Say if the BAHAMIANS should be setting up the industry.
WE should NOT be scared of the Jamaicians or other countries in the CSME, because if we have the strongest economy the average BAHAMIANS should be starting the businesses and taking advantage of the cheap labour and making themsleves rich.
Says we have the wrong attitude.
Basically we should be the BIG BOYS in the CSME!
CAN DA CHURCH SAY AMEN???


Here is one of our biggest problems with CSME.
Unfortunately our culture and mentality does not lend itself to this idea. In fact we denounce any idea which finds us on the productive side of "cheap labour"
If the national grade point average is any indication of our preparedness to becoming the BIG BOYS in CSME, I am not convinced we are ready for CSME in its present form.

No where in the world can you witness the development that has happened in the Bahamas in such a short time, just over 30 years, and even now people believe a developed Bahamas is in sight.

How did we get that way? We had generations that focused on hard work and education. We had people who believed that the development of Bahamians from birth to death was not on the hands of just the teachers, or just the parents, or just the church or some other religious organization...or just God. You can't put something together with just one material. How can you bake bread with Just Flour? Even a half-assed piece of bread needs at least water to hold the flour together.

SO HOW IN HELL DID WE GET OFF ON MAKEING SCAPEGOATS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AS CITEZENS FOR OUR OWN COUNTRY?

So in loosing those values we messed up education, which is hurting our competitiveness. Along with that comes xenophobia which is institutionalized in our very constitution. Also I believe that we have too many laws which has been irrelevatant to us since the transformation of the British Empire....laws made to protect ourselves, like provinces. But we are an independent nation, and we are not the British Isles, because our location dictates different policies. We feel like we are protecting our superior economy when we really should be opening shop outside of these shores to strengthen it. When investment in the carribbean was brought up people shot it down because it was quote on quote "taking away jobs" when we are throwing away the oportunity to expand our economy and gains across boarders.....making Bahamians owners of other economies just as other people own ours.

All of this lack to change is killing us slowly....its really like arthritis.

Several postings in these threads were quite interesting.

Libertarians -- Nassau is chock-a-block full of them. Some of them are old Lyford Cayers like Sir John Templeton who hated the huge US government, moved here, became a Bahamian citizen and ran Templeton Funds from here. The biggest libertarians on the scene now is the Nassau Institute run by Ralph Massey et al at www.nassauinstitute.org

Libertarian economics and libertarians have a rough go of it in the Bahamas because everyone expects the government to take care of everything, from jobs to junkanoo.

And the CSME stuff -- it is tied into the fact that Bahamians have lost their confidence -- or their capacity to dream. As the strongest economy, we should be the Karibbean Kommerce Killers -- the high fliers who start businesses, employ a whack-load of Haitians in sweat shops and make gazillions of dollars. Instead we are a beggar culture. And it was promulgated by the earlier PLP, and this is why I am so anti-PLP. In the Pingdom of Gaudy during the cocaine erra, they did more to hold down ordinary Bahamians than the UBP, because they were a bunch of gravy sucking pigs who didn't want to share all of the gravy wid da black bruddas.

We have a mentality of Oh-My-Gawd, I lose ma job, and den how am I gern pay off da asue (start another one). We are not economically free. If we were, we would say ... Bring it on, -- I want in on some of that Trini oil action. Instead it is .. puhlease suh -- puhleeze doan take ma job. And I blame this attitude as well on our tyrant foundling fathers.

There is opportunity at every turn, and yet we cannot see it, because we have been de-conditioned to exploit it, and told that we cannot do it, because da gubment dems has to approve it, and we een from da right fambly.

Luker,

Beuy where da heck you been dis mornin' when we was burnin up da forum wit dis thread???

*suck teeth* j/k

I even ask for ya behind! We had a good time. LOL! :D


P.s I am reading your post. We said much of that. See, we does listen! hahaha

Luker,

Beuy where da heck you been dis mornin' when we was burnin up da forum wit dis thread???

*suck teeth* j/k

I even ask for ya behind! We had a good time. LOL! :D


P.s I am reading your post. We said much of that. See, we does listen! hahaha


I am on a consulting gig now and there is a firewall that blocks BI during the day. However if I do a search on a BI profile, it lets me look at at it, and click to the threads -- however all of the buttons are gone !! I can log in, but can't edit or start threads because the buttons are not rendered. This is true with Firefox and IE. So I read what was going on but couldn't answer.

And the CSME stuff -- it is tied into the fact that Bahamians have lost their confidence -- or their capacity to dream. As the strongest economy, we should be the Karibbean Kommerce Killers -- the high fliers who start businesses, employ a whack-load of Haitians in sweat shops and make gazillions of dollars. Instead we are a beggar culture. And it was promulgated by the earlier PLP, and this is why I am so anti-PLP. In the Pingdom of Gaudy during the cocaine erra, they did more to hold down ordinary Bahamians than the UBP, because they were a bunch of gravy sucking pigs who didn't want to share all of the gravy wid da black bruddas.
We have a mentality of Oh-My-Gawd, I lose ma job, ake ma job. And I blame this attitude as well on our tyrant foundling fathers.
There is opportunity at every turn, and yet we cannot see it, because we have been de-conditioned to exploit it, and told that we cannot do it, because da gubment dems has to approve it, and we een from da right fambly.



Interesting realities! I am forced to imagine what would be the repercussions for Bahamians post CSME:if 5,000 Caribbean nationals who are university graduates and speak at least a second language, migrate as a result of CSME. With the present National Grade Point Average as it is today, what effect would this have on the Bahamas?

Interesting realities! I am forced to imagine what would be the repercussions for Bahamians post CSME:if 5,000 Caribbean nationals who are university graduates and speak at least a second language, migrate as a result of CSME. With the present National Grade Point Average as it is today, what effect would this have on the Bahamas?


It would be a wake-up call to put it mildly. It would temper us in the crucible of the real world. There would be tough times. But there used to be a FRAM oil filter commercial on TV, and the FRAM man said "You can pay me now, or pay me later." Those choosing the "pay later" option always pay a lot more.

We can't sit on our butts and wish we were over there, and hope someone drives us there without any work. On the way to "there", there are hills to climb, hurdles to overcome, masses to educate, socks to be pulled up, loins to be girded and all sorts of other stuff. Don't fergit, as it is, we een sitting still -- we is slipsliding backwards -- erry day.

Interesting realities! I am forced to imagine what would be the repercussions for Bahamians post CSME:if 5,000 Caribbean nationals who are university graduates and speak at least a second language, migrate as a result of CSME. With the present National Grade Point Average as it is today, what effect would this have on the Bahamas?
progress...production increase...professionalism increase...GNP increase.

It would be a wake-up call to put it mildly. It would temper us in the crucible of the real world. There would be tough times. But there used to be a FRAM oil filter commercial on TV, and the FRAM man said "You can pay me now, or pay me later." Those choosing the "pay later" option always pay a lot more.
We can't sit on our butts and wish we were over there, and hope someone drives us there without any work. On the way to "there", there are hills to climb, hurdles to overcome, masses to educate, socks to be pulled up, loins to be girded and all sorts of other stuff. Don't fergit, as it is, we een sitting still -- we is slipsliding backwards -- erry day.


Where is the race?
Why are we competing?
With what are we competing with?
And why must it be national importance that we "win" this race NOW!!?!

Take your time.
:)

progress...production increase...professionalism increase...GNP increase.


What about Criminal activity?

What about Criminal activity?

perhaps that too.
but, I am sure we will obtain a better educated, elite police force too, with hightech ways to prevent and to deal with crime. With controlled migration, we should attract the most talented labour force there in creating an advance civilization.

Where is the race?
Why are we competing?
With what are we competing with?
And why must it be national importance that we "win" this race NOW!!?!
Take your time.
:)


We are slowly, but surely losing the first pillar of our economy. Tourism in the Caribbean is a mature product and will really tank in the 2008 - 2009 time frame. I have a reference for that statement, but it een handy now (some Caribbean think tank - or more accurately some think tank hired for CARICOM and tourism).

Actually the paradigm shift came Sept 11. It deadened us, but we picked up and got to 5 million arrivals in 2005. But that 5 million figure was the 'good' side of the paradigm shift. Folks were afraid to travel far, and the Bahamas was safe. But now that the bogeyman of world terrorism is a named fear and many feel safer than 5 years ago, folks are travelling and other places are eating our lunch. Then came the passport laws and the WHTI. And this will have a bad side for us. Many Americans came to the Bahamas because they didn't need a passport. But now that they have a passport, they are saying things like: Let's try Paris, or New Zealand or Singapore.

I got a book that I want you to read YK. If you are in Nassau in the July timeframe, I will have it sent to you. It is called "Black Swan" and it is by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. He is a finance guru, but this book is about something completely different. His thesis is that history is dominated by highly disruptive, improbable, unforeseeable events with the lulls in between. He calls these Black Swans.

Black Swans confound our expectations of the world (including the world of the Bahamas). In other words, tings go along, and then all of a sudden -- blam -- tings een what they used to be. 9-11 was a Black Swan. Nothing is the same ever since. Black Swans can be good or bad, and the bad side can have a bit of good.

A Bahamian Black Swan was the two hurricanes in a row on Grand Bahama. It was so disruptive that folks still een recovered. And Black Swans cannot be predicted. After they happen, we think that it is reasonable to predict them, but really they cannot be.

So the upshot, is always be prepared. Always have a plan B. If you are not improving, you are losing ground. And YK, that is the race. That is the hurry. The prize is the well-being and happiness of our little nation -- a far cast archipelago string of pearls in a blue ocean.

To the victors go the spoils, but we are competing with ourselves. We need to wipe out crime, we need to educate the masses. We need to empower them, and we need to make them as rich as possible while preserving the environment. We are but stewards of this country. We owe it that much, in exchange for its patrimonial munificence. And that is quest for all of us.

perhaps that too.
but, I am sure we will obtain a better educated, elite police force too, with hightech ways to prevent and to deal with crime. With controlled migration, we should attract the most talented labour force there in creating an advance civilization.



Please indicate which Caribbean Nation boast an elite police force with hightech ways to prevent and deal with crime. I am not clear of your meaning of "an advanced civilization"
If these migrants are the solution to an advanced civilization why would they be interested in migrating to the Bahamas?

bump...

There is no end to the "race" Lurker. A race signifies that there will be a finish line....there is no finish line, because the international trading regime is perpetual; it has no end.