Using your logic, when the government considers holding parents responsible for the acts of their children, are they not also encouraging these parents to destroy their children by co-operating with the police. What is moral and right was moral and right yesterday, today and it will be so tomorrow. Just as we as a society have a right to expect parents, cloaked in the armour of righteousness, to report even their children who commit crimes why should it then be ok for us to turn a blind eye to abuse, be it against Bahamians or foreigners. The point you are missing is that if this situation was handled with an iota of professionalism we would not be talking about this right now. Even today the government is not speaking with one accord. It is like the neighborhood bully after being punched in the mouth crying and protesting about being victimized.

The behavior of this government is amateur hour at its worst! According the the Minister of National Security, we are about to imminently initiate proceedings against the Defence Force officers implicated in the Cuban abuse allegations at the Detention Centre, with a “full report” of the proceedings to be released at its conclusion. Yet, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he is not aware of any abuse of Cubans at the Detention Centre. You can't even make this stuff up! Embarrassing guys, let's get it together.

Mr. Prime Minister, the appropriate response is not to berate those who have raised legitimate concerns but rather validate your fiscal policy decision with superior arguments and studies, based on what you deem to be correct premises. When did the IMF become responsible for fiscal policy in the Bahamas? It would seem to me that your government has taken the IMF spiel lock, stock and barrel without any critical analysis and now that legitimate concerns are being raised you wail and lament like a little child crying to their parent for protection. The issue is not with those who are raising the concerns Mr. PM, they love this country just like you. The issue is that you and your government deserves a "F minus" for the manner in which you have dealt with the VAT issue.

I am more than puzzled on the governments position with respect to the implementation of VAT. Maybe they have received advice or maybe they are making it up that VAT will be a revenue enhancer, but either way their logic seem to fly in the face of a hundred years of economic theory and all that we know about the attitude and behavior of us Bahamians with respect to paying taxes. What happened in St. Kitts & Nevis have no relevance to the Bahamas as we can't even properly administer the simple custom duty system. According to their logic, we are to believe that for the first time in ecomomic history a tax increase that, in some cases, would materially reduce disposable income would not be a disincentive to entrepreneurship, business investments and consumer consumption. We are being asked to believe that this tax increase will not be a zero sum proposition and that somehow it will expand the economic pie and not merely redistribute it and probably contract it. Further, no discussion is being had about the current economic environment. The Central Bank, the advisor to the government, has projected significant economic headwinds that are likely to negatively impact employment and growth in the near to mid term, therefore, when you also add a tax increase what do you think the likely outcome would be.
We can talk further about the historical attitudes of Bahamians with respect to paying taxes, the state of unpreparedness of local businesses and the government to manage and administer this tax system and the unintended consequences like the emergence of a black market economy, but it all leads us, I believe, to the inevitable conclusion as stated above that the government deserves a "F minus" for the way they have handled this issue to date.

I know for a fact that their exit is directly related to their treatment by the Immigration Department.

This story and Rev. Hall's comments are nonsensical in two respects. The first is that the story lacks context. Rev. Hall mentions Cuban detainees and talks about how nothing is wrong with reasonable force. However, to my knowledge no government official has admitted to the use of any force, reasonable or unreasonable, against the Cuban detainees. So either Rev. Hall is speaking hypothetically and therefore not talking about this Cuban detainee issue or alternatively if he is talking about this specific Cuban detainee issue his statement about the use of force contradicts the government's position to date. The reporter should have put that into context particularly as he later states that the Opposition's position is premature. Additionally, the reporter should have asked Rev. Hall a standard follow-up question like "what is the difference between reasonable force and abuse", the answer to which would have made this story more relevant and forced Rev. Hall to be more specific or make a further fool of himself..

I have no desire to engage you over shadows and red herrings. It's kind of absurd that you are continuing to defend a position that even Fred Mitchell and the government has abandoned.

"genuine evidence", is that a new legal or judicial standard of evidence? I am not surprised that you with your superior knowledge and information would dispute the RBDF reports, even though Mr. Mitchell himself has not disputed its accuracy. That report contained direct evidence from the actual parties involved in the abuse. Are they known liars?

On July 18th Fred Mitchell made these remarks, “I’m trying to organize Bahamians in Miami and at home,” he said. “If we don’t push back then people will start to believe that it is true. All Bahamians have to speak out against this.”
He also said, “People in our detention lock ups are treated humanely. If there are issues let us know and we will address them. The conditions are humane, they are not the best, but people are not beaten.” We now know that that at the time these statements were made, Mr. Mitchell was in possession of information from the Defence force itself that fully contradicted his statements. He intentionally lied. Six weeks later he now says "Justice will be done" after saying all along that the enemies of the Bahamas is making this stuff up. This is not a PLP or an FNM thing, this is just pure hubris, attempts at deceit, cover-up and incompetence. This should have been dealt with two months ago.

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Well stated! It is time for the adults in our government and our society to stand up.