Editor, please spare us your tears for Sands.

President Trump signed an executive order making it illegal (a most serious Federal offense) for any US natural or corporate person to export or otherwise remove from the US any medical supplies whatsoever without making application to, and receiving the express consent of, the appropriate Federal authorities. It therefore seems the American family, anxious to 'buy' their way into their residential community in Bahamas under what can only be described as a quid pro quo arrangement, broke serious US Federal laws grounded in a Presidential Executive Order.

This of course raises many issues for the Bahamian government given that at least one of its senior cabinet ministers (Sands) participated in the arrangement, and possibly another (D'Aguilar). In fact this is probably the real reason why Sands had absolutely no choice but to resign....the writing was too clearly on the wall that he had aided and abetted the American family in breaking Federal laws by providing the 'quid' for their 'quo'. Sands could well end up on the persona non grata list maintained by US Customs and Immigration Services not to mention a host of other possible serious repercussions for not only himself personally, but also our government. My advice to Sands, get a very good lawyer. And D'Aguilar should consider doing likewise.

And who's going to be on the hook to repay the bonds in the event of default by the 'issuer' - better still who will end up owning the Prince George Wharf (PGW) in such an event? Will the PGW really remain a strategic national asset, under government ownership and control, if the port project and/or the cruise line industry go belly up, as might well happen?

Is this what our most loquacious AG spends all of his time doing? Doesn't he realise and appreciate that the intelligence agencies of certain developed countries have fed the most senior officials of the eu, oecd, fatf, imf and other such organizatiopns with highly sensitive info about the foreign bank accounts, foreign brokerage accounts, other foreign investment accounts and very valuable real estate holdings abroad (wherever located) that are tied to the super wealthy political elite and their cronies in our country?

And we can only begin to imagine what super sensitive info these information sharing organizations must have received from the intelligence agencies about the 'crooked' clientele of the few remaining 'offshore' financial institutions operating from within the Bahamas, especially the ones well known to be owned and/or controlled, for all intents and purposes, by very wealthy current or former Bahamian-American (dual) nationals through their maze of foreign corporate entities and trusts.

> He {Davis} questioned what export laws of another country were violated by transporting the COVID-19 tests into The Bahamas.

Davis makes a very good point here. President Trump signed an executive order making it illegal (a most serious Federal offense) for any US natural or corporate person to export or otherwise remove from the US any medical supplies whatsoever without making application to, and receiving the express consent of, the appropriate Federal authorities. It therefore seems the American family, anxious to 'buy' their way into their residential community in Bahamas under what can only be described as a quid pro quo arrangement, broke serious US Federal laws grounded in a Presidential Executive Order.

This of course raises many issues for the Bahamian government given that at least one of its senior cabinet ministers (Sands) participated in the arrangement, and possibly another (D'Aguilar). In fact this is probably the real reason why Sands had absolutely no choice but to resign....the writing was too clearly on the wall that he had aided and abetted the American family in breaking Federal laws by providing the 'quid' for their 'quo'. Sands could well end up on the persona non grata list maintained by US Customs and Immigration Services not to mention a host of other possible serious repercussions for not only him personnaly but also our government. My advice to Sands, get a very good lawyer. And D'Aguilar should consider doing likewise.

Sands now has two full years to work feverishly behind the scenes to gather and galvanize as much support as possible before challenging Minnis's leadership of the FNM and the country in the next general election. Most Bahamians have already come to the conclusion that just about anyone would be a much better PM than Minnis.

Already the rumblings have begun among many FNM MPs, including certain cabinet members, that anyone of them could next be 'thrown under the bus' by Minnis given the way they perceive him to have 'mistreated' Sands. No doubt these rumblings are being instigated by the PLP's political elite. Truth be told though, Minnis is insecure in his own skin and has never really trusted those whom he perceives to be highly educated, more intelligent and better connected within our community than he is, especially those who are comfortable and welcomed within the inner circle of the very wealthy in our country. Symonette was the first one to be thrown overboard. D'Aguilar well fits the bill of those most likely to be jettisoned next by Minnis and therefore has very good reason to be concerned.

Very few will quibble with the fact that Minnis seems most comfortable surrounded by loyal lackeys who are beholden to him for their station in life and are otherwise incapable of standing on their own two feet in Bahamian society.

P.S.: I'm surprised no one attending the Central Bank's quarterly economic developments press conference bothered to ask John Rolle if he had a big enough tool in his tool box to handle another major hurricane given that hurricane season begins on June 1.

> And he {John Rolle} warned that the regulator was prepared to act swiftly in imposing even harsher restrictions if the need arises, which would "target domestic import capacity" in a bid to conserve foreign currency resources that are set to experience a major reduction in 2020.

Translation: *We may soon find ourselves without bar soap, deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste and, yes, the rarest of all products in recent times, TP.*

Be rest assured, what happened here regarding the Fed Reserve's de facto bail-out of certain cruise line companies did not go unnoticed by Trump's base in the heartland of America. A lot of his supporters feel they've been betrayed by all of the debt he has allowed the US government to take on for the benefit of the fat cat owners of favoured US and foreign domiciled corporations. Trump's seeing a lot of anger from his base manifest itself in his latest poll results.

The Bahamas taking on risks associated with any new debt at this time is patently absurd to say the least given the near term financial outlook and longer term uncertainties of the cruise line industry and our country. All that was planned here could have been justifiably postponed to an indefinite date as a result of the great uncertainties caused by the Covid-19 crisis, with no serious legal consequences. But Anthony Ferguson (CFAL) was obviously determined to ram this bond offering down the throat of the Bahamas government so he could earn his exorbitant front end fees and commissions.

One can only wonder why Minnis and D'Aguilar didn't insist the entire Prince George Wharf project be put on ice indefinitely given the very precarious financial situation of both the Bahamas and the cruise line industry caused by Covid-19.

The current business model of the cruise line industry is most unfair to the Bahamas and is definitely not the answer for rebuilding and then further developing our economy to meet the future needs of the Bahamian people.

> THE Bahamas will likely say “yes” to Carnival Cruise Lines stopping at its ports if sailing resumes on August 1 as planned, Minister of Tourism and Aviation Dionisio D’Aguilar said yesterday.

> Carnival said that on August 1, three of its ships will cruise from Galveston, Texas; three others will sail from Miami and two ships will sail from Port Canaveral, Florida.

Carnival would not have scheduled these August 1 cruises to the Bahamas and commenced accepting paid reservations from their passengers without first obtaining prior written confirmation from both Minnis and D'Aguilar that our country would accommodate the planned itinerary of each of these three ships.

It therefore seems Minnis and D'Aguilar have somehow managed to assume the Red China Virus will pose little if any threat to Bahamians by August 1, especially the more vulnerable elderly and those with existing medical conditions. But the CDC and WHO are on record as saying it is highly unlikely an effective vaccine will be developed and made available to the public before mid-2021 at the earliest. Accordingly, such early assurances given to Carnival by Minnis and D'Aguilar are much to pre-mature, in fact imprudent, having regard to the significant unknowns and uncertainties at this time.

Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean are behaving, not unexpectedly, as if they 'own' Minnis and D'Aguilar and therefore get to decide when our country should re-open its territorial waters and ports to their monstrous floating hotels and on what safety terms.