We did not expect it to happen "overnight" Mr. Dames. We did expect it to happen long before 46 years of "independence" though. If you pay close attention to the clock on the wall of your office, you will notice the "second hand" keeps going around and around and around and around and ....

Mr. Bowe - please reconsider your position. Bear in mind that a LARGE number of persons in the Bahamas are self employed and a great number are illegally employed. THEY would pay ZERO in income tax the same way they pay zero in National Insurance right now. Many self employed persons undoubtedly under-report their income, or "forget" about some of the cash jobs they do "on the side".

Also bear in mind that the poor pay no customs duties on baby food and baby items (which allows them to more economically produce more poor people), and now recently they pay no VAT on "poor people food" otherwise known as price-controlled items in the food stores.

How much more must we give these people? The poor who come here illegally get even more breaks than our own citizens. Free land, free food (from churches), free lumber (from construction site leftovers), free clothing (from thrift stores) (well, almost free). You ever been on Mackey Street north in the early mornings? I won't mention no name of any place in particular (LOL). When you go to the clinic on Tuesdays you better be prepared to wait LONG, cause all the pregnant women get first priority. You gotta wait on their nasty hips while they sitting there with their other 3 crying infants aged 3, 2, 1 respectively while they wait on the baker (sorry, I mean doctor) to deal with the one "in the oven".

The VAT tax is a very excellent tax (if the price control exemption was removed like it was originally) because it ensures that these (censored word) people PAY at least something. Most of them don't have cars so don't pay no insurance, no car license, no drivers license, and no gasoline tax and no gasoline VAT (which are separate by the way). Wonder how many duty free generators come in those sloops? You ever seen a Customs officer at the dock when one of those sloops comes to tie up? Ever? I mean EVER???

The poor need to start being more concerned about themselves. Stop walking around all day with headphones on listening to RAP and other cRAP and learn something and do something besides drinking smoking and grinding. I don't see why we should pay higher taxes to support their slackness.

Exactly. All WTO will do is replace white slave masters with Chinese slave masters. Bahamians won't even get new shiny shackles. The same old rusty ones 'round ya ankle.

K.P. commenting on secret financial documents is a waste of time. If i apply for a loan the bank wants to see my payslips. But he can stand up and make any claims about the nation's finances and what "payslips" do we see? What bank statement do we see?

Where is the "consolidated fund"? In what bank? What is its balance? Etc. Etc.

Your money is safe good citizen trust me. Dont worry when VAT goes to 15%, my staff are busy preparing a list of excuses that will pacify you at that time.

No. You are wrong. An HOA is not a lease - just like our annual budget tells us nothing about actual government expenditure. Nothing. Not one damn thing. You need to see the actual expenditure one month after the expense is made.
In this case we need to see the lease AND a copy of the first three months rent cheques.

HOA is not a lease. It's just like a handshake.

As the over one million unique readers of this website per annum (alexa dot com stats) are well aware; i am certainly no fan of Q.C. Fredrick R. M. Smith - however, in this case and in this pursuit he is absolutely 100% correct. I hope that he wins the case and is able to keep his shares.

Bahamians are always left as the last dogs to get their bowl of gravy.

"...Commissioner Ferguson suggested it was not his role but rather parliament’s to create protocols his force should follow when inquest juries find officers acted outside the law."

What to do when people act outside the law? Uhm. That's a tough one. A friend of my cousin is a Constable. I will hit him up on Whatsapp and ask him.

I am not against the PLP and in fact i believe that fellas like Davis and Mitchell have done a lot of good things over the years and should be honored for their public service. The only thing is that both them and the FNM have this fetish for taking our money and not telling us what they do with it. It causes people to wonder and speculate (perhaps wrongly) that plenty tiefin going on. Why the secrecy? Maybe there is a good reaaon that we are not allowed to know. Ok. Fine. Then come out and say like we cant disclose our finances because then Jamaica will follow our wonderful model and bring their dollar back on par with the $US and then their people will be ok and then we won't have any strippers in the night clubs.
I mean there's gotta be some reason. Im grabbing at straws here.

Good article Mr. Smith. Glad to know I'm not alone with my swirling thoughts.