Dear Editor,

I am reminded of a Freeport News headline of March 14 of this year when the Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe declared "International Bazaar on government priority list".
The article talked of all sorts of suggestions and initiatives that the government would pursue to salvage the dying property. Should we be surprised that we have not heard a single word since?
We keep hearing of Bahamian groups anxious to invest in Freeport and this might have been a perfect opportunity.
The other "government priority" we were told, was finding a new operator for the Treasure Bay Casino. It was pronounced by Wilchcombe in March and again in May that "new operators would be announced within a week". We are still holding our breath six months later.
Meanwhile the casino remains deserted - another reminder of the declining tourist product of Grand Bahama. Now being entirely subsidized by the government - no, actually, the Bahamian tax payer - the demoralized work force remains on shortened work schedules and minimum wages.
One has to wonder why we, the citizens of the Bahamas, appoint and pay the salaries of government officials whose prime objectives are apparently to deliver empty promises month after month, year after year. In a private corporation they would have been fired long ago. "Accountability" seems not to be a word in the Bahamian dictionary.

- Chris Paine

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