National heroes, precious pearls, everything of the year (teacher etc), living legends, celebrating excellence, etc, etc ad nauseum.....

Who do we think we are kidding: so much celebrating and so little action!Let's face it; we are a badly run small island archipelago where the only world class feature is what God gave us (the natural environment) which we do our best to stuff up at every opportunity! How about we stop putting so many people on pedestals and fooling ourselves and start working a bit harder. In the world scheme of things we are entirely forgettable but anyone coming here and seeing how much we celebrate our own brand of "excellence" would think we got it all so completely together!

Now we are talking about a Heroes Park at Clifton Pier. We waste so much time celebrating and so little time actually doing. Of course we have people who we admire, but so does every nation. I have travelled a great deal and no other nation seems to indulge in this constant barrage of self indulgence.

I suppose everything is relative: what is our brand of excellence and legends in comparison to other nations? We really should cease this continuous self gratification (i could have used the 'm' word) and start to work a bit harder with more modesty. I can see through the government's attempt at the 'feel good factor' and so can other citizens I'm sure: we aint foolin nobody!

Cut the crass grandstanding and start getting it together Bahamas!

I can agree with you to a certain extent but don't forget that we are still a "new" nation - trying to find our feet and who are collective "self" is. There is a scramble now to find heros, role models for the nation. We need heros but heros are like fine wine, you don't want to much at any one time. In a real sense we are all heros, but we need to pick a hand full of people that stand out from the crowd. THEN we can use their lives to build our excellence.

You are right when we suggest that excellence is in short supply in these islands. Happily, there are a few of us that strive for that quality but they are vastly out numbered by those who "work" just to get a pay cheque.

....And these awards just keep rolling in! Today we hear of the public service awards for excellence.....shheeesh.....please Dame Ivy Dumont, don't lower your good standing in the community by agreeing to present all of these awards. Half the time they go to people 'who know someone who knows someone' who constructs the lists. Our public service is very light on in the area of excellence and surely any more than a handful of people is too many!

Stop patting ourselves on the back and start working to get this nation going!