A single mother searching for work. (file photo)
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Nassau, Bahamas: More casual workers will be sent home this week Bahamas Press has learned. Workers at a government agency are slated to end their contract with the government before the end of this month according to a source in the ministry of finance.
Added to the news that Domino’s is now selling corn beef pizza, today 40 workers at Pizza Hut joined the unemployment line, as the pizza restaurant closed its doors to the public. And just when person thought it was getting better and Hotel Union President Roy Colebrooke said their will be no more layoffs in his industry, workers at the Habourside Resort, a subsidiary of Atlantis fired 140 additional workers on Monday.
To sum up the current axing at the resort, Atlantis reportedly told members of the media that 800 plus persons were fired up to last week Thursday, however since that downsizing exercise Kerzner did dismiss an additional 140 employees. Now today [Tuesday] officials at the resort told members of the media that the hotel had also fired 10% of its foreign workers. Hmmmm, sound like over 1,000 workers to us.
But breaking news coming out of Grand Bahamas tonight reveals the pending closure of a major hotel on that island. Bahamas Press has learned that managers at the property have already been advised that a decision to close the hotel can be confirmed by the owners any day now.
Now in accessing all this economic turmoil in the country, it is clear as to why the Hotel Corporation was established by the Pindling government. Turbulent times in the tourism industry warrants government’s intervention. And if government fails to step in and save JOBS in the hotel sector [as Christie and Ingraham failed to do to with Royal Oasis workers] a domino economic fallout in the country evident.
Bahamas Press has also learned that there is NO decision by the Prime Minister to secure jobs at that if the property if it fails. Sources confirm it is most likely that the government will step in and buy that property. A clear sign that NONE OF THE CURRENT POLITICAL LEADERS OF THE BAHAMAS HAS THE HEART FOR THE PEOPLE AS SIR LYNDEN PINDLING DID.
I read all the responses to this post and I am rolling over with laughter. You all crazy ya know. Omar!!!….lol….psyche…..lol…
Omar check the newspapers….Dominios actively advertising that corn beef pizza….that aint no joke.
Once again I will say dont expect nothing from the Rt Hon. H.I. as he DOES NOT …. repeat …. DOES NOT care about anybody but himself. There !! I said it !! SIB come lock me up. Hope ya tapping my line too cause I say some other things bout him on the phone.
Omar: How things looking, soon we will not be able to be so picky. Soon fire engine aint never look and taste so good…lol…
Kim initially I thought you were joking about the corn beef pizza, but other people said the same thing to me. I’m as shocked as could be….
PS- I don’t fancy corn beef myself
Anybody had the privilege of trying that recession pizza from Dominoes yet? I would have try it, put I don’t like cornbeef.
Psyche!!! Whatever!!!
I totally agree Joe
Omar: I read a lot and have travelled extensively. A little of the “tough love” that was meted out to the residents there would straighten out those slack Bahamians who care so little for our environment. That government employed very harsh treatent for transgressions and in short order had things back in line. I was amazed at the attitude of the people there when they appeared to have no resentment and agreed that it had to be done. Restoration of order is what this country needs. No one is comfortable living in chaos and crisis.
Sounds like you read the book written by Lee Quan Yu. Former President of Singapore.
When Joe blow said “Perhaps each government should have looked at the Singapore model” I now have a very good idea who he is. Initials C.S
Ha Ha! Ha Ha! Media are you inferring that Joe Blow is gay? What’s this lotion coversation you guys been having lately?
Joe may be smart but to equate LOTION with someone suggesting he is homosexual questions that intelligence SERIOUSLY. LOL!
OH we had a laugh on BP today, LOTION BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!JOE, thats more funny then when someone described a homosexual as “MR. TAMBOURINE” LOL!
BP
Joe Blow you are a very intelligent man, who enjoys finding solutions to problems and you are always willing to focus on the positive side of a situation. You are right some people can do better and they need to be encouraged to do better, but then there are those don’t have any ambition. They think of themselves as inferior, they do not know believe in their abilities to enhance their lives, they have given up. It’s all a state of mind thing, when you keep feeding your mind that things are too good for you, eventually you will start to believe it and you live from day to day without making any improvements to your life, you always find yourself blaming someone for the unsatisfactory conditions you find yourself in. When they say the grave yard is full of talented people that is the truth, plenty people have died without discovering their true potential. I thought about what you said, we must look for solutions. What I am going to do is to try an encourage people to find their true potential. I have not really found mines yet, but I am searching. In the meantime I am working with what I have.
Kim: You are a good and sympathetic person and I know you speak from your heart. The woman depicted is a product of her upbringing it is true. And that is and has been the country’s problem for a long time. Who will teach persons like her that she herself must help herself albeit with a little support from the community? Yesterday I listened to a woman complain about her circumstance of having been laid off and not knowing how she will pay rent and feed her six children. While she berated the company for laying her off and blamed the union for not insisting she be able to keep her job and complained that the government is not helping her enough, she revealed that each of her children had a different father who had his own problems. Is there something wrong with this picture? One can excuse a teenager for making a mistake but there needs to be programs to supply these woman with information and products so that they do not make a second mistake. The father also needs to be educated so he does not practice this “hit and run” action a second and third time. If our society continues to enable this kind of scenario we will find ourselves with more and more poor persons and we will never get out from under. Yes, continue to feel sympathetic but support those good people who are out there trying to change the mindset of this segment of our society. Share your ideas for a solution to our dilema if only by posting them here. Someone will read them and may be in a position to help.
Media you are representing the poor people in this country. This picture with the woman with her hand underneath her chin represents so many women in our country right now. Many mothers are lost and they don’t know what to do next. The hungry babies crying in their heads and they don’t have nothing to feed them. Husbands and boyfriends is long gone, now their jobs too. Some people may look at this woman and wonder why is she carrying herself like this, her hair is not fixed and the clothes make her look like a beggar, but the truth is her appearance is the least of her worries. If she could only find food to feed her family, that would mean the world to her. Some may even ask the question, “Why didn’t she save for the rainy days?” if you only know the history of this woman and many women like her, you might understand. Maybe this woman aint never had anything to save for the rainy days. There are people who exist in our society that did not have proper guiding as a child from their relatives and in their community. Some of them may have even dropped out of school early and gotten pregnant. Life for them may have always been a struggle and then they finally manage to get a low paying job, because of their lack of education and the reason why did not save for the rainy days, is because they were hardly taking care of their families with the little monies they were making to begin with. They were just working from paycheck to paycheck.
When I saw the ad with Dominoes selling cornbeef pizza, I said to myself, “boy, things really bad!” I aint never heard Dominoes making cornbeef pizza before. I guess sales were down, the poor people can’t afford to treat their kids to pepperoni and the other toppings any more. That right there was an eye opener for me, I know things were bad, but I had no idea it was this bad. The sad thing is only the poor people feeling it.
For several years now concerned persons have been on talk shows and in the printed media advising Bahamians to save for their future needs when the inevitable downturn in the economy would occur. But when times are good only a few prudent persons will listen. Why? Because we are a society more interested in our material welfare. Then when we are faced with this economic crisis we still will not face our responsibility but imply that the total fault lies with the government, society. the employer and we never accept our own complicity. Perhaps each government should have looked at the Singapore model and held back a percentage of each persons paycheck specifically
for forced savings in order that they could have enough money for a house when they married and began a family. Perhaps we should have demanded successive governments hold back a further sum to guarantee that our utilities are paid. Perhaps we should have demanded that they hold back another percentage to pay for all our health care costs,school costs, nursing home costs? Why not just work our 40 hours and let the government direct our whole life? We ask the governments to have a plan while we have no plan or direction for our own lives. When will we grow up and look at life as it is and not what we wish it would be?
The GBPA is still raising licence fees and collecting most of the taxes in Freeport along with its subsidiaries. They too should step up to the plate now and try to save Grand Bahama. Roads and green grass look good but cannot save lives and jobs. Roads and grass certainly cannot be eaten and cannot pay the astronomically high power bills they charge.
It’s was Minister of state of Finance Hon.Z.Laing who said “The Bahamian economy will grow by 4% in 2008 compared to same time last year 2007”. This he said while a guest on Michael Pintard’s talk show in early January of this year. It was also printed in the tribune the following day. Immediately I wrote an article demanding he apologized to the Bahamian public. Not one sitting member of parliament at that time demanded he apologize. Minister Laing failed to take into account the obvious A) Inflation (given the fact we import 85-95% of all we use and consume) and B) The U.S. Federal Interest rates cuts (first by .5% then another .25% and weeks later by another .5%) from 3.25% to 2.0%. This all happened during the first quarter of this year (January – March 2008). If PM Hon. Hubert A. Ingraham had addressed the nation then and advised the Bahamian workers in particular those in the hotel industry to save and be more conservative with their spending and shed the arrogance displayed by Minister Laing, many Bahamians would have been more prepared. They had absolutely no contingency plan in place. They were caught sitting flat on their asses. It was the FNM in 2007 who promised empowerment and 3,000 new low cost homes in 5 years. Hmmm
This is a serious situation and will only get worst in time to come. FNM was caught sitting on their asses. Now the people will suffer.
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