> build confidence

Haha, funniest thing that I have heard all day.

I think that a lot of people are unnecessarily making this out to be some kind of moral dilemma; it is not, this is simple geo-politics running it's course. The pro-Russian government was toppled by a Western backed colour revolution in 2014 shortly after canceling a massive economic agreement with the EU worth billions signed by the prior pro-West government. The new Western backed government immediately put it out there that joining NATO was one of their primary goals, and immediately moved to ban Russian from being spoken in the East (which is what lead to the revolutions in Luhansk and Donetsk). It is important to note that the Ukraine has always been pro-Russian in the east, and pro-West in the western part. There has always been a division of allegiances. What is happening now is simply a mere subset of bigger events that have been in the run up for a decade plus.

Russia was never going to tolerate the Ukraine becoming a member of NATO. The best that they could have hoped for was some kind of deal like Finland during the Cold War, where the Fins simply stayed neutral in the conflict between East and West. It is worth noting that this is not the first time the West has used the "colour revolution" strategy to stir up issues with Russia. Study the Rose Revolution in Georgia and the 2008 war that shortly followed. The West tried to repeat the same in Belarus during 2020 and Kazakhstan earlier this year. These are deliberate provocations in nations that are in the Russian sphere of influence.

Does anyone think that the USA would tolerate a Bahamian government becoming allies with China and allowing them to set up a naval base here? Go ask Grenada, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and many more if you are unsure of the answer. One side is no better than the next, which is why framing this situation in a moral context is absolutely stupid. This is geo-politics playing out plain and simple, and people need to look at this situation without trying to create a Marvel movie out of it.

Jimmy Carter 2.0

Headline is somewhat misleading. Read below.

"The court ruled he had to be kept at Sandilands until he received an order of discharge from the Governor General."

He was sentenced to 7 years at first after being declared guilty, appealed and got the verdict changed to guilty but legally insane, which means that he could only be discharged by the Governor General. It is not like they shoved him in Sandilands and forgot about him, there was a clear cut procedure of how he got there.

Why are people shocked at this? Just business as usual for the banana republic governments we have grown accustomed to.

Awesome news.

Ahh yes, the Biden strategy is in full swing. Blame all of the countries problems on Russia and pretend that they didn't exist prior.

Are we going to have five years of Brave them doing nothing but digging up dirt on Minnis?

Blind leading the blind.

I agree with you in principal that you have to look at all aspects of a situation, but we on Abaco have never had properly functioning infrastructure (pre or post-Dorian).

I give this government credit that the power and water interruptions have not been as severe in the past month or two, but prior to that they were a nearly daily occurrence. It took my community about a year and a half after Dorian to have running water again. I had to bathe out of a bucket and tote water in containers prior to that. It wasn't just post-Dorian either, the central government failed at basic utilities for decades prior to that. Power and water have been going off since I was a young child.

None of the above even considers how cruelly Abaco was treated in the aftermath of Dorian by the cursed Minnis government. The first people to find my family were the Dutch, the RBDF never bothered to come looking. Lawlessness was the norm for a very long time, you could just take anything you want without repercussions.

I agree with the basis of your argument that there are a lot of things to consider, but the central government has mistreated and abused Abaco for a very long time. I get that all the islands have to pitch in together as a nation, but the central government has not held up their end of the bargain when it comes to Abaco for the majority of our existence. I truly believe that our island would have been better off as an independent nation as opposed to relying on the central government for our existence. Local government is a complete waste of time if we still have to beg Nassau for all of our funding anyways.