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The recent controversy over Immigration policy is clear evidence of the inability of Bahamian governments to rationally tackle the core issues that hold our economy back.
As Franklyn Wilson noted, the country's overall approach to immigration was settled as far back as the early 1970s, and yet we can still waste time over it today. The issue was put to rest by the implementation of a strict Bahamianisation policy by the new PLP government, accompanied by a massive investment in education.
These two policy shifts reversed a trend towards the wholesale recruitment of expatriates, and broadened educational opportunities for Bahamians who could then expand the nation's middle class.
As the late Dr Keva Bethel described the period immediately following the Second World War: "The highest forms of employment to which the majority of Bahamians were likely to be able to aspire...were posts in the civil service, teaching, nursing, or the church. Moreover, only a proportionately modest number actually achieved those positions."
But in the first years after majority rule in 1967, the government spent as much as 19 per cent of the annual budget on education, building new schools throughout the country to provide better education for all Bahamian children.
"How can you rape an underage girl and then post pictures of her online?"
That was the question posed by the grieving mother of Rehteah Parsons, who says her daughter was never the same after four boys sexually assaulted her two years ago.
When a cellphone picture of the alleged assault was circulated around her Nova Scotia high school, Rehtaeh immediately dropped out, and eventually committed suicide. Her funeral was held on Saturday.
The initial police investigation had ended with no charges filed, due to lack of evidence, but following public pressure the police reopened their investigation. A large part of that pressure was a threat by the hacker group, Anonymous, to identify the boys online.
In 2009 a New York City emergency medical technician faced misdemeanor charges after being accused of taking a picture of a female murder victim and posting it to his Facebook page.
April is tax return month in the US - and here in the Bahamas we have just embarked on the road to the proposed introduction of a value-added tax on goods and services before the next general election. This will begin a process of raising government revenue from around 19 per cent of GDP to some 23 per cent.
Most people who think about these things accept that the country could do with more revenue to invest in essentials like infrastructure development, training, and healthcare. But they also see a big problem with demanding more taxes while we continue on our present course.
The danger is that those extra taxes will go down the same monstrous drain hole of political boondoggles like Bahamasair, ZNS and BEC, as well as pay for extra perks and benefits for the political class and their cronies. And in the end, we will be left no better off than we are now.
To make the point crystal clear (for those unfamiliar with the term), a boondoggle is a project that is considered a useless waste of time and money, yet is often continued for external political reasons. And a boondoggle can exist for a very long time, either because the failure is not widely recognised or because those responsible have ulterior motives.
The fear of government waste and boondoggles is hardly misplaced. The three state corporations alone, mentioned earlier, offer more than enough evidence over many decades.
KINGSTON, Jamaica -- As prospectors are about to drill for oil in Bahamian waters, it's worth taking a look at the recent experience of petroleum licensing in a fellow CARICOM state - Belize.
Over the past several years, the government of that little Central American nation - sandwiched between Guatemala and Mexico - secretly handed out licenses to a slew of shell companies to drill for oil throughout the country and its offshore waters, including in protected areas.
This sparked the formation of the Belize Coalition to Save our Natural Heritage, which has been fighting a running battle with the government over oil licenses. The coalition includes scores of civil society groups and is supported by Oceana, an international marine conservation society.
A "people's referendum" was organised just before the last general election (in March 2012), which resulted in an overwhelming no vote against offshore oil drilling by more than 29,000 people. The coalition also took the government to court, with a decision expected next month.
At a regional conference here last week - organised by the Jamaica Environment Trust, the World Resources Institute, the University of the West Indies and others - Belize was cited as a prime example of why freedom of information is vital for good governance and environmental protection.
The performances of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition are severely wanting on the range of issues related to gambling. Perry Christie’s performance has been abysmal. Dr. Hubert Minnis has been wrong-footed, wobbly and confusing.
Most pronouncements by the government and the opposition respectively have generally proven to be rambling, inconsistent and curiously unreflective, with some exceptions. Thankfully, the debate has been joined by others who have raised critical issues and common concerns.
Two of these are the Anglican and Roman Catholic prelates, both of whom issued pastoral reflections. The latter word is key, as the respective documents were decidedly more reflective, well-researched and deliberative than the hastily concocted announcements by the PLP and the FNM.
This is unsettling as it is the obligation of the government and the opposition to present to the public, policy ideas and the philosophy informing their views on the many issues relative of gambling.
It is often a cliché to speak of a crisis of leadership in the political arena, a claim made by ancients and moderns alike.
And yet, at the start of 2013 and approaching the fortieth anniversary of independence, we are beset by arguably the weakest and most incapable leadership at the helm of the major political parties since 1973.
This is not an argument for a third party, especially as none of the current groupings offer much by way of leadership.
Hands down, the governing Progressive Liberal Party is now led by the most lacklustre and unimpressive prime minister in an independent Bahamas. At the end of last year, Perry Christie was again entertaining audiences with his signature Junkanoo shuffle.
The Christie shuffle is characterized by a frenzy of activity of limited duration, a fit of ersatz passion and performance art, and gyrating in place, giving the appearance of motion. It is a fitting metaphor of his prime ministership since his return to office last May: Plenty activity but little forward motion.
At least Christie is able to project the illusion of leadership, much as the Wizard of Oz projected the illusion of omnipotence, at least for a spell.
For his part, Dr. Hubert Minnis is unable to disguise that he holds the joint distinction as the most unimpressive Leader of the Opposition and as the least capable Leader of the Free National Movement.
The internet arrived in the Bahamas in 1995. The government drafted its first e-commerce policy in 1999. And by the early 2000s, so-called web cafes were scattered across the island. The shops were licensed to provide internet access to the public - with no overt promotion of gambling.
A new generation of Numbers chiefs had developed sophisticated online gaming software based on computer servers outside the Bahamas, where gambling was legal. Customers here could use the internet for anything they wanted, but the web shop's gaming home page appeared on every screen and most people understood exactly why the web shops existed.
Fact is, anyone can sign up for an account from any computer anywhere to participate in a variety of gaming activities. For example, Island Luck's home page features poker, casino-style games and sports betting, in addition to a numbers lottery.
It's head office is in Malta, but it claims 15 web shops on New Providence, Exuma, Abaco and Grand Bahama. The number of web shops in the Bahamas has grown annually over the past 15 years, with 28 said to have been licensed by the government in January 2012.
Bahamians gamble with impunity because of two factors. First, the authorities have never bothered to enforce the law with any vigour. Second, the Numbers business is now mostly electronic, and the Lotteries and Gaming Act was not designed for this. So our Bahamian web shops have become part of a booming global online industry worth more than $30 billion annually.
It is interesting to look back at how the politically very well-connected Bahamas Uncensored website described the gaming situation in 2003:
There has been considerable confusion surrounding next week’s referendum, which was postponed from last year because of a lack of good and proper process. Besides the confusion created by the incompetence associated with conducting the poll, there remain many questions of ethics and policy about the two questions.
There are various compelling reasons to Vote NO on the question of legalizing web shops, seven of which are offered in this week’s column, and which readers may wish to pass on to others.
The overriding argument is that a national lottery is in the better interest of the Bahamian people, while legalizing web shops is not in the national interest.
For some, this whole gambling referendum controversy is a storm in a tea pot, a mountain from a molehill, a monumental waste of money, time and energy, and so much ado about nothing.
"No matter what you do in the Bahamas, people are gonna find something wrong with it," said one of those I surveyed. "This is a simple matter of individual choice - we should be able to do what we want, within reason. It's just like the nonsense they spouted about Sunday shopping.
"Maybe we shouldn't have let web shops proliferate, but we did and that's the reality now. Try to close them and they will set up a system where you can gamble on your phone. Their assets are outside the jurisdiction, and they are very sophisticated."
As for the question of public information and transparency, "Colorado recently voted to legalise marijuana, but are only now setting up a task force to figure out how to regulate it. Why spend time and effort on that in advance?"
“A right delayed is a right denied.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
The Bahamas Independence Conference convened 12 days before Christmas 1972 at the red Dutch brick Marlborough House in central London, which once served as a royal residence, eventually housing the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Foundation.
Leading the Bahamian delegations were Premier Sir Lynden Pindling (PLP) and Leader of the Opposition Sir Kendal Isaacs (FNM). The central order of business was the independence constitution.
Marlborough House, adorned with paintings, murals, tapestries and sculptures symbolizing the apogee of British imperial and colonial rule was now a museum of sorts where the nadir of empire was unfolding with a succession of colonies holding independence talks in the stately mansion.
There was, at the conference, another irony; a tragic one: Ten years after women’s suffrage and at the birth of a new constitution committed to equality, the PLP, the party which helped usher in majority rule, opposed full equality for Bahamian women in terms of passing on a right of automatic citizenship to children born outside The Bahamas of a non-Bahamian husband.
Dead People on Facebook & Unskilled People in the Workforce
by Larry Smith
"How can you rape an underage girl and then post pictures of her online?"
That was the question posed by the grieving mother of Rehteah Parsons, who says her daughter was never the same after four boys sexually assaulted her two years ago.
When a cellphone picture of the alleged assault was circulated around her Nova Scotia high school, Rehtaeh immediately dropped out, and eventually committed suicide. Her funeral was held on Saturday.
The initial police investigation had ended with no charges filed, due to lack of evidence, but following public pressure the police reopened their investigation. A large part of that pressure was a threat by the hacker group, Anonymous, to identify the boys online.
In 2009 a New York City emergency medical technician faced misdemeanor charges after being accused of taking a picture of a female murder victim and posting it to his Facebook page.
Continue reading "Dead People on Facebook & Unskilled People in the Workforce" »
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