Notice I said community not government, F a government they too busy selling us out and keeping us down to check for the state of the average citizen and nation as a whole.

RIP Kurt my friend and may God bring some comfort to your family. If this don't drive some real community wide action to develop workable solutions to crime nothing will..

My final points on this subject are that Wealthy European and the descendants dominance of global affairs, culture and economics for 500+ years through colonialism and economic imperialism has left all people of color globally fighting with image of self. For many years I too was opposed the concept of reparations; on the grounds direct payment for Billions to descendants of slaves many of whom are emotionally and mentally crippled would not resolve their underlying problems created by the residual effects of slavery and the racial discrimination that followed. Let us remember the European slave owners looked at plantations and slavery as purely an economic venture and demanded compensation for the lost of their slaves and were reward for it from the billions from the coffers of their governments who collected mountains of taxes and fees off the exports of these farms. Yet some how many of you refuse to see ANY monetary value in the centuries of "FREE" labor that was provided by the African slaves, and need to compensate for the residual effects of leaving millions of them psychologically broken in these foreign lands with no capital and in many cases landless and dispossessed unable to truly fend for themselves and still having to be subservient to their former overseers.. Also that the wealth of the former colonies generated is still being perpetuated and held by the European nations that exploited these lands and people, it didn't evaporate or dissipate over the years; in fact the financiers and land holders still getting richer off of it. So there is monies in their coffers for these payments to be paid or at least the judgement/settlement to stand as a symbol of the restorative justice.

Further more when at the time Europeans finally came to understand the abhorrent moral injustice slavery was and decided to end it the world was moving toward an industrial age where these former small island colonies had little chance of being major players economic globally or even succeeding economically for the majority of their inhabitants.
What many of us forget is that these colonies were developed to benefit the select few wealthy absentee land owners, international merchant traders, their financial backers and the Kings and Queens of Europe not for poor European peasants or laborers who came to these colonies seeking their fortunes after slavery, and certainly not for us of African heritage who have been left behind. So as our tiny nations struggle to find real economic relevance merely 40-50 years after they divorced us through so called independence due to the fact we become to expense to maintain without "FREE" slave labor and plantation exports to tax, we should aggressively pursue getting some monetary re-payment for our forefathers and mothers exploitation and use it to further our difficult development in to viable economic entities for a majority of our inhabitants not just a select few.

One of most devastating and lingering effects of slavery and colonialism is the self hatred and low image of self that still prevails in this country among the descendants of those enslaved. No amount of money can heal that, but some well placed resources used to place an emphasis on exposing and eradicating it through education can begin to minimize the effects.
We can't deny the dynamics of subtle psyche repeated almost everyday on this website and in our culture of Europeans/white= beautiful, ethical, pristine, superior cultured, wealthy, godly, intellectual etc... Africans/blacks= untrustworthy, brutish, savage, sexually charged, intellectually inferior, ugly etc.
With those undertones comes the sense that criminal behavior is inherently part of black culture so rather than it being viewed as socio-economic symptomatic we refuse to rehabilitate many offenders and say let's punish them. We refuse to invest in real education of our predominantly black poorer youth and then point to their lack of intellectual achievement as evidence of they are inherently inferior and lastly we revere foreign ideas and visions for our nation i.e. particularly that of Europeans and their descendants as superior and any brought forward by blacks as inferior or nefarious.
In the end look at the vitriol that most on this site spew at even the thought of reparations; even though the slave masters were compensated monetarily( the equivalent of Billions of today's $s) for their lost of free labour source by the UK government at the ending of slavery. I guess that was considered a good business/economic decision. Yet any talk of compensation for those who were ripped from their homeland, psychologically abused and broken through seasoning (the systematic process of prepping new slaves to be more amiable to their condition), religiously brainwashed to believe a blond hair blue eyed god wanted them in this inferior position and traumatized to the point they and their descendants view themselves as inherently inferior to their former masters and ugly, you'll scream why should they get a dime.

Let's get it straight France can demand reparation for the lost of their colony and slaves in Haiti to the tune of Billions of dollars; which were paid up until the 20th century and crippled that state. Yet if the former colonies and slaves sue for their exploitation by the from their former European masters whose wealth is still being enhanced from the money the extracted from these colonies and off the backs of the free labor it is wrong?

If that is your logic the European and his descendants who have dominated the globe through brutal force, coercion and corruption for past 500 years are truly an evil and sick people determined to keep the balance of power slanted in their favor if they believe they are the only ones entitled to compensation for being unfairly divested of their holdings and rights.

The former PM needs shut the hell up and to stop kowtowing to foreign investors after he eviscerated the local business community through his Stop, Review & Cancel policy, poorly implemented road works disaster and NIB targeted witch hunt during an unprecedented economic recession. Those of you making excuses for his incompetence in taking those misguided actions only adversely affected Bahamians so that makes it okay; need to seek immediate psychological help for the low self-esteem issues you suffer from.
If Baha Mar has a legitimate grievance with the government's assessed value of the road works then show through credible documented appraisal the cost of the work is worth what they claim. For the agreement if it was negotiated in a fair and equitable manner has to have a clause that gives the government the right to reasonably assess the value of the works and the investor a mechanism to seek redress(Through arbitration, mediation or the judicial system) if it's differs from theirs significantly. For with out that then the foreign investor holds the upper hand to gain a unfair profit by inflating the actual cost of works completed and is merely taking advantage of we the Bahamian people once again.

Another Red Herring by the Tribune; upset their kinsmen and women may suffer the same treatment as the lowly Jamaican or Haitian illegal worker is subjected to all the time with utter silence from the press. In Cayman and Singapore two thriving banking centers there are stricter work permit rules yet there isn't any mass hysteria from the press or irrational outcry by their banking sectors when officers come to places of work and extract illegal white collar employees of European origin. In fact in Cayman they call you just before your permit is up tell to be prepared to leave the island on said date and check to see if you're gone at your place of residence and work if no record of your leaving is in their system. We need to assign an officer to every permit track them as intently as these jurisdiction do, and then you’ll see who has been breaking the law all along.

1) I agree whole heartily with Wayne's position; this the utmost example of being hypocritical by Bahamians who claim to oppose gambling in the name of saving their fellow man from destruction if they aren’t as equally outraged at this bill.

2) I told all who would listen online and mobile gaming is coming globally. It is just whether we will have a real stake in the profits made from our shores or just wish to stand in long lines looking for jobs in the industry that will most likely go to foreign IT managers and online/mobile App developers..

3) Tribune please stop distorting the truth, because less than 30% of the eligible voters voted NO so it was not an overwhelming majority of Bahamians. Who really knows what most Bahamians think about the issue since they didn’t bother to show up.

If true a 50/50 split on revenues would be acceptable to me only if we're not footing the bill for anything over than oversight and regulation. If you firmly believe Bahamians can achieve real factors of wealth and tax streams to support a growing underclass and shrinking middle class by simply staying the course with an outdated economic model consisting of a dying banking industry and diminishing returns from low paying jobs in tourism then by all means let's pass on oil as a potential windfall to grow and develop our sovereign wealth. Don't kid yourselves BPC is just like all other foreign direct investment that come to our shores they're only here to make money for themselves and their investors. We need to decide if we want to standby and watch Cuba to beat us to the punch. For once they set up their oil rigs off our coast and exposes us to the same risk of contamination as if we did it ourselves, but they only caveat in that scenario will be we won’t be getting any of their proceeds from those wells.

Here we go with the smoke and mirrors show, the FNM will waste countless days and months and years trying to give the Bahamian people the perception there is some sort of inherently corrupt dealings by the PLP here. All the while when their conflicts of interest arise from their financial benefactors and traditional merchant class big law firms getting the choice clients they see nothing wrong with it. The PLP’s frontline politicians and few well placed cronies are now feeding at the trough, when for 5 years the FNM's big money local and foreign backers ate like hogs they were silent. All the while one sided deals that really don't benefit one iota the average Bahamian and small to medium business owners keep getting cut by both of them. Let's stay focus on the ball folks, for IF oil is there to be discovered we should be concern about:
1. What % of each barrel extracted are the Bahamian people going to get in royalties?
2. Will there by a sovereign investment fund established to manage and grow said receipts?
3. Will Bahamians be trained in technical high paying fields to get more than just token employment from it?
4. What emergency contingency plans and funds will be put in place to combat an accidental spill and what automatic punitive damages will be triggered and assessed to any oil company responsible so as to compensate for damage to the environment and/or economy (don’t want to be haggling over that after it happens)?
5. What kind of regulations will be passed to govern this industry and who will be brought in and eventually train Bahamians to be responsible for enforcing them.
6. Will any residual LNG or refined oil products be made available for local markets eventually so as to lower or eliminate our dependency on imported energy sources?

Once these basic questions are answered I’ll be satisfied, because whether it was or will be Davis & Co., Gibson & Co., Graham Thompson, Alexiou, Knowles & Co., Higgs & Johnson. Mckinney, Bancroft & Hughes, PWC, Deloitte, Baker Tilly Gomez, Grant Thornton etc…. none of us everyday folks will be getting any of those exorbitant legal and consulting fees anyways.