The Tribune

AISHA Bowe is making history.

She is to become the first Bahamian to go into space – on board a commercial flight with Blue Origin, the spaceflight company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos.

Aisha’s father was a taxi driver who made money driving fares to pay for an engineering degree. Raising his family in the US, he always encouraged her to imagine something more. And imagine she did.

This is not the first time she has made history as a Bahamian. Aisha was also the first Bahamian woman to work with NASA as an aerospace engineer.

And she is also giving back to others – she formed a tech company and has encouraged students to pursue a career in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

In the summer, she reached out to 50 Bahamian students to help them attend a coding camp.

And soon she will show those students just how far they can go if they succeed in their careers – all the way to space.

We live in a time where the economy is tight, where we are just emerging from a pandemic that has killed far too many and changed our society in ways we are still coming to terms with.

Daily – even today – there are headlines about murders. There are political frustrations, fears about climate change, all these things and more.

So it is with joy that we take the opportunity to hail a Bahamian woman who has literally reached for the stars – and achieved her goal.

When we look at all the frustrations and difficulties in our society, we would do well to remember Aisha Bowe – someone who has shown that with determination and hard work, all manner of things can be possible.

We applaud Aisha – for the achievements she has recorded, and the inspiration she has become.

Price controls

Bringing us down to Earth with a bump is the ongoing wrangle between the government on one side and retailers and pharmacies on the other.

Today, pharmacies are closing their doors because no solution has been found in time for the November 1 deadline.

The move has been described as temporary – but without any end date, bringing the prospect of more than one day of pharmacy closures.

It is obvious, but it is worth reiterating how much of a challenge this may be to people, particularly those needing prescriptions filled, and so on.

The government has announced a number of clinics that will be available for pharmaceutical drugs, but clearly any prolonged disruption would be a major problem.

The announcement by the Bahamas Pharmaceutical Association cited “a lack of consultation from the government with the pharmacy industry on the Price Control Regulations Amendment 2022”.

An emergency meeting was being held by the government last night in response – and pharmacists may not be the only ones closing their doors. Food stores too have lamented the lack of a response from the government to proposals put forward as a counter to price control changes, and shutting down grocers could be an option if price control inspectors start trying to enforce new controls due to take effect today.

Clearly, it’s a mess – and equally clearly there was a complete absence of consultation by the government ahead of introducing the changes.

The government has stirred up this hornet’s nest – now the government has to find a solution, and that won’t be made any easier by insisting on a deadline but not giving businesses a swift response in time to meet that deadline.

This needs to be solved – and fast.