The human and economic costs of the collapse of Baha Mar are staggering. So much of this was unnecessary, the result of massive cupidity and stupidity by individuals and interests who connived to exploit the megaproject as a trough in an orgy of avarice. Prime Minister Perry Christie and his administration have acted in a contemptible, incompetent and self-serving manner that has wrecked the livelihoods of thousands of employees and their families and numerous contractors and their families.

If Baha Mar's collapse leads to a recession and further downgrades by credit rating agencies, the PLP will have destroyed our economy and devastated the dreams and economic prospects of many thousands of Bahamians. If we are downgraded to junk status, the current government will have the worst economic record in the modern Bahamas, and public finances may be in a perilous state, thanks to Christie and the PLP, who will have set us back generations.

Perry Gladstone Christie will go down in Bahamian history not simply as the worst head of government since internal self-government. He will also be reviled for his happy-go-lucky, pie-in-the-sky mentality and governance, even as things were collapsing around him and the country. He is damned by his own words and delusion from his mid-year budget review at the beginning of the year.

"We expect to see a surge in new hires starting in earnest very soon as Baha Mar prepares to roll out its new resort in phases, beginning just a month from now," he said then.

In February, he offered Baha Mar workers and vendors unbridled hope and expectations. Near the end of 2015, those hopes and expectations are destroyed along with Christie's shattered and irreparable credibility. Nothing Christie now says about Baha Mar is taken seriously by the vast majority of Bahamians. His words and optimism are like smoke wafting into the air from a small campfire, easily dissipated with even the slightest breeze.

Deluded
He further deluded the nation and perhaps himself: "I stand before you today with enormous confidence in our nation's economic future! Things are looking good! We are on the move!

"The engines of the national economic machine are being primed to propel us forward to a new era of economic prosperity. I am absolutely and unshakably convinced of that! Bright days lie before us now. We are standing tall, our heads held high, our hearts brimming over with faith in our country and optimism about our future."

The approximately 2,000 Bahamians fired from the largest single investment project in the country were betrayed by a process that left most of them distraught and deeply anxious in a roller coaster of a year ride in a carnival of high-stakes corporate and political gamesmanship.

Given the naked politics, vitriol and unseemly comments by various PLP Cabinet ministers, Attorney General (AG) Allyson Maynard Gibson's recent comment that politics should not be played over the Baha Mar cuts is like a Voltairean farce. The AG's entanglements and alleged conflicts of interest at Baha Mar are another disturbing element of the Baha Mar saga. Do any other ministers have conflicts of interest at Baha Mar?

The Baha Mar collapse is a political matter in the sense of a matter of high public policy that needs to be debated by political leaders and the general public. We all have a stake in how this matter turns out.

For those who reflexively demonize politics, in its best sense, the art and practice of politics involves how a nation debates and adjudicates policies, priorities, public finances and its future. From its inception, Baha Mar was necessarily a political matter. Sadly, when the PLP decided to cast themselves as the true patriots in the Baha Mar saga, and those who had a different point of view as "traitors", they made the matter a game of low politics.

Backfired
The PLP played the nationalism card, a card that has backfired, as the government is not viewed by the majority of Bahamians as acting in the national interest. The government's actions, and the belligerence of two ministers in particular, may have a chilling effect among foreign investors.

The chilling effect is descending on Bahamians as Christmas approaches. It is highly unlikely that the terminated employees will ever be paid the severance, vacation and other funds they are owed by the resort. This is unjust and unfair.

A few thousand or several thousand dollars owed some employees makes all the difference in terms of meeting basic expenses such as food and electricity. Some are owed many thousands more, funds that may have gone toward school fees, healthcare, home repairs and/or other needs. Many took out mortgages or car loans, expecting to be able to service these and other consumer debts. Not only do they no longer have a salary. They are also not receiving any of the funds owed them. This is a double-whammy.

For many small businesses and vendors who took out loans to supply services to Baha Mar, expecting a handsome return and better prospects, the collapse of Baha Mar is a nightmare, destroying many businesses, livelihoods and future prospects. Not only will many of them never make a profit. They are indebted for services rendered. The possibility of their reimbursement is next to nil. Many of these businesses are owed tens or hundreds of thousands or millions. Some have closed. Some will continue to downsize.

The ripple effect of the collapse of Baha Mar is being felt among other smaller businesses and vendors, as well as larger enterprises, and the ripples will continue to reverberate. How will government revenues suffer, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Joaquin? The reputational lost to Baha Mar and the country are enormous.

There is something else lost at Baha Mar. The many who went through the megaresort's training institute and who were excited by its anticipated opening and advancement are deflated, angry, disillusioned. One cannot put a price tag on such bitter disappointment.

Dismayed
Those Bahamians who left other businesses and resorts or were headhunted from overseas are dismayed by the collapse of a project that excited many professionals, who feel that they were gut-punched and are unsure of what lasting value their efforts may have at Baha Mar. There was a buzz among Bahamian artists, including many younger artists, about what Baha Mar, including the new art team led by former Creative Arts Director John Cox, meant for Bahamian artistry and the arts.

The artistic community now despairs of what may become of the collection and the galleries, and what this moment meant for Bahamian art and culture. Amidst the collapse and heartbreak at Baha Mar, Christie's insipid and disingenuous statements are grating, and making Bahamians even angrier.

The prime minister who says that he is disappointed by the liquidators' decision is the very one whose government asked for the liquidation process in the first place.It's like a man who releases the brakes of an 18-wheeler truck on the top of a high hill overlooking a bay expressing disappointment when the huge truck barrels down the hill, smashing things in its path, ending up in the sea, its cargo destroyed.

Even over the summer as prospects looked bleak and many workers were on tenterhooks, Christie was expressing his inane brand of mindless optimism, which few could stomach.

There is the Perry Christie calculus - whether National Health Insurance, reducing crime, doubling the national investment in education, mortgage relief, prospects for Baha Mar, etc. - the more Christie expresses optimism in something, this is in direct or greater proportion to the unlikeliness of whatever he promises happening in the manner and timing he proposed.

As if he's a statesmen doing the country a favor, Christie says that he will solve the Baha Mar crisis. Having in large measure caused this crisis, he should fix what he helped to royally screw up. But he should expect no congratulations or praise. In the meantime, Christie might offer the suffering workers, vendors and their families, and the Bahamian people, exhausted by his insufferable statements throughout this long, painful year, a singular gift for Christmas: a vow of silence, which is a more polite way of wording what most Bahamians are feeling and saying.

o frontporchguardian@gmail.com, www.bahamapundit.com.

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