“Time longer than rope” and 2021 is weeks away; justice and the day of reckoning is almost here!
The Editor 22nd October 2020
Bahamas Press
Dear BP,
As the Coronavirus pandemic continues to cut its deadly unchecked swath through the length and breadth of the Bahamas Bahamians want to know who is in charge of resolving this existential threat to our lives and our existence.
Is it the Paediatrician who is now allegedly working remotely? Or is it the Gynaecologist who listens to no one? Maybe it is the doctors and health workers who can’t explain their own statistics; no one knows and from the Prime Minsters reported statements that “it’s grim and not getting better anytime soon”.
The PM has given up on ever bringing this pandemic under control in the Bahamas. If you look at his public utterances and his overall demeanour you see a failed, clueless leader who is just playing for time and
hoping for the best.
My Bahamian brothers and sisters we are on our own. By examining the press statement announcing that Minister Desmond Bannister had
tested positive for Covid-19 you get an insight as to why things are so bad and getting worse.
I am sure that all Bahamians of goodwill wishes the rapid and full
recovery of the Minister and we send up our fervent prayers. But what about the reporters who were probably showered with his droplets during his unmasked press conference? Time will tell. The press statement offered some clues as to why this incompetent administration has put us in such a mess.
Firstly, the Minister is supposed to be self-quarantining; that is precisely the wrong procedure. Once a person tests positive for the Coronavirus they must be isolated no matter who they are, and they have no choice.
As an infected person with a highly contagious disease they are now a threat to the public health. They must stay in isolation until tests indicate that they are negative for the virus.
Also, according to the press statement virtually the entire Cabinet of the Bahamas is now in quarantine for two weeks. What is so magical about this time period that government sticks to it no matter what? Laziness and a reluctance to provide testing comes to mind but, this is usually how long it takes for symptoms of infection to appear. This is precisely why we are having this exponential growth in our cases.
They are waiting for contacts of a positive case to display symptoms when science tells us that an infected person becomes contagious around 5-7 days after infection and is shedding the virus long before the fourteen days expire and sometimes long after.
Thus, for a full week before the appearance of their symptoms we may have Covid time bombs walking around our communities, interacting with their families, parishioners, work mates and loved ones and infecting them all because of a flawed and discredited government policy which refuses to test contacts until they are symptomatic.
Sadly, no matter what medical science say or how many Bahamians
sicken and die the government will not spend our taxes to protect us through proper universal testing and tracing.
But if they need money to give cronies plum jobs, spend on travel or build
unnecessary sidewalks money cannot done! Let us face it, the FNM has written off 2020; it is in their rear-view mirror. And although they have not said it yet do not expect anything from them except promises and plans to waste even more of our money when prudent fiscal management dictates that we reduce unnecessary spending.
Speaking of which, the Prime Minister gave a wish list of projects which
his administration might pursue. I say might because at some point even the dotards in Finance and Tourism will realize that there is just no money to be had and to get what may be borrowed the financial markets will charge us exorbitant interest rates.
Finance cannot fund it because the VAT cash cow is sick and dying; the main contributors to VAT revenues are unemployed; tourism cannot help because they know that you cannot compel a person to be a tourist.
Hoteliers are delaying re-opening because the virus is raging out of control and sufficient effort is not being expended by the government to make Bahamians and tourists safe. Hoteliers have a brand to protect; if Bahamians do not protect their brand and allows a dilatory government to destroy it that is their problem.
And if these problems and lack of empathy by this administration was not enough, we face another possibly more serious long term political and societal danger. Bahamians are worn out by the lockdowns, lies and misinformation coming from this FNM administration.
We are being worn down by the lies and the smear campaigns of
their media trolls. Our weariness and growing lack of attention to what government is doing is exactly what they want. It makes it easier for them to award more no bid contracts and highly paid jobs to under qualified cronies.
In our weariness and despair we are becoming more accepting of their breaches of our constitutional rights; more tolerant of their bad behaviour and their intolerance for opposing views; more comfortable with having to do more with less as our standard of living collapses; becoming more desperate for good news even from those who visited this disaster on us in the first place; and not paying enough attention to what they are doing not what they are saying.
Because of this we are slipping into authoritarianism and the signs are there for all to see. A Competent Authority who has accrued to himself unfettered power to rule our lives; an acquiescent police force who is at the beck and call of those in power and eagerly investigate and punish political foes (real or imagined); Bahamians are being accused of rioting when no Riot Act was read as required by our Constitution; a judicial system which has so far refused to hear cases complaining of breaches of
the Constitution.
But even as our civil rights are abused and we sink deeper into the
pit of despair we are heartened that “time longer than rope” and 2021 is weeks away; justice and the day of reckoning is almost here!
Sincerely,
Michael J. Brown
