In the words of Leslie Miller "they can carry their ass"

Who proof read this article ? Please correct errors.

If you google "failed and incomplete Chinese projects" you will see that Bah Mar is only a small fry among the many failed or stalled projects in China and around the world in which the chinese was involved in: A replica of the city of London, a city copying the city of New York, a theme park that copies Disney World, An airport costing over $60 million that nowhas less than 5 flights a day because people refuse to use it, a city designed and built for a million residents but after years in existence has less than 20,000 residents, because persons did not move in as expected, many of the largest malls in China are unoccupied and fallin into decay, and the list goes on and on. And there are projects in Africa, South America, Austrailia..virtually all around the world, where the Chinese were involved with financing and/or labor and as many of the projects came to near completion, they came to a standstill. And the Chinese did little or nothing to revive these projects. In fact those that got restarted and got completed got done because the governments in the countries in which the projects were located put pressure on the Chinese, or found additional financing or got other contractors to complete the projects. The Bahamas government need to take a page out of these countries book and get tough on the Chinese before they make the Bahamas a failed state

There are many unfinished projects in Africa as well.

The unfinished project syndrome is used in two ways by the Chinese:

(1) In China itself, they built huge unused cities, malls, theaters, infrastructure to keep the internal economy heated up. People were employed in every aspect from raw materials to manufacturing to construction to feed these projects. They needed to keep the hot fires of their economy burning and the fuel was creating unnecessary infrastructure. The Chinese still expect to grow their GDP by an unheard of 6% in these times, and to do it, they have to do all sorts of wacky things like building empty cities.

(2) In foreign countries, it is a huge advantage to hold the ownership of mega projects as an economic and political lever. For example, suppose that they promised to build an airport in Lusaka. They start building it. The Angolan government gets biggity and doesn't vote with them in the UN or other political moves, so they stop the project. The country needs the airport. Now the unfinished project is a carrot and stick. Do as we say or we won't finish the project. The host government doesn't have the money or the will to do it, so they live with the Chinese intransigence.

And as for the figures mentioned above, when you take into account the remediation work necessary, and factor in all of the economic hits associated with the time factors in remediation, the damage to the economy is more in the neighbourhood of $3.026 billion dollars and it grows every day that the project is idle.

You are spot on Banker. As regards your second point, in my view this is nothing short of economic warfare on the part of the Chinese. They aim to control the world without having to roll in any tanks. Baiting the Bahamian politicians was so easy for them - it wasn't even sport. Now they have us "hook, line and sinker". Christie and his cohorts are totally ensnared on the Chinese hook and there is NOTHING they can do about it. I really hope I am wrong but it wouldn't completely surprise me if Baha Mar never opens.

In the main time notice how all the major banks in the country are silently and smoothly moving the country towards a cashless society. These banks are converting their clients bank cards to debit cards for most customers and are offering credit cards to customers with higher net worth. One major bank is offering Merchant Debit Cards to its business customers, 'so they no longer have to balance a check book or worry if they have enough money on their account to cover a check,' since their balance will always readily be available to them. And don't miss the decline on interest rates to almost negative rates. One major bank is paying $9.00, yes NINE DOLLARS per quarter on a $100,000.00 (One Hundred Thousand Dollars fixed deposit. Imagine that and imagine what happens when or if the banks start charging interest to keep large deposits.

what is wrong with the debit cards? they are cheaper than cheques or atm withdrawal fees.

you also do not have to drive around to pay bills.

the debit cards also enable you to purchase online. some may say that takes away local jobs, but, for some like me, odd clothing size, medical supplies cannot be bought locally.

I worked on this project as a senior director, I HAVE an inside track on the truth and facts with nothing to gain. Mr. D'Aguilar needs to take his own cometary and apply it to himself. At this point I have to question what his pawn status is serving.

I agree with much that is said, but PLEASE understand that there are three versions to every story. Person A, Person B and the truth. I appreciate the Nationalism that all Bahamians and national pride exude, but these post seem to being more and more directed against the Gov't and the Chinese. No matter where you stand is irrelevant because everybody will have opinions.

With out rewriting "War and. Peace" I will say this as fact. Sarkis has one if the biggest egos I've ever seen, decisions were made days, weeks and months before the multiple Grand Openings" that regardless of fault (i.e. the Chinese and the crew hired to project manage which weren't Chinese) and Sarkis and his minions of BML underth like Tom Dunkop and Sandy Sands who we haven't heard from) had the egos and false corporate/fiduciary obligations to tell the people, clients,govt that there was no way they would open REGARDLESS of what the Chinese told them. That is behind the scenes, and keep it to contract negotiations but if they didn't know a week out that they wouldn't open then, who is the less truthful entity. Shame on Baha Mar that they had no reaposabity in the disaster.

Lastly , question the ego, resolve and motive of Mr. D'Aguiler, part of his art collection was to be displayed at the convention hall ( giving him international notoriety) and an actual meeting room/ballroom section was to be named after him!

Pray tell who borrowed the money from the Chinese ? They can not be good when you borrow their money and they are the devil of hell when they want their money back . Now when will sarkis admit he made the biggest mistake. I am sure he meant well. But he made the first mistake and it can not be white washed.