Bahamas Blog

TV new reporter Opal Roach should be ashamed of herself.

In a story on ZNS news entitled the "Changing of the Guard", Ms Roach reported that Commadore Davy Rolle was passing the leadership of the Royal Bahamas Defence Force over to a new Chief.

She said that Davy Rolle had spent 20-some years in the force and had built it up into a "world class" organization.

What a joke!

Ask Richard Blankenship, or anyone in the US State Department, if they think the RBDF is "world class".

Some of the officers can't even travel to the US because they are suspected of drug trafficking.

Yeah, they are "world class" alright, world class criminals.

Ms Roach needs to understand that she is not some stupid puppet that just says what people tell her to say.

Well, maybe she is.

But she's supposed to be a REPORTER.

Instead, she is as silly as Steven Colbert, who has a satirical news show on Comedy Central, but he is acting.

Opal better keep sexing a minister, because with that kind of "reporting" she wouldn't be able to get a job at a school newspaper if she lost her gig at ZNS.

A blogger joins the growing number of Bahamians who just can't seem get the public information they are entitled to from the government of The Bahamas.

Rick Lowe, who has a Bahamian blog at weblogbahamas.com, has been trying for weeks to get Fred Mitchell to reconcile figures Mr. Mitchell published on trade with China.

Mitchell said the Bahamas does about $150 million a year in trade with the communist nation. Lowe, who as an officer of the Nassau Institute has a fairly good grasp on math, can't seem to account for but a fraction of that.

Mr Lowe has tried numerous times, privately and publicly, to get Mr Mitchell to justify his outrageous figures.

Lowe says he has:

1) Left numerous messages at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting Mr. Mitchell return a call.

2) Sent an open letter to the press.

3) Sent several e-mails to Mr. Mitchell.

4) Left messages requesting a meeting.

5) Sent an e-mail to Bahamas Uncensored, a web site that could be written by Mr. Mitchell asking if they might be able to help.

6) Hand delivered a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the attention of the Minister.

"All of this to no avail," he adds.

Mr Lowe is having the same problem that the Tribune is having trying to get public information from Neville Wisdom and his cantankerous permanent secretary at the Ministry of Housing.

And the same problem people are having trying to get 2006 HIV infection numbers from the Ministry of Health.

And the same problem the Bahamian public is having trying to get the facts regarding Anna Nicole Smith's permanent residency permit.

Perry Christie was elected because he said he would provide a government that was transparent and accountable.

His PLP government has been anything but.

Supreme Court Justice John Lyons is certainly the most, and possibly the only, honest jurist in The Bahamas.

Unlike most Bahamian jurists, the Australian-born Lyons does not appear to be using his privileged position to enrich himself, lord power over others or advance a personal political agenda.

In the cases he has been involved in, I have seen a remarkable understanding of both the case files and the law.

Most Bahamian judges are happy to peruse a stack of files in the morning before entering their courtroom basically ignorant of the details of the cases they are about to hear.

Rather than having, or taking, the time to be properly indoctrinated in the matters before them, these lazy judges must rely on verbal distortions by unscrupulous lawyers from both sides.

Justice Lyons is known to carefully examine the case files. With a fairly good grasp of the details of the case, he uses his keen knowledge of the law to actually dispense justice. Wow! What a novel concept for the courts of The Bahamas.

It is difficult for the other judges to dispense justice when they are ignorant of both the law and the cases before them.

Even more difficult when they allow their biased political views to colour their decisions. Or, they act on behalf of their family, friends or business associates.

No doubt, a jurist with ethics such as John Lyons will run afoul of the corrupt government of The Bahamas. It will be interesting when the time comes for Justice Lyons' contract to be renewed. Very interesting indeed.

Judging from the overwhelmingly positive response to John Marquis' latest article, in the INSIGHT column of the Tribune, Bahamians are tired of being cheated, lied to and stolen from by their elected leaders.

Mr Christie's band of renegades are, without a doubt, the worst leaders in Bahamian history. Their entire campaign and administration was based on lies, and promises they knew they could not keep.

In many countries, their actions would constitute fraud and these jackals would be arrested en masse and tried for crimes against the nation.

Their entire term has been filled with disgraceful scandals that have tarnished the reputation of our nation and set a terrible example for Bahamians, who already struggle in a society made nearly dysfunctional due to crime, corruption, immorality and lack of ethics.

Meanwhile, The FNM is offering nothing but more of the same by putting forth ethically-challenged candidates like Bran McCartney, Michael Barnett and Carl Bethel, all of whom are no better than the crooked PLP shills they will run against.

If Mr. Ingraham's FNM party is to be taken seriously as as a moral replacement for the criminal organization known as the PLP, they will have to do better, much better, than that.

After months of trying to figure out a way to silence the irreverent Bahamian bloggers - aka the e-bloggy boys - the Bahamas government has finally hit the right chord... cha-ching!

The supposedly Bahamian bloggers have, for a year or so, mercilessly blasted Bahamas Cabinet members, among others. Suddenly, they have decided to, for "noble" reasons, stop attacking the sorry saps we call our government.

That's right, all it took was for the PLP to throw a little money at the sassy scribes, or promise to, and POOF... they suddenly became government supporters, faster than Algernon Allen changes political allegiance.

Too bad. Their blog has been a hoot to read, although it provided little more than entertainment for those of us with too much time on our hands.

They were funny boys who thought that posting phrases in Latin, even if they were not transcribed correctly, made them look intelligent. If this is the new Bahamian intelligentsia that we've been hearing about, Lord help us all.

Now, the true nature of the bloggy boys has been revealed. Bereft of noble ideals, they are filled only with the same lust for political power and economic enrichment that has been the trademark of too many Bahamian politicians.

When the political wannabes thought they could get attention by lambasting the government, they did so.

Now, if they can make money from the same group of crooks they've been so critical of, well, that's okay with them too. Because they stand for nothing, (but money) they will fit in well with the current crop of Bahamian politicians.

Now, they'll all probably want to get law degrees.

Then run for office.

Whores.

natu maximus professio