When will we face the elephant in the room?

Since the Pindling government, in a frenzy of exuberant nationalism, kicked all the foreign teachers out of the Bahamas, without a thought to the development of a home grown, qualified alternative staff, our public schools have been broken and they remain broken to this day.

Many of our teachers are semi-literate. Our children for the most part receive a substandard education. We reap the consequences in street violence and a dysfunctional society daily. Until we face the facts we will not solve the problem.

Just as religious texts, specifically including Biblical text was used to support ideas of racial inequality for many hundreds of years.

One would expect that Christian pastors resident in a predominantly "Black" country with a shameful history of slavery, would refuse to resort to such pretexts, but alas, human nature is such.

This can be added to the long, long list of imminent public disclosures this P.M. has promised, that seem to drift off into that La La Land where he permanently resides.

What they "got" was government's quiet promise to stall entry of any competitors into mobile phone market. That means BTC can continue to charge outrageous rates, and deliver perfectly awful service without fear that someone competent will come in and take over their customer base. One more blow for political corruption and the screwing of the Bahamian people.

No doubt and one has to wonder, if getting a majority stake in BTC was so important, can we count on the same level of operating efficiency we have come to expect from BEC now that this campaign promise has been achieved? Of course it is a totally phony statement to say that the government has achieved majority control, but who would wish the government to have majority control of anything? Wonderful prioritization!

And Mr. Pindling was a roll model for good governance?????

Concerned citizen, one can only assume that your suggestion is so reasonable, it is over the head of current government, or more likely it would disturb to many corrupt relationships.

How can any rational person suggest that more public capital should be thrown down the sink hole of BEC????
1. We have power rates that are obscene.
2. We use positively the dirtiest form of energy production known in the civilized world.
3. And, BEC loses millions every year.

Get politics out of the power business. That is our only hope! We should start with letting bidding contracts for this new generation facility to private concerns at an agreed supply cost to BEC,against the winning contractor's right to "take over" - not purchase just take over - BEC at anytime in the next ten years when they will contract to deliver power, at necessary levels, at a fixed rate, which should be pegged off rates in the U.S. The rate might have to be 115% or 120% of U.S. rates but not 300% which is what we pay now for totally unreliable service! Who but a corrupt politician can argue?

Of course this kind of behavior goes on in every human endeavor. If it goes on in a private business, and if as a result the business loses competitiveness, better managed competitors take over the space.

The insoluble problem is when it occurs, as it inevitably must, in government run institutions. There, there is no competition so the bloated, improperly managed, money sucking operation just gets worse and worse.

Ergo rule one: Never do anything under government operation that can possibly be done by a private, for profit, enterprise. BEC anyone?

This is all such a total joke that I cannot believe that responsible people are issuing such statements. We live in a country where the most direct and easily attributable tax obligations are nearly uniformly ignored by a large percentage of the highly educated and economic elites including the heads of government.

In that context purportedly intelligent and serious minded persons are suggesting that the average Bahamian is going to engage in the nearly endless record keeping required and further will "self impose" a very significant tax on himself and his business?

Seriously folks, can't we at least be a tiny bit honest. VAT will be collected and remitted by the same small percentage of large institutions that currently carry the burden for all the foolishness imposed on this country by the corrupt political class.

That means essentially the resort industry. That will make our resort industry less competitive and mean the loss of thousands of jobs. The enforcement of VAT through the rest of the society will be haphazard at best and largely serendipitous. Another "law" that will be honored by being completely ignored. Web shops anyone!

I have received a covert copy of the report, and provide it here in complete detail for Tribune readers:

"Move on. Nothing to see here."