How long ago it was when police officers crept on to the Defense Force in the dark of night and tied up sleeping officers and thereby taking charge of the base. Red faced officers, overcome with embarrassment, said it was only part of their military drills. Now, probably a decade later,, a slow moving sloop, loaded with illegal Haitians, sailed silently (never mind the noise, everyone is sleeping) across the same base and close enough into the land of New Providence shores and let off its human cargo, not unlike the Trojan Horse. Heads may not fly, just yet, but there needs to be an account.

It is good for the police force to be abreast with technology and somewhat on the cutting edge, but according to Minister of National Security a more pressing concern on the police force is attrition, where members are leaving or being dismissed from the force faster than they can be replaced. And, hopefully, the force will get strong squads of new recruits. But the body cams are a good idea and while helping to keep the police officer's behavior in line, it can also assist in keeping officers safe when on dangerous assignments where they may be overpowered by suspects. And since everything will be recorded with the officer not having the ability to compromise the system, it no longer has to be a case of 'his word against mines."

BoB was supposed to be in a similar position financially. But that bank was raped, robbed and ravaged... now it is struggling to hold on for dear (o dear) life.

Has Minnis really thought through the proposed amendment for citizenship? Bahamians can now sell of their sperm (males) or be paid to carry children (females) for foreigners. Then the children, who are Bahamian can apply to have their parents or other family members get status in the Bahamas. This also mean that thousands of Haitian children who may have one Bahamian parent will be eligible for citizenship. And of course with a corrupt legal system many of other nationalities will slide through the cracks and be granted citizenship for which they do not qualify. It is a very dangerous situation Minnis is creating. Just look what happened in Trinidad with the Indians after oil was discovered.

In a conversation completely unrelated to this topic (I was visiting a patient T the hospital) and out of the blue this old man said “it is time for the Bahamas to stop letting other people value its dollar. We have to learn how to put a price on our goods and services and either people take (it) or leave it. That is the only way we could get our true value.’ And on the face of it that may sound like a simple statement but do you realize how much better off the country would be if it catered to 3 million tourists that were willing to spend $500 each as opposed to 6 million tourists who are only willing to spend $100 each.. and that’s just for starters.

@sheeprunner you are so wrong. Most of the corruption in this country today has foreign influence. Either by way of Bahamians living abroad and being ‘schooled ‘ or foreigners coming here and teaching Bahamians to ‘t’ief ‘. The you must also remember when Bahamians (especially black folk) gained the reins of power in the 1960’s , they barely had high school education. In fact most of the electorate was illiterate and had to be taught on how to mark their ‘X’ and who to vote for. So it was not difficult for those who came to power even as recently as a decade ago to hold on to that power

Sip on this: the number of Bahamians in visits to South Florida is over 1 million trips. The population of the Bahamas is under 400,000. This means that the number of Active Bahamian Travelers go to Miami or, at least South Florida, four times a year. Well we know this figure includes persons on business trips and students traveling back and forth to school and colleges but 4 trips per person per capita is no small number. Now just imagine the Bahamas can get 1/4 of the US population to visit the Bahamas once a year or even once every 5 years. And the tourists ‘spend’ estimated at $100 per person is by no means an accident. The early Pindling government realized the importance of getting tourists into the country and getting tourists them to spend money. But the forces that be saw otherwise. They wanted tourists to come to the Bahamas and spend only with them and take the rest of their money back home. So they started labeling Bahamians as violent savages and jet ski operators, who can earn $309 a day as rapists. Consider the amount of negative incidents involving jet ski operators compared to the hundreds of thousands of tourists who use these services without incident. In fact a memorial experience. And while there is a serious murder problem in this country which, no doubt, is being fueled by external forces, America has had 307 mass killings in 2017. This is almost three times the murder count in the Bahamas. And when you compare the number of visitors that suffering criminal injury in this country compared to the total number that visit, the Bahamas is more safe for tourists than the cities they come from.

Anyone reading this headline would automatically think there was another murder in the country. Fourtunately that was not the case and the lull in murders continue to hold. And like Marvin Dames is saying crime is not just the police matter but it should concern everyone in the country. Everyone must get involved, including persons who may support political parties opposite and stamp out this crime monster that has been consuming us for the past decade. Not only that but we must join forces to prevent foreigners and other special interest groups from exploiting us economically. Death is never a good experience and may the soul of the departed Rest In Peace.

Here’s something to wrap your fingers around: Disney World earned $1.7 Billion in its last financial quarter. That amounts to $7 Billion a year! Atlantis according to last figures published in 2013 was earning $487 million a quarter or close to $2 Billion a year! Now add the earnings of all the cruise ships that visit the Bahamas along with the smaller properties. Then can you tell me why this country has a cash strapped government and so many of its citizens living below the poverty line?

When someone can explain why government has to pay to advertise Atlantis, pay to advertise Bah Mar, pay cruise ships to visit the Bahamas, as well as maintain airports and other infrastructure then one can see where the $100 million to fix the port has gone. Tourism as is operated today is nothing more than piracy. Highway robbery. The country is paying to bring tourists to beaches that Bahamians have been banned off, promoting casinos that Bahamians cannot gamble in and calling tourism a major industry even though Bahamians are only allowed to participate at the lowest levels. Bahamians are actually subsidizing some strange man or woman to come lay up on Paradise Island and sip Long Islans ice tea when most of us (Bahamians) go home and drink cold Lipton tea because the power off. There are enough natural resources and economic opportunities in this country for every Bahamian to be a millionaire. But through ignorance and continuing to ‘not to our masters’, we continue to enslave ourselves.