Given recent events in both nations, both advisories were necessary, irrespective of the timing or optics. Both offices met their responsibility to their citizens to make them aware and to encourage prudence and in the case of Bahamian travelers - temperance..

Bahamian travelers are not immune to the disquieting situation America is facing but more worryingly, they might be inclined to involve themselves in protest or court or incite confrontation out of a sense of solidarity or injustice. Either way the ministry must advise against any behaviour that might cause further involvement in the domestic affairs of another nation.

Regarding the U.S. advisory, as long as U.S. citizens continue to be victims of crime in our nation and crime continues unabated they are responsible to their citizens to post official advisories.

In my experience foreign ministries do not operate in the petty or arbitrary manner that commentators or the media would like to suggest. There are guidelines and protocol and a lot of thought is put into decisions beforehand.

I believe there is one correction to be made: it would be your child for the sake of 999,; you will remember your child's life will be brokered in backdoor negotiations between representatives of the judiciary for one serial killing trafficker with long dollars. And I'm praying you have a six year-old so that when you reconsider, you have the face of innocence to gaze upon to really drive the point home

The prevailing attitude of the innocent suffering for the guilty needs to be hanged from the neck until dead. It's a corrosive attitude that is punitive or at best lets us know that no one will defend much less reward our innocence but there are rewards or at least 'nuffy' skapegoats for the guilty. It is further endorsed by reliigious dogma even as it is counter-intuitive to suffer innocently until you enter the kindom of God while you allow a pervasive sanguinary nature to infest those around you and those that come after you.

We have conflicting values in our society; too many to count, but they converge and are reborn from our paradoxical efforts and policies to manage our society. We have created those we seek to kill but while we have the opportunities to dismantle every one of the adverse conditions and institutions that contribute to the rearing of a 'dud' we instead sum the equation with the death penalty whilst suffering zero indignity for the fact that illegal businesses are putting food on the plates of our citizens and our babies or maybe it's **because** we feel no shame .

To make killing taboo we have to eradicate killing from the instutions that educate, inform and foster prevailing attitudes; this includes our families, our crime syndicates, our schools and our government. We must inculcate the realisation that even when faced with the most monsterous of human beings deserving of 1000 deaths we are ourselves limited by this taboo because we cannot re-create life if that is your belief or because we cannot undo a mistake if that is your belief or simply because we cannot risk that our intended laws concerning killing consequently result in a permissiove and retaliatory message.

We have to be reminded in our treatment of the few (murderous crimnials) that we do not sacrfice the innocence of the many or we may one day be lost to the same fate the worst of which being if we actually did nothing wrong.

♪ ♫ Could you be loved♪ ♫

I hear what you're saying...though...

The agriculture course at C.O.B had in the past enough interest even with nothing to farm, and I wouldn't suggest trying it in any way that resembles the methods/management of the past (especially the neglectful approach, that was determined not to work).

200 years ago up until recently we didn't have the methods, the means but most importantly the local market we have today. The market here demands such a superior quality and quantity you make that your goal from the jump. Yes, true it is impossible for me to determine the final price and quality now but I would argue in truth it's difficult for you to do the same. And we did have success for a time with pineapples even with an unsophisticated operation and antiquated shipping methods.

What I am not suggesting is trying a range of products at once, I'm suggesting one medium scale product at once and grow the project product by product but obviously limit it by environmental considerations..

You can grow a $10 tomato if you want an immediate $ ROI but if you count the socio-economic ROI, incentives for other partners in the production/distribution chain and reasonably expect a longer term ROI (with government subsidies not management) it could eventually be profitable right?

And we don't need the retail/wholesale prices to be better than the US, we just need them to come in under or match the local prices because we would still win by paying for A/B crops instead of B/C...D? crops and employing people?

Even if industrial farming proves unviable after a feasibility study wouldn't that signal a natural need for subsistence farming programmes as food prices inevitably inflate out of the reach of the poor?

I could talk excitedly ad infinitum with supposition and guesswork (and more from the perspective of nutritional anthropology than economic viability) but I would really like to hear more from you and other knowledgeable people and I mostly want to hear your concerns.

No, between the existing Haitian population, 18-25 yo's, the unemployed and the prison population, you can find enough human capital to make it as low a cost as necessary in the beginning; don't get me wrong I believe in a living wage but in establishing industrial farming you have the potential to underpin many other industries and social services (and to the evil geniuses out there, I am in no way suggesting you impose heavy punishments on petty criminals to ensure steady long-term 'employees').

Farming is noble work and character building and since it's also hierarchical you can learn as you grow if you develop a passion for it. You can also build share-cropping or a cooperative structure into remuneration.

Is it possible to import topsoil and have the same company re purpose/re-nourish it? What did Israel do to turn infertile land into arable land? And mariculture? It's a definite possibility right?

♪♪ Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone...♪♪

They paved paradise

I would have to admit if I were a crackhead I might not have such a high or divine regard for life. Privy council or no Privy council this hell hole is by [our] design whether you're a screw-up or a do-nothing or an illegal immigrant or an illegal business, they're n entirely separate issue to the genesis of crime.

On the subject of guns, as I said before, legalise 'em don't legalise 'em; self-defense is as personal a choice as it gets...I personally prefer to live in a Bahamas when you didn't have to lock your doors than in a Bahamas full of 'itchy trigger fingers' and fashion forward gun holsters. I know we can't go back...right?

I hate to admit now, I was being facetious and a little bit pedantic with my response but I see now it was neither the time nor the conversation for such a cavalier response, begging your pardon...

I do maintain that the death penalty is not an effective deterrent; Crime is as indigenous to a population as culture is It responds to the opportunities, the location and the stimuli that abound. So if you are really interested in a reduction in crime you need to be honest about the nature of Bahamian crime, identify those responsible and employ preventative measures not countermeasures. If you expect to see an increase in punishments then that is what you will see but if you really want a reduction in crime then the focus needs to be on prevention.

Busted...yes you got me, I'm not into human rights violations...not that I was trying to hide it...I think it better to find a common frequency to discuss matters of great importance and to stick closely to the topic, it helps to keep the focus.

and some people might be paid for a guilty verdict to allow a guilty person to go free, or any number of other perversions or miscarriages of justice; an innocent man incarcerated by his peers deserves everyday of the rest of his life the opportunity to free himself from the injustice exacted by his 'peers'. The reason you should re-read TalRussell's post is the numbered cases of innocents on death row that comprise that 'most important argument'.

and since we (the people) do everything so well, why would we ever get that wrong?