Sad thing, the Haitian man who works with me for a fair wage but lower than any school leaver would accept, he is multi lingual, literate, a man of thought and supporting a family. He believes in the sanctity of marriage and has never bothered with stepping outside those vows to produce unwanted outside children, he feels that is wrong but has empathy for the unwanted progeny and works to assist them to give their lives worth and value to themselves. Let's take this a step further. He teaches Bahamian kids how to read and write in English. How to construct thought and face the world with open eyes and show pride in achievement - not slop around with gangs and stupid people. If he can come here and achieve this, why can't others - Bahamians - remove themselves from the selfish blanket under which they hide to do something constructive for their OWN country.

Can we use their parking spaces even temporarily - please? They use ours - even private load/unload zones and then disappear to hustle customers while we get ticketed because we can;t use our loading zones... because they have been occupied by selfish union protected taxi drivers.

Casting aspersions whether true or not makes you a lowlife headline hunter. I hope that your hand is not in your shorts!

Giving recognition - sometimes Nature's forces are far beyond our abilities to work within them.

I agree with Mr. Dupuch - he has better vision than Economist.

Who is C.A. Smith and what has he ever done to be offered much less given this position?

She is so right. The competition to the Bahamian dockside and downtown tourist industry is the cruise ships themselves - yet we give away land and benefits to these greedy foreign smiling faced looters of our economy and the economies of other countries whose governments are stupid enough to buy into their rainbow projections. Their only real projection is for themselves. Tax them, make them pay, they unload foul unwanted waste in our waters and laugh at the minimal amount of money that they are fined for breaking local and international laws. They are the real enemy, the ones who enjoy the slipshod way that their continued infractions are encountered and allowed to slip by - and they will continue to get away with this stinking practice until some absolute and draconian penalty is levied. Admittedly, there is nothing Bahamian being sold in the straw market - which is a sad reflection on the greed, laziness, larcenous and falsicicating of the abilities of the majority of straw market occupant/vendors (who complain about paying stall fees and don't - because they feel so entitled after 1967) These people are also the enemy. It is high time to tackle and resolve these stated problems and others. Those who feel that they are unfairly targeted are the ones who have caused the problems from the beginning. Snap them into line. No remorse, no escape, no back door. As to the cruise lines - the same. They will have to capitulate should they want a profit making destination. That includes all stops and 'Private Islands' Get real everyone or get out, get fined, get deported and get locked up or locked out.

Much of what was bought and brought in duty free or duty cancelled concessions could have been bought locally through import arrangements arranged by bid. Whereas we have to pay duty, then VAT on duty - an unfair tax on a tax - they make money ostensibly off our backs. This inequality must be remedied. Goods available through Bahamian suppliers might be made free of VAT as a concession, but someone here should be able to reap some benefit rather than being on the other side of the economic fence.

Of course you never let on to a person being investigated that they are under scrutiny.

Since we are not plagued with being U.S. (a=Americans as they call themselves) we should be able to analyse their rules and standards. God forbid if we lost our historical prominence and followed the ignorant trash that so much abounds.