I am not saying that the door was not locked, just that there was likely a logical reason for doing so such as the airport being at full capacity. No doubt the RBDF was there to ensure order, and not to wrongfully imprison irate tourists.

From what I have read, this was supposed to be held on Norman's Cay. Even if Norman's Cay is inhabited, the infrastructure would not be enough to support thousands of concertgoers. How could the organizers promise cabanas and luxury accommodations when they weren't even aware that the infrastructure was lacking? Since they provided renderings of the would be cabanas, they had some idea of what was involved from the start. The truth is they focused too much on marketing and waited until the last minute to get things done. It sounds like they were also relying on ticket revenue to get these things done. According to one attendee, and unfortunately for them, most of the tickets sold were for the $3k base package and not the other horrendously priced options.

Locked in the airport, or maybe the airport was filled to capacity and no one else could be let in for safety reasons perhaps? What would be the point of locking them in the airport?

Apparently the festival attendees made it to Exuma just fine. If the island (Norman's Cay?) was prepared as the investors envisioned, both events could have been pulled off successfully. From the perspective of not verifying information, the MOT was definitely wrong. No matter how much percentage of the blame can be assigned elsewhere, the investors were repeatedly warned that they were being too ambitious and still they moved forward. Ultimately, the blame falls on them.

I have seen this story across multiple international news sources, which is not at all surprising for a failure of this magnitude and in the era of social media. Nowhere is the Bahamas being blamed for this debacle. While we can all agree that the MOT proved inept in just trusting that everything was in place as advised by the organizers, it was still a private event that was grossly mishandled by the investors themselves. The MOT could have confirmed with other gov agencies that the information provided to them was correct and they could even have made a site visit. The article below actually corresponds with the MOT's claim that they were contacted just recently, since that is exactly what they did to the author of the article. Apparently they fired anyone who told them that it was not plausible to hold the event given the time frame. They outright rejected someone's proposal that they postpone it to next year, with one guy saying "let's be legends man."

http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/fyre-fe…

Given the history that Mr. Smith shared in this article, where he experienced racism in the Bahamas, abroad, and seemingly from all angles because of his multicultural appearance and experience, it is unfortunate that he operates in the way that he does. One would think that only Bahamians are capable of discrimination since he is always quick to be the foreign advocate against anything Bahamian, quick to paint all Bahamians with the same brush, and now he inserts racism. He has been successful in fanning the divide between Bahamians and those of Haitian descent and any foreigner with a gripe against the Bahamas. So why not exacerbate the divide between white and black Bahamians? I am shocked that he even apologized because this is his MO.

Cry me a river. Many white Bahamians and some white people, generally speaking, are also still racist toward black people. Or did white people shed it all magically with majority rule? In the Bahamas, far too many black people put white people on an automatic pedestal without question. That is actually the prevailing attitude and it stems from an entrenched feeling of inferiority. This so called hate of white people is certainly not the norm, so go queue your violins elsewhere.

Polite politics has not worked either, so why gloat and condemn this movement so quickly? I believe a march is still planned for January 9th, or have you heard otherwise? It is true that the movement was being made about Mr. Henfield, so it might actually be a genuine attempt to put the focus where it needs to be.

I once thought Minnis would be a focused and actions oriented leader because he was not like the rowdy and big personality types that we usually see in Bahamian politics. Clearly, I read way too much into what appeared to be his calm demeanor. He is a typical Bahamian politician, pretending to be contrite about past failures only when they can no longer be ignored, and making bold, empty proclamations.

Many in the track and field world concur that diving slows a runner's pace, and here you are talking about perfecting a running dive to the finish line. If the rule is torso first, then those are the rules as determined by the governing bodies of track and field. So yeah, it is what it is and not what fair weather fans believe it should be. Until I see diving finishes on the upswing, I will call this trend unlikely.

@Reality_Check I was over 2008 in 2008, but it is a natural comparison to make. The rules were clarified then, a victor was declared, and those same rules have been maintained. Nothing is stopping runners from doing that now, so it is illogical to say that this one race will start a trend. A trend of slowing down to "perfect" one's dive to the finish line? If a person has those many seconds and that much energy to spare, they are better off just running the whole race. As long as the same rules are maintained, it is what it is.