WeblogBahamas.com

A message to Mr. Philip Turner, Controller of Road Traffic for the Bahamas

by Jerome Pinder

For years, a constant cry of the Bahamian People has been the poor and inefficient service of our Government Departments and Agencies.  We have all experienced the sour attitudes, chatting on the phone, slow service, eating chicken in the bag, the sense of entitlement in having a Government job, and the list goes on................

I recently had two encounters with the Road Traffic Department.  One involved the renewal of an International License and the other the renewal of a local Bahamian License.

Peter Schiff on "Don’t Bet on a Recovery"

An interesting article by Peter Schiff:

It is astounding how many economists, government officials, and Wall Street strategists construe the current economic conditions as evidence of a bona fide recovery. It is a testament to the power of the rose colored glasses handed out by our nation’s leading universities that such a feeling could be widely held despite the clear and present danger that compounds daily. The myopia leads us to enact policies that actually exacerbate our problems. The “remedies” are postponing, perhaps indefinitely, a true recovery.

The oracles who have described the nature of this imminent recovery do so based on their conviction that consumer spending is slowly returning to levels that existed prior to the recession. New data released today seems to support this view, with consumer spending up 0.5% in January.

The Bloom Box: Electricity for the future?

Rick Lowe

This is amazing...

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Politicians should take the interest of ordinary citizen's to The Bahamas Parliament

Rick Lowe

Well Dr. Bethel has done it again.

In this post... she threw out a challenge to an article by a fellow blogger, Adrian Gibson, here at WeblogBahamas.com.

While I support much of what she said, she suggested that parliamentarians should be "true representatives of the Bahamian people".

So in the comments I asked what a true representative of the Bahamian is, to which she suggested they were "someone who takes the interest of the ordinary citizens to the seat of parliament,..."

This led to a bit more of an exchange and I proffered that a parliamentarian cannot represent the so called "ordinary citizen" any differently than he can represent anyone else, and vice versa. At least according to our Constitution.

Their job is guarantee certain freedoms and protections for everyone, no matter their standing in society.

What's your take?

More on PLP's "Responsible Borrowing" - Helping drown The Bahamas in Debt

Rick Lowe

Not to beat up on Mr. Jarrett and the PLP, but he did say they were "responsible borrowers".

As pointed out in this recent post, the PLP ran very high deficits each year during 2002 - 2007 (the years of the last PLP government) - an average of more than $134 million each year during a period the PLP has claimed to cause great economic growth. (GDP grew from $5.9 billion in 2002 to $6.8 billion in 2006)

Of course the FNM governments over the years have been equally as culpable but that's a discussion for another day.

But let's look at the "responsible borrowing for a moment in the attached chart:

About a billion dollars in five years doesn't look too responsible in a period of substantial economic growth to me.

Seems that in the years of plenty the government should be reducing the debt for when the country faces dire economic circumstances as we do today, no?

Can't wait to hear what Mr. Laing's (current Minister of State for Finance) explanation for all the debt the FNM have added to the country's burden over their years as the government.

As we know, debt levels are now in excess of $3.9 billion and growing.

Still nothing from the Auditor General on the release of his reports

Rick Lowe

Since March 2009 I've been checking the Auditor General's page on the Bahamas Government web site to see if he has released any of the reports. And guess what? You guessed it. Nothing to date.

See the page for the reports here...

As long as the political class makes a mockery of accountability and transparency what do they expect society to do?

Lessons in Freedom: What Reality has Society?

Tibor R. Machan

The question of how real is society can arise whenever people make reference to "obligations that citizens have to society," obligations in the name of which individual liberties are said to need restriction. (Other ways of putting the ideas is "obligatory service to the common good, public interest, etc.") Especially the liberty to own, trade, exchange, hoard, save, and so forth. The claim is that this kind of liberty may not be "absolute" because of those enforceable social obligations or responsibilities everyone has. (Especially anyone who has united with others to form a business corporation--the CSR or corporate social responsibility ruse, is what I humbly consider it.)

Why is The Bahamas tax system 'maxed out' and what to do about it?

Joan Thompson

The problem is not complicated.

Governments are too big and too involved in areas of life in which they ought not to be involved. There seem to be no limits, and the public in its ignorance keeps asking for more.

Why is government building a straw market? When we fully understand why, then we have the answer for why the Bahamian government grows and why it will continue to steal some of the fruits of our labour the percentage of which will continue to increase.

PLP and college loans

Sidney Sweeting, DDS

A recent editorial in the Tribune took issue with the former Prime Minister, Mr. Perry Christie, about his negative comments about the FNM after the recent by election in Elizabeth Estates. It was pointed out that the history of the PLP re intimidation of the voters, vote buying,etc leaves the public thinking that either he has a short memory or he thinks that we do.

He also recently criticized the FNM for not continuing the college loan program that his party started. It was reported in the Punch on Thursday that very few of those loans have been honored and that hundreds of thousands of dollars are outstanding. The most disgusting part of the report is that in most cases loans were paid to the students for four years up front.

That must surely be a first in the history of college loans. Did it never occur to anyone on the committee to assure that the student had a decent grade point average before he or she would be given the funds for the following year(s)?

This was the same Government that introduced the National Health Plan. A sickening thought.

Lessons in Freedom: Big Lie Theory Flourishes

Tibor R. Machan

"American economic policy--and it pains me to even refer to such a thing, since a government isn't supposed to mess with its citizen's economic (any more than their religious) lives, not to mention make policy for them all--has been protectionist in nearly every age."

The theory of the big (but good) lie goes back to a certain reading of Plato's most famous dialogue, the Republic.  There are more or less crude versions of it but the gist of the theory is that for reasons for state--that is, so as to secure the chance of the ruler to rule smoothly--telling lies can be justified and may even be necessary.  Indeed, the big lie could well have been the very idea of the perfect political system itself that Socrates sketched in that dialogue, one that really amounts to a utopia, an impossible blueprint for a human community and its basic principles.  Some have concluded from this that Plato (Socrates) never meant to advocate what the dialogue depicts as the perfect regime but merely presented it as a kind of model, the way that the gorgeous women on the covers of Vogue or other fashion magazines function, just reminders of what to pay attention to as women dress up.