Bahamas Blog

The FNM blew it the first time around with their plans for a gated community at Clifton. Now, they may make an even bigger mistake by allowing the Albany project to go forward.

Using the goodwill behind the names of two top golfers, The Tavistock Group plans to develop the Albany project; a 565 acre development that would include 350 estate-type homes — priced between $2 million and $10 million — plus a club house, an Ernie Els-designed championship golf course and a 100-room condominium complex. The plan would also include 370 acres of land that would be made available for the government to build low-cost homes for Bahamians.

Whoopie!

If there were no Albany plan there would be almost 900 acres of land available for low cost Bahamian housing. And God knows New Providence could use more low-cost homes for Bahamians, far more than we need 350 more rich foreigners living on the island.

The Heads of Agreement for the controversial project was signed by the PLP, a bunch of selfish fools who only pretend to have the interest of Bahamians at heart.

I understand that the bribes and kickbacks (disguised as lawyer and consulting fees) paid to certain members of the PLP for schmoozng this project through are more than most Bahamians will earn in their entire lifetime.

The project, which plans to cut a deep channel through one of the longest continuous beaches in New Providence to accommodate 200-foot mega-yachts, is not in the best interest of Bahamians or The Bahamas.

Successive Bahamas governments have promised to put the environment first and to guard beach access for Bahamians. The blanket approval of this overly ambitious project breaks both promises and shows no respect for the Bahamian public.

My friend almost got ripped off by the Radio Shack at the Harbour Bay shopping centre in Nassau, Bahamas.

He had bought a small computer cord for $11.99, before taking it home and discovering it was the wrong size.

The next day he took it back (unopened and with the receipt) to request a refund, exchange or store credit. The store clerk, politely and almost apologetically, said she couldn't do that.

My friend asked for the owner of the store and was given the telephone number of a guy named Andrew Wilson.

After explaining the situation to Mr Wilson over the phone, my frend was shocked by the man's complete refusal to offer any type of refund or exchange for the erroneously purchased product.

Mr Wilson then poured salt in the wound. After recognizing my friend's American accent, Wilson berated him for "acting like an American" because my buddy insisted on being treated as a customer should be.

Unfortunately for Mr Wilson, my friend has been a Radio Shack customer for about 30 years. He has never had a problem returning a product in accordance with the company's policies.

Mr Wilson apparently thought that, because he operates a Radio Shack franchise in Piratesville, Nassau, Bahamas, he can throw the Radio Shack customer service manual out the door and operate in his own renegade, pirate style.

He was wrong. And he was wrong to the wrong guy, at the wrong time.

Thirty minutes after the incident at the store my buddy had the guys at Radio Shack's corporate headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas fuming over the way he had been treated. It was suggested that if Mr Wilson wanted to operate an electronics store in his own renegade style, he could do it without the Radio Shack logo on his store.

After Mr Wilson got a call from the franchise directors at the corporate level in America, my friend was able to return to the Harbour Bay Radio Shack store, where a very pleasant and helpful store manager named Deanna refunded his purchase for the computer cord.

A very helpful man from Radio Shack's International Franchise office resolved the problem from thousands of miles away, and in less than an hour. He also tried, although in vain, to find the correct cord that my buddy needed. Alas, the correct cord is no longer available, perhaps forcing my friend to upgrade his outdated technology.

The incident speaks volumes about the incredibly wonderful customer service that you can expect from Radio Shack... at every Radio Shack anywhere.

It also says a lot about Mr Andrew Wilson's lousy management style, that it took a call to Radio Shack's corporate headquarters to get the most basic level of customer service from a Bahamian franchisee.

It is no wonder so many tourists find the level of service in the Bahamas so appalling. It is not just in the tourism industry, it is almost everywhere. Bad service seems to be ingrained in our culture. And it has to change if we expect to compete in the international marketplace.

I was scouring the Internet for tings Bahamian and I came up with this gem, originally published in 2003 on BahamasB2B.com by the founder and former webmaster of the site.

It appears that the author of this piece accurately predicted that the lawless corruption in the Bahamas would ultimately be the demise of our tourism industry. How prophetic.

Quote:

The Bahamas Can Kiss Tourism Good-Bye!!!! Gross Injustice Signals the Demise of Tourism in The Bahamas. After waiting patiently for two years and tolerating the foolishness, corruption and incompetence of the Bahamian legal system, the man who punched my wife in the face, the phony rasta William (Billy) Bain, was ACQUITTED in the dysfunctional courts of the Bahamas. The reason the judge acquitted the man was, once again, due to insufficient prosecution. But the judge's inability to decipher the truth is also to blame. Maybe she shouldn't be a judge. Apparently the government here does not consider violent crime a priority to be dealt with. If they did, they would not have allowed this injustice to happen. They would have made it a priority to ensure that the very best prosecutors were available to try this case. The primary problem was the witness, a Ms. Patsy Davis, from the law firm of Zervos and Company, repeatedly did not show up to give testimony. This woman is a disgrace to Bahamian society as she alone could have prevented this man's aquittal. But her lack of ethics and social responsibility allowed her to conveniently "forget" what happened that day. And that Mr. Zervos, one of the Bahamas' many incompetent lawyers, did not insist that she attend court, makes him as much a part of this problem as anyone. He is a lawyer and has taken an oath to support and uphold the values of the legal system, which he did not do in this case. The incompetent prosecutors did nothing to rectify that. Their failure to do so will be the downfall of the Bahamas tourism industry. This acquittal WILL NOT be tolerated and it will not be forgiven. The entire world will now be made aware of the lack of protection given to women, foreigners, and white people in this sewer of a country. The people of the Bahamas must rise up in unity against this outrageous act of injustice and indifference, or each and every citizen of the country will be held responsible for the fact that my wife's attacker was allowed to go free. When the teacher who beat the kid, who later died, was taken to court, hundreds of Bahamians rose up in outrage to protect the teacher from prosecution. I had better see at least that many people writing to the newspapers, protesting this injustice and demanding changes in the system. If not, it will prove to me (and to the international community) that there are no good people left in the Bahamas. The consequences of this incompetent irresponsibility will come back to haunt every Bahamian. It will affect each one of you, right where it hurts most... your wallets.

Maybe we should have listened to this guy instead of ostracizing him for his unique ability to forsee the problems that corruption would wreak upon our society.

Look where we are now. And it ain't gettin' better, it's getting worse.

permalink | comments (10)

Whenever crime is on the rise, as it is now, Bahamian police officials start flapping their jaws about zero tolerance, crackdowns and the like. There's always a high-profile bust or arrest, yet as soon as the press dies down everything goes back to normal. Crime and corruption as usual.

This is particularly true when dealing with violations of intellectual property rights and international copyrights.

Each time publicity focuses on the rampant copyright infringements that occur on a daily basis in The Bahamas, the government pledges to put an end to such criminal behaviour.

Each time, they don't.

In February, 2003, Minister of Financial Services and Investments Allyson Maynard-Gibson told reporters that the government was addressing copyright violations with a view of protecting the reputation of the Bahamas as a country that protects copyrights.

Apparently she was lying.

In May, 2003, The Bahamas was branded for copyright infringements when it was one of 50 countries placed on a Priority Watch List.

In August, 2004, President of the Bahamas Employers Confederation (BECon), Brian Nutt, said counterfeit goods such as DVD's, which infringed on the copryright and intellectual property rights of companies in the entertainment and media industries, had left the Bahamas vulnerable to sanctions and possibly damaged its reputation in the international community.

Still, government did nothing.

In March, 2005, Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Works John Carey admonished attendees at at a trade show at Bahamas Academy, under the theme, Service with Dignity and Integrity, to consider the repercussions of breaching copyright laws.

"One might say that they should sell any product to make a dollar given the times we live in. As entrepreneurs, let me caution you as to the serious breach of copyright laws and international conventions persons are committing when not only are they displaying products and services that they have no right to, but intend to sell them. We in The Bahamas run the risk of being slapped with heavy fines, lawsuits and stiff penalties if representatives of these companies visit and see their products being sold without their permission."

Carey was simply making another of the government's standard issue press releases to make it appear as though they were intending on addressing the matter of copyright infringement on The Bahamas.

Of course, nothing was done, nothing at all.

In May, 2005, the Bahamian press reported that the US, "continues to have 'serious concerns' that the Bahamas has 'not yet enacted or implemented' amendments to the Copyright Act that were passed by Parliament last year, even though this nation was removed from its Priority Watch List to Watch List."

In other words, our government "promised" to implement the ammendments IF the US removed The Bahamas from the priority copyright watch list. Then, our government failed to do so.

That is truly outrageous. It shows what kind of poeple we have leading this country. Frankly, I am ashamed to be represented by people so lacking in integrity.

In July, 2006, a representative of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was in Nassau, so the Bahamas government, once again, put on a show, promising to immediately initiate a strong intellectual property regime.

At that time, Registrar General Shane Miller explained how a strong intellectual property (IP) regime would be vital as a tool of economic development. He used the example of the "Gucci" trademark in the manufacturing sector.

"For investors at that level to want to come and protect not only their investment in terms of tourism and other traditional methods of investment, but manufacturing and other interests that they may be involved with, they would want to know that they are coming to a regime where you have a strong base protection of their primary service – which would be [in this case] manufacturing goods, Gucci bags, etc," Mr. Miller said.

Attorney General Maynard-Gibson explained that a strong IP regime is one of the most important things foreign investors look for in a jurisdiction. She disputed the idea that updating IP legislation is merely "cosmetic."

"When one decides whether one's going to invest in a country, the investor looks at things like political stability, respect for law and order, ease of access to information and many other things," she said.

"When I speak about the law and order regime, I want to – in respect of intellectual property – indicate that not only are we indicating a respect for property rights, but we are also sending a message about law and order."

That respect for intellectual property rights lasted only until the WIPO representative left town.

Shortly after the WIPO rep left Nassau, our highest ranking legal official, AG Maynard-Gibson was in the press again, reiterating the government's commitment to prosecuting the crime of piracy.

"Piracy of intellectual property is a crime whether it be by way of illegally copying DVDs and selling them or by illegally downloading and copying music and selling it, and the chairman of the Copyright Commission has indicated that a part of our ability to actually adequately enforce these notions is to start an education process from the primary school level," she said.

While Ms Maynard-Gibson was giving lip service to intellectual property rights, a local newspaper was reporting that "many Bahamians continue to patronize street-side and in-store vendors of pirated DVDs."

To this day, one can find street vendors selling illegal copies of DVDs at locations throughout the city, in plain view of police officers who do nothing about it.

Less than one year ago - in another attempt to diffuse the situation by manipulating the press - customs, immigration and police officers confiscated thousands of fake designer handbags, watches, clothes and other counterfeit items in a raid at an East St. South warehouse.

The owner of the operation was later released and has never been punished. The goods were supposed to be burned but it is rumoured that they are now on sale in various stalls at the Nassau Straw Market. Vendors selling the goods have never been arrested.

Once again, a little staged police work made it look like the government was doing something about piracy. But they really did nothing, evidenced by the fact that a few months later, the US Embassy made another public statement about the stolen cable television signals, pirated DVDs and fake designer products so prevelant in Nassau.

The pictures below were taken last week at the Cable Beach Straw Market in Nassau, about a mile from the Cable Beach police station. As you can see, copyright infringement is still big and bold, for all the world to see, ruining the reputation of our country and shaming all law abiding Bahamians.

What's the Bahamas government doing about it? Nothing... nothing at all, as usual.