Tal as far as Mr. Gibson is concerned, you have it on the nose one more time! Mr. Miller is doing what he can to bring sanity to this situation. The power rates in Bahamas-land are breaking the back of the economy while the government loses millions, and yet no one supports Mr. Miller's efforts to enforce efficiencies. Unnecessarily high electricity rates are killing jobs and opportunity for our youth. Does Mr. Gibson care? Of course not. He cares about the votes of a special interest group.

Right on Tal. And the PM now tells the union agents, he is going to give Mr. Miller a talking to? You can't make it up.

If it were not for the horrendous impact this BEC fiasco has on the entire economy and on our tens of thousands of unemployed, this would be fodder for comedians.

BEC is dead broke. Everyone including the PM and the union knows that. It is dead broke because for years and years it has been used as a political feeding trough. Now the end has been reached; there is no money to be borrowed and there is no money in the treasury; and, Mr. Miller is doing his valiant best to restore sanity. I have not read one comment from a senior administration official seriously backing up his efforts.

Now the PM is going to take him to the woodshed for telling the simple and obvious truth? There is no more money. Power rates in the Bahamas are strangling the economy and even at current extortive rates, BEC is losing millions. In that context the union is having a hissy fit because it's members cannot get more than 100% of their salaries when they call in sick? Over that the union is threatening to shut down the entire economy? You can't make this up!

When will the Bahamian people demand that the BEC be privatized so we can get this impossible situation under control? Politicians cannot be trusted to operate such a critical industry sanely. Ergo the PM is going to give Mr. Miller and not the union leaders a talking to. Please, say it ain't so!!!

Proposed Option:

Simple sales tax at 4 - 5% rate on all sales of services or goods, eliminating from coverage, residential rent, food and medical. Areas already taxed to be exempted or a credit provided, such as real estate transfers which are already taxed at 10 - 12%.

VAT requires very sophisticated accounting and record keeping that quite frankly is not going to be possible at the current level of Bahamian business sophistication. The cost of compliance in our society and the level of consequential avoidance, will more than eliminate the fairness advantages of a VAT regime, over a straight point of sale, sales tax regime.

Of course the first effort should be the reduction of the bloated bureaucracy, but as that is politically impossible revenue is needed. However, VAT will prove an unworkable nightmare here.

Wonderful bit of history. Many thanks for this feature.

Hilarious. Thanks

John, Who is "we" and who is "they"? By the way what exactly would you do if you didn't have Lyford Cay as an image to which you could irrationally ascribe all evil?

Does "we" include descendants of slave owners living in caricom countries? There are tens of thousands of them you know.

At what level of descent do you feel someone remains responsible for the acts of his antecedents? Are responsible for the acts of you father? Does it go back to Biblical times?

Who is "they"? Does it include the millions of descendants of slaves who live in the U.K. and pay taxes there?

This is a joke, and a typical waste of time in office by Comrade Fred.

Doesn't everyone know that all these people hand wringing about this Bimini project are really just pawns or paid agents, engaged in a huge conspiracy involving the introduction of Cane Toads to Lyford Cay; in order to introduce flesh eating bacteria into the Bahamas; in order to drive out current residents so the evil doers can buy up all the land; in order to stop Mr. Nygard's humanitarian efforts to replace western medicine with stem cell belly injections; in order to.....

Oh, I forget the rest of it, but whatever it is, it is really complicated and really bad and really racist and really something we need to do something about, so stop already with these complaints about the destruction of the seabed.

Let's see. We will tax the descendants of slaves who live in Great Britain, France and the Netherlands in order to pay restitution to the descendants of slave owners living in the Caribbean Region. Oh, wait a minute, that seems inappropriate.

We will do extensive genealogical research on every resident of the three miscreant nations to identify 1. all descendants of those who profited from slavery; and, 2. the residents of the Caribbean nations who descended from slave owners, and only they will pay taxes, and all current residents of those nations who were descended from slaves will receive a share of the proceeds. Oh, wait a minute that would be scientifically impossible and undoubtedly many of the people tested would be descended from both slaves and slave owners. Oh my!

We will identify all species who were left off the Ark when Noah tried to save the earth during the forty days and forty nights of rain, using modern cloning techniques.

Now that is a good idea!

Agree. Great line Tal!