The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I suspect that we should blame the late Sir Stafford Sands, who is generally credited as being the “architect” of the Bahamian economy. Judging by the total lack of serious discussion locally, and the declaration by the Chairman of BEC that the reduction in global fuel costs will not benefit the Bahamian consumer because of the monumental debt of BEC, it would appear that we are the only oil consuming nation on Earth that does not realise, or recognise, the significant benefits that lower fuel (principally electrical power) would have on this economy designed by Sir Stafford.

Whatever television news channel you may wish to turn to these days, there is discussion about the continuing fall in oil prices, and always there is the recognition that the net oil consuming economies will, and are, benefitting from this phenomenon.

I would venture to say that the single most negative factor in our tourism product (which has now slipped several rungs on the tourist destination ladder) has got to be the enormous cost of electricity. The Minister of Tourism, in recognising our fall in status, points his finger at the “people”, but it is not the people that make it expensive to come here, it is the infrastructure costs embedded in our room rates and even tacked on as direct energy surcharges.

No Minister, it is not the people who are to blame, it is You, the Government. You, the Government, control BEC.

You, the Government, also control Junkanoo, and allow Bay Street to become a shabby and dirty version of Guantanamo Bay each and every year.

You, the Government, have imposed an enormously unpopular and complicated tax, simply because you don’t have the testicular fortitude to collect the existing taxes that are legitimately due. Even from such persons as our current Governor General. This tax was paid only after it was exposed.

If I might make one suggestion in closing Minister Wilchcombe, it is this. The Cabinet should purchase floor to ceiling mirrors for every wall and door in the Cabinet Room, so that when there is any blame to be cast, for the broken down state of this country, you can all readily see who is to blame.

The only blame that the “people” can legitimately share in, is that they stupidly elected You the Government.

BRUCE G. RAINE

Nassau,

January 6, 2015.