INSIGHT: Time for a radical overhaul of our tax system
Bahamians continue to suffocate under the weight of hefty utilities bills, an unnecessarily high cost of living and daunting bureaucratic hurdles to making their own way in the world. The last thing they want to hear is the government intends to oppress them further with the burden of new taxes.
INSIGHT: Welcome to beautiful Cabbage Beach
LARGE piles of bottles, discarded poles, and general trash mar the entrance to Cabbage Beach near the Riu Hotel on Paradise Island.
INSIGHT: The God’s honest truth
One month shy of the current administration wrapping up its first year in government and thus far, there have been few surprises. Many of his critics saw Dr Minnis as ineffective in his capacity as Opposition Leader, both inside his party and the public sphere. Somehow though, he was able to scrape by, barely maintaining control of a party that was miraculously able to galvanise itself at the eleventh hour and win an election that was theirs to lose.
INSIGHT: When what looks like a crisis can become an opportunity
The truth about shanty towns - part 2
In the Bahamas, the irregular communities that we disdainfully refer to as shanty towns are looked upon as a regrettable nuisance, a shameful stain on our national image that must be ‘eradicated,’ as one cabinet minister recently put it.
WORLD VIEW: Trade wars in no one’s interest
THE Government of the People’s Republic of China wrote to the Chairperson of the Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on April 4, registering a dispute with the Government of the United States of America over duties that would be applied by the US only to China’s products.
GAIN AN EDGE: Breaking the mould - Natalie shows a bit of girl power
Natalie Smith initially wondered how she was perceived. As a Construction Technology major, she stepped into many predominantly male classes at the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute (BTVI). The reaction and comments from a few peers were indicative of the stereotypical view of certain careers.
INSIGHT: Ignorance isn’t always bliss
OBAN Energies has been the talk of the town for well over a month. Certainly, more grey hairs must be popping up all over the prime minister’s head as what he thought would have been a huge win for an administration struggling to endear itself to the Bahamian people. Prime Minister Minnis beamed like a teenager on prom night sitting on the right of the now infamous Peter Krieger on the fateful day the Oban powder keg fuse was lit to explode.
INSIGHT: The truth about shanty towns - part 1
To many Bahamians, the informal communities that exist on New Providence and Abaco and some of the larger Family Islands are evidence of an invasion; signs of a hostile takeover or aggressive plague that must be eradicated by any means necessary. Meanwhile, the people who live in these communities are spoken of as if they are hostile aliens, dangerous social contaminants, hardened criminals who should be shown no mercy.
WORLD VIEW: External interference in Caribbean elections is real
BEFORE getting into the thrust of the serious and threatening matter that lies at the heart of this commentary, I declare that I was an integral part of the management of the campaign of the Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) for the March 21 General Election, and I managed its communications campaign.
INSIGHT: Why the cherry switch is a lot scarier than the tamarind switch
In the recent heated and vituperative public reactions to my Human Rights advocacy against the continued victimisation and abuse visited by the Government of The Bahamas upon our Haitian ethnic minority - and the vocal threats on my safety and life - I was moved to react to a particularly savage attack upon me in a voice note circulating widely on social media by a Mr Bannister, a self-proclaimed “True Born and Bred Bahamian”.
INSIGHT: Navigating the steep learning curve of leadership
AS we rapidly approach a year of Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis being the nation’s leader, the landmark only a little more than a month away, we have seen a plethora of moments that made us want to cover our eyes in fear of what he would say next. However, this past week, while he should have still been feeling the bumps and bruises of the beating he took in the media for his egregious missteps on the Oban Energies deal, he is receiving something that has been largely unfamiliar thus far as prime minister – praise.
GAIN AN EDGE: The perfect career is within your reach
You have big dreams – that’s why you’ve been thinking about college. You’ve discovered a secret that many don’t know. You’ve discovered graduating from college is key to unlocking career doors in this rapidly changing world.
INSIGHT: Don’t fool yourselves - we can see through the smokescreen
THE Bahamian political playbook must have tattered dog-ears on pages revisited by politicians old and new – “when in doubt, distract the Bahamian people with something the previous government did!” Its predictability and overuse has become so exhausting in our culture.
INSIGHT: Oban's another bitter pill for us all to swallow
The rapid fall from grace of this FNM government is becoming painful to watch.
WORLD VIEW – The OECD: A robust response required
SMALL states, including those in the Caribbean, are justifiably troubled by the continuous efforts by the member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to cripple every initiative they take in the financial services sector.
