We haven't had a competent and non-corrupt government since Independence Day on July 10, 1973 when the British Government left us with no (zero) national debt. Since then we have had one incompetent and corrupt government after another with the toll being unsustainable national debt. We all know what's coming from the rating agencies and we all know the incompetent and corrupt Minnis-led FNM government will blame the next downgrade on Dorian and Covid-19 as opposed to its own reckless 'borrow, borrow, borrow and spend, spend, spend' governing aimed at masking its failed and/or non-existent social and economic policies.

You seem to believe there's no alternative but to do nothing and let many of the most vulnerable elderly in our society become infected and pre-maturely die over the next few months. Are you working in the Office of the PM because that seems to be the belief of the Minnis-led FNM government as well (?) I guess we are not all God's children as recently pronounced by Minnis with his arms uplifted.

We really need to drive a stake right in the heart of all of these cruise ship companies which have always been nothing but blood sucking vampires on tourist destinations like the Bahamas.

For the last four decades or so these vampires have been growing in size to the point where they are now extremely over-sized floating hotels that cannot possibly be kept clean and have therefore become dangerous breeding grounds for all kinds of pathogens harmful to mankind. These filthy monstrous floating vampires have quite literally sucked the life blood out of our economy. They have a business model that aggressively seeks to keep all profits of any kind for themselves by destroying all economic linkages to our local economy. The all-inclusive onshore resorts like Sandals seek to emulate their 'take-all, leave nothing' business model.

And now the cruise ship companies are seeking to compliment their very greedy business model by directly competing with the beach experience that was previously the domain of the more upscale onshore hotel properties. This should not be allowed by our government as a matter of economic policy. Accordingly under no circumstance should Royal Caribbean or any other cruise ship company be allowed to acquire large beach front parcels of Crown Land on any of our major inhabited islands, including the western end of Paradise Island.

You've driven the stake right where it belongs my friend - right in the heart of the cruise ship companies which have always been nothing but blood sucking vampires on tourist destinations like the Bahamas.

For the last four decades or so these vampires have been growing in size to the point where they are now extremely over-sized floating hotels that cannot possibly be kept clean and have therefore become dangerous breeding grounds for all kinds of pathogens harmful to mankind. These monstrous floating vampires have quite literally sucked the life blood out of our economy. They have a business model that aggressively seeks to keep all profits of any kind for themselves by destroying all economic linkages to our local economy. The all-inclusive onshore resorts like Sandals seek to emulate their 'take-all, leave nothing' business model.

And now the cruise ship companies are seeking to compliment their very greedy business model by directly competing with the beach experience that was previously the domain of the more upscale onshore hotel properties. This should not be allowed by our government as a matter of economic policy. Accordingly under no circumstance should Royal Caribbean or any other cruise ship company be allowed to acquire large beach front parcels of Crown Land on any of our major inhabited islands, including the western end of Paradise Island.

You can thank Ian Fair and the others like him who were so gungho to have our nation chase peanuts and join the likes of Liberia reputation-wise.

And that's largely because containment, isolation and mitigation measures were not adhered to during a time of war, not to mention many other key factors very different back then from what they are now. Grant you the human race is much more mobile today, but it is also much better equipped, even from a global communications standpoint, to be more responsive to pandemic pathogens.

Governments are not elected to potentially sacrifice the lives of a large swath of the most vulnerable of a country's citizenry for humantarian or empathetic reasons. Even in a time of declared war with another nation, against an enemy more easily seen, it's not a large swath of a country's citizenry age 60+ who get sent to the active war zone.

poppycock! simply not so.

no nation is required to have the lives of many thousands of its citizenry gravely endangered under any circumstance. in fact, the first duty of a responsible government is to protect its own citizenry from deadly threats of any kind.

> Schools Put Plans Into Place To Deal With Virus

Does anyone have any confidence whatsoever in Jeff Lloyd overseeing emergency plans of any kind? Why are the schools still open? Is it because our cabinet ministers are fearful of shutting down the biggest government funded child care service in our country?

Someone had better whisper in Jeff Lloyd's ear that COVID-19 in a student population is a little more serious than an outbreak of head lice.

Typical of Neil Hartnell. Always one sided with an agenda. Two decades (20 years) and only a purported total of $96 million paid into the Public Treasury by BMA over that entire period. A mere pittance in relation to the costly risks taken on by our country and the concessions granted by our government to the ship owners. Our country would have been economically better off had all of these Bahamian registered and flagged ships been registered and flagged in Liberia instead.