This would be funny, if not so sad.

We are witnessing the rapid decline of democracy throughout the world.
There is little to no debate about this in modern scholarship..
And, the fact that our Parliament here in The Bahamas is less "contentious" than other locales, could have many different explanations, other than a tendency towards civility.
What if they are all crooks with the same ill intent towards The People? What if they all have lunch together, never once discussing how they can make The Bahamas a better place? Instead only talking about what they can get for themselves. Is this naive to believe possible?
To me, there is little to suggest that our political systems, our media, and our educational cores are not being dumbed down.
Look at the British, U.S. and Bahamian coverage of the Gaza genocide, compared to the global media. Deplorable.
Has the Tribune ever condemned Tony Blair or George Bush for being war criminals? Is there any doubt to a thinking person that they are? And, how about Bibi Netanyahu?

So, what happened, Editor, that we can and should celebrate the inner workings of our so-called democratic institutions while looking clear-eyed at the complete and utter ongoing failures in the world around us, especially so close to home?

Sea level rise is accelerating. The Bahamas is one of the lowest lying island nations in the world, putting our very existence at great, great risk. The Bahamas is deeply in debt, and soon to be squeezed by the international lending agencies. Mark my words. The most vulnerable in our society will bear the greatest burden. The Sea Surface Temperatures are rising which will lead to stronger and more frequent hurricanes, not to mention a likely major disruption to our fisheries, while watching coral bleaching affecting the entire world. Perhaps it would be instructive to look at how many of our valuable marine species rely on our coral reefs. The Bahamian government cannot keep the lights on, the water on, and provide acceptable communications now in 2024. We know that every State Owned Enterprise in this country has been sucked dry and is on the verge of collapse. bpl, nib, Road Traffic, Water & Sewerage, Public Works, Bank of Bahamas, and the list goes on, yes?. The Tribune is shackled in their ability to provide sunshine to the people of The Bahamas because we have no effective Freedom of Information Act.

Editor, while I agree with the idea of Opposition, .that opposition must be intelligent, well-educated, moral, and prepared to work for The People. Instead, it seems to me that we continue to elect people who have none of these characteristics, and there are precious few who are speaking up and raising objection to this political catastrophe.

With all due respect editor, I beg to differ with your assessment of "Our vibrant and well-tested Parliamentary democracy".

Editor, you state, "Human beings are naturally competitive."
Please provide proof for this statement.
Sociological and anthropological research shows clearly that humankind is innovative and adaptive, suggesting that there may be little to be called "natural" in our behaviour.
It is also well understood that we would not be occupying the top of the food chain without an immense amount of cooperation over the eons.
While I am pleased to see healthy competition in sports, why would we make it totally competitive to simply make ends meet and to feed our families? Is this just?
I am suggesting that we have it all wrong.
I would claim that The Bahamas is failing spectacularly and that we will likely see a national collapse in our children's lifetime. This is especially due to the fact that we have allowed politics to distract us from our most pressing needs.
We can influence how competitive people become in life, by how we raise them. However, under our failed economic system of Capitalism, competition becomes the most important element of our survival, to the detriment of all else.
It is a real disgrace that we have lost our ability to imagine. For all the world has produced throughout history, everyone could and should be wealthy. Instead, we have allowed, yes allowed, as we have created this system of a dog eat dog world, to persist. Does it fit in with your idea of democracy, editor, that literally a handful of people control our food, our education, our means of production, our information sources, our health systems, every political system in the world, nearly every aspect of our lives?
Is this democracy to you, and are we moving further away from the likelihood of war, nuclear annihilation, climate catastrophe, fiscal security?
Is this your idea of democracy?
What I claim, is that we are witnessing a global dumbing down of the world's people, yielding a political system that mirrors the shallow populism and tribalism created and fostered by the world's elites.
This is by design. This is NOT natural.
Please study "divide and conquer".
Is it prudent to use the U.S., Great Britain, and The Bahamas as examples of workable democracies? In my eyes, all of these are failing spectacularly.
Editor, how could one miss the fact that money rules the world and that "the people" have less and less say about what goes on in their lives each year that passes?
Is this democracy, by definition? Absolutely not.

Look at all these comments about politics in The Bahamas.
What some call divide and conquer flies swiftly over our heads.
What change has ever come about by voting here?
Look at any statistic concerning the current state of this country.
Economic, social, educational, fiscal. criminal, judicial
So, what is it that could be attributed to this unmitigated and complete national failure?
Does anyone think this is a healthy country poised to offer such promise to our kids?
Some, such as myself, must call it for what it is. We are circling the drain.
Decade after decade, we continue to choose people who enrich and engorge themselves on OUR money. They steal it by a thousand cuts.
And yet, what gets us engaged are a bunch of people who have gotten us to where we are today. No real solutions, (read PM's comments on BPL today's Tribune), just more empty words.
So, Tribune commenters, why are we still in this lowly state of affairs where a handful of people are enriching themselves while the rest of us scramble to make it at all.
Is it that we just can't find the right "leaders", or, is there a much deeper social explanation for our unarguable failure as a nation?

So Mr. Bowe, there's no difference between "holding your cards close to your chest" and deliberate deceit?
You running for office?

Perhaps those who have been in government, and did little, could consider this karma.

Sorry John,
Let me try again.
The police do not have the educational background to truly understand the reasons for crime.
Simple.
And, I notice that we are, as a population, not well versed educationally on all matters. Economic, social, political. The reasons for crime are mostly economic. Still waiting for some of our leaders and educators to say so.
The police are not scholars on crime. They merely clean up the mess.
How is that logic hard to follow? And what you write above makes little to no sense.

When you go into the hospital and a patient has died, do you ask the janitor how that person died?
When we ask the police to help solve crime, aren't we doing the same thing?
The police are only there to clean up the mess.
They have neither the information or education required to answer intelligently..
Like politicians, they can only speak about things they know little about.
Otherwise, given the loud pronouncements of both the police and our politicians, we should have seen some improvement in our crime statistics. Yes?

"Regulators yesterday said they are seeking to gain “a deeper understanding” of what caused Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) holiday weekend woes that were not confined just to New Providence"
A deeper understanding? WTF?
Start with a decent high school education for all leadership roles in this country.
It is amazing what a little bit of learning will do for achieving results

The government of The Bahamas and BPL are complete and utter failures.
Sack the entire lot and start over.
Year after year after year the same stupid bull comes out of these losers mouths.
Shut up and fix the problem.
Same with useless URCA.