Miller is being disingenuous when he says that this was a mistake. We all know that the infrastructure at BEC is old and decrepit, something Miller would have been very well aware of when he was Chairman. Blaming Bpl is like me having a 1989 Hinda Civic, and when I lend it to my brother to drive, it breaks down. Should I get mad at him, who just happened to be driving my 27 year old car when it finally konked out, or should I blame myself for not getting a more recent vehicle?
This latest fiasco reminded me of the famous night when the FNM were first elected to government. ZNS must have been ordered to read out only the results of voting stations that were in the PLP's favour. And when those few had been aired, Ping came on to announce that he was conceding. You could hear the car horns all over Nassau within minutes. Christie seems to have taken a leaf out of his hero's book, by only drip feeding us the results until they could see what the overall picture was like.
Which leads on to the second aspect.....in lieu of any bye-elections, there was no other way that the nation could express its displeasure at the government's performance over the last few years. Nobody asked us for our views on the referendum, nobody seems to have carried out straw polls prior to the referendum, and nobody ever truly engaged us. Well, for this crass attitude and couldn't-care-less about us, I think we gave them well-deserved bloody nose. Oh - and let's not forget the 101 cases of corruption, nepotism, cronyism and lies that we've been consistently fed.
The pity of all this is that a national referendum is now something that cannot be relied upon to bring about badly needed changes, because the Government of the day either badly miscalculated the mood of the nation (equal rights x 2), or just ignored our wishes (gambling x 1)
From a quick scan of the overall results, I can only see one instance of a single question where the "yes" was a majority. (Central and South Abaco: Q1). How is it possible for a government to have been so out of touch with the populace and to have misread the feelings of ALL constituencies? Was there nobody in Government who could not see this coming? No cabinet minister who could make him/herself heard, or was it a huge case of The Emperor's New Clothes? And please Mr Christie, do not insult our intelligence by saying that the results were not an indication of our displeasure with your handling of the nation's affairs.
So how did the major parties fare? Here's my two cents
PLP - Badly misjudged the mood of the nation. Immigration is our biggest fear and one that always raises heated debate. Unfortunately it would not take much for the Bahamas to be swamped by foreigners - is it politically incorrect to say this? Yes, but in our case, the honest truth. But the government's attitude seemed to be....these are the questions, take them or leave them. Well, Mr Christie, we left them
FNM - Not much better. It is not possible for them to have said or done anything other than to agree with the questions put forward. If they had opposed in any way, then people would have quite rightly asked why they themselves held the earlier referendum
The Church - Decades of fire and brimstone preaching have in effect brainwashed swathes of the population about the sanctity of man / woman marriage. Although not specifically mentioned in the referendum questions, to many people this was an underlying fear of what might occur somewhere down the road. This was also apparent when a well known member of the clergy declared he would be voting No. And I'm sure that there were many, many, conversations at the family bbq or the bar or at work where the same opinions were voiced. The outside world may be changing its attitude towards gay marriage, but the message from the pulpit is still the same as it ever was. It will be interesting to see what the reaction from the churches will be if / when one of the major religions accepts gay marriage
The people - Well, we can only vote in our own best interests. I want whatever few jobs there are to go to Bahamians, and if 500 Chinese can be employed at the Pointe, what does that say about how the government views us? And what, pray tell, will happen when we get an influx of foreign men who, as soon as they are granted citizenship, would then file for divorce and bring in a foreign national as their next wife? This, and so many follow-up questions were left unanswered or not even addressed. We were told by the "Yes" side that they were not given enough time to educate the populace....well, whose damned fault is that, if not the goivernment's?
I agree with your comment Birdie. That is why it is such a pity that Mr Christie and others were shown wearing their coloured t-shirts in the days prior to the referendum. Nobody comes out of this thing with any great credit.
Government may end up inadvertently forcing companies to take drastic actions against NIB and their like i.e. if they can afford to, private sector companies will cease doing business with NIB. Then I suppose that the wool will lift from their eyes once they realise that their buildings don't get fixed, nobody will maintain their offices or keep them in supplies etc etc. We're a Third rate country with First rate foolishness.
I find it strange that we are only reading about foreign nationals getting caught for drug offences....Swedes, Dutch, Surinam, Haitian for example.
Is this the Government propaganda machine cranking up? To make us want us to hate foreigners in the run-up to next year's election......maybe they'll even show Roots later this year haha. And of course, none of the numbers houses are involved with drugs are they? Gee whiz....will someone please tell the Government that it is the 21st Century and we can see this for the BS it is
I congratulate the Police for this seizure, and the Customs Officers at the airport, but let us not kid ourselves that none of our fellow Bahamians are involved in the drug trade
(Who hires those unethical thieving RTD employees???)
All these corrupt practices and procedures are allowed by their unethical thieving bosses, who answer to the unethical, thieving Ministers, who sit in Cabinet with the unethical, thieving Prime Minister
watcher says...
Miller is being disingenuous when he says that this was a mistake. We all know that the infrastructure at BEC is old and decrepit, something Miller would have been very well aware of when he was Chairman. Blaming Bpl is like me having a 1989 Hinda Civic, and when I lend it to my brother to drive, it breaks down. Should I get mad at him, who just happened to be driving my 27 year old car when it finally konked out, or should I blame myself for not getting a more recent vehicle?
On Miller: BPL deal was a mistake
Posted 16 June 2016, 4:44 p.m. Suggest removal
watcher says...
How soon before Mr Rickards gets a visit from Frederica Mitchell? She will be most upset that someone dares to say what should be done,
On The rising cost of finishing Baha Mar
Posted 15 June 2016, 5:37 p.m. Suggest removal
watcher says...
This latest fiasco reminded me of the famous night when the FNM were first elected to government. ZNS must have been ordered to read out only the results of voting stations that were in the PLP's favour. And when those few had been aired, Ping came on to announce that he was conceding. You could hear the car horns all over Nassau within minutes. Christie seems to have taken a leaf out of his hero's book, by only drip feeding us the results until they could see what the overall picture was like.
On This is censorship
Posted 10 June 2016, 3:40 p.m. Suggest removal
watcher says...
Which leads on to the second aspect.....in lieu of any bye-elections, there was no other way that the nation could express its displeasure at the government's performance over the last few years. Nobody asked us for our views on the referendum, nobody seems to have carried out straw polls prior to the referendum, and nobody ever truly engaged us. Well, for this crass attitude and couldn't-care-less about us, I think we gave them well-deserved bloody nose. Oh - and let's not forget the 101 cases of corruption, nepotism, cronyism and lies that we've been consistently fed.
The pity of all this is that a national referendum is now something that cannot be relied upon to bring about badly needed changes, because the Government of the day either badly miscalculated the mood of the nation (equal rights x 2), or just ignored our wishes (gambling x 1)
On Latest Constitutional Referendum Results
Posted 10 June 2016, 5:12 a.m. Suggest removal
watcher says...
From a quick scan of the overall results, I can only see one instance of a single question where the "yes" was a majority. (Central and South Abaco: Q1). How is it possible for a government to have been so out of touch with the populace and to have misread the feelings of ALL constituencies? Was there nobody in Government who could not see this coming? No cabinet minister who could make him/herself heard, or was it a huge case of The Emperor's New Clothes? And please Mr Christie, do not insult our intelligence by saying that the results were not an indication of our displeasure with your handling of the nation's affairs.
So how did the major parties fare? Here's my two cents
PLP - Badly misjudged the mood of the nation. Immigration is our biggest fear and one that always raises heated debate. Unfortunately it would not take much for the Bahamas to be swamped by foreigners - is it politically incorrect to say this? Yes, but in our case, the honest truth. But the government's attitude seemed to be....these are the questions, take them or leave them. Well, Mr Christie, we left them
FNM - Not much better. It is not possible for them to have said or done anything other than to agree with the questions put forward. If they had opposed in any way, then people would have quite rightly asked why they themselves held the earlier referendum
The Church - Decades of fire and brimstone preaching have in effect brainwashed swathes of the population about the sanctity of man / woman marriage. Although not specifically mentioned in the referendum questions, to many people this was an underlying fear of what might occur somewhere down the road. This was also apparent when a well known member of the clergy declared he would be voting No. And I'm sure that there were many, many, conversations at the family bbq or the bar or at work where the same opinions were voiced. The outside world may be changing its attitude towards gay marriage, but the message from the pulpit is still the same as it ever was. It will be interesting to see what the reaction from the churches will be if / when one of the major religions accepts gay marriage
The people - Well, we can only vote in our own best interests. I want whatever few jobs there are to go to Bahamians, and if 500 Chinese can be employed at the Pointe, what does that say about how the government views us? And what, pray tell, will happen when we get an influx of foreign men who, as soon as they are granted citizenship, would then file for divorce and bring in a foreign national as their next wife? This, and so many follow-up questions were left unanswered or not even addressed. We were told by the "Yes" side that they were not given enough time to educate the populace....well, whose damned fault is that, if not the goivernment's?
On Latest Constitutional Referendum Results
Posted 10 June 2016, 4:53 a.m. Suggest removal
watcher says...
I agree with your comment Birdie. That is why it is such a pity that Mr Christie and others were shown wearing their coloured t-shirts in the days prior to the referendum. Nobody comes out of this thing with any great credit.
On Christie: I will not resign over failed referendums
Posted 9 June 2016, 5:41 p.m. Suggest removal
watcher says...
I guess if the No votes win Christie will just ignore the results, same as he did with the numbers referendum?
On PM: It’s time to vote YES
Posted 6 June 2016, 3:12 p.m. Suggest removal
watcher says...
Government may end up inadvertently forcing companies to take drastic actions against NIB and their like i.e. if they can afford to, private sector companies will cease doing business with NIB. Then I suppose that the wool will lift from their eyes once they realise that their buildings don't get fixed, nobody will maintain their offices or keep them in supplies etc etc. We're a Third rate country with First rate foolishness.
On New tax enforcement move ‘unconscionable’
Posted 6 June 2016, 3:08 p.m. Suggest removal
watcher says...
I find it strange that we are only reading about foreign nationals getting caught for drug offences....Swedes, Dutch, Surinam, Haitian for example.
Is this the Government propaganda machine cranking up? To make us want us to hate foreigners in the run-up to next year's election......maybe they'll even show Roots later this year haha. And of course, none of the numbers houses are involved with drugs are they? Gee whiz....will someone please tell the Government that it is the 21st Century and we can see this for the BS it is
I congratulate the Police for this seizure, and the Customs Officers at the airport, but let us not kid ourselves that none of our fellow Bahamians are involved in the drug trade
On Haitian men held over $2m cocaine haul
Posted 12 May 2016, 9:28 a.m. Suggest removal
watcher says...
(Who hires those unethical thieving RTD employees???)
All these corrupt practices and procedures are allowed by their unethical thieving bosses, who answer to the unethical, thieving Ministers, who sit in Cabinet with the unethical, thieving Prime Minister
On $47m lost at Road Traffic
Posted 10 May 2016, noon Suggest removal