EDITORIAL: No more free rides – accounting needed
WE hope it was just political banter when Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, in a recent exchange with Opposition leader Philip “Brave” Davis indicated he would agree to pay from the public purse for Mr Davis’ tour of the islands to inform the people why government’s 12 per cent VAT increase was not necessary. However, Dr Minnis seemed to catch himself at the end of the exchange when he joked: “I have to speak to the minister of finance to see what’s there!”
DIANE PHILLIPS: The little shop with a window back on time
At the southeast corner of Bay & Frederick Streets stands a store that seems to defy time. The sign above the door reads simply A BAKER & SONS, ESTABLISHED 1894. If you were alive when it opened, you would be 124 today and probably not remember the day it opened. But for most of the rest of us, we cannot remember a time when it did not exist nor when we were not fascinated by the fact that it remains, a survivor of the days when men’s shirts and baby clothes shared the same kind of tight plastic see-through protective wrapping.
FACE TO FACE: Beating the drum for the beauty of Eleuthera
I first met Beat Schlagenhauf when I was covering an event for the Rhythm and Youth Band. This Rake n’ Scrape group comprised young boys and girls and was birthed at the Gerald Cash Primary School under the direction of then music teacher, Nathaniel Adams.
EDITORIAL: Need for more civil judges reaches desperate levels
For the majority of citizens whose lives rarely if ever touch the court system, the subject of how many judges are sitting on the Supreme Court seems distant and irrelevant. A shortage of judges is not likely to be a hot topic around the Keurig cup coffeemaker on a Monday morning and unless lawyers are gathered, there is little chance the subject will arise at all.
THE DISENFRANCHISED: Omar is a symbol of hope
A FEW months ago, as I wrote a story for the Disenfranchised column,I relived three of the hardest losses of young Bahamian males in our country. Two of them had been murdered and another had been incarcerated for murder. It seemed to me and to many
WORLD VIEW: Seeing President Trump in a pleasing light
US President Donald Trump did not sign “The Charlevoix G7 Summit Communique” in Canada in early June. In not doing so, he demonstrated doubts about the group in which the US participates with Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the Presidency of the European Union (EU). The presence of the EU, already represented by Britain, France, Germany and Italy, gives the EU an oversize and unwarranted voice.
EDITORIAL: A shift in the US court balance
THIS is the time of each year when the United States Supreme Court wraps up its yearly activity with a rash of judgments to mark the end of its latest term. Often, these decisions do not garner dramatic headlines, because the issues may touch on obscure constitutional points of law or practically not affect too many people.
EDITORIAL: Inevitable firings and bitter medicine
IN this column on Wednesday, we drew attention to the opposition of four FNM Members of Parliament to the controversial increase of VAT that led to their voting against the Budget. We touched on the reasons why, under our Westminster system of government, they were subsequently sacked from Dr Minnis’s administration. Today, we explore further the workings of that system, which is the bedrock of our democracy, and also call on the Government to improve its public relations.
A COMIC'S VIEW: Here comes Hubully
WITH the dreaded VAT increase days away, Travis is on cleanup duty, Halston speaks in tongues, Sebas for PM, and Hubully is born. The Clean Up Man I think most would agree that it was a brave move for Bain and Grants MP Travis Robinson to vote ag
EDITORIAL: No one likes VAT – but would they prefer the IMF?
BAHAMIANS seem to have one thing in common – no one likes Value Added Tax, whether it be 7.5 percent or the 12 percent percent to which it was recently increased.
ALICIA WALLACE: How you can prepare for the arrival of VAT
VALUE Added Tax will be increased to twelve percent in a matter of days, and many of us are still trying to figure out how to make it work. Adjustments have to be made, some on a daily basis, but this does not mean we have to be uncomfortable. It mea
EDITORIAL: Bahamians have been politically asleep for too long
FROM the questions we are being asked about recent political events we realise that much is missing from the education of Bahamian students as to the history of their country and the political system under which they live.
FACE TO FACE: The woman who taught thousands how to type
RECENTLY, I was in the Seagrapes Shopping Plaza sitting in my car waiting on my passenger to return when I noticed the lady in the car next to me reading The Tribune . Her paper was opened to page 8, main section, and she was reading this column. I s
EDITORIAL: Hurricane Warning for Bahamas Government
WHEN Prime Minister Dr Hubert A Minnis goes on the road this week to sell the budget, there is one tool in his doctor’s kit that he should be prepared to use – a strong dose of the often-overlooked costs of funding hurricane mitigation, recovery and rebuilding.
WORLD VIEW: CARICOM Summit needs to excite the imagination
I WISH I could say that “all eyes are on the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting to be held from 4 to 6 July in Jamaica”. But, CARICOM events have long since ceased to hold excitement for the people of the 15-member community. They hardly get a glance these days.
