My high school Spanish teacher told me that being unintelligent with respect to one's mistakes defines stupid. The classical definition of intelligence is the capacity to learn. Hence if mistakes are repeated, stupidity is the order of the day.

From these definitions we, the Bahamian people, are stupid when it comes to fire and water. For many years we knew the Water and Sewerage Corporation was incompetetnt with provision of water supplies to Nassau and the Bahamas. There are few communities where Water and Sewerage Corporation is responsible for the water supply where there is a consistent supply of water at adequate pressures and acceptable quality. Yet we have done nothing to change this.

The PLP set up the Water and Sewerage Corporation. It was a failure with respect to delivering the desired services to its customers. The FNM took over the helm and extended the failure. Now the New PLP is here with hope and help and the failure regime continues.

Last night, 5th September, St. John's College's computer lab burned down. The Fire Branch of the Police Force claims there was inadequate water pressure. This may be true but they knew the probability of inadequate water pressure and supply was high before they went to the fire. They should have been prepared. If this was the Straw Market of a hotel, or some other densely populated area we would have had another catastophe to celebrate and memorialize. We just do not get it. The Fire Branch of the Police Force is incompetent with respect to dealing with fires. If you watch the videos they had on their simulation you see that they do not have a clue. You have firemen who do not know how to hold a fire hose. They direct the water at the flames instead of at the fuel source. There is little direction or coordination.

Simply put, the Fire Branch should be disbanded and a new fire department set up separate and apart from the Police Force under the direction of professionally trained fire fighters. Fire fighting is too serious to leave to people who are not up to it.

The Water and Sewerage Corporation needs to be converted to a monitoring agency. There are brilliant people there but as an organization they are incapable of fulfilling their missions. The missions should be segmented and privatized. Water and Sewerage Corporation should buy water and sell it to various districts that are managed by private water managers. Since this product will be consumed locally. it should not be sold/given to foreigners.

Care must be exercised with privatization so we use a model suited to the Bahamas. In all the talk about privatizations, they do not tell you what a mess privatization has made of utilities in so many countries. You remember what was going on with power in California not too long ago. Britain now has problems with power. Telecommunications has not had a happy ending so far. Private or public we need to focus on proper management of businesses and organizations. In the Bahamas this makes us look squarely at Human Resources.

We need continuous training at all levels. We need leadership at the top levels. We need people at the top who will think of the nation while they are thinking about themselves. We need to uncover our mistakes and fix them. Sometimes this will call for total restructuring of the oragnization. We cannot afford to maintain failed models.

The Fire Branch of the Police department is a failed model. The Water and Sewerage Corporation is a failed model. BEC is a failing model that can be fixed. Batelco is a failing model that can be fixed. National insurance needs to be restructured.

With most of our institutions the problem is the same. Failure of management. No water, no water.