With only three months out the headliner should have been confirmed and promotion of the event begun in earnest. Persons traveling from abroad have to schedule their time off, book flights and hotel rooms, and this is not easily done if they are travelling in groups. Also they will definitely not plan to attend an event where they don't know who the elephant in the room is. Also when booking an international artist at the last minute, the chances of getting them are slim to none, and the costs will shoot through the roof.

The people in South Eleuthera (who have been suffering economically for decades) say, "Tell Perry (Christie) I only want a little something to do to put some groceries in my house. I ain't looking for no big contract to cause me to work too hard." But yet help and hope has not come to them.

Whatever happen to the phrase "if you can't fish, cut bait?" if some people cannot fish then you must teach them how to cut bait! The good thing is many young Bahamians realize that, when it comes to academics, they are not the brightest crayon in the box. But if you train them and give them something to do they will be productive, happy and satisfied.

Another problem that has developed is that many of the young girls are becoming obese to the point that they have eliminated themselves from certain jobs. Walk into any of the fast food restaurants and watch them struggle to do menial chores and not burst out their clothes.

If the government was serious about Junkanoo being a part of carnival they would have told the junkanoo groups to save what they can from Christmas and New Years parades to prepare for carnival. Then the groups should have been advised how to prepare for carnival. This would be a time for them tobreak away from traditional Junkanoo with its rigid structure and strict rules and plan a "carnival Junkanoo" that is more interactive and each person have the ability to do their own performance with limited constraints. Costumes then will not have to big big and oversized and must allow the "rusher" the ability to move around freely. Finally, has any seed money been given to Junkanoo groups that will be participating in Carnival?

This is a situation that has to be monitored very closely. While government has been successful in collecting its targeted amount of vat at the border during the first month (January) there are signs that the economy is slowing down. Many retailers are reporting that their sales in January are off by as much as 20%. If this trend continues it will mean that imports for March, if not February, will be down and so will VAT collections from the retail side. If the economy slips into recession then revenue collected by the government will decrease by the middle of the year. The biggest mistake the government could make then is to raise taxes even more as this will definitely kill the economy. So government must now look at ways to jump start and stimulate the economy and hope that there are not too many more business closures due to the implementation of VAT among other things

It may not necessarily be the case here but more than half the killings in New Providence are more than just murders. They are contract killings and executions, some carried out by persons who may not have a beef with the victim and, in some cases, the victim may not even know them. These type killings are no longer carried out under the dark of night, but they are executed in the broad of day and in some of the most crowded areas of Nassau. The killers are getting bolder and is it only because of the helplessness of the law that we hear, "the victim was known to police", or "he had on ankle bracelet", or "he had just recently been released from jail." Now grand mothers , and mothers and sisters are being killed in the cross fire.

so they will be given their badges of distinction (monitoring ankle bracelets) and be released back into society to do more crime, murder and mayhem. Bring the newspaper and see if anything new,

In the main time, have you seen your electricity bill lately? It is the same (or a little more) as when oil was $130.00 a barrel. And VAT will be added this month. And you thought the fire at the dump was the smoke screen.

No one may want to admit it but there has been a significant downturn in the economy over the last two weeks. Some stores are indicating that sales are down by as much as 25%. While there's no way to directly attribute this decline to the introduction of vat most businesses feel that VAT is at least a factor. Will this lead to even more businesses closing down?