The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune,

I think that the ONLY thing that my good friend Mike Maura Jr did not say in this warning from the Wheelhouse of the Nassau Port was “We’re all right Jack, pull the ladder up” !

Yes, the Port will be getting its docking fees, the Government Tugs will be getting their cut, The Nassau Harbour Pilots theirs, The Treasury will get its Departure Taxes, and Selected Tour Companies will be getting theirs, but you yellow bellied sapsucker retail shops and eateries south of the wharf, well you can just sing for your damned supper!

And everybody knows this including the government of the Bahamas. What a happy little clique! Yet every year, for the past 20 or more years, we are able to turn downtown Nassau into Guantanamo Bay, to stop people entering the City, but it doesn’t cross anyone’s mind that Downtown could just as easily be barriered, to prevent non residents from straying outside the set boundaries. We might need a couple of Nassau’s finest along the side streets to check ID, but I’m sure that could be arranged. And throughout the COVID 19 lockdown and opening up, we all now know about managing numbers inside shops, keeping a safe distance, sanitizing hands, No Mask No Entry. Cut us some slack people.

And if this is coming from the Cruise Ships themselves then they may as well not come. And if they can’t come ashore in Nassau then don’t come ashore on Coco Cay, Castaway Cay, Ocean Cay or any other private island. You are insulting the intelligence of Bahamians!

BRUCE G. RAINE

Nassau,

June 23, 2020