Letters to The Editor

A LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM KELLY BURROWS

I feel the need to add my two cents to this loosely used “FIVE STAR RESTAURANT” I have been in the hospitality industry for 60 years, I’ve had the opportunity to work in FIVE STAR RESTAURANTS back in the day, when Gourmet service was the order of the day and waiters wearing Tuxedo and white gloves, I wonder if some of these people who are talking five star ever been in a five star restaurant? In the Bahamas today the only Restaurant that comes close to a five star, and from my experience and personal opinion I will rate them as a Three star is the Gray Cliff Restaurant, maintaining a five star establishment can be very costly with high standards enforcement, and consistency on a daily basis, offering exemplary services. When your talking about five star you talking about Peacock Alley at the Waldorf Astoria fine culinary at its best very costly and Tavern on the Green in New York City to name a few. So please stop insulting the FIVE STAR Standards, stick to the Blue Plate that you have become accustomed to!!!

Kelly D Burrows

Freeport Grand Bahama 

Telephone 359 5126

keldo938@Gmail.com

FELIX SANDS WRITES FROM FREEPORT

The Parliament square and its buildings were constructed in 1815. It is situated in Downtown, Nassau, Bahamas. It houses the House of Assembly, and the Senate building. These building stands out as a monument to the stability and belief of the people of the Bahamas in the Rule Of Law and Democratic principles.

These buildings have served us well, and it is time for us as a people to move on. This Square should be converted into a major tourist attraction telling the rich story of our democracy in this hemisphere. A guided tour of this area could bring Untold amounts of revenue that will help with the upkeep of Downtown, Nassau.

The Davis Administration will do well to move with haste in a direction of starting Phase One of a new parliamentary complex demonstrating to the world that steady progress is being made every budget year.

We understand the development dollars of this archipelago is scarce, but we are a people who have learned how to walk and chew gum at the same time.

The electrical grid is being upgraded for the first time in a generation in New Providence. Homes are being constructed. Two public hospitals are being built and clinics upgraded country wide. Airports, too, are being built and upgraded on family Islands.

Prime Minister Davis, you like Nehemiah of old, have a great work to do in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem as protection around The Bahamas. Inside and outside our walls we have opposition forces like Sanballat and Tobiah, opposing your government at every turn. Sadly, we have amongst us some who never accepted, but tolerated the principles of Majority Rule.

Prime Minister Davis phase one of a new Parliament is achievable goal in this dispensation. Be assured that the pits being dug for your demise by the Sanballats and Tobiahs will themselves fall into them. Press On.

Forward, Upward, Onward Together! We need a new Parliament !

The Search Party Needs Flashlights Last week, I wrote that you cannot win without a bench. Apparently, some within the FNM read my article—or perhaps they had already reached the same conclusion.

I don’t like getting involved in FNM business, but rumour has it that some of the party’s former leaders and powerbrokers gathered last week to discuss the future leadership of the FNM. If the reports are accurate, Mr. Michael Pintard, as the Chairman of the PLP, Minister Fred Mitchell, said last week, is “a dead man walking.”

But the more interesting question is this: how does a major political party reach the point where its elders must go looking for somebody to lead it?

That was precisely my argument last week.

Rebuilding is not removing one leader and installing another. It means reassessing your philosophy, recruiting talent, developing people, creating depth and presenting a vision capable of attracting bright minds.

Therein lies the FNM’s deeper problem. For too long, advancement within the party has appeared limited to a narrow political circle. If talented young Bahamians, professionals, entrepreneurs and thinkers do not believe there is a genuine pathway upward, why would they come? You cannot spend years keeping the gate narrow and then suddenly wonder why the yard is empty.

So now the FNM reportedly has former leaders discussing where the next leader might come from. Perhaps the search party should bring flashlights.

But there is something more serious here. The Bahamas has one of the oldest parliamentary democracies in the Western Hemisphere, with a parliamentary tradition dating back to 1729. It is therefore disheartening to watch one of the country’s two major political parties become functionally defunct. A mature democracy needs more than elections; it needs a credible opposition capable of challenging ideas, presenting alternatives and preparing itself to govern.

The FNM’s predicament should therefore concern even those of us who do not support it.

Leadership should not have to be found. It should be a seamless transition. It should have been developed.After all, if you have to assemble the elders, organize a search party and bring flashlights just to find your next leader, perhaps your problem was never Michael Pintard.

Perhaps the lights went out in the organization a long time ago.

-Abigail Cartwright