months ago on Way of the Albatross
Way of the Albatross
Nice story Ortland, except that your ability to twist the facts is self evident here. May I educate you to the fact that the albatross is not extinct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatross
Your support of the PLP is just as flawed as your albatross extinction story. You would do a lot better to further your income possibilities by undertaking them yourself rather than rely on those old chestnuts of cronyism and corruption to secure your future.
Your motives are just as visible as the jewels of the emperor with no clothes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emper…
Economist 9 years, 5 months ago on Another delay for Carnival economic report
Another delay for Carnival economic report
If it is so glowing why wait??? emmm......public relations team busy at work to make a sows ear look like a silk purse.
Clamshell 10 years, 1 month ago on Florida politician calls for boycott of Bahamas
Florida politician calls for boycott of Bahamas
Relax ... This blowhard is a state representative. Nobody pays any attention to state reps. She's also under investigation for tax fraud and other allegations. Her own political party has disavowed her. She cannot get any laws passed affecting the Bahamas. She's lucky if she can pass gas.