>To blame crime on fatherless homes is a blatant lie, irresponsible, ignorant and used as a scapegoat for successive failed political leadership.

I followed the link you posted. Did you even read the article. Scroll down. Check out this quote from your link:

Father-deprivation is a more reliable predictor of criminal activity than race, environment or poverty.

Father-deprived children are:

72% of all teenage murderers.
60% of rapists.
70% of kids incarcerated.
twice as likely to quit school.
11 times more likely to be violent.
3 of 4 teen suicides.
80% of the adolescents in psychiatric hospitals.
90% of runaways
Sources: National Fatherhood Initiative (U.S.A.), US Bureau of Census (u.s.a.), fbi (u.s.a.)

Now having said that, I do not disagree with what you have said in the second part:
>used as a scapegoat for successive failed political leadership.

I was enumerating all of the problems, and I did categorically allude to failed political leadership.

However it is not ignorance to assume that fatherlessness contributes to the decay of the socio-economic and moral fabric of the Bahamas. Sorry, but just like the reality of climate change, fatherlessness is a huge predictor of crime.

But I do state that the state of the Bahamas is not due to a single cause. It is a spectrum and it started with the corruption of Lynden Oscar Swindling after gaining independence. The metaphor is that the teacher left the classroom (the ruling British) and chaos ensued because of the character defects and criminal mind of Pindling. That was the start of this entire sorry mess.

I was on the bridge on the way back home after a long day at work. The bridge was clogged. The toll booths were slow. My transponder expired, so I was in the lane to pay money. A woman was driving a right-hand drive in front of us. She couldn't reach to pay the money. She had to get out of her car to walk around. The car behind me started honking like crazy. Batsh*t crazy. I got out and told the driver to stop it. I had a headache. The woman got out and cursed me out like I have never been cursed out before. It was shocking that such vile stuff could come out of a woman's mouth. That woman is pictured above.

I was just reading an article in the Los Angeles Times ( http://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-ame… ) about how Montreal Canada, with a population of 1.7 million people had 19 murders this year. We are at 90. If they had the same murder rate in Montreal as in the Bahamas they would have about 540 murders. Instead they have 19. That tells you that there is something systematically and organically wrong with the Bahamas.

Not having enough jobs is not the complete answer. It has to do with single mothers -- children raising children where 75% of the families have no full time man living as a father in the family. It has to do with multiple children by the same woman with different men. It has to do with the poor level of education and functional illiteracy. It has to do with the monolithic economy of declining tourism. It has to do with the devolvement of Bahamian society built on the unstable sands of drug-running during the Lynden Oscar Swindling era. It has to do with racism -- both ways -- the UBP, colonialism and Black Crab. It has to do with the failure of independence. It has to do with men like Loftus Roker who destroyed stable institutions like the cadre of foreign teachers, solely because they were white and foreign. We are all paying now for our visionless founding fathers and their sins, and it ain't going away. It will take generations, to fix the Bahamas, and perhaps it will be never.

Reuben is an upstanding, fine man -- a standup guy. A bit too preachy (religious) for me, but he walks the walk and talks the talk. And yet he is of the common folk (stories of dillies to nuts as a young man). Ask Lincoln Bain who, why and how he is funded? There are interesting things that have gone on with Mr. Bain. Interesting story on why his shoe store burnt down.

Da crowd een gat money. What a parrot azz!

What blows me away, and someone correct me if I am wrong, but your business licence fee in the Bahamas is based on yearly turnover. So you have to pay a huge amount up front. That is purely asinine. What is supposed to happen (from what I have seen in other jurisdictions) is that a business licence is between $400 and $1,000 dollars yearly and that doesn't matter if you do a million or $10,000 yearly turnover. The reason for the disparity is that the more expensive one comes with a vendors permit based on location. Business people who sell goods to the public pay a bit more than those who just provide services. But that is the ease of doing business. Also I understand that you need a BICA accountant as well to certify your books? That really puts up barriers for ease of doing business.

You can bet that if they institute a small corporate income tax, they will not alter the exorbitant fees for a business licence. This will be another cash grab and drive all of the SMEs out of business. We will be reduced to people selling stuff in the streets again.

(Lady) Swindling is first in line.

You are right.

Mussee be someone connected to the ruling political elite here who started this, wanted revenge and calmer higher heads prevailed.

And asses would be kicked. Plenty would be toting cut hip.