LBT is dead wrong here and should be castigated for very deliberately misleading both the press and the public. The Bahamas Govt undertook to pay Baha Mar 50% of the road work costs in question up to a contractually agreed maximum amount. The maximum amount was greatly exceeded by Baha Mar's contractors and their sub-contractors and now Baha Mar is wrongfully seeking to recover from the Bahamian people up to 50% or more of the cost overrun. Her effort to seek political mileage in this dispute between the government and Baha Mar is really below the belt. In fact, many of us are surprised to see LBT has the ability to stoop so low that she is able to touch her toes!

Not sure you are correct on the contract terms as described by you, but the main thrust of your position is certainly correct, i.e. Baha Mar are seeking to recover costs from the Bahamian people that they are not entitled to recover. LBT of course knows this to be the case and should not be playing cheap politics when so much is at stake.

What do we really think that Perry Christie can do to to advance Bahamar????????

The fate of Baha Mar is in the hands of China. Period. And they are playing hard ball, since they now hold all of the cards. If Baha Mar does fail (shut down), it will have less to do with money and more to do with the fact that Izmirlian broke the #1 rule of doing business with China. By blaming them on March 24 for the suddenly announced cancellation of the March 27 opening, he violated the cardinal rule of "Never let a public controversy cause China to lose face." Add to that the fact that China has contributed $2.5 billion of the $3.5 billion budget and that Baha Mar has stopped paying its bills and it isn't hard to figure out that Izmirlian is between a rock and a hard place. Whether the issues can be resolved while he is there now remains to be seen.

You are so right about the Chinese culture losing face. It is the first rule in dealing with the Chinese.

I upvoted you, but I don't agree completely. This Chinese construction firm is just very difficult to deal with and highly incompetent by the looks of things. I would never want to do business with them. Try calling a number on their website -- no response. Try emailing an address on their website -- out of order all of them. They are just not a company you want to be dealing with period. Even if Izzie hadn't shamed them publicly, they would have still, likely, mucked up the project. They should have never done business with them in the first place.

Having seen recent photographs of the state of this hotel just prior to the soft opening I am amazed that any reasonably competent individual could have EVER have slated this place to open in time. Typical PLP inefficiency with the public being lied to again and again.

The fate of economic growth and jobs of The Bahamas are in hands of China. Emmm.....how did we get here? Who agreed to what and why, what was the rational?

We should have a Commission of Inquiry to get to the bottom of this. Both the PLP and the FNM had a part to play so this has to be a straight investigation so as to see where we went wrong and how we can prevent this from happening again.

The Bahamas, Bahamians can't afford this to happen again. Whether one likes Baha Mar or not, we have so much riding on this. We need it to succeed.

This omission of Inquiry should not be a finger pointing contest but an examination of what went wrong and what went right.

Whose bright idea it was to 1. recognize Communist China....... 2. invite China to Freeport ........ 3. invite Izzie to team up with China?????????

ANS. Hubert Alexander Ingraham!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is disingenuous to say that HAI had anything to do with the Izmirlians hooking up with the Chinese. The original Heads of Agreement was with Harrahs, and Harrahs were unable to come up with the financing. They backed out. As a result, it looked like Baha Mar was dead.

There was no love between the Izmirlians and HAI. As a matter of fact, Baha Mar wanted relief from the outstanding casino tax -- some ten+ millions of dollars unpaid by the Izmirlians, and HAI stood his ground.

The Chinese had been sniffing around the Caribbean for a long time, looking to offset America's influence and that is why they stepped in. At the time the Heads of Agreement included Scotiabank as equity partners as they held a mortgage on the Baha Mar.

But it is simplistic, stupid and not correct to cast aspersions on the Chinese and blame the Baha Mar mess on the Chinese.

Incidentally, many pundits including myself and some economics were predicting a Baha Mar failure when the idea was first floated. It is just plain not economically feasible when they do not have the experience differentiators like Atlantis does with the dolphins, the water park, the aquarium, Marina Village etc. Baha Mar is still peddling a tired tourism product on a dated part of town without the cachet of Paradise Island.

Same practices, different political party. Doesn't matter which party it is, both same to be stuck in a pattern of poor decision-making, poor negotiation skills, poor execution and resolutions.

Was Atlantis poor decision-making??? I don't think so!

Comrades why is this PLP Cabinet's "losing face" with the Chinese so bad when they started losing they faces with Bahamalanders almost from the get-go of being elected back in 2012. There is consequence to pay for everything you do, be it with the Chinese government or ya own peoples.

Once the Chinese saw the government screwing over Bahamar for the road money they figure they can screw them over also,