No. They are human beings no different from us. We dont have to support illegal activity but we do not promote torture or state aided "disappearances"

God grant us grace that we ever need Haiti as a refuge to understand that destitute does not make you sub-human

same man who 2 minutes ago said there was no crisis. #visionless

We jumping up and down for the wrong things. What they should be reporting is what those tourists say anout their experience. More people coming to talk about how dirty and boring the place is is a leading indicator for business dropoff

More water flowing in the bucket but the tiny whole at the bottom growing by a millimeter every month

This is crazy, either way. The govt wants us to believe, true or not, that there was a company collecting millions for the govt for months without remitting any payments and that they were completely unaware. But they know exactly how much Pookie in Bain town getting for his one bedroom AirBnb efficiency. Why would locks not be placed on the company's front door and all bank accounts frozen immediately?

Oh, right.. I forgot FTX was also licensed under the *rigorous Bahamian regulatory framework*

And an the other hand, if this turns out to be another *misspeak* by the speech writer...

I wouldnt necessarily say the hotels are *jealous*. But I believe your theory is correct. They've complained publicly many times about the taxes they have to pay but vacation rentals dont. But It's not a matter of jealousy, its business, they see revenue bleeding because of the presence of a competitor and they see that competitor having an unfair advantage. I think it's a skewed view, because while vacation rentals did not pay VAT they as also dont get the import concessions hotels do, they dont get to run up massive electricity bills.

I dont think the vacation rental market isnt all good either. I just dont like the way govt rushes in with surface level enthusiasm either way. I do remember the govt pushing many campaigns to encourage Bahamians to get into the sector partnering with airbnb to list properties etc. But again it's a total misunderstanding of economic tradeoffs because what did that do? It sent domestic rental prices through the roof, it cut the domestic rental inventory dramatically. I'm not saying it's bad I'm just saying our govt does too many things led by mediocre MPs with very little analysis.

Now they're going after agriculture, which is great but I wonder if in the process if they will destroy real farmers and end up with opportunists running farms for profit but very little farming intelligence. Same as happened with payment providers and Sand dollar.

Well... it een working from the inside so... (I say that in jest)

"***only $4m in fee income was collected by Seaz Pass during the 16 months it was operational**. Mr Maury, who revealed that all parties including the ABM, Ministry of Finance and Omni, received weekly statements showing how much was collected from the portal, said he - like Tribune Business - had also been informed by the payments provider of its position that zero monies are owed to the Government.*"

*Mr Wilson, though, confirmed that “the primary reason” **the Government demanded Seaz Pass’s closure** was its belief that paid fee income was not being handed over. “Omni never remitted the funds to the Treasury. We’re trying to negotiate with them. So far we are down, **based on our calculations, over $5m**,” the financial secretary told this newspaper.*

**Can the parties please stop playing games?** Theres a report with all the vessels coming in. Theres a standard fee per vessel type. Theres a bank wire of funds going to the treasury. **Since the PM made a public accusation the public is due a reconciliation report from the ministry of finance.**

**Barring the govt being responsible and producing a reconciliation report, if the parties value their good name, they'd publish their own report**

"*Businessman Bruce Raine, who told Tribune Business he decided to quit the sector after it became clear the former Minnis administration was targeting it for extra revenue*"

Good idea, every govt that's come to power in the last 15 years seems set on gobbling up any lucrative sector of the economy before it even has a chance to get out of infancy. Its like they have very little understanding of or appreciation for economic trade offs. They just see plus signs

*1 in 10* doesnt give an accurate description. That's only 4 people. It would be better to hear about the quality of the disclosures and possibly an auditing of a randomly selected set of the disclosures by various weight classes like budget of the ministry, length of time in parliament. And start with what these disclosures are supposed to do, so trending assets vs salary. That would give us better quality information. Pray for the day we have a PM who actually hold their party to that standard

And to be fair to the MPs the process is invasive. Noone probably enjoys it, noone would like it, but it's a necessary part of being granted power over billions of dollars of public funds and contracts. Theres probably a need for better training of everyone who gets it in their head that they could be an MP because they love the country and they want to help or they look good in a suit, this is a tough job and not many of them are prepared for it, have the mental capacity to handle it or the service mindset.

Isnt this always the case. The IDB needs to give us the 30 year breakdown of how much money they lent us and which objectives were actually ever met