Tribune January 17th
"*The Bahamas is not presently in danger of suffering a US travel advisory over the recent murder spike, a senior hotelier asserted yesterday, adding that it was not yet "a major concern for tourism.*" Robert Sands

My response:
"*Im waiting for the announcement anytime now. Theyve circulated advisories for far less activity*"

Does anyone know anything about the 200 sq acres of mangroves destroyed in Adelaide?

Have you seen children crossing the street at 3PM? It's like an animal herd crossing sometimes. And they take pride in that, all with bright smiles and or I own this road attitudes.

Telling drivers to slow down is one sided. I remember personally being a long line of traffic on BlueHill and Soldier Road going about 5 miles per hour because it was bumper to bumper. This school boy about 13, just randomly darted across the road, if he had walked I would have had more time to react, but he ran. I had to slam on brakes to avoid hitting him and I was barely moving. Then there were the boys who decided to wait till I was 8 feet from them to dart across the Marathon Road dual lane. You find yourself frequently doing this, slamming brakes to avoid irresponsible pedestrians, children and adults. Once again a solution that doesnt fully identify the problem. My solution is to avoid 3PM traffic as much as humanly possible. I think some of these children look at this as a game, literally, let's see how many cars I could beat.

The message needs to be drilled into students that the last thing a driver wants to do is hit anybody. But drivers dont see everything, even if they're aware. They may not be able to stop, even if they try. Accidents dont always end in death or recovery, you could be brain damaged or paralyzed and you can never win a fight with a 1000 pounds of steel. Be smart.

Added to that could "*helpful*" drivers for Gods sake discontinue the practice of stopping and encouraging children to cross at random locations or when the light is green? You're putting everyone in danger

January is a good date. What we supposed to be do again?

I imagine thats how the date selection conversation went

@Bonefish, this is the definition of confusion. A pattern repeated over and over again at finance:

"*Besides the uncertainty over whether the boat registration fee suspension applies to all, Mr Maillis explained that the actions unveiled by Mr Cooper also seemingly mean that no boat owner can licence their vessel until the new fee schedule is published.*

*He added that this creates additional problems that appear not to have been thought through because, unless the vessel is properly registered and paid up-to-date, commercial fishermen and all boat owners will be unable to secure the necessary insurance for their vessels.*

*And current boat registrations are also required for fishermen to renew their Business Licences and commercial fishing licences, Mr Maillis said, meaning the suspension has also created uncertainty in these areas.*

Ill take a leap of faith that Toby Smith had the money, what he didnt have was a signed lease as verbally agreed. With the big combruction over the property it would be foolish of him to put one penny of his investors funds in until said signed lease as promised by Mr Davis was handed over. The next thing that would happen is the govt would give a signed lease to their supporter with all of Toby's infrastructure in place. One thing you can be sure of nobody, literally nobody will pursue a goal for 12 years if they werent committed to it beyond "*talking*"

It's clear the lure of foreign and/or dirty money guh buy and swallow plenty people

"*Sir Baltron, when contacted by Tribune Business in early *November 2022 after the Notarc payments first emerged, denied that they represented any form of financial impropriety, undue influence or conflict of interest. "I would have had no relationship with Notarc,” he told Tribune Business. “I dealt simply with the facts [on Baha Mar] and certainly was not aware of any dealings with Notarc.*

Sir Baltron may have been telling the truth. It's possible he knew nothing of the inner workings of his son's business. No knowledge that a company embroiled in the biggest story at the time and one that he was talking to frequently, maybe on a daily basis on significant and weighty matters, was giving millions to his son for services rendered. That's more than possible.

There's one thing that's likely but still unknown, given what was revealed in the trial and these emails, CCA knew just who Sir Baltrons son was when they sought his services.

On a completely separate note, every Bahamian is familiar with the term *Bag Man*. That's the man with sufficient distance from the negotiation to accept payment without raising too many eyebrows but close enough to ensure it gets to its destination.

"*met today with the Commissioner of Police for the weekly briefing. I’m confident that they are putting in place strategies that we all will be equally confident in*"

He might be the only one confident. Apparently the Commissioner just became curious last week about why ankle monitors aren't providing required tracking. And the new strategy is saturation patrols. I saw a car make a 3rd lane to turn a corner ahead of oncoming traffic on Prince Charles dual carriage on Saturday and guess who was 2nd in line in the oncoming traffic? Correct a police car, they kept on driving.

We've mixed up urban renewal with social services. And doubled down on it. Call these initiatives with grocery bag giveouts, activities for kids like band, activities for seniors what it is, "*Community Outreach*", the right name is the first step to the right goal and the right tasks. When you rename it, then maybe someone will start to think about what real "*Urban Renewal*" means

True! I do not understand much, but I do grasp a little more than you gave me credit for. **Ive said repeatedly**, their upbeat messaging of tourism numbers and rebound and good news all around, does not match their aggressive blood out of stone tax strategy and **we must be hanging off the fiscal cliff by our fingernails**. My exact language. What I am saying here that went completely over your head is, whether the IMF is breathing down our neck or not, who thinks it makes sense to introduce measures that are immediately rolled back and deemed nonstarters? Who doesnt feel the weight of the bad decision on fuel hedging? That certainly was not inline with any IMF advice. Have these decisions solved anything or did they just create an ever increasing ball of confusion?

You know the first action they could take? Eliminate the leaks, the corruption, the over priced contracts, the contracts for shoddy work and the hiring of unqualified party supporters. Do that at minimum, that makes sense. They might actually balance the budget with just that. After that target the people who have the money for additional taxes, that makes sense. And it is completely within their power to do. Dont target the poor fisherman who might be making 2-5k month with a 1000% tax increase. The concessions to the foreign investors reexamine them and eliminate reasonable concessions.