Comment history

banker says...

There is ample evidence of the corruption at the Port and the malfeasance is manifested right at the top. The port is the most self-serving sinister presence in Freeport.

The absolutely hilarious part is the marginalization of women. Spouses often need to work just to fill the time. The idea that a spouse is merely a homemaker is so retrograde. Spouses would revitalize the work force, bring in new skills and methods of doing things and flush out apathy and non-productivity of the local work force. They would be a boon to local businesses.

When I lived in my condo on PI, I lived next door to a foreigner with a work permit. His wife held a very high position in government & industry in their home country, and in the Bahamas, she was not allowed to work. Not only did the country miss out on her skills, but after a couple of years, she moved back. The husband commuted for a year and then left. It wasn't worth it.

It's obvious that the government and the committee cannot look at the problem holistically and from a stance of enlightenment. Because they are so inured to the backwards environment, they cannot see the light from any other way, except thru the tunnel of their anuses.

The tech hub is another pipe dream that will fizzle. I think that the only industry that could thrive, is the marijuana industry. If we learn to grow potent, pure and consistent marijuana, we could make a billion dollar industry. Where are those yardies when you need them?

banker says...

Jeezus. Why do Bahamians think that the government should bear the responsibility of the actions of its citizens? If you crash into a road barrier, it is obvious that you do not have proper care and control of your vehicle. Bahamians have to grow up and stop regarding the government as the rich godfather, the paternal grandfather, the responsible adult and the uncle that touches you and start bearing responsibility for their actions, including tolerating the PLP government that raped the treasury of the Bahamas. Are we so naive as a democratic government that personal responsibility is the purview and domain of the government and not of the citizen? Bannister had nothing to do with the poor woman crashing into the barrier.

banker says...

We can't even do digital banking in the Family Islands with traditional cash. Problems cited are older people who do not have devices and are computer illiterate. What's going to happen when they have to contend with digital money and secure wallets and cryptography security to protect their digital money. They will be lost.

banker says...

>Where are the Blockchain startups in the Bahamas ?

They are all in the Cayman Islands. They have over 50 blockchain startup companies. We are too far behind, too backward and the ease of doing business is too hard.

http://www.cayman.finance/2018/03/cayma…

banker says...

Bitcoin is so over. This blockchain talk is so juvenile. What was the purpose of re-iterating old hat?

banker says...

What a juvenile understanding of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Bitcoin is old hat and on the way down. There is newer better stuff out there.

banker says...

Stupid me. I just saw that now. Thanks.

banker says...

.... or .. they could go like the Cayman Islands and keep the doors open for startups. There have been many blockchains startups in the Cayman Islands and none here.

On Regulators exploring regime for blockchain

Posted 22 June 2018, 12:33 p.m. Suggest removal

banker says...

Thank you for you honesty and perspicacity. There are several points that I want to emphasise that you made.
1) For the present conference website, there were huge errors. When you clicked on a bio, another one would show up - not the person in the picture. This was by a Bahamian company.

2) Can you imagine the crime wave that would happen if 1,000 well paid tech workers moved in. I was talking to a banker from Canada who was managing an account for a successful start up there. He spoke of interns making the equivalent of $99,000 per year and they were the lowest paid. The average programmer makes $150,000. Put a group of those people in amongst the Bahamians making $250 a week. That's a recipe for trouble. There would be another Lyford Cay in the making and never the twain shall meet.

3) You are right about the port. I have been hearing some awfully strange stories of real bad shiite going down between the port management and investors (including corruption and racism).

4) One of the current crop of speakers admitted on social media that this conference wasn't really "transactional" but as you put it, political theater.

5) One of the participants of the earlier conference said that it opened with a prayer, and amazement was visible on the faces of all the foreign speakers. It was like a fart in an elevator because it was so out of place.

6) Here's the real kicker -- I watched all of the speeches on youtube. There was a white guy there with insider Bahamian jokes who offered to put in a blockchain application for the government and train up Bahamians to operate it. If that really happened, I'm sure that I would have read about it in the news. I rather suspect that nothing happened, and it corroborates the fact that this is a political show and a Potemkin Village.

As a Bahamian who has escaped the restrictive atmosphere of our archipelago in the sun, it saddens me that we can't get our act together to bootstrap ourselves out of the mire of ego, tribalism, ignorance and un-enlightenment.

PS. How do you make bullet points these posts? I could have used that tech skill.

banker says...

The funny part is, that the government couldn't organise a runny nose if they had a cold. I watched some of the talks online from the November conference, and there was mention of another conference in 60 days or two months. They took 8 months to do it, and the speakers are real nobodies -- full of hot air about crypto-currency, but know nothing of a tech hub. One of the last-year speakers has been on social media saying that Grand Bahama was a bust, a con, a joke and didn't have the infrastructure or amenities to support a tech population and a tech lifestyle. For well-paid technical people, living on Grand Bahama would be the equivalent of living on house arrest. Nothing to do, nothing to see, no high end grocery stores, no shopping. The lifestyle is unsustainable, and it doesn't help that it takes forever to open a bank account, and the Bahamian dollar isn't convertible. But the biggest problem is the government itself. They are too dumb and backwards to even appreciate what it takes to have a technology industry, and they don't have the skill or the expertise to build a tech hub. They are easily flim-flammed by these so-called experts in the field who earn their living by professionally speaking at these events and know nothing about technology. Sad, as Donald Trump would say. The Grand Bahama Tech Hub dream een gern nowhere.