July 29, 2005
Bahamas Human Smuggling Ring
It is nice to see the United States government acting on information BahamasB2B has been publishing concerning the illegal immigrant smuggling ring operating from the Bahamas.
We first reported the problem back in 2003 when we reported on the murder of a Polish sea captain at Fox Hill prison. The seaman was arrested after his boat rescued a couple dozen Chinese immigrants who had been stranded after their Bahamian smuggler's boat malfunctioned.
The Polish sea captain was arrested at high sea by Bahamian Defence Force marines who arrived after the captain radioed to shore that he would be bringing in a boatload of stranded refugees.
Most of the Chinese immigrants disappeared, presumbably smuggled into the US by other means. The captain and his crew, the only witnesses to the Defence Force's possible involvement in the smuggling ring, were imprisoned at Fox Hill prison. They were denied counsel, not allowed to make contact with their government and the captain was denied his diabetes medication... until he died. This, despite numeorus pleas for his medication which was left on his confiscated boat.
The rest of his crew was deported and were happy to leave after the experiencing the sub-human conditions of Fox Hill prison, a confinement that even a Bahamian judge has ruled inhumane and unconstitutional.
Yet, Davy Rolle is still at the helm of the Defence Force. Vincent Peet is still in charge of Immigration and immigrants (both Haitian and Chinese) are still being smuggled through the Bahamas. As evidenced by the big bust the US recently made.
It is sad that we Bahamians need to rely on the United States to weed our government of corruption. If only Bahamians had enough self-pride and personal dignity to do the job ourselves.
July 15, 2005
Bahamas Hurricane Tracking Maps
With an active 2005 hurricane season you may want to keep your eye on the tropical storms in the Caribbean basin.
Here is a hurricane tracking map that shows all active tropical storms for the Caribbean region.
Give Your Website 15 Minutes of Fame
THIRD ANNUAL BAHAMAS WEB AWARDS:
Call For Entries
From 1 June to 19 August, entries will be accepted for the 2005 Bahamas Web Awards. Beside the opportunity to win, entering your site helps support the Bahamas Web community and generates a substantial amount of PR for you, your company and those involved in the creation and maintenance of your web presence.
The Bahamas Web Awards is the leading national honor for the best among Bahamian Websites. The annual competition is a year-round effort measuring the best of Bahamas Websites, both in design and functionality.
The prestigious Best of The Bahamas Award is the pinnacle of achievement in the Bahamian Web community, encouraging quality in Bahamas Web design while helping to increase recognition for all The Bahamas.
How Bahamians Solve Problems
This is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. These people are so in-tune with the Bahamas and the Bahamian mindset it is almost scary.
Racism Rampant in The Bahamas
Nassau Guardian executives Anthony Capron and Charles Carter must love the taste of their own words, because they sure end up eating them often enough. Once again, the careless fools at the helm of the nation's most embarrassing publication have made complete jackasses of themselves.
First, they attacked BahamasB2B.com for saying that there was a problem with racism in The Bahamas, which there really is. They called the leading Bahamian Website, "dangerous", because the site truthfully reported on the growing trend, and apparent Bahamian government support for anti-white attitudes.
Not a week went by before they were eating their words, after it was discovered that the paper's own editor had pointed out the dangerous racist trends in a previous article.
The second mistake the failing paper made, was to defend a well-known Bahamian "snake" who allegedly called the Guardian's editor whining about the fact that he was refered to as a "gangster" in a BahamasB2B news article. The paper quickly earned the moniker of "Newspaper for the Mob".
Now, the disgraced newspaper executives have more egg on their faces after, yet another, Bahamian government official, in a fiery senate address, made additional racist remarks regarding white Bahamians.
With crime at an all-time record level, and already affecting tourism, the last thing you'd expect the goverment to be doing is bashing white people, who constitute over 75% of the tourists to the Bahamas.
It is a fact that, too many Bahamians harbour anti-foreigner, racist attitudes and the government is only fueling that fire by blaming everything that's wrong with the country on whites, foreigners and Haitian immigrants. While there is certainly a problem with illegal immigration, it is not the root of all evil in the Bahamas. Haitian immigrants have nothing to do with the many deeper social problems affecting the country and they should not be used as a scapegoat to fuel anti-foreinger or racist attitudes.
Instead of attacking BahamasB2B, the Nassau Guardian needs to wake up and smell the stench of racism, which will surely destroy the country's economic base if not recognised and addressed immmediately.
July 07, 2005
A Call For Unity
One reason why The Bahamas gets nowhere is because of all the bickering that goes on about anything. From LNG, to CSME, to Guana Cay, to just about any topic, there is always a nasty controversy that prevents anything from moving forward.
Add to that, all the political discord and blind allegiance to political parties and you have a situation where virtually everything is affected by "paralysis by analysis". In other word, everything is analyzed and argued to the point where it just sits there. It seems people are afraid to move forward because of the repercussions that might follow. So nothing goes anywhere.
Instead of wasting time arguing the issues that nobody agrees on, perhaps by focusing on the issues that garner a consensus, we could actually get something done for the good of the country and the people who inhabit it.
So, my question is, what DO we agree on?
Well, most Bahamians agree that the level of crime in the country is intolerable, so let's really deal with the crime problem, not try to hide it, or ignore it for the sake of tourism.
And I think most Bahamians agree that there is a problem with illegal immigrants, so let's deal with the problem on a larger scale, instead of running around "busting" individual Haitians, which is like putting a band-aid on a person whose head has been chopped off.
Pollution and litter is another area that most Bahamians agree needs to be addressed. Particularly when we have idiots dumping tons of garbage into a pond in a national park.
The attitudes of tourism employees needs improvement as well. Else, all the people who we attract to our shores are only going to go back home and tell their friends and family to avoid the Bahamas "because people there are rude".
These are just a few of the big issues that most Bahamians agree on. I am sure there are others. Why can there not be more dialogue on these issues, instead of all the bickering about things that, no matter how much is said on the subject, the people involved will never change their minds and never come to an agreement?
If you have comments you'd like to make regarding this post, please visit the Message Board.
July 06, 2005
South Florida: A Terrorist Hotbed
Florida, if you recall, was the training ground for the terrorists that flew planes into the World Trade center, killing thousands of innocent Americans. It was in Florida's sunny environment that many of the Islamic fundamentalists were able to live, unnoticed, while attending a flight training school that would prepare them to commit the most devastating act of terrorism on American soil, ever.
It seems that terrorists love Florida, even cyber-terrorists.
South Florida has plenty of disgruntled Cuban exiles and opportunity-seeking Bahamians. Both groups have been known to be very vocal about issues that affect their home nations. But it is becoming all too clear that some of these people are taking their new found American liberties a bit too far.
The Cuban group are the ones responsible for kidnapping little Elian Gonzalez a few years ago. Then, defying the US government to the point where Federal marshals had to go free the little boy from the terrorists who held him.
The Bahamian group has produced such despicable characters as the young man who raped an eight-year-old girl, then left her for dead in a dumpster. That certainly terrorized that girl and her family, as well as the neighbors and relatives.
Back in The Bahamas, the leading Bahamian website reports on all such activities. BahamasB2B is the largest, highest-traffic website in, or about, the Bahamas. They receive more traffic than several little sites like The Bahamas Guide or the Bahamas Vacation Guide put together. And no wonder! The site's traffic isn't just tourist traffic, like on the other sites. BahamasB2B also features an excellent all-Bahamian directory, robust Classified ads, the most complete Bahamas Real Estate portal in the world, and the most visited Bahamas news portal anywhere. So, you can see where their traffic would outstrip mere tourist sites by leaps and bounds.
But with that high-traffic comes lots of unwanted visitors... hackers and nuisance hits. Aside from the usual amount of hacker activity that you would find on a site that size, BahamasB2B receives a fair amount of targeted hacker activity, much of which comes from South Florida.
"Every time we run an article on Cuba, that is NOT derogatory, we get Cubans in the US attacking our site," says one of the several BahamasB2B Webmasters. "When we publish an anti-Cuban article, the pro-Cuban hackers attack us. You can't win," he says shaking his head.
Then, there are the Bahamian organised crime groups that masquerade behind the initials of political parties. If the Website prints an article critical of the FNM, the FNM hackers attack the site. When they print an article that is critical of the PLP, a shower of trouble begins. "Clearly, the PLP has more and better cyber-terrorists working for them than the FNM," another of the Webmasters quips.
The server administrator at BahamasB2B claims that often, when the site publishes an article that reports crime or news that might negatively affect the Bahamas tourism industry, Bahamians in South Floridia launch an attack. "We have their IP addresses and we watch them come in and read the article, then ten minutes later, a flurry of people hit the same article, all from South Florida, and all from an email referral. Ten minutes after that, the hacking attacks start. It's so obvious, it would be funny if it weren't a Federal crime," he says.
The environment is another area that arouses strong passions and therefore residual web activity. BahamasB2B and Web developer Benelda.com, who maintains the site on a local level, have received numerous hacks, threatening emails and slanderous material posted on a jokey Bahamian Weblog, because they support the Baker's Bay development in Guana Cay, Abaco. The eco-friendly development will relieve the crowding in Nassau by moving jobs and people to a Family Island.
"The Guana Cay opposition is a particularly nasty group who use tactics like intimidation, hacking and threats, because they have nothing to support any logical arguments against the development. The opposition is primarily composed of foreign home owners and a few selfish Bahamians who want to keep the island as their own personal fiefdom," said a source close to the controversy.
Indeed, it is suspected that, as recently as this morning, the Guana Cay opposition group has sent virus-infected emails out to hundreds of people, forging the return address to make it appear the emails came from BahamasB2B or Benelda.com.
"Some of these 'supposed' environmentalists are nothing but cyber-terrorists and many are located in South Florida and use BellSouth to connect to the Internet," says one of the BahamasB2B Webmasters, a third degree black belt who goes by the nickname "Shogun".
We have complained to BellSouth but they are deluged with spam and hacking activates. So, we are thinking of hiring our own security experts, three guys who will reformat the hacker's hard-drive, using nothing but a baseball bat," jokes Shogun. "But then we'd be just like them and we don't want to sink to their level," he adds.
July 01, 2005
Bad Business Practices in The Bahamas
I read with disgust the news article on Sir Jack Hayward's million dollars that went missing.
Clearly, the government misappropriated the funds, which is going to make it harder to get donations this year, should we be visited by guests as unruly as Frances and Jeanne were last year.
But, Sir Jack's biggest complaint was the treatment he received from a civil servant in the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) when he attempted to get some answers about the missing money.
The civil servant refused to take Mr. Hayward's repeated calls or ever return a call to him.
Unfortunately, this problem is not isolated to Sir Jack, who is a wealthy and powerful member of Bahamian society. The treatment the rest of us get is even worse.
Unprofessional and rude behaviour is, in fact, becoming a hallmark of the Bahamian business environment. There have been numerous published reports of local business persons and foreign investors complaining about the red tape and bureaucratic difficulties they have had trying to accomplish even simple tasks.
Business atrocities include not returning phone calls, missing appointments, arriving late to appointments, not completing work on time or in budget, rude and discourteous service and other practices which violate the basic tenets of commerce.
One can simply browse the 5,000 articles on the Bahamas News portal for examples.
But, it is not only government Ministers and civil servants who act irresponsibly in their business dealings. There are plenty of private companies whose owners engage in business practices (and ethics) so shallow that it is difficult to see how they can remain in business. One explanation is that some of them they have a monopoly on their market, or they receive favours and concessions by their cronies in government or the civil service.
Unprofessional behaviour not only make doing business in The Bahamas more difficult and expensive, but it also tends to discourage investments and business development, because many investors and entrepreneurs feel that "once bitten, twice shy."
One local businessman recently arrived for a scheduled appointment at the office of a prominent Bahamian lawyer, only to discover that the barrister "wasn't in" and had apparently blown off the appointment. The businessman never received a call that the appointment would be postponed or cancelled. Despite the unprofessional behaviour on the lawyer's part, the businessman made a second appointment but ended up getting "dissed" a second time. The lawyer never even called to apologize or give a reason for missing the two appointments.
This rude unprofessional behaviour seems to be contagious.
Another horror story involves a small retail outlet on Cable Beach. An entrepreneur called and talked to the owner regarding a promotional idea that would yield a handsome profit and plenty of exposure for the shop. The owner promised to get back to the entrepreneur the next day with some prices. He didn't. The entrepreneur called the following day and spoke again with the owner, who apologized and promised to call back with prices the next day. Again, he didn't. This went on for three more days before the entrepreneur found another supplier.
Then, there is the owner of a large tour company. The company apparently makes too much money and doesn't want any more. The marketing manager of a large US-based travel Website telephoned the company to arrange tours for about 100 visitors to The Bahamas. The tours would have included a three-day stay in Nassau, then a two-day stay on a Family island. The marketing manager wanted to know whether the tour company could handle the job and he needed some prices to give to his boss. After three days of trying to contact the owner, or anyone other than a secretary, the Website decided to take the people to Jamaica instead.
If all this isn't enough to kill your appetite for business in The Bahamas, wait until you hear this one.
A restaurant located near the Paradise Island Bridge could receive an award for being the worst business in The Bahamas. After finding cooked cockroaches in his food, a diner demanded to talk to the owner. The owner came out, looked the situation over, then turned away saying, "that happens all the time".