EDITOR, The Tribune.

This is a letter to the editor of both The Guardian and The Tribune, our major Bahamian newspapers. Recently, we have heard the widespread accusations of Fake News against the major global news organisations, such as Fox News. Fox just lost a major court case, ordered to pay over $787,000,000 in damages for their sins.

With that said, I find it equally difficult to swallow the “news” presented in our own Bahamian newspapers. After all these years, it seems clear that much of what the interviewed experts and politicians say, are falsehoods. They continue to say things are good and getting better.

Who cannot see the undeniable and utter failures our country is facing? Do we not acknowledge the collapse of our government utilities, such as BTC, BPL and Water & Sewerage? And, what of the dismal performance of all other Bahamian enterprises, such as NIB, Road Traffic, BOB, Immigration - and on and on? They are bankrupt and seem beyond redemption.

The Bahamian people are suffering. Our politicians have failed us. Utterly failed us. Yes, of course “we the people” have failed to insure that we elect honest, selfless, intelligent, public servants to represent us. How long do we admit we were lied to, yet continue to vote these people right back into office?

Are The Tribune and The Guardian really holding our politicians’ feet to the fire? If what these politicians and experts have been telling us all these years were true, how do we mesh what they have said with the realities we are faced with today? Year after year? Decade after decade?

The Bahamian people are suffering. Our country is failing. Who can stand up and say otherwise? The cost of living is surely rising, big time. Our government services, which we pay dearly for, are horrible. Poverty is increasing. Crime is rising. We are in dangerous debt. Government agencies seem less and less responsive to our needs. There is not a person I speak with that is not disgusted by the way we are treated by ALL government offices.

Yet, I suspect there might be some who are able, and willing, to slip a few dollars discretely into a hand to make sure they are “taken care of”. What about the rest of us? The ones paying the salaries of these people.

The Pay to Play situation we find ourselves in only further divides the haves and have nots.

We seem unable to rise to the occasion of providing even the basic human necessities to our population.

From our Prime Minister, right on down the sad political chain, where are our “leaders”? If I didn’t know better, I would think that these people went into politics to see what they could get for themselves.

Some of our politicians seem unable to tell the truth. They appear to lack the morals, and the backbone to do so. Every time I read a news article interviewing a politician or an “expert” I have to remind myself that the vast majority of what they say has no bearing on reality. Is this not the definition of Fake News?

I suspect that our politicians and “experts” in this country have an exit plan. Either enough money to flee, or property and bank accounts abroad. They may not see well enough to fix our Bahamian problems, but their sight seems well enough to see what is coming.

We are sending our own boys and girls down to the war zone in Haiti. What will be their demeanor when, if, they return home? Many studies have been done on the psychological impacts to these “peacekeepers”.

Anyone who thinks The Bahamas is not approaching a “failed state” status is living in a dream world and is consuming too much fake news.

There is a saying, “When the people have nothing, they have nothing to lose.”

Our police, our own brothers and sisters, will soon be required to turn against us. If they want to keep their jobs. They will be jailing protesters and other fed up Bahamians deemed “problems” to “keep the peace”. At some point every thinking Bahamian must admit, enough is enough. Who does not see this coming?

PORCUPINE

Nassau,

October 5, 2023.