My late father told me many times about taking care of my needs in preference to taking care of my wants. While I would like for the Bahamas to continue to host the IAAF Relays every year or two forever and ever, it is a want and not a must-have. As a small country, some of us have the shoe on the wrong foot if they believe it's okay for the government to shell out $5 million or more a time in order to play host to this event every time it pops up on the IAAF's calendar. Even with free admission to the morning sessions, Bahamians are not supporting the Relays in any great numbers as attested by the scores of empty seats during the morning and evening sessions. It's painful to see all these empty seats on TV but facts are facts. Also the lack of any accounting or income and expense reports for any of the 3 Relays that we did host so far does not augur well for the future. The public has a right to know how its money was spent on the 3 previous Relays, the specifics of the arrangements with the IAAF and what we got in return for our money. The government dumped the local Junkanoo Carnival or Carnival this year because it was carrying all of the cost and the private sector stepped in, took on the cost and no one missed a step. The event went on without government money. So why can't the BAAA do the same thing and find their own $5 million sponsors if they believe that Bahamians have to have the Relays in their own back yard every time it is held? Even the Olympics didn't stay in Greece all their life but now get hosted by other countries.

Medical marijuana, Yes. Theoretically, it is already permissible in the Dangerous Drugs Act although as with almost everything else in this country we don't know how or if it is actually being utilised. Perhaps the Minister of Health would tell us as it falls under his jurisdiction. He could also tell us whether his government intends to permit medical marijuana as all he probably has to do is create the requisite regulations, processes and procedures for this to happen. Doesn't have to be a long or drawn out process.

We should also decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, say possession of 10 grams or less but not any other drug.

Recreational use of marijuana, sorry No. There's a reason marijuana and some other drugs are called "dope" and that's because that's what the user becomes while under the influence of these drugs. In the wrong hands or abused and overindulged and marijuana becomes addictive. Users/abusers lose their drive or passion to work, to bathe, to socialise and can't be left in charge of vehicles, machinery or anything else.

LOL. The Perry Christie model of anchor projects is still alive and well. Any word on what's happening with the I-Group in Mayaguana?

Since 1966, our currency has enjoyed parity or near parity with the US dollar unlike our friends and neighbours in the Caribbean except for Cayman Islands, Turks & Caicos Islands, US and British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Jamaica is around $80 to $1; Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean at $2 to $1; and Trinidad & Tobago at $6 to $1. We don't ever want the Bahamas to follow Alice down any of those rabbit holes. The amazing part is that we owe single digit Billions of dollars unlike say the USA which owes Trillion of dollars if not Gazillions. Perry and those were borrowing to pay civil service salaries, loans, interest payments and that sort of thing and not using the VAT money to pay down debt which was the original stated purpose while borrowing more money. So we have Billions outstanding on pensions for civil servants without knowing how it is going to be paid but increasing each year. Got to make provision to pay the piper for years of questionable governmental financial strategy. I would put my house or land papers up as security for a bank loan to take a vacation. But that is effectively what successive governments have done for the past 40 plus years.

Yeah KP Turnquest, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Tax Flowers and Sebas up to 50% of their revenues and make 76% of the gambling public unhappy or cave in to them and let them go underground and risk driving the final nails in the coffin of what's left of our financial services sector? Tough choice ain't it?

People like Winder and Galanis need to stop.
Does Winder realise how dumb he sounds? Tax a guy who is making $100 Million dollars into losses? Impossible. Take 50% away and he still making $50 Million dollars. That ain't chump change. Wish I had $50 Million dollars to spend in a year after taxes. Even at 50% taxation, his net revenues will still be double digit Millions of dollars. He sure ain't going broke and he ain't living pay cheque to pay cheque like the majority of us. He'll still be able to live in whatever gated community he now lived in and with no more duties on salmon and helicopter parts he can eat well while flying high above Nassau's congested roads and highways. Heck even the guy making $20 Million dollars ain't going to go broke at these new rates.

Rev up the copter James then home for salmon and cocktails!

As the Bahamas pursues WTO ascension, we can expect and look forward to increased VAT rates and other forms of direct and indirect taxation to eventually replace customs duties as principal means of raising government revenue. It's either do something now or do it in 5 years but it has to be done. We've had a nice long run with the Pindling model of socialist style government where the government foots the bill for a wide range of services and the citizens pay little or nothing for it while doing their best to evade paying any form of taxes superimposed on the Stafford Sands economic model of a shrinking offshore financial services sector and a tourism sector that gives millions away for cruise ship passengers most of whom never get off the boat in Nassau because there's so little to do. So all these doomsayers who prattle on that the Bahamas will fail at 12% VAT and up to 50% webshop taxes need to point us to one country in the world that increased to double digit VAT and its economy had failed. What ourvgovernment needs to improve is value for money. I pay almost $5 pet gallon of gas but the roads are full of potholes, dips and uneven surfaces. I call a government agency at all of the phone numbers listed in the phonebook but all they do is ring without being answered. I go to a government office and during my 4 hour wait try to use their guest Wi-Fi portal only to be told that it's for employees and if they give out the password then the public will overload the Wi-Fi. You sit on the stop light waiting for the light to turn green and after it turns green 2 cars and a jitney pass through the intersection across your path. You get involved in a traffic accident and after calling them then wait an hour or more for the police to arrive. Time for a change (BTW that was the FNM's very first slogan).

This and other sports development programmes is where this country should be investing a percentage of the tax money from the webshops. Congratulations Tennis but you can't afford to rest on your laurels. You have had a moment of success with these 3 guys now you need to develop another 33 and then another 333 and so on. At the same time you have to take the steps to get the women's side of the sport up to the same and higher levels. Good luck and do well.

Both PLP and FNM want to offer free medical care. The former didn't and don't care how it is paid for so long as people get it at some level. The latter want people to have it at some level but either want to tax us to cover the cost or want us to pay for the cost. The former want to give us a free lunch and they will worry later about what it costs. The latter want to wean us off the freebies as they realise that there is no such thing as a really free lunch as everything comes at a cost to someone.

On the civil service bit, the government has to decide what is the service's role and purpose in the administration of government services. Under the PLP the evolved into an employment agency for the party faithful whether they had any academic credentials or not (can you say National Insurance Board as a bloated example). The FNM was guilty of the same thing at times but eventually realised that they needed credentialed people if the service was to progress and improve. There is a popular but erroneous notion that the civil service is bloated and overstaffed. In my opinion that's not true. What it has is many uncredentialled or undercredentialled persons who are in it predpminantly for the salary and the pension but are not interested or incapable of getting qualifications or additional qualifications that are required for today's modern business environment. Do you keep them on or send them packing? Because every Bahamian who wants a job needs a job but not everyone has the skills for the job they want or have.

Oh and by the way Editor, I see your back page ad about too many radio stations. You need to give it a rest as it comes over as elitist and monopolist. The purpose of freeing up the airwaves was so that, as long as spectrum is available in the FM band, then anyone who wanted an FM radio station licence and could afford the licence fees and had the money to get into the business could start up their own radio station. It's called competition and that's the difference between 1993 and now. One could say that all of these radio stations have the right to succeed or fail. You were quick to buy up one of the failing stations. Everyone has the right to dream of being a radio or media mogul. Whether they succeed or fail, it's their dollar that they are spending to get into business, not yours. Also there are about 22 FM radio stations in New Providence and possibly 47 in the whole country. Don't people in other islands have a right to try their hand at starting a broadcasting business or should we get it all from one source but on Shirley Street instead of Collins Avenue hill?

Well Strachan if in 4 years the FNM's financial plan is successful, what will you say then? This is the best time to take bad tasting medicine because if they are right and successful with it, people like you will be commending them for having had the intestinal fortitude to do what they are doing. Better to do these things in the first years of an administration than wait until the end and expect people's understanding. Ask Hubert Ingraham with the financial services legislation and then the roads.