Bamboo Town Headquarters Opening Dec 3rd, 2011 South Beach Shopping Centre
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It is time for them to Ring the Bell.
Are you in the South ready for the bell to ring?
We ARE READY NOW!!!
Mr. Party Leader, Rt. Hon. Perry Christie, and Mrs. Christie…Parliamentary Colleagues and Bahamians all across this great country of ours and around the world…Goodnight!
Are you ready Bamboo Town?
We join you tonight in a festive spirit for a very good reason: The long nightmare that you’ve had to endure over the past four-plus years will soon be over. Like people all across the length of breadth of The Bahamas, we are counting down the few weeks ahead of us before this bad, ‘whutless’, outgoing FNM government is voted out of power!
I am burdened and saddened by the unnecessary suffering that you have been facing! My mind is consumed with your concerns…your pains…your strife! All across this country, Bahamians are losing their homes. Breadwinners, mothers and fathers are struggling to keep the lights on. Children are huddling outside in the cold; locked out and thrown onto the streets by this callous and insensitive FNM government.
This week, we all heard the painful story of a mother whose home was taken away by that heartless surgeon at the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation. Hubert Ingraham, Duane Sands and the FNM are nowadays following the banks and have decided go onto the business of throwing people into the streets.
In the bitter cold of winter and in the dead of night, this cold-blooded FNM Government – just before Christmas – is in the business of evicting single mothers. The heartless, Candidate in the Elizabeth bye-election, who called the good God-fearing people in the east “Greedy”, came on TV justifying the actions of his government.
That heartless, doctor is also the first cousin of the Tommy Turnquest, who called the good people of five-pound lot in Kemp Road “Poor” during the gerrymandering exercise.
They, like their leader, don’t care about people. They don’t care about us! They have no feeling for the poor. They are more concerned about the rich and foreigners. They have no feeling for what you are going through.
This is that same inconsiderate FNM that says they work for you! And this is why Bamboo Town we come to you tonight. We want you to know they are not for you! In fact, they were not for their MP for this area and so we want you to Vote Them OUT! Vote Them OUT! Vote Them OUT!
Now, I say they have no feelings for the ordinary Bahamian. None! Let’s take a look at this bad road project. Right now if you ride along Blue Hill Road, you will see for the third or fourth time workmen digging into the street. When it was last paved a few months back, they said then it was being paved for the last time. We are not stupid! We are not fools! We know what they are doing, and we realize that only one man making all the money on these roads!
Prince Charles, dig up for a second time. Robinson Road, closed and getting dig up again. Marathon Road, can’t finish; likewise Wulff Road.
When I tell you Bamboo Town the road project was poorly managed, here’s what I mean.
On Dec 15th 2008, with Jose Cartellone having been awarded the contract, the Minister of Public Works and Transport, Neko Grant, assured the motoring public that his Ministry “will monitor the project to ensure that it is completed on time so that there would be minimal discomfort and inconvenience to the public”.
The original contract with Jose Cartellone was for approximately120 million dollars and was projected to be completed this year. We now know, according to reports, as reported in The Nassau Guardian this week, on Monday 28th, 2011, we the taxpayers must find 40 million dollars more to complete the project – a 33% increase. And guess what? Everywhere you turn the roads them still dig up with no ending date in sight! VOTE THEM OUT IS WHAT I SAY, VOTE THEM OUT!
But that ain’t all!
Guess what I found out when I inspected the roads? All along these new corridors and wide sidewalks, there is not one fire hydrant positioned along these new roads. Not one hydrant near homes and businesses along these so called “Newly designed corridors” in the event of a disaster. They have no heart for the ordinary Bahamian!
Meanwhile, scores of businesses have shut their doors, workers sent home and the roads still closed. You know the FNM doesn’t care about us. They have no feeling for us. When it was time for road works to be done on Bay Street, the Prime Minister came on the news to tell us how work will be done in the night! Small business owners along Robinson Road, East Street, Prince Charles Drive, Blue Hill Road, Marathon Road, Wulff Road and Market Street watched in horror as their businesses slid into a deep recession. Homeowners boarded up their windows all along the streets and were forced to inhale dust for months, as if a hurricane was about to come. Did we hear from the Prime Minister? NO!!! Why? Because ordinary Bahamians were being affected!
It is time to VOTE THEM OUT! It is time for the bell to ring. It is time to fire this FNM Government!
And how we ga do this? We must register to vote!
Now I want to say something about this Gerrymandering exercise carried out by this uncaring Outgoing FNM Government. Something cannot be right when even members of the government protested with the PLP about the way in which the exercise was carried out. FNM MPs Kendal Wright for Clifton and Verna Grant for Eight Mile Rock protested even Kenneth Russell for High Rock – in their contributions in Parliament against this exercise, while FNM Lucaya MP Neko Grant sat in his seat and had nothing to say.
We in the PLP put the questions that must be asked with regard to the Constituencies Commission report: Did the new constituencies as drawn conform to constitutional norms? Secondly, are the results fair to the voters of the country?
The PLP’s position on this has to do not with what is fair to politicians, but with what is fair to the voters of the country. It means, therefore, that you cannot simply have a more or less equal distribution of electors in a seat and then say that this brings about a fair result. That is clearly and blatantly wrong. The government cannot justify reducing the number of seats to 38. They will soon find out that the Bahamian people agree with our position and don’t want them anymore.
We in the PLP accept that the constituencies have to be more or less equal, but we say that one must have regard for the status quo, the existing electors and constituencies and the ability of voters to make a judgment on the individual or party who has served them in the preceding years. When you eliminate that possibility, there is an unfair result.
Down here in the South I hear FNM members for this area are running from here. Why are they running from here? You think they could answer that question?
I hear they have another person in Carmichael and another person in South Beach. What they scared of? But I ga say it like this Bamboo Town, South Beach and Carmichael, they are running from cut hip and into cut hip! From the frying pan into the fire!
The voters of this country await them all! Shifting boundaries cannot change the judgment of the Bahamian people against this heartless outgoing FNM government that cares less for the Bahamian people.
And let me say this on this issue, Bamboo Town, South Beach, Golden Gates and Pinewood. I want you to help me on this one…Tell the Outgoing FNM government for us, YOU CAN CHANGE THE LINES BUT YOU CANNOT CHANGE THE MINDS! {REPEAT}.
Everywhere you go, in every constituency across this great country, Bahamians are ready for new ideas. They are ready for a young, dynamic team. They are ready to get back to work. They are ready to jumpstart their businesses. And we are ready to Put Bahamians First! And they are ready to elect the PLP.
In Education, as I announced in September, Our 21st Century Classrooms project, a public-private partnership, will modernize and upgrade our classrooms and schools across the nation, creating jobs now – for architects, engineers, green energy experts, and those in the construction trade. It is part of our plan to revolutionize education in The Bahamas, so that we can attract and build and keep 21st century jobs.
All Bahamian students must achieve scientific and digital literacy – but how can they do it in crumbling or outdated classrooms?
It’s not just our students who need our support – Bahamian workers need the government’s support, too. And when elected we shall launch the Worker Retraining Initiative, our plan to dramatically expand access to retraining programs and work opportunities.
Our team is ready to put hundreds of families into new homes and restore the Bahamian dream. We are ready to put people back to work and create a culture of big ideas to propel our new Bahamas forward.
Our team is ready to inject a new spirit of investment and stir confidence with big plans for small business owners and new owners that will create partnership for our people that will expose them to the global community.
Our team is ready to deliver better health care across the Bahamas and introduce real security in the health care network by implementing National Health Insurance once and for all.
Our team is ready to restore safe streets back into our community with Urban Renewal 2.0, taking our streets back and at the same time provide safety in our schools, homes and businesses.
We are ready to deliver! We are prepared and ready to do the work with your mandate to turn our country around for the better.
Tonight Bamboo Town and young people hearing me across this great country, we in the PLP deliver into your care our man in this great part of the country, Renward Wells!
Hold fast Bahamas, don’t get weary…
Hold fast, for the bell is less than six month away.
Hold fast and BELIEVE in the Bahamas again…as the BEST IS YET TO COME!
PLP… PLP…PLP… God Bless You and Goodnight.
