Bahama Pundit

The Balancing of Power

by Simon
•Simon is a young Bahamian with things on his mind who wishes to remain anonymous. His column 'Front Porch' is published every Tuesday in the Nassau Guardian. He can be reached at frontporchguardian@gmail.com

Crow-barring a well-known quote out of its original context is akin to isolating a verse from a famous poem. You may get some of the flavour, but not the full taste, of what the author fully intended.

Think of prooftexting, which drains Biblical texts of their originality and vitality, by severing them from their historical and literary contexts. There are also misquoted texts.

Money is not the root of all evil, according to Timothy 6:10. Rather, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

It’s telling that the qualifying verb, love, has often been discarded in this moralism regarding the relationship between man/woman and moolah.

Are we in for a Macroeconomic Adjustment?

by Larry Smith

Renowned Bahamas-based financial expert Sir John Templeton once said that the four most dangerous words in investing are: "This time is different."

He was referring to the tendency to predict gloom and doom - often an irresistible urge for pundits.

But with the world economy about to shift gears in some fundamental ways, it is fair to ask (along with analyst James Ledbetter), "are we going to be wearing barrels for clothes and burning Ikea furniture to heat our homes, in a rerun of the Great Depression?"

Of course, we don't need to heat our homes, but air conditioning is just as important. And at the moment our lives depend almost entirely on imports - of everything from clothing to fuel to food. So perhaps we should take a closer look at what may be in store for us down the road.

The Fires Next Time

by Simon

•Simon is a young Bahamian with things on his mind who wishes to remain anonymous. His column 'Front Porch' is published every Tuesday in the Nassau Guardian. He can be reached at frontporchguardian@gmail.com

Some of the broadcast news coverage of the recent fires at New Providence’s main dump has been sensational. One network reporter breathlessly signed off from the dump with the melodramatic assertion that he was reporting from Ground Zero.

The term 'Ground Zero' was coined after the initial testing, followed by the subsequent detonation of atomic bombs in Japan during World War II. It referred to the ground directly under the exploding nuclear weapons.

Between August 6, 1945 and September 11, 2001, the term gained currency, and was often drafted to describe the epicentre of a natural or human-made disaster of extraordinary proportions.

Post-9/11, it became synonymous with the site where a pair of airplanes struck the Twin Towers of The World Trade Center in New York City.

We can forgive the hyperbole of labeling the site of these dump fires, Ground Zero. Less excusable, is the failure of much of the team coverage, to sift through the embers and unearth still smoldering and broader story-lines.

Whither Baha Mar? After Harrah’s Last Hurrah

by Richard Coulson

(The author is principal of R C Capital and a frequent contributor to the Tribune's business section. In this interview with Joe Rackrate, a (fictional) hotel-casino consultant, he explores the recent unravelling of the $2 billion Baha Mar development.)

RC: Wow – our country sure took a hit when Harrah’s pulled out and left Baha Mar holding the bag: GDP down couple of percentage points, maybe 5,000 construction jobs lost, Cable Beach stuck with its same old tired face. What went wrong?

Joe: Oh, lots of things. You could pin it on Perry, who dilly-dallied too long. Or on Hubert, who shot his mouth off. Or the U.S. recession – tight money and fewer tourists everywhere. Or the private buy-out of Harrah’s, when the new owners loaded the company with a mountain of debt. Or the usual fate of a minnow like Baha Mar swimming with a shark like Harrah’s.

RC: Tell me more.

Is Failure the Responsibility of Schools or Parents?

by Craig Butler

I was on the Platform with Wendal Jones and Godfrey Eneas recently. I must admit that I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I must not be as adept in explaining myself as I thought because the hosts and I locked heads all night.

The major point of contention was our education system. Before I go any further let me state that the role of parents in raising their children can never be abrogated or underestimated.

The foremost and best example for any child will always be those that are in the position to affect their lives, specifically the parents, guardians or custodians along with the extended family.

Accordingly these people must take an active role in ensuring that their children are taught morals and values and that they receive the education they need to enable them to play a meaningful and active role in society.

New Proposals Could Solve Bahamas' Waste Disposal and Energy Woes

by Larry Smith

The biggest problem with garbage is that it never really goes away.

And dump sites are a huge threat both to the environment and to human health - as we have seen with the recent toxic fires at the Harrold Road landfill.

This is not the first time the dump has been on fire since it opened in 1972. It happens quite regularly, and each time there are more people living in the area who are affected. The fumes contain dangerous chemicals like mercury and dioxin.