Still no duty on pampers and baby food? An economic growth rate of less than 2% in reality (and 2.5% they wished for) is way less than the population growth rate.

The economy cannot keep up with the delivery room at PMH.

Increase the duty, and improve our quality of life. Or do we just want quantity and not quality?

There is nothing wrong with the Govt investigating - but why do they have to make comments in the newspaper about it beforehand? He says he will talk to his counterparts in St. Maarten. Well then, pick up the phone and call them - talk to them - get the fact - speak to Cabinet - make a decision - and THEN talk to the newspapers.

All of those steps should take LESS than 7 days.

YOU could be "accused" of committing murder, silly. That could be YOU in prison for 5 years waiting on a trial. That is why OUR Constitution protects US from trumped up charges holding us in prison forever. People always say "those people". It's not "those people" - it's you. You just haven't been accused yet. Believe me, anything can happen at anytime. You can one day find your whole life turned upside down in a jiffy - and wonder what the heck happened. Then people will be saying - "Oh, that guy - he's a murderer". And that would be you - even though you are innocent. Our Constitution was not written by idiots, nor was it written for "them" - it was written for YOU.

Too many people spending too long in prison for petty crimes - clogging up the prison and the courts.

Serious crimes cannot be brought to trial in a timely manner, and therefore by our Constitution they must be set free. People do not understand how important that is to protect people from being sent to prison for no reason.

If you are accused of a crime and arrested (a crime you did not do) - do you really want to spend 5 years in jail waiting for trial? Think about it. This could be you ! That is why the system lets them go. The courts won't give them a trial in a reasonable time.

The Commish is right that they should not be out in just a few weeks though. A few weeks is too short, and not unreasonable.

The problem is SIMPLE to solve really - but Bahamians do not want to pay the taxes to solve it. What if a 5% duty was added to all breadbasket food store items - and stores were not allowed to raise the prices of these goods by more than the amount that 5% would justify ? People would complain that the poor were being abused.

The money would be used to build SEVEN more court rooms and supply them with SEVEN more judges and 14 more court stenographers (those being one of the main reasons why cases are delayed - when they decide to go to the beach for the day).

That costs money. Are you willing to pay for it with slightly higher prices for bread, sugar, flour, eggs, cooking oil ? Why these items instead of gas tax or head tax? Because everyone would then have to pay - not just some people.

A referendum on that would have made a whole lot more sense than satisfying the silly urges of the church builders.

Let the people decide if they want to pay for a good court/criminal system. Also the same vote would demand (if you vote yes) that criminal sentences for possession of drugs be reduced to 5 times less than what they are now, and for possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana there be no penalty.

But that won't happen. The church won't allow it. It's a choice for people to make. Keep giving your money to the churches who oppose civilization and keep reaping the results of out of control crime. Don't stop now. Someone will be murdered in the next 7 days - most likely.

Every time you see a church being built - think about the money spent on the building materials and ask yourself - "Why are those building materials NOT being used to build another courtroom?"
* * *

We don't need more new cars imported into this country - especially those from south america for which you can't get parts. There are major brands like this (Ford and Chevy and others) being sold in the Bahamas - and most people think they are buying regular cars until they find out they can't get parts (unless they ship them in from Brazil).

Bahamians need used cars - good ones - so that all of our foreign exchange doesn't go flowing out of the country and our dollar gets devalued.

But, hey, that's just my opinion. Maybe a bahamian dollar valued at 50% of US dollar would be a good thing?

So February 23rd is Flag Day now ?

The churches and church-goers love the conditions at HMP. It makes them feel that much more holy than those "poor souls" at the prison. God have mercy on them (because the church-goers are too busy playing dress-up and confirming their salvation to be bothered).

Oh, but let a gay-cruise show up in the harbour and they'll spring into action right away.

Hey Mr. Moncur - while you're at it, why don't we just change our Flag to be the Haitian flag. We can share the same flag.

It will probably happen in about 10 years anyway - so let's just get it over with, eh?

So we're going to sell our sovereignty for $146 million? Just like we did with the Cable Beach strip? Come on man !!

We export next to nothing. This is rubbish.

We should NOT join the WTO.

And this foolishness about local growers supplying major hotel chains !!! lolololololol

We need this WTO nonsense for us to prove this can't be done AGAIN?

Wow.

In response to TimeForChange - NO you cannot vote them out now. It would be nice though if our Constitution was changed to have elections every 3 years instead of 5.

Of course that would give too much power to the people, and remove their slavery status - so it will not happen any time soon.

Slavery is no longer a problem in the modern era - it is just considered normal now.