keen insight

It’s about that time of year again when we all start paying more attention to the weather. Rumbles of activity are beginning to stir in the tropics, and, for some of us, it is just enough to awaken us from our complacency as the reality of a hurricane threat becomes apparent.

A low pressure system has been skittering across the northern Caribbean for the last few days and has just moved into the southern Bahamas in the last 24 hours. It is expected to move across the central and northwest Bahamas Thursday and Friday.

Fortunately this system is unlikely to pack much of a punch, but hopefully it is enough to get our attention.

How is your home’s roof? What sort of protection do you have for your windows? Have you been stocking up on a supply of non-perishable food and drinking water? Batteries? Have you test-run your generator? Got fuel?

It’s time to answer these and other questions to make sure you are taking the simple steps now to prepare for the impact of a hurricane or a tropical storm. No matter where you are in the Bahamas, we say ignore that statistics and admit that we all live within striking distance of a hurricane. Just because it didn’t happen last year or in the last 10 years, it could easily happen this year.

In case you missed it, we offer a 24×7 weather page with tools, info and the latest news to help you stay on top of what’s going on with weather stories around the world and specifically for the Bahamas.

It’s Bahamas Weather Centre on BahamaIslandInfo.com, and there you will find current animated weather maps, tides for every major island in the Bahamas, weather news stories and an excellent interactive current weather map that you can control.

Click HERE to visit Bahamas Weather Centre now, and don’t let severe weather catch you by surprise.

All PR is good PR, right?

One school of thought believes that, if people are talking about you that means they aren’t talking about anyone else. In competitive business circles, that can certainly be a good thing.

The thinking is that, even if the topic is negative, people are thinking about you, getting to know more about you, and perhaps developing a curiosity for learning more. The next time your name comes up, they have something to associate with you, somewhere to ‘put’ you in their brain.

Well, the Bahamas has certainly gotten more than its fair share of publicity in the worldwide media this past week. The Colton Harris Moore (a.k.a. ‘The Barefoot Bandit’) story has generated thousands of visits to our own web site over the past several days.

And, despite a few negative aspects to the overall story, the fact is that this international fugitive has been wanted for two years by numerous law enforcement agencies in North America, and has effectively eluded their pursuit. But, just a few days after crash landing in the Bahamas, the pimply-faced teen was in the custody of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

Of course, it came about through the assistance of upstanding residents in Harbour Island that chose not to help the thief but do the right thing. The fact that the Bahamas, as haystacks go, is a significantly smaller stack of hay than North America certainly helped track down and arrest the island hopping crook.

The Bahamas Attorney General’s office has released a statement on the extradition of the criminal to the United States where his more serious offences occurred. They rightly defend their decision not to impede the process by emphasizing the severity of the crimes in the U.S. and the mutually beneficial reciprocal relationship that our two countries have realised.

All Bahamians, and all who love the Bahamas, should celebrate the work of our law enforcement professionals and revel in the respect that our country has gained as a result.

This is truly a time when we can all lift up our heads.

While watching a local ‘man-on-the-street’ TV programme this week, a host approached a dozen or so people on Bay Street, Nassau, to get their views on Independence in the Bahamas.

The interviewer quizzed Bahamians on several basic historical facts, including identifying the first governor general (Sir Milo Butler, although Woodes Rogers was the first Royal Governor, and Paul Warburton was Acting Governor General for about a month after Independence), naming all of the prime ministers of the Bahamas (Sir Lynden Pindling, Hubert Ingraham and Perry Christie), and the actual date of Independence of the Bahamas (July 10, 1973).

Most people answered these questions correctly, with some even rattling off many of the names of the ten governors general of the country, from Sir Milo onward.

What were perhaps most curious were some of the responses to the question, What does Independence mean to you?

Some spoke about enjoying the holiday from work, others talked about being “masters of our own destiny”, while still others recalled how the country had changed — for better and worse — in the last 37 years.

While these thoughts are mostly valid, it was shocking to hear at least half of the street-side respondents speak about how Independence brought “freedom from slavery”, “emancipation” and “freedom from the oppression of the Queen”.

Um, what?

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In a scathing criticism of the Prime Minister, Oswald Brown came out of hiding this week for the first time since his “retirement” (Mr Brown claims he was victimised over his editorial attack on the Prime Minister) as editor at The Freeport News. His ‘Letter to the Editor‘ this week calls the Prime Minister’s travel to South Africa to attend the World Cup “appalling” and a “drastic mistake”.

Prime Minister Ingraham was invited to attend the global gathering of footballers by FIFA, the international body that organises the World Cup, and The Bahamas Football Association (BFA), the national soccer body.

As was made patently clear in the release dated June 20, 2010 and published on BahamaIslandsInfo.com on that date, the Prime Minister’s travel, as well as that of Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest, is private and, quoting that statement, “is unofficial and for their personal accounts.”

Minister of Youth Sports and Culture, the Hon. Charles Maynard, it is stated, is traveling in his official capacity. While not specifically stated, it is inferred that Minister Maynard’s travel is being paid for by public funds, as it should be.

Despite these clear statements, and assuming that Bahamas Information Service is not outright lying to the Bahamian people, Mr Brown still feels compelled to cast spurious speculation on the matter saying, “If the trip is at the taxpayers’ expense, then it is even more deplorable.”

Mr Brown’s primary contention is that the perception of the Prime Minister leaving the country to attend a sporting event is, at best, insensitive and, at worst, “appalling”. Can the same be said when nearly every major world leader leaves their country to attend the Olympics? It is, after all, just a sporting event. Or perhaps there is some greater value in such excursions, beyond the 90 minutes when a soccer game is played.

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It’s as if another storm has struck Grand Bahama, leaving businesses devastated, residents aggravated and the island’s economy frustrated.

But it is not a hurricane, not a tornado and not a severe thunderstorm. The latest ’storm’ to hit Grand Bahama is a series of unrelenting power outages that have crippled the island over the last three days. Rolling area outages are striking with painful frequency.

Interruptions of power lasting two to four hours have impacted nearly every area of the island. Businesses have seen their work screech to a halt. Residents have suffered through the heat of the night.

The concurrence of these ugly disruptions with the start of the seasonal heat and humidity cannot be simply a coincidence. The heat brings an increased use of fans and air conditioners, which of course places additional load on the power system. But why is it that our power system cannot sustain this normal increase in usage?

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