Bahama Pundit

Bahamasair or Bahamas Disgrace

by Craig Butler

I have written about the national airline before, and trust me when I say that it has never been flattering. However, everybody and everything deserves another chance so it was with great trepidation that I decided to give Bahamasair one.

I fly America Airlines nearly all the time and I did intend to do so this over the Easter weekend. But like many Bahamians I waited until the last minute to make my reservations and by that time the price had increased to the point that the travel agent told me that American wanted almost $600 per ticket.

That is more than highway robbery - it is extortion. Reluctantly, I asked about Bahamasair, the price was reasonable and I booked two seats.

Climate Change and Tourism in the Caribbean

by Larry Smith

If you want to be inundated with acronyms and overwhelmed by obscurities, you should check out one of the zillion technical workshops that are going on around the Caribbean in any given year.

I went to one last week - it was a mind-numbing forum at the Wyndham Nassau Resort on how climate change will affect tourism in the region - staged by the Caribbean Regional Sustainable Tourism Development Programme, which is funded by the European Union.

More specifically, it was a workshop to discuss the results of "a technical assistance assignment to research the strategic implications for the Caribbean tourism sector of the international policy and market response to global warming." Got that?

Bahamas in Throes of High-Stakes Debate

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

A high-stakes debate on gambling has been shuffled back near the top of a thick deck of national issues as a variation on a basic theme: society’s attempt to balance liberty and social harm; or between how individuals exercise their freedoms and the resulting effects on society.

A broad range of analogous – yet not identical – issues fit within this ethical counterpoint, including debates over drinking and drug use; seat belt and motorbike helmet laws; as well as casino and lottery gambling.

“You can’t legislate morality,” is a wearisome cliché employed to short-circuit the necessary tension between liberty and social harm. Of course we can; as well we should. Murder is illegal.

The Bahamian Electric Vehicle

by Larry Smith

In a recent article I recalled the Silver Volt - an electric car project from almost 30 years ago that had a brief Bahamian dimension.

In 1980 a Michigan company called Electric Auto set up an assembly plant in Freeport to produce the Silver Volt on a modified GM chassis. It had a top speed of 70 mph, a range of up to 100 miles and could recharge its batteries in just 90 minutes - advanced for the time.

Reports claimed that the cars would sell for $15,000. About 300 prototypes were to be built in Freeport for road-testing in Florida, though only 12 were produced before the company pulled out and disappeared from view. But recently we received this email from Dr Barry Iseard, who worked on the project:

A Clean Tech Forum for Bahamians

by Larry Smith

At the recent Freedom 2030 renewable energy conference hosted by the Cape Eleuthera Institute, there were calls for a public forum of some kind to exchange news and learn about clean tech opportunities in the Bahamas.

The feeling was that a lot was happening, but little was known about it. Combining efforts and sharing information on a variety of energy, recycling and sustainable development issues might help to move things along at a faster pace.

Politics and the Economic Impact of the Baha Mar Project

by Craig Butler

Much has been made of the recent decision by Harrah’s Entertainment not to participate in the Baha Mar project on New Providence.

They have cited the long delays in winning government approval for the land transfers as the main reason for their withdrawal. Further justification has been provided by the fact that they are some $21billion in debt and would prefer to concentrate on reducing this figure - which seems to fly in the face of logic when one considers that they are still moving ahead with a massive project in Spain.

This leads us to the question of whether the comments of Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham in Parliament had a role in derailing the project. That will be debated for a long time, but what is clear is that such a statement by the leader of the government was unnecessary, unwarranted and wrong.

Globalisation, the EPA and Bahamian Education

by Larry Smith

Globalisation - it means more cross-border travel, trade, information and investment than ever before. But what does it mean for the average Bahamian?

Well, a lot of us are understandably worried. That's because globalisation brings change, which favours the highly skilled and educated, while lower-skilled jobs are often shifted to lower-wage countries.

Although tourism and financial services are already 'globalised' in the Bahamas, our protected domestic economy includes retailing and wholesaling, publishing and the media, fisheries, entertainment, construction, transport and the professions, as well as a small manufacturing sector.

Now we are faced with a number of initiatives that threaten to demolish our cozy and old-fashioned business arrangements. Free trade proponents say we must become part of the global rules-based trading system because the alternative is a system based on power - in which we surely can't compete.

The Esfakis Inquest and What it Means for Bahamian Healthcare

by Leandra Esfakis

•The author is the deceased's sister, and an attorney. Their father was the late Dr Andrew Esfakis.

Last month the Coroner’s Court delivered a verdict in the April, 2002 death of Christopher Esfakis, age 42, of “Death by natural causes, with a substantial and significant contribution made by neglect.”

Christopher Esfakis’ death was “natural”, in the ordinary meaning of that word, the same way that every death is natural: his heart stopped beating. The inquest determined, however, that “neglect” contributed significantly to that death.

According to the evidence, Christopher Esfakis walked into Doctors Hospital about 1 am on Saturday April 20, 2002. He was admitted for treatment for mostly first and second degree burns to 25 per cent of his body. He died the following Monday at 7 pm.

Bahamas Needs A Great Moderniser

by Larry Smith

Listening to political leaders and financial experts these days can give you the creeps. That's because they all give the impression that we are in for a serious economic crunch - when the chips will be down and the chickens will finally come home to roost.

Inter-American Development Bank Chief Luis Alberto Moreno says regional economies have under-invested in infrastructure for years, curbing economic growth in the process. To catch up, we will have to more than double our spending on capital works, and keep spending at that level for a long, long time.

"(Caribbean states) need to spend between 4 and 7 per cent of GDP per year for the next two decades in order to have high-quality infrastructure that can become the backbone of development," Moreno said, in his economic outlook for 2008. That translates into hundreds of millions a year for us.

Of course, the IDB is in the business of financing infrastructure - they loaned out almost $10 billion to regional governments and businesses last year - so maybe we should expect Moreno to be saying that. But he is not alone.

Those Pesky Airport Parking Rates

by Craig Butler

I haven’t traveled as much as I normally do since the beginning of the year, so I guess you can say I have been out of the loop. But when I went to Freeport recently I parked in the front lot opposite the domestic terminal as usual.

Now upon entering the facility I did not read the signs and I must admit I was at fault for that, but based on the number of times I travel per year I didn’t see anything that would have alerted me to the fact that major changes had been undertaken.

Imagine my surprise when I returned on Friday and presented my ticket at the kiosk. I had $20 in my hand which I thought was sufficient to cover the charges,. However, when the attendant said $90 I thought she had made a mistake. In fact, I was sure of it because I immediately started searching the car for another ticket thinking that this had been one that I had misplaced sometime ago.