With all of the problems that we have in this country right now, how important is a Freedom of Information Act to the average Joe Blow who got no job and little or no money and doesn't know where his next meal is coming from or how he is going to make his bank payments or pay rent? Clearly, this guy's bread is buttered on both sides so he doesn't have the same problems as the rest of us and what keeps him up at night is passage of a Freedom of Information Act.

Get real some of you! So which country is Biden the elected leader of? It sure ain't The Bahamas. American presidents always do what they believe is best for the USA. If there is some small or side benefit for other countries like The Bahamas, great, but we are not on the top of their minds when they are deciding policy for the USA. Trump didn't care if we lived or died and who knows if Biden cares? We have to look out for our own country and do whatever is in our own best interests to get or keep our economy going. No one else is going to do it for us. Other countries might help here or there where they can, but that depends on how well their own economy is doing.

Well one way to look at this is that if Minnis thought D'Aguilar had crossed same line as Duane Sands then D'Aguilar would have been gone too, whether by resigination or by being fired. Presumably, Minnis decided that D'Aguilar had not crossed the line or Sands fell on his sword so as not to take down D'Aguilar, Ellsworth Johnson and others.

Obviously the comment about no visitors applies during this time of COVID 19. They are thinking that if they are not careful then history might repeat itself. Remember it was the colonisers from Europe that came to these parts over 500 years ago, bringing measles and other diseases that virtually wiped out the native Lucayans, Caribs and others whom they met here. So, when COVID 19 is no more or a cure or vaccine has been found that controls the virus and Cat Islanders and others at not in danger of dying from diseases brought there by outsiders, then the visitors will be welcomed with open arms. Their stance is no different than the one taken by Donald Trump and now emulated by every government elsewhere: We don't want you coming here with possible coronavirus and infecting our locals/nationals.

So these parasitic, blood sucking gaming or webshop people want believe they should be exempt from the lockdown order and allowed to continue on sucking money out of people? That they are being singled out and victimised? Tell these vampires to shut up and sit small. They lucky they even got licenses to run the business that they got because they never should have gotten licenses in the first place. Imagine, giving licenses to run gaming businesses to a bunch of people who was breaking the law for a bunch of years before getting their licenses and making money hand over fist before and after. I don't see what they do for the economy except maybe pay some low-level taxes on their ill-gotten gains. In this time of covid 19, nib and government would be stupid to be giving our tax dollars to people who out of jobs because of the virus for them to go up or down the road from NIB and gamble it away at a webshop. Besides, these guys were never really closed. Yes, the bricks and mortar buildings might have been closed to walk-in customers but their online gaming business hasn't stopped running because of the virus. If you want to gamble with them, then all their customers who have online accounts continued gaming online. Sebas and them should count themselves as lucky. Every one of the gaming licenses should have either been sold at auction to the highest bidders or anyone who wanted to and has the financial and other capacity to run a webshop should have been allowed to apply for a license. Also, the government was shortsighted. They should be licensing shopkeepers and others to sell scratch-off cards or sell numbers for the webshops and make a commission like how the phone companies allow people to top-up anywhere. The country is not making the kind of tax money out of this so-called industry that it could.

No Birdie, please quote accurately. The government spokesperson said: “The prime minister no longer owns shares in Bahamas Ferries effective December 2019." So Minnis has not owned any Fast Ferries shares for 5 months or so, not since the COVID 19 Order as you want us to believe. You have a right to disagree with him and anyone else but at least please try to be honest when doing so. The real issue here is who did he sell the shares to, not when.

There is, under the Legal Profession Act, the concept of "a person appointed to a legal public office" who is a non-Bahamian appointed under Article 117 of the Bahamas Constitution by the Governor-General acting on the advice of Judicial and Legal Services to any public office where the officer is required to possess legal qualifications. It seems to me that both the Ugandan and the Nigerian gentlemen satisfy the charateristics of "a person appointed to a legal public office" as the positions of deputy director of public prosecutions and assistant director of public prosecutions both fall within and are appointed under Article 117 of the Constitution. Accordingly, neither the Ugandan or the Nigerian need to be "called" or admitted to the Bahamas Bar in order to discharge their respective duties as assistant director of public prosecutions and deputy director of public prosecutions. They have been brought here for a particular purpose, to assist with or carry out criminal prosecutions and they should now proceed to carry prosecute accordingly. This matter raises the question of whether a Bahamian attorney going to Uganda or Nigeria has a right to be called or admitted to practice law there without restriction? The argument put forward by the Bar Council is inherently weak as the Schedules to the Legal Profession Act could be amended by the Governor-General to allow these persons and others like them who have not gone through the UK or UWI legal education systems to be admitted to practice law in the Bahamas. The Bar Council should have refused these lawyers on the basis that under the Legal Profession Act and Article 117 of the Constitution, they do not need to be admitted to practice law in the Bahamas in order to discharge the duties for which they were hired.

Their constitution should say how one becomes a member and whether the members are clubs or island associations. The administration should be able to produce evidence of the applications for membership and board minutes when the applications were approved. Ten years worth of audited accounts? Sounds like AIBA is holding these guys feet to the fire.

I first heard about solar energy and renewables at the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee. Been waiting since then for the Bahamas to get on the train. Unfortunately, everything here needs the Government to take the lead which they haven't really done even up to now. We are promoting 30% of renewables by 2033 but Hawaii is promoting 100% use by the same date. I don't buy Holdom's argument that we won't make our target. 30% is not that big of a target. The real issue that is being missed is that BEC/BPL will be losing customers and thereby revenue if renewables take hold. Thus there's no incentive in it for them. The National Energy Policy (NEP) being touted by Hold on is defective in that it does not set any yearly or regular goals for renewable energy. So yes it is hit or miss because Government as usual has put the framework in place but not the specific timelines. So you have this 30% goal that does not have any interim stage accomplishments built into it. So there's a long-term goal but no short-term or medium-term measurements. And don't expect much from URCA. Those guys have not created the framework through regulatory documents as to how the provisions in the Electricity Act are supposed to work. They have not created anything regarding the timing and requirements of the approvals processes, etc. The process is supposed to be certain and known but so much is uncertain and unknown that no one knows whether they agree things with BPL and the go to URCA for approvals or vice versa, agree in principle, get URCA approvals and then finalise the agreements. If an SSRG process is taking 6 months to approve, then the question should be why and what is anyone doing about it?

We've had this airline for 40-plus years now but still haven't figured out how to run it like airline. Issues that were a problem back then are still a problem now. Clearly they don't have a contingency plan, a risk management plan, a Business plan, a backup plan. They need sufficient float in their schedule that should something go wrong with one aircraft they are not caught with their pants down and are able to shift an airplane to stay on schedule or bring a spare into use. Come on BahamasAir. The Bahamian public that is subsidising your existence deserves better than they are getting.