Rick Lowe
In most newspapers yesterday Mr. Ingraham and the FNM were being condemned for the disastrous way they have handled the damage caused by Hurricane Irene.
Blaming the government for being ill prepared is surely an attempt at humor by these folks?
It's reminiscent of the American press giving their President Bush hell for not making it to the areas hit by Hurricane Katrina for a few days and now giving President Obama a pass for not getting to the NorthEast after Hurricane Irene.
In every settlement in The Bahamas we have local government representatives and other community leaders that must bear some of the blame for their lack of preparedness in my not so humble opinion.
But on the other hand we're talking about a category three storm that these towns have gone through, so how can anyone possibly prepare for that?
Not only that, when did we sign ourselves over to the Nassau government to get us through things like this? Have we lost our ability to get things done? We're fighters in teh family islands not hacks.
The Civil Servants that run things can be blamed for failing us in a lot of areas, Education and BahamasAir leap to mind, but a natural disaster is yet another thing particularly when there are community leaders that should be directing local affairs.
Don't these people realize that becoming more and more dependent on government actually worsens our fate? Not only that, our taxes will be raised pay for it all to boot.
It's time for responsible reporters and editorialists to put the blame where it belongs. On us as a people! Not some imaginary government that can't even deal with our day to day matters effectively much less a natural disaster miles away.
The point is, we are personally repsonsible for some things. Four of us in our neighbourhood cleared our road after the storm for example. If we had waited for the government we might still be here with all th eother things on their plate.
In other words, I don't think Mr. Ingraham and his political cohorts should be ashamed about how they've handled the aftermath of Irene.
Rick,
I totally agree with your premise here…Residents must be engaged in some sort of preparation and cleanup to adequately deal with what Mother Nature throws at us. There is only so much preparation that can be done since the extent of the possible damage is a variable which is unknown.
As a side note, the school I work at has been without power since Irene hit. We are among the millions in the northeast that lost power. We can’t do anything about it since a power sub-station is under water. It’s a waiting game…
Regarding your neighborhood…been there and done that…we do the same here…whether it was branch removal from Irene, or snow removal…we all pitch in to help each other.
From all that I have read, the cleanup and restoration of services has gone fairly well. Of course, there are going to be some areas that get restored and back to normal sooner than others…that’s the nature of the beast. Whether driven by government or private individuals, the Bahamians are resilient and keep going.
Instead of placing blame, perhaps people should assess what they did to prepare and adjust their preparation plan.
KM
Rick:
In the aaftermath of the two hurricanes we had in Abaco in 2004 a friend of mine related how some of his friends from Grand Bahama came to Abaco and commented how it almost appeared that there had not been a hurricane here. He told them that Abaco people do not sit on their backside and wait for someone to clean up after them that they get together and do whatever is necessary to get their lives back in order the shortest time possible. The opposition politicans are sitting in the comfort of their homes complaining while the Prime Minister is seeing first hand what the people need and doing his best to get the help there. Eagles Wings Foundation out of West Palm Beach Florida who was here in 1999, 2004, New Orleans after Katrina, Haiti after the earthquake and Japan after the Tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster was again here two days after Irene with a team doing an assessment of Abaco, Eleuthera and Cat Island using some fantastic tehcnonogy, this report was given to the government and I am sure it has been helpful. In addition relief supplies was sent to Abaco which is now on its way to Cat Island.
It would be great if the complainers got off their soap boxes and did something constructive to help the less fortunate that would be great.
God help the people of New Providence should they ever get a direct hit from a major hurricane because most of them do not know what it is like to live through one of these.
The Honourable Prime Minister is from humble beginnings and understand what that is like and can relate to the less fortunate among us and I KNOW he is doing a fantastic job.
I agree with you entirely Jack.
Of course I disagree with many in the political class on public policies they propose, including Mr. Ingraham and the FNM, but I remain convinced Mr. Ingraham has unquestionable concern for Bahamians and remains above reproach after all these years.
Of course he does not tolerate what he perceives as ignorance, but neither do I :o)
Rick i agree with your comments and would also say that lesson to be learn to make things better is always good for the Government.However i read in the newspaper that Moody downgrade the Government policy on the Bahamas economy to negative.They should had been taking advice from you in regard to the high spending and burrowing,now it do not look like the Bahamas will ever recover.