The Writers are Right in respect of Residents
Dear Sir,
I would like to refer to two letters inthe newspaper today, name withheld by request. I would highlyhighly commend the writer or writers because every word that wassaid is true. We are doing the exact same thing that the Bahamasdid many years ago and as a result they suffered an untold slowdown.And here we are not smart enough to learn a lesson.
The writer hit the nail right on the headwhen he said that we are running away people that have money toinvest. As an example the Darts family made an application somethree or four years ago to do what I understand would be a halfbillion-dollar investment and after fighting many battles thruthe appeals tribunal they received permission just a few weeksago.
This is a total and absolute disgrace, becauseif those people had been given permission along time ago, themoney that they intend to spend would have been enough to keepa large section of the economy going. I am told that those peoplehave the necessary funds to do the project and would not haveto go to banks like many other companies do.
We cannot blame the government for the Dartsdelay as the National Trust and other individuals triggered this.I agree with the name withheld writer that we should concentrateheavily on permanent residents (retirees) and we should chargethem nothing for the privilege to live here, because just thinkof the cars they would buy, the homes they would buy, the groceriesthey would consume, and all the other spending that is involvedwith living.
The government would receive much much morethan the $15,000.00 that they are now charging and I would liketo suggest to the government that they act with prudence and theyreduce the $15,000.00 dollars to zero and offer the retirees aninducement to come. These are the types of people that we needto help to keep the economy going.
We should not forget that we are faced withheavy competition for retirees and for tourist and we should makeevery effort to make the island the most pleasant place for themto visit and or retire.
In closing I should mention that the Bahamaslearned their lesson the hard way and if you visit the Bahamastoday there is a remarkable difference starting from the immigrationthru the customs to the hotels and even the taxi people go outof their way to be nice to visitors. We are now learning our lessonto some extent and we need to change before it gets worse.
Norberg Thompson,OBE