By
Gilbert Morris:
Actually, time
never had time for us because we are too wasteful. Now, after all this
time, in what state are we to face whatever blows in from this
Cuban-American possibility? Whatever comes has already happened. It is
the realisation of what it has done and will do to us that will come
slowly; because we will be in our habit of denial for decades to come.
You should note that the in the Bahamas, there has not been a
significant investment from an American investor in 25 years.
The
analysis on us is that The Bahamas is where investments go to die. We
had our chance 30 years ago. And when our mojo was lost, we responded by
saying "Its Better in The Bahamas", even as we erected further
impediments to good investment. And as usual, we will not innovate to
meet the challenge caused by our venality, self-indulgence and plain
stupidity. Instead, our cronyocracy will act to snatch every opportunity
to reduce potential broad economic activity to personal 'fee
collection'.
They will not respond with strategies to correct decades of
slothfulness. Instead they will react to protect their personal hides;
sighing that our shrinking economic prospects is from the impacts of
"globalisation". They will send itinerant fools to evangelise this
nonsense and our people, (swaddled with bad education, holding
politicians high with such 'messianic fervour' that a basic job is now a
political favour ), will prove unable to be that check in democratic
terms, to force their hopes for, or vision of themselves upon those who
presume to govern them.
Soon the offices of the state will be used
openly to secure personal advantages against any striving Bahamian with
ambition. These forebodings are not unique to The Bahamas. This is the
road to the death of prosperity and the result of cronyist lackeynomics,
poor education and societal malaise that fuels the engine of
criminality that ensures the efficient destruction of generations upon
generations.
It is the result of decades of bumptious tomfoolery and
convoluted excuses masquerading as a concept of life. In one real sense
Cuba has already 'eaten our lunch'. A nation under a half century
embargo by the largest economic power in human history and yet, they
surpassed us in tourism - an industry we pioneered - a decade ago, and,
disgracefully - we are sending our students to them for education.
Our
country does not appear on a single world leading benchmark. (Oh dear, I
made an error. We have amongst the highest homicide rates in the world.
I do not wish to diminish our accomplishments). Our Ministers of the
cloth cling to every vice as the nation rots; the lights are on in
Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and we cannot keep power in Nassau; a city
named after the Prince of the most efficient country in the world; our
young people wail concerning the incompetence of their governments, only
to find their governments, which do not have time for governing, with
all the time in the world to counterattack them for expressing their
fears; we have placed our entire birthright in the future value of
beachfront property, which is more likely to lose value in the next 20
years; we are capitulating to join a trade organisation - the
responsibilities of which will increase red tape and the slow pace of
governance processes - when our greatest economic opportunity in 50
years is in services; our government Ministers are trading on their
positions in the very face of the public, whilst imposing draconian
rules to punish poor Bahamians for failing to meet tax obligations they
themselves have not met, despite a stranglehold on the nation's
resources through their crony networks. What of vision and the future?
I
wrote in 2012 that the Bahamas and Cayman Islands should be to Cuba
what Singapore is to China. But of course, we are too busy busting up,
shoving down and undermining fellow Bahamians - under two lunacies
called PLP and FNM - as we run down our true potential for deals like
Baha Mar, or pursing foolishness such as VAT, WTO and rescuing Bank of
The Bahamas. As usual, we will have convenient excuses...even where none
are possible. And we will twist ourselves as if in the Exuma wild
oceans currents, to explain our only resilience: wutlessness as
worthfulness.
Gilbert Morris - FaceBook
