Thank you for allotting me space in your paper to express my opinions on several issues that have been troubling me lately.
Firstly, all this publicity, hype and hysteria about the movie ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ There has been so much attention given to this movie about two gay cowboys. I personally feel that all of this attention that has been directed at a movie that will be released on DVD soon for everyone to see if they want to, is very much unwarranted.
Sir, all attention from concerned citizens of this beautiful country should be directed at trying to get this major crime infestation under control.
We should all be focused on finding ways to assist the authorities with this crucial issue. We do not even have cowboys in this country, gay or straight as far as I know. We do not want the escalating crime rate in our country to destroy one of the economic powers in our country, tourism.
Another issue that has been troubling me for some time and it is related to tourism in the country. I am talking about the Straw Market. Sir, it has been nearly five years since the fire that destroyed our world-famous straw market and still no new building has been erected. This market is world-famous and has been for years, since I used to go there with my mother when I was a little girl.
My late mother cried the night the straw market burned down. She and I both felt so bad for everyone concerned with that market. My mother departed this earth in 2003 and lo and behold since then there is still no building.
I attend Trinity Methodist Church downtown. Every Sunday I have to pass the makeshift straw market and it depresses me. Thank God I am on my way to church to get upliftment. When I see those poor vendors trying to accommodate the tourists in that hot place, and I am sure it is because all you can see is blue and white tarping and we all
know tarping is hot. The tourists look hot and aggravated and so do the vendors. This should not be in a very progressive country like the Bahamas. The first question that the tourists ask when they depart the cruise ships is, “where is the straw market?” My response, I assume should be, the makeshift tarped building at the end of Bay street by the Hilton Hotel. Let us get serious as a people about issues that impact our economy.
A movie about two gay cowboys cannot personally affect me. Crime most certainly and tourism most definitely can.
We as a people need to do our part to assist with the prevention of crime in this touristic country, and let’s make the straw market world-famous once again. The vendors and of course the tourists deserve better.
Yours, etc.,
GENNY BROWN-RICHARDS
Privatise public transportation
Dear Sir,
Please allow me a space in your paper to express my views about the public transportation system and its current dysfunctional state. A state that in my opinion is largely the result of the bias behaviour of politicians who have used the granting of public transportation franchisees as a method of distributing
political patronage, rather than providing a service to residents of The Bahamas and to visitors.
Today we have a system that is chaotic and not organised. It extends from jitneys which incidentally receive most of the bad press, to taxis, meter cabs, livery and tour buses.
All of these various entities bombard our streets and compete directly or indirectly. The system is largely unregulated and abuse in the form of the disregard for regulations and norms is common. You have constant conflict between these groups, for example, the livery drivers and taxi drivers over at Atlantis or the taxi drivers and the tour buses at the airport.
As such, the government is constrained from making decisions which might lead to better and more comprehensive service: for example, a bus route that encompasses the airport or Paradise Island.
To overcome this, hard decisions have to be made by the government, and the most fundamental of these decisions is to award the franchisees outright to the operators, allowing these franchisees or
‘plates’ to be bought and sold or given away. This would allow market forces to prevail and over time. It would also negate some of this destructive competition that we see on the road, as franchisees would more easily be able to pool resources to form corporate entities and compete more effectively.
This I believe is the way go, certainly the way not to go is through the direct involvement of the government in this sector as is currently being proposed.
Yours, etc.,
Theresa Major
The Nassau Guardian
