Flipping Grand Bahama

The following is the speech given by the Prime Minister Perry Christie to open the annual Grand Bahama Business Outlook on Thursday March 5, 2015: Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to have been invited to Grand Bahama to participate with Joan Albury and her team at Counsellors, together with a cross-section of the business community in another Grand Bahama Business Outlook. Despite the economic challenges of Grand Bahama, including those caused by natural disasters, protracted adverse international and local economic conditions , and lack of adequate promotional and planning initiatives, Grand Bahama continues to demonstrate its resilience, its staying power and its optimism about the future. And for good reason too! More than any other island in our archipelagic nation, Grand Bahama has almost limitless economic development potential because of its unique combination of e infrastructure, human resources and strategic geographical proximity to the North American mainland. My Go...

Looking at my island I feel betrayed promises and promises of a better day a brighter day, a day of joy Has your eyes glassed over and are you longing to finally give up the ghost? Cant you be persuaded to fight just once more  for you and your family After watching Ghandi this past weekend I was inspired to ask if the rantings of one optimist makes a difference on the island? In a country of 300 plus million at that time peacefully Ghandi implored this people to put down their weapons to think and to liberate the country and then to stop civil war. I wish my people would put down the political weapons that keep us ignorant. We need to fight for the employment we deserve. To make the jobs and work them. To bring the hope and drive back to Freeport. To really mean it when we say the "good ole days are coming back" and show it by working on making it so. As for the politicians, in the words of Ghandi, " What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, an...

Following the recent Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce Installation I had to ask for the new presidents (Kevin Seymour's) speech just to share here. It is a speech of hope and a longing for change. Out of respect for the entire body of work, I hereby present the speech in its entirety. “THE PATIENT” ANALOGY I begin my presentation by asking you to indulge me for a few minutes while I share with you a highly improbable, fictional scenario involving a hospital patient: A patient arrives at the emergency room of the hospital seeking urgent medical attention for his condition. As usual, the hospital’s emergency room is crowded and therefore after registering, the patient has no choice, but to take a seat in the waiting area just outside the emergency room. The attending physician and his team are given the patient’s file for review. They note that not long ago, the patient use to be a model of health, strong, muscular and attractive. However, due to certain destructiv...

Flipping Grand Bahama would be remiss if we did nothing to member one of the founding investors in the creation of Freeport .. Sir Jack Hayward. For years this author has been trying to get that all exclusive chat with him but had to be satisfied with his recount of the old days when he spoke at a Chamber meeting last year. It was a joy to film that despite the fact that my tripod was no where to be found that day.  Sir Jack was not just interested in the development of Freeport/Lucaya, he had certain aspects he was particularly fond of. One being theatre and he along with others are responsible for the formation of the Freeport Players Guild and the Regency Theatre. Thanks from Freeport Friends and Chris Child The tribute to Sir Jack from Bahamasinfo.com said, "it is without a doubt that the Grand Bahama community and the world at large have lost a true thespian. "Sir Jack Hayward was an iconic figure for live theatre in Grand Bahama.  ...

This week in Grand Bahama we saw the opening of a new insurance company for which the Prime Minister and others were present. Of note the Prime Minister Perry Christie said that it is important for officials to be positive about everything in their country as he chided the Deputy Leader of the Opposition Free National Movement Peter Turnquest who said the people of Grand Bahama needed to know about the state of this island with the upcoming changes set for the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. Mr. Christie stated that he has a few persons already working on the best way to settle the matter of the tax concessions that will be coming to an end as of August 2015 which at present could have some devastating results. He said that the government will have an answer in time to report back to the country that will be in the best interest of all. He noted that he has been criticized for being so optimistic in his mid year budget speech recently, but he said he has to be optimistic about the f...

Some time ago I learned that the true indicators of a turn around and stability of economy include the state of real estate and construction. In Grand Bahama this indicator has told many a tale of building and recession and building and recession. At present along with most of the rest of the world the situation is sluggish but according to what is going on in the real estate business there is a bit of movement. The movement is not huge nor is it with new built homes. Most of it has been with the repossessed homes in this buyers market. This means persons are able to purchase homes at quite a reduced rate. What I have found though is that a lot of people to cut out the bank and try to get homes that are available on rent to own terms. This is a great idea if they could find these homes but past stories have made this option rather slim to nil. But more persons are again owning homes or struggling with the banks to get their own homes back on the payment tracks. There are mo...

Many say the trend of Grand Bahama is to go up and down... boom and bust then repeat. Some have only seen a steady decline but a lot feel that there is recovery always just beyond the next bend in the road. As the year began there have been predictions on what this year would be like ... what the future holds. Much optimism follows. Sweet Affairs, a confectionary business that opened about two years ago and was closed last year was recently bought out by another investor... local... and is back in business on Queens Highway. A water company has moved up and out and is on Queen's Highway. Owner of Coral Springs Water Company Danny Crawford took over the old Coopers Laboratories across from Dolly Madison and recently held an official opening. Restaurants like blinkers in neon signs have been opening and closing ... many question the thoughts and business sense that goes into them but "nothing beat failure than to try". On a rather sad note more recently one of...