Ms. Frazier,

You have the support of many of your fellow citizens. All we ask are that you and your colleagues decisions, as well as the presiding justices be fair to both the victims (their families) and the accused. Especially ensuring that those accused don’t become victims themselves of corrupt practices of our law enforcement officers as happens in many countries, especially to our neighbors to the north as eloquently described in last month’s NYT.

Many of us think that punishment and retribution through our courts and prisons is the best way to deal with crime. However we know and evidence supports that the best way is to support incentives in our society to prevent them. This begins with strong educational and parental support as well as economic opportunities through employment and entrepreneurship. That’s were our limited monies should be directed.

Let’s stop throwing political punches at one another and come together to improve our country.

Dr. Minnis makes an excellent suggestion. Public offerings for infrastructure projects have been well established in the Bahamas. Examples include Bridge Bonds in the 1990’s and the Arawak Cay Port in the twenty-teens. Both individual and Pension Funds were allowed to invest. In fact Government should include these ‘deals’ as part of their public sector pension funding.

If what Dr. Minnis implies is that a few “elites” are benefiting from this investment I “cry shame” on the Davis Administration! As an old mentor of mine used to opine: “we need a ‘Mr. Ten Percent’ for the (interest of) Bahamian people.”

It’s not too late to make it right.

This project is a bad idea.

We are a very small country, in terms of population, land mass and finances. I hope the Cabinet will rethink their decision before it’s too late. Our successive governments, of all stripes, need to coordinate their medium and long term projects to improve efficiency and cost effectiveness both financially and to our very sensitive environment.

This entire project and its location is a bad idea! The reasons are obvious as stated in the piece above. The problems of tertiary maternal & child healthcare in the public sector has little to do with infrastructure at PMH (that can’t be solved with alteration of the existing facility using plans from the Beck Group), but stem from poor management and compensation within the public healthcare system.

This includes a poor financial infrastructure of healthcare funding, management and compensation for healthcare professionals (especially physicians, nurses and allied healthcare/technical professionals), and maintenance of expensive and technical infrastructure and equipment. See the deterioration of the only decade old Critical Care Block.

Political parties all want to point to an infrastructure project that they provided, not realizing bad projects hang around their necks like a sinking albatross. We need bipartisan projects that span any one five-year administration. We’re much too small and vulnerable to survive wave after wave of stupid decisions. If the present Davis Administration wants to do something bold around healthcare they should seriously take on the mandate of funding a proper expanded national health insurance which will have to include folks paying into an insurance plan similarly to their national insurance tax which has become a lifeline for some folks for workman’s compensation and an aid to their retirement savings.

Redemption is part of jurisprudence.

If we are indeed a nation founded on christian principles, the most significant of which is ‘forgiveness’ then we need to accept circumstances when our fellow citizens, having committed crimes including murder, have served their time, in effect asked for forgiveness, and our now available for redemption. This is part of civil society and what we all would want for our loved ones and ourselves if we have indeed been rehabilitated.

It is also noteworthy to point out that he was not convicted of ‘first degree’ murder and therefore was not sentenced to life without parole nor a sentence without the possibility of release.

Yes he deserves “help” and supervision upon release, however we do need to “accept” what our laws allow and demand. Otherwise chaos will ensue.

All of the above stated by Mr. Bowe is ‘fine’ regarding negative effects from government intervention in private businesses in a capitalist society, as long as these commercial banks are not colluding on their pricing. The public only gets a fair shake when they are free to choose and companies determine pricing based on an unbiased market.

Moral of this story: speak up when you feel that you have been wronged, especially if you’re on the side of justice 👍🏽

The environmental issues here are obvious, so is the blatant disregard for our laws, rules and regulations.

We don’t need no more “swimming with the ~~~~~~~ Pigs🤬.

Regulatory People, do your job!

If you’ve ever worked in the public service you would know why I’ve come to this conclusion…

This way no “maintenance department” necessary, or at least minimally staffed.

“Rent” is based on local economics, landlords shouldn’t be able to get away with excessive rent when due diligence is conducted as would be done with a private company.

Of course any approach requires integrity and transparency…

Not withstanding the previous comment, with I suppose was meant to ensure transparency in government expenditure as well as the avoidance of nepotism (familial or otherwise), I think it’s prudent for our government to lease rather than purchase more properties.

Benefits:
1) We are poor on maintenance and care of government infrastructure. The building will be maintained by the owners ‘renter’.
2) The rent is the rent and other than utilities which may not be included, expenditures would be relatively ‘fixed’ and more predictable.
3) Bahamian owners and their investment vehicles can earn income, build wealth and ensure retirement savings. It stimulates the local economy!
4) Government collects taxes in the form of Business Tax, Real Property Tax and VAT. The tax authorities will know exactly what the private entity is earning on the real estate so there is less opportunity for fraud by that business.
4) The relevant government agencies occupying that building can focus on their specific tasks (they can ‘do what they do’, unencumbered by building maintenance issues).
5) Less “government employees”, as these folks will be absorbed by the empowered private sector or they themselves may be the property owners.