No, not "Wow", and not *"anything to blame Dr Minnis*". In **reality** they started planning for this expo more than a year in advance (at least). You cannot just wake up 4 months ahead and pull everything together. If you cant realize that youve never had to conduct a planning exercise. Check the sustainability objectives I mention in the next note, you'd be fooling yourself talking about preparing in 4 months. Each by itself is a multiyear project

Btw Im not FNM or PLP either. In fact, on the evening of May 10th 2017 I said to a friend, *for the first time in a long time I have hope*... Ive since apologized to @Tal and @tribanon

cnn.com -

"*data from New York is offering a glimmer of hope.*

*The state is "turning the corner on the winter surge," Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday.*
*After a peak positivity rate of 23% on January 3, it's now 16.3% and Covid-19 hospitalizations have also started to decline, she said at a news conference*"

So, signals from multiple intl locations say the Omicron cycle "should" be much shorter than previous cycles. Time will tell. **For goodness sake can we learn something this time? Can we not start rejoicing because Omicron is gone, throw all BORDER caution to the wind only to start ripping our clothes, covering ourselves in ashes and gnashing our teeth when the tourists bring the next variant?** Can we at least remain vigilant and cautious knowing theyre the most likely trigger for a possible 6th wave? The biggest opportunity for this to happen would be an exponential tourust party, i.e. carnival. Ministry of Tourism, dont be surprised

How can you tell the travel visa "works? Tge objective was to ensure only persons with valid COVID tests enter the Bahamas. They have no way to validate every test. How is that "working?

Havent they realized yet that exponential spikes in tourism have a high probability of bringing new variants? The new variants (to date have) caused like spikes in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. All of which then cause a slowdown in tourism due to CDC action, updated policies and consumer behaviour.

"*if you love it let it kill you*"? That describes tourism in the COVID era

the whole world is in the Dubai, Christians, muslims buddhists, atheists..

A wise man one said to me, dont be mad when the man come with his agenda, that's his job, make sure you have yours

**The themes of the expo were clear, yet noone's said anything about Bahamian innovations and innovative approaches to empower people disadvantaged for decades or bolster our infrastructure. In 2022, we still showing them that we could create straw bags and dance**. Again, nothing wrong with showcasing beautiful talent but we have brains in this country. Showcase that. Why didnt MINNIS have a national competition to select the best innovations?

**We are in the sustainability quadrant. We could have featured the company growing coral, we could have talked about innovative island style approaches and plans to regrow mangroves, construct drainage systems to correct decades old flooding problems in the country, plans to ensure every home had running water and proper sewerage systems**, plans to redistrict and beautify Nasssau, plans to revive GB Abaco and Ragged Island all devastated by monster hurricanes and get investors on board with that. Those are sustainability goals, thats what they wanted to hear. Instead we sent a marching band. And you cant just speak the idea you have to spend years actually creating a path to a viable solution and demonstrating how the solution has an impact on the lives of Bahamians at large. Minnis was busy trying to sell off nature reserves to Oban and oil drilling rights to BPC

We cant grow this country just by listening to "young" people, only 450k of us, we need everybody involved

Yes there's a huge difference between what was budgeted and what was spent and where it was spent

"*The themes of Expo Dubai will include opportunity – freeing the potential of individuals and communities to create a better future, mobility – innovative logistics, transport and communication systems for people, goods and ideas, sustainability – accessibility and resilience of environmental, energy and water resources.*"

**I have no problem with participation in the expo at all or the money spent**. It is a tremendous opportunity for any business registered to showcase products and for the govt to establish business ties. What **I have a major problem with is the lack of innovation. If all you tell them about is straw bag and junkanoo that's all you gone get back. And this doesnt fall on the Davis administration, this falls on the Minnis administration, shooting himself in the foot yet again, because this would have taken strategy and planning over multiple years**. Davis has only been in 4 months he has to go with what he's got at this point.
.

Dubai Exp 2022 Objective:

*The themes of Expo Dubai will include opportunity – freeing the potential of individuals and communities to create a better future, mobility – innovative logistics, transport and communication systems for people, goods and ideas, sustainability – accessibility and resilience of environmental, energy and water resources.*