Did he not mention that the Travel Health Visa will use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to speed up the approval process. I applied for the Visa the other day and it took under 6 hours to get approved.

I think everyone would agree that the buildings are run down because they are managed by government. So, what to do.......continue doing it the same 'ole way and be surprised when we get the same results.

It seems as if the Government is suggesting that they would contribute the land at fair market value. The Private sector would contribute the cash. The Government would NOT have to borrow any money and would get a building it could rent. Right now the property lies undeveloped and unless the private sector come up with the cash, the property will continue to lie undeveloped because the government ain't got no CASH and, unlike the PLP, this government don't want to borrow and borrow and borrow leading to downgrade after downgrade after downgrade!

So, that private sector cash would create construction jobs and government would get to rent a building that hopefully would be better maintained than if the government owned it. The rent, after the payment of expenses, would go, as dividends, to the many many shareholders who would put up the money instead of a few white knights or webshop owners or the PLP buddies you suggest the government auction the land off to.

If you are afraid that the rich people will end up with the shares and thereby benefit from this supposed "land grab" or "blatant tiefing of government property" then I suggest that the government make sure that no one person or company can own more than 1 to 5 percent of the shares.

But trust me, if you don't bring private sector CASH into the equation, those land and buildings will sit for years and years and years.......undeveloped or they will be given away by the PLP when then they get back into office as part of idiotic deals like the Star Academy on Wulff Road ($21 million spent on a government building that is not on land owned by the government and the project is now stopped) or the Independence Shopping Center on Blue Hill and East West Highway (where millions upon millions was forwarded to a contractor without any contract being in place) or Clinics in Cat Island and Eleuthera (where millions was spent or about to be spent on buildings that were neither needed nor could be equipped or staffed) and the list goes on!

Those examples are what happens when you let a PLP government build government buildings with taxpayer money. So, let's at least let this government try something new!

Fair enough......have the properties independently appraised by three independent appraisers......but to auction them off would, I think, mean that the government properties would fall back into the hands of the white knights or the web shop owners. That would be far more egregious that what the PM proposed.

The objective of the government, it seems, is to ensure that the shares in the properties are as widely held as possible! But it seems that you are untrusting. You think that the government wants to further enrich its supposed rich white friends at Lyford Cay by making sure they end up with the shares in the company that holds the property.

That clearly falls into your pro PLP narrative. But I strongly disagree that you should sell the government's property at auction. That will do nothing to assist the small man in getting a piece of the pie......which has never been the intention of the PLP anyway so I understand why you say what you say.

So, let us take a look at this!

The PM is right! The government owns a bunch of run down buildings which have been abandoned - Post Office, Rodney Bain, Clarence Bain, old City Markets Building on Market Street, etc.

In addition, the Government owns buildings that have been so poorly maintained and have become so mold infested that these buildings have to be abandoned if only the government could find a place to move - Ministry of Health on Meeting Street, JL Center on Blake Road, etc.

In addition, the Government owns buildings that it cannot seem to get finished despite years of construction and the expenditure of tens of million of taxpayer dollars and to this day remain unfinished and unoccupied - Independence Shopping Center on East West Highway, Ministry of Tourism on George Street, Building on Seventh Day Adventist property on Wulff Road, Building next to Attorney General's office on Thompson Boulevard, etc.

So, yes! We own the buildings but SO WHAT.......because those buildings ain't doin' nuttin' for us sitting there bust up and broke down.

To repair, renovate, rebuild or blow up and start again all of these buildings will cost probably over $100 million.....maybe even $200 million. Where do you think we will get this money from? The taxpayer? Hell no! no more taxes! Borrow it? Hell no! We have been downgraded so many times for borrowing and borrowing that we should borrow no more!

The only sensible solution is to get the money from the private sector. Bahamians have over $6 billion sitting in the banks earning NO interest. Just imagine........creating a company into which these run down abandoned government owned real estate assets are placed at fair market value, join that up with some of that $6 billion sitting in banks earning no interest (safeguards would have to be put in place to ensure that the ownership was spread over tens of thousands of Bahamians). The advantages would be enormous:
1. Loads of new construction jobs would be created fixing up these new buildings.
2. Loads of new maintenance jobs would be created maintaining these buildings.
3. Government would have newer buildings (with no mold) which would translate into better working conditions for civil servants.
4. Government would still own 30-40 percent of the buildings and get the dividends from that.
5. Government would have no new debt and the taxpayers would have no new taxes to pay for all this construction.
6. Government buildings would now be partially owned by thousands of Bahamians getting them a modest return on their investment.
7. Government could reduce the need to rent buildings from the white knights and the numbers boys!

Sound like a damn good idea to me!

Banker....you so right! And to those PLP kool aid drinkers, please stop! Political capital.....who wants to be a business where you have to bow and scrape to our inept, overly corrupt political masters (especially this PLP government) who have proven they cannot run a s**t show let alone the country.
Since the PLP have been in power, Moody's has downgraded us 3 times: A3 to Baa1 (Dec 2012), Baa1 to Baa2 (Sept 2014) and Baa2 to Baa3 (August 2016).

Why do we keep getting downgraded........because Moody's recognizes that Perry and his bunch of gangsters are running the country into the ground....and you want the likes of D'Aguilar to come hat in hand to them.
D'Aguilar was just misguided into thinking that Perry and the clowns in his Cabinet would have a business head and see that getting rid of the devious, evil, crooked China State Construction (CCA) was the solution. Instead they backed CCA and look how CCA is screwing Perry now. I hear they have walked off the job downtown, stopped the project cold, until Perry pays up the MONEY.......sorry, gives them more concessions.
Brother D'Aguilar.....keep talking!

Why do you always shoot the messenger rather than address the content of his message? Every time I read your comments, it is always same bulls**t. The PLP must really have you drinking their kool-aid. If you do NOT agree with his comments, say why! I guess that would require you to use your brain which, while D'Aguilar's, according to you, is in park......yours definitely is in reverse.

Many people were quiet in The Pindling era due to the vicious and vindictive way opponents of the PLP were taken down. But not anymore! Talk your talk, ma brother!

Vince was indeed self made. But he used his money to educate his sons so that they could think and contribute. D'Aguilar was President of The Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and has grown his father's business by leaps and bounds! He is smart and successful and I am sure his father would be happy that his money was well spent. You may want him to shut up but I want him to talk baby talk. This stupid, misguided government needs to hear a successful business man tell them a thing or too. He is saying what a lot of us are thinking! Maybe not you.....but who really cares about your silly unhelpful comments anyway!

Okay......enough to of the emotional rhetoric! If you don't like Question 4, then by all means Vote No.
But surely, you believe that the children of a Bahamian woman should be Bahamian if born in wedlock to a foreign father. Surely, you cannot disagree with that! What is so wrong with that? It has nothing to do with gay marriage or LGBT rights! For God's sake and in the name of Jesus give children born to Bahamian woman citizenship at birth. Vote YES on Question 1.

And equally, give children born to Bahamian fathers out of wedlock to foreign mothers citizenship at birth. Once again, nothing to do with gay rights or LGBT rights! Vote YES on Question 3.

Children of Bahamian men and women have suffered long enough. Have a Christian heart and stop this madness!

The FNM is dead with Minnis. He does not and never will unite the FNM. Sadly, he must go! Speak to the people and you will learn that he is damaged goods and must be cast aside for someone new, young, smart and dynamic. Bahamian politics needs a generational shift.....out with the old and in with the new! Enough of this bulls**t! All day long, we are tortured with the infighting within the FNM! If Minnis stays the worst PLP government since the beginning of time will win re-election and then.......God help the Commonwealth of the Bahamas!