Monthly Archives: April 2017

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL--(Marketwired - April 13, 2017) - The Bahamas Tourism Offices (BTO) launched the first in a series of ambitious sales missions across Florida designed to reengage the traveling public ahead of the summer and winter seasons.

The mission, aptly renamed the 'Bahamas Product Celebration', kicked off in Miami at the W South Beach on Wednesday night. The celebration culminated with a down home 'party in the backyard'.

"The objective is to coordinate the Bahamas Product Celebrations to bring awareness of new hotel offerings, destination product developments, new air and cruise services from multiple Florida gateways to TIOTB," BTO Area Manager Jennifer Gardiner-Bannister said. "This also provides an opportunity to continue to grow relationships to conduct one-on-one sales and marketing focused meetings."

Throughout the festivities, the 50 travel agents and media in attendance heard from 20 suppliers representing various attractions or properties in The Bahamas. There were also surprise performances by a local Junkanoo group, Sunshine Junkanoo. It was a night to remember and gave invited guests a small taste of what they can expect when visiting The Bahamas.

"While it's about educating the travel community about why it's better in The Bahamas, focusing on our 16 islands," Gardiner-Bannister said. "We also need to push our attractions, our culture -- made up by our music and cuisine -- so we had a Junkanoo rush out. But it's key because we're trying to reestablish and to expand The Bahamas business in the Florida market and the wider United States. But we are focusing specifically on Florida as the lowest hanging fruit. We are trying to grow our numbers."

The travel agents danced as the Junkanoo band performed. For some, it was the first time watching the colorful performance.

"This Bahamas Product Celebration truly showcases the culture, the food, and the people. The Bahamas is a special place," said Nick Jaramillo, owner of TEI Vacations and former President of CTO. "I am here tonight to support The Islands Of The Bahamas. The representatives have supported me for many years."

Juan Rodrigues, Sales Manager, American Airlines Vacations added, "The Bahamas Product Celebrations exposes the Islands Of The Bahamas to the travel agent. It is so important to have the relationships with the industry partners."

The Bahamas Product Celebrations continues tonight at the W Fort Lauderdale Beach. From there, the next presentation will take place on Tuesday at the West-Shore Grand in Tampa. The Bahamas Tourist Office's tour will culminate in Orlando at the Hard Rock Hotel on Wednesday.

The Islands Of The Bahamas have a place in the sun for everyone from Nassau and Paradise Island to Grand Bahama to The Abaco Islands, The Exuma Islands, Harbour Island, Long Island and others. Each island has its own personality and attractions for a variety of vacation styles with some of the world's best scuba diving, fishing, sailing, boating, as well as, shopping and dining. The destination offers an easily accessible tropical getaway and provides convenience for travelers with preclearance through U.S. customs and immigration, and the Bahamian dollar at par with the U.S. dollar. Do everything or do nothing, just remember It's Better in The Bahamas. For more information on travel packages, activities and accommodations, call 1-800-Bahamas or visit http://www.Bahamas.com. Look for The Bahamas on the web on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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Bahamas Tourism Office Launches Ambitious Road Show - Yahoo Finance

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas and other Caribbean nations cannot escape their debt challenges without implementing so-called fiscal rules, an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) study recommending this nation impose spending controls.

An IDB paper on developing fiscal sustainability in small states argued that limiting the Governments recurrent (fixed cost) and total spending, in order to bring the Budget back in line with a target debt-to-GDP ratio, would generate higher consumer welfare in the Bahamas than any other option.

The papers authors, Allan Wright, Kari Granade and Ankie Scott-Joseph, effectively warned that the Bahamas will be unable to effectively tackle its $7 billion national debt burden unless it imposes discipline on successive governments through binding rules.

This study contends that Caribbean countries cannot adequately surmount their fiscal and debt challenges in the absence of binding rules that are geared toward entrenching fiscal discipline, curbing fiscal procyclicality, and improving budget transparency and credibility, the IDB papers authors wrote.

Given the persistence and scale of the fiscal and debt problem in many Caribbean countries, the authors view the urgent adoption of fiscal rules as a critical development priority for the Caribbean.

Improving fiscal governance and strengthening institutions are imperative not only to curb fiscal procyclicality and reduce indebtedness, but also to restore medium-term fiscal sustainability to better support socioeconomic development.

The IDB study said fiscal rules are intended to promote sustainable economic growth, while at the same time limiting government budget deficits and the growth of the national debt.

It added that there were several types of fiscal rules, most involving set debt-to-GDP ratio or balanced Budget targets - both of which, if adhered to, contain the fiscal deficit and national debt.

Other methods identified by the IDB paper included spending rules that limit the Governments total, recurrent and spending, something it said was used to control the size of government.

Finally, revenue rules were used to boost or reduce tax burdens by setting revenue ceilings or rules.

The IDB paper used two yardsticks to measure the impact of these so-called fiscal rules in the Bahamas and other Caribbean state, namely the impact on consumer welfare (change in household consumption) and affect on key economic variables such as employment, investment and GDP.

Expenditure rules, which simulate adjustments in public spending based on deviations from the targeted debt-to-GDP ratio, provide higher consumer welfare in the Bahamas (0.18 difference) relative to discretionary fiscal policy than any other rules, the IDB paper found.

In the Bahamas and Barbados, a revenue rule (which simulate adjustments in revenue based on deviations from the targeted debt-to-GDP ratio) was considered the second-best rule for improving welfare.

When it came to the key economic indicators, the IDB found that so-called revenue rules produced the least volatility for the Bahamas.

The IDB studys conclusions were yesterday seized upon as backing calls, made continuously by the private sector and others over the past three years, for the Bahamas to pass a Fiscal Responsibility Act and other reforms to make the Government more transparent and accountable over its taxation/spending plans.

Robert Myers, a principal with the Organisation for Responsible Governance (ORG), told Tribune Business that he 100 per cent agreed with the IDB authors conclusions.

He added that their findings mirrored calls made by the likes of ORG for Fiscal Responsibility and Freedom of Information Acts, a government ombudsman and a State Services Act to improve the management and efficiency of government.

Mr Myers said the Bahamas lacked a culture of fiscal responsibility and accountability, both within the public sector and the major political parties.

It mimicks what weve been saying, he added of the IDB report. To that I would add the culture in the Government; they dont seem to want to do it. So we have this real culture that is adverse to being fiscally accountable and responsible.

The Christie administration failed to deliver on promises, made in the February 2015 mid-year Budget presentation, to initiate a public consultation on introducing a Fiscal Responsibility Act.

Such an Act would force the Government to be more accountable and transparent in the management of the public finances, and require it to return to Parliament for approval to raise more money if it had to exceed the limits approved in the annual Budget.

Some have argued that fiscal rules, which go further than this by setting targets the Government cannot exceed, would lock or box in the administration such that it would not be able to effectively respond to emergencies, such as Hurricane Matthew.

However, given the Governments inability to control its spending, and concerns expressed by RBCs chief Caribbean economist that it is squandering the regions best VAT, many observers believe there is no choice but to impose discipline on it.

The IDB study noted that the Bahamas gross public debt, as a percentage of GDP, had almost tripled between 2000 and 2015, jumping from 24.5 per cent to 65.7 per cent.

Over the same period, this nations overall fiscal balance had deteriorated from -0.5 per cent of GDP to a 4.4 per cent deficit come 2015.

The study added that many Caribbean countries, as the Bahamas has done with Value-Added Tax (VAT), initiated fiscal consolidation programmes amid acute economic weaknesses to tackle this.

But it added that political and socioeconomic realities thwart large-scale fiscal consolidation in downturns, and pointed to difficulties in aligning revenues with government spending.

The Caribbean has been unable to link development strategies and plans to medium-term fiscal planning and current year appropriations and execution, the IDB study said.

There are also significant gaps in budget credibility, as several countries consistently execute budgets that differ significantly from approved budgets. Comprehensiveness and transparency are also problematic areas.

Moreover, there exist challenges in procurement planning and execution, and poor linkages between budget preparation, procurement planning, and execution systems. Oversight and governance of procurement, weak monitoring of contract compliance, non-compliance with bidding processes by procurement agencies, and non-transparent bidding processes are additional areas where most countries face challenges.

More:

Idb: Bahamas 'Can'T Escape' $7bn Debt Without Fiscal Rules - Bahamas Tribune

MENTAL HEALTH OF THE NATION

By Dr MIKE NEVILLE

Lunatic, bad head, crazy, they need to be locked up.

These are still pretty common views of mental illness.

Stigma and prejudice are still where most people get their knowledge of mental health; the psychological issues facing the nation are swept into the background behind heart disease, cancer and infectious diseases.

It is my belief, however, that our bodies are one and mental and physical health are completely intertwined.

It is now two years since our son, Sean, was brutally murdered outside our home (there have been no arrests and no one charged) and nearly one year since our other son, Damian, was injured in a sports accident. It is fair to say that my own mental and physical health has taken a battering as life moved from a fairly idyllic existence to a major struggle for survival. I try to force myself from my pit of despair and when my head pops up and I can see out of the pit at the world around me I realise how many others are struggling on very similar journeys.

The shock, horror and anger seems universal, the lack of trust in the criminal justice system, the sense of betrayal making the raw anger even worse. The stories seem to overlap, leaving a sense that those in authority do not want the crime problem solved; there have been over a thousand murders in the last decade leaving a significant part of society floundering in profound grief and anger.

The numbers soar even further when other crimes of violence like attempted murder and rape are added to the list; the rage and despair is further fuelled by the bizarre attempts of politicians and the police to blame the victims.

The plight of the nation does not end there: traffic accidents, robberies and lost jobs also leave a trail of stress and horror. There has also been the devastation of hurricanes smashing the islands, leaving a trail of destruction in their paths.

It is really no wonder that the health of the nation is at major risk of total collapse both physical and mental. There is plenty of research showing the links between levels of stress and many diseases, including cardiac disease and cancer.

The object of this series is to focus more on the mental health issues caused by these disastrous events that are conspiring to bring us all to a state barely imaginable in the not too distant past. It impacts how we feel, it impacts the productivity and balance of the work force, and it causes mental illness, further eroding the very fabric of society. I intend to look at how our personalities and daily behaviour are affected by these internal and external forces and how this is impacting public policy here and on the international stage.

It seems that more and more elections are won by manipulating emotions rather than discussing issues or policies; there is less concern about things that could help the people and more reliance on fanning the raw anger that flows through the arteries of the nation. This has been made worse by fake news, alternate facts or old fashioned lies: the vast information highway has so much stuff out there that people seem happy to believe whatever they want to believe.

All this is adding to the ever growing anger levels as gradually the lies become obvious, but as one English politician said the people want to be lied to.

Famous leaders have had mental health issues that caused impacts on world affairs that remain with us indefinitely. I intend to write about some of these figures. It is also interesting to wonder what would happen here or to our neighbours if a seriously disturbed individual were elected to a major office. It would affect all of our lives but can anything prevent this?

There have been so many kind and wonderful folks that have reached out and helped us as we struggle to make sense of our recurring crisis that I have hope for the core decency of our fellow travellers and hope for the future.

There is, however, a dark cloud that still hangs over the country and it brings to mind a poem by T S Elliot called Wasteland. He wrote April is the cruellest month. I think he was referring to his inability to enjoy the flowers that bloom in spring, due to the despair he felt at the breakup of his marriage. The Bahamas has great beauty all year round, but the dark, dank, destructive anger that ebbs with the tides makes the beauty invisible and every month becomes the cruellest month.

NEXT WEEK: Love is all you need

Dr Mike Neville is a forensic psychiatrist who has practiced for more than 40 years in the Bahamas, working at Sandilands, the prison and in private practice. Comments and responses to mneville@tribunemedia.net

See more here:

Mental Illness And The Health Of The Bahamas - Bahamas Tribune

The State

SC House member a candidate for U.S. ambassador to Bahamas The State A South Carolina House member's early support of President Donald Trump could be rewarded with the U.S. ambassadorship to the Bahamas. State Rep. Bill Herbkersman, a Beaufort real estate developer with decades-old business ties to the balmy ...

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SC House member a candidate for U.S. ambassador to Bahamas - The State