If the premise put forward by this letter-writer is true, I say "Let them in -- one and all". It will make the Bahamas a better place. What's the worst that can happen? Heaven forbid that they bring in good paying jobs, and an economic offset that benefits the GDP of the Bahamas.

Another reason why vacations to the Bahamas are more expensive than anywhere else.

The very fact that Mother Pratt has been in a PLP government means that her integrity has already been grossly compromised. The woman has nothing to be biggety about. She is a servant of the people and accountable to be. With this contempt of Bahamians, she put herself into the class of criminal politician defrauding Bahamian people. She is not a patriot.

The irony of this is overwhelming. Unions are one of the big reasons why Bahamian productivity is low. They bring down all workers, and all workers wages to the lowest common denominator, while sucking off union dues for themselves, living off the backs of the labour of others.

If we didn't have unions, highly productive workers could make more than the union wage, while unproductive workers would either be fired or paid what they are worth. Our holidays are always more expensive than those of the Dominican Republic or Cuba where most Canadians go. Soon the Americans will be able to go to Cuba as well. Costa Rica has opened up for eco-tourism and doing well at it, for much less money than a Bahamian vacation, thanks to the high cost and low productivity of the Bahamian worker.

The word "fervently" means that Christie is powerless, it doesn't look good, and all that is left is unfounded hope.

Hilarious! All this coming from a man who created the title of "Bishop" for himself when the particular flavour of whatever church that belonged to at the time, didn't even have the office of "bishop" in its official lexicon and hierarchy.

Wow, we had a Hotel Corporation to try and put the industry back in the hands of the Bahamians. It failed miserably. It bled red ink and became a public money trough for party hacks swilling at the taxpayers teats.

I wouldn't have taken the BFSB job because it would have been an exercise in frustration. Do you remember the early days of the first Christie incarnation of a government? He created all sorts of commissions and spread a goodly amount of largesse for reports. Among the people asked to create a report was Brian Moree. I have thought good and bad at different times of Brian Moree, but he took his job seriously and created a darn fine report on the state of Financial Services.

In his report he called for a modernisation of the infrastructure (at the time they were just talking about Real Time Gross Settlement & ACH) and in the closing arguments of his report, he suggested that we open industry up, bring in all sorts of professionals who could create innovative financial services product, and revitalise the industry. He was excoriated. He was pilloried for suggesting that foreigners be brought in. Everyone took a shot at him and his report. Of course nothing was done, he was right, and that ship has sailed.

I have been privy to discussions between Central Bank governors, and have heard the sentiment, that if Bahamian banks and financial institutions just cleaned up their acts, modernised and got rid of the tax shelter mentality, we could have a viable offshore merchant banking industry, simply because we are not American banks.

All of the banks here were minimally exposed to toxic assets, and with a bit of re-jigging, we could have made a name for ourselves, financing international trade to go along with our flag-of-convenience registry. Instead, we got hung up on the tax haven concept, and that is unfortunately dying.

We do not have the infrastructure (reliable electricity supply; a vibrant, skilled, literate cadre of workers, clerks, accountants, etc) to host hedge funds (computerised trading would die because of antiquated infrastructure. The trading desk in Saffrey Square was closed.) or any other financial services of note. Now with FATCA, the John Doe Subpoena and such, the North American tax haven is in its death throes. Even the Cayman Islands have seen the writing on the wall, and have enacted the legislation for a trade zone (www.CaymanEnterpriseCity.com) and they are doing a fabulous job of diversifying their economy, as Jamaica has. Most of the firms are chasing Latin American money, and quite frankly, the state of wealth management there is based on the old Italian model where tax avoidance/evasion is the national sport and primed for a rude awakening.

And as for Baha Mar, I fear that Mr. Buchanan has it right. I don't want to see it happen, but it would take a massive deus ex machina to set this right. I, among others, opined at the very genesis of Baha Mar, that the Izmirlians were wrong for the project, did not have the capital and the bench strength to pull this off, and have p*ssed away a billion more than what it should have cost without Key Performance Indicators being met. Their silence is deafening.

I feel sorry for my friends who are already on the payroll at Baha Mar, collecting good money, and doing a job that they love. They were so excited to get the job and have a new start in their careers. I hope that they don't get the axe.

The legacy of Perry Gladstone Christie, is that he finished off the job that Pindling starting in creating a failed state. To whit:

We have expat Brits being murdered to the point where British newspapers are saying that there is an open season on Brits in the Bahamas. There was the doctor on Long Island, the Brit on Grand Bahama, the banker Hywel Jones, and the dive instructor at Stuart's Cove. And in the Hywel Jones case, Jones ended up dead after commencing to sue his Bahamian partner, Lester Turnquest for absconding with $20 million of clients funds.

We have the BISX stock exchange, still selling stock of bankrupt companies. We have the SEC chasing down our "financial services" practitioners like Warren Davis and Julian Brown, and others like Owen Bethel belong in jail, but will never go.

We are having a major flight of capital under wealth management fly away. Just a few short years ago, it was over a trillion dollars in managed wealth. It is a fraction of that now. As a wealth management practitioner, I have seen two billionaires leave for "better, more civilised" places.

The major chartered banks are selling their books of business, and leaving the Caribbean. RBC sold their Jamaica operations, and we are next.

The influx of guns on the islands is astounding. If the police wanted to do some real police work, they would read Facebook where Bahamian young men brazenly post with assault rifles and pistols.

There is a rogue cadre of police and prisoner guards doing extra-judicial killings on the island, and they will never be caught. Victims include Thad Johnson, Harl Taylor, and it looks like the late Jeffrey Johnson may be a victim as well.

We have the corruption of the Attorney General, who refuses to allow the Auditor General to account for public moneys that were siphoned off to party loyalists. And that same corrupt Attorney General refuses to charge a cabinet minister in judicial interference.

So yes, the state is on the downhill slide to a lawless failure. Baha Mar will be like the empty casino and the ramshackling International Bazaar on Grand Bahama, with no tenants but the rats, with eerie empty buildings used only for the occasional suicide. What a wonderful legacy for the PLP and independence.

And PM Christie was touting this as a feather in his cap? Several pundits were saying at the outset that the Ismirlians (who made their money in peanuts in West Africa) did not have the money or the wherewithal to do this. For an anchor project, one would have assumed that there would be completion bonds, and a double and triple layer of financing including bridge financing to keep the project on track. The government did the same amount of due diligence that they did for BAMSI insurance, and that building is now in the state of above-mention ruins.