Very happy to see PM fighting back at the immoral, greedy and hypocritical actions of the EU.
Not so happy with the rubbish response on the question of exorbitant travel costs...once again deflecting from the issue. Of course we, the People, want our country to look outward and make relationships...the obvious point is that to do that you don't need to send "gussie mae" sized delegations of cronies all over the world, flying first class and staying in 5 star hotels everywhere. Send just the minimum people to get the job done, and send the right people, not the cronies and tag-alongs.

So your argument is "if you cannot fix everything, don't try to fix anything". That won't get us very far. I'd take an environmental lawyer trying to do good, for free, any day over all the other blood-sucking lawyers preying on clients, telling them they have a good case and then sucking them dry even when they lose. Lawyers are the greatest toxic substance in our country.

One country, two systems...haha...that's working out really well for Hong Kong.

The fact that we were willing as a country to go further than the bare minimum that CITES could reach an agreement on is a good thing, not a bad one. After decades of turtles disappearing, finally seeing turtles in the wild has become a common thing and long may it continue.
The fact that neighbouring countries do something differently doesn't mean that what we did was wrong...in this case it means that what we did was better, more forward thinking, more ethical and better for our country, our future generations and our planet. It means that our government wasn't scared by a tiny minority of people who wanted to continue killing turtles...can you guess who...the commercial fisherman who, surprise, surprise, were in favour of the petition to start killing turtles again!
My fellow Bahamians in general, unfortunately, don't seem to care much for the environment. They happily litter, clear protected land, harvest undersized conch, take lobster and grouper out of season and basically do whatever they want without any regard for the future of our environment. They have proven that if there is a rule that tries to conserve a natural resource, they will find ways to bend that rule or ignore it. The only viable way of protecting the turtles in our seas was and remains a total ban.
Thank God for people like Kim Aranha.

Ok, then. Point taken. So if the rest of us can manage to sort out our own travel arrangements, testing where necessary, Verifly, passenger locator forms, travel health visas etc in our own time when we aren’t working and dealing with all the other stresses of life, travel agents whose full time jobs are to deal with travel related issues should find it a breeze to deal with the simple (my kids can do it themselves) requirements to come here. And why do they keep implying that our requirements are so incredibly strict when the requirements to enter their own countries are more strict?

Another ridiculous, deceitful “travel agent” letter. I hope the US government will also be forthcoming with information about the hundreds of visitors to the US who die every year!
The idea that people are cancelling trips because they haven’t heard the private details of these unfortunate deaths is absurd. Nobody would ever travel to the US if they worried about all the crime and violent deaths there…and there wasn’t even any foul play in this case. Quite frankly the idea that anyone still uses a travel agency to book a simple flight and a hotel stay is also laughable, as laughable as the whining complaints about “unrealistic and expensive rules”…seriously? The Bahamas gives you 3 days to get a test done…the US gives you one day, so tell me, who is being unreasonable here. If it is “so difficult” to come to The Bahamas, why are the hotels now operating at 90%+ occupancy and why are the flights so full that any seats left cost a fortune? Stop whining, stop being a hypocrite and please grow up.

Don’t watch US media unless it is to laugh at Fox News from time to time.

Not that it will ever happen now, but isn’t it obvious that Ukraine, after having Crimea invaded and suffering from Russian-backed insurrection in the Eastern Donbas, might think it a good idea to try and protect itself from further Russian aggression? And as for Sweden and Finland…hello? They have just seen Russia invade a European sovereign country and not surprisingly are also a little bit concerned for their own protection as long as a dictator like Putin remains in control (by locking up or murdering anyone who opposes him).
Where is the threat from Russia? This cannot be a serious question. Yes, China is a big threat, but the existence of the Chinese threat does not negate the existence of the Russian threat…that would be like saying we don’t need to worry about ebola because haven’t you heard about malaria…ie absurd.
Agree 100% that China is a big, malevolent threat to the free, democratic world, but you can make that case much more strongly if you don’t undermine yourself with other absurdities.

Have to disagree with you, Alan. Seems there is a strange variety of person living in New Jersey, New York and Ontario who have problems dealing with very simple procedures (that my teenage kids can do with their eyes closed) and who love spewing hypocritical rubbish as well as bare faced lies.
The process is simple (unless you have serious mental challenges); I’ve personally done it at least half a dozen times during the pandemic and the travel visa (when Bahamians needed it) never once took more than 2 hours to get approved, and normally was ready in under 45 minutes. If a tiny country like ours can make it easy for people to get an antigen test, then people living in G7 countries can only blame their own governments if they have dropped the ball…it’s not our fault if they are having problems doing something that the rest of the planet seem to have worked out how to do.
And how dare they insinuate that our 3 day rule is strict when the US is still forcing everyone to get a test within 24 hours…we are 3 times as generous.
And as for the stories of all the business we are losing…pull the other one. Hotels have been jammed packed this season and just today when I passed through the domestic and non-US international terminal, the line to check in for Westjet was out the door…funny how a bunch of not particularly clever looking Spring Breakers must have been perfectly capable of dealing with our “ridiculously difficult entry rules”.
There is no doubt that the entry rules will slowly continue to be relaxed, but please can these whining hypocrites stop with their crybaby misrepresentations.

Yay! I have been waiting for another laugh out loud letter from Comrade Allen. I love it...the West have been pursuing an endless war in Ukraine! Nearly spat my coffee out I laughed so hard. Yeah, the West didn't send countless envoys and diplomatic missions to try to stop Putin invading Ukraine. And I suppose Putin (that sweet, kind hearted, peace loving, democratically driven lover of all mankind) wasn't the one who ordered the attack (after lying for weeks and saying he had no intention of invading Ukraine).
"Western politicians are so determined to avert a truce"...what a crock. The only thing any rational reader can believe in Comrade Allen's diatribe is "don't be fooled by the lies", because in this reader's opinion Comrade Allen's latest missive is, like so many of his other rants, full of them.
Nevertheless they are very amusing, so please keep them coming!

More hypocritical whining about procedures that are NOT complicated unless you have serious mental challenges. I suggest the writer looks in the mirror at all the hoops you had to jump through to visit Canada...when they were letting people visit at all! Download an app, fill out forms, 2 weeks of isolation etc. And this guy has the gall to complain about filling in an online form that my teenage kids have been able to complete on their own in less than 5 minutes. Not exactly complicated and time consuming. And if you can't get hold of the tests, that is your country's government's fault, not ours...if our tiny little country can make it easy for residents to get antigen tests at just $30 a pop, then the mighty G7 member Canada damned well ought to be able to do it too. Sick of these whiners...at least he didn't pretend to be a travel agent like the others who send these pathetic letters to the Tribune.