Thank goodness someone with enough power to be heard is pointing out the intellectually dishonest wording of the findings. In a way what they were saying was once we've decided to give you a bank account 99% of the time we give it to you. But the issue is before this. How long and what is the success rate of the average Bahamian for going from no bank account to a bank account? How long before the bank gives you an appointment and does prescreening? What is that success rate for me walking off the street into a branch today for the first time with no prior contact/arrangements?

But what about the process to get to the application stage? I tried to open a bank account last year in June at CIBC. They said their next available appointment for new account openings was late September (4 months just to get an appointment to apply). Imagine needing your first bank account because you got your first job and need to set up direct pay deposit and the bank says in 4 months you can meet with us so we can determine if you can apply. It's very strange. In the USA and Canada, you can open an account in minutes online. In the 90's in the Bahamas, you could walk into the branch without an appointment and open a bank account the same day. They even used to have promotional bank accounts for kids to have a bank account to save.

Meanwhile, young Bahamian nurses and medical techs are leaving the Bahamas to work in other countries because the pay and the opportunities are inadequate to support a Bahamian standard of living.

No way, I can't believe it

There are Bahamians who can do these jobs; it's just that the government would rather hire immigrants at a lower wage and who have less freedom to speak up for their rights. Bahamians are slowly becoming extinct. How can we accept our government spending our/country's wealth on foreign labour, while I know many nurses and medical staff who left the Bahamas to work in the USA and Canada because the jobs here are not adequate.

Think about it. A tourist without a boat generates economic benefits to Bahamians by:
- renting a vehicle or taxi to get around
- paying for a hotel room or similar (the company selling hotel rooms has to pay to build the hotels and infrastructure (roads, electricity, water, sewage)
- eat at restaurants or buy groceries
- Pay Bahamian businesses for entertainment (jetskis, boat tours, fishing, diving, etc.)

The cruise ship and boat owners:
- load up on fuel, groceries, and supplies in other countries
- entertain themselves for the most part on their boats and sail themselves around
- pay next to nothing on permanent infrastructure that benefits Bahamians

Where does all the sewage and garbage from these boats go? We need to wake up. The trickle-down benefits and economic activity of tourism and benefits to Bahamians are undermined by the boats and cruise ships. Instead of investing long-term into the country (infrastructure, hotels, etc), the tourist and foreign companies load as much supplies as possible in other countries and keep most of the economic activities in their boats. Then sail away when things don't go their way.

Ya'll surprised? This has been going on for decades. Do we have the will to do anything about it? PLP and FNM they're both the same community of people.

Unfortunately when sh*t hits the fan. They use all the money and connections they made to escape. The poor people face the effects alone. Then once the disaster is clear the leeches come back to profit off of the aid and recovery meant for the poor. The young people really need to band together to secure their future. This old generation manages things selfishly like the world should come to an end once they die.

He doesn't need this role to do good things. Instead, contribute as a private citizen and former PM.