I simply took issue with the statement you made which I quoted. It was a false statement, nothing you said in your reply refuted this. To believe that the average Bahamian does not benefit from cheap Haitian Labour is divorced from reality and to be ignorant of basic economic theory.

Now the other point you are making that they are a financial burden on Bahamians I do not dispute, as I agree clearly that is the case. Now the question is what is the net benefit and I would say the jury is out on that and a through economic analysis is necessary. You seem to have already made up your mind, what data is that based on? On the face of it my guess is that they are a net economic benefit to The Bahamas. I have a degree in economics from a top 20 American university, have worked at the Central Bank and was trained in economic analysis and have managed a very successful business, I could be wrong. What qualifications do you have?Would love to see a comprehensive study done by the central bank. Haitians do pay taxes, especially with the implementation of Vat which is a rather difficult tax to avoid.

bottom line :The reality of cheap Haitian Labour is a massive subsidy for every Bahamian, it comes with negatives, no one absent of a comprehensive economic analysis knows the net benefit.

“It is not the average Bahamian that keeps illegal immigrants employed“, this is a patently false statement. The average Bahamian benefits from cheap Haitian Labour and either directly or indirectly employs them as well. Any one in the construction Industry in The Bahamas will tell you the sector would collapse without Haitian Labour. It is their cheaper Labour that subsidizes the construction of Bahamian homes. Without this the cost of the average home would be thousands to tens of thousands more expensive. Even if they rent they benefit as rent would be higher but for the lower Labour costs associated with construction. Same for the landscaping business, does the average Bahamian clean their own yards, if not they are benefiting from lower Labour costs due to cheaper Haitian Labour. This is true for many other sectors of the Bahamian economy as well, Haitian are here for a reason they are employed by Bahamians, some average some rich, but the benefit apples to both.

Fred Smith is one hell of a lawyer and an even finer humanitarian. We are blessed to have him fighting for freedom in our bahamaland. There always needs to be a counterbalance to the awesome power of the state and it seems he is more than up to the task. Those who believe in democracy, and civil rights are indebted to him.

Not to be rude but you are really confused about the privy council. The reason we have not had capital punishment carried out in the Bahamas is that the privy council has set the bar so high in its ruling that the murder must be the worst of the worst, no murder that has been ever committed in the Bahamas would qualify. This was the intended effect of course, so the court in an activist decision ensured that no one would ever be executed in the Bahamas again.

The privy council is so liberal that it will make this Bahamian judge’s ruling seem conservative. There is no way the privy council will overturn this decision. It is a pipe dream and the delusion of a fool.

This is certainly precedent setting. With this ruling, combined with recent comments from the attorney general, and the minister of immigration, despite what the law says, the de facto result is persons born in the Bahamas ( if they have made application for citizenship or not), will not be deported and will be granted some sort of status. It certainly seems the humane way forward, our laws should be amended to reflect this new reality.

What a country we live in. We have gone from a PLP government that talked a good game but was really a lying, corrupt, duplicitous, self enriching parasite on the backs of the Bahamian people; to an FNM govt that says all the right things but in effect does almost nothing. The Prime Minister gave a deadline of dec 31, for all illegal aliens to leave the Bahamas. Almost a month has passed and there has been seemingly no actions taken to back his ultimatum. It seems the status quo will remain. Like it always has. So our serious problems are never really addressed. We need tough decisions to be made otherwise nothing will change.

Now he tells us shantytowns must end, we all agree but why should we believe him. We need to bite the bullet and finally enforce laws in this country. These landlords should be fined for the thousands of violations they are guilty of and their land confiscated. These illegal aliens need to be formally regularized in some way, the ministry of immigration is a disaster and people can not be held in limbo waiting on their application for decades, or until they pay a bribe. An act of parliament should be passed to give these illegal persons born in The Bahamas some permanent status, with a clearly defined path to citizenship after a period of time. While at it we need to amend the constitution and decide if being born in this country automatically confers citizenship or not, if not no gray area with a right to application for citizenship.

We are tired of the talk. Mr. Prime Minister please just shut up and act.

I agree with your point, but you have used a mixed metaphor. The expression you wish to convey is “ wake up and smell the coffee”, meaning “ get real”, the other metaphor which you have mixed is “ stop and smell the roses”, meaning appreciate life. In another tribune article this week a prominent attorney used the same mixed metaphor, must be a Bahamian thing!

Who said they should be closed down? Alcohol is heavily taxed in this country, that is why a case of beer though locally produced costs $40 plus. The same should be done to fast food, tax it heavily to pay for the social ills it costs.

Great, just what we need .... more fast food restaurants so our obese population can become more morbidly obese and become an even greater burden on our public health system. It is high time that a significant tax be levied on all fast food in this country. Why should these owners reap profits while creating social ills and expense for tax payers? Increase vat on fast food to 15% and use the revenue to subsidize Healthcare or to reduce the cost of healthy foods like vegetables that are too expensive for the poor.

Emera has not been an honest corporate citizen in its treatment of Bahamian minority shareholders, which is only being accentuated by this proposed buyout. It is disingenuous at best but more accurately described as a blatant lie on the part of Mr. Collins to say that the purpose of the buyout is to streamline GB power’s coporate structure, for if this was the case Emera would simply dissolve ICD and issue shares directly in GB Power as Fred Smith suggest. No, the purpose of the buyout is to obtain all the remaining shares at subpar rate, to disenfranchise Bahamian shareholders, as Emera knows better than anyone that they are worth far more than $8.85. A secondary purpose of the buyout is by taking the company private there will be no more reporting or transparency, an extremely dangerous prospect for consumers purchasing electricity from a monopoly.
Mr. Anthony Ferguson, who is being rewarded handsomely by Emera in this transaction is hardly an impartial expert, indeed I use that term expert loosely as his encouragement to opt for BDRs taxable at a 25% rate is questionable. Also he is flat wrong in saying no dividends have been paid in seven years. Dividends have been paid for several years ( tax free I might add), but far less than they should be given the monopolies’ regulated profit. Emera drastically suppressed dividends due to Bahamian shareholders, using the proceeds to pay down debt. Now they want to buyout the company, benefiting from all the paid for equity obtained by disenfranching Bahamian shareholders all these years. It is disgusting. The govt should force Emera to substantially increase its buyout offer to truly reflect what these shares are worth or mandate that Emera reduce its ownership to 51% and let Bahamians benefit from GBPC.