WeblogBahamas.com

The Bahamas: It's Pivotal Moment

Sidney Sweeting, DDS

I have become aware of a disturbing number of Bahamians who who have stated that they now intend to take matters into their own hands as far as crime is concerned. Their patience has been exhausted and they feel that enough is enough. Just this week while in line at a bank a businessman was saying that he was robbed by two armed gunmen and he went looking for them. He caught one and he and a friend gave him a thorough beating and dropped him off at a police station with a warning that if there is a next time he will kill him. That is just one example.

Calling the police to have them show up and write out a laborious report to stick on a shelf is a waste of time. Perhaps we can be charitable and say that they are burdened with too much work or frustrated from catching the same criminals that they caught the year before and the year before that and the courts have decided that they should be out on bail or their sentence should be shortened or they don't have room at the prison, or whatever.

Lessons in Freedom: Taxes, Greed and Prudence

Tibor R. Machan

Never mind the attempt at intimidation by some, like the Nobel Laureate Woody Clark, claiming that if you work to reduce or let alone to abolish taxes, you are greedy. You are not. You simply have a common sense understanding that there is something basically amiss with a system that coerces you and millions of others to part with your resources for services that would appear to be either hardly needed or, where need, capable of being funded without using force. Moreover, not only are you not guilty of the vice of greed. You can take pride in your practice of the virtue of prudence. Because what this moral virtue requires of us all is that we make sure we and those we are responsible for are well taken care of.

Strawbs - Song of week - November 30, 2009 - Blue Angel

Rick Lowe

I've always enjoyed the "progressive rock" genre, and Strawbs is one of the groups from that period that always struck me.

They've even had a 40th Anniversary Tour recently.

Forty years. Wow, how time flies.

Hope you enjoy Blue Angel below.

Please visit their web site here... and you know, kindly buy some of their music.

Responding to Steve McKinney's remarks

Adrian Gibson

First published in The Tribune http://www.tribune242.com/  on Friday, August 28, 2009 under the byline, Young Man's View.

"Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
"As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
"Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
"And listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
"Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit

... an excerpt from the poem Desiderata, written by Max Ehrmann in the 1920s.

ON MONDAY, I was bombarded by phone calls -- in and outside of the journalistic community -- notifying me that Steve McKinney, a giant joke and well-recognized talking head had, in an incendiary and nasty monologue, launched a scurrilous and personal attack on me when he made erroneous claims on Island 102.9 FM's Sunday talk show Parliament Street.

Unions in The Bahamas in danger?

Rick Lowe

According to The Bahama Journal, "There are serious concerns that many of the major unions in the country are not valid because they have not been properly gazetted by the Registrar of Trade Union, according to Trade Union Congress (TUC) President Obie Ferguson." [More...]

While I don't purport to know any inside details of the story above, unions have seen to their own demise by getting into bed with successive governments.

In this bloggers not so humble opinion the unions have been so successful in getting the political class to do their bidding, laws like the Minimum Labour Standards Act etc have been passed by Parliament and these render unions impotent.

Is this good or bad?

Teaching strategies must be expansive for The Bahamas future

Adrian Gibson

First published in The Tribune on Friday, August 21, 2009 under the byline, Young Man's View.

THE home and school environment is where the transmission of moral and occupational education, discipline and the values necessary for the continuance of a society are taught--however, controversies afflicting the local education system and an annual, failing national average leave much to be desired.

Learning is described as the gaining of knowledge, understanding and/or a skill by studying or through a person's experiences. However, the exertion of effort when undertaking a difficult task and the persistence of a pupil to learn--even if it means encountering obstacles or working for longer hours--are also important facets of the learning process that are also indicative of a student's motivation to learn.

Video: Sound of Music - Central Station, Antwerp, Belgium

A friend posted this on his Facebook page and I couldn't resist putting it here.

I think it's fabulous.

He says:

"I know it's a promotion for a reality show, as these flash mob videos often are, but it's still very cool: especially because I was in the Antwerp station this past summer!"

I agree it's still very cool...

Doug Casey - Quote of the day

"Politics is a dramatisation of peoples psychological aberrations..."

For more information on Doug Casey, click here...

Ministry must study the sociology of Bahamas education and The AG's Office

Adrian Gibson

First published in The Tribune on Monday, August 17, 2009 under the byline, Young Man's View.

THIS year, a cross-section of students sitting the national exams have once again affirmed the infamous and unsatisfactory, almost predictable D national average.

Although the disappointing national average reflects the mean grade of all the students sitting the BGCSE/BJC exams, we must not, and should not, allow these crummy grades to cause us to forget to highlight the good students and their success stories, quality teachers and those dedicated parents. They have all earned praiseworthy results. Kudos to them!

National Geographic Explorer Top & Worst Destinations - Bahamas

Rick Lowe

A friend sent the following e-mail recently:

"According to National Geographic