The head of the police force needs a radical dose of reality. He considers murder cases as "solved" whenever they charge someone for the offence. However, what happens when the defendant is discharged because his so-called "confession" was beaten out of him or otherwise obtained by force or failure to produce any, or any credible, evidence? In most other countries that I know of, if the accused person is acquitted, discharged or the charge discontinued or withdrawn,that case goes is then considered as unresolved and still open. Only cases where there is a conviction of the person charged is considered "solved". After all, as the gatherers and testifiers of the evidence against each accused person, the job of the police is not concluded simply after investigating and charging but goes all the way to the end by getting a conviction. No conviction, no closed case, no "solved" matter because if it transpires that it is not the person charged, then someone, somewhere, is responsible for a murder.

So if Government made a presentation to 100 American companies who came up with 100 questions, doesn't seem like they are factoring too much Bahamian participation into this thing? A project of this scale should have a minimum 50% Bahamian participation and 50^ Bahamian ownership otherwise a major component of our energy supply is predominantly in foreign hands lie Freeport.

The Government ought to be ashamed of itself. This only brings home that there is nothing simple or straightforward about doing business in this country. The website for businesses o essentially file their tax returns and pay any VAT due to the government isn't working and try as they might, they seem unable or uninterested in fixing it but are meanwhile still demanding the filing of tax returns and the payment of VAT tax by or before 31st January knowing they have not and cannot provide the means for taxpayers to do that. These people need their heads examined. Typical uncaring attitude although this website is essentially the sole means to interact with the Government on anything to do with taxes. This should have been fixed from day one but it still lingers on with no resolution in sight.

And if they don't repay, what will be the penalty? If you give me money for something and I don't use if for the specified purpose and I don't repay it, anywhere else in the world I get prosecuted and most likely go to jail.

@ SP
Who knows? You could be wrong as well as you could be right. No annual statistics are ever provided of the numbers of foreigners here working on work permits and in what capacities, so no one ever knows the true picture. My observation is that there seems to be a lot of them a in the lower paying jobs such as construction and other areas of manual labour but who really knows?

Who cares how many FM radio stations they have in New York City or Jamaica or anywhere else? Do Jones, and Saunders and the Tribune want us to believe that no one else but them deserves to have a radio licence? The Tribune is no paragon of virtue when it comes to operating radio stations. Several of the stations that they "manage" don't even have human DJs; it's all run by computer so they don't have to pay overtime, vacation pay, NIB, etc. They had a dream to own an FM radio station and were able to accomplish that dream. So no one else can have that dream if they have the money to spend on the equipment and personnel? The arrogance of these people. What are they saying, that they can't survive in a competitive environment? Competition was the purpose behind the new electronic communications framework. Deal with it!

Like any of you all know what you are going to do with the information, even if it was available!

With all the problems that exist in this country right now, freedom of information is one of the very least important matters that needs to be addressed, and if we had a list of top 100 things that need to be done, this is not in it. We still got people with nowhere to stay, no job and nothing to eat.

We really in trouble but the cruise ships is only part of our problem.

With no cruise ships in town and none having been here for over a year, how do some of you arrive at the conclusion that they are responsible for the recent bout of conch poisoning that was going round? Truly, Jackass does as Jackass is.

The real concern here is whether the cruise ships have been discharging their washwater at their private island sites and polluting our waters in those locations? Further, based on the ICCT's projections, what steps, what protections does our government have in place at all these cruise-company owned private island resorts to ensure that they are discharging their washwater into our seas? We never heard what became of the one time that Carnival was caught discharging garbage into our waters some years ago. Where we fall down the most in this country is in enforcement. Just drive around on our streets and look at the number of speeders on minor and major roads, the drivers running through red traffic lights, the people pitching garbage out of their vehicles onto the side of the road, the policemen who book me for driving dangerously but have their own personal cars and the force vehicles tinted up so dark even spotlight can't see who is inside their vehicle, the illegal dumping anywhere there is an open space, the jitneys driving on the sidewalk, driving dangerously and at high speed with other people's children inside the bus, and stopping anywhere they like for $1.25. A pitiable shambles of a country. We can cuss Maura and D'Aguilar all we want but who is enforcing the laws to stop the pollution and other infringements?

I grew up under the concept "spare the rod, spoil the child". My parents meted out corporal punishment and so did my schools and I don't see where it has adversely affected me. The difference might be, as father always said, you don't beat a child while angry. When he punished us, he would tell us we were getting 3 whacks or 6 whacks with his belt and that was the end of it. Same thing at school, although it might be as high as 10 strokes of the cane, but it was either across the wrist or across the buttocks and it was because you had done something that warranted punishment. I asked my adult daughter the other day if she recalls me ever beating her while she was a child. She said no, although she did remember her mother beating her a few times. However, what we saw on TV the other night was was just wanton abuse, most of which seemed to be carried out in a fit of anger. I have never seen an incident of what I will call a group beating where other adults are holding children down so as to prevent them from squirming away from being beaten by another adult.

The only star that I give to the unions on this one is that when Sinclair says that "this is the most generous early retirement package not just in The Bahamas but the Caribbean", that scares me because few if any of the other countries where Cable & Wireless/Liberty do business in the Caribbean have currencies on par with the Bahamian dollar, so the package is unlikely to be as attractive, dollars and cents-wise, as Sinclair wants us to believe. However, to echo my deceased father in another context, how can you tell a man (or woman) not to want o be free. If you know how to manage money and have marketable skills, it may make sense to take the package. Otherwise, stay in place until you qualify for the pension, because it's difficult to live off the $1000+ per month from National Insurance without other income.