I'm afraid that things will get much worse before they get any better. Amazingly, some states in the US are going back to the lockdowns. SMEs are soon going to be non-existent in those areas. It makes me wonder how much longer this infinity loop of lockdowns and opening up will continue.

At the very least, the economic suffering that we are experiencing should permanently silence anyone critical of foreign investment in this country. I think that this government are poor negotiators, but it is blatantly apparent for all to see that we cannot survive without it.

I believe that the domestic violence issue that our nation faces needs a complex solution. Opening more shelters is a very easy solution that needs to be done on New Providence or Grand Bahama for sure, but we need a different answer for the smaller islands where blood runs thicker than water and everyone knows everyone. I honestly am not sure what is the best solution is for those smaller communities.

That being said, we do not need to import the American fad of grievance culture and identity politics here. Our nation's national development has been stunted due to the fact that we have a culture that rewards who you know and are in cahoots with instead of actual merit and achievement. Adding the issue of affirmative action hires on top of the already existing issue of cronyism hires does nothing to fix this nation's problems. I wish that more people will realize that nothing is given in life, everything has to be earned. You don't get any special treatment for having a specific kind of genitalia.

Using this same logic, 10% of our MPs, government hires, cabinet ministers, other forms of national representation should be conchy joes. Using Maynard-Gibson's logic from the article posted a couple days (maybe a week or so now) back, why don't we mandate that every publicly listed company have a conchy joe sitting on the board? You can't force representation based on certain physical characteristics and then ignore the others.

Not trying to harp on you, I just find it nice to hold discussion with posters here who are at least aware of what is going on outside of the country, but surely you must realize that the 10th Amendment comes into play when discussing how the federal government can respond to the COVID crisis in the United States? For all of the hypothetical Biden's administrations huff and puff, a national mask mandate would easily be challenged within the court system; there would be a very good argument for it being overreach
by the federal government.

In addition, I think you might be misunderstanding Canada's response to COVID. Sure, the federal government implemented the Quarantine Act and created CERB, etc., but the bulk of the response is left up to the provincial governments. Some provincial government's have mask mandates, some have different curfew times, etc. Restrictions can often vary depending on which province you are situated in. It is not too different from how the individual states have authority to decide/implement their restrictions in the United States.

I am not trying to be pedantic, but the National Guard does exist to this day. I get your point, but both the American Revolutionary War and the American Civil War had state militias playing a prominent role in the fighting. Things have certainly changed, but the existence of the National Guard is reminder of that legacy.

Your statistics lack the context of taking COVID-19 into account.

Unemployment Rate :
Dec. 2015 - 5.0%
Dec. 2016 - 4.7%
Dec. 2017 - 4.1%
Dec. 2018 - 3.9%
Dec. 2019 - 3.5%
Dec. 2020 - TBD (probably around 8%ish, more lockdowns are going to put a greater number out of work)

https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost…

GDP :
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-sta…
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ny…

Poverty Rate :
2019 : 10.5% - https://www.census.gov/library/publicat…
2018 : 11.8% - https://www.census.gov/library/publicat…
2017 : 12.3% - https://www.census.gov/library/publicat…
2016 : 12.7% - https://www.census.gov/library/publicat…
2015 : 13.5% - https://www.census.gov/library/publicat…

When it comes to the national debt, Trump's numbers are not far off from Obama's. We are not in the era of balanced budgets, and I doubt that we will ever be for a long time at least.

https://www.polidiotic.com/by-the-numbe…

You can not like the man, but to state that Trump was not doing an excellent job with the economy prior to COVID-19 is untrue. It would be very misleading to base an assessment of Trump's handling of the economy off of the past 6 months, which have been disastrous for everyone thanks to COVID-19.

The Republic eventually morphed into the Empire. Before Julius Caesar assumed power, yes, voting did occur.

I have long argued that a civics test should be mandatory before being allowed to vote. It would certainly clear up a lot of problems with the electorate here and in the US.

Universal suffrage played a key part in the fall of Rome, and we are seeing history repeat before our very eyes.

This was a very nice article to read, agreed on most points.

I believe that the amount of party loyalists will gradually decrease due to the older generations dying off, our younger generations seem to have more characteristics reminiscent of swing voters than the party vanguards that have dominated our past.

Agreed with you on the rotten luck of the current administration. No post-Independence government has had to guide the nation through a more difficult period, I don't think anyone here would like to be in the shoes of Minnis right now, politically speaking. They have not been perfect, but I can recognize the effort that they have put in for some areas. As you mentioned, my biggest gripe is the lack of fulfillment of many of their platform promises. There is no reason that they could not institute term limits or a FOIA Act before their term expires. It is quite disappointing how they have failed to complete some of the simpler parts of their manifesto, but time will show what else they do before May of 2022. At this rate, they are the best option on the ballot by far.

I disagree on your outlook for the future though. Our population is not growing any more intelligent, if anything, we are losing our brightest minds abroad. One of the biggest reasons that we are in the mess we are in today is the fact that our voter base is comprised of a majority D average population. It is far too easy to swing some votes with rum, fried chicken, and a marlin in a hat when the people you are pandering too have no care, or quite possibly, even the ability to comprehend the decisions that they are making. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this will not get any better. The economic decline of the Bahamas is likely to continue for the short-term future, and our brightest minds will continue to leave and saddle us with worsening voter demographics. No young person with the ability to leave is ever going to come back here to poor pay (unless they hook up with the right people/start their own business/thief out of the government treasury), garbage infrastructure, high cost of living, political system dominated by cronyism, etc. Things are going to get a lot worse before they get any better.

The PLP are a political hemorrhoid that can't seem to go away... we need to make sure they win 0 seats in the next election to permanently banish them to the dustbin of irrelevancy.

I can only assume that his suggestion is just political smoke and mirrors to make it appear as if there is something that can be done. As a business owner himself, Mr. Gibson should be well aware that a business eventually will cease operations if they are no longer profitable. No reasonable individual can expect for banks to service these smaller communities when they are continually losing money due to the costs associated with maintaining a physical location plus the very limited customer base. The best solution for this matter is to have Bahamians become more technologically literate, as a matter of fact, I think that it may be the only solution.

I usually don't respond to a bait comment like this one, but I will make an exception here. I highly doubt that you have the historical knowledge to comprehend why Hitler was democratically elected. Here a few terms to read up about when you have the chance : The Treaty of Versailles, Dawes Plan, Hyperinflation, Spartacus Rebellion, and if you really want to get controversial in this day and age, the Frankfurt School and the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft. Please also do a detailed study on fascism and National Socialism (yes, they are different ideologies) so that you are adequately educated on what those ideologies stand for (Hint : its not anything that you just don't like). Maybe read up on Falangism too if you want to go off on a less mainstream path.

As something of a student of history myself, it disgusts me when I see so many naive individuals today compare Trump to historical figures such as Hitler, or deride everyone/every ideology opposed to them as fascism/fascists. It is just asinine to suggest as such. If Trump was truly the Hitler or Mussolini that so many proclaim him to be, we certainly wouldn't behaving this discussion over the Internet right now. Even if you want examples from the modern era, look at North Korea and seriously ask yourself if you think the United States is on the same level of censorship and totalitarian control over society. If Trump was even a quarter of the Hitler so many claim him to be, you wouldn't be criticizing him over the Internet, you wouldn't be protesting in the middle of the streets for every little thing, and you certainly wouldn't be allowed to think anything contrary to the official government line of thinking.

Even from our own region, Trump is nothing close to the horrors of Papa Doc, Castro, Somoza, and whoever else you may want to substitute in their place.

I reiterate for everyone watching : less emotional thinking, more logical, please.