Below are a few thoughts recently posted here as comments that should be feature blogs themselves.
They make you stop and think if we've come very far at all since independence.
The Oracle said:
It is certainly a "Celebration" I look at with a jaundiced eye... I have been discriminated against, over the years, in the job market, on the street, I've been denied employment opportunities by being a white Bahamian. Wrong Color at the wrong time I suppose. I have been politically persecuted, for being law abiding in the face of unlawful Government actions politically directed. I, like all citizens live under lock and key, under threat of all our possessions being appropriated by someone else, with no apparent recourse. Like a Conch with string tied to its lip to keep it secure under the dock, Our national Conch has so many strings, tied to different hands, all hidden in the murky water and mud of personal power, profit and benefit. God forbid they pull the conch up, they will find an empty shell. Internationally we must be a laughing stock, wanting so badly to play at the big table, but not wanting to let go of the old shell game. We treat the funds lent and gifted by the IMF, China, the EU, offered for God knows what in return,as our own stake in a poker game, Playing like mad without a thought to losing our shirts or payback. We even call our treasury the "Cookie Jar"! We watch pontificating buffoons in parliament bickering and reducing the seriousness of governance to something akin to a game of Dominoes, pounding the tables as if to give credibility to their mindless utterances. It does not. That they drink and scheme together after their vitriolic performances against each other seem acceptable to the voting public only serves to indicate we are all corrupt, indifferent or worse, play a supporting role in the show. Immigration policy? We kiss wealthy foreigners asses for as long as it takes to fleece them, while feeding the phobia of the "Haitian boogeyman". National policy? We have one alright, buried in secret bank accounts and slush funds. Pride must be balanced by shame, like Ying and Yang, Good and Bad, but we apparently have no shame. Our pride is as false as all the political promises we lap up in that 5 year cycle.
S3S said:
The PM is 100% correcto mundo! Indeed, 'The Bahamas (is in dire) need (of) new and innovative ideas'; any idiot should be able to surmise that, given the steady downward trend of a country in which there is not one (full) higher education institution; the average age of a firm is >24 years old; the average public school grade hovers around a 'D'; we celebrate unionism (an anachronism in capitalist societies); and are governed by 'yellow-bellies' who are so paralysed by fear when it comes to the Electorate, they never make or postpone tough decisions for future generations. Problem is where do we find these innovative ideas when the same tired, battle-weary lot of Politicians have ruled for the better part of 40 years and the same old tired 'captains of industry' are rolled out whenever there are issues of national importance to be debated? I, for one, have no reason whatsoever to celebrate this 10th July; instead I will be mourning for our country and thinking of what might have been ....:(:(
