INSIGHT: Crumbling before our eyes
WHEN I wrote a column last week that started with the words - shame on me - I was fighting back tears. I am a Bahamian citizen and as guilty as every one of us who stands by and lets history crumble before our eyes. Earlier that day, I had stood in front of a building that once housed Pan American Airlines headquarters and realised, just as I had the Sunday before when a young friend and I pushed away the bush to get inside Blackbeard’s Tower, that we are letting our incredible history vanish piece by piece, decaying block by block, day by day.
Top Tips for Landing the First Job After Graduation
COLLEGE graduation is an exciting milestone that marks years of preparation, hard-work and sacrifice for both students and their families. However, the celebration of success is often short-lived for graduates as they anxiously turn their thoughts to what the next steps should be.
INSIGHT: Stop taxing the poorest
ALREADY drowning in a sea of hefty utility bills, high living costs, and archaic business-stifling restrictions, low to middle income Bahamians have just been smacked in the face with a sledgehammer in the form of a regressive, unexpected and misguided tax hike. It is far worse for Grand Bahamians where the economy remains mired in a quagmire of depression.
INSIGHT: We desperately need a new leadership alternative
AS we brace ourselves for the impending reality of increased taxes, the government’s confirmation that it will proceed with the 4.5 percent VAT hike has left many Bahamians feeling disheartened. While the likelihood that they would have come back this week more amenable to consultation after having heard the public uproar was low, many people still had hope.
INSIGHT – FOIA: A story of betrayal
THREE successive administrations from 1992 have promised to give us Freedom of Information. It all started with the Delivery Boy’s promise to bring us “Government In The Sunshine” to provide us with the tools to monitor the behaviour of public officials – our employees – and determine whether their performance is good enough, whether they have been acting in the interests of the public and not for their own benefit, that of their friends, relatives or lovers.
INSIGHT: Grand Bahama reacts to VAT hike
GRAND Bahama was already struggling – then came the budget announcement that value added tax will increase to 12 percent next month.
WORLD VIEW: Caribbean democracy demands change
THE Leader of the Opposition is assigned important roles in the Constitutions of all Commonwealth Caribbean (CC) countries. The roles stand at the heart of the democratic values to which the peoples of CC countries adhere. That is why provision should be made in the Constitutions of all CC countries for a seat to be reserved for the position of Leader of the Opposition if one political party, or its candidates, win all the seats in the House of Representatives at General Elections.
POLICE ADVICE: Rebuilding our communities by reaching out to the young
WHEN a child is born, they are born into a world of sin. Despite their innocence, they immediately become prisoners of their environment and the many influences around them.
INSIGHT: Bigger or not? Officials insist dump is not expanding
You can only really see it from the air. Hundreds of feet below New Providence’s landfill stretching out into the distance and now visibly right upto the edge of a major highway.
INSIGHT: The Bahamian people are again sacrificial lambs
STAGGERED from the shock experienced after the government’s announcement of the imminent 4.5 percent VAT hike, many citizens are left trying to make sense of it all. Among the questions floating around the heads of many Bahamians, none may be more pertinent than those concerning survival.
WORLD VIEW: Let PM Mia Mottley’s seed sprout across the Caribbean
IN the wake of the clean sweep by the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) of all the seats in general elections on May 24 for the Barbados House of Representatives, the problem of no parliamentary opposition has rightly become a matter for wider discussion in the Caribbean and farther abroad.
INSIGHT: Is Foulkes a minister or merely a mouthpiece?
SINCE The Tribune released the findings from its investigation earlier this year, which revealed an apparent breach of The Pointe Heads of Agreement, much controversy has loomed over the project. What has been most disconcerting is the Minister of Labour’s consistent attempts to defend the serially bad acting contractor, China Construction America (CCA).
INSIGHT: A trip to China to open the eyes
AT this point I would be misleading you if I said I was not apprehensive about the opportunity to travel to The People’s Republic of China and live among its people for four weeks.
WORLD VIEW: Political hubris and justice
IF there is any doubt the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is not beholden to governments and does not yield to their wishes in making judgments, recent events should dispel it.
INSIGHT: Florida coral reefs at risk - but what danger for The Bahamas?
THE outbreak of an unknown disease threatening Florida coral reefs is on the radar of local scientists but no screenings have been conducted yet.
