The United States is not a good comparison. The reason is that the United States is one of the few countries that has not signed many of the Human Rights and other treaties relating to war crimes and land mines etc. They have been able to do this because they are the most power nation.

Frank, you were an inspiration and have truly had a positive effect on many of us.

Obviously you are not a Christian. As you seem to prefer our women to have children out of wedlock.

Read Article 8 again and read further at 14(1) and you will see that we reward the woman who has the child out of wedlock (by automatically giving them citizenship) and punish those who marry and have the child in a proper Christian marriage (by refusing to give them automatic citizenship and making them apply at 18).

The amendment to Article 8 lets her the children she has in wedlock also get citizenship.

But maybe you don't have Christian values.

True. With 11 boats over 100 feet it should be quite easy to have two or three, always at sea between us and Haiti to stop the illegals from ever reaching our shores.

I don't understand how they get all the way up to New Providence without being intercepted by the Defence Force.

Just think if the government had left the Bankruptcy alone.

We have the largest marine defence force in the Caribbean in boats and men.

Sheep runner, have you read the Bill and have you read the Constitution? If you had you would not be writing the above comments.

You can vote some or all items 'yes' or 'no' on the referendum and vote against the PLP in the election.

John, we asked to become a sovereign nation. When you become a sovereign nation you agree to play by certain international rules. And you have to keep up with the rules unless you want to get isolated and your economy and people starve.

Fact is these 4 Bills get us caught up with the rest of the world. 1 & 2, in particular are to fix archaic and bigot minded thoughts which, even in the early 70's, were outdated.

Don't forget that one of the framers of our Constitution did not want Bahamians to be allowed to move freely from island to island without government approval.

Wake up and join the 21st century.

Sometimes the ignorance or the deliberate intention to mislead is mind blowing.
Article 8 states
**"A person born outside The Bahamas after 9th July shall become a citizen of The Bahamas at the date of his birth if at that date his father is a citizen of The Bahamas..."**

Bill 1 will change that to **"if either its mother or father is a citizen of The Bahamas"**

**Article 54 of the Constitution** deals with the alteration of the Constitution. It **says that Article 8 can only be changed by a Bill passed in both houses** (House of Assembly and the Senate) with a vote, in favour, of not less than three quarters of all the members **AND after the Bill has been submitted to the voters and on a vote the majority of the people voting approve.**

So ***no the government can't fix it without the referendum***.

Dr. blah...blah...blah.