The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

EVERY island, cay, and rock in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas falls within a parliamentary constituency. In other words, every constituency is represented in the Honourable House of Assembly. However, there is a salutational tradition that concerns me.

"Mr Speaker, I rise on behalf on the wonderful people of Lucaya; Mr Speaker, I rise on behalf of the great people of MICAL; Mr Speaker, I rise on behalf of the hard working people of Long Island and Ragged Island; Mr Speaker, I rise on behalf of the resourceful people of West End and Bimini; Mr Speaker, I rise to speak on behalf of the God-fearing people of South Eleuthera," etc, etc.

Representative after Representative enunciating cheesy platitudes, ad nauseam. My difficulty is this, if (according to the MPs) every constituency is populated by wonderful people of stellar integrity, then who are responsible for the daily mayhem in this country? Am I left to conclude that these vile offenders, who commit such horrific acts, are here on work permits or from outer space?

Those individuals with such nasty disposition, that they turn in front of you without using vehicular signals; those individuals who double park, blocking traffic and "cuss out" any one who dares to honk a horn behind them; those individuals who steal copper from essential industries to sell for a pittance; those individuals who harvest undersize conch and crawfish; those young men dressed like pimps and young females dressed like sluts; those single unemployed mothers who indiscriminately have "fatherless" children rather than "condom-plate" the profound implication of their illicit trysts; those employees bankrupting companies by institutionalised stealing; those uncouth young men who habitually drop the "F" bomb in mixed company with obscene precision; you mean ter say that the aforementioned miscreants are all foreigners or aliens?

Members of Parliament, be responsible and call a spade a spade. Please try and cultivate a sense of responsibility among our misdirected population.

Permit me to offer some suggestions on the serious crime issue. I suggest that every child born in the Bahamas must be foot printed and issued a National Insurance Number along with their birth certificate. That NIB Number should also be use as a tracking tool.

For instance by age four that child should have been registered in school. They are then tracked every three years until they enter high school; they are tracked every year to verify that they are still enrolled in High School.

After graduation, they are tracked into the job market or college every two years, up to the age of twenty-five; if they drop out of school and are not gainfully employed, they must give an account of their activities and means of income every six months to the authorities.

It would be easy to verify if they are gainfully employed....they would be making NIB Contribution!

Society has a right to enact laws to protect "Law Abiding Citizens". The only ones to object to such legislation would be bad people and lawyers (sometimes it's difficult to differentiate between the two).

THE SCRIBBLER

Freeport,

Grand Bahama,

April 2, 2012.