According to press reports (Nassau Guardian April 15, 2013), Mr. Christie thinks the impact of the port is "potentialy" "unhealthy" and "intrusive" while at "Fish Fry" for a social event recently.
Even if it was the case, the Port cannot be moved at this time. The port, a public company in which the government owns 40% has a 20-year exclusivity. An arrangement felt necessary to incentivise the private investment that made the port development happen.
Most people think moving the cargo port from downtown was a move that was long overdue.
However, when we consider a list of what the priorities of the government should be, surely this is near the bottom?
Here's but a few that must rank near the top:
Crime
National Debt
Foreign Direct Investment
Public Education
How about regular household garbage collection?
Can you add any?
Things that make one go holy …!
I just wish Mr. Christie would spend his valuable time being disturbed about issues under his direct control. Paying attention to improving the things the government takes our tax dollars to pay for is what comes to mind.
I do agree Rick,it should not be at the top but I will say that the new port has caused the cost of doing business to go up a good bit.Maybe it should not have been on bay street but my goodness we have dead horses & untold crime on bay street so whats worse ? It used to be you had options with many roads,now one road(Except Tropical),they have their own road it seems.Now everyone is fighting like hell to get in & out of one road & it slows everything down.I am not impressed with the way we get goods now,not at all.
Sure there are issues, but the cost etc would probably be more if Mr. Christie’s cronies had the port way out at Clifton Pier as they planned.
Very true which begs the question,who in Gods earth do they consult about these things,if its someone in business here they must not listen to one damn word.
As to Clifton,I’m not sure but the fastest way from point A to point B is a straight line.Right now,unless you have a full container coming to your door,the container arrives Arawak cay ,charge # 1,take to Gladstone road,charge # 2,off-load Gladstone,charge # 3,load back on truck to bring to your door,charge # 4.Maybe Clifton isn’t so bad after all,off the ship to your door seems less costly to me.
I’m sure with Mr. Christie and those involved there would not be a single glitch with a port at Clifton Pier.
God knows there would be more with Christie & the resurrected from the dead PLPs but my God this could have been thought out better.Take a ride in the boat & see what the first thing you see is,its not Bay Street,its the containers on Arawak Cay,especially from the cruise ships.So if that’s the first thing you see as a cruise ship passenger then there’s not much of a change,especially since there are also a lot of tourists that visit Arawak cay for eat & drink.The only real change I see is a considerable rise in the cost of doing business.For those who think this port is so great,don’t complain about the cost of goods being so high because the new port is one of the reasons for the Increase.
But the cost was going to increase wherever the port was put.
It was the congestion in town of the big trucks that was the problem as I recall. Or should I say one of the problems. Because there were many.
Many cruise ship ports around the world you see container ports in the area.
Just does not look good at all.The cost is going up even more with the VAT.I know they don’t seem to give a damn but I pray these dodo politicians come to their senses before they fool with any VAT.Lets have a referendum on the VAT ! The VAT was totally rejected by T&C south of us,seems like they have much more common sense.WE NOT NEED ANY MORE TAXES !!!!!
Is it not better to go from point A to point B rather than having to drop the container to Gladstone road ? My goodness,that is just stupid !!!
Sure, but Clifton is probably further away than the Gladstone Road trek for smaller shipments.
We have to admit it’s much better than it was, albeit more costly.
Did you ever visit say Tropical Shipping when it was on Bay Street?
A Referendum on VAT.
You’ll never see that.
You can’t take their “right” to take you money away.
Yes I did & I know what you are saying,I just think it is more costly than it could have been.With all of this & still more taxes
Cost is a real factor that applies to wherever the port would have been placed.
And of course I share your concern about the costs and the taxes.
And now the WTO wants the government to put a capital tax on business ! Are these people crazy or do they want to close this country down !!!
Agreed, Rick
In Medicine, they have a term, ‘TRIAGE’, which should have equal application in Politics. In The Bahamas, where resources are severely limited and becoming even more so, we cannot solve issues in an ad hoc manner. Instead, we must prioritise them for action.
My best shot at diagnosis has yielded 12; I would appreciate any suggestions for prioritising them if the below prioritisation is incorrect or inappropriate:
1. IGNORANCE/Lack of EDUCATION
2. CRIME & Anti-Social Behaviour
3. IMMORALITY & Hypocrisy
4. DISEASE, ILLNESS & Other Health-related Issues
5. TRADE UNIONISM and Collective Bargaining
6. Economic DEPENDENCE/RELIANCE
7. Economic MISFOCUS
8. Political INDECISION and Lack of WILL
9. Skewed SOCIO-POLITICAL Reality
10. Food INSECURITY
11. INTERFERENCE by the CHURCH into the Affairs of State
12. Natural DISASTERS
Now, of course, there are other issues, like SQUALOR, for example, that could rightly be included but me thinks these are our top 12 ‘headaches’ ….
S3S, You say 12 while others may say 24 which only describes the big mess we find ourselves in.. The real underlying issue however is that our country is facing a crisis of ongoing economic stagnation and failure.. Rising unemployment, increasing deficit spending, crime on the rise, tourism being in deep trouble and the financial service industry being under attack by the United States are a few of the major concerns which will bring massive destruction upon our struggling economy.. Today our government, as was the case with previous governments, has no long-term vision or meaningful perspective of where our nation should be going.. Piecemeal, short-term, trial and error policies are not and have never been the answer..
World-wide recession or even depression could very well be on the horizon as country after country fall into grips of economic recession.. This can only mean for us empty hotels and significant declines in our tourism sector.. In our financial services sector, FATCA is being forced on us and the rest of the world by the United States in an outright attack on national sovereignty in possible violation of international law.. Where is the outcry, certainly not from the Caribbean nations.. What’s next, a FATCA coming from the European Union demanding that same compliance and controls??
Time to wake-up Bahamas and as a first step, we need to establish and document a statement of our national goals and aspirations.. That would be a first step to bring creditability to our nation and to reform our blotted and financially overextended government.. We can only hope that wiser heads prevail in the defense of our national sovereignty and freedom..
So Tradewinds, you neglected to say what the other dozen are …. you mention “economic stagnation and failure.. Rising unemployment, increasing deficit spending, crime on the rise, tourism being in deep trouble and the financial service industry …”, all of which are covered by my 12.
I shall leave that up to you to figure out my friend.. 12 is only a number as is 24.. Every issue can be easily reduced to political, economic and social categories.. In the end it is easy to cite hundreds of policy errors which can be attributed to inept judgment and absence of vision.. It is the lack of a meaningful national vision which has resulted in all the failures you have copiously set forth..
Please continue with your analysis and insight on the evils of our little nation.. They are well written, most constructive and stimulate much thought as to what direction our nation should follow..
Thank you Tradewinds
Certainly, I take the point on national vision – I had subsumed it into the discussions on Economic Dependence; Economic Misfocus and Political Indecision, but I am quickly converting to the view that our lack of a clear and ‘inviting’ national vision that all Bahamians can buy into, needs to be discussed spearately, and moved right to the top of our priorities.
See below, my response to a post regarding the subject:
S3S said:
…. I’ll answer by giving you my definition of national vision (cobbled together from others) and then by directing you to the best ‘national vision’ I’ve seen recently.
Essentially, a national vision is a realistic, credible, attractive future for a nation based on how its leaders see it being over the long term which makes it strategic because it is not less than 20 years but may be as many as 50 years. A vision must be realistic to be meaningful for a country and its citizens (e.g. a Leader cannot tell us that we will aspire to be in the ‘first world’ when its definition precludes such a possibility). It must be ‘credible’ to the citizens because they are the ones who will ensure that the vision is realised (usually well after the leaders have gone). A vision must also be ‘attractive’ in order to inspire and motivate citizens, who can feel a part of the future scenario envisioned for the country. Finally, a vision must be set well into the future for at least two reasons: first, to give the country time to work toward achieving it; and second, realisation of a vision often depends on external factors happening. This is because a vision is not where a country is now (God forbid, our current state is not one that we should want to persist) but where it wants to be in the future. Qatar, which has achieved wealth beyond its wildest imaginations over the past few decades, has published a vision, which is worth a read: http://www.gsdp.gov.qa/portal/page/portal/gsdp_en/qatar_national_vision/qnv_2030_document/QNV2030_English_v2.pdf
With all due respect gents.
A “national vision” of any more than “we will make government agencies work like they are supposed to is a waste of energy and paper when we consider where we are at now.
What I’m saying Rick is that government must have a National Objective, a long-term vision and purpose if you will as opposed to short-run policies based on political party objectives and personal preferences.. The National Objective must come first as opposed to piecemeal political goals and promises.. The government’s foolish challenge to BTC ownership and it so-called mortgage relief schemes come immediately to mind.. As the government does not have the necessary revenues to buy BTC or bailout defaulted mortgages, it is only wasting the public’s time with a lot of stuff and nonsense.. Many times political promises are not really in the nation’s best interest but are merely political schemes used to sway the voting public.. Any National Objective must begin and end with financial prudence or we will continue to dig ourselves deeper into the endless pit of debt and possible bankruptcy..