Dear Editor,
The long awaited and much anticipated report by the Ministry of Housing and the Environment has now been released into the public domain for discussion and, hopefully, sensible action.
The report really told us nothing that we did not know already. The minister and his staff are simply running for political cover and seeking to appear to be erudite, proactive and solution orientated. The minister used to be, and may still be, a good friend of mine, but I do not rate effectiveness on flimsy and fleeting friendship. I want to see a real plan of action and actual performance.
I have been literally begging the minister to appear on "Real Talk Live", as he was wont to do during the election campaign, to give an account of his performance, or lack thereof, since his election and elevation. He's accused me of being disrespectful towards him and that I don't show him whatever it is that he wants me to show him.
While I love and respect the minister, I reminded him that he actually works for the people of this nation and not vice versa. I could care less if he took insult to what I had to say.
Kenred Dorsett (PLP-Southern Shores) is totally out of his league and may have to be reassigned by the PM at the earliest opportunity. He may make a good attorney general and may even serve well as a minister of legal affairs. As minister for housing and the environment, however, in my sincere submission, he has been and is an unmitigated disaster. He needs to resign or, preferably, be fired.
Not one new house has been constructed under his watch or even completed and delivered to a potential homeowner. It may not be his 'fault', but he has carriage of that portfolio. Garbage collection, at least in my constituency of Mount Moriah, has improved dramatically after I publicly called him out and sent him some scathing emails. Thank you, brother Dorsett!
The gold rush has an obligation to usher in real immigration reform, amnesty and rationalization. Minister Fred Mitchell is living, I suggest, in a land of make-believe. He has pontificated about work permits, but has said absolutely nothing about real immigration reform, amnesty and rationalization.
Who cares about the number of foreign domestic workers, landscapers or gardeners in expatriate and Bahamian homes? These are jobs which ordinary Bahamians do not want or care for in any event.
Our culture, like it or deny it, is such that most of us would prefer a foreign domestic in the sanctity of our private homes. Bahamians, by and large, don't mind their own business and would talk our intimate details within our homes at the drop of a hat. It is sad but so true.
In our hospitality, banking and insurance industries, we have hundreds of expatriates working and pulling down big incomes to the overt detriment of overly qualified Bahamians. Mitchell is not talking about this disparity in any way, shape or form. Why? They want us to be domestic workers but not real professionals?
Do you know that one is able to count, literally, the number of Bahamian insurance adjusters 40 years after independence on one hand? Do you know that the average hotel mid-manager is unable to authorize lunch for you or I without the cost thereof being deducted from his or her salary?
We have tens of thousands of individuals who would have been born in this nation after 1973. We have allowed and permitted this proliferation due to a lack of political willpower and a do not care attitude.
The chickens have now come home to roost and it is not a cosmetic or a pretty sight. What are we to do and how will we do what we know we, collectively, must do? These chickens, if that is what they are, are on strong doses of steroids.
An amnesty period must be declared so as to allow all who may qualify to come forward and register. They must be allowed and permitted to apply for regularization, by whatever name you may wish to label it, and get proper documentation. If you were born here, let us do the humane and Christian thing without xenophobia and loose talk.
Not only would we bring into the mainstream economy and society tens of thousands of "Bahamians", but we would eliminate a subculture and underground economy which are sapping the national productivity of The Bahamas big time.
Those who chose not to embrace the amnesty and to come forward should be rounded up, processed and deported at the earliest opportunity to the land of which they would seek to claim citizenship.
Our politicians are joking and playing possum. I lump Kenred Dorsett in this ignoble crew. I could care less about his cute talk about what landlords are doing and might do. He and his administration, which, generally, I support, are seeking to pass the proverbial buck. The shantytowns must be addressed and addressed now.
If I may digress, a large number of residents in Elizabeth have contacted me to complain about the representation, or lack thereof, being provided by Ryan Pinder, the highly touted minister of financial services.
They say that they cannot find him. I have a dedicated list of those people and the minister would do well to contact me before he is unseated in 2017.
This time around, however, that will not cut it. Either they stand and deliver or we, the people, will roll them out come the next general election.
To God then, in all things, be the glory.
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