Name the crooked bastards. That is half the problem in this country.
No shame, no shaming. No frigging real pride either. Yin and yang, cannot exist without each other.
So few can stand tall in this country with impunity.

Waxing eloquent while having presided over a good part of the fiscal disaster we now face.
It is this fiscal mess that warrants Increased taxation, not "Fashion"
Having a long standing Tax avoidance vein running through most Bahamian bodies
Right alongside the main artery of Political corruption, instituting an income tax will cause a re-flight of Bahamian capital. Re- because it has always been desirable to have accounts offshore. (exactly the opposite of the "service" we have traditionally provided in sheltering)

Funny, the IMF and Government touted VAT as the replacement for reduced duty rates.....
Short memories as to which lies they've fed us apparently.
As to Government finance, a large sieve leaking through holes of all description,
and the solutions is to pour more money into it.
Right.
The solution is to reduce financial leakage, Shrink the civil service by 35%, kill these stupid initiative killing Welfare programs and handouts, teach fiscal responsibility the hard way!
Duty rates must be replaced with something but adding new forms of tax is not an answer,
it is a bandaid for incompetence and the ultimate failure of self determination.
Glad my country keeps me broke.

"All other authorised donations will be deemed a gift to the government and will be received and distributed by NEMA."
and thus, all those who would have contributed and donated, then walked away........
And what have we heard of FEMA in the U.S? Could it be they have learned that self help and the private efforts of people will always run circles around Government intent?

I have never seen a poly float cracked or even if cracked disgorge the foam within.
I seriously believe they used plain old white polystyrene blanks under there.
Which fragged cause it was already breaking down.

I too noticed the flight prices John, Florida to anywhere else USA, skyrocketed via the airlines price demand/weighting algorithms. Bahamas outbound flights probably followed suit.
If Bahamasair did it, the Government aught to prosecute itself for gouging!
Jet Blue caught themselves and offered $99 flights out of Fla to anywhere USA.
Those flight jacking software algorithms aught to be suspended in a situation such as that. (the mass exodus from Florida, east and west coast)

"I have said time and time again that the imf, oecd, idb, World Bank, Moody's, S&P, etc. etc. all have a connected common agenda to destabilize........."
Yes Wellmudda, and we have been borowing an average of 50 million/year from the IMF alone, for the last 40 years. Plus grants and funding from all the others. So all of Minister Mitchells cries of sovereignty could only have been for Local consumption......
VAT, Income, capital gains, all have been on the schedule since at least 2007, but our successive governments have kicked the can down the road while treating the public like mushrooms.
"This reminds me of a discussion Zhivargo Laing...." And who do you think "negotiated" and signed onto to all of this on our behalf Thisisours?
But wait, it gets better! Remember all those TIEAS we signed with 40 odd countries?
And remember a finance Ministry official saying words to the effect" while there is no benefit at this time to the Bahamas...." He gave the game away, but no one even noticed!
Do you not think the Bahamas Government has been asking all those countries what assets Bahamians own in foreign lands? I can tell you they have. And they see a huge pot of taxable $$.
Reciprocity, I tell you, you tell me. So, where you gonna run to now? Nicaragua? North Korea?
There is a financial storm coming that will make Irma seem like a summer squall !!
(with no slight or minimization intended to those countries so devastated)

The PM may have the right idea, but I do not see him surrounded by the people needed to make it happen. I pray I'm wrong, but sure seems we are still on the road of good intentions....
you know where that leads.

Open non encapsulated polystyrene was used under the floating docks?
Who allowed that? That was an environmental disaster waiting to happen, as polystyrene beaks down fast/crumbles in the environment.

Me thinks Government and the Consumer Protection commission had better be damn sure
of their information and facts before they accuse or name any companies or individuals, but by all means if they can prove it then publish names. The public aught to have a right to know.
Meanwhile, we are still waiting for the definition of hoarding, as defined or mentioned in any act.
Another word for hoarding is preparing, or making provisions for the future, something the Government has zero knowledge or experience in obviously.