The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Your Monday, January 18th, Business Section headlines: “Credit Bureau to hit 30% borrowers”. Timing is everything it is said and this just confirms it.

The large majority of the people of this country are down and out, through no fault of their own, and the Government and many NGO’s are struggling to just put food on their tables. But the Clearing Banks Association thinks that this is a good time to announce that 30 percent of the people will not be able to borrow money in future.

One has to wonder if Mr Kenrick Braithwaite was around in September of 2019 when Hurricane Dorian destroyed the lives and livelihoods of so many in Abaco and Grand Bahama.

And where was he last year when COVID-19 went trundling through the world, destroying the entire Global Economy and not least of all, the Bahamas economy.

Could no one have told Mr Braithwaite that striking terror in the hearts of Bahamians, many without jobs and many more unable to buy food, would not be a well-timed announcement?

I read The Tribune every day, and not a solitary politician, Government nor Opposition, has had the guts to denounce the timing, if not the machinery, of a Credit Bureau at this time.

Another “well-timed” (LOL) suggestion is in today’s Tribune Business, where Sothebys George Damianos says that he was shocked at the run down and dilapidated state of downtown Nassau and recommended that all (other) parties concerned should now give it a jolly good polishing.

But it wasn’t so shabby when he and almost the entire Bahamas Real Estate Association relocated their businesses to Lyford Cay, Old Fort Bay, and Albany.

Nor was it so shabby when most of the legal fraternity quickly followed, they in turn being followed by many of the private banks and other businesses moving west, in what can only be described as a modern day Gold Rush.

Downtown has looked like this for years, which only goes to show how infrequently Mr Damianos actually gets out of Lyford Cay.

RIP VAN WINKLE

Nassau,

January 20, 2021.