I guess that after seeing these mug shots, the ZNS won't be showing repeats of Roots for awhile.

Let me translate this for you: "When you place normal best business practice into an environment where every single person is corrupt, you tend to find that they corrupt the best business practice and nothing of value gets achieved.That is why we have decided not to pay them any more, but to loot the money we would have given them ourselves, in the decades old Bahamian tradition."
Now watch the net worth of the Bannister family shoot up by $9m per year while he is Minister. Minus kickbacks to other politicians, of course.

"The list exists since the 70s". What happened in the 70s? Oh, yes, Independence. LOL. What he is actually saying is that we went for Independence so we could steal from ourselves. I would quite simply hang this man in Parliament Square, as an example to the other thieving bastards.

Only in a seriously fucked up joke of a country can some deadbeat who does not pay his electricity bill be called an "elite". Call him what he is: a criminal who has received a bribe. Seize his assets, sell them. Then send his ass to jail.
We were left a country with no debt and a system of democracy and laws that was near perfect. In 40 years we have managed to bastardize it to this. I feel nothing but shame.
I blame the British myself. In the same way as a loving parent does not give the keys to a powerful car to a 9 year old, so they should never have left us in charge with no supervision. Too late now. We wrecked the car and are in hospital in a coma. However much the dear Doc. might try, we are clinically dead. Someone should pull the plug. And arrange the funeral.
PS: it seems that the more reverends, bishops, archbishops, popes, churches, etc, a country has, the lower the morality of the population.

Well, no, it is not as simple as that, because real life is not as simple as economic theory.
As I wrote above, you are right, only because of the higher propensity to consume of the poor. It is only regressive if that is the case, which in the Bahamas applies to very few people. That is why you can stagger the rates and make it progressive.
Who pays tax in the Bahamas? Lyford Cay, OFB and Albany. Why?
Because they pay enormous property taxes and VAT on what they consume, which tends to be in the ratio of at least 10:1 per household (10 times as much as Bahamian households). Everyone else pays almost dick shit. If you now reverted to an income tax as opposed to consumption taxes, you would be giving these guys a massive tax cut. Because they have no "income". They make ZERO in the Bahamas. They don't even have the right to work, so they cannot have any income, even if they wanted to. Therefore: switch to income taxes and the total take to the Treasury will fall. No doubt about it.

I would love for someone to explain to me how VAT is a regressive tax and unfair on the lower paid. If someone earns B$20,000 and spends it, he pays 7.5% = B$1,500. If someone earns B$100,000 and spends it, he pays the same 7.5% and that is B$7,500. Therefore, it is not regressive, it is flat. It only becomes regressive if people do not spend what they earn. And the proportion of those in the Bahamas is so low, you can count them on the fingers of both hands.
That is why they invented staggered levels of VAT. For example, food could be at 5% and cars at 25%, medical services at 0% and boats at 50%...and so on. You charge more VAT on luxury items and claw back the difference, making it flat at worst and progressive at best.
If you introduce income tax and lower VAT and/or import duties, everyone here out West will open another bottle of champagne. Because no one has any income (mostly retired) and therefore will contribute less overall. In fact, I will wager that total revenue at the Treasury will FALL with the introduction of income tax and the lowering of VAT and/or import duties. But there again, no one ever accused the IMF of knowing local conditions and what will fly and what will not. Pillocks.

I wish I could have conversations with people who can actually read. One thinks that giving someone free land and building materials is "rude" and tother that Long Island and Exuma are in Nassau.

And when that happens I will put it right using my own money and not come crying to you for the thousandth handout in my life. Small difference, right?

Spot on. Give them Crown Land and building materials on Exuma or Long Island. If they want to stay on those God Forsaken rocks, they should be on their own.

A beautiful place? You have obviously never been there. It is a treeless rock in the middle of nowhere. It has nothing. And I mean nothing. You could not give it away for free.