Many apparently. It's a good strategy if you the facts paint you as a loser.

Did you ever hear of configuration control and a configuration control board? Whenever a project is begun, the plans are created (usually on Computer Aided Design & Engineering Terminals) and the construction document set is created.

As a project progresses, the plans are fleshed out in detail drawings, again on CAD terminals. The designers specify material lists and then the estimators and buyers go and procure them. If for example, they need 4 inch bolts and only 4.5 inch bolts are available, then the builders generate and ECR or Engineering Change Request. The ECR goes to the Configuration Control Board which is populated by management, engineers, costing estimators, and accountants. Once approved there, it becomes an ECN or Engineering Change Notice that goes to upper management on both sides to sign off, and then becomes an Engineering Change Order. It goes back to the designers, and the drawing sets and plans are updated. The plans are the theory, and the change orders represent the necessary changes to make the plans reality. One cannot imagine everything when drawing up the plans, including material availability, parts lists, etc.

On a multi-billion dollar project, the Gartner Group, which collects such information, estimates that 2,000 - 5,000 change orders are about the average number, and for complex projects (bridges, electronics) the number jumps to 10,000. They range from trivial stuff like the bolts example to major things like adding a new structure.

The change orders are costed and approved when they are introduced, and cannot be randomly introduced by the client. The Construction Company has to agree to the change orders before they become orders rather than requests.

Sorry, Chinese is a too difficult language to learn for me, and I don't find the taste of bullsh*t appealing.

I can't for the life of me, figure out that over 5,000 years of civilisation, that they have not come up with nothing better to eat rice than two sticks.

I like the fact that Ortland knows how to type the word passé with the correct accent mark. However, be it known that Ortland himself is passé. A tiger doesn't change his spots, a PLP diehard will never become enlightened and if he thinks Brave is good and honest and leadership material, then Ortland needs his head examined. However, you can't blame him for trying to ameliorate his financial circumstances, as that is the way it is done in this corrupt little nation. He just wants to suck off the taxpayer teat like the rest of them.

Understood about them being PLP operatives and or sympathizers, just like (or perhaps) Elcot Coleby and that filth of a piece called BananasPress that kicked off Facebook. If you compare them to the other ones like Bahamas New Ma Bey, you will see a difference in outlook, non-negativity and a general microcosm of the Bahamas.

The PLP kool aid drinkers however fall into two categories of either the guttersnipes of BananasPress who revel in exposing the sexual peccadilloes of their so-called enemies (I don't go there anymore, because I feel like I need a shower and a dose of religion after absorbing the evil karma they exude from every pore with their scum of every negative & evil thing possible in a human being. Their disregard for the truth is on an order of magnitude greater than Fred Mitchell's coupled to a laughable illiteracy in the use of the English language).

I understand a deep emotional attachment to the concept of PLP, who were an empowering force among Black people who were marginalised by a white, rich minority. It must have been as powerful to them as it was for me to see Barack Obama elected president of the United States. It was validation for people with pigmented skin like myself, in a world where you know there is very little validation in general.

However, because they were supposed to give us a leg up, and got majority rule for us, doesn't mean that we have to subsume our moral compass and hide and accept the criminality that they embraced and the evil human beings that they became and still are.

In that way, I try to appeal to the rationality (against hope) and patriotism of the PLP partisans to see the truth about their beloved party, because if they don't, they are part of the problem and not part of the solution. And they are just as culpable as the party they support in the retardation of our beautiful country as a developing nation. They have to understand, that their continued support of the PLP will regress us further as a Third World country, and they have no one to blame, but themselves.

You can't keep putting lipstick on this pig forever and calling it a beautiful woman. But oh, they try so hard. It's just frustrating that the path to enlightenment for them is a Herculean and impossible task.

The obligations of the Chinese were to build the thing for a fixed price, and they kept billing and over-billing and not producing. It was a bill for $70 and no firm opening date that broke the camels back for Izmirlian. Enough was enough. He was being held hostage by the Chinese.

There was no ball for the PM to drop. Christie was not even in the game, to begin with. All non-partisan observers credit Izmirlian's secret move as a brilliant business tactic to move forward on the impasse. The Chinese have not been stellar ethically as business partners, with shoddy construction and slowing down work in a project that they hold equity in. Independent observers have noted that the construction is in fact, in need of remediation because of the poor construction techniques.

It is funny that Christie is a complete failure as a negotiator, as a Prime Minister and as a leader, and yet you somehow infer something about Minnis in all of this? Hilarious. Your partisanship slip is showing, ma'am.

Disagree with a few years for investor confidence in Cuba. They are lining up because of the tremendous growth potential and ROI (Return on Investment). Industry Canada (Government of Canada) has a consul general for business on the ground in Havana that is already acting for American and other foreign businesses as investment guidance.

Ian Winder, the judge in this case was a lecturer at the Dupuch Law School on civil litigation. No particular bankruptcy experience. He has experience working in the law office of Davis & Co, one Phillip Brave Davis. He is the brother of Ray Winder who is the government's negotiator for WTO trade, an accountant with Deloitte and appointed as responsible for collecting bad Bank of Bahamas debts. Nuff said.

Nicole, the government cannot just print more money, like say a country like the United States or Canada. They have convertible currencies which means that there currency can be bought, sold, used, traded and exchanged on the open market. As a result, they are unbridled by having restrictions, other than inflationary, for printing more money. Currently the Canadian dollar is trading at 79 cents to the US dollar, and if they printed more, it would fall in value.

The Bahamas on the other hand, has a non-convertible currency. This happened after independence when the government because used to debt. Prior to that we had a currency board instead of the Central Bank, and the Bahamas currency was convertible and acceptable world wide. We cannot just print more money, because of the peg to the American dollar.

To maintain the one-to-one artificial peg, we must have reserves of American dollars backing up the Bahamian dollar. We get the American dollar reserves in two ways, either through tourism, or Foreign Direct Investment. The picture is further complicated because we import 95% of our food that must be paid for in American currency, and hence the Central Bank has to monitor inflows and outflows to maintain the peg. So if the government wanted to print a bunch more money, it would have to find more money to back it. Now it wouldn't have to be the full amount, because we work on fractional reserves. We only require a certain percentage of American dollars to Bahamian dollars in reserve.

This system hamstrings Bahamians in many ways. We cannot invest in the America stock market easily. Because Central Bank controls outflows, we limited to a system where we must purchase the American dollars at a premium set by the Central Bank and then pay a 10% premium on funds going out and a 13% premium on liquidated investments. So to make any money in the stock market, your investment must have appreciated by at least 25% to break even to pay the Central Bank premiums. On top of that there are dollar limits.

So the bottom line is, with the failure of Baha Mar, we are failing to add to our external reserves, and thus limit the money supply available.