Shame on the Tribune and Rashad Rolle for this terrible article!
Our kids are still taught abstinence instead of sexual education, we have no legal abortion procedure, conservatives vilify family planning, the government fails to change any of this....and yall point at the pharmacy's? The people trying to help families, even at legal risk. They even direct them to doctors to make sure they're ok and you say it like it's a bad thing!
This isn't journalism, this is pathetic.

You een serious.
1) The Newsweek article you listed acknowledges climate change. Did you even read it? Nature Communications and every other scientific publication would never take a climate change denier seriously or publish their findings- this research is about volcanic carbon in addition to human activities.
2) You either deny that humans are producing carbon and destroying habitats at record numbers, or that such record activities have no measurable effect on the climate. Both are contrary to the data:

- Here's NASA explaining Climate Change: https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/
- Here's 13 US Federal Agencies: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/clim…
- Here's a non-profit environmental group: https://www.edf.org/climate/9-ways-we-k…
- Here's an independent study in a science journal: https://scitechdaily.com/study-strength…

You have to be willfully ignorant to deny climate change. Time to do some research, grow up and take responsibility for the roles we play in ruining our environment. I tired of yall.

Modernizing the economy shouldn't mean allowing the WTO to remove regulations that benefit local companies over much larger foreign entities (duty, FDI taxes, local preference, etc). These regulations exist because these foreign companies have billions; they won't compete with Bahamians, they'll bankrupt or buy us.

Fiji Water, founded by a Canadian, purchased by Americans and headquartered in Los Angeles, takes more than they make for Fiji. Just research them.
They have tried to avoid taxation and local employment since being founded, and they laid off 40% of their employees in 2008 after Gov tried to make them pay duty. Just what the Bahamas needs, another foreign company extracting resources and avoiding contribution.

"securing overseas market access for Bahamian exports" - what exports?
"We may not be a manufacturer at the moment, but look at Fiji" - Another Bahamian eager to sell natural resources to foreign entities at the expense of Bahamians. Shouldn't we manufacture goods before trying to export manufactured goods?

"It’s going to make a major difference for foreign direct investment, and make The Bahamas more competitive in the long-run."
Competitive with who? Making Bahamian companies compete with each other is very different from making Bahamian companies compete with billionaire transnational corporations. Massive international companies will open up shop in the Bahamas without any counterbalance to protect Bahamians. Disney can compete with local tourist operations, Walmart competes with Kelly's, the big dog vs. the little dog- and we know who wins. The idea that consumers will benefit from Walmart prices ignores the reality that many consumers will be out of a job due to unfair competition.

WTO benefits big corporations, not small nations- do ya homework and modernize the economy without selling the country!

Bey I can't let you do slice bread like dat.
Ignoring the fact that Trump is a white supremacist (Idk why you'd want to ignore that, but aight):
He lies frequently, he's sexist, xenophobic, and dumb enough to look at the sun. He doesn't know the contents of The Bible but claims to be Christian, discriminates against non-Christians, and uses Christianity to attack groups who oppose him. He's actively supporting the destruction of his own planet's environment, ignorant of climate change and generally-nonscientific. He's greedy, misinformed and proud of it. He's an orange white supremacist and wears a blonde weave that ain foolin nobody.
He's one of the worst leaders for global (or national) well-being, and how dare you insult slice bread like dat.

Marx was right, as are you. Religion is the opium of the masses, because dogma is ignorance. I agree with you that addiction is a risk that business's have a responsibility not to perpetuate/exploit, and that people are worth more than money. But the data from countries that have legalized sex work shows a tremendous societal benefit: safety for workers, payment regulations, being able to monitor addiction or malpractice, and taxing the profits. No problem enjoying base desires as long as its consensual.

That's a bad comparison, murder is a violent crime, sex is not. Any violence, wrongdoing or disease in sex work is a result of it's criminality; legalizing would help reduce/end this.

Truth. Sex workers are the ones hurt in the industry, and legalizing/regulating/taxing the trade would greatly improve their safety, payment and sanitation. Tax bonus aside, we have no moral grounds to prohibit people from doing something that doesn't harm anyone. 'Victimless crime' is a synonym for arbitrary limitation (generally due to national or religious dogma). No victim = no crime.

You know Perry lying when he says "my wife showed me a clip". Perry een never with his wife. #WheresPerrysWife?

Typical government passing the blame.
Mr. Bannister - you are a minister, you are part of the government, the responsibility for any legislative action within your ministry falls on you!
I'll bet my bottom dollar Mr. Sands did send the letter and is, like everyone in the country, waiting on government. Regardless of Mr. Sands actions, it should be clear that the government cannot rely on private individuals to do their job and organize legislation.

For the long term:
1) **Improve The Standard of Bahamian Education.**
This includes higher quality teachers and faculty (making it harder to become a teacher at government schools and/or hiring higher caliber foreign teachers), higher pay and respect for those teachers (respect via more national recognition, ALWAYS paying them), a thorough review of the educational curriculum in government schools.

2) **Rehabilitative Prison System.**
As much as some Bahamians are in favor of capital punishment, years of data in almost every country on earth shows that the death penalty doesn't lower murder rates at all. In the US, states with a death penalty have had a higher murder rate for 22 consecutive years than those without. What has been shown to work well is rehabilitative prison systems. This would mean changing Fox Hill from a dilapidated human rights violation into a modern, rehabilitative correctional facility. Norway, for example, has one of the lowest recidivism rates (meaning inmates don't return after leaving) in the world, and has seen a massive decline in crime since implementing its "restorative justice", meaning that inmates focus on righting their wrong rather than just being punished for it.

*Although this just skims the surface of only a few solutions, all of these suggestions have sufficient data to back them up if you have the time to research them.