Over three months in prison. That is how long YOU can expect to stay in prison even if you are innocent. Somebody just has to accuse YOU and there you will be. That's our system.

Wow, I did not hear anything about BOB. Do you have a link? I did a quick search and couldn't find anything.

I don't think you really look at reality the way they do:
1. It doesn't matter if they lost the referendum. That is only what the people "wanted" - which does not matter. What matters is the shops are still open because THEY want them open, not you.
2. It doesn't matter whether you think they killed Kennedy or not. What matters is that he was killed before he could do whatever he was going to do that they did not want him to do.
3. It doesn't matter whether you think I have a pipe or tinfoil hat. What matters is that they continue to do whatever THEY want and get whatever THEY want, while you are trained by the media to believe that they do not even exist.
4. They don't even waste their time thinking about people like you. They just live their extravagant lifestyles and party up a storm while you go to work and pay the bills for it.
They LOVE people like you - even though they don't think about you that often.

If the Government did 20 "eastern road" style inspections - one per week for 20 weeks in a row - perhaps then the people would begin to believe they are serious and MIGHT consider the national ID card.

Why has not there not been another Eastern Road inspection? Perhaps at another road next time?

Why not have one of these every week (on a different weekday or course) ??????

Have it in a different area each week, so that Bahamians are not inconvenienced (the same ones) every week. Except of course, do the same one two weeks in a row once in a while - just to be random.

If we did this every week - the word would soon get back to Haiti that we are serious and many (not all) will stop putting fuel in their boats.

Remember - they don't need much fuel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They only need a couple gallons to reach Ragged Island or some other southern island - THEN the defense force gives them a ride the rest of the way to Nassau for FREE.

I sometimes wonder WHAT could I get in Haiti for free?

That is only true if you want to entrust the security of your country to the people who is hand out "inspection stickers" - even when dem signal light ain't workin. LOL.

Rick, yes certainly the "structural weakness" is the present bureaucracy. The WHOLE concept of VAT revolves around its "be your brother's keeper" approach. YOU want to claim X amount that you already paid when you bought the stuff - as a credit when you sell it. That way you don't pay "double".

When a store says in its report to government (at month-end sales) that the total sales is a certain amount, and 15% of of that is so much - but they are subtracting out the X amount (above) that they paid to the wholesaler when they bought the stuff - guess what? Government is going to check the invoice number against filings of the wholesaler - to make sure the wholesaler paid against wherever they got it from, and that they are admitting also to getting X amount in VAT from you.

It is probably the only system that can work in a country where everybody is everybody's cousin.

My only suggestion, as I suggested to you a month ago, is that we ask government to implement the system at only 1% to begin with - that way the FOCUS is not on the money - but on the procedures.

It will still be a lot of money - but it will give time to get the kinks worked out. Three months should do it. Then VAT can be raised to 10% (easy for people to calculate) and customs duties can be reduced to 10% (except for luxury items, books, and medicine).

As long as the poor are not let off scot-free to continue operating their baby factories, there will be PLENTY of money - a lot more than the current 45% duties provide - because the 10% will be on "sales price" not on U.S. price - and it will actually be PAID not just "I ain't got nothing to declare", or boats offloading at night.

Good luck to us all. We're gonna need it.

No, I said the webshop owners WITH their links to drug dealers and money launderers are more powerful than the U.S. government - and they are. Their operations are not just here in the Bahamas. These guys running the webshops are not doing this on their own. They are financed and setup from Chicago and Vegas. THOSE are the people who are more powerful than the U.S. Government. That's why they run the United States and have done so every since the 1930's. They are the ones that killed Kennedy in 1963 - and have managed the media (which they own) to convince the public otherwise. Even now you are probably considering me the the biggest fool in the world. I don't care. I also don't care about those people being in true power. They don't bother me and I don't bother them. They are simply giving the people what the people want and profiting from it. My hat is off to them. They are geniuses.

The people had a referendum to stop them, and they voted to let them go full steam ahead. So the people got what they wanted.

Do you think if another referendum were held in January to legalize and regulate (ie. be able to tax) the webshop owners that the CHURCH would allow their members to vote YES ? ? ? Of course not. The same result would come out of it.

The people have gotten what they asked for, and in my opinion any government that gives its people what they ask for is a GOOD government. And the mafia is simply providing the services that the people want. I do not see the problem.

Too bad the FNM didn't have the "courage" to regulate them while they were in power. It's easy to say thing when you're not in the driver's seat.

I'm sure Dr. Minnis will not regulate them when he becomes PM either - since he wouldn't want to face the wrath of the webshop owners, money launderers, and drug dealers involved.

Those people cannot be regulated by Law. They are more powerful than any government - even the U.S. government.

So does this mean it will be EASY for me to get a work permit to work in Haiti?