The Bahamas Prime Minister, Philip Davis addresses The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States - CELAC on the growing challenges which threaten the safety, security and undermine the pursuit for economic dignity in the region

The economic and security challenges we face are great, and we welcome CELAC’s initiatives to strengthen cooperation in facing them.  Collaboration makes us stronger, and leads to faster and more durable solutions

Buenos Aires, Argentina - January 24, 2023 - Colleagues: Over the past several years, the Covid-19 pandemic compounded the complex problems we already faced, including climate change, economic inequality, and increasing threats to democratic values and human rights. 

These growing challenges threaten our safety and security and undermine our pursuit for economic dignity. 

Every one of our citizens deserves the right to experience the joys of family life, to do meaningful work, and to live lives full of purpose.

When we gather in regional meetings like this one, we must make sure that our debates and agreements concerning infrastructure and institutions always prioritize results that make a difference at the level of individual families.  People must come first.  And until doors of opportunity are open for all, we cannot rest. 

Climate Change 

Colleagues: Rising sea levels pose an existential threat to my country.  In 2019, a Category 5 storm devastated two of our main islands. 

We are not and have never been the polluters, yet we suffer from the greatest vulnerabilities caused by carbon emissions. 

Our debt burden remains high, in significant part due to these climate risks, including the need to regularly rebuild homes, businesses and infrastructure after devasting hurricanes.  Our cost of borrowing also prices in the risk of future hurricanes; we are already paying a high price for the intensifying weather patterns of tomorrow.

We urgently need the developed countries to honour their commitments to compensate for the Loss and Damage associated with climate change.  And in order to build resiliency, we urgently need finance and access to technology. 

Each of our countries must keep the pledges we’ve made, in this and other settings, to reduce our own emissions.  We have seen glimpses of a future we cannot survive; we must change course, or perish. It is that simple. 

Regional Peace and Security

Colleagues: Democracy cannot be taken for granted; it is a commitment that must be continually renewed.  Just over two weeks ago, a violent mob stormed government buildings in Brazil in an effort to overturn the outcome of free and fair elections. 

I reiterate the solidarity of The Bahamas, and CARICOM, with President Lula de Silva and the Government of Brazil, and our unwavering commitment to democracy and rule of law. 

The scenes in Brasilia uncomfortably echoed those just a few years ago in Washington, DC.  Political violence, in all its forms, must be condemned anywhere in the Americas. 

Haiti 

Colleagues: The crisis in Haiti is getting worse.  The tragic situation there continues to pose a substantial threat not only to Haitians, but also to The Bahamas and neighbouring countries, all of whom are experiencing a significant increase in irregular and often dangerous migration. 

With the support and leadership of Haiti, collectively, we can, through CELAC and other regional organizations, help Haitians build a path out of crisis.

We commend Haitian-led efforts to hold elections before the end of 2023, to arrest the threat to public security posed by violent gangs, to relieve hunger and malnutrition, and to alleviate the political crisis. 

Enhanced regional partnership can especially help to scale up capacity-building for the local police, and tackle trafficking, particularly in people, contraband and guns. 

These Haiti-led solutions provide promising alternatives to the usual inclination to carry out activities in Haiti without Haitian direction, and the preference for investing in the strengthening of the NGOs in Haiti, as opposed strengthening her public institutions. 

Extra-Regional Partnerships 

In terms of the wider region, the economic and security challenges we face are great, and we welcome CELAC’s initiatives to strengthen cooperation in facing them.  Collaboration makes us stronger, and leads to faster and more durable solutions.

International Obstacles to National Development 

And even while we pursue national development, other international partners pursue policies which harm our progress.  The Bahamas will continue to voice its displeasure with the discriminatory practice of the blacklisting of countries.  I invite you to join us. 

We will also continue to advocate against the unfair use of GDP per capita to determine how or if developing countries, in vulnerable developing regions, qualify for reasonable concessionary financing or grants.

The use of the Multi-Vulnerability Index in assessing eligibility for help, rather than the blunt, outdated measurement of GDP per capita is a fairer measurement.  I invite you to join us in advocating for mutual agreement of alternative eligibility criteria for international financing and Overseas Development Assistance.

Summit Declaration 

Colleagues: Dialogue is important; collaborative solutions cannot be built without it.  But talk is not sufficient.  The work we do here must translate into tangible benefits for our citizens.  Let us share a determination to make each meeting, and each conversation, a stepping stone to real progress for people.

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ENDGAME: WHAT’S THE COVID 19 EXIT STRATEGY?

By Professor Gilbert Morris

 

Covid 19’ patterning follows the Bubonic Plague of 1347. Therefore, I reject the notion that Covid 19 will “Peter out”. 

If the vaccinated can still be infected and transmit, mutations are likely and petering out is a hope rather than a scientific extrapolation. 

This means several things: 

1. These vaccines ought never to be compared to previous vaccines - like Polio for instance - those vaccines ended infection and transmission. 

And continued infection and transmission is the anomalous problem of the Covid 19 vaccine regime. 

2. What is missing that is obvious from the facts, is if the vaccinated can become infected and transmit, logically, there will never be “herd immunity”. 

The benefits of being vaccinated are two: 

1. It makes it less likely that a vaccinated person will be sick (within a statistically dense frame) 

2. Therefore, hospitalisation is less likely; as the data shows, only a statically significant, but generally insignificant number of an aggregate of vaccinated persons are hospitalised post-vaccinated infections. 

It is a lively nonsense, oft repeated, that unvaccinated persons pose a threat…because both vaccinated and unvaccinated persons pose the same threat if both can be infected and transmit; without further evidence of any distinctions in the relative infection patterns. 

What is clear is that vaccination is only one tool and it’s foolhardy to assert that with vaccinations, economies can “return to normal”: again it’s perfidious nonsense since infections and spread are still possible. 

The solution is the method which the 7 best performing countries deployed - all of which propose but none of which mandates vaccination: 

1. The 7 best performing nations in the pandemic succeed by mass, spot and randomised testing. 

Why?

1. To gain epistemological coverage of their entire countries: Multimodal testing (eDiagnostics, Bluetooth Thermometers, eTesting and home testing generate DATA!

2. That data then characterises general and interstitial demographics; discrete insular dynamic demographics within a general demographic pool. 

3. That produces granular DATA!

NEXT: 

1. Bluetooth contact tracing links the patterns and the multimodal tests, discovering alignments and positing options for coordination 

2. This produces a national digital “fever map”!

The 7 best performing nations in the pandemic all erected this mechanism, which I lectured about in the SpaceNex Global  ROUNDTABLE Lectures on “The History of Economic Consequences of Pandemics”.

NEXT:

1. Once the ‘fever maps’ are functional, the data produces deep patterns that are at first descriptive; then the data becomes diagnosticative; then the link between data-patterns and policy outcomes error-corrects toward self-evidence…and becomes prognosticative. 

This equilibrium is called generally a “proportionality constant”.

2. At this stage, you can see the effects of social protocols (mask wearing, hand sanitation, social fumigation) immediately.

This multimodal platform is necessary because vaccination and even walk-in testing are arithmetical, but the disease - particularly accounting for superspreaders - is infecting exponentially. 

So its actually counterproductive to depend on vaccinations or walk-in tests alone. One needs dynamic readable datasets. If a country hasn’t done this and merely harps on vaccinations, it will fail!

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Covid 19 will be with us forever

COVID 19 HAS EVOLVED AND NOW CHILDREN ARE DYING IN ITALY!

There are new spikes in cases with children!

COVID 19 WILL BE WITH US FOREVER!

“A pandemic is not about ideas or even medicine. Speculative approaches won’t do: Every habit of hubris, decision-stupidity or presumption ends in tragedy.

The best national responses have been Taiwan, New Zealand, Senegal, South Korea, Iceland, Japan, Dubai, Estonia and Singapore. Their approaches confirmed the need for mathematical skills, a game theoretical sensibility and empathy.

A pandemic is about interstitial demographics; dynamics of cascading, data gathering and analytics; exponentiality statistics and avoiding utilitarian triage.

Bubonic plague rose in 1347. We know now it was just the Justinian Plague of the 5th century AD. It killed 50% of known civilisation, wrecked the feudal system and invented the “Job” (yes I mean employment.  So many people died, peasants were able to bargain for compensation).

The pestilence terrorised Europe for 200 years, evolving into the “Black Death”.

There were 1000 Bubonic Plague cases in the 20th century - that we know of - nearly 700 years later. There were 3 Bubonic deaths in the US in 2019!

Covid 19 will be with us forever.” -

Professor Gilbert Morris on ZNS TV Bahamas

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