WHAT’s WRONG WITH PUBLIC HEALTH NARRATIVE

MODERNA’s ANNOUNCEMENT THAT ITS VACCINE IS “94% EFFECTIVE” IS WHAT’s WRONG WITH PUBLIC HEALTH NARRATIVE...!

By Gilbert Morris:

In my recent SPACENEX Global ROUNDTABLE Lectures, I paraphrased Dr Martin Luther King Jr. saying: “CoViD-19 infections anywhere is a threat of CoViD-19 out breaks everywhere”.

Any government official or policy expert engaged in hoarding treatments or implementing partial solutions, is a champion of idiocy. That’s because, IF (AND ONLY IFF) vaccines are the strategy, THEN that requires global herd immunity.

This has set into force a race for market share, which is too little discussed - not to mention that the not only undemocratic but ANTI-democratic measures we have seen emerge in Britain, Canada the US and Israel; all western democracies; whilst non-Christian non-western nations have pursued rational policies based upon transparency and citizen participation.

Given the growing loss of transparency, the growing conspiracy theories, the reported fascistic despotic behaviours of some pharmaceutical companies, information and data about vaccines should be issued by independent bodies, not the pharmacy companies themselves.

You may say that the CDC is such a body. But that’s lunacy: they have shown themselves under the Trump administration to be willing handmaidens to convenient goat-barking, prepared to gong along with the former President’s donkeyfication of science to save their jobs rather than act to fulfil their calling.

Moderna cannot simply announce its vaccines “increased efficacy” in this environment...without confirmation from an independent source; which is the essence of the scientific process. The idea that pharmaceutical corporations - who are the most rapacious and corrupt corporate entities - following banks and before the mafia - lack the credibility, merely to announce such claims, to be seconded by state American agencies, which have already compromised themselves, resulting in hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths.

To gain perspective on this scandal, take a gander at the European/UK conflagration over the AstraZeneca vaccine. It’s was banned in at least 5 nations, owing to statistically nebulous findings of severe clotting; a prospect which could have been captured through pre-screening.

It was an example of risking public health over a spectacle of political shaming, with citizen’s lives hanging in the balance, attenuated to a vaccine regime authorised only for emergency deployment; a means - most people don’t seem to understand - of limiting the liability of pharmaceutical giants.

It would seem to me, that less arrogance and greater caution ought to have been exercises in every particular in deploying these vaccines, given the rushed circumstances of their issuance.

The conspiracy crazies will always be with us, but their lunacy is exacerbated by idiot governments and institutions insulting fearful citizens, who are watching the European charade referred to above, the flagrant stupidity of some pharmaceutical companies, the emergency use protocol that’s evolving towards a mandatory rule and the increasingly anti-democratic measures premised in vaccination.

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Caribbean governments must grasp the logic of pandemics

CoViD-19: A THIRD WAVE FORMING...!

By Gilbert Morris:

Once again, despite President BIDEN’s heroic efforts:

1. Variant strains of Covid 19

2. Refusals of vaccinations by at least 30% of Americans who also refuse to comply with social measures

3. The overall wicked nature of pandemics themselves

MEANS,

Cases are rising in more than 40 states of the United States. It is for this reason I warned in March 2020, the Caribbean governments must grasp the logic of pandemics: there is no point - as was done last year and being done now - in celebrating “bookings”.

That’s “idiot’s gold”!

Unless and until there is either a comprehensive national testing or (if vaccines are the policy) there is 100% vaccine coverage, any policy or attempt to facilitate tourism will end in disaster; a point proven twice in the Bahamas last year and underway in Jamaica now.

It’s either 100% vaccines or a robust testing regime in which we have at least 1.6 million tests; which I believe would discover over 30% antibodies.

If we are foolish in this moment - the natural inflection point of a pandemic - considering the likelihood that the variant strains of Covid 19 are ALREADY in these islands - given the lack of protocols (yachts are ring and guests partying together nightly - nightclubs filled with Bahamians disobeying the protocols etc - lack of aggregate analytics or technology measuring tools - chances are that we are in for a calamity.

I argued in January 2021, that cases would soon rise again. I am satisfied that sadly, that was and is now correct!

Again, IF and IFF, vaccines are the policy, then its worth it to procure the Johnson and Johnson single jab (subject to our lack of knowledge about medium and long term effects or immunity coverage) to incentivise persons to take the vaccine by paying them $300 each.

Nonsense mumbles and routine excuse-makers will say other nations have increased numbers too: true. But Usain Bolt lost races and your slow uncle lost races...but they aren’t the same!

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WHY HAS AFRICA FARED SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE REST OF THE WORLD WITH COVID-19?

 AFRICA IS BEST:

MY BROTHER Ntong Victor Sunday HAS PUT ME TO THE QUESTION: WHY HAS AFRICA FARED SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE REST OF THAT WORLD WITH COVID 19?

By:

Gilbert Morris

The African region is the best performing region in the pandemic. Africa’s total deaths are less than 10% of the United State’s daily deaths.

But what are the structural reasons for Africa’s superb performance?

1. SWIFT ACTION: In February 2020, a number of African nations - like Lesotho - shut down public institutions immediately, whilst implementing social protocols. Students of strategy should not see this as merely a decision to act quickly. Instead, it must also be seen as a tactical understanding of the implications of low facilities capacity and financial resources. Understanding these facts about their status, led African governments to act to prevent even the “best case scenarios”.

2. YOUNG POPULATION - I have written that the future belongs to Africa because its the youngest of all regions of the world. It turns out that this is also crucial for Covid 19 infections, since (at least initially), Covid 19 attacked the elderly disproportionately to younger persons. Africa has an added benefit: it does not “warehouse” its elderly. Africa and Japan - followed by the Caribbean - are the zones in which the elderly enjoy a near sacred deference; though in the Caribbean, we are beginning to copy American and European models of parking the elderly in ‘death barns’.

3. POPULATION DISTRIBUTION - Most African nations are arranged and operate on the “city-village” dynamic. As such, the elderly tend to live in the village, whilst younger people crowd to cities. This means the most vulnerable demographic were largely outside the hotspots for Covid 19 infections.

4. COMMUNITY vs. COMMERCIAL HEALTHCARE: Africa - for the most part - does not have large commercial healthcare systems, as in the US and Europe. It turns out that these commercial systems are not very flexible and could not react swiftly to the onslaught of the virus spread. They were limited in capacity, manpower and resources. In Africa, 90% of healthcare is delivered by small clusters of community clinics and a large volunteer sector. This produces a complex local information ecology, but one which can metabolise the best in formation quickly and adjust immediately at the community prevention and treatment levels.

5. EXPERTISE: Africa has a growing number of experienced medical personnel, (like Dr. Denis Mukwege, Dr. Stella Immanuel and beloved Dr. Evan Atar Adaha), who worked (suffered) through AIDS, Ebola, West Nile, Malaria, Dengue and a host of other maladies. Those physicians - as in Senegal - are amongst the most seasoned medical professionals in the world. In fact, they face a conundrum: come together to collect those skills and knowledge or remain in their communities where they are most effective. What is more important, they must not try to adopt Western Institutional models, which failed miserably in this pandemic. Even in countries like Taiwan, Japan, South Korea or New Zealand, which have the best performance records outside of Africa, those nations followed the same decentralised script as African nations.

6. LOCAL KNOWLEDGES: My favourite aspect of the Africa pandemic story is the local knowledge. In Liberia in 2013-15 International Organisations found themselves not only defeated, but found their medical professionals dying in droves in Liberia in the heat of the Ebola outbreak, which spread to Guinea and Sierra Leone. THEN CAME THE GRANDMOTHERS: quietly, they put the men and boys outdoors on cots under trees and in tents, sanitised the entire homesteads, open the little hovels in which people lived to fresh air, and made everyone stay off the streets, such as they were and cooked soups. This broke the spread to nearly nil. (I THOUGHT THESE WARRIOR GRANNIES DESERVED THE NOBEL PRIZE FOR 2014 and 2015, but they are forever in my heart). This exhibition of local knowledge particularly in places like Monrovia and Bensonville, Liberia (one of my favourites), demonstrated a high degree of “social trust”, the same social trust exhibited in Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and South Korea for their nationals governments.

7. CLIMATE: It is now well-established that SAR-CoV2 - the Coronavirus that caused the pandemic Covid 19 retreats in heat and expands in cooler temperatures. It is also interesting to note that in larger segments of Africa, Covid 19 emerged near the end of their Summer and into the Fall. As such, by time as Winter fell, in South Africa for example, three months ago - social practices had hardened already and populations had been well-schooled in the proper protocols, which they followed reinforced by local systems.

These are the major reasons for the low count in Africa of both infections and deaths compared to the rest of the world. I do not doubt there are anomalies in record keeping, categorisation and other statistical integral systems. However, its been 11 months and likely those anomalies would have collapsed by now. I am concerned about the new strains in Britain and South Africa - an unusual distribution pattern - because a virulent strain that replicates the ‘superspreader’ would be deadly, not only in Africa, but worldwide.

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The Bahamas National Trust (BNT) Says No to Oil Drilling in The Bahamas

Bahamians are clearly opposed to oil drilling in the Bahama Islands - and are not willing to accept the risks associated with an oil industry in The Bahamas

BNT Says No to Oil Drilling And Chooses Our Oceans

Since the release of its last statement on proposed oil exploration in The Bahamas, The Bahamas National Trust (BNT) has closely followed the national and international discussion on this issue. A growing number of Bahamians are clearly opposed to and not willing to accept the risks associated with an oil industry in The Bahamas. The prevailing view is there is simply too much at stake.

As a staunch defender of the Bahamian environment, the BNT is categorically opposed to oil exploration in The Bahamas. The BNT stands with every Bahamian speaking out against proposed oil exploration in our ocean nation.

Bahamian communities rely on healthy ocean ecosystems to support jobs in fishing, recreation, and tourism. The oil industry's track record in often failing to protect the environment effectively makes such developments too big a risk to be allowed in our fragile ocean nation.

An oil spill can irreversibly damage our oceans, threaten our tourism industry, and our very way of life. The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon disaster proves that no amount of reward from oil drilling is worth the risks of a potential disaster.

The proposed initial well by BPC is incredibly close to the Cay Sal Bank, one of the most ecologically productive and economically important marine systems in the country.

The Cay Sal Bank Marine Protected Area (MPA) was declared a protected area by the Bahamas Government in September 2015. The Cay Sal MPA protects thriving marine life inclusive of commercially important species, most notably one of the last remaining viable populations of the queen conch. This large MPA also protects crucial marine mammal habitats, coral reefs, seagrass meadows and open ocean ecosystems.

Eric Carey, Executive Director, Bahamas National Trust: “The importance of the Cay Sal Bank for biodiversity and the fishing industry in The Bahamas cannot be overstated. Because of its critical importance, any pollution of the area would be devastating for The Bahamas, our fishing industry, and the country’s food security.”

Tourism is the top economic driver of The Bahamas. We risk turning our coastal tourist destination into an oil nation. The nation’s tourism industry relies on clean, swimmable waters and healthy ocean ecosystems to thrive. Oil drilling and exploration threaten clean coastal economies.

Furthermore, The Bahamas is known to be one of the most vulnerable nations on the planet to the impending impacts of climate change, which is now recognized as an existential threat to The Bahamas. The country, our people, and our way of life could disappear if we are not successful as a global community in reversing the factors of a changing climate.

The Cay Sal Bank Marine Protected Area (MPA) was declared a protected area by the Bahamas Government in September 2015. The Cay Sal MPA protects thriving marine life inclusive of commercially important species, most notably one of the last remaining viable populations of the queen conch. This large MPA also protects crucial marine mammal habitats, coral reefs, seagrass meadows, and open ocean ecosystems.

The country would be sending a careless signal of hypocrisy to the world. The benefits of fossil fuels are finite and insignificant compared to the cost of global climate change. We should not compound the damage of increased storm activity and sea levels due to global climate change with the risks associated with oil exploration. Drilling for oil would require us to ignore the damage of Hurricane Dorian and other storms. We would be overlooking the harm done to Grand Bahama in the Equinor spill. We would be turning a blind eye to obvious risks to our own well-being.

The Bahamas has stood in the presence of the United Nations, demanding urgent action to combat climate change. We cannot, therefore, cry out to the world that our country is being severely threatened by climate change, and still allow the exploration for fossils fuels, one of the main drivers of climate change on the planet.

To learn more about the role that the BNT plays to manage terrestrial and marine national parks, protect species that inhabit them, and inform environmental policy, please visit its website: www.bnt.bs and follow/subscribe to various social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

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NO MORE CORONA LOCKDOWN IN THE BAHAMAS

PLEASE, NO MORE LOCKDOWNS: THIS IS NOT SUSTAINABLE!

By Professor Gilbert Morris:

https://www.facebook.com/1048690701/posts/10220979749137299/

We have a bad habit in this region - which is a bad habit in politics in general - in that we constantly make excuses for failure. 

For instance, we’ll make poor decisions in the face of obvious unheeded advice, with catastrophic consequences, then we’ll say “But the Coronavirus is nothing like has ever been experienced”, as if that could explain all the previous failures and habits of failure that led to our condition before Coronavirus. 

As a friend of mine likes to remind me: We are nearly $9 billion dollars in debt...but we can’t point to a single thing that advances this nation on which $9 billion dollars has been spent. We don’t have either excellent infrastructure or efficient institutions. The majority of Bahamians live in misery and tens of thousands of Bahamians now stand or sit in atrocious daily lines for food, when a simple technology used in children’s toys or a basic APP, could eliminate those sickening, disgraceful, dehumanising lines.

I saw the sign below on future Governor General Ca Newry’s page yesterday. 

It reflects the utter confusion that has gripped the Bahamian people, because we are failing in our attempts to deal with the pandemic in a humane manner. But what is really happening is our hideous decision-making methods, poor management systems and our reckless disregard for human misery are on full display. These are the traits of a plantation system; which we have failed - over many administrations - to reform and which now infects our psychology of political power.

Let there be no doubt: Covid 19 is treacherous. But DORIAN was also treacherous. Selling Batelco for nothing was treacherous. Failing to account for the 7.5% of the Port Authority is treacherous. The millions that went missing at Road Traffic was treacherous. The failure to account for who holds Crown Land or mining leases and who gets paid is treacherous. The absence of an electronic land registry is treacherous. Defending “D” grades is treacherous. Engaging OBAN, the Post Office deal, the Freeport hotel deal that can’t get done, the Lighthouse Point deal are all a continuing tale of treachery: the fact that Bahamians cannot live their best lives in the Bahamas is the vilest of all treacheries. 

Our problem is not Covid 19. Our problem is a retrograde demented concept of power, a system that favours only the advice of lackeys, all extended from political tribalism!

For instance, our failure at DORIAN aftermath was not about how vicious DORIAN was. Its about the failure to have learned from all the previous hurricanes of the last 100 years and to have built our social economic and political systems around that knowledge and experience to foster resilience and induce human comfort. 

I wrote on January 20th 2020 - in these pages - in letters, in proposals and expressed in Zoom calls the following: 

a. Covid 19 is not going away. Bubonic Plague arose in 1347. Killed 50% of the known world. Spent 300 years popping up killing tens of thousands and there were 10,000 cases in the 20th century and China closed down an entire village last week for a plague that arose nearly 670 years ago!

b. I wrote the US will not regain an appreciable normalcy until Summer of 2021, if then. Do you mind of I say I was right? Consider: 27 states are experiencing increased infections; 1000 people died each day for the last 9 days; there is no federal programme; nearly 60 million Americans are out of work; the wealth gap has exploded, and its unlikely Americans can come out of this crisis with any sort of a middle class; There are BLM protests; Mr Trump is destroying the Post Office to rig the elections, which means more conflict, more protests; even if Biden lives long enough to win, he won’t take office until January 20th, 2021, then it will take him 30 days to shut down the entire country for 30 days; then another 3 months - tax and stimulus fights - to reopen the US economy by Summer 2021.

c. What have I said about this consistently? IT MEANS NO TOURISTS, which means NO US DOLLARS; which means given our debt is nearly 100% of GDP, we’re experiencing over 50% unemployment, our Reserves (whilst over $2 billion reportedly) is falling, our deficit is approaching $1 billion, our credit rating is junk bond status and we’ve lost over 80% of national income...THIS MEANS our crisis in the Bahamas is structural, systemic and existential!

d. I designed and argued for the Bahamas to “act as if the US ceased to exist” and to lead by being FIRST IN THE WORLD in establishing COVID (Free) TRUST ZONES (CTZ). (Singapore, Dubai and a cluster of Eastern Caribbean states are now implementing it together with a major regional hotelier). Our advantage in the Bahamas over most of the world is that we are an archipelago, our tourists derive meanly from one source country, we have (as Leon R. Williams teaches us) 53 airports and we own our own airline. We should have been testing travel methods between our islands since February 2020, and by now become sufficiently expert to LEAD THE WORLD!

e. I advised that if we failed to have national testing by February 20th 2020, testing becomes irrelevant, because testing is arithmetical but the infections are exponential. Therefore we must switch to detection, monitoring and risk management through the use of coordinated technology platforms that include Bluetooth contact-tracing and eDiagnostic Surveys. I proposed that we remove the elderly and those with preexisting conditions to hotels for the next 6 months. Had we done so, the staff that would service those properties would have been experts in Covid 19 Compliant Hospitality by now with 7 months of tested experience. 

WHATEVER YOU THINK OF THIS CURRENT ADMINISTRATION, WE NEED THEM TO SUCCEED:

They are NOT, as this sign below shows....but they can.

1. In January -on this page - I stated: “Borrow Big and Borrow Now”. These funds would have been to upgrade power and broadband infrastructure and to develop a care-model for at risk Bahamians. It would have required, removing the at risk population to hotels or confirm arrangements for their loving-separation under self-quarantine conditions. (This would require an electronic registration platform) 

2. Provide a food distribution system for EVERY LIVING SOUL in the Bahamas that needs it (This requires a basic online booking system. And it requires a bold fund raising/donations approach (of between $300 million to $500 million) for the next 9 months; which was communicated to our own masterful Mr. Ken Kerr.

3. Simultaneously, launch Covid 19 (Free) Trust Zones (CTZ) in Exuma, Eleuthera, Paradise Island and other hotel properties that can be made Covid 19 compliant “all inclusives”! (This would require an exclusive national eBooking system to ensure settlement of US dollars in the Bahamas).

4. Use Bahamasair, and bring other qualified domestic airline companies under Bahamasair, establishing a fleet of scheduled charters, eliminating our dependence on commercial airlines...to ensure a vertically integrated system. (Again, an eBooking platform)

5. We have launched/proposed the Study-visa programme. I have explained: I wrote that concept into the draft Turks and Caicos Immigration Ordinance in 2007. It was not followed because Turks and Caicos hotel pricing was not aligned. Barbados launched a variation of it. I wrote that at $3,000 per year, its too cheap, requires too many students (which is a Covid 19 risk) and it does not even dent the loss of national income. To be fair, the programme could help AirBNB operations and if 1000 Bahamians earn $1000 US dollars per month, that’s not a bad thing. ($12 million per annum). But it is NOT what we should spend time about at the highest levels. That could be designed and managed by UOB students. (I don’t address here the power and crime issues). (But what is need is an eResgistration system that aggregates the available spaces for rent, pricing to prevent gouging and compliance).

6. As I also proposed in February 2020, forget laptops and eLearning. Use ZNS and a channel from Cable Bahamas to run an education curricula on cable for 4 hours daily, with round-table discussions by scholars and thinkers for Bahamian students (I’ll release the curricular I proposed in another post), and incentivise this approach with cash prize essay completions at all grade levels based on the education channel content. (This requires two cable channels and 12 Bahamian historians, technologists, scientists, economists and intellectuals). 

Two further points: 

I am not recommending we stick to tourism. But in a crisis, you go with what infrastructure and skill-sets are available and maximise them.

2. This approach is really applicable to the entire Caribbean with variations and would be more powerful of all Caribbean governments bundled together  and drove these policy options. 

LET’s REMEMBER: we don’t succeed in a crisis by controlling our populations, locking them down or creating committees: We succeed by engaging the entire country around an inspiring national purpose that unleashes innovation!

The Colonial Mentality Throughout the Caribbean Diaspora - has Created a System of Political Clientelism

Emancipated Day!  "But today we are Mentally and Economically - Slaves"

The colonial mentality throughout the Caribbean diaspora, has created a system of political clientelism.  In other words,  an “all for me baby”syndrome

By Dr Kevin Alcena

Nassau, The Bahamas
  

Happy Emancipation Day to all Africans in the Caribbean — It is indeed a culturally mixed dichotomy  in regards to freedom.  The colonial mentality throughout the Caribbean diaspora, has created a system of political clientelism.  In other words,  an “all for me baby”syndrome.

When we look around, all we see is failure, from Haiti, Jamaican, Trinidad, Guyana, The Bahamas and the list goes on.  We inherited a system after the emancipation, called democracy by default, that is orchestrated and manipulated by an elite black class who has a colonial mentality that is worse than the slave masters.

We have somehow lost the social contract to the common man and woman.  A good example- a number of young Bahamian men trying to make an honest living selling guinep and coconuts being arrested by police.  Since when did you need a license to sell guinep and coconut water?

Are you going to deprive these children of their opportunities?  Most of the children are wearing masks but the state sees fit to harass them, and this is what we call, “the people’s time”?

Not so long ago the Prime Minister of the Bahamas Hubert Alexander Ingram, used to walk to school barefoot.  And, if I’m correct, he used to shine shoes—did he have a license to be a shoe shine boy?

Civil society in this country is laughable, they have no clear understanding in terms of our history and where we’re going.  Our national debt—I don’t even know if it’s even manageable at this point.

And whilst we are experiencing an increase in the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of Bahamians are going to bed very hungry, unable to find jobs, can’t pay their light bills, or even their landlords.

There is no thinking system, whilst the elite benefit.  What we have inherited on this incredible Emancipation Day is a form of economic and mental slavery.

There’s a form of application for the common man and woman that is unprecedented at this time.  There is no care of the church to the politicians.

I must compliment one man who is doing a remarkable job in feeding thousands of Bahamian people, Philip Smith and other individuals who are taking matters into their own hands.

What is remarkable about this country is that we are small; it is easy to fix our problems.  Every Bahamian should be tested for Covid-19 so we can nip this in the bud.

We don’t have millions of people.  Why is not every Bahamian being tested?

We have the data to deal with this crisis.  Emancipation means responsibility and our government has abdicated their responsibility.

They are governed by ego and emasculation “I’m in charge, I am the boss”.  This is a very symbolic emancipation, we need the Marcus Garvey’s, the Sir Lynden’s we need the Michael Manly’s to count the chains that hold us, and to remind us that it was only yesterday that our great grandparents were slaves.

Happy Emancipation Day Bahamas.

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MOODY’s DOWNGRADE OF BAHAMAS SETS A MOOD!

By Professor Gilbert Morris

I have condemned the ratings agencies as corrupt and unfair:

I won’t change tune now!

The rating agencies aided in the near destruction of the global financial system in 2008; and shew themselves interested in money rather than clear crisp accurate analysis of the credit statuses for which they claimed expertise.

I have argued that we should rate ourselves according to the same mathematical and statistical benchmarks, determining for ourselves our financial and economic health and our prospects.

Alas, in the Caribbean and Africa we have no credibility on this front:

When Moody’s or the S&P gives us a favourable rating, we treat it like its  front-room flowers.

When they call us frowsy, we say we know ourselves better with no evidence.

The fact is our situation is frowsy at the moment and has been so for sometime...that is because:

1. Our governments mistake government’s finances for the economy, and speak of the health of the fiscal state without due regard to the economic realities; particularly the ‘misery index’.

2. We have failed to innovate away from our one-legged plantation economic model, which requires hardly even a pulse to fashion or manage and is susceptible to even mild exogenous shocks, toward 21st century decentralised systems.

3. We seem clueless about the economics of the PEG, and are prioritising  constantly away from the PEG and so away from the more efficient means of feeding the PEG - so the National Reserves - which is the ONLY means to broaden the capacity for economic growth. I emphasise: IT IS THE ONLY MEANS TO BROADEN THE CAPACITY FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH!

4. Our government’s focus has been constantly lusting after an even larger share of GDP through further regressive taxation; despite failing to collect taxes currently on the books!

5. We have failed to innovate toward a system in which investing in and through Bahamians becomes a driver of economic expansion.

6. Our government systems are sclerotic and nations that arose from nothing 20-years AFTER our independence, surpassed us 20 years ago from nothing to world leaders; as we make the same excuses we made 40 years ago.

I am on reactors on January 20th 2020, here in in other spaces Zoom Conference and the like, in urging government to borrow large...because the crisis would extend beyond 2020.

We did not follow that proscription!

At the moment, the Bahamas are at a precipice...and whilst Dorian and Covid 19 have driven economic prospects to some degree, our current situation arises from our own failures to have been proper stewards of the largess of these islands.

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