We know the problems... Besides the lack of jobs the next thing killing the Commonwealth of The Bahamas is the high cost of living. Imported everything, a lack of 'Buy Bahamian" mentality and the idea that foreign is better is killing us. When we buy Bahamian made products we keep the money in the Bahamas. So much of the money that is made in the Bahamas is spent in Walmart or some online shop. We send our wealth out of the country and then wonder why our economy is stagnant. Buy local, eat what is produced and sourced here. Support Bahamian businesses; visit the local bakery and corner shop, go down Cowpen Road and buy from the farm stands. Buy Bahamian, it is a simple thing that every one of us can do.

I feel a lot of these crimes go unsolved and the media always have another case to report and so yesterdays news falls to the wayside. DaGoobs you ask very good questions. I would be interested to know those statistics myself. Tit for Tat drug related murder, turf war, gang violence, retribution, revenge killing, paid hit. These are just some of the categories. The police know why people are killed, we just never get told that information.

Where I live the talk is that transfers will become instant very soon. So I can transfer money to my friend sitting next to me at a restaurant and he could receive it instantly and pay the bill. Transferring money online between accounts (or even overseas) is still incredibly primitive in Nassau. Way behind the times...

Sweden has run out of garbage, and now imports from neighbouring countries. We need a new recycling plant to grow our waste industry. Not to mention the biofuels that could be produced from household cooking oil. We could have community depots or a service that came around bi weekly to pick up your sorted trash. Countries in the first world have been doing these kinds of things for decades.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen…

Please retire this man! I found it most disconcerting just to read his disjointed comments. What kind of stuff and which kinds of things is he talking about?? It is obvious that there is no clue, or strategy anywhere close to him. He needs to go home in a hurry. Where are the qualified people in the Ministry of Education? People with at least a Master's degree? This man is the definition of what is wrong with education in this country. Incompetent people in charge = disaster.

Didn't the PLP just have a listening tour? It was called an election campaign! They would have heard many people say carry your @$$ and other such pleasantries. I can't see the PLP being elected again in my lifetime. Let some new parties spring up and let these old people die. The Bahamian people have had enough.

Happy to read the comments on here showing that the general thinking population know that this is a no-brainer. Sure some older people may not agree and Duane Sands is also showing his age and lack of thinking outside the box. Medical marijuana and recreational marijuana is a step in the right direction that could get the economy out of the depression it is in right now. Legal marijuana is a boom to every economy that has implemented it. Can Public Domain please survey the Bahamian people on this? When the police burn fields of marijuana in Andros, it's like money going up in smoke. We need things to happen soon and real change that will bring in money to our economy. St Vincent has been stockpiling marijuana for years saying that they will be the first country to legally export marijuana to the US. The Bahamas is overpriced and doesn't give value for money. Also you can get arrested for having a joint. I guess I'll go to Jamaica or St Vincent...

Banker, I read this paper just so I can stumble upon your posts. Thank you for writing here.

This is by far the most well written piece I've seen in this paper in months... I applaud whoever wrote this. Nassau the priceless jewel in a crown of 700 islands. I'm sure many odes have been written and many more can be written. Why is that we can write the solutions on paper and publish them in a daily newspaper, yet the persons who we have entrusted to legislate and make things happen don't seem to read and understand them? We have arrived where we are because people are scared to make the hard decisions.

Helpful hint 1 - Decriminalise marijuana and watch the criminal justice system become unclogged. We are seriously going to wake up one day and have marijuana legal in countries all around us. We can grow that at BAMSI and export it, regulate it, tax it, allow tourists to come to hotels and smoke it in an 18+ environment. We need 22nd century visionary thinking. The old myopic mindset must be done away with.

Helpful hint 2 - We can change our public education system from within...it is not too hard as some may have you believe. It will just require the right curriculum, and a whole lot of love. If one person can change the world, then the many of us who want real change in Nassau and the Bahamas at large can change the Bahamas. Not doing so is not an option.

When your electricity usage is $80 and the fuel surcharge is $400. But your electricity been off for half the month, but they bill you by estimate... No escape. Stuck with a government entity that does not work properly, managed by foreigners whose sole job is to take flack for the government. BEC/BPL does not make a profit... It's obvious that we need to start from scratch. Can we drop a bomb on it? Do we even have insurance?