Rick Lowe
According to a report in The Tribune, 11 tourists were held up at the landmark Queen's Staircase in the City of Nassau at 11:00am on Sunday past.
This is a day that so many Bahamians feared.
What will the ramifications be to our tourist industry?
How will the US Embassy respond?
How do we get this under control?
It is bad enough that we would rob each other at gun point, but not our tourists.
Will we stop asking the politicians to let our "good sons and daughters" off so they can get our vote?
Will the politicians get the back bone to stop trying to get their friends and constituents released without facing the consequences of their actions?
It will be interesting to see how the political class will react as well.
Will the PLP blame the FNM without offering solutions?
Will the FNM raise the political will to enforce the law?
Only time will tell, and obviously we only have ourselves to blame, but what have we become?
This is exactly what the politicians want, it must be because they continue to do nothing about it.Tommy Turnquest seems to me to be a bunch of hot air & I wouldn’t talk about the Police.When will these politicians get our priorities in order, when we have absolutely NO tourists at all ? This must be what their goal is. We will be lucky if the US does not issue a travel warning, if it continues, it will not be long before they do.What do we have to do to get through to these politicians, bang their heads against the wall ? My God what will it take.Why would they be so much against making some changes, why ? Are they that scared of change ? Screw political correctness & get on with it.The Police are incapable of dealing with it, that has been proven.I say, put Basil Dean in charge of the police & give him full control & it will not be long before you see a lot of change.You have to have a strong man in charge, not a weakling.Just my opinion.
TO change things would require returning us to being a nation of the rule of law.
This would mean politicians giving up the micromanagement of each and every Bahamian life, like the Romans with the thumbs up/down power over the masses.
There will be no change, until the Bahamian populace change their expectations, and start living under rule of law voluntarily.
If the standards cannot be attained, the easiest path is to lower the bar, that much has been proven.
And people still ask why the cruise ships want to own a private island –
I am an X-Police Officer an was writing both political parties when they was the Government from 2001 to 2009 about the systematic attack on our tourism industry from criminals, public officials and law enforcement officers. To solve this problem we need to start weeding the corrupt public officials and officers from the positions that they hold because they are link to criminals who attacks the industry criminally, immorrally, unethically or disrespectfully. I am a small business owner in the industry and it is disshearting and mind boggling to see that the unscruplus persons that I mention is raping our industry right before the tourist and our eyes, and the official with the power is failing while other similar businesses is springing up on small private Island where it appears that these unknown business person are not following the rules regulation and laws that government the the Bahamas.I think these people who are causing the problems or who is refusing to deal with it who is mandated to do so, should be exspose and dealt with under the law.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/gunmen-rob-the-cop-1195430.html A Senior British Police Officer Detective Supt Brian Morris from Scotland Yard Flying Squad came to the Bahamas in 1998 to investigate a murder of a British woman that occured on PI. While he was sightseeing at Fort Fincastle the British Police Officer and his taxi driver was rob by two gun men. see web site for more info. Recommandation: All special site that tourist visit should be guarded and protected exspecially during the hours of visit, the beaches that hundreds of tourist visit should be patrol and guarded to protect the tourist and the business of the Bahamas. Most of the tourist is posting their bad experience on the web for the world to see.
I was a passenger on this cruise ship. I won’t be taking anymore cruises that go to Nassau. Many of the passengers on this ship feel the same. Allow this type of activity to continue and your tourism will go down the drain quickly.
That’s what I’m afraid of J.U.
Having been robbed at gun point in a North American city it’s not unusual this day and age.
The point of the blog is hopefully to get us up off our collective tushes to do something about it.
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Reno got it right.. We know what should be done, but we do not have the political commitment to do it.. But then the nation is flat broke.. Ever wonder why we see so few Japanese Tourists any more in the Bahamas.. Every Japanese visitor to our shores is warned about the crime situation upon arrival.. The Japanese market in the mean time has literally vanished as over the last five years arrivals have dropped from over eight thousand to about a little over a hundred last year.. The largest Japanese tour operator has closed its doors for good this past February.. All that potential purchasing power has been lost to Bay Street and the rest of our country as well.. One has to wonder if the Ministry of Tourism even knows what has happened.. Sadly opportunities lost can seldom be recovered..
I think the only cure is to kill the criminals, before they kill us.I am at the point of being very happy when I hear of a criminal being killed.What a sad day to be happy when hearing that.I believe I am at that point because I see NO HOPE AT ALL with our present system.This little Island should be heaven on earth & the Politicians, the Police & anyone in authority are making this Island a living Hell on earth.They simply refuse to get it together.To me, this says they are all full of it! I am starting to wonder if any of them have even a piece of a brain at all.Can they not see ?
Don’t dare come to my house looking for votes, none of them deserve it.STOP GIVING US LIP SERVICE & GET RID OF THE CORRUPTION, YOU WORK FOR US !!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree with you DP the politians work for the people …. I do believe that part of what fuels the neglect of proper law enforcement and the gov. non-deliberate efforts to seek deterent methods to combat the crime problem – through systematic devices -, rests with the lack of depth of knowledge and understanding by the existing population with regard to the ceiling of power – held by the police and government to curtail present conditons on the island.
Until there exist an upraw on a continued daily basis – on Rawson Square – we will continue to fiddle with the brink of having our nation in the category of “TRAVEL WARNING” .
Now Lets Go Protest Bahamas!!