Monkey politics man...

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<li><p style="color:gray">Every election cycle has brought additonal regulation, employee protection, and state taxation making it harder to open and profitably run small businesses.</p></li>
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Yes, more policy, more initiatives, more regulation. The same nonsense over and over again, only with another name.

Incentives for the creation of businesses are maximized where there are the fewest restrictions, fewest regulations, and little to no government interference, all within what is feasible.

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<li><p style="color:gray">The underlying problem is that we have too high a ratio of state employed workers to private enterprise workers. if you work for the state you do not create wealth for the country but in fact suck money out of the system.</p></li>
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You’re completely right! I had discussed this with a friend a while back, and we talked about how we have a tendency to forget that the government produces nothing, and only takes from others!

This could be a factor that encourages the absurd entitlement mentality among employees, and the lack of “soft skills” in the younger generation. Government jobs happen to be some of the most secured jobs in the country but attitude still goes a long way.

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<li><p style="color:gray">Until we have a government brave enough to deal with our bloated civil service the country will continue to sink.
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I agree, but that is one hell of a beast. There is no one that I can think of that has the political will, and the political balls to pull off something like that.

Trade Union Congress, Airport Airline & Allied Workers Unions, Bahamas Electrical Workers Union, The Bahamas Communications Public Officers Union, Bahamas Union of Teachers, and another 40+ more unions.

The government tied their own hands a long time ago. We might have to sink first.

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<li><p style="color:gray">“In New Providence specifically, 10,605 youth between 15-29 years old are either unemployed or discouraged, and out of these, 13 per cent are discouraged,” the report said.
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This is not surprising at all if you are not living in a bubble. The sad truth however, is that unemployment numbers do not paint a clear picture of what’s really going on, labour participation rates do.

In light of labour participation rates you’ll find that young people are working less, while the older folks are spending more time working. The young ones are progressively spending more time getting an “education” and as you know students are not necessarily considered “unemployed”.

There has also been a massive paradigm shift in the value of education, and as a result, trade work and other manual labour jobs have been demonized and belittled. Everyone now wants to be in the office. Finally, the mismanagement of wealth among the older generation has converted institutionalized education into a **holding pattern**.

Junior High School? No not enough! Stay a little longer!
Senior High School? No not enough! Stay a little longer!
Associate's Degree? No not enough! Stay a little longer!
Bachelor's Degree? No not enough! Stay a little longer!
Master’s Degree? No not enough! Stay a little longer!
Credentialism and Educational Inflation? Don’t Worry! We’ll retire soon!

**Summary:** Every time students graduate from high school unemployment rates increase substantially because most Bahamian graduates cannot ride out the storm in the house of [credentialism and educational inflation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wik…. Older folks work longer and retire later, thereby obstructing the basic flow of labour. Students who graduate simply become unemployed. No one wants to do manual labour since trade work is for dimwits, and office jobs are for winners.

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<li><p style="color:gray">It also slammed the “fragmented workforce development policy and low effectiveness of existing labour intermediation initiatives” by the Government.
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Let’s get right to the point here, “politicians” don’t create jobs, “initiatives” don’t create jobs, “policies” don’t create jobs, and you bet “governments” don’t create jobs. To believe that is to believe in a fairy tale.

Production and incentive create jobs, but that’s for another day.

Here's what the Attorney General said;

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<li><p style="color:gray">"The workers should not be used as pawns in negotiations about the future of the project," said Maynard-Gibson at a press conference at her office.</p></li>
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I think we should all understand what's happening now, wow.

Looks like our commenter above might very well be correct.

[Govt to pay 2,400 Baha Mar employees $7.5 mil salary; Baha Mar concerned about Supreme Court adjournment](http://www.thenassauguardi…

Simply amazing;

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<li><p style="color:gray">Meanwhile, Baha Mar stated this afternoon that it is extremely concerned and disappointed that the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas has decided to adjourn until Tuesday the hearing of Baha Mar’s application for recognition of the U.S. bankruptcy proceedings. The adjournment by the Bahamian Supreme Court was granted at the joint request of the Office of the Attorney General of The Bahamas and The Export-Import Bank of China, the project’s lender.</p></li>
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I guess I'm bad at typing sarcasm, but considering they said the "government will not take sides", the state minister must be serious.

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<li><p style="color:gray">It seems Christie has told his entire cabinet that "their" survival as the government of the day is very much dependent on how quickly they can deflect blame for the rapidly cascading disastrous economic fallout of the Baha Mar bankruptcy on Sarkis Izmirlian and away from themselves.
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If this is true then I am appalled, but you know, we’re a small country after all. I’d like to see how they pull this off considering that there are now cross-jurisdictional interventions that the government must make in regards to the recent chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Like you suggest it seems that they’ve already sided too deep with the Chinese, and will attempt to deflect. The Legal Affairs State Minister just said today that the government is prepared to pay every single Baha Mar employee, I hope they follow through. They did boldly proclaim a while ago that the government will not take sides, let's see how that goes.

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<li><p style="color:gray">So why would the Speaker ignore the Rules of the House? Why would he defy the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister who have been in the House much longer than he has and have seen this Rule applied on several occasions by Hubert Ingraham during the Budget? Did the public hear this outcry when this Rule was applied against the PLP? Was it democratic at that time? </p></li>
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This letter to the editor has lost its remaining credibility right here — a prime example of what's wrong with our country.

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<li><p style="color:gray">The American journalist who posted here a couple of times, was spot on the money.</p></li>
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Yeah it's really scary, here's [what the journalist said](http://www.tribune242.com/news/20… for those who might want to know;

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<li><p style="color:gray">I am the U.S. reporter who got the scoop for Hotel News Now on March 24 that the March 27 opening was not happening. The Prime Minister was wrong to say "Too big to fail." Baha Mar is actually "too big to succeed" -- and that was the problem all along. None of the experts I have been talking to think it will ever open at this point (it will likely go into bankruptcy and then start a legal battle between Baha Mar, China, the hotel brands and the Bahamian government that I am told could last 10 years). And most experts think because of its size and extremely high costs of operation when/if it does open, neither China nor the Bahamas will be able to find a buyer, even if they give it away in a sweetheart deal. Tragic, but true. Ite will become known as the biggest disaster in the history of the hotel industry and a case study in how to do the worst PR ever. Sandy Sands will be a joke by then, if he is not already. And to me, the most incredible thing about Baha Mar is that no one has been fired for ongoing and gross incompetence.</p></li>
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In another tribune news [article](http://www.tribune242.com/news… it seemed as if the government had made a deal, where the $21 million would be paid based on an agreement condition between Baha Mar and the China Export-Import Bank;

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<li><p style="color:gray">According to a well-placed source in the government, half of the $21 million will be paid on July 1 and the remainder in “mid July”. However the source, who spoke on condition on anonymity because the person was not authorised to release the information, said the money will only be paid “if Baha Mar can reach an agreement with China Export-Import Bank.”</p></li>
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