Mr McKinney, do yourself a favour and emigrate for a few years. When your PLP cronies come back to power, I am sure they will find another suitable position for you. Until then (unless you have already stolen enough), you will just have to find an honest job.

I have no argument with anything you say. But I would contend that the problem rests with the current owners of Baha Mar and the Chinese rather than anything to do with the Bahamas. We should keep completely out of it. And the expats should keep us out of it. I have every sympathy for their plight. But it is a lost cause. They got shafted by the Chinese: chalk it up to experience and move on.

I don't know who is advising these people?? Legally they don't have a leg to stand on. This is not bankruptcy and has nothing to do with Baha Mar or bankruptcy. The claims of the Bahamian workers and contractors were SOLD by them for the full amount to a third company, which paid them. Nothing to do with Baha Mar. Get this: Baha Mar was not involved. Basically, they devised a clever way to get around the bankruptcy laws and enable only Bahamians to be paid in full. This was obviously done by the Chinese as some political quid pro quo.
As to the claim that it could not happen in the USA, that is total rubbish. There is no law anywhere in the world to prevent anyone from offering to buy any asset for any price they freely choose to offer. Please stop threatening the Bahamas and vent your anger on the Chinese. But that is slightly harder to do, is it not? Much easier to lie about 400k defenceless people than a nuclear superpower.

I don't think anyone is disputing that sex tourism exists. It's just that this girl obviously was not one of them. Let us try to be civilised and not assume that the "girl led him on" or any such thing. Let the police do their work.

As Banker correctly points out, it is all about availability and cost of capital. The Government should do a deal with the "numbers boys". 75% of their profits should go into a venture capital fund that invests in Bahamian businesses. Let them run the fund. Let them decide who and what to back, with no governmental interference. But invest they must. The money is still theirs, but help the economy they must. They can liquidate the fund at some specified time in the future, say 20 years. This would do much to alleviate just criticism of their role in society and transform the economy.

The idea that Sunburst can compete with Benjamin Moore at any level of duty is fanciful.
As my father used to say: "Son, always buy the best quality product. We are not rich enough to buy crap."

The debt would not be a problem if there was economic growth. The fact that we have been unable to grow GDP for a decade shows the complete lack of vision of our entire political and business classes and the weaknesses of our overall system, which can be best described as crony socialism. Personally, I think there is no way out and that we will have to default at some stage in the near future. But that is just the optimist in me.

Yes, all in all there should be enough money raised for a half decent hog roast on the beach. But only if they invite less than 100 people and buy cheap beer.
Why do you think successive governments have not gone that route? Because if they did, you would see that the fortunes invested in them have turned to peanuts. And then even people like you who think that they are worth something would have to open their eyes to the blindingly obvious.

Anyone who has been there can see there is nothing to recommend. No original restaurants, no bars, no entertainment, no vision.
One final thought: it is the tallest building in the Bahamas. There must be a wonderful view from the top floors, looking toward the Berries. So, what do they do? They put the restaurants in the basement! All there is to be said about their competence.

Having been to Baha Mar, I would suggest that Atlantis has nothing to fear. BM has ZERO appeal to families, with no entertainment whatsoever. BM can only attract conferences and hardened gamblers. That is the totality of its possible appeal. What $4bn was spent on, God only knows.